Disclaimer: If I did own Ghost Hunt, Mai and Naru would have definitely kissed by now.
No Words At All
(A.N.) Sorry I took so long! Don't hate me! I come bearing a one-shot! School is evil and has kept me from writing. But anyways, thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. I think this series is the most popular thing I've ever posted. . I'm writing down all the suggestions I'm getting, and I'm trying to figure out ways to work them in. Give some time if I haven't used your suggestion yet! For this one, I didn't use anyone's suggestions, but trust that I'm working on it!
I think Naru has a definite aversion to sunlight, Mai Taniyama thought to herself, sending a dark look at her boss's closed office door. All she'd wanted to do was open the stupid blinds, but no. No, it would ruin his dark and mysterious (note the sarcasm) ways. It was days like these that the brunette suspected that Naru was a vampire. She thought it would explain a lot if he was one.
Sighing, Mai stapled another heap of papers together. The fifty fourth stack, if she wasn't mistaken. Not caring where exactly the sorted papers landed, Mai tossed them off to her right in the general direction of the rest of her stapled products. She was bored. Very bored. Beyond bored, actually. Forlorn, she eyed the extremely large stack of papers waiting for her to sort and staple them. Not for the first time, Mai wished that she was pyrokinetic and that she could burn away all the paperwork.
If she didn't love Naru so much, she would have quit ages ago.
She wanted to something interesting to do with her hands other than gathering paper cuts. Speaking of, she needed to put on a couple new Band-Aids. The ones she'd put on an hour ago were already starting to fall off from her picking at their corners. Reaching into her bag, she rummaged around for a while, finally retrieving her economy sized box of bandages.
While Mai was re-covering the slim, painful cuts on her fingers, Lin walked out from the deep darkness that was Naru's private office. He frowned when he saw multiple Band-Aid state of Mai's hands. "What happened to you?" he asked.
"I had a fight with the papers and lost," Mai responded a bit crossly, struggling with a bandage meant for the area between her thumb and forefinger. A few seconds later, Mai cried out in triumph as she got the bandage to stick.
Lin shook his head as he returned to his computer and began typing. The girl was a hazard. The only time she was useful in an office setting was when she was making tea, in all honesty. Not to say he didn't like her as a person or anything, but he doubted that her future career (whatever it was) would include much office procedure.
An hour later, Mai had finished half of the pile papers she was working on and had just, seconds earlier, acquired another paper cut. The rest of the paper mountain was basically doing the metaphorical equivalent of laughing at her. She was sure of it. Barely managing not to lose her temper at the inanimate stack, Mai grabbed for her bag again. She needed another Band-Aid.
Naru came out of his office just in time to see Mai lose her balance and tumble from her chair. At the same time, the door to the S.P.R. offices opened, and two women entered.
The first woman was tall and had dark brown eyes and hair, which was pulled back away from her relatively pretty face. Light make up and a pristine brown skirt suit made it clear that she was a professional woman. She carried nothing in her hands. Her companion was shorter and plumper, her midnight hair cut to her shoulders. Dark sunglasses obscuring her eyes, the woman seemed more like a bodyguard, even though it was clear that she was not. The white, thin cane in one hand and the briefcase in the other were not things that a guard carried.
Blushing, Mai quickly jumped to her feet, exclaimed something about making tea, and practically ran to complete the task. She completely ignored Naru's irritated glance.
Looking at the two women who had just entered, Naru said coolly, "Please excuse my assistant. She's completely uncoordinated." He heard Mai huff in indignation from her place in the kitchenette and he resisted the urge to smile. Naru would never admit it, but Mai was cute when she was embarrassed. "What can S.P.R. help you with today?" he asked the women, motioning them to take a seat.
The professional looking woman touched the arm of her companion and led her to a couch. Feeling her way, the shorter woman set down her briefcase and sat down daintily, crossing her ankles and propping her cane next to her on the couch. Her friend sat on her other side, placing a delicate hand on her shoulder. Naru watched them intently, concluding that the black haired woman was blind. It was the only rational conclusion, really.
