Mai slid into the office one cold wintery Wednesday, nearly toppling onto the carpet when she slid in a water puddle from Yasuhara's snow boots off to the side of the entrance. Her startled yelp snapped Monk's attention from a video on Yasu's phone to her righting herself. The smile that eclipsed his face as he threw himself at her visually eased some of the cloud of apprehension from her shoulders that seemed to be rising the more she was in the office.
"My little Mai-Chan!" Mai was near immediately engulfed in the strong hug that lifted her up to her toes and then off her feet completely before monk swung her around in several circles. "I've missed you! It's been so~ long since Naru has taken a significant enough case for me to be there with you! You just keep taking Masako or John and Lin along with you." His pout could be heard in his voice, even if she couldn't see his face as he continued to swing her around.
"Monk, put my assistant down so she can do her job." Came a voice from the doorway near where Monk had spun them too.
Monk swallowed heavily before nearly dropping Mai in his rush to do as he was told. Mai stumbled woozily backwards from the sudden stop in spinning and was barely able to focus on Monk stretching out a worried hand in her direction before she stumbled and began to fall.
A pair of surprisingly strong arms caught Mai, one hand in her lower back the other catching her arm. Her face immediately flushed when she realized how intimate the position felt to her with the body behind her so near to her hip. She looked up over her shoulder pink cheeked and stared at Naru momentarily.
"Are you alright, Mai?" His voice was ever so slightly softer than normal.
"I ah yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just slightly dizzy from Monk's spinning." He righted her after a moment and gave her a slight push towards the kitchenette before turning back to his office.
He seemed to her like he had gained a bit of humanity once Gene had been found and buried. It was only Naru, Lin and herself that was still aware of Gene still being her spirit guide and the three of them wanted to keep it that way. It seemed almost like, to her, that the small secret between them tied them ever so slightly tighter together than the others.
"And Mai?" She made a garbled 'hmm' sound, looking back at him. "Tea."
She made a huffing noise before laughing softly. "Tea addicted jerk." Her voice was a halfhearted complaint. "Would either of you like som…" Her voice drifted off as her attention snapped to the closed door.
"Mai? What's wr…" Yasu was interrupted when the door opened to reveal a haggard looking couple and their two children.
The three in the seating area immediately snapped into action- Monk grabbing the door to close while Mai and Yasu helped the near collapse adults to a seat. "Would either of you like a nice cup of tea while we get our boss?" Mai's voice was soft on the new-comers ears.
"Yes please." The woman's voice sounded scratchy and raw as she spoke.
"Yasu, can you get Naru and Lin to come out while I make the tea?"
"Can do, lil' boss." He immediately set off to the offices while Mai headed to the kitchen and Monk motioned for the two children to take a seat on the couch beside their parents.
By the time Mai finished the tea, loaded it on a tray and carried it out, Naru had just sat down with his black notebook and Lin was pulling up a document on his laptop to take notes. She stepped up to the table in front of Naru and bent to place the tray on the table, collecting one specific cup out of the eclectic collection and dribbled just a splash of milk and the tiniest shake of sugar into the cup before turning slightly and handing Naru the tea. His smirk fell on her a moment before he lifted the cup to his lips and taking a drink.
Once the tea was passed out and doctored up per taste, Mai sat down between Monk and Yasu and looked the family of four over. The parents, she noticed had large bags under their eyes from a varying degree of sleepless nights, while their son- possibly Mai's age- had a lesser version and their daughter seemed completely unfazed. The little girl had a small stuff blue mouse she was mumbling to while she sat in her bothers lap and as Mai looked the doll over from opposite couches, she shivered uncomfortably.
Naru's voice broke her out of her avid staring at the doll. "What can we do for you…?" He let the end of his sentence hang so the family could introduce themselves.
"Oh I am terribly sorry!" The woman's voice seemed back to its normal octave, now that she had drank some of the tea. "My name is Amy Bowen and this is my husband Sam and our kids Griffin and Madison. We heard from the papers that you all are able to rid places of the…the spiritualistic tendency…" She drug her sentence out, unsure of how to phrase her words.
"What, may I ask has been happening?" Naru's voice was his normal stiff monotone.
"We had been looking for a house to buy even though Sam had been laid off and our current home had come upon the market and it was in our price range so we immediately snatched it up. It was everything that we wanted; multiple bedrooms, large living room and kitchen, a basement, attic, even a spacious yard."
Sam then spoke up. "It seemed odd to me that such a nice home was in our price range. A five bedroom in our range? Not likely. Unless there was some fixing that needed done. The house looked flawless. We just assumed the previous owner had a family emergency and had to move as quickly as possible. It wasn't until about a week after we moved in that the noises started. Scratching noises in the walls, hollow footsteps, tapping, knocking, nothing too unexplainable except the house shifting I thought. That was until Griffin found this dumb waiter full of clown dolls of all sizes and years. Some had gears in them to talk and laugh others had pull strings. Some of the clowns were porcelain and others were just cloth and stuffing. We immediately boxed the clowns up, Griffin insisted on a lock, and we put them back in the dumbwaiter and closed the door over it."
"I even covered the door with a heavy chair." Amy pipped back in. "I had this bad feeling about it. After that it calmed back down for a few weeks then one night the kitchen cabinets started open and close sporadically."
Madison interrupted her mother. "They were making you music mommy! They just wanted to have fun."
"We honestly still ignored it until we found Madison talking to the closet and sometimes she would grab the door handle to it and her hair would stick up." Sam said softly. "We don't know what to do. Please can you help us?"
