Over the course of the pass week, I've literally had enough sleep to last me a life time. Anytime I'd try to get up and move around, Naru would just shove more sleeping medicine down my throat and then practically lock me in the room until I fell asleep. The worst part was that he wouldn't even let me go to my apartment! I had to stay at his. He'd even get my clothes for me.

Secretly, it's flattered me to no end. He's just so sweet some times. However, it was annoying as hell also.

Now I'd convinced him to let me go back to school, which probably wasn't a very good idea in the first place.

I gasp as another person accidentally bumps in to me and my throbbing ribs scream again. They apologize quickly before moving on to their next class. A loud, "Mai!" catches my attention and I see Yasu making his way to me.

"Hey." I croak, trying my hardest not to cry.

He shakes his head with a gentle smile, "The boss said you'd regret coming to school with those ribs of yours. Looks like you owe him an apology."

"I refuse."

Yasu chuckles, "Now you sound like the boss." He starts to walk with me to my English class. For some reason, whenever I'm with Yasu, no one bumps in to me or anything. We just continue walking down the hall of the university. All of a sudden, Yasu stops, "Hey! Kitsune!"

Huh? Fox demon?

I see a guy begin to walk towards us. He's got bright orange hair and bright green eyes. He's defiantly foreign. The guy, who I'm assuming is Kitsune, is at least 6 feet. Not as tall as Naru, but close enough. He'd reach Naru's chin. Kitsune also has nice size muscles, and he's wearing Levi's, boots, and a plain black t-shirt.

"Yasuhara?" He says with a smirk on his face, "Can I asked who's the beautiful girl you've got with you?"

Oh my God.

My face heats up.

"This is Mai. She's a triple major, and she works with me." Yasu says, smiling at me.

"A triple major? That's impressive." He holds out his hand, "I'm Kitsune Misagi."

"It's nice to meet you, Misagi-san." I say, shaking his hand with a smile on my face, "I'm Mai Taniyama."

"Call me Kitsune, Mai." He smile, then lifts my hand and kisses the top of it in an act of gentlemanliness.

Well, isn't he just oozing charm.

"Kitsune transferred from an American university while you were MIA." Yasu says with a grin, "He's taking Psychology too. Maybe you can help him with that."

"I'd be happy to," I smile up at Kitsune who grins like the Cheshire Cat back to me.

"Be careful with her, Kitsune." Yasu comments, "She's got some bruised ribs from our last case." With that, Yasu dances away in a flurry of secret smiles and devious plans.

"Any idea what he's planning?" Kitsune comments as Yasu walks away.

I shake my head, "Nope. But I guess we'll find out, huh?" Kitsune grins, before nodding and walking with me to our Psychology class.

3rd Point of View:

Naru had never been so worried. Not when he was thirteen and his brother went to the ER. Not when he was sixteen when Gene left for Japan. He wondered slightly why he seemed to be more worried about a girl with no relation to him, as apposed to his own brother, but in reality, he didn't care.

All Naru knew was that he felt like the inside of his body was swarming with bugs.

Is she hurt?

He looks up at his clock. In ten minutes, Mai would be done with her classes and she'd be making her way to the office. A firm knock on his door makes him look up as Lin pokes his head through, "Just go pick her up, Noll."

Naru stands with out a word and grabs his jacket and keys. He makes his way to the door, but not before turning around and saying, "I'll be back in a while."

"Mhmm." Lin says, his arms crossed over his chest as he leans against the door frame. Naru didn't even think that Lin was patronizing him. Out of all the people to understand his anxiousness, he knew Lin was the best person.

Lin understands how it is to have someone close to you that is completely reckless and selfless.

—

Naru made quick work of driving to the college. It was a good fifteen minutes away, but he made the trip in seven. Mai is standing outside by herself by the gates. She's got earphones in, so Naru knows that she won't be able to hear him.

He steps out of his car and moves toward her. Just as he's crossing the street to reach her, a foreigner walks up behind Mai. Alarm flashes through Naru as the man grabs Mai by the waist and spins her around. He stops sprinting towards her when she laughs loudly, "Kitty!"

