August 18th, 2:17 AM

The faint ding of the dim 'fasten seatbelt' sign illuminating jolted Oliver Davis out of his state of half-sleep for the fifth time since take off. His flight from Tokyo to London thus far had been rather turbulent due to persistent rainstorms below the belly of the plane. He sat up in his seat a bit, sighing softly in defeat, cracking his back at the sudden change in posture. He shifted his weight so he was leaning against the wall of the darkened plane and closed his eyes again, pinching the bridge of his nose out of annoyance. Though the day leading up to his evening departure was rather uneventful, he found himself exhausted with the beginnings of what he could only assume was a migraine. All he wanted to do was sleep through this ghastly 12-hour flight, but he was six hours in and had yet to snag even a moment of shuteye; his odds were looking quite grim. To his left, he heard his assistant Lin quietly shut the book he had been reading.

"Noll?" Lin questioned quietly. "Are you alright?" Oliver opened one eye to glance at him.

"I'm fine," he replied shortly, closing his eye again. He could still feel Lin's gaze. "I said I'm fine." Lin sighed loudly in aggravation but did not press any further. He knew better by now. However, when the flight attendant walked past with the beverage cart, he ordered Oliver a hot cup of Earl Grey in willful protest and set the cup in front of him on his fold-down table. He sat up at the disturbance and rolled his eyes at Lin, who smiled underhandedly in triumph as Oliver promptly began drinking the tea. They sat for a while in comfortable silence.

"Do you want to discuss—" Lin began.

"There is nothing to discuss," Oliver replied tersely, staring into his teacup. "As I told you before, I'm fine. I see no reason to feel otherwise." Lin narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the stoic expression on Oliver's face.

"Most people would beg to disagree, Noll."

"Well I'm not most people." The edge in his voice caused Lin to back off. Oliver set down his empty cup and pushed it away from him, giving Lin a cold stare before turning away to look out the window. It can hardly be considered a narcissistic remark when it's true, he thought.

He was fully aware that it would be considered normal to outwardly mourn the loss of his twin, but such an awkward expression of emotion would leave him feeling weak and vulnerable. He was fully aware that finding the body of someone so dear to him would be considered traumatic and scarring—and perhaps it was those things to him, too—but it would be unproductive to let that pilot his life. He was fully aware that living in the shadow of his older brother—even after his death—was supposed to make him feel inferior, but it would be dramatic to let himself feel that way given his own numerous accomplishments and talents. He was fully aware that most people would be expected to break under the pressure he experienced, but he was Oliver Davis and that was entirely unacceptable. It's not that he was incapable of having any of these feelings, but being "most people" would be a waste of his and everyone else's time.

So what choice did he have other than to be fine?

Oliver shook his head to clear his mind. This is exactly why he wanted to sleep through this flight; he had nothing to keep him busy and prevent himself from thinking about his current state of affairs. Even reading could offer no reprieve because it was all too easy to let his mind wander as he glossed over the empty words. He itched to be off that plane and back in London, because that meant he would be able to preoccupy himself with more important and productive tasks. After landing, he and his parents, Martin and Luella Davis, would return home to plan Gene's funeral. After that mess was over and done with, at the behest of Martin, he planned on returning to Cambridge to finish his studies. This offered him an infinite amount of work and research to fill his time. If he resumed immediately he could graduate in December. After graduation he had no concrete plans, but he was not worried because he was certain someone with his qualifications and tantalizing good looks would not have any trouble securing a job.

But until then, Oliver was stuck in his own thoughts next to someone who he believed was overly curious about his well-being.

"May I at least ask what you plan to do about the SPR branch in Japan?" Lin interjected into Oliver's thoughts. He clutched the ends of his armrests tightly; that was the last thing he wanted to think about right now.

"I've told you. I'm closing the office," he responded. "Indefinitely."

"What about your associates?"

