A/N: Mai's POV. Changed the story's rating to 'M' just to make sure... although I think it's still only mildly suggestive? Anyway, I struggled so much trying to write this chapter...

What 'Soba' Really Meant

Mai sighed as she listened to Bou-san, Ayako, Masako, Yasuhara-kun, and John talk over each other, raising their voices louder and louder as if afraid their train of thought would get drowned out if they didn't immediately provide the outlet for it. Currently their passionate conversation revolved around the latest news regarding the fraudulent paranormal investigators who were cheating frightened people out of their money; it infuriated them all, making them forget their place in the office. Even John couldn't help voice his concerns, especially since these so called investigators claimed to have connections with exorcists who were only willing to help out if paid exorbitant amounts of money. Mai understood their righteous anger, but she felt very apprehensive for their sake, expecting Naru to come storming out of his office to yell at them to either be quiet, or leave the premises. Surprised that she hasn't heard a peep from him, she decided to serve tea as an excuse to come check up on him.

She knocked first before entering and slowly approached her boss. He was busy reading one of the newest paranormal book he got his hands on and was doing a splendid job tuning out the cacophonous noise outside. When she set the tea down, he looked up at her and studied her for a few seconds. Suddenly he said, "You can come over today. I have free time."

She whipped her head around to make sure the others didn't hear, but she had no need to worry, judging by the way Naru didn't even bother concealing his remarks. She figured he was confident the others' loud voices would simply drown out their own conversation. Mai didn't know if she should be happy or annoyed at the invitation since he didn't exactly ask her, just simply stated, knowing that she would even go so far as to cancel previous plans if necessary. But then again he had been right to assume that-it wasn't like she would even think about not coming. With plenty of reports to finish up before the end of the week, Naru had been too busy to entertain guests over, or to even come by her house (which he already seldom did). The times they spent alone together had been far too few as of late.

Although the two of them began officially dating six months ago, their current circumstance at work prevented them from hanging out much together as a couple. It pained her to have to hide their relationship from everyone, but she wanted to respect Naru's wish and show him that she finally understood and supported his decision. The reasons behind his wish, of course, she had to figure out the hard way, even causing some rift between them for several days. Eventually her pig-headedness gave way as she realized that it wasn't his ego he wanted to protect, but her livelihood. If the SPR branch had gotten wind of the Japanese branch's CEO having a liaison with his otherwise inexperienced assistant, their funding, already difficult to come by, would be placed under more scrutiny. Not only would his leadership and credibility be questioned, but her motives for holding a relationship with him as well. Since he was a leading paranormal researcher, his indiscretion might easily be dismissed after careful negotiations, but she, insignificant as she was, would be fair game. Removing her from the environment she seemed to love and think of as her new family was cruel and that was something he would not stand for. Of course, if he had only explained all of this to her their mini-spat would not have even happened, but since he was very pig-headed as well she had to piece together everything herself. Maybe this just proved they truly were meant for each other after all.

"I can prepare us some soba for tonight. Perfect for the hot weather," she whispered to him before walking excitedly toward the door. She had decided she was ecstatic that Naru asked after all, since he usually didn't like to take initiative at making sure they spend enough time together. She turned to him one last time before exiting the room and realized that he had followed her with his eyes. With a smile she said, "I will ask them to be a bit quieter for you," before closing the door.

The remainder of Mai's day went by too slowly, but eventually five o'clock came and everyone started to filter out of the office until only she and Naru were left. After giving it about ten minutes just to be safe, the two went out the door and left the office together without any witness. After stopping by the nearby grocery store to pick up their ingredients, the two walked toward his apartment as they usually did whenever they found themselves together, casual and quiet. Mai usually initiated the small talks and he would always listen quietly, but sometimes if she left herself open to an attack he would get in some teasing remarks and she would get angry and pout. This in turn would always elicit a small smile from his otherwise stoic face.

If anyone had asked Mai what she thought of her relationship, she wouldn't be able to give a definitive answer. Their relationship had both progressed and not progressed. Naru was definitely a bit kinder and open to her now, a bit more secure in letting her see that she was his one weakness, but in terms of physical intimacy they still hadn't really tried to push things forward. Sometimes they would come over each others' house, but mostly they would just talk over home-made dinner, or have him tutor her with the more difficult subjects, or sometimes if they were at his house he'd allow her to use his laptop and they would watch a movie together. Going out was tricky because they never knew if they would run into the others so that had largely been avoided. They kissed, mostly pecks, but the more passionate make outs were far in between. She constantly wondered if anything further would ever happen between them. Little did she know what was in store for the two of them that day.

