Sorry for the late chapter, I don't really have an excuse this time around besides having major feels about Legend of Korra crowding out all my other stories, haha. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter (:

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt

Chapter 10: Fools

The moment Naru woke up he almost had a heart attack. Mai, Kamin, and Tamaki were absent from the bed they'd been occupying only a couple hours before. The blanket had been pulled from the bed and draped over her shoulders.

"Dammit Mai," he growled under his breath, jumping to his feet. He shrugged the blanket on his shoulders off. "Why can't you just stay in one place?" He glanced towards Mai's ruined clothing still resting on the nightstand. The photo of Gene and him was missing. In its place was a folded piece of paper. Naru picked it up slowly, unfolding it.

Only four simple words were written on the crisp white surface. Simple, but deadly. "We need to talk."

He stared at the words, unable to formulate a coherent thought. Finally, he thought something. "Well, at least that saves me one problem," he thought solemnly, not actually meaning the words that flowed through his mind. He placed the note back where he'd found it, and left the room.

"Finally up, Sleeping Beauty?" Monk asked as he entered base.

Naru shot an icy glare at him before turning to Lin. "Where's Mai?" he asked, walking to look over Lin's shoulder at the tapes he was reviewing, "Anything significant happen last night?"

Lin glanced over his shoulder at his charge. "Not anything threatening. There was a slight temperature drop in the twin's room around 11:30, and later in the room Mai was in around 3:00 in the morning." He failed to mention that he'd seen his charge sleeping at her bedside with the twins.

"Interesting," he said uninterestedly, shifting his eyes towards the windows, "Where did Mai run off to?" He had a feeling that if he looked down at the backyard he'd find Mai doing something she shouldn't be doing.

"She's outside playing tag with the twins," John supplied, looking up from his chess game with Yasu.

Naru rolled his eyes. Of course she would be playing a game. "So why, in the condition that she is in, did you allow her to go outside and run around?" he asked sarcastically, his eyes piercing Ayako.

She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, but spoke confidently. "She's healing extremely fast. Much much faster than she usually does. This morning her back was completely scabbed over and already growing new skin in places. She'll be fine running around a little. It's good for her," she explained, flicking over one of John's knights.

"Is that so?" Naru wondered under his breath, moving to stare out the window. He found Mai being chased by the twins and the German Shepard. The look on her face was pure joy without even a hint of pain. How could she have been so much stronger than him?

Mai was tackled to the ground. She rolled onto her back, laughter on her lips. A breeze rustled the grass and treetops around her. Their eyes met as she opened them to stare at the sky. Her smiled didn't disappear. If anything, it grew wider. She tugged on the twins and pointed up at him.

Their eyes grew wide, and they jerked their heads toward him. The three yelled something up at him, waving vigorously. It looked as if they had yelled the words "We love you!" at him.

He smirked, waving back.

"Those two have grown quite fond of you, don't you think?" Masako asked, stepping up beside him. She held a hand over her mouth for lack of having a sleeve, and stared down at the twins and Mai.

"Seems so," Naru said, moving his eyes toward the sky. Black smudges crawled slowly from the horizon.

"What are you going to do about them? Are you… going to find out who their real parents are?" she asked hesitantly, looking at him from under her long lashes.

He didn't answer. He was too busy watching as Tamaki and Kamin braided small flowers into Mai's short hair. Rex lay beside Mai, content with just being pet. "How could someone just up and abandon those children?" he thought, "More importantly, why do they look so much like Gene and me?" The pair was a complete bafflement to him.

A thought suddenly occurred to him. He swung around to face the team. "Yasu, I need you to do some research on a woman named Christina Willows. She'd British. Find any information you can, but focus on finding out if she has any living heirs," he ordered immediately, staring him down, "Upon doing research on the house."

"Why do you need research on this Christina woman? Is she relevant to the case?" Monk asked, turning his chair to watch him with suspicion in his eyes.

Lin turned around as well. He'd had the pleasure of meeting Christina before Gene had gone to Japan. The cogs were already turning in his mind for why Naru would ask for research on her. Immediately, several theories were presented. Every one of them was equally plausible.

"Possibly," Naru said cryptically, averting his eyes from his overly vigilant assistant.

"Now, about what we were discussing last night…" Yasu said casually, overtaking one of John's pawns with his lone knight.

"Yes. How are we supposed to separate the twins? They're glued to each other's side 24/7," Monk picked up, dropping his chin thoughtfully into his open palm, staring at Naru like he hadn't believed what he'd said earlier.

