Foreword
The one shot was inspired by Coriana's Gene and Ferb O. Oche (3xj at deviantArt), who is doing a really great job in adapting Not Too Distant Past into a comic. This is dedicated to you guys, because I can't express how much I love the fics and the art in a review. :)
The Steel Magnolia
Two young boys were sitting in front of a pond.
A Chinese young man, who was at least nine years older than them, kept watch, while the identical looking brothers did their own thing in the park. One carried bread crumbles to feed the seemingly hungry ducks and the other only paid attention to the book he was reading. The man looked bored and so did the children he had been babysitting for a span of two hours. After noticing that the man didn't pay much attention to them, one boy said, "So... if you won't tell me who it is, can you at least tell me what she's like?"
He had uncovered the little secret by prodding the other's mind. His brother couldn't hide it behind his expressionless face any longer and sighed.
"Fine," he said, but he didn't know how to describe her, because he was very bad at describing girls. He tried to think of the best way of telling him what she was like without revealing her identity. However, his brother looked terribly bored and had started throwing the remaining bread crumbles at him. He glared and the annoying crumbles no longer attacked him. The next thing that came out of his mouth was not quite an answer, but more of a question.
"...a steel magnolia?"
His brother made a very difficult expression, struggling to come with a good response.
"Do you mean... that is scientifically possible?"
(o)~(o)
One day the same Chinese man was writing the report on the collected samples from a case, when he suddenly heard the following interesting words from his superior.
"Yesterday this guy came to me and said he wanted to date me," Madoka said.
Gene looked up from the essay he was writing. He had been doing his homework in the lab where Madoka and Lin usually worked. Yesterday they had gotten back from a haunted house and somehow they came across some mysterious goo that appeared after the hauntings had stopped. It looked kind of nasty, so he didn't collect that much.
"Another one? Who was it? Don't tell me it was that Jake from yesterday."
She laughed.
"Yes, it was him."
Jake was one of Professor Davis's associates and had joined them on a case as a specialist. The other people never failed to notice how the man was hogging for Madoka's attention. Gene found it rather funny that pretty much everyone else, apart from Martin Davis, increasingly got irritated by his lovestruck behaviour. Typically, his father had remained completely oblivious and was only interested in the haunting activities in the area.
"Popular, aren't you?" Gene said, and opened a plastic lunch bag to take his sandwich out, "Well, what did you say to him?"
Madoka smiled.
"I said no."
Gene wasn't surprised. Madoka always had been rather popular with the single men they came into contact with on cases, but for some reason she always waved the attention off and broke one heart after another.
"Aww, the poor guy," he said, "Why not?"
She replied, "He isn't my type."
Gene took a bite in his sandwich and looked at her. Madoka seemed rather carefree about the issue, and he was starting to feel bad for all those guys.
"If you keep rejecting there will be no other man left in the world for you. Right Lin?" Gene said, while chewing on his lunch. If his parents saw this, they would definitely scold him.
Both peered at the tall man in the back who was looking at some of the samples of the mysterious goo. Lin didn't even glance back at him or much less affirm his question. If they had looked well, they would have seen a shrug from his stiff shoulders, but they didn't so they just ignored him.
Madoka decided to stare at Gene instead and said with a silly smile, "Oh, I haven't rejected all of them. In fact, there was this one person I haven't rejected."
He blinked. That was news to him.
"Who?"
"Don't you remember? It was you, five years ago!"
Gene stared at her with wide eyes.
"Me?"
"Eugene did?"
This exchange finally seemed to have gotten Lin's attention since he had apparently missed this rather important detail. Someone had failed to mention it to him, and promptly glared at Madoka, who had to laugh at the man's frowning face.
"Stop calling me Eugene," Gene quickly said to the man, then shifted uncomfortably on his seat. He made an awkward expression as he looked away from her. How was he going to talk himself out of this?
Madoka placed a hand in front her giggling mouth as she remembered what happened back then. Gene had been ten years old and out of a crush he had confessed to Madoka with a giant flower in his hand. He had been too cute. What else could she have said to him?
"Don't laugh. It's too embarrassing to remember," he said with a low voice.
