Thanks so much to those of you who reviewed last chapter, namely Ariana Taniyama, Moons-chan and Emina105. Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

I'm updating so quickly because I'm really in the mood for it...so, for now, you guys have gotten 3 chapters in 2 days! WOW! :D

And also, in answer to one of the reviewers, no, the yaoi pairing in the future (it will be a LONG time, though...we're only on page 8 of the role play after this chapter, but the pairing is established on...60, I think, so there's a ways) is NOT OC's. There aren't even any OC's in this role play, really, except for clients...WAIT, there is one, but oh well, I'm rambling. On to the chapter now!

Enjoy!

Chapter 3

Mai groaned. Her head was pounding. She slowly opened her eyes, but she was in a single cylinder of light. She sat up, and there, beside her, was Naru. He smiled gently to her.

"Naru…" she whispered, but he lightly shook his head and put his hand on top of hers. "Did…are we okay?"

Naru's smile turned sad as he ruffled her hair.

"Go back to sleep, Mai," he whispered and pushed her back down. "Noll will be close when you wake."

Mai blinked at the name. It sound almost exactly like Naru, but…it wasn't the same name. It sounded so close to Naru…is that what he had meant?

"Noll?" Mai echoed, but she was already falling back into sleep.

xXx

Mai slowly began to swim back to the waking world. She felt tired and heavy as she began to wake up, groaning when her body didn't want to move. Her leg and ankle were lightly throbbing, and she didn't think it would be a good idea to try and move it.

Wherever she was, there was a soft plucking sound, accompanying little steady beeping.

She slowly began to open her eyes and looked around, trying to gather her bearings.

She was in a white-painted double hospital room, an IV hooked up to her arm. Naru was in the other bed to one side of her, and he looked to be sleeping. He was pale, but seemed to be doing better. He was breathing well on his own, and his heartbeat, though weaker than normal, could be heard as a sort of a beat to that gentle sound. That was the steady beeping she'd been hearing.

In a chair next to Mai's bed was Hosho, playing at an unplugged electric guitar. The sound was soft and soothing, and it explained the plucking sound.

Hosho's eyes were closed as he played, just trying to give himself something to do as he sat with Mai and Naru.

He hadn't noticed she was awake yet as she opened her eyes a bit more, watching him.

"Monk...?" she mumbled after a moment of listening to the music, almost dropping off back to sleep at the gentle sound.

The gentle strumming stopped and Hosho looked up, his eyes opening.

"Oh, you're awake," he said, smiling. "'S about time…how're you feeling? The doc said you hit your head pretty good on those stairs…"

"I'm okay, I guess…I feel really sore, and my head hurts," Mai murmured. "What…how long has it been?"

She slowly pushed herself up so she was sitting up halfway, propping herself up by her elbows.

"A day, give or take a few hours," Hosho said. "It's one in the morning now…do you need anything?"

"Nah…'m good…" Mai murmured softly. She could tell that she had a cast on her foot and a brace on her knee, even though she didn't even remember it getting x-rayed, set or wrapped.

She ignored the pain there, though, and looked over at Naru. She motioned to him with her chin, careful not to move her head too fast for fear that the throbbing ache in the back of it would get worse.

"How's Noll?" she asked him, looking back to him. There was a concern in her eyes that she didn't understand. She didn't even realize, either, that she'd said Noll instead of Naru, the names were so similar.

"Noll?" Hosho asked, sounding and looking confused. He then looked over to the other bed, where she'd been gesturing a moment before.

"Oh, Naru," he clarified. The names sounded so alike, it was hard to distinguish between them.

"He hasn't woken up yet…he legally died at least three times before the docs could really stabilize him. He's fine now, though, just resting," Hosho said, putting the guitar away as he spoke.

At hearing this, Mai looked a bit horrified as he told her that Naru had died at least three times before now. For some reason, she felt the urge to yell at him for being so careless, or for doing something that could have killed him for real.

"You should both be just fine soon, too," he added. "Of course, you're going to be on crutches for a while…you broke your ankle and cracked your kneecap."

She pushed herself up to sit completely, looking over at Naru's bed. Now that she was sitting up, she could see that Lin was asleep on the other side of Naru's bed, his head lying on top of his arms. He was asleep.

"Have you...both been here the whole time?" she asked him, her head tilted to the side.

"Mostly…Lin's been here the entire time. I had to go to a show a bit earlier…Ayako was here for me, and left when I got back," Hosho told her, then he rolled his eyes. "She was yelling at me for being out so late…said if I was so worried I should've stayed myself, but I couldn't cancel on the guys tonight."

He smiled. "When I got back, Lin was already asleep… and you were still out like a light." There was something infectious and kind about that smile on his face. "I'm glad to see you're doing so much better."

