8 days
Dedicated to the absolutely amazing NobleBrokenBeauty (sorry it's late) go read her stories if you haven't yet your a totally loser and the only way to redeem yourself is by reading them go. They're incredible and she acutally updates Note: The disclaimer is at the bottom.
8 days and 7 years
Tuesday
Mai steeped out of the Shibuya Research Room. Deep cleansing breathes. Deep cleansing breathes. Don't walk back in there don't don't.
The events replayed in her mind not helping the calming at all.
He had been just sitting there, reading, that same expression he always had when he was. That 'I'm so bored with this and you' look.
"Naru don't you think you should've given the last case a little more concern?"
He hadn't even looked up.
"I mean don't you think that girl needed to be looked after a little more? Hospitals can't give her the kind of treatment we can…"
He still hadn't even looked at her.
"She'll be fine."
Mai was in shock. "Naru she was possessed!"
"So? She'll recover eventually."
Now Mai was leaning against the wooden door. Her jaw clenched and her hands forming into fists.
"Mai could you bring me tea?" asked Naru through the door.
She hissed out a breath, then sighing trying to remain calm. She opened the door slowly, carefully getting the tea and pouring it into the cup. Mai was impressed she hadn't lashed out. She handed it to him.
He didn't touch it. They were waiting for Takigawa anyway, so he would have plenty of time to drink his precious tea.
"Aren't you going to drink it?"
He regarded the tea and looked at her as if she had just asked one of the dumbest questions.
"No I'm too busy, and it's cold now anyways."
She had a sudden urge to bang her head against the door.
"I hate how vain you are!"
She could feel the rant coming.
"Is that girl's life a game to you?!"
Yup defiantly a rant. If anyone asked how Naru died later, Mai would just explain that her rant got out of hand.
"What if something happened to her? What about her family?!" "I know her little sister and she loves her very much!"
Naru's face softened for just a minute.
"Fine. Call the hospital if she's not doing well bring her back." His voice was sharp and his glare could kill.
She walked out of the room heading for the phone on the wall of the hallway. She realized that's how it always was with Naru.
Whenever they were confronted by crying parents practically giving out their thanks in choked sobs, or little siblings who clung to them in gratefulness, He was like that.
Whenever a family death was mentioned.
He'd become sad then angry. It was not pretty to handle. The topic always seemed to cut open Naru making him angrier. For anyone else it would seem they were insecure about the matter but not for Naru. Naru, insecure, Hah! They didn't even fit together well in the same sentence.
Wednesday
For a seconded she thought Naru really did like her. It was usually in the morning she felt like this. Holding on to the smile of the Naru from her dreams. But the real one always did call her by her first name. Sometimes he acted like a Manga character, with a scaring past trying not to give into his feeling of love, because he's worried to be hurt again, but he always saves her even though he refuses to tell her his hidden passion, he can't bear it if something happened to her.
This was obviously not true.
Mai only thought this for three reasons, 1. Naru was incredibly aloof and hostile at times. 2. He did always save her. 3. She was day dreaming.
Her daydreams were always getting squashed though. Especially now.
Masako the official daydream squishier decided to join them in the room.
The three of them were sitting around the table. The Shibuya Research team had, had a little conference. Masako had (of course) stayed behind to talk to the beloved hero of the story with a scaring past, but sadly she actually wanted to talk to Naru. And here Mai was hoping Masako would fall for another aloof and dreamy man.
Mai was stuck in the room, as the tea making slave. Slavery was illegal, no person could own another. No one ever said anything about tea owning someone.
Naru didn't love her. He never could or would. She wasn't his type. Did he even have a type? In her dreams she was.
Masako left politely with soft cute giggles.
Masako was pretty, smart, famous, and could actually fight. She was almost perfect and-
"Mai, is something wrong?"
She came out of her thoughts, stunned.
"You noticed?!"
Naru gave her an expressionless look.
"Just as the table noticed its new led marks."
Little holes were placed in the table from Mai drilling her pencil into it.
The discussion seemed over. The room was completely silent.
"Um are you going to ask why?"
He rolled his eyes.
"No I just wanted you to stop drilling holes in my expensive table."