Mai's eyes swiveled between Naru and the family before settling on the doll again. As she stared at the toy, Madison's arms wrapped around it tighter snapping Mai out of her staring. She forcefully shifted her eyes back to Naru, who she realized was staring at her out of the corner of his eye with a slight raise to his brow.
"We will take the case. Please leave your details with my assistant, Mai. We should be able to make it to your home within the next forty eight hours. We will need three rooms for our use; one our base and two to sleep in." Amy and Sam nodded quickly before standing to walk with Mai to her desk for their details.
As they turned to head out, Madison having skipped up to them happily, they turned to Griffin's form still on the couch. Amy frowned as she realized he was avidly watching Mai, while she sat seemingly oblivious to the stare as she switched between typing at her desktop computer and looking over files. After several tense moments, Griffin noticed his parents staring and stood to leave with them.
After the family finally left Mai let out a heavy breath and let her shoulders relax. Her eyes closed softly for a moment as she took a deep breath before opening them and continued on her work. Yasu raised a brow at her behavior before looking to Naru for direction. As Naru began to open his mouth to speak, Lin stood and made his way over to Mai's desk, laying a calm hand on her shoulder.
She gasped quietly and spun around. "Oh, Lin, you frightened me!" She nearly hissed out as she clutched her chest. "Is everything alright?"
"I could ask you the same thing." His voice is soft, nearly a murmur, as he leans on her desk and crosses his arms.
"Should something be wrong?" She asks before turning back to the papers on her desk, tracing a finger down the lines until she found the one she needed.
"You seemed nervous with that family near."
"There was just something…off…about them. Like a bad aura clung to them or something. Makes me nervous." Her eyes never left the page as she red through the next part.
"We will keep an eye out." Lin murmured before standing, reaching up and squeezing her shoulder before stepping away to get his laptop and go to his office.
There was a moment of silence before Naru spoke up. "Mai." Her finger paused on the line she was on before lifting her head and focusing her eyes on him. "Tea." He then smirked, stood and walked to his office.
"Tea addict." She smiled softly before walking to make the tea. "Yasu," Her voice echoed out of the kitchen. "Are you going to be able to make it to this case?"
HE stood up and leaned on the counter to the kitchen to watch her make the tea. "I dunno. You gonna dress like that the whole time?" He asked with a raised brow.
She looked at her outfit and frowned. "What's wrong with what I have on?"
"It's not particularly professional Mai." Monk chimed in. "That short of a skirt, even with leggings, and a low cut shirt."
Yasu waggled his brows. "Trying to hit on big boss now?"
Mai's face went crimson. "I just grabbed stuff this morning!" She yelped out.
"Oh I'll come if you want me to Mai." Yasu said snickering.
"Yasu!" Mai nearly screeched. "Stop it! I didn't deliberately plan it."
"Yasu." Came a voice, echoing out of Naru's office. "Stop pestering my assistant and do your job like you're supposed to be doing."
"You are no fun big boss!" He called out before heading to Mai's desk to get the address of the new case. "I'll go do research now. In the cold." He looked at Naru's door. "All alone."
"Yasu." Naru's voice was anything but amused.
He held his hands up in a placating fashion. "Alright, alright, I'm going. See you later Mai." HE quickly slipped his shoes on and scurried out the door.
Mai chuckled softly before stacking all the tea on a tray and headed for Naru's office. She nudged the cracked door fully open before slipping in and closing it behind her with her foot. It had become commonplace for her and Naru to spend several hours in the midafternoon in his office discussing her and his powers and cases. She slipped the tray onto the corner of his desk before fixing up the tea to his preference and setting it beside him before making her own. Once her tea was made, Mai slid into the more comfy of the two seats opposite Naru's desk, kicking her flats off and tucking her legs into the chair as well.
One Naru finished typing whatever was on his computer, he grabbed his tea and looked up at the girl across from him. "What do you sense from the family?"
"Straight to business then." She mumbled. "The parents seem normal, I guess. Very stressed and worried over their children. The girl seems to think everything that's happening is just fun and games."
"And the son?" His voice was curious as he sipped at his tea.
"He seems…wary? I can't get a good read on him."
"Do you think he caused it?"
"No. He's much too scared for that. I think he's just terrified for his family. And being that age, he probably assumes he has to protect his mother and sister even more."
Naru nodded. "And that toy? You kept staring at it."
"I don't know. It's weird. There's just this vibe it gives off yet no vive either. I don't know how to explain it. Almost like it's a neutral space in the middle of a battle of positive and negative space."
Naru rubbed his chin in thought. "Be careful on this case Mai. Even I have an odd feeling about it."
"You know I always try to be careful. It's not my fault I'm a ghost magnet."
He smirked slightly. "We're working on that."
"And until we do get it down, I'm a liability Naru. We both know it. MY aura is too bright for them to ignore. Even with Gene trying to tamp it down, it's still too bright until I get it under control."
"It'll be fine, Mai. Call everyone and let them know to be here by eleven tomorrow. Pack for several days and I expect you here early to help pack the van." She nodded softly before putting her feet down and slipping her shoes back on. "And Mai?" Naru's eyes flicked up from his computer screen. "Do not believe yourself to be a burden." He then went back to typing on his computer and she took it as a dismissal.
She left his office and made her way to her desk, making her calls before going back to her work. After taking several slow breaths she began rereading her papers, mumbling about what was to come.
Hey everyone! This is my first Ghost Hunt fic so I hope it'll go well! I've written several fics for several fandoms and even read a lot of GH fics so of course I had to try it for myself. Let's try and see together if this shoe fits! Let me know what you think of the intro here! Until next time! ~ShadeWarrior