"Yeah...I guess I'm glad I'm feeling better, too," Mai murmured, looking down at her leg, and smiled slightly back up at him.

She looked over at him, and then back at Naru.

"I had a dream…" she murmured, looking confused.

"Oh?" he asked, sounding inquisitive. "What about?"

"It was…of Naru…" Mai whispered, looking over at him, confused. "But…it wasn't Naru…" She was confused. "When I said his name, he shook his head…he said that 'Noll would be close when I woke up'…what does that mean?" She looked up at Hosho. "I don't know what it means."

Hosho was quiet as he thought about that.

"So that's where you got that name from…" he murmured, mostly to himself. As he continued to think, a hand went up to his chin.

"Well, he is in the bed next to you, after all…but I doubt it could really be that simple. Maybe there's something more to it, but at the moment, I can't think of anything."

"I can't think of anything, either," Mai whispered. She sighed. Her head was beginning to pound again and she closed her eyes as she slowly laid back, careful not to hit the back of her head or anything. She extended her hand towards Hosho, offering it to him to take if he wanted it.

"You wanna lay down?" she whispered, looking to the empty space on the side of her bed. She was already falling asleep as she whispered, "You gotta sleep a'some poin', Monk…"

Hosho took Mai's hand when she offered it, smiling softly at her. She looked so tired, and he could imagine he did too, having been here with her all day and then going out to the show.

"Yeah, sure," he said. A bed would be so much better than sleeping in a chair. Hosho was sure that Lin's back would be bothering him in the morning.

He got up, and very carefully laid back beside her, giving Mai plenty of room and avoiding her leg so he didn't make her hurt anymore than she already was. As he did, Mai's eyes were slipping closed all the way as she curled against his side.

"Night, Mai…" he murmured, though she looked like she was already asleep. He closed his eyes as well, drifting off before they were even all the way closed.

xXx

Mai sighed as she looked up from her book. Reading was giving her a headache again. She closed it and put it down in her lap. She sat on the couch in the double room, propping her leg up on a chair Hosho had pushed over here for her that morning. Lin, a few feet away, looked over at her at the motion.

At the moment, the two of them were alone with Naru, waiting, still, for him to wake up, even four days after he had nearly died.

"Why are you still here?" Lin questioned, staring at her intently. "You were released by the doctors yesterday."

Mai looked down at her feet upon hearing the inquiry. She didn't really know why she stayed. Maybe it had been her dream the night before.

"Stay close...Noll will wake up soon," was what Naru had told her in her dream…so she had decided to stay and hopefully it would be true.

Lin sighed. "If you don't know, then why don't you just go home?"

Mai could only sigh in response. "I don't know, Lin…I don't know."

As Mai was saying this, Naru's eyes were slowly opening. Lin didn't see the motion because he was turned to look at Mai, but Naru's violet eyes were on Lin. After a moment, they moved to Mai.

"Would you two be quiet? Some of us are trying to rest…" he grumbled. His voice was soft as always, but didn't have the usual razor's edge to it.

Gene…

It wasn't often that he had those dreams anymore, but, when he did, they were often chiding him, much like Lin did, about over using his powers without something to cushion the effects.

And they always served to remind him of his missing part. He felt horrible. He just wanted to go die. Why couldn't he just be dead, too?

"Noll…hey, you're awake," Mai said happily, smiling as she pushed herself up and grabbed her crutches to move over to a chair by his bed.

Lin had turned to look at Naru upon hearing him speaking, but then his head snapped over to look at Mai at hearing the name she'd used to call Naru. It sounded almost identical to the nickname she used for him, but there was a bare subtle difference that she had never used before that was just different.

When Naru had heard that name, his eyes had turned sad. His thoughts had already been preoccupied with his own loss…but now…

Lin, meanwhile, stared at Mai, his own eyes sad and blinking, before he looked over at Naru.

"I didn't tell her that," he whispered, his eyes slipping back to look at Mai.

"Didn't tell me what?" Mai asked, looking confused, as she sank into a chair beside his bed.

Naru sighed, forcing himself to sit up, a motion that was probably done too hastily. He felt weak and heavy.

He'd never liked that feeling.

"Noll was…it was something I shared with someone I lost a long time ago…" Naru murmured, leaning back against the pillows as he now half sat, half laid on the bed.

Mai was confused. She had watched him in silence as he spoke, looking sad as well.

"Who?" was all she asked. When she had, Lin stood.

"I'll be back," he said, understanding that Naru didn't like to preach to a crowd and knew that this was a private matter, despite the fact that he already knew, that he had known for years. 'I'll be in the hall if you need me, Naru."

Naru watched as Lin left, glad that he wouldn't have to see Lin's face as he told the story again. He knew that it hurt Lin to hear it…it hurt Naru, too. But he wouldn't make Lin stay to hear it again, to see the pain in his eyes again.