Sitting opposite them, Naru waited patiently for one of them to answer his question. Mai placed a steaming up of tea in front of him on the coffee table, and then moved to do the same for both women. He watched, slightly astonished, as she knelt down next to the blind woman and took her hand, guiding it to her cup and back. He hadn't thought that Mai would be perceptive enough to realize the woman's condition (though he supposed she would have to be blind herself to miss such obvious clues). The woman smiled in Mai's general direction. Her task accomplished, Mai sat down in the armchair next to Naru's.
Through all of this, neither woman moved to speak.
Naru's patience was starting to stretch a little bit. It took effort for him not to frown noticeably. About to repeat his question, he was almost startled when the first woman moved her hands in front of her, gesturing somewhat strangely. Pointing at herself, the woman used her other hand to motion about fluidly. She did the same for her companion.
The realization of what she was doing hit Naru like a train.
"That doesn't answer my question," Naru told the gesturing woman, cursing himself. "I'm afraid that I don't understand sign language." Of all the languages he had ever studied (and mastered), why had he never though to learn sign language?
Stopping her hands in midair, the woman frowned, and then sighed. Well, he assumed from the rise and fall of her shoulders that she sighed. No sound escaped her lips.
Mai, meanwhile, was following the exchange with barely suppressed amusement. Finally! Something that he can't do. "I guess he's not Superman after all," she murmured under her breath.
The tall woman has resumed gesturing, but it was exaggerated and slow. She was trying to help Naru figure out what she was saying. However, despite this effort, it clearly wasn't working. Naru shook his head at the woman, telling her that what she was doing was not helping him understand. Mai could tell that he was furious with himself for not ever thinking to learn sign language. Though, she couldn't see how it was his fault. Unless you were deaf, knew someone who was deaf, or planned on working with the deaf, then how does a person know if they'll ever need sign language?
They can't, of course. Naru's just being Naru, taking all the blame and responsibility. Again. The teen looked over at her handsome boss and decided that it was time to rescue him. She thanked the gods for letting her know Kaoru. Without her, Mai would have never learned to speak with her hands.
Mai used a wide sweep of one hand to draw the woman's attention, and consequently Naru's, to her and began to sign swiftly. Since it was clear to her that the woman could read lips, Mai spoke for Naru's benefit as she motioned. "I'm Mai. I work here as a secretary. Can we help you with something?"
The woman smiled at her gratefully, beginning to gesture again.
Glancing over at Naru again, Mai said, "I'll translate. 'I'm the Headmistress of Tokyo Institute for the Deaf and Blind. My companion is one of our students." The woman stood and handed Naru a business card, which gave the headmistress's name as Midoriko Asada. A handwritten notation at the bottom of the card gave the student's name as Fuyumi Oda.
Naru was amazed. Since when was Mai useful outside of her off and on clairvoyance? He knew that he didn't keep her around as an assistant. Actually, he'd never really thought about why he'd hired her. He'd noticed her potential for having psychic ability, of course, but he'd noticed that in numerous others. But Mai…
No. Mentally shaking himself, Naru turned his thoughts away from his musings. It didn't matter why he had hired her. All that mattered to him was that she not leave.
Without looking at the girl so prominent in his thoughts, Naru addressed his potential clients. "Why do you believe that you need S.P.R.'s services, Ms. Asada?" He noticed that Mai didn't bother to translate the question into sign language.
As Ms. Asada began to reply, Mai gave voice to what the motions meant.
"There have been many problems at the school. Students and teachers both have experienced strange things. Some hear voices in the halls when they are alone. Some have seen figures they can see straight through. We did not take it seriously when it was first reported, but…" Mai trailed off as the Ms. Asada stopped signing. The woman had turned to look at her student, her expression unreadable. Soon, her hands began moving again. "Students were attacked. Knives in the dining hall would fly around. Books in the classrooms would be thrown, but no one knows by who. Rooms were vandalized and almost destroyed. Then, Miss Oda was attacked in her dorm room." Another look at her student. "She has not spoken since."
When Ms. Asada stilled, Mai fell silent, frowning.
"Will you tell us what happened, Miss Oda?" Naru asked in the ensuing silence. Blue eyes watched intently as the blind woman fidgeted in her seat. It was almost as if she could feel his gaze on her. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Snapping her mouth closed, Miss Oda pulled off her sunglasses and revealed cloudy blue eyes with tears in them. "Tell us," Naru pressed.