The man, 'Kitty', laughs too, "Is that a new name or something?"

"Kitty, as in Kitsune." Mai says, grinning.

Stop it.

Mai giggle as Kitsune blanches, "That's some nice reasoning you've got there." He hugs her tighter.

Let her go.

"Why can't you just come out drinking with me?" Kitsune says, smiling down at Mai. He's a handsome fellow. Orange hair and bright green eyes. Naru's polar opposite it seems.

"Because I've got to go to work." Mai sounded like she was attempting not to burst out laughing.

"Can't you call in or something?"

Absolutely not.

"Mai!" Naru shouts, walking up to them. Mai jerks away from Kitsune as if the man had burned her. Big brown eyes meet his furious blue ones. She looks so scared.

Good.

"Uh, Mai?" Kitsune says, eyeing Naru warily, "Who's this?"

"I'm her boss." Naru growls glaring at Kitsune. The orange haired man puffs out his chest, but even the simplest simpleton could see that he was just as scared of Naru as every other person was… except for Mai.

The woman in question looked like she was about to cry. Naru felt like yelling and hiding all at the same time. To see her happy to be with anyone else but him…

The young professor grabs Mai by the elbow. He pulls her after him, but stops when Mai is pulled the other way. He turns to see Kitsune grabbing on to Mai's hand, "I don't think her boss should be jerking her around."

Naru glares at him and he feels his PK ripple through out his entire body. He uses his mind to push Kitsune back, who stumbles with a surprised look on his face. All Naru really wanted to do was crush this guy with his mind and then take his Mai and shove her away so no one could find her.

Mai, as if sensing his thoughts (she had a strange knack for figuring out what he was always thinking), turns to Kitsune, "He's also my best friend. I'll see you tomorrow." With that, Naru pulls her across the street and in to his car.

Briefly, he wondered is Mai really considered him her best friend? He also wondered why it bothered him so much?

Ten minutes later the two of them are speeding towards the apartment complex. Naru didn't know what to do with all of the emotions whirling around him. He reaches over and cranks up the heat all the way. If the windows were beginning to ice, he knew Mai must've been freezing.

There was only one other time Naru could remember feeling all of these emotions, and it ended up with her commuting suicide. However, he couldn't help all of the feelings swirling around inside of him.

Wait a minute, the situations are different. Then why...

The two of them are both quiet the entire way home. Naru knew he couldn't stay around her. He knew that if he did then he'd do something he'd regret later. That's precisely why he dropped her off, and with a quick, "I'll be back later." He sped off.

He felt something in him twist painfully as he watched the small girl fold in to herself in the rearview mirror.

She always hides her pain.

He hadn't been gone ten minutes before his phone rang. He physically winced at the sight of the caller ID. He sighs, before pressing the button on his center console that allowed the phone call to be taken through the speakers, "What, Lin?"

"Do you want to explain to me why Mai just called my wife balling her eyes out? Or how about why my wife left with out a single word to me?!" Lin was shouting in to the phone. The sound was coming out through the speakers harshly against Naru's sensitive ears. He turns the car volume down some.

"I had to leave." Naru's voice is quiet, "I didn't want to hurt her."

"For the love of God," Lin sighs, "What the hell are you two fighting about now?"

"I can't really explain it—"

"Well you better figure out a way!" Lin snaps.

Naru sighs again. The two men seem to both do that a lot. Especially when they're annoyed. Naru feels his eyes begin to twitch as the frustration pours out of him in one big swoop, "Some fucking guy was trying to convince her to call in to work and go out drink with him. The idiot probably didn't realize that this 'Kitsune' asshole just wanted one thing."

"So you're jealous."

The astonishment that Naru feels is so great that he hits dry brakes in the middle of the street. He hears several honks of anger before cars begin to pass him up. Naru glares at nothing, "Don't be absurd."

"Noll, I've heard you swear twice the entire time I've known you." Lin says, his voice much lighter than before, "When you were describing Gene's killer, and now. Trust me. If this has got you so fired up that you're swearing, then you're jealous."