Naru wouldn't make him stay to hear the reason why Lin had even been hired by his father in the first place…to do what Gene had supposed to do.

He closed his eyes, not wanting to see Mai's face either.

"My brother…my twin…he called me that." he said in a whisper. He knew that Mai thought that he was just an only child, and more than likely a spoiled one at that. But that just wasn't true. He acted like he did out of loneliness, and out of a need to control his powers so that he didn't accidentally kill himself.

"When we were twelve…he was killed…" Mai gasped, a hand covering her mouth, and Naru winced at the sound. Something in Naru's words, the knowledge behind them, made her chest clench. "He was hit by a car, here in Japan, a few years after my adoptive father had taken us in. I was back in London, England, at the time." He sighed. "We were sort of like a pet project for our father. The powers I have, that you saw…Lin must have explained some of it to you while you were waiting for me to wake up?"

He was hoping that Lin had, because he didn't want to have to explain them to Mai.

"He explained some of it to me, yes," Mai whispered in response, looking up at him. There was a sort of empathy in her eyes.

"He told me that you have so much power that you can't control it…that when you use it, all of it comes out at once in raw power…so he was hired to help you control it…and to make sure that you don't use it like you did in the basement to save me…"

Naru nodded. "Yes, that's exactly it," he said. "The reason my father hired Lin…was because Gene…" He couldn't help but to look devastated as he said this. "…he was the control for my power. When there are twins born with a gift like ours, one of them is often the cause, and the other reciprocates that first twin. Gene was the control for my power. When he was around, I didn't have to fear my power coming back to hurt me because he made it so I wouldn't be hurt, that that backlash couldn't come back to me like it does now when I use my abilities."

As Mai listened, she moved from the chair she'd been sitting in to the bed he was on. Near the end of his explanation, her hand came up and rested on his cheek.

"I'm sorry, Noll…" she whispered, not even realizing she was using the name. "I…didn't know…"

Hearing that name again, Naru's eyes saddened and he seemed to wince.

"Please don't call me that, Mai…" he murmured.

It was the first time he had ever said something like that to her…please wasn't a word Naru was known to use.

Mai was slightly shocked, as Naru had expected, before she nodded.

"Of course…I'm sorry, Naru," Mai whispered. "Thank you, for telling me, Naru…I appreciate it."

Naru nodded, the gesture short. After a moment or so, he leaned over, and rested on Mai's shoulder, looking fatigued, though he'd been out for days. This action shocked Mai, but she put her arms around him, regardless, leaning her head gently on his.

"It's always, very hard to talk about," he murmured. "But that's why I am the way I am…"

"I'm sure," she whispered. "Losing your other half…that has to be hard…" She was quiet for a few moments, just holding Naru.

"Did you ever find your real parents?" she asked him softly.

Naru shook his head.

"No…I never have…them…or Gene's body…" he murmured. "That's why I'm here…to find his body so I can take him home, to England, and give it a proper burial…"

Mai closed her eyes at hearing that, just holding Naru to her. She did look up, though, when she heard the door open. Lin was stepping inside, closing his cell phone.

"Naru, that was your father," he said softly. "He had news about…that." He knew that Naru would know what he meant.

Naru sat up on his own at that, looking up at Lin. Mai's arms slipped away from around him

"Oh?" he asked. "What about it?" He seemed to be all again, forgetting his earlier sadness entirely, it seemed.

"He found the names of your mother and father," he said quietly. Mai's eyes felt like they wanted to bug out of her head. "They're both dead, unfortunately…but he knows their names."

Naru looked almost hopeful for a moment, but that soon faded when Lin told him that the names his father had found that belonged to his real parents were truly names of the deceased.

His eyes seemed to drift far away as he nodded.

"That's…good…" he whispered, sounding almost as if he was forcing the words out.

But, really, what was so good about finding out that he was truly alone? The only real hope he'd had was that out there, somewhere, his parents had still been alive. Sure, he'd felt as if he'd been deceiving himself, but it had at least been something.

He'd always felt that there was something out there that he was missing, something that he had never been able to find with his adoptive father back in England.

"But Naru," Lin continued, watching him closely.

"What, Lin?" Naru asked after a few moments of silence. It was as though he weren't interested anymore, that he was dead inside. He didn't want to hear anymore. He just wanted to go to sleep now and never wake up.

"Their last names were Taniyama."

Well? WELL? Did ya see THAT one coming? I'm so proud of myself and my friend. :D

I hope you all enjoyed it, because I know that I sure did when we did this part in our role play!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please please PLEASE review! The more reviews I get, the more likely I'll be to update sooner!

Thanks for reading!