Plain: Book 2

The Protected and The Deaf

"Did I really scare you that much?" I said without thinking.

He snorted, as though the thought were laughable, but didn't answer as he pushed up from his chair and busied himself with pulling out a spare camera and thermographer.

Meanwhile, Takigawa had put a hand to the doorway as though to brace himself and openly gawked at our boss.

"Wow. I think you actually gave me a chill there, boss. Should you be using a tone like that on a girl, let alone your girlfriend?"

In answer, Naru just snapped at him to get dressed.

I finished his tea and set it next to his laptop with the best air of meekness I could manage. Though I couldn't see how he had a right to speak to me like that, I couldn't entirely blame him. I had ignored him times before and put myself into danger's way. Not to mention the fear was unmistakable. I had to shake off the guilt for being the cause of that fear, even if I had no choice in the matter.

Which was why, despite his rigid objections to any public displays of affection from me, I kneeled down next to where he was tugging out another tote of electric cables and put a hand on his neck. When he turned his head to me I caught his chin and pressed a kiss to his temple.

"I love you."

He blinked at me. At this proximity I could pick out more minute signs of his apprehension that I had missed before: his quick, but controlled breaths, and a slight tremor only seen at the tips of his fingers.

Then he clenched his jaw, smoothed his brow into a plain of determination, and tugged his chin from my grasp.

"You're staying here."

"I know."

"Stay by John and Ayako's side, I don't even want you in a different room from them."

"Okay."

He paused, glancing at me in a way I could read as mistrust, then straightened.

"I hope this new compliancy isn't just slyness," he said.

"I thought by now you'd see that I'm concerned for you."

He humphed. "I'm invincible."

"Which means you have muscles, right? Because now that I think about it, I've never seen you without a shirt."

That threw him off enough to disarm his mistrust and allow me to retreat back to the 'cooking' corner of the base and dig out breakfast. Not to mention that Takigawa returned about then, followed by John who was not only dressed and groomed, but bright-eyed as though he had been awake for hours.

"I suppose I'm to stay here with the ladies?" he said.

"If you would," said Naru. "Lin should be back any minute now."

And as though summoned by those very words, Lin appeared from the hallway with a squeak of door hinges, a packet of digital memory cards in hand to pass over to Naru, who set them next to the computer. Without much ado, the three of them left, and John and I took our places at the monitors, me a bit more gingerly than him as I was still sore from the night before.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Alright," I said, giving him my best smile. "Thanks to you!"

John chuckled and shook his head. "You never cease to surprise me with your ability to bounce back after all we've been through."

"Nonsense. They're just fodder for ghost stories, right?" Which gave me an idea for a date—a really good date. Naru had said he was good at telling ghost stories, and I knew I was the boss at them.