THIS PROLOGUE HAS BEEN RE-WRITTEN.
I would like to thank MirandaLovesPie who suggested I get some help from a Beta Reader. Most of all, I would like to thank WriterBlock, the Beta Reader that helped me improve some things ^_^ Thank you guys so, so much! :D
Disclaimer: As much as I would like to, I very clearly do not own Ghost Hunt *sigh*
Prologue
It had been a rough day at work for Mai Taniyama, she had back-to-back meetings from 9am 'til 2pm and then had to do some designing for the magazine until 6pm and now her driver is driving her home at half six in the evening. The 22 year-old is an Art Director for a popular fashion magazine and even does modelling for it too. She basically rose up to the top in the fashion and design industry and is very well-known in her field of work.
Every now and then, she'd sometimes catch herself thinking about her ghost hunting days and how exciting they were. Don't get me wrong, she also loves her current job but definitely misses what she's best at – ghost hunting.
"We're here Ma'am." Her personal driver beamed.
"Thank you." The brunette smiled back. Mai got out of the car and made her way to her front door, the driver already gone. Her home is very modern and rather grand, but not quite a mansion.
The young woman tiredly plodded to her living room when her cinnamon-coloured eyes caught sight of seven people – her family. Sitting on the sofas were the two couples: Ayako and Bou-san, John and Masako, whilst Yasu was chasing around two giggling 5 year-old boys – both of which are identical twins with raven hair and indigo eyes. The twins are also Mai's sons, Haru and Yuki Taniyama - Haru being the older twin.
"Mama! Mama!" Haru and Yuki called as Mai crouched down to their height to receive the hug they were giving her.
"Hello boys," Mai grinned. "Had a good day?"
"Yeah! We got picked up from school by Aunt Ayako and Uncle Houshou," The older twin began.
"And then we came here to also see Uncle Yasu, Uncle John and Aunt Masako." The younger twin continued.
"We then played with Uncles Yasu and Houshou. Of course, Aunt Ayako and Uncle Houshou somehow managed to get into one of their spat's and Auntie ended up whacking Uncle with her purse." Haru explained.
"Yeah! It was really funny." Yuki chuckled. Mai glared at Ayako and Bou-san for their usual ill-behaviour in front of the twins but then her eyes softened as she turned back to her children.
"Sounds like you've both had a fun evening." Their mother giggled before standing up and speaking to everyone this time.
"Have any of you eaten yet?"
"No, Mai. We decided to wait for you to get home before having dinner." John chimed in, the others silently agreeing.
"Well, why don't I make us all something to eat?" The 22 year-old spoke. "And then you two boys are off to bed, okay?" Her attention turning to Haru and Yuki as she ruffled their hair.
"Okay, Mama." The five year-olds groaned. At the moment, they are going through that 'I don't wanna go to bed' phase. This usually resulted in them conversing or debating about different topics with each other. Sometimes, when she wasn't working late, Mai would tell the stories of her ghost hunting days to the twins. Although the cases were often scary, Haru and Yuki enjoyed hearing of their adventures.
A raven-haired, indigo-eyed man, called Oliver Davis, stepped out of his family's mansion. The weather was chilly and the skies were pearl white. He was about to get into the car when his adoptive mother, who has blonde hair and blue eyes, stopped him.
"Noll!" The bubbly, dramatic woman called in a painfully high pitched tone, who goes by the name Luella Davis.
"Yes, Mother?" A certain narcissistic, tea-loving jerk who goes by the nickname 'Naru', sighed.
"You were going to get in that car without even saying goodbye to your poor, old Mother before you go back to Japan, forever!" Luella cried.
That's right. Naru was going back to Japan to re-open SPR, after five long years of being in England. He really enjoyed the cases in Japan and didn't realise how much he would miss everything until he arrived back in England. The 23 year-old man often wondered how the old SPR gang had been over the last five years, especially Mai.
"You're not old, you are only 48. And, I won't be there forever as I will come back to England every now and then to visit." Naru muttered. Despite how much I hate it. His mother lunged at him to give him a hug.
"Goodbye, Noll." She spoke softly.
"Goodbye, Mother." He smirked as he awkwardly hugged her back.
"Work hard and have fun in Japan, Noll. Don't forget, the Japan branch is now in your hands. It's your responsibility." His adoptive father, Martin Davis, said as he tried to pull Luella off Naru. In response, the young man nodded. Once his mother finally let him go, he waved goodbye and got in the car to go to the airport, looking out of the car window at his smiling and waving parents.
It was definitely going to be a long, tiresome journey from here on out.
The model closed her sons' bedroom door after giving them a kiss goodnight. The other adults had all left about twenty minutes ago, leaving Mai and her children alone for the rest of the evening. She wasn't expecting them to ask her that.
"Mama?" A blue-eyed, raven haired boy asked as his mother gave him and his brother a goodnight kiss.
"Who's our dad?" The identical brother questioned.
