An Ordinary Day
June 1st.
It was an ordinary day, unremarkable if he could give a word to describe it. To the rest of Japan and England it was just another almost-summer day that would soon bleed into the next. But, to a small group of people it meant so much more.
It was a day of mourning.
Of course Lin had asked him if he would like to close the office that day. In order to 'take some time' -an illy veiled euphemism for grieving- and take a break from the investigation. While the thought had been tempting, he chose to allow the office to remain open. If the whole world could keep moving forward, why should he remain stagnant? But, he did understand that his way was not the only way.
So, instead, he encouraged his friend to take the day off for the both of them.
At first Lin had refused outright. He had been tasked with watching over his young charge. Luella would certainly have his hide if anything were to happen to Oliver. But, after talking about their respective grieving processes, they eventually compromised. Lin would take the day off as long as Oliver promised to call his mother.
It was a hard bargain, but both parties were somewhat satisfied with the results. Lin would be allowed the space to grieve and Oliver would be allowed to have the space that he had been craving for a long time. Without the omnioji around, he could continue to work without the other's constant hovering. He could work in silence and-
Bang.
"Sorry I'm late!"
Well, relative silence.
Oliver allowed an annoyed sigh escape him as he rubbed his temples. He could hear Mai rushing to and fro in the lobby as she babbled about one excuse or another for her tardiness. With his door closed he couldn't make heads or tails of what she was saying, but he could not find that there was any part of him that felt the need to care.
His employee's tardiness, which occurred on a regular basis, did nothing more than slightly annoy him. As far as he was concerned, as long as she was on time for investigations, he would pay her regardless what time she arrived at the office. But, if he were to appear less stringent, he knew that he would be doing her a disservice. He knew that most of her future employers would be far less forgiving. It wouldn't do to set the high school student up for future failure when it took only a small amount of effort on his part to keep her accountable.
"Mai, tea."
He could almost physically feel her annoyance from the other room at his order. She stomped loudly into the kitchenette to fetch his tea –muttering indiscernible insults the whole way. There was no need for him to actually hear them because he knew the insults that she came up with about him. How he was a slave driver. How he should be more coordinal.
How narcissistic he could be.
There were times when he wanted to defend himself against the jabs that she threw at him. But, in doing so, he would most certainly have to explain that the time that he spent pouring over maps and interviews was far more important to him than the niceties that came from casual conversation. He could care less about how civil he appeared when every second that he wasted on pleasantries was one more second that he had failed at finding his brother's body.
And he had already failed to find his brother's body one year posthumous.
His door opened a moment later to reveal his disgruntled assistant. He could see the steam coming off of the hot water –the bag that rested on the saucer clearly showed that she was unwilling to fully complete her task- as she approached him. The cup teetered as she slammed it down on the table with a flourish. He could easily see how the water was about to slosh onto hours of hard work and he righted the cup without a second thought. He was grateful when her eyes rolled elsewhere in annoyance at the same time that the displaced water was righted back into the cup.
"You know, Naru, you don't need to be rude. Usually people greet each other before they get to work."
"And usually employers fire their employees when they're late almost every day," Oliver pointed out as he ripped the bag open to begin the process of brewing his own tea. He felt a small amount of satisfaction at the sight of Mai flushing at the insinuation that he would fire her. He wouldn't, of course, but the temptation to rile her up was almost always far too strong to ignore.
"Yes, well, I had a good reason to be late!" She crossed her arms and glared back towards the door. "I needed to stay behind to ask my teacher about an upcoming test."
"I suppose that you believe I should be proud of you finally taking your education seriously?" He arched an eyebrow at her and watched as she huffed in annoyance. He could clearly see that he was one step away from forcing her into a blow up. He was tempted to cross that line, but a wave of exhaustion warned him of how tiring her blow-ups could be –and how out of practice he was when it came to his PK.