After arriving at his apartment, Naru settled himself down at the kitchen table and started his final editing to his reports, while Mai got busy making some small appetizers and preparing their dinner. Naru was not a very good, nor a very enthusiastic cook, so cooking was mostly left to her expertise, but at least he did his fair share of work by offering to clean up all the dishes. As her cooking time went on and she diligently stayed in front of the open flame, the added misery of the summer heat just made the cooking process even more uncomfortable. Mai eventually had to take off her green jacket and white top, leaving only the orange tank top undershirt and proceeded to put her hair up. After a few minutes of stirring, she turned to Naru and was surprised to catch him staring, although he tried to look away and pass it off as a stray glance.

She laughed. "Were you just being a creeper? Well why won't you come up here, creeper, and taste the soup base?" She turned her back on him and scooped up a tablespoon to give it a taste herself, but almost dropped the spoon and its contents when Naru's strong arms suddenly wrapped around her waist from behind, hugging her tightly. He buried his face on her neck, his breath hot against her delicate skin, making her stiffen in shock. Mai was unsure whether the trembling was coming from him or her, whether the heart beat she could feel pounding belonged to his chest or hers. She stammered, "N-Naru? What's wrong?"

"Nn," he replied. She could feel the vibration of his throat as his deep voice resonated, causing shockwaves to rush through her entire body. "Just... wanted to do this."

Mai tried not to shift her weight too much as she turned off the stove, before lowering her own arms and holding it on top of Naru's embrace. Feeling daring, she tilted her head to the side to expose more of her skin, showing him that she didn't mind his boldness and instead even going so far as to invite him to push beyond their limits. As if understanding, Naru planted soft kisses up her neck, then up her ears where he gave it a seductive lick. She couldn't help it as a moan escaped her lips.

Powered on by this response, Naru turned her around and kissed her passionately, his tongue dancing against hers while his hands glided up to the side of her face. He slipped her hair tie off, letting her shoulder length hair cascade along her shoulders, letting some strands flow through his fingers as he pulled her head closer to deepen the kiss. Eventually they both ran out of breath and pulled away from each other, half terrified of the electrifying passion they suddenly found themselves in. She could tell he was unsure what to do at that point, but deciding that her mounting curiosity and hidden desires were urgently needing to be satisfied, she smirked at him, her twinkling eyes giving the consent he was looking for. He took her hand in his and led her to his room, leaving their soba and food to grow cold.

-000-

The next morning Mai woke up to the sound of closet drawers opening and closing. She opened up her eyes slowly.

"Are you finally awake?" His voice was stern, as it always was whenever she came in for work late.

She flipped over to her side to watch him button up his black polo and smiled up at him contently. "Mm. Kind of."

"I need to get in the office early today. Why must you always wake up so late?"

At this, Mai turned to the clock beside the bed and saw that it was only 5:50 a.m, way too early for her but definitely almost too late for him. Knowing that Naru always came in to work before 6 a.m, she sheepishly apologized and got up. The blanket covering her slipped down, revealing her naked chest. She scrambled to pull it back up, but Naru had reached the bed by then and sat down on the edge, grabbed her hand and smirked. "Nothing I haven't seen now. Don't work yourself up over that."

Mai blushed and nodded, unable to say anything else, and let the covers fall. She felt his eyes gaze at her figure hungrily and he leaned in, his hand already sliding up her bare midriff before settling on her chest, but to her disappointment he suddenly stopped and sighed in frustration. "We can't be getting sidetracked. We need to get to the office now. Hurry and get ready." With this he stood up and made a motion toward the bathroom with his head.

