Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!

"Dad!"

Shocked to the core by what she had just heard, and terrified that something may have happened to her father, Mai ran out of the room, not bothering to heed the warning calls behind her. She rushed to her father's office, somehow knowing that he would be there.

He was. And what was more, he was fine.

The door was open and Mai stood there staring at him in a mixture of relief and confusion. He was…fine? She blinked, rubbed her eyes, then blinked again. Akira was still sitting there, submerged in whatever it was that he was doing.

Not wanting him to notice her, Mai stepped back and away from the door, confusion still evident on her face. Before she could do anything else though, Naru ran up to her.

"You idiot! How many times have I told you not to run off like that? What if something happened to you?"

"Naru, he's fine."

Now it was Naru's turn to blink in surprise. He craned his neck and glanced into the room, only to see the man inside pacing back and forth, an official looking document in his hand. Naru pulled back and Mai saw that he seemed just as confused as she was.

Akira was alright…?

They returned to the Base in silence, and Mai told the others that her father appeared to be alright and completely unaware of what was happening.

"Maybe Jack was just playing with us," said Yasuhara, who had just returned a few minutes ago. "Can spirits do that?"

When Naru didn't say anything, John answered. "They can, yes. But I don't think that Jack would do something like that just because he felt like it. There must have been a reason for it."

"He's...planning on killing my father, isn't he?"

Everyone looked over at Mai, who was staring back at them almost defiantly. The look in her face clearly said that there was no way that she was going to let anything happen to her father. No fucking way. They then glanced at one another, before they all focused on Naru.

"We're going to have to take turns with guard duty," he said. He looked over at Mai. "I'm not going to let anything happen to him, Mai." He seemed quite determined about this too.

Naru's 'guard duty', meant just that, and Bou-san, Ayako, and John were the only ones actually taking part in the 'guarding'. Mai and Yasuhara couldn't defend themselves, let alone anyone else, and Naru needed Lin to man the monitors because he was too busy, leaving the monk, miko, and priest. To their credit though, none of them complained ever once.

Madoka had sent Yasuhara back to them, and he told them that they had a lot of trouble finding any more information on Jack, and that Madoka was still looking and would contact them if she found anything, though she also had other urgent business to attend to, and wasn't going to be able to return unless strictly necessary. Since she had mostly come to help them with research though, they didn't really need her to be there in person for it.

But in the meantime, and probably so he could feel like he was actually doing something instead of sitting around, Yasuhara went through whatever notes he already had, hoping he would find something he hadn't noticed before.

With nothing to do herself, Mai sat there in the Base, twiddling her thumbs, literally. She had so many feelings coursing through her, anxiousness and fear just being two of them, but she didn't know how to behave. Of course she had faith in her friends, but she had a feeling that something bad was going to happen anyway.

It was something she felt more in her gut than in her head or even her heart, but she couldn't really explain it. Bou-san, Ayako, and John were pretty good, after all, but even then...

Naru glanced over at Mai for the umpteenth time, and noted that she still looked worried. Distracted as she was, her abilities were not going to work properly right now and he was sure of that. There would be interference, which wasn't good at all, for anyone, really.

She needed a distraction. A good, proper one that would bring her attention to something completely unrelated to her father, and something that didn't require too much thinking. He knew just the thing.

"Mai. Tea."

Mai jumped at her boss' sudden command. The Base had been so quiet and was filled with so much tension that she hadn't expected it. "H-hai!"

She got to her feet and made it to the door before she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She glanced back and saw Naru gazing back at her with solemn, blue eyes.

"I'm not letting you go alone, you fool." From her shoulder, Naru slid his hand down Mai's arm, to take her hand in his own. At this point, he didn't really care who saw what. All he knew was that he had to shift Mai's focus away from her father, guard duty, Jack's spirit, anything that had to do with Akira's potential life threatening situation.

The two of them wandered over to the empty kitchen, and Naru only released Mai's hand when she began preparing tea. He stood back against the counter, watched her move in that lovely way that she did, heard her humming softly as she worked, and it brought a small smile to his face.

Although, to be perfectly honest, he couldn't keep his eyes from wandering down to that damned torturous skirt of hers.

With the water set to boil, Mai slowly approached Naru, who said nothing and merely raised a brow in that Naruesque manner. Hesitantly, biting her lip, Mai brought her arms around him. After a moment, she felt Naru do the same.

Feeling that, Mai let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and focused instead on the sound of Naru's heartbeat.

She could feel it beating in a slow and steady rhythm. For some reason, it calmed her down. Mai relaxed considerably, something Naru noticed as well, but didn't comment on. Instead, he allowed his fingers to run down Mai's back, trying to keep the motion soothing.

The alarming sound of two screams filled the air, putting a sudden end to the brief moment of peace.

That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!