He sighed before picking up a pile of reports that had finally come in from the Urado case. Though the case had been closed over a month ago, the Prime Minister –upon Oliver's request– had only just recently sent in several official reports concerning what remained of the mansion. Normally, he would have forgone seeking out the minister again, once a case was closed he preferred to keep it that way, but he had been interested in what was found after the ashes of the manor had settled.
When he had first received the reports he had been concerned that Urado was still in existence. But, after pouring over the reports, he could not find any remnants of the entity. Investigators had found only ash and the bones of those who had already departed. He had to admit that he was relieved when he found no signs that Urado still remained in the world of the living. A part of his mind was curious about where the monster had went, but he was not foolish enough to pursue the mystery any further.
"Add these to the Urado case," he said curtly as he held them out for Mai to take. She looked at him in confusion, but took them nonetheless. He then made a motion of dismissal as he removed the bag from the teacup and threw it into the trash bin that resided beside his desk. Oliver chose to ignore the annoyed noise that came from Mai as she stormed out of the room by taking a drink of his freshly brewed tea.
She was almost all of the way out of the door when she paused in the doorway. She turned back, a look of concern on her face, as she asked, "Where's Lin?"
"He decided to take the day off."
"Why?"
"As with any other business, the reasons why an employee takes the day off are between that person and their employer. If you would like to know as to why he took the day off, I would suggest asking him yourself."
Mai rolled her eyes at his brusque tone, but her look of annoyance ebbed into one of contemplation as she tapped her finger on the side of the reports in thought. A moment later her eyes flew up to meet Oliver's as her face clearly displayed that an idea had occurred to her.
"Wait, so if I asked for a day off you wouldn't tell Lin why I wanted to take it off?" Oliver rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance.
"That is what I just finished explaining, is it not?"
Mai blushed and looked away in embarrassment as she mumbled a quiet affirmation. He knew that she had only asked for clarification, but he was finding that his patience was starting to wear thin. He saw her start to take another step out of the office before she placed her foot back down in order to face him again. "Naru? Can I take June 25th off?"
He carefully schooled his face to omit his recognition of what that date meant to his assistant.
In the beginning, Martin had insisted that an extensive background check be performed before the high school student was officially hired as a regular employee. Through the investigation, he had learned a great deal about his assistant's history. As far as he knew, she was still unaware of the fact that he knew quite a bit more about her than she had disclosed to him personally.
For example: June 25th was the anniversary of her mother's passing.
But, because she was not aware of that fact, he made a great effort to look impassive before responding with a purposefully ignorant question. "And why do you need that day off?"
"I know this might seem silly to someone like you," she said as she pulled the papers close to her chest and toed the floor with her left foot. "But, it's been a while since I visited my parent's graves. A-and It's been a long time since I've cleaned them and-"
"That's fine, Mai," Oliver cut her off as he made a point to pull out his calendar to mark down the date. He wasn't one to forget small details, but he made a show about it regardless. He was unsure why exactly, but showing her that he was taking her request seriously seemed rather important in that moment.
It also gave him an excuse to not meet her eyes.
"Thanks," she replied softly as she took that as her cue to leave the room. A few moments later he could hear her moving around. Opening filing cabinets and organizing the material that he had handed off to her.
On an ordinary day he would have insisted that she return to close the door so that he could work, but, instead, he allowed himself to be lost in the white noise that she created. He made sure to appear as though he was working, just in case she were to glance inside, but he couldn't seem to focus on the notes that he had been reviewing in a vain hope that an answer would come to him. He closed his eyes with an annoyed sigh as he allowed his thoughts to drift.
Oliver was not one to normally make leaps of logic, but he could not help but wonder at the extent of Mai's intuition. There would be no way for her to know that Lin was gone for much the same reason that she would now be gone later in the month.
The irony of the situation did not escape him.