By 6 a.m they were out of the house. They walked silently through the empty streets of Shibuya that early morning, the slow and steady tap of their shoes only becoming audible once the small handful of cars passing the streets intermittently sped off to the distance. Mai couldn't help but succumb to her need for a giant stretch, reaching her arms up high in the air and causing her sweater to ride up. She quickly tugged it back down. She has not had the chance to see the coming of dawn ever since she started going to university, preferring instead to sleep in and start her day a bit later than others. Tentatively she cast a glance at her boss walking slightly in front of her and tried to apologize once again. "Hey, come on. I'm really sorry I couldn't wake up on time... " When he didn't reply, she continued thoughtfully, "Lin-san might be there already. Maybe I should just stay outside for twenty minutes so I can come in later than you. He probably won't suspect anything if we do it that way."

Finally, the boy turned to her. With a frown he replied, "We don't have to do that."

"I know Lin-san most likely won't say anything, but still, we have to be careful to keep this a secret."

"You may be right," He sighed. After some deliberation, he added, "But you can't possibly just stand out here for twenty minutes doing nothing. Make it five."

"Ten?"

"Five," he repeated firmly. Mai knew she was defeated and nodded. It was hard to argue with him when he went on his boss mode.

"Okay. But what do you think I should do about my clothes? I'm wearing the exact same thing as yesterday. I knew I should have gone home after…" she broke off and blushed, then turned away to fan herself. She was not going to look him in the eye because she knew he would be smirking at her.

"Take off the thin sweater."

She sighed exasperatedly. "Obviously I'll have to do that since it's been hot lately. I mean my clothes underneath!"

He shrugged, lacking interest in the topic of fashion and muttered, "Just think of something." He then looked at her and wordlessly made her understood that he would be going on ahead of her. She sighed and called out to him that she will be following in a bit.

After carefully timing herself, she entered the SPR office five minutes later. As she had expected, Lin-san had already arrived, but what surprised her was the fact that he sat so still in the main office while sipping the tea he prepared for himself. She greeted him as cheerfully as she can and after a quick scan of the room, figured that Naru must have already buried himself in his books back in his office. Mai entered and decided correctly not to interrupt both Lin and Naru's quiet time with her idle chatter. She can wait until Yasuhara-kun gets in later.

Seeing the pile of old reports she still had to sort through and digitize, she set her small knapsack down and slumped down, getting ready to work. Thankfully, today was going to be a shorter day than usual. Finally, although she must admit it to be very mean of her to think so, her main source of irritation for the past few months (or Mr. Higgs as he was otherwise called) is finally headed back home. It was the release she's been waiting for.

The British man had been nothing but a nightmare. Compared to Naru, his way of treating her was honestly not too different on the surface, but what was annoyingly endearing with Naru was that though he could be mean, there was always some hidden, more gentle emotions hiding behind his words. With Mr. Higgs, it was nothing but pure irritation, which naturally elicited the same kind of reaction from her (although she knew her place and decided to not show it as much). But how could she help it? The man was beyond understandable with his Japanese, and she could not, for the life of her, converse in English. She cringed when she remembered her first introduction to him, back when they were both completely oblivious to the way their relationship was going to turn out.

-00-

Naru and Lin arrived at the office with the British man in tow. She and Yasuhara had been warned some days before that a scientist from BSPR was going to be training under their care for three months' duration, but since this was the first iteration of the new Scientist Exchange Program, Naru had rightly surmised the upper management was severely unprepared for the kind of culture shock they were going to subject their researchers into. He very much doubted that these first generation of scientists have taken at least an entire year for their language classes, meaning that Mr. Higgs was most likely going to be highly unintelligible and would not be able to communicate well with others. Naru had not been wrong in the least.

Naru made the introductions in Japanese to test the waters.

"Mr. Higgs, these are our two part-time assistants. This is Osamu Yasuhara. Yasuhara-san, this is Mr. Higgs." Yasu hara made a motion to take a bow, but as Mr. Higgs extended his hand, he immediately changed his course of action and instead smoothly reached his right hand out and shook it.

"Hajimeshta. Ohayow gozaymas, Higgs-san des," Mr. Higgs said as he firmly shook Yasuhara's hands. Mai had to stop herself from frowning in confusion at this, but when she cast a sidelong glace at Yasuhara, she could see in his face that the words also struck his ears weird but he made a very good show of self control. She imagined herself biting her lip to refrain from laughter.

Naru cleared his throat. "And the female over there is Mai Taniyama."

He did the same thing and shook her hand, saying the same butchered words. "O-ohayo gozaimasu..." she managed to say back, although it still felt strange to begin their meeting like that, especially since it was already noon time, although that was the least of the problem.