"That is not my concern; they need to find their own way to fill their time. I believe I already made that clear to them." He replied dismissively. Though, it was only half true. Yes, he had made it clear that they would no longer be meeting or taking cases together, but he did wish his associates well and hoped they would be alright in his absence. He hadn't hated the time they spent together… Whether or not this meant he missed them, he did not know, but he thought it best not to dwell on it. Lin folded his arms, eyes narrowed again.

"And what about Mai?" Oliver froze for a brief moment. A knot in his chest he hadn't noticed before tightened.

"I told her to find a new job," he replied flatly.

"That's not what I meant, Noll," Lin retorted impatiently. Oliver's face darkened.

'I know,' he thought. He clasped his hands and leaned his forearms on the table in front of him. He focused his gaze on his hands. He knew what Lin really meant, but he would not give him that satisfaction. Like everything else, there was nothing to discuss. And truthfully, he did not want to think about it.

Just days before, Mai had confessed her feelings to him. Though he maintained a façade of apathy, her words brought forth an array of feelings he was unfamiliar with and did not know how to handle. He had developed an affection for her some time ago, but did his best to make sense of the feeling and keep it under wraps so it would not interfere with their professional relationship. He wanted so badly to believe it when he told himself the feelings were purely platonic, but ultimately knew it to be false. What he felt for Bou-san, John-san, Matsuzaki-san, Yasuhara-san, and even the blackmailing Hara-san was platonic. And none of those feelings corresponded with what he felt for Mai.

It didn't make sense to him to feel this way towards her of all people. She was loud, annoying, whiny, and most of all, stupid. She was all the things he wasn't. Yet somehow, he found these qualities accounted for a large part of this alleged affection. Even though she was loud and annoying, she was also caring and passionate. And although she was stupid, he realized he was mostly comparing her to his own intellect, and let's face it: his intellect could make anyone look stupid. She had a sort of…emotional intelligence, which is something he seemed to lack. She related to their clients so easily and he couldn't help but notice how comfortable everyone was around her—including himself.

He knew he was not the best at reading other people's feelings, so instead of wasting his time wondering if Mai might feel something similar, he ignored his feelings entirely. He figured that after a while they would go away because he would figure out how illogical they were. He thought it was going very well until that one day she screwed everything up. He was forced to confront his feelings and acknowledge that he cared for her in a "very special way," as she put it. So while she stood there so eloquently expressing her feelings, he silently and stoically figured out that there was a possibility that she might be the first girl to both successfully capture his attention and like him back.

But the moment was short lived. The literal man of her dreams was not him—it was Gene. She loved Gene. He knew there was absolutely no way that she would fall for him when there was someone who looked just like him, who actually knew how to talk to people properly and for some reason liked to. It was no different than back home in London; everyone always preferred Gene. Even in death, it's always Gene. Normally he could be content living in his shadow, but this time felt different. As much as Oliver loved and missed his brother, he found himself angry at him. First he got himself killed, and then he took away the one person he could possibly see himself… Loving. The very concept terrified him.

And now, he's left alone with the remnants of all these feelings that he didn't want in the first place. He didn't have time for these stupid feelings—he didn't want to have time for them.

For the first time he could remember, Oliver felt stupid. He should have known better.

"Noll?" Oliver flinched a bit, snapping out of his thoughts. "What about Mai?" he repeated.

Oliver looked up from his hands finally.

"I'll miss having someone make me tea," he replied, voice completely void of emotion, "but otherwise I have no business left with her."

A/N: My second attempt at Ghost Hunt fanfiction! It's turning out to be much longer than I anticipated, so it will be posted as a multi-chapter story. I have quite a bit written already, but I'll be posting it little by little as I edit. Please enjoy!

I am also having a crisis on when to refer to him as Oliver, Noll, and Naru. So for posterity's sake, he will be Oliver/Noll to his family and Lin/when he is being narrated by himself and Naru to SPR Japan.