"I'm not—"

"Don't lie to me. I'll call your mother." Lin's voice sounded amused now and it irritated Naru to no end.

"There's no way possible that I could be…" he trails off and sighs. He thinks about it for a moment. If Naru detaches himself emotionally from the situation, then he could honestly say that it sounded like he was jealous. However, something in the back of his mind kept screaming that he wasn't.

And suddenly, it all clicks.

"Lin?"

"Yeah yeah. I'll see you tomorrow. Good luck."

Lin smiles down at the phone.

Finally.

He hits the number two on his speed dial, and Madoka answers on the second ring. He could hear the sobbing girl in the back ground.

"I'll be right back, sweetie." Madoka tells Mai, before she walks away and answers Lin, "So?"

"Mai was with another guy." Lin says, "I'm guessing someone new since we've never seen him before. Noll went to pick her up from school and caught the guy flirting with Mai. Apparently he asked her out for drinks or something. Bottom line is Noll got angry and brought Mai back home before leaving because he'd thought he'd do something stupid… which he probably would have."

"True." Madoka says, irritated by this whole situation, "So what do we do?"

"I think we need to leave this one alone." Lin says, remembering the tone of Naru's voice when he'd apparently had a epiphany earlier, "I'm positive they'll fight, but I think they'll make up. They always do."

"I swear, these two are like magnets. Sometimes they push each other away and some times they're so close that it's hard to separate them," Madoka sounded exhausted, "When do you think it'll be a good time to tell them?"

"Probably after this is all settled." Lin says, smiling as he remembers the day, "After all, we have nine months."

When Naru makes it to the apartment, even though it's his, he knocks. Madoka answers the door. She glares at him for a second, before stepping aside and muttering, "She's in your room. If you mess this up, I'll kill you." Then she leaves.

No pressure, right?

Naru sighs, making his way to his room. He hears quiet sobbing behind the door, and takes a deep breath before pushing it open. There sits Mai. She's sitting on the floor with knees to her chest. Her back is against the end of his bed, which is facing the door. She looks up and her eyes grow wide, "N-Naru—"

"Why are you on the floor?" He says, cutting her off. Anger fills him all over again, "You've got bruised ribs you idiot."

Mai's eyes water, and then they harden, "Who cares anyway?! You get mad at me and then you leave!"

"Of course I leave!" Naru shouts back, "You have a tendency to take everything the wrong way! One false phrase slips out of my mouth and you throw it all off the deep end!"

By now, Mai had gotten up and was glaring up at him with red eyes and a puffy nose. Her fist are clenched at her sides as she fights with the professor, "I do not! And where do you get off yanking me away from Kitsune anyway?! We weren't doing anything wrong!"

"Oh, you weren't?" Naru growls, "So you weren't even thinking about calling in to work?"

"No! I wasn't, as a matter of fact." Mai crosses her arms over her chest in an act of self-righteousness, "I am not the kind of person to walk away from something!"

Naru feels more anger welling up inside him. Even if he knows THAT, he still can't help how infuriating it is to argue with her, "At least I don't go off with every new girl that I meet like some kind of simpleton!"

SMACK!

Naru's face jerks to the right as Mai's palm connects with his cheek. Surprise fills him as it registers that Mai just slapped him. He turns to her to see tears dripping down her face. She looked so astonished that she's hit him, yet so hurt at the same time.

"How could I…" Mai starts, but stops. Naru can't make any sentence that would seem even the least bit articulate. The brown haired woman sniffles, "How could you think that I would do that, when the only person I think about all day… is you?" She looks up at him, her eyes looking so big and vulnerable that he can't help the protectiveness that flashes over him.

Naru registers what she said. His eyes widen, "But I thought—"

"No." Mai sniffles, fresh tears dripping off of her chin, "It was never Gene, you idiot. It's always been you. Even when I was a teenager." Her entire face is red, and Naru feels the breath leave him. He doesn't know what to say.

Which is why he grabs her by the wrist, and pulls her to him. She looks up at him astonished, and tries to say something, but he shuts her up.

His lips cover hers.