"Mr. Higgs, Lin will now show you the shared office-" Naru's voice was cut off when Mr. Higgs held out his hand and shook his head vehemently.

"No, no, I'm sorry chap, I absolutely cannot understand a word. Can we converse in English? It might be better for everyone that way. They can understand, right?"

Mai saw that Naru hesitated, but unwilling to give their new guest a bad impression of herself, she flashed her boss a pleading look that begged him to just agree. She could still understand some words anyway and she certainly understood the gist of what he was saying. She was going to be fine speaking with him in English. Seeing her determined look, Naru sighed and replied in English, "Yes, if that would make things easier for you." Mai looked at Naru gratefully. But now looking back, she realized that had been her first mistake. All her other mistakes after that could have been avoided or mitigated if only she had been honest about her lack in English comprehension and speaking skills, but that was all in the past. Now, he was leaving and she wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.

-00-

After she snapped out of her thoughts, she came to realize that Lin had already long disappeared into his office. It had been an hour since she arrived and still the reports on her desk hasn't dwindled much in numbers. As the office started getting warmer and feeling awkward that her clothes were completely recycled from yesterday, she took off the jacket and the white shirt, opting to just go with her tank top. It showed much of her skin, but she figured it would be acceptable enough given the heat wave.

Later on Yasuhara arrived and joined her in alphabetizing the reports, but as she had foreseen, the day was indeed progressing much slower than normal, unfortunately affording her plenty of occasion to keep zoning out and begin recalling last night's events. It surprised her just how much Naru took control of the situation, how bold and confident he had been. Although now that she thought about it, was that something to be surprised about? What exactly was she expecting? You would think that his narcissistic and bossy personality would naturally translate into him taking control in the bed, but at the same time, this same personality probably was the reason not many girls have gotten close to him so he couldn't have had much practice. Furthermore he had been strong and daring, yet at the same time gentle and accommodating to her needs. At any rate, Naru was definitely a walking contradiction. She smiled as she finished to herself, "And he's all mine."

"Mai-san, that's the wrong heading again."

She blinked and turned to her side where Yasuhara pointed to the folder named Kunikida Case File she'd filed under the letter 'M'. "A-ah, sorry..."

"What's going on, Mai-san? You keep sighing and staring off into the distance. Fantasizing about a guy? Come to think of it, you're also wearing quite the daring outfit. Are you going on a date later?"

"Oops, there's no way Yasuhara-kun could read thoughts, right?" she asked herself in a panic. "Testing, testing. If you can hear me Yasuhara-kun, wink at me!" But he did nothing of the sort so she breathed easier. Then out loud she said laughingly, "No, what? Are you talking about this tank top?" she pulled at the end of her shirt and snorted. "This is hardly date material though!" In fact, it had been an undershirt from yesterday. Definitely not something you'd want to wear on a date.

"I disagree. Chic and sensual. I like it. Really Mai-san, you should wear that around more often."

The glint in Yasuhara's eyes reminded her the way Naru had looked at her back to last night when she called him over to taste the soup. She blushed deeply. "H-hey, -II know it's inappropriate, but I just didn't have any other change of clothes..." Thankfully their conversation was derailed when Mr. Higgs' voice floated out of Naru's office. Mai didn't even remember seeing Mr. Higgs come in today. Just how out of it had she been?

"Mai, please prepare us some tea."

"-Ah, coffee for me please," the British man interjected quickly in his best Japanese, then turned to his companion and resumed in English, "Need to perk me up for the long flight ahead. Very excited to get working on those reports while I'm out. Gets awfully boring doing nothing else on the plane but twiddle my thumbs."

Mai didn't even hear the latter part of his speech as she caught Naru's eyes glancing at her. His eyebrow was slightly raised and he had a subtle smirk playing on his lips, but she couldn't understand what it meant. She set about preparing two sets of tea and heard them speaking as though from a great distance. Her mind was still elsewhere.

When she finished her preparation, Naru had already settled himself by Lin's office doorway, but as she walked past him his words totally caught her by surprise. "Soba sounds good again for tonight." Her whole body flushed at this, understanding his meaning and wanting to rebuke him for being so recklessly lewd in front of the others. However after hearing Mr. Higgs reply to his comment, she realized it had been a fairly innocuous sentence.