Nearly half an hour later of Oliver being left to stew in his thoughts, Mai noticed the open door, and, in a flurry of motion, she immediately came to the doorway looking abashed. "Oh, Naru! I'm sorry that I left the door open! Would you like me to shut it?" Oliver did not appear to spare her a glance as he shook his head. Out of his periphery he could see another wave of hesitance wash over her face as an awkward silence fell between them.
"Alright," she said as she scratched the back of her head. It appeared as though she wanted to say something. As the pause extended, Oliver made the mistake of hoping that she would ask him about his behavior.
In that small space of time, he felt an inexplicable urge to explain everything to her. And he knew, if she asked how he was doing, he would have told her the truth.
He would have told her everything.
He would start with his true intentions for coming to Japan. About how opening the office was just a front for a much more important investigation. He would have then moved on to talk about how he was frustrated beyond measure that the investigation had become stagnant. That there were no new leads. And, any new leads that did present themselves, always lead to new dead ends that were waiting to steal what little hope he still held within himself.
But, most importantly, he would have told her about his brother.
Mai would have, at first, been surprised. But, after a small explanation, she would have appreciated hearing about him. She would have laughed at all of the silly antics that Gene liked to coerce him into. She would have found it almost unbelievable that he had instigated a few instances of mischief himself. She would have marveled over how truly grateful he was for the time that the two of them had living with his adopted parents.
Eventually, as the conversation turned somber again, he would have moved on to tell her about how, no matter how he acted, he truly missed his other half. He would have admitted, after a bit of prodding from her, that he missed him more deeply than his own adopted parents. And, how guilty he felt for being the one who had lived. And, while his attire was mostly for comfort, it was also in remembrance of his twin.
But, just like that, the moment filled with 'what if's had passed and Mai chose to not ask him anything out of the ordinary. "I... I finished the filing. Is there anything else that I can do?"
He felt his walls come back up, and he internally chastised himself for even considering such a possibility. Not only would she have been unable to fully understand the situation. But, if he had explained the whole situation, he ran the risk of compromising all of their hard work. Mai had proven time and again that she was not the best person to keep secrets.
Why had he even considered such a possibility?
"Go around and clean up the main area and the kitchen," he said stiffly as he continued to mentally berate himself for his near-lapse into foolishness. "When you are done with that, bring me another cup of tea. One that is fully brewed this time." He gave her a pointed look that made her jump before he looked back down at his desk.
"Uh, s-sure."
He kept his eyes focused on the papers before him as he heard her scurry from his office. Once he was sure that she was out of earshot, he let out a breath that he had held and allowed his head to fall into his hands.
Oliver had truly believed that being at work was the best option on this day. He had no grave to visit. No gods to pray to. No solace to seek. But, after his near-reveal, it appeared as though it had been a poor decision on his part.
He glanced up at the clock and noted that there were far too many hours left in the work day. He immediately rubbed the bridge of his nose at the notion of staying much longer. He usually liked to lose himself in his work, but right then he just felt so exhausted at the mere thought of staying much longer.
With a sigh he began the long process of packing up his work. Normally he would stay long past the time that Mai worked, but today had proved itself to be quite unproductive. After only a moment's consideration, he decided that, once Mai was finished with tiding up the office, he would send her home early. He would then head to the hotel that he was staying at and order take-out. Then, as promised, he would call his mother to see how she was doing.
No doubt Luella would be grieving while also fretting about his own safety. No matter how many times he had reassured her that he was fine and would be home as soon as he had located Gene's body, she still worried. All he would be able to do would be to allow her to talk at him. He wasn't sure if that would help her –he certainly wasn't the twin that was able to give much comfort to others.
But, if it did, then perhaps he would talk at her as well.
[A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I don't know exactly where this came from, but a few days ago I went to go to sleep and all of a sudden I was just hit with the first few paragraphs and I just had to write them down. Since that day I've been adding/editing it and this was the result. I might end up doing other pieces if you guys are interested. (Mai's visit to her parents' graves would be the next one if there is any interest.) As always, let me know what you think about this in a review and thanks for reading!]