A/N: Hi there! I'm really excited about my first Ghost Hunt fic… I hope that you'll like this! It goes without saying that this is an AU story, and a lot of Naru and Mai's life and familial history will change as per my whims xD
At the young age of four, Shibuya Kazuya had been diagnosed with leukaemia. Ever since, he had received platelets through injection as therapeutic clinical treatment. His life had been filled with colourful drug bottles, frequent trips to the hospital and staying at home. He had always been a lonely and quiet child that grew up with only his books as friends, and his home as a playground. Kazuya couldn't risk going to school, and was hence home-tutored by his mother.
The doctors had always told his parents that Kazuya had been lucky to survive with this simple treatment for so many years, but bluntly putting it, he wouldn't live longer than his eighteenth birthday. His body was slowly giving up, and the transfusions were getting less effective. The young man had just turned seventeen the previous month. The doctors had stopped chemotherapy a few months before that, and his dark hair had grown back in short spikes.
He was handsome but pale, with his father's well-defined jaw and his mother's gleaming blue eyes. His father worked at a research facility, while his mother had left her job to stay home and take care of her only son. Shibuya always insisted on going alone to the hospital to get his platelets, and today was the first time she had ever let him.
Shibuya Kazuya sat up on the hospital bed, his skin almost blending perfectly with the white pristineness of the sheets. He waited for his oncologist to come in with his blood report. The room was empty and silent, just the way he liked.
He always liked silence.
"Do you know where she is?" he heard a female voice exclaim outside.
Kazuya appreciated peace and calm.
"But I'm here to see her…I am being quiet!" the girl yelled even louder.
The young man always wanted to be alone.
The door of his room burst open, as a petite girl with short and wild brown hair entered, breathing heavily. She wore an old-looking sweater and a short blue skirt, with simple tennis shoes that looked a bit too small for her feet.
On seeing Kazuya, she stopped to catch her breath and flashed him an awkward smile.
"Oops, I'm sorry….you obviously aren't Touka Megumi…" she chuckled slightly.
The dark-haired boy only stared at her with an expressionless face, saying nothing.
"Perhaps I got the wrong room. Sorry, I'm here to see my teacher's daughter. She's sick, you see…and oh, how impolite of me! I'm Taniyama Mai."
Kazuya looked through her, ignoring her entire speech. "Nurse?" he called out.
An older woman entered his room almost immediately and bowed slightly. "Yes, son?"
"This young woman has lost her way. Please assist her." He said, without sparing so much of a glance at the so-mentioned "young woman".
Mai stood looking at him with her mouth wide open in disbelief. "I was speaking to you, you impudent man! You could at least say hello," she huffed.
"Well, I don't care about saying hello to you." Kazuya replied simply.
As the nurse directed Mai towards the door, the young girl stuck her tongue out at him. "And I don't care about you either, you narcissistic…..Naru!"
As the two left the room, Kazuya looked back at the book he had just picked up to read.
"Naru?" he wondered out loud.
He cringed as he heard the girl's squeaky voice penetrate through the wall behind him.
"Nurse, tea." 'Naru' said simply.
A/N: How was this for a first chapter? Nothing much happens, but our lead pair has met….and already quarrelled, but hey- that's what Mai and Naru do best! Tell me if you like this, and if you'd like me continue :)
Thanks to AmyNChan for pointing out an error.
KClare.