Mai was devastated, so much for the aloof character's concern.
He sighed flipping a page in his book.
"I'm guessing though that it has something to do with me."
Wow. Naru was catching on to her complete frustration with him half the time. She should probably be more careful or therapist over there would see right through her into her feelings of pure love.
Mai was silent though staring at her hands. When I sleep you love me. She pondered that. But in the real world you like her.
Thursday
Naru was nicer when he was just with Mai. It was a true, of course if you meet both of them for the first time you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
But he was, almost, sort of.
I guess it was just that sometimes he could be really nice. Like when she was in trouble when they were stuck in that well, he did his magic tricks, which was something nice of him to do. Of course it could have been subconsciously but a nice moment was a nice moment.
Mai dropped the tea packet into the hot water. She swore tea was an addiction for him.
Maybe she could get him to join on of those quitting groups, ha! No.
He was hunched over at the desk working on something. Most likely the next case, he always went all out on these things.
"This case looks worse than Takigawa's clothes…" He muttered probably forgetting Mai was there.
Mai stifled a giggle but it erupted, Naru didn't even look up. She sighed. Sometimes he was just too much too handle.
He could be really cruel at times, at times? Ha, most of the time.
'Even Mai isn't that dumb'
That was the day they figured out she had, latent sensitivity, he didn't really break the new easily.
It was also the day she had spilled his big 'spoon bending' secret. She had been furious, with her big wet tears clouding up her vision. It wasn't her best day.
Mai stared out the window, such a beautiful day. Spring. A light breeze, from a clear sky with a softly warm heat coming down. The Snapdragons were in full bloom, covering the garden of the building down the block. They gardener only had two colors of snapdragon's yellow and red. It was normal to have all the colors, or just one, but Mai wasn't sure why they had picked those two.
She smiled to herself thinking maybe they didn't know which color to buy...
Mai turned around to confront Naru.
"Naru can we go outside?"
It took him awhile to reply, he was either thinking about this very hard or had other things on his mind and this was pushed back on the list.
"Does it have something to do with work?"
Obviously the latter.
"Well. No…but..."
She struggled for words, he was always inside. Maybe if he would just look out the window he would realize how wonderful the outside world was. Plus she could go outside too, she didn't enjoy being stuck in here, helping sort through dozens of cases.
"No."
It was that stern voice. That 'I'm not going to budge unless you start having heart attacks, maybe even not then'.
She edged closer to him, hoping the sun could break through that icy bad mood he was in.
"Naru it's a beautiful day outside, and you're always in here."
He looked up at her, glaring.
"No Mai."
Mai stood up, fed up. It wasn't like it was going to kill him! He could do his work outside, where they both could enjoy this time!
"Naru, you can work outside."
Naru stood up putting the file down.
"Mai why don't you go, I think we're done for the day."
She left. She knew he was just saying that to get rid of here. She was bugging him.
Because going outside would kill him.
She snickered. She walked along the sidewalk considering getting a closer look at the Snapdragons…
Why couldn't for once in his life be like the Naru in the well? The one who made her laugh. Or the Naru when they were in trouble? His protectiveness that comforted her when they were in trouble. Maybe it comforted her because he was just…different than normal. Or maybe because he was just super strong and fending off most of the various creatures. That could be it too.
But then there was his cold side. His grouchy, 'I didn't sleep well last night' grouchiness.
The magic, the well, making her laugh, but after calling her dumb being cruel, making her cry. She looked up at the clear blue sky, the sun heating her skin...
I'm just like the gardener, except I don't know which side to buy.
Friday
Naru:
Today was the day, the anniversary of probably one of the worst days of my life. I didn't care really, I mean I shouldn't care. I would be focused entirely today nothing would change that. I had gotten over what happened a long time ago, but the day was not one that was easy to forget. It didn't matter that today was the day Gene…
Naru was horrible. He was a horrible egotistical person. Well most of the time, but he was also a very handsome horrible egotistical person.
It was worst it has ever been today.
He hadn't slept. Something had gone wrong. She didn't know what, or why. She had been thinking about it though. Naru didn't have family? Right?
