It took Naru a long time to wheel the damned chair from the office to Mai's house. A very long time. Fortunately, his anger just about fuelled him.
When he arrived though, he realised he had another problem. Mai's apartment block was old. There was no elevator.
"Damn," he muttered. He wheeled the chair around the building until he could see one of Mai's windows. Could he throw a stone up and tap the window? Would she come down?
As he had no better ideas, Naru scraped around on the floor for some small stones and then began chucking them. He hit what he knew to be Mai's window a few times.
But she did not answer.
She was going to make him do it the hard way.
Scowling, he rolled around to the stairs and stared at the steps. He seriously considered trying to think of a way to use his PK abilities to blast himself up the stairwell. But he knew that would most likely end in a disaster.
Well, they weren't going to climb themselves. He applied the brake to the wheels on his chair, and carefully manoeuvred himself onto the first step.
Naru then proceeded to bum shuffle his way up the steps. His casts finished at a point that would make crawling on his hands and knees extremely uncomfortable.
Why did Mai have to live on the second floor?
Growling and swearing under his breath at the indignity of the situation, Naru continued up the stairs until he arrived on Mai's floor. He then dragged himself using his arms alone along the corridor until he was outside her apartment.
He would have collapsed to the floor from the effort had he not already been on the floor. He twisted onto his back and lay, panting slightly, for a few minutes before knocking on the door.
Mai answered relatively quickly and just stared at him.
He had not bothered to force himself into a sitting position but had remained slumped on the floor.
"What are you doing here?" she asked finally, pretending that it was perfectly normal for her boss to be lying in the corridor outside her apartment.
"Enjoying the view," he replied sarcastically.
Mai sighed and retreated back into her flat, shutting the door behind her.
Naru knocked again.
She waited a few minutes before deigning to open it.
"You really ought to move, someone might walk on you."
"May I come in?"
"Why?"
"To talk to you," Naru said.
"About what?"
"Our conversation earlier."
"I hardly count that as a conversation," Mai retorted. "I think you'll find it was you shouting at me because you can't deal with the fact you are wheelchair bound."
"Fine, I want to talk to you about shouting at you earlier because I can't deal with the fact I am wheelchair bound," Naru said, humouring her. "Though I managed to get up here without it."
"And you're filthy as a result," Mai pointed out.
"Can I come in or not?"
"Fine." Mai turned around and walked back into her apartment, making absolutely no effort to assist her boss. Naru dragged himself inside and towards a sofa.
Mai returned a few minutes later with a singular cup of tea and found Naru sat on the sofa with his eyes closed. He opened them at her approach and stared at the cup of tea. Mai pointedly took a sip and sat down opposite him.
"So?" she prompted.
"It's rude to not to offer your guests a beverage when you are making one for yourself."
"Says the man who is incapable of saying the words 'thank you'," Mai muttered darkly.
"I am perfectly capable; I just choose not to thank my employees for doing their job."
"Jerk," Mai said and she drunk a little more tea. "Shall I call Lin to pick you up then? Or do you plan on crawling out of here?"
"I want to talk to you first," Naru said.
"Well talk then," Mai said impatiently.
"It was wrong of me to shout at you as I did. I vented my frustration onto you and I shouldn't have."
"That all?" Mai intoned with raised eyebrows.
Naru sighed deeply.
"This is ridiculous Mai," he said finally.
"What is?"
"This game we keep playing."
"What game?" Mai asked, frowning.
"Where I pretend to ignore both our feelings and cover it up with shouting matches so I have innocent reasons to look at you," he said in a low voice.
"I think you'll find you are still the one at fault there."
Naru only nodded.
"I enjoy your company Mai," he said a minute later.
"Could've fooled me."
"You aren't making this easy."
Good," Mai said, and she almost smiled.
"I enjoy your company," he repeated.
"You said."
Naru ignored her.
"I would appreciate being able to spend more time with you without arguments," he continued.
"Then stop causing them," Mai said, fully aware that had he had use of his legs, Naru would have walked out a long time ago.
"I was angry before because a person suffering from narcissistic personality disorder treats those that care about them like objects. I would not do that," Naru struggled on.
"No, you prefer to lie to us all and avoid telling us important pieces of information that would've been really useful to know."
"I do that in your best interest."
"That's what you think," Mai said lowly.
"Can't you just accept I care about you?"
"There is very little evidence to support your case, Dr Davis."
Naru refrained very hard from rolling his eyes.
"I trust your observations, Mai, but I know better."
"Of course you do," Mai said, pursing her lips.
"Stop being difficult."
"Why? An hour ago you reduced me to tears! I really don't see why I should try and help you at all!"
"Because I'm trying to tell you I love you!" Naru said loudly.
Mai fell silent at his words.
"Oh." The sound escaped her lips without permission.
"The whole narcissist thing is utterly ridiculous," he went on. "I hate the fact I cannot bring myself to adequately express things like the rest of you do. I envy all of you for being open and unencumbered with the things I have seen. But I do care for all of you. Perhaps my methods seem harsh, but my intentions were always for the benefits of those around me."
"I know," Mai replied quietly.
"So if there is some arrangement we can come to whereby we might spend some time together and argue less, I would very much like that," he continued quietly. "And if it means labelling you as a girlfriend, then so be it."
"That wasn't much of a question."
"Fine, Mai, will you be my girlfriend?" He paused for a moment. "Please," he added.
Mai reached forward and touched his forehead, then sat back frowning and used her little finger to poggle her ear for a moment.
"Yes, you did hear that correctly," Naru said with a wry smile.
"I was just checking."
"Well?"
"I'm still annoyed at you."
"Does that prevent you from answering the question?"
"Well, no, but if I answer how I wish to, you might get the impression I am no longer annoyed at you, and I very much am."
"Mai," Naru said in a warning tone.
"Fine! I'll be your girlfriend." She threw her hands into the air in defeat and badly hid a smile.
"Good, now will you call Lin and ask him to pick me up?"
"No."
"Mai."
"What?"
"Call Lin."
"You call Lin."
"My phone is in the office."
"Well that was a daft place to leave it."
"Surprisingly I had other things on my mind at the time."
"Well I'm still not calling him."
"Why?"
"It's no fun being annoyed at you if you are at the office," Mai said cheerfully.
"Well if I'm stuck here, I want tea."
"Okay then," Mai said. She bounced to her feet and went to make tea.
Naru watched her go and sighed; having a girlfriend was tiring work.
Author's note: So some of you wanted a second chapter and I felt guilty not giving it to you, so here it is! It's really not the best thing I've written and I'm not sure I like the ending but now I can lay this to rest.
Please review!