Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.
It had been a year since I found Gene. The funeral was nothing big, just a few family members. Mother and Father both cried uncontrollably and I just stared at the box which contained my brother. I refused to cry. Ever since I saw him die I started grieving, now I was over it. Until I found his body Mother and Father held on to the small hope that I had simply had a nightmare and that he was still alive somewhere. Unfortunately I never 'just' have nightmares.
Looking out my window for the first time since I had returned home I noticed how different England was from Japan. I couldn't help but feel a slight longing to return to the place that I had made my temporary home. I also couldn't stop my mind from thinking about a small, brown headed girl that constantly haunted my thoughts. Her bright smile, caring eyes, and always optimistic attitude was forever etched into my mind. My mind drifted to the last time I spoke to her.
"Me or Gene?" I remember my last words to her. Those three words haunted me. I never gave her a chance to answer. I couldn't help but wonder if I would ever know, or if I even wanted to know for that matter.
I quickly dismissed the thoughts. Running my hands through my hair I feel back on my bed. 'What now?' I thought to myself. I hadn't taken a case in months because the last one I took I didn't finish. It just wasn't he same without my team. An intense feeling of loneliness consumed me as I closed my eyes.
"Since when do you get all sentimental?" A familiar voice said making me shoot up from my bed. What I saw almost floored me. Gene was standing there with his usual smirk on his face. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was wearing the exact same thing I was wearing.
"What the hell are you doing here you idiot?" I half screamed trying to keep my emotions at bay.
"Well that's an odd way to react to seeing your brother for the first since..."
"Since you died." I interrupted. "Am I supposed to act like it is completely normal for my dead brother to come visit me randomly?" I added feeling quite pissed.
"You are the only person in this world who would react coldly to a loved one visiting from beyond the grave, you stupid scientist." Gene said pouting at me. It really was quite shocking how different we were. If we didn't look exactly the same I would swear we weren't related.
"I wasted an extreme amount of time finding you so you could move on. I didn't do it so you could come annoy me for the rest of my life. And why are we dressed the same?" I didn't really know how to feel about this situation. Should I be happy that my brother came back to be in my life or annoyed that I worked so hard to find him and he chooses to haunt me. I could feel a headache coming on as I rubbed the bridge of my nose.
"I got tired of wearing the same thing forever. Since I can't actually change clothes, I can copy how you look. Since we look the same I can change clothes and still look like myself. But I must say I have an issue with the black on black." He replied smiling widely.
"Back to my first question," I changed the subject getting back to business. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm not ready to move on." He replied matter-of-factly. "And I want to help you and guide you like every older brother should." He always rubbed it in my face that I was born 6 minutes after him.
"I thought you were Mai's guide?" I spat the words like they were venom. I didn't like the fact that he was Mai's dream boyfriend, but I didn't know why because it was none of my business who my previous assistant was having relations with.
"I haven't been able to visit her since you found me." He said with a disappointed look on his face. "It's like she's blocking me."
That worried me. How could she block him, she wasn't that strong was she? I couldn't help but wonder if she was alright. I knew she didn't take it well when I left. Lin had even called a few times to tell me that he was worried about her. I had too much going on at that time to care.
"Don't worry though, I've checked in on your girlfriend to make sure she hasn't done anything stupid." He said snickering.
"She is not my girlfriend you idiot. She was my assistant that's all." I replied coldly.
"Anyway," he continued rolling his eyes at me. " She hasn't been wonderful but she's ok."
The concern in his eyes made my heart hurt. I shouldn't feel guilty about it. It wasn't my fault that she had mistaken me for Gene. Rationalizing it didn't make me feel any better. Mai always acted strong even when she was breaking. So the fact that everyone around her could see something was wrong must mean that she was hurting pretty bad. Suddenly an image of Mai sleeping came into my mind. She was curled up on a bed hugging her knees. Her face was streaked with tears and her eyes were puffy with dark circles under them. The sight of her like that made me want to run to her side and make her tea like I had done in the Urado case after her vision.
"That's what she looked like the last time I checked in on her." Gene said interrupting my train of thought.
"It's nice to see our telepathy still works." I said sarcastically, glaring at him.
"I know you think you're a genius, but when it comes to girls you really are an idiot Noll." Gene said half yelling at me. "She confessed her feelings to you and you shut her out like you do everyone else. If I was still alive I would have punched you for saying that she loved me."
I gritted my teeth regaining my composure. "She does love you. She feel in love with the man guiding her dreams. She only thought she loved me because she thought it was me." I was starting to get annoyed I didn't need to be thinking about this I was trying to get my life back to normal. The fact that my dead brother was talking to me definitely wasn't helping me move on.
"If she loved me why would she block me? If I had to guess, I would say she couldn't stand seeing me after losing you." Gene's words hit me hard.
Memories of my time with Mai flooded my head. The way she yelled at me, the way she blushed when I gave her rare compliments, and I was the only person she called for to save her when she was in trouble. Was it possible that I had made a mistake? Did she really love me instead? I'm not wrong often but when I am its like a punch to the stomach. How could I have been so blind?
"I see by that shocked look on your face that you finally realized you shut out the only person willing to put up with you." Gene was smirking. "Can we both just agree that you love her and you need to be her prince charming already? Because I'm tired of seeing her like that and I'm tired of seeing you like this."
"Like what?" I asked confused. I didn't think I was any different than I always was.
"Since you met her you've denied your feelings. You put up your walls like you do with everyone and you shut her out, but you can't deny that you feel very strongly for her. You are just too scared to get close to anyone since I died. That's why I came back. I know you act like you don't care about anything but eventually you're going to collapse from the years of built up emotion. I want to either be there for you when it happens or make sure you're with someone who loves you and will comfort you. I refuse to watch you slowly kill yourself by locking yourself inside a crypt. You might be able to fool everyone else but I know you're not made of stone. Mai is an amazing girl with an extremely special gift. I would give anything to be alive just so I could have a shot with her. So go get her before someone else does!" Gene was practically screaming now. It was a good thing I was the only one home.
I just stared at him I didn't know what to say. It had been so long since I had talked to someone who knew me well enough to tell me off like that. Gene was the only one I ever let in, and that was just because the telepathy thing didn't allow for much privacy. I was starting to feel overwhelmed by emotion and for the first time since Gene died I couldn't control the tears that stung my eyes. I missed my brother. No matter how annoying he could be, I missed him. I missed having someone to tell things to and someone to fight with. At that moment I realized Mai was the only other person in my life now that I could fight with and not hate me afterwards. I clenched my fists as my bed started to shake. I hated feeling like this and I needed to regain control before things started flying. I knew what I needed to do.
I had to go back to Japan to confess my feelings to Mai.