He was tense, and glaring at every little thing, if there was a whimpering bunny in the room; Mai swore he'd be glaring at it too.
It also didn't help the other people in the room.
"So what about this case?" Takigawa said nervously trying to break through the atmosphere in the room.
"No, that one's obviously a fake." Naru snapped.
The whole room cringed; Ayako gave a very nervous laugh. She turned to Takigawa as well, "Yeah, that one's dumb." She had playfulness in her voice, as if trying to help him break through.
"You didn't even look at it." Naru murmured.
Ayako backed off.
What a Jerk! Mai was sitting across from him, her arms folded over her chest. He had dark circles underneath his eyes, light ones, but noticeable.
John sat there smiling even if it was a little forced today, with the current situation.
Naru sighed getting up.
"I think we should go back to this tomorrow you're excused."
For a stiff moment, everybody was shell-shocked. Naru want to quit working for today? Impossible.
Ayako, Takigawa, and John, left they were concerned though, but they all paused at the door, as Masako opened her big mouth.
Well the big mouth, hiding being that sleeve.
"Is something wrong?"
As if on cue, the rest of the team came in.
"Yeah Naru is something wrong?"
Naru shot them the entire deadliest look.
"No."
They walked out, with hurt expressions covering their faces.
In the hallway I heard Ayako whisper, "He just is never going to warm up huh?"
I walked over to him carefully, making my foot steps soft, and making sure my voice was calm and gentle when I talked.
"Naru do you want some tea?"
Naru looked at me now with that same look.
"No, You can leave too Mai."
Mai froze, before steeping outside quietly.
Saturday
She hadn't talked to him, not one word. He had asked her to make tea, and so forth, but Mai would nod her head, but not say a word. Everyone but her was 'sick' today. She didn't blame them, after Naru's bad mood yesterday, no one wanted to be around him.
So why was she here?
Oh yeah, she was hoping he would apologize for his behavior. Or at least explain it.
But he seemed so distant today she doubted it would happen.
Sunday
Mai was like a nurse taking care of a patient. Naru had never lashed out like that before. She was watching his behavior carefully. Writing it down in her mental notebook.
He was different today, a little more active. More Tea was consumed. And his workaholic self was returning.
That itself enraged her. No apology, no look of regretting his actions, not even a passing moment of guilt betrayed his face. She didn't see the gardener watering the snapdragons anymore, their colors were fading.
Monday
She couldn't take it anymore! They were going to have another case review tomorrow, she knew business had been boring, all the cases were dull, and the reporters were just paranoid, thinking ever little dark shadow, was ready to kill them.
So why should she be here? She has been asking herself for the past two days. For the past two days they weren't talking about anything but tea.
She was getting ready to go home and so was Naru.
He was packing up some of the files; all she could see was the back of his head. She started walking. Left, Right Left, Right, DO NOT OPEN YOUR MOUTH.
But everyone had to breathe sometime.
"Naru about the other day…"
Mai was standing by the door, her eyes shut, and one hand on the wall next to the door frame.
She took a deep breathe.
"You should know…When you act like a jerk…it hurt me and your friends."
Naru didn't say a word, but Mai left.
Naru was griping the files, the papers were crumpling. She had said it so calmly no argument. Just like dropping a bomb. Did she actually think he didn't know? He knew what he did was foolish; he was taking out his scaring past on what Mai called his friends.
He didn't know if they were friends. But they were people, and it was stupid to act like that.
He hadn't really intended to fix anything until his little assistant had to say something.
Tuesday
Everyone huddled around the little table.
The meeting went fairly well actually.
Nobody had died, that was always a bonus. No tears were another.
It was incredibly tense when everyone came in.
No one sat next to Naru, not even Masako, but when Mai came in and noticed how isolated he was, she took the pleasure of sitting next to him. She could tell he was in a better mood, a little disoriented, but better.
"Sooo we agree on the so called haunted house case right?" Takigawa dressed as always, it was hard to believe that guy was once a monk.
Ayako rolled her eyes, "Yes, it's plagued by extreme doses of paranoia."
Naru looked at the file, "We'll start on Thursday."