"Well... you were so cute back then. I couldn't bear to reject such a cute confessor!"
He frowned and asked, "What did you tell me again?"
"Hm... How could you have forgotten such a thing? I told you to wait," Madoka replied, "You were ten, but you could at least remember that."
Gene looked at her again.
"How many years?" he asked awkwardly.
"Until you've become an adult."
"Ouch. That means I still have three years left."
"Since you'll be going to Japan, it will be 20. So five years."
"That's too harsh, and I'm not planning to stay in Japan my whole life," he said while grimacing, "Please change the subject. I don't want to hear any more of this!"
Madoka laughed.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"...I suppose you're tired of my talk about the Japan trip, so let's..."
His eyes moved to the direction of the window. Outside he saw his younger brother sitting on the bench outside with a book in hand. He had fled the lab a while ago due to his annoying and noisy presence.
"...talk about Noll, and his crush."
Madoka widened her eyes and shifted closer to him.
"Noll? Crush? In the same sentence? Or do you mean the type of crush that involves PK and a poor beercan?"
Gene waved it off.
"No, not the PK kind."
The smile on her face showed mild amusement.
"He has a crush on someone?"
He rolled his eyes and contorted his mouth, while thinking hard about that issue.
"Actually... I don't think he does now," Gene finally muttered.
She blinked.
"Do you know who it is? What is she like?" Madoka whispered, as if Noll could hear her.
"Well..."
"Come on, Gene. You're not getting away with only that kind of information..."
Her expression and tone of voice had turned sly. As usual, Lin felt himself grow weary when he noticed that mischievous mood rising stronger. Gene was beginning to regret the course of action he had taken. She seemed to be very persistent about this issue, and would not drop the topic until she had wrung it out of him completely.
"Unless it's a guy," she said.
The young man stared at her with a dropped jaw and Lin made a strangled noise.
"No way!" Gene said adamantly, "I can assure you he had a crush on a female!"
Madoka hummed.
"Who could it be then?"
"I don't know, but he did tell me what she's like."
"Oh?"
"A steel magnolia," he replied.
The two adults stared at him, but neither of them seemed to have any idea what the boy was talking about.
"What's a steel magnolia?" she asked after a while.
"Well... apparently it's an term for a southern woman who is strong and yet gentle," Gene explained, "Also, it's an American comedy film."
"He watches comedy films?" Lin inquired with suspicion.
Gene shook his head.
"He must have heard about the term when we were in the orphanage. I can't remember it though."
"Really... how interesting," Madoka said, "Do we know of a girl who is like a steel magnolia?"
She stared at Lin, but his face was blank. They ventured to Gene for more clues.
The boy folded his arms.
"Well, he explained that the girl looked like a beautiful flower, but was surprisingly skilled at what she did. In other words, she is a capable and pretty woman."
"I've never heard of him complimenting someone," Lin said with a frown.
Gene held up a finger for emphasis with a grin on his face.
"Remember, you heard it here first!"
"Well, Lin. What do you think?" Madoka said, smiling at Lin.
The Chinese man turned his head to avoid looking at their curious glances.
"He has a surprisingly good taste," he simply said as he placed the samples on a plate.
Gene grinned and asked them, "So, any idea who it is?"
At the same time he had said that, the door opened to reveal his younger twin standing in the doorway.
"Are you done chattering about nonsense?" he coldly said.
"Nonsense?" Madoka gave him a big smile. "What nonsense? We were just about to get back to work."
Noll looked away and to his irritation he saw how Gene was fumbling with a plastic lunch bag, then throwing it at the bin in the corner. He narrowly missed.
"Aww."
"Stop acting like a kid, Gene."
Gene pouted at his brother who picked up the garbage and threw it correctly into the bin. Noll was giving him the look that said, 'That's how you put garbage in the bin, moron.'
From the back, Lin took up the plate with samples in his hands and placed them beside Madoka, then immediately returned to his own seat. When she saw the collection samples that were labelled with the colours yellow, green and blue, Madoka asked, "Are the green ones done by Gene?"
"They're not mine, it's Noll's goo," Gene replied before Lin could say something.