"Did you have yourself a plate of soba last night, Oliver?" Mai understood that.

"Why yes, I did enjoy it last night." Mai understood that as well.

To mask her embarrassment, she coughed and ran back to her desk, trying not to catch Naru's eyes. All she wanted to do at that moment was disappear. She was literally Naru's weakness right now, any mistakes from her could make the others suspect there was something going on between the two. However it was all entirely his fault; she wasn't built to be emotionally detached like he was! Provoke her and the whole truth would easily come gushing out of her. It had been proven time and time again that she was never good at holding secrets. She tried to steel herself once again and resume filing, but unfortunately Naru's voice called out to her again.

"Mai. I believe Mr. Higgs asked for coffee. You have given him tea."

"Damn it all," she groaned inwardly. She apologized profusely, but knew it was most likely the last straw between the two of them. By now, Mr. Higgs definitely hated her guts and probably thought she had been consciously trying to make his life hell all this time. When he rebuffed her apologies, she gave up and slumped down her chair. No use trying to fight a losing battle. He was going to be gone soon now and all will be well again. She turned to Yasuhara next to her and struck up a conversation, trying to drown out their English out of her head, although unfortunately for her, her conversation with Yasuhara went back to the one that had been interrupted moments before.

"So care to tell me what's been on your mind?"

She had to come up with a quick lie. "A-ah... just going crazy with school work. Science and math classes are just totally kicking my butt right now." That was a good one. It wasn't completely a lie, just irrelevant.

"I can help you, you know. Tutoring, if you need it."

Although she was tempted by the offer since she knew the boy would be easier to deal with than Naru (who could get quite nasty with his reprimands whenever she kept making the same mistakes on her homework), she refused his offer with an apology. "No, please. I wouldn't want to inconvenience you with that. Actually as much as I protest, I really want to try solving it on my own. If I do give up though, I'll be sure to ask you." She felt bad lying to her friend, but she didn't want to hurt Naru's feelings by ditching his lessons in favor of Yasuhara. Or maybe he wouldn't have minded?

Eventually Mr. Higgs left. She tried not to dwell too much on his rudeness up to the last minute and tried her very best to be civil up to the moment he walked out the door. But as soon as he stepped out, she rolled her eyes and made a face. Naru saw her and raised his brow.

"Mai. Come into the office."

She sighed and turned to Yasuhara. "Sorry, Yasuhara-kun. Can you take over the work for a while?"

"Aa. No worries." Yasuhara smiled at her sympathetically, thinking that she would probably be scolded for how she had messed up with the coffee.

Naru locked the door behind him as they both stepped into his office. Unsure about his mood, she didn't know whether it was okay to make an indecent joke about their situation or whether she should prepare herself for a stern lecturing. Oh the difficulties of secretly dating your own boss.

"I know you and Mr. Higgs had not seen eye to eye since the beginning, but can you elaborate on the situation? It's been... perplexing." He clasped his hands together and rested it under his chin and leaned forward on his table, eager to hear her story.

"I just can't understand him. He goes to visit our country and expects us to speak to him in his own language? What kind of a moron does that? That already made me not like him from the beginning, but the way he treated me because I couldn't speak to him... how rude! And it's not like his Japanese was any better than my English, either." She huffed and continued, "I mean, there was this one time where he handed me a rough report I wrote a while ago, I don't know where he got it from or what he planned to do with it. He just said to me, 'Shouji file desu?'* And of course I thought he was trying to tell me that he was giving me the Shouji case file so I nodded and took it away. Then he said, 'No, no. Shouji file desu?' I was so confused so I repeated to him, "Shouji file desu.' It wasn't until Lin-san came up to us and spoke to him, then clarified the situation to me. Apparently Mr. Higgs was trying to ask me if the folder he was handing to me was the Shouji file case since he wanted to scan it in, but I just kept taking it from him." At this point, her voice had gotten louder. "I mean, how was I supposed to understand that he was actually trying to ask me a question? I didn't know why he was inflecting desu like that. How was I supposed to know he's asking me a question instead of telling me a fact?"