Mai turned toward him, her face crinkled in a confused expression.
"Why Thursday?"
Naru didn't look at her. "I have something to take care of tomorrow."
He's mad at me! He won't even face me!
Takigawa shrugged.
"So are we done?"
Naru glanced at everyone, everyone but Mai.
"I want to apologize for my actions the other day; I was preoccupied with something else."
Mai grimaced, could an apology be anymore insincere?
But hey he'd listened to her! He listened!
Yay!! Victory for Mai!
It was disturbing actually, for the rest of the people in the room.
"So do you need us tomorrow?" Ayako said uncomfortably.
Naru shook his head. They all exited the room. Mai last sitting the farthest away from the door.
"Mai, you do need to come in tomorrow."
She groaned. Did he not know it was spring?!
Wednesday
She was not happy, not happy at all.
It was an incredibly boring day! They did nothing! Sure she made the tea every now and then, but the rest of the time she spent staring out the window.
The gardener had made sure to water the snapdragons more and more. They were so beautiful.
It was like out of a story book, the grass was green, the birds were chirping, the sky was clear, and she was locked up in the tower. Of course Naru wasn't exactly an ugly dragon, he'd be better suited for the role of a prince if he had a better attitude.
He so didn't need her here…Though it was kind of nice that the two of them were alone…
But she had things to do, for one thing groceries. She had run out of milk two days ago, and all that left was dry captain crunch.
"Naru I'm um going to go."
She came up next to him.
It hit her then. Naru wasn't writing anything. He wasn't doing anything. He was completely spacing off, tapping his pencil. Very unnaruish.
For one second she saw the Naru in her dreams. Then she was sure that in the next instance she was dreaming.
Naru wrapped his arms around her. She stiffened completely. He backed off as if he had reached into a fire.
"Naru…?"
Naru smiled, and Mai was sure she was dreaming.
"Hey the danger rate you have on our cases you might not be around for long…" He murmured.
Mai jaw-dropped. This was so confusing! What did he want! Sure she actually loved the hug, it was Naru.
She felt hot tears coming. She rubbed her eyes, trying to brush them away.
"I hate you."
Naru sighed. And she could've sworn he muttered an 'I know'. He was fidgeting; he really wanted to leave right now.
She sniffled, they just wouldn't stop. She was so confused.
He sat down. For once in his entire life he wasn't acting like a workaholic, he was actually still there.
"Would you like to tell me the reason, or reasons?"
She felt ashamed for blubbering like this.
She looked up at him, with big brown eyes, filled with confusion and sadness.
"You make me love you…"
Wednesday (7 years later)
They didn't talk much, Mai was just enjoying the little time of not working that they had together.
She missed the snapdragons, she did really love them. But they had wilted as they were out of season.
The days were still hot, it was only September, but they were getting cooler. The winter would come, freezing over everything. She didn't mind so much.
Naru and she weren't really the hand-holding type of couple. They walked in silence, Mai smiling.
Naru broke through the silence.
"Mai, I was thinking about all the things you hate about me…"
She flinched. "Hated. And can we not talk about this? It was awhile ago…"
It went silent again, but it wasn't exactly peaceful.
"Did you know that when you finally confessed everything…there were exactly seven reasons?"
He never did quite get over that apparently. It was a rather bad day. She never really did know how to make it up to him, but an idea finally hit her.
"Hey Naru…" Naru hn'd in response.
"It is our seventh year anniversary in a few months…How about I tell you the seven things I like about you?" She smiled goofily up at him.
"One for each year."
Hey thanks for reading, I'd really like it if you reviewed. In order to make this all work I had to make Naru a bigger jerk than he is. But I really did enjoy writing this, I rewrote it quite a few times, this was the third try actually.
It was a lot of fun, and I'm sorry if I got some of the details wrong, I don't really know that much about Ghost Hunt. But if you liked it please review.
I also apologize for all the spelling and grammar mistakes.
Gomen.
I decided to put the disclaimer at the bottom so I wouldn't ruin the story.
So here it is:
Disclaimer: I don't own ghost hunt, or the song 7 things by Miley Cyrus.
So again please Review!