"Um…well, he's…" She stuttered. "He's…working in England. And that's all I will tell you."
She leaned over to give them each a goodnight kiss. "Goodnight sweethearts."
"Night, Mama!" They sleepily giggled in sync.
Mai changed out of her formal attire into something more comfortable before going downstairs to make herself some tea. The kettle finished boiling and she poured the water into her cup, that already contained some Earl Grey mix. Sighing, she sat at the island counter in her kitchen and stared into her cup, simultaneously breathing in the scent of tea. It reminded her of Naru. Upon realising she started to think about him, she quickly drank her tea, washed up and then exhaustedly went to bed.
As the young woman got into bed, she opened the draw to her bedside table and pulled out a picture of a young Oliver and Eugene Davis. She remembered back to the day, the man she referred to as 'Naru', gave her that picture.
"I-I…love you, N-Naru." She stuttered.
"Me or Gene?" The seventeen year-old asked seriously with a look of sadness in his eyes. Mai didn't answer, but she was a bit teary. He sighed, dug into his pocket and pulled out a photo of him and Gene and handed it to her.
"Have this. It's me and Gene when we were younger…don't worry, you'll be able to see him in one hundred years from now." He reassured in his own little way. A ghost smile appeared on Mai's face, despite the tears falling, knowing that was his way of reassuring her. Before she could say anything else, he was already far ahead of her and was getting in his car. She stood there for a moment longer letting her tears fall, before she walked away from the spot he'd left her, and went home.
Yawning, she cleared her mind and slowly fell asleep, not wanting to think of him.
Naru and Lin were about fifteen minutes away from the airport, it always took slightly longer because his home is on the outskirts of the centre of London.
During the silence in the car (which usually happened when it was just Lin and him), he started to think about the night before he left for England.
Music was playing loudly. Of course they'd host his 'Farewell Party' at the SPR office. Ayako and Madoka were drunkly dancing and singing to the music, whilst Lin sat there and watched with a small smile on his face. Yasu was purposely trying to fake flirt with Bou-san to creep him out, with Mai laughing at them. John was being dragged onto the 'dancefloor' by the two drunken women who were dancing and Naru was sat with a teacup in his hand sighing at everyone and their stupidity. It didn't help that Masako was sat right next to him, trying to make advances but miserably failing – he simply ignored her each time.
Things were still awkward between Mai and himself, after all, she did confess to him the previous night by the lake, before he rejected her and got into the car to go back to his Japanese home. He really did feel bad that she was in love with a dead person.
When he had gotten fed up with Masako's antics, Naru got up and walked over to Lin and sat down next to the stoic man.
"She's that bad, huh?"
"Hasn't left me alone all evening."
"Ah, I see," Lin chuckled. "You know, Noll, this party is for you. You should be enjoying it – not hating it, and you should be appreciating the fact that they all care for you enough to even throw this party."
"I know. Parties just aren't my thing, that's all."
"I can understand that."
Later that evening, Masako had left after she had gotten fed up with trying to even get the narcissist's attention (she also had to do a late night show), John had left because of an emergency that came up at the church and Yasu had an early start the next day so decided it would be best to leave. The only people left were Naru, Mai, Lin, Madoka, Ayako and Bou-san. Ayako and Bou-san were singing drunkenly together and Madoka had somehow managed to get Lin to dance with her. During this time, Naru left the office discreetly without the adults noticing. Mai obviously noticed and went to chase after him.
"Naru! Wait!" She called. He stopped and turned to her.
"Yes?"
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going home; I've got to finish packing."
"Ugh! You haven't said or done one thing all night – this party was for you! It was supposed to give you a proper send off to show you how much I-we love you."
The man picked up on her slip up, "Not that again, Mai. We've already been through that. You obviously love Gene – not me."
"W-what?" Her tears began to well up and fall. "You're so unbelievable! I didn't even answer your question, you just assumed it was Gene!"
"Because it is."
Mai stood in front of Naru now and started to weakly hit his chest, "Are you so oblivious? For someone who's supposed to be smart – you're not really smart when it comes to emotions, are ya?! IT'S YOU I LOVE! YOU! Why are you so hell bent on convincing yourself it's Gene?"
This stunned Naru and he grabbed her fists to stop her from hitting him. The short brunette looked up at him now. He whispered to her, "Because it was his smile and caring personality you saw in your astral projections. Not mine."
Mai got a hold of herself, and wiped her tear-stained cheeks.
With a shaky breath, she spoke, "You're right. I did see all of those things in my astral projections, and Gene is great and all. However, he's not you. It was your narcissistic, tea-lovin' personality I fell in love with in the first place. And, I fell in love with the occasional smile you would give me."
After she spoke and had calmed down slightly, she did the most ballsy thing she'd ever done in her life. Mai got onto her tip-toes and kissed him on cheek, whilst furiously blushing. Even though he didn't show any sign of emotion after that, Naru's heart actually skipped a beat. That's when he did the most unexpectable thing (which even surprised Naru himself), he pulled her into a hug and just held her for a few minutes. It was a bit awkward, but it was still a hug.