By the time she finished her annoyance had skyrocketed, but she caught herself and let out a breath to calm herself back down, telling herself there was no need to get worked up over it. All her thoughts derailed as she saw the boy slightly shaking in front of her. "Naru?" She had to blink several times to come to the realization that he was shaking from a quiet laughter. His left arm was holding on to his stomach as if to prevent it from hurting any further, while his right hand was curled into a soft fist, held up near his mouth to stifle his laughter. If Naru had allowed others to see him like this, she didn't doubt the others would have thought hell finally froze over.

"He's always so graceful, even as he laughs uncontrollably," she thought, feeling selfishly happy that he only ever allowed himself to show his more affectionate side to her. Then when a few more seconds passed and he still kept laughing to the point where tears were threatening to fall from his eye, she pouted and said, "Okay, can you stop laughing at me now?"

He eventually calmed himself down and shook his head, his eyes still laughing as he said, "I'm sorry, that was funny." Then taking a deep breath, he resumed the conversation. "Well that's out of the way; we should be back to normal operations after today."

"Okay well setting all that business aside, what were you doing saying that back there! I almost had a heart attack, you know. If the others realized what you meant..."

"What, you mean about wanting soba for tonight? But it's true. I want some."

She pursed her lips and looked at him dubiously. "Really? Soba, or-?"

"Or?"

"Okay, you're just teasing me."

Naru let out another chuckle. "Maybe if you didn't wear the shirt that started it, I wouldn't have said anything."

"Is that why you locked the door?" she teased back. "Maybe you're feeling daring enough for something to happen in the office?" At this she leaned over the desk and tugged on his polo shirt.

"Don't try to get me too excited."

Mai laughed this time. "Really, are you excited? It's hard to tell with your face right now; you just look like the normal sulky Naru." Her grip was still on his clothes, but she released it and finished buttoning up his shirt for him. She forgot to tell him that morning that he left it undone.

"Although I could control my face-" he began, but let the sentence linger before curling up his lips into a naughty smile, taking Mai by surprise. She gasped and playfully hit him on the hand. "Kidding aside, I like that top on you."

Before she could stop herself, she replied, "Yeah, Yasuhara-kun said the same thing. Said I should wear it around the office more often."

"Did he now?" His eyes narrowed, but instead of saying anything else further, he just took up his book and began reading. Mai was unsure whether she had said something to upset him, but before she could apologize, he said, "Will you come again today?"

"What? I can't go back to work wearing the same set of clothes three days in a row." He looked hurt at her refusal, but she quickly amended it by saying, "How about your turn? You can come over tonight and I'll prepare soba. Again."

"Hm," he mumbled, before smiling and turning back to his book. She turned to leave, but before she could open the door, he asked softly, "You have a futon, right?"

She laughed, butterflies tickling her stomach, and replied, "Yes."

Mai left his office and sat back down to her desk, meeting Yasuhara's questioning look, but she ignored him for a moment as she tried to process what had just happened behind closed doors. Finally she addressed him. "Oh, we just had the usual spat, you know the deal."

"I heard you yelling for a while there. Thought it was going to be a shouting match."

"No, we calmed down in the end."

The sudden sound of a door being thrown open made the two of them turn their heads. They met Naru's irritable glare; he was holding a black scarf in his hands and threw it to Mai. He snapped, "You shouldn't be wearing inappropriate clothing at work," before disappearing into his office again. As Yasuhara sighed and wondered about Naru's wild mood-swings, Mai silently smiled to herself, understanding the meaning behind those actions. Naru was actually jealous! "So he did feel annoyed back then. That sneaky man."

A/N: Hajimeshta. Ohayow gozaymas, Higgs-san des* = (Hajimemashite. Ohayou gozaimasu, Higgs-san desu.) Okay, so Mr. Higgs is a total Japanese noob and doesn't remember shit. Hajimemashite is something you say to someone you are meeting for the very first time and only that first time. The next sentence means good morning, but it's not something you really say to someone during the introductions, so this is weird. As lastly he calls himself Higgs-san, which is polite form. It's generally not a good idea to refer to yourself in the polite form.

*Shouji file desu?* = He was inflecting the end of the sentence as if asking questions in English. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been under the impression that in Japan ending a sentence in 'desu' is more of a statement. If he wanted to make it clear he was asking a question, he should have said 'Kore wa Shouji file desu ka'?