Rating: T for mild swearing.

AN: Alright I'm gonna stop putting the summary and title in the chapters because I think you guys get the idea haha. But anhways I'm sorry that it took me a little bit longer than usual to get this chapter up, but as you can see, it is much longer than usual. I had a sudden burst of inspiration, and I didn't have much time to type, as I was seeing my sister perform in Christmas at Belmont. It was a 6 hour drive to Nashville _ Anyways, this prompt was requested by the ever fabulous AmyNChan! Thank you for the request! Read, review, enjoy, sweethearts!

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"Respect: To hold in esteem or honor; to show regard or consideration for. You should respect me, you damn narcissist!"

Those were the only words typed onto a word document opened on Mai's laptop. Another long day at the office was ahead of her, and she just had to start it off by ticking off Naru and being forced to write a 5,000 word essay on why he should respect her. If he deemed it satisfactory, he would give her a raise. A small one, but a raise nonetheless. And if he declared it a pile of trash so bad that even a second grader could write a better essay... well, he left that up to her imagination.

Mai sighed, having gotten nothing done in the past hour. The screen's whiteness seemed to be mocking her, saying, "Is this all you can do?" Almost as if to spite her, Naru's familiar command for tea sailed through his closed office door. Rising sluggishly, she reluctantly prepared his usual Earl Grey, and carried it to her boss.

For once, he wasn't reading one of his science books or writing lord-knows-what in that damn notebook of his. Instead, he was staring patiently at the wall in front of him, only acknowledging her entrance with a small glance in Mai's direction.

Setting down the tea tray none too gently on his polished desk, she attempted to grab his attention by glaring at him. Her efforts were futile, however, as he only stared at the wall. It almost seemed as if he were doing this on purpose- trying to rile her up, just so that he can push her back down later. Wait a second- now that she thought about it, Naru seemed to be putting in extra effort into not noticing her. His lips were set into a thin, straight line, his eyebrows were furrowed, and his back seemed oddly stiff.

Mai sighed, and gave up on her conquest. Huffing and pouting, she stalked out of his office, not noticing his eyes following her out, not seeing the small smirk planted on his features. Just before she could slam his door shut, he called out to her. "How's that essay coming along, Mai?" This only served to anger her even more, as she screamed in frustration, nearly wanting to tear her hair out and slap that pretty little smirk off of his face. She slammed the door, and her ranting could be heard crystal clearly, even though she was all the way to the other side of building by this point. He quietly laughed to himself, marveling at how easy it was to procure a response from his assistant. He wasn't sure why he was so desperate for her special attention, even if that attention was leaning towards the 'intense dislike' end of the spectrum. At least it was something.

Meanwhile, after informing Lin that she was, in fact, quite alright and perfectly sane, Mai collapsed breathlessly on her chair in front of the computer. Slender fingers poised just above the keys, she struggled to come up with anything- even one sentence might be able to get her creativity flowing. Quickly glancing at the clock, she realized that she only had about 45 more minutes to work on her little project before a client was supposed to arrive with a case, and after that, the essay was due for inspection. Annoyed yet excited, Mai sighed, closing her eyes and leaning her head on the back of the chair.

"I didn't realize you were one to give up so quickly, Boss," a cheery and teasing voice exclaimed next to her ear. When Mai shot up in surprise, she was relieved to see her own self-proclaimed assistant, Yasuhara, standing with his back straight, hands behind his back and a stupid, yet endearing, grin on his face. "What's Big Boss making you do this time?"

Exasperatedly, Mai told him the tale of her current predicament. During her dramatic interpretation of that morning's argument, both Bou-san and Ayako had come into the office and were paying attention to her story. And when she finally told them about the essay, the monk clapped his hands excitedly, signalling that he had come up with an idea.

"Why don't we just help you write it? He never forbade you from getting help, so it should be fine, right?" The older man's enthusiasm diffused throughout the room until everybody, including Lin, who had been unwittingly roped into the ordeal, was crowded around Mai's laptop.

"Now, let's get to work!"

The next thirty minutes passed by in a breeze, with multiple "Hm"s and "No, that sounds dumb"s, which were usually followed by "Who's the one with the doctorate, old man?!"s. Everybody was taking turns at the computer, sometimes shoving each other out of the way, peering over shoulders, and all in all having a wonderful time. By the time only ten minutes were left, everyone had decided that Lin was going to be the only one typing, as he had the most words per minute, while everyone just called out ideas for him to turn into comprehensible sentences on the word document. Lin, of course, still wasn't sure why he was doing this, but he was too overwhelmed to leave the situation.

As he typed the final sentence, the client arrived. The door to the building opened with a bell, and an old man stepped inside, his cane waving in front of him, with a seeing-eye dog guiding him to the cushioned seat. Mai quickly shoved everybody away from the computer, hit the print button, and hurried over to the elderly man's side, simultaneously calling for Naru.

When he stepped out of his office, Naru glanced over to the printer, and his eyes widened when he saw the printed essay in the tray. He dismissed it for the moment, and began interroga- interviewing- the man.

After begrudgingly accepting the case at Mai's insistent pestering, he sent Yasu to make sure the client got safely back to his car. Actually, he also sent the irregulars away as well, finding their smug grins to be particularly annoying that day. This left only he and Mai in the lobby, as Lin had already taken his laptop back to his own secluded haven. Raising a single eyebrow in Mai's direction, he asked, "Are you going to show me the essay?"

Mai jumped, stuttering, "Y-yes! Just a second!" She hurried over to the printer, evened out the pages, and shoved them into Naru's hands. She fidgeted where she stood as he skimmed over each page, mentally fretting and panicking about each little expression that flittered across his face. After what seemed like forever, and long since Yasu returned, her boss looked her in the eyes with an indiscernible expression.

"I wasn't aware that Yasuhara-san being an," he glanced back to the paper, quoting one of the sentences, "'immortal, omniscient, omnipotent god figure who enjoys eating bananas seductively while maintaining eye contact with complete strangers' was a reason for me to respect you." Yasu let out a boisterous laugh, causing Mai to glare at him until he shut up.

Turning back to the smug figure in front of her, she wrung her hands, struggling to come up with an acceptable answer. "Uh.. it.. w-well, you should respect me for typing that sentence without barfing!" The room was silent. Even the birds constantly chirping outside seemed to be in awe of the stupidity of that sentence she just had the lack of brains to utter.

Naru sighed, shaking his head incredulously. He flicked her forehead gently, muttering, "Dummy." He then went back into his office, leaving Mai to wallow in her fear of her impending punishment.

That week's paycheck was doubled. On the envelope, a single sentence was written in Naru's familiar scrawl.

"I respect you for being able to live with yourself after that showcase of the depth of your stupidity."

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