Mai was visibly stunned and blushed, which made Naru flash his signature smile. Moments later, Mai invited him back to her place and said that, as he didn't really enjoy the party, the least she could do is make him one last cup of her special tea. He politely accepted the invite. Although he wouldn't ever tell anyone – he was going to miss Mai and the SPR crew.
A bump on the road jarred Naru out of his thoughts, he looked over to Lin.
"We're at the airport, Noll."
"Okay."
Both men exited the car and made their way into the airport.
After lots of hours of reading, sleeping and simply gazing out of the plane's window at the clouds, his plane finally landed and he and Lin were in Japan again, after five long years.
Mai just finished her one o'clock meeting when she looked at an unread message she received from Ayako earlier on.
It simply read: He's back.
The young, beautiful woman instantly knew what her motherly friend meant and it surprised her but also made her panic a bit. Oh god, what do I do? What do I do? Mai turned pale and suddenly felt ill so she decided to cancel the rest of her meetings and go home for the day.
The model frantically rushed into her house to find Ayako, Bou-san, John, Masako and Yasu in her living room all talking amongst themselves. The brunette remembered that she handed them each a key to her house.
Ayako instantly saw how pale she was.
"Bou-san, go and get her a glass of water." Ayako ordered as she put her arm around Mai's shoulders to steady her.
"Sit down, Mai. Let's all talk, okay?" The red-haired woman softly spoke to her friend. Mai took the glass from Bou-san and thanked him before taking a sip.
"So, how did you find out?" Mai said.
"We each received a message from Lin telling us to go to the SPR office tomorrow at lunch if we wish to work there again as they are re-opening the office and are willing to let us return there." Bou-san mentioned.
"I didn't get any messages. But...do you guys wanna work there again?" Mai asked.
"Only if you say it's okay to, considering all that's happened." The priest stated.
"Um…yeah, it's fine. I mean he does have to find out about Haru and Yuki eventually, they are his sons after all. And…I have to forgive him, right?" Mai sadly smiled. Her family all silently nodded. Yasu broke the silence.
"When are you gonna tell him?" The bespectacled man commented.
"I don't know yet. Eventually, at some point. It's better to do it sooner than later." Mai replied.
"Ayako, could you please pick the twins up from school in about an hour and let them have dinner with you and Bou-san tonight. My instincts are telling me that Naru will come here tonight – he will want to catch-up with me." She continued.
"Yeah, sure. Are you really going to be okay?" Ayako double-checked.
"Yeah, I'm fine now. You guys can go now if you would like to. I've got a lot of paperwork and rescheduling to do." The model smiled.
Everyone left her to do her work.
Earlier on that day, Lin and Naru had had a conversation at a small tea place when they arrived.
The tall onmyouji sipped the tea Naru had graciously bought him. Neither he nor Naru liked talking about personal topics, but he knew he'd have to ask.
"So, Noll?" He asked to the man sitting across from him.
"Yes, Lin?"
"I hate to ask this, but, other than the official opening of the Japan branch, why are we here? I feel like there's another reason that you're not telling anyone."
Naru was silent for a few moments before he finally replied.
"I'd rather not answer."
"Well, in that case then, I'll have to ask, does it involve anything life threatening or dangerous?" Lin asked this because he is Naru's guardian and his safety is priority, but also because, if the answer was no then he definitely knew why – it was because of the young woman named Mai.
"No. You shouldn't be worrying over my safety, anyway. I'm a grown man, who is very capable of handling himself."
"Right." The onmyouji internally sighed, it is because of Taniyama-san, then. Why can't he just face the fact that he still likes her?
Later that evening, Naru had finally finished unpacking and settling in. He looked at the time: 19:31
Lin gave Naru Mai's most recent address earlier on that day. His stomach grumbled.
"I'll go to Mai's now and invite her out for dinner, to catch-up. I guess."
It wasn't long before he turned up at Mai's house, he was surprised to see how grand it was. It wasn't quite a mansion though.
"Is this the right address?" Naru shrugged as he walked up to his former assistant's door and rang the doorbell.
A beautiful girl, with long brunette hair, big cinnamon eyes and a matured body opened the door.
"Mai?"
She was stunned, despite expecting his visit. Gazing at him, she realised how much he'd changed. Mai then began to wonder how England was…and how good of a father he'd be. Clearing her thoughts, she spoke up.
"Naru…long time, no see."
That is the end of the prologue ^_^ I've been wanting to do this story for a while now. Also, I would like to credit OliviaAnne and her story 'For 6 Years' as that is what inspired me to write this, so please read her story if you haven't already.
I really hope you enjoy this story! It is kinda slow starting but it will start falling into place...trust me :) I plan on uploading a new chapter every two weeks on the weekends.
Please review! ^_^
~Dice