Rising from her seat, Mai carefully knelt at the crying woman's feet and put a sympathetic hand on hers. Brightly, the brunette smiled at the woman and soothed, "It's alright. Take your time." Warm light seemed to fill the room when Mai smiled and Naru was once again floored by her absolute empathy for the people around her. It was one of the reasons he wanted her around him all the time. Her very presence made him feel warm inside.
Miss Oda shoved up the sleeve of her lightweight jacket with her free hand, revealing dark bruises on her forearm. Hand shaped bruises. Imploringly, she directed her eyes down at Mai and said, with what appeared to be great difficulty, "It hurts. All the time." With great care, she felt her way along Mai's arm and up her neck until she could cradle the girl's face between her hands. "I hear things. Whispers that say how much they want to hurt me."
Standing up, Mai wrapped her hands around Miss Oda's and lowered them, looking over at Naru. It was a pleading look. Something in her face made him want to hold her, but he didn't even make the slightest move to do so. Instead, he said to Ms. Asada, "We will take your case. We'll start tomorrow morning."
With Mai translating, Naru worked out some details with Ms. Asada and assured her that S.P.R. would do its best to figure out what was happening at her school. When the two women left, Naru turned his sapphire eyes on Mai. "Where did you learn sign language?" He was struggling with the idea that Mai had learned it on her own.
Clearing the used tea cups from the table, Mai answered cheerily, "My best friend in junior high was deaf. Her name was Kaoru Fujiwara. I could never figure out why she wouldn't talk to me when we first met, but I figured it out eventually. She taught me how to sign so that we could talk." She glanced over at him with a look he recognized. The impish one that said she was making fun of him. "Why didn't you ever learn? I thought you knew everything."
Is it just me, or is she very satisfied with the fact that I don't know how sign language? Looking into her brown eyes, he decided that she most definitely was. "I know more than you do. Perhaps if you actually tried to learn something in school…"
"You," Mai snapped, "are an insufferable jerk." Her face was flushed a little in annoyance. She stormed away into the kitchenette to put the dirty cups in the sink.
Naru smiled in his mind. She was so easy to bait.
Lin, silent during the entire time the two women were there, finally spoke. "Naru, you do realize that you've taken a case that will put you in an odd position don't you?"
"Odd position?"
"You are going to a school where many are deaf and only use sign language to communicate. Surely you didn't forget that part."
"I didn't forget," Naru told his guardian coldly. "I'll think of something."
Sternly, Lin responded, "That something should include asking Taniyama for help."
"Help for what?" Mai asked, re-entering the room.
"Nothing," Naru ground out from between clenched teeth. He didn't need help. Glaring, Lin stared at him from his computer.
"Let me guess," Mai suggested, smiling brightly. "Sign language?"
Now it was Naru's turn to glare. Without missing a beat, Mai motioned at him, then back at herself. Fluidly, she moved into a new set of motions, never pausing. One motion had her arms cross themselves over her chest, almost as if she was hugging something to her. Only Mai knew what she had said. Love you, Naru.
Naru glared a bit more, and then returned to the armchair he'd been sitting in before. "Fine."
Mai practically skipped over then sat on the table in front of him. It put them knee-to-knee. "First lesson," she said, holding up a single finger, "is always use your hands." Seizing the aforementioned limbs, she held them up between them. "Always within view of the person you're speaking to. Okay?"
Hyperaware of her hands holding his, Naru nodded. Was she always this warm?
"'Kay. We'll start really simple. The alphabet, starting with 'A'." She demonstrated.
The hours passed in a whirl for both Mai and Naru. By the time the sun set, she had taught him a lot of basics, and he remembered every single one of them. He remembered, he knew, mainly due to his phenomenal memory. But also knew it was because his body would always remember where Mai had guided his hands.
Even as the sky outside became darker and darker, she continued to teach him to speak without words. Maybe when he learned, he would be able to discover what her heart had been saying silently for months.
(A.N.) I'm actually not sure if I like this one... Oh well. Let me know what ya'll think. .