"The yellow samples are Gene's, the others are mine," Noll clarified, and then corrected his brother with a deep frown, "And stop calling it… goo."
Gene stuck out a tongue at his brother, who sighed.
Madoka frowned.
"Oh, I didn't think I would make a mistake with that. I was pretty sure you had given me the green samples," she said to Gene.
"It happens more often than you think," the older brother said with a smile, but his voice seemed to be laced with an unusually bitter edge.
Madoka stared at both boys who had returned to doing their homework or research, and then moved her gaze to Lin. The Chinese man had been looking at the twins as well and after a while his own eyes met Madoka's. A sense of uneasiness crept over them. She pushed the chair beneath her away and moved toward the twins. Madoka placed a hand on Noll's shoulder, and he looked up.
"I need to talk to you."
Madoka said this with an expressionless face and it was one that he took very seriously.
"Yes?"
"In private."
Noll raised an eyebrow.
"Is there something wrong with my samples?"
Madoka merely smiled and he didn't know what to make of it.
"Let's go to my office," she said.
When Noll followed Madoka into the small office in the back, he didn't notice the incessant stares of Lin or the dropped jaw of his twin. He closed the door behind him and the first thing he heard from her mouth shocked him to the core.
"Noll, are you in love with me?"
His teacher was sitting against the desk and had her arms folded. Her fingernails scraped against the pipes of her white coat and her facial expression looked dark all of sudden. He didn't know what to make of that question, so he chose the obvious answer.
"No," he said with a steady voice.
She looked at him with unbelieving eyes.
"Are you sure?"
He nodded and at the same time opened the line in his mind that linked him to his brother.
'What the hell have you been talking about...?'
I am so sorry,' His twin replied with an apologetic voice, 'I just wanted to clear up a little misunderstanding!'
Noll frowned and didn't bother answering. Apparently Gene had said something to Madoka that tipped her off that he was supposedly in love with her. In the meanwhile Madoka had dropped her arms to the side and paced towards him, until there was less than an arm's width of distance.
"Are you really sure about that?"
He looked to the side and while he thought about various methods to dispose of his twin without leaving a trace, he asked her, "Why are you asking me these questions?"
Her mouth curved into a smile.
"Do you know about steel magnolias? That's the flower you gave me back then."
Her voice was the one that she usually used after she had discovered very interesting information about a case. Noll didn't answer and kept looking at the floor. One thing had become clear. He was never going to talk himself out of this. He could fool everyone else, but his mentor was too intelligent and saw through everything. It was one thing he hated about her, but at the same time he admired her for that. There had been a time when Madoka was the poster child of the young and talented, but Noll had quickly surpassed her. However, a mentor was still a mentor, and she was older and wiser.
"I don't want to hurt you again," she said and cocked her head to the side for better view of his eyes. "It was you who confessed to me, five years ago, not Gene. I want you to confirm this."
Noll closed his eyes.
"That's not true."
"You're lying," she said, "It had been you, but you got a reaction that you didn't expect. I thought it was you at first, but then you started pretending to be Gene to save face."
The boy sighed and opened his eyes to look at her again.
"I'm sorry," she said.
Noll merely looked at the other side of the room, which was suddenly far more interesting.
"There's nothing to be sorry about," he said, "Gene was the one who gave me the flower and forced me to confess, then I told him I got rejected."
Madoka had listened to him carefully.
"You were forced to?"
He nodded, but something told him that she didn't believe him.
Noll sent a message to his brother, 'I hate you.'
Gene quickly replied, 'I love you too, bro.'
Madoka interrupted his thoughts by grabbing his hand that had lingered by his side. His face didn't reveal the panic that rushed through his blood. Her hand was too warm and comforting.
"Noll, did you like me back then or was it a prank?" she said softly.
Noll resisted the urge to swallow back whatever words had gotten stuck in his throat.
Gene's answer was followed up with a hesitant question. 'So... how's it going over there?'
He sounded considerably worried, but Noll didn't want to give him the satisfaction of getting an answer. Noll looked at the woman in front of him. He had enough to deal with right now.
"A prank," he said to Madoka.
His brother poked him mentally again, 'C'mon answer me.'
