ELi: Hey! This is my first Ghost Hunt fanfic! I hope you guys enjoy it and I'm sorry if any of the characters are OC! I'm still trying to understand their personalities! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or any of the characters! All I own are Ghost Hunt mangas!

Ten Ways Lin and Mai Never Met

As Kids

ELi Shikiyori

Lin Koujo was, to put it bluntly, not happy.

What kind of eight year old would be? Obviously not Lin.

Not after his parents made him move away with them from Hong Kong, China to Tokyo, Japan. Not after they took him away from his childhood home; the house he grew up in, the kids he grew up with. All of that gone in three days of packing and a four hours worth of flight time.

But Lin wasn't the type of child to throw tantrums. No, he was the type to sulk. No matter what his parents did in order to get him to associate with the neighborhood children, Lin would ignore and rather prefer to sit under the tree on their front lawn and read.

His parents soon gave up in trying to get him out of being anti-social and just prayed to the gods for a miracle. And it came to them in the form of something round, something bouncy, and something red.

It was a regular day for Lin.

Get up, get dressed, have breakfast, go outside, sit under the tree, read. Same old, same old… so far.

He was reading his favorite book for the second time that day. It was just getting to the best part where the hero was confronting the bad guy right before the epic battle began.

Things were beginning to heat up as the protagonist and antagonist yelled fighting words at each other. Swords were drawn, followed by the echoing of battle cries as both parties surged forward, both with intent to slay the other!

They drew closer, weapons raised high and ready to strike! The hero aimed for his enemies throat, murder in his eyes and—

"Watch out!"

Lin's eyes widened as his book was knocked out of his hands by a red ball. He watched the book fly in the air before landing a few feet in front of him. His lips turned down into a frown as his mood was extremely dampened. Lin turned to the offending object sitting in his lap, his grey eyes narrowing into slits.

"Are you ok?"

The voice, Lin concluded, belonged to owner of the ball and therefore, the culprit behind his misfortune. He grabbed the ball and stood up swiftly, his aura becoming cold. He turned towards the owner of the voice, his frown deepening as he prepared to give that person a piece of his mind.

His eyes widened and he almost dropped the ball.

Standing in front of him was a little girl, no more than six years old. She had short Sienna colored hair which framed her round face and rosy cheeks. Her skin was fair, if not slightly tanned from playing under the sun. She was cute and Lin didn't find just about anything cute.

But what really caught his attention were her eyes. Big deep pools of pure brown that shone with life and laughter. Untainted childhood. Everything Lin himself didn't express. As he was lost in them, whatever he had planned to snap at her vanished from his mind.

The little girl tilted her head to the side, puzzled as why the mysterious boy was looking at her like that. "Are you ok?" she asked again. Her voice snapped Lin out of his thoughts and his nonchalant façade slipped into place smoothly. "I'm fine." He answered.

The girl broke out into a grin that warmed her eyes and made Lin's heart beat a little faster. She nodded, her hair bouncing. "That's good. I'm sorry if we disturbed you." She began to walk up towards him, a bit of a skip in her step.

As she stopped in front of him, Lin thought that her eyes seemed to be so much deeper than from afar. The girl stuck out her hand and gave him a lively smile, "My name's Mai Taniyama! What's yours?" Lin tucked the ball under his left arm and shook Mai's hand with his right, "Lin Koujo."

Mai's eyes widened even more as they filled with amazement. "Wow, you're not from here, are you?" Lin shook his head, "I'm from China." He stated. Mai exclaimed once again, "But how come you speak Japanese so well?" she asked, absolutely fascinated.

"I study a lot." Lin allowed himself a small smile of contempt.

"Amazing!" Mai gushed out. She looked at the ball under his arm and then over her shoulder before looking back at him. "Do you want to play with us?" the question was unexpected and Lin blinked in surprise. His mouth went dry for words.

Mai mistook his silence for fear and gave him a sunny smile. She moved closer to him and took his free hand into her own. "It's ok. I promise the others won't be scary! They're really nice! Well, except for Naru-kun but he's like that with everybody…" Mai tightened her grip on his hand. "Please, Lin!" Her brown eyes went impossibly wide as she looked at him with hope.

Lin found himself unable to say no.

"Everyone! This is Lin! He's new so be nice! Especially you, Naru!" Mai called out to her friends.

Seven other children looked up towards their friend. Mai was running towards them, her hand clasping Lin's tightly. She stopped in front of them and grinned widely. "Lin, these are my friends! That's Houshou!" Mai pointed to a boy about the same age as Lin. He had semi long sandy brown hair. He had a cheerful grin on his face, "Yo."

"This is Masako!" Mai indicated to a girl her age with short black hair. Lin noticed she was wearing a kimono instead of casual clothes. Standing beside her was a boy with blonde curls and gentle blue eyes. "That's John! He's Australian!" Mai explained. John gave him a polite 'hello' while Masako covered her mouth with the sleeve of her kimono and nodded at him.

A boy with glasses came up and introduced himself, "I'm Yasuhara! Nice to meet you!" he gave Lin a cheeky grin and his grey eyes twinkled with mischief. Next to Yasuhara was a girl with auburn hair. She was constantly checking her nails every five seconds. "That's Ayako! She's rich cuz her parents own lots of hospitals." Ayako gave Lin a once-over and a smile quirked on her lips. "He's cute." She purred.

Lin grimaced slightly and unconsciously gripped Mai's hand tighter. Mai squeezed back and turned to the last two members of the group. Two boys, identical in looks stood next to each other. One was wearing a blue button down shirt and had a warm smile on his face while the other was dressed from head to toe in black and an impassive expression on his face.

Twins.

The friendlier looking of the two stepped forward. "Hello. My name's Eugene, but please call me Gene. This is my brother, Oliver, but we call him Naru since he is a narcissist." Naru glared coldly at his brother and crossed his arms. Mai rolled her eyes at Naru's attitude. "Don't worry! He's like that with everyone! Nothing personal!" Naru just gave Mai an icy glance before looking away again.

Mai ignored it and instead, talked about something else, "Naru and Gene are from England! Isn't that cool?" Mai asked Lin, turning her body to face him completely.

Lin looked down at the girl on his arm and felt his heart beat faster. He gazed into her chocolate brown eyes, losing himself in them. His lips twitched into a small smile as he nodded.

At the corner of his eye, he saw Houshou and Yasuhara grin widely while Gene's smile widened. Even Naru's lips curled into a smirk. But Lin didn't care at all if they were staring.

It was Ayako's voice which broke the two's reverie. "Are we gonna play or not?" Mai laughed and pulled Lin forward, hands still intertwined. The other's positioned themselves as Lin held the ball, poised to play.

"Are you ready?" Mai smiled up at him, her big brown eyes shimmering with excitement. Lin returned the smile with one of his own. "Yeah." He answered before the game started.

As the sunset for the day, the air was still alive with the sound of children's laughter…

"Love is friendship set on fire."
-Unknown

ELi: Yeah, I hope you guys liked that! I'll try and put up the next chapter as soon as possible! Please R & R!