(I dont own Ghost Hunt or any of it's ideas)
"So is everything going to go back to normal now?" Mai asked setting Naru's tea on his desk, he had arrived back from England only 8 months after leaving to discover Mai sleeping on his office couch due to being kicked out of her apartment, she couldn't afford the rent. Since then Naru has given her job back, it had been two weeks now and Lin's arrival was expected until tomorrow.
"What do you mean?" he asked refusing to look at her, despite being done with the page. He couldn't handle her puppy face.
"Well" she said sitting on top of the desk, forcing him to look at her. Mai had yet again come to work wearing a tank top and skirt. Didn't she known how inappropriate it was for work, did she know how much he liked it? "I mean doing jobs like before you went back to England, getting the Scooby gang back together." She clarified.
Before he left, did she mean before he broke her heart. It was odd she hadn't mentioned it to him yet.
"Yes, I suppose. After pooling my data back in England the office thought it best to send someone back to Japan. The spirits here tend to be more violent for some reason. Since I already had an office and a team I was used to I volunteered."
"Oh" she said absently. "So, it's only temporary?" she asked obviously disappointed.
"It's hard to say, if all the ghosts leave Japan suddenly or people stop coming here then I suppose I would move to a new location somewhere else in Japan maybe."
"Well that's not so bad." She mumbled to herself.
He merely glanced at her for a moment, what did she mean? She hopped off the desk, and without meaning to give Naru a quick peek up her skirt before hustling out the door to answer a call.
He let out a deep breath and took his feet off of his desk, a technique he had mastered in hiding his, well. Glancing down he knew he could overcome it, ignore it, it wasn't even that big. But then again, Mai's skirt, it throbbed again and he groaned. From pleasure or irritation, he wasn't sure.
He got up to lock the door, each step closer to Mai caused his predicament to grow. When he did Mai called from the other side.
"Naru I'm heading out!" without another word she left for the night. Naru waited until he heard her lock the door behind him, and like a waiting child, tore into his own pants releasing a satisfying moan when he gripped his erection tight, thinking of nothing except the contents of Mai's skirt.
-The next day-
A loud banging tore me from my sleep; I stumbled across my office to unlock the door. Before I could react Mai's body collided with mine causing me to stumble. I grabbed her shoulders and held her at arm's length. In the middle of an ice storm and she was wearing nothing but a tank top and shorts, and by the temperature of her skin I could assume she had walked here, or maybe ran. She was breathing rather hard. But that wasn't the worst part.
I was disturbed by her tears, though not surprised. Mai cried an awful lot. The thing that scared me were the hand shaped bruises covering her body, there were only 10 or 12 but 1 would have been enough to set me on edge. I released my grip and let her fall against my chest again, closing the door behind her. We stood in my office for a long time, waiting for Mai to stop crying.
When she did stop I set her on the couch before shuffling through my closet. I wrapped a wool blanket around her shoulders and knelt in front of her with a cup of warm tea, she drank it gratefully. Before anything could be said, Lin entered the office obviously confused by what had happened. Mai was never here this early.
"Mai" I said managing as much of a gentle tone I could.
"Shhhh" She said with closed eyes. "I….I can't just yet." Her hands were shaking, causing bits of tea to slosh onto her hands. Naru nodded and led Lin from the room.
"Call everyone." He said quietly eyeing Mai from outside his office. "This looks serious."
Lin nodded and caught Naru's arm when he turned to leave. "She needs somewhere to stay tonight, until everyone can get here."
Naru nodded and looked at Mai again, who had finally opened her brown eyes. "She looks so tired."
"We don't have any appointments, just let her sleep." Lin suggested before returning to his office.
Naru returned to her side, taking her empty tea cup and gently guided her to lie down. She smiled gratefully. He touched her hair lightly, why was it always Mai?
He sat back at his desk watching her for a moment before returning to his book.
-Later that day, the entire gang now sitting in Naru's office around Mai who had finally woken up-
"Tell us what happened." Monk said with his arm around her shoulder.
"I thought it was nothing at first, a few months ago this women started to visit my dreams."
"Like Gene?" Naru asked taking notes.
"Yea, anyway she looked really familiar so I thought it was just a dream. She would visit about once a week, then more often, until it became every time I slept. About a month ago I realized I did know her. It was my mom."
Ayako touched Mai's shoulder. "Oh honey."
"It was weird, she didn't remember the car accident, or that I was her daughter at first. But eventually she came around. More recently she's been getting angry though. I don't see her as much, she blamed me for the car accident. And then…."
Mai took off the blanket an Ayako looked away, even John cursed. Mai's bruises had gotten darker in the night.
"She wants me to kill myself, and be with her again." Mai burst into tears. "And I….And I" she sobbed. "I really wanted to." Her cries turned into dry heaves as she clutched her stomach and crumpled into Ayako's lap. She stroked her hair absently.
A silent look spread through the room, Ayako would stay with Mai. The rest of them shuffled out the door and spoke in the front office.
"This is serious." John said. "A spirit in your dreams, I've never heard of something like that. Naru?"
Naru shook his head. "Lin?"
Lin nodded solemnly. "If I'm right, this kind of spirit focuses on those who have suffered. Mai's an orphan with no family left to take care of her. She's an ideal target, for any ghost really. They prey on the weak."
"That's insane." Monk said angry. "Mai has plenty of family" he said gesturing around.
"Ah" Naru said pointing out. "When I arrived back from England, I found Mai sleeping in my office because she had been kicked out of her apartment. She couldn't afford it. Now if Mai really felt like she had a family wouldn't she have been at someone's house?"
A wave of guilt filled the room.
"AHH! GUYS!" Ayako's scream followed by a broken window pulled them back to reality.
Inside the office Mai had broken a window and was attempting to cut herself. Ayako had managed to wrestle the glass free, by that time Monk had grabbed Mai's arms and held them away from her.
They all flinched when Mai's, now white eyes glared at them through her bangs. In a voice that sounded like three Mai began to laugh.
"Let's have a little fun."