Noll ignored him again.
"Really?" she said, "So you don't want my answer to your confession?"
Madoka smiled at the change of expression on his face. She knew his interest had suddenly peaked.
"What?"
"You did go through the trouble of confessing to me, so something like this shouldn't affect you right?"
'Hello?! I'm worried sick over here?'
Noll winced slightly at his brother's pleading calls and Madoka had to raise an eyebrow.
"Is he bothering you?" she asked.
'This is Gene calling Noll, do you hear me?!'
"Yes," he replied, and blocked the line, "but not any longer."
"Good," she said.
Noll sighed and said, "Your answer..."
Madoka smiled at him.
"Let's get some lunch."
He frowned. She was supposed to say yes or no, and he expected her to say no, so why should she want to get lunch first?
"I heard you liked the bitter chocolate cakes at the tea room across the street," Madoka said, "I'll treat you as an apology for the misunderstanding."
Noll was amazed that such trivial information had found its way to Madoka. The culprit had to be either Luella or Gene. He decided it had to be Gene.
"Well?"
"I have work to do."
"Noll... the chocolate cakes are waiting for you."
He grimaced, but knew he could never refuse Madoka... or those bitter chocolate cakes.
"This is all Gene's fault," Noll said with a sigh and determined that it was high time to execute his sweet revenge.
She continued, "You're not saying no?"
His face was expressionless and Madoka seemed to have taken it for a yes, because she took his arm and dragged him to the door. Before she opened it she said with a charming smile, "If only you had been a few years older... then I would take you on a real date."
Noll sighed. There was his no.
(o)~(o)
"They're taking too long," he said to the person next to him. Ever since he got blocked, Gene had been leaning on Lin for support. The man didn't like how the boy had invaded his privacy and in a futile effort had tried shaking off the hands that were glued to the pipe of his labcoat.
"What if they're... like..." Gene struggled at this point of the sentence. "...making out right now?"
Lin inwardly shuddered.
"They won't."
"What if they do!"
"Madoka is responsible enough to not get in a relationship with someone who is at least ten years her junior. Not to mention a minor."
Gene looked frantic and grabbed the man's shoulders. The chair turned 90 degrees and Lin was forced to look at the boy in front of him.
He ranted straight in the man's face, "I know! But the real problem is this. What if Noll does hook up with her? Don't you understand that everybody will think it's me, because you know, nobody will believe that Noll actually has a girlfriend?"
Lin twitched his eyes and sighed.
"Calm down Eugene," he said, "You're being ridiculous."
The boy pouted.
"Stop calling me Eugene, we're already this close and you never say my nickname."
"What are the two of you doing?"
Gene looked into the direction of the female voice. A frowning Noll and Madoka had been standing in front of her office and were looking at the scene that had unfolded in front of them. A very uncomfortable looking Lin had been cornered into his chair by Gene, who looked as if he was ready to devour the poor Chinese man.
"Oh my," Madoka said, raised a hand in front of her grinning mouth.
"What?" Lin said, completely aghast at what she could be possibly be thinking about right now. He stared right back at the boy who was only a few centimetres apart from his face. Gene noticed the embarrassing position they were in and quickly pulled away.
Noll merely shook his head, picked up the book he had been reading from the table, and then held out a hand to Madoka. Gene's jaw couldn't have dropped any lower when he saw the smirk on his brother's face. The woman seemed slightly surprised and took the hand with a giggle.
"Well, you can have the lab for yourselves today. Have fun!" She said with a wink, and then they walked out of the lab with arms locked together. With their exit Lin quickly pushed the other boy away, and fled to the other side to the room with the excuse that he needed to work on some other things.
"...Noll," Gene whimpered, barely believing what he had seen and then cried out, "Noll!"
Absolutely horrified, he pulled at his own hair with both of his hands and exclaimed, "What have I done?!"
Author's note
Surprise, surprise. You've unintentionally wandered into the crack pairing abyss of the Ghost Hunt archive. It is sort of a companion fic to the other one shot Trial.
PS The translated prologue and first chapter of the Akumu no sumu Ie novel is up in my profile. Go check it out if you want!