A Simple Question

Naru watched with amusement as the papers fell from his assistant's hands and onto the floor. The last one, as he followed its swaying trail with his dark eyes, landed with a flutter on top of the five or so others.

He raised his eyes to hers again and the gaze broke the young girl from her sudden daze.

Mai blinked, tilting her head at an angle, wondering if she'd heard right. There was no one else in the office besides the two of them, so the question couldn't have been directed at Masako or Lin.

The young man slipped a hand into his long, dark coat and waited. To have thought that a simple question would have such an effect on the young girl (though he suspected that he had been quite sudden) was very…interesting.

Was this a joke? Where were Ayako and Bou-san hiding? What was Naru gaining from asking her out to dinner all of a sudden? No he hadn't asked, more like demanded.

...was he asking her out on a date?

A deep cough emitted out of the other room that was Lin's office.

It took a minute to regain her senses. When she did, Mai couldn't help but bring her brows together at her boss.

"W-why?" she stuttered.

"Because it's dinner time and you've been complaining of hunger all afternoon. If you don't want to go, it's fine." He said indifferently.

Definitely not a date.

Mai turned red. Then she frowned, quickly kneeling down to pick up the dropped papers. She stacked them up, one by one.

Naru had expected (for some odd reason unknown to him) that the girl would have said, 'yes!', in quick agreement to the offer. Now it appeared as if his efforts were being wasted. It was different from the way Masako would have reacted. She would have immediately clung to his arm and smiled sweetly at him, hurrying towards the door.

So it was odd that though Mai showed signs of jealousy once in a while, him asking her to dinner would only bring a blush to her cheeks.

What he didn't know was that her heart was beating a mile a minute.

With only a moment's hesitation, Naru kneeled down beside Mai and remained in the position until her amber eyes finally flickered up. An inch disappeared between them.

And just like that, she was rendered speechless again.

They were close enough now that she could smell him. A mixture of green tea and fresh air. Funny, he never really did step foot outside during the day.

Naru's expression was like the usual blank page of a notebook and yet Mai could see that he was still waiting for an answer. From her.

When she realized this, her heart soared.

"I…"

He only waited.

"I…Okay." Trying to recompose herself, Mai broke out a smile. "I actually am really hungry."

After a moment he took the papers from her hands (information regarding a new case, which suddenly seemed insignificant at the moment) and set them on his desk. Naru decided that he wouldn't be returning for the rest of the evening.

Mai grabbed her coat and awkwardly followed her boss out of the office. The door clicked shut behind them.

A minute later, it reopened.

Lin smiled to himself as he entered the silent and deserted office. He was able to look out the window in time to see the two young teens walking down the street. There was space between them as they strolled down to a nearby restaurant, and yet there existed an apparent closeness that had never been reached with anyone else in their lives (perhaps besides with Gene).

With the tone a father would use for his children, Lin picked up the reports on Naru's desk and said with a light smile on his face:

"Who would have known…"