"We ask one of them to help the ladies with something and for the other to help the men," Naru said without a second's though. During the time they'd been there Mai had somehow forced him to learn their habits and personalities. It helped that he already knew two people like the twins. "At the same time in different areas. Monk, Yasu, and John will take Tamaki to do something outside, and Mai, Miss Matsuzaki, and Miss Hara will do something with Kamin inside of the house while Lin and I stay here to monitor." He plopped down in a chair nonchalantly, tenting his fingers before his mouth.

The team, except Lin, stared with wide eyes at him. "Since when did you become the child psychologist?" Monk asked stupidly.

Naru sighed. "Never. I just pay attention and listen which you seem incapable of doing," he jabbed, moving his eyes back toward the window.

"Hey! I'm not incapable of those things! I do them all the time!" Monk shouted indignantly, glaring at him.

"Uh huh," Naru muttered without interest, his mind and eyes focused on the happenings outside. Behind him, Yasu and Monk were muttering conspiratorially. He could have cared less about what they were planning if both his and Mai's names hadn't been included in the plotting.

He spun towards them, ready to call them out, when the door flew open. The group jumped as one, staring at the man standing in the doorway. Suzuka walked in, a smile curving his lips. "Hello, I was just passing by to see how things are going," he said.

"Slow," Yasu, Ayako, and Monk said together glumly, dropping their heads into their hands. All of them, including Suzuka, Naru and Lin, gave a collective sigh.

"Oh," he said nervously, scratching the back of his head, "Well then, since you're all working so hard maybe you should take a break. There is a lake not far from here. We could all go there tomorrow." He shrugged his shoulders as if saying it didn't matter either way.

Monk, John, Yasu, and Ayako turned puppy-dog eyes on Naru. He groaned inwardly. "Fine, tomorrow, but we must complete today's work. Now excuses!" he said, narrowing his eyes at the group.

"Great! I'll go make the reservations!" Suzuka called even as he was walking out the door, waving back at them.

Once his footsteps had disappeared, the four burst into action. Masako sitting next to him looked over at him. "Is that such a good idea?" she asked.

"Does it matter?" he asked, answering her question with a question. He looked back down at the three below and answered his own question, "No, it doesn't."

…..

"You're going to do what?" Mai screeched angrily a couple hours later. Ealier, Suzuka had taken the twins to help him with something. Upon arriving at base, she'd been informed of their plan for the twins. She was pissed. No, she was worse than pissed. She was livid. Her rage boiled deep within her gut, fighting for purchase with her rationality. So far, her rage had won hands down, bubbling and overflowing within her.

"How can you do that? They're five-year-old children, Naru! How can you experiment on them like a pair of disposable lab rats?" she yelled, throwing her arms out in protest.

"Believe me Mai, I don't like doing experiments on the twins as much as you don't," Naru admitted sternly, his eyes flashing with contained anger, "But we can't ignore the fact that they may be closer to this case than we originally thought."

"She never even got to meet them! She died they week they came to live here!" she cried in exasperation, "Why would she be haunting two children with such anger and viciousness if she'd never met them? What reason does she have?"

That stopped everyone short. Naru narrowed her eyes at Mai. "What are you talking about?" he asked icily, suspecting that Mai had once again neglected to mention a dream she'd had. Now his own anger was rising little by little, growing at the prospect of clashing with her anger.

How in the world could he be in love with a girl that he always fought with? His twin was foolish to think he had any romantic feelings towards her.

Mai's eyes grew wide. She hadn't meant to say that. She pressed a hand to her mouth, but mentally shrugged deciding that if it stopped this then it was worth it. She slowly removed her hand. "Suzuka's wife. She died of a sickness before the twins came to live here. Days before. She never got to meet them. Why would she be haunting them?" Mai explained, staring at Naru pleadingly.

He was quiet for a few moments, thinking. He had his chin captured in his hand, staring at the floor. He turned quickly to Ayako and Masako saying, "Go get the twins. We need to hurry up with this experiment." The two women startled and nodded, scurrying from the room.

"You're going ahead with it?" Mai cried, staring at him in disbelief. She couldn't believe, after all she'd told him, that he hadn't reconsidered what they were about to do. What if one of the twins got seriously injured? What if someone died this time?

"Yes," he said without explanation, turning to a book he had open in his hands.

She ground her teeth audibly. "I refuse to help you and the rest experiment with the twins," she growled at him, turning and stalking out of the room before anyone could stop her. She marched down the hall, turning into the room she'd been in the night before.

She was oblivious to the fact that she was being closely watched by Naru and Lin on the monitors in base as she stomped across the room. She sat heavily in the window seat, glaring out at the brewing storm.

Raging wind tossed the trees to and fro. Lightning flashed far off in the distance casting shadows across her face and throughout the room. The rain hadn't begun to fall, but it wasn't far behind. From where she sat she could see Mon, John, and Yasu leaving the house. Attached to John's hand was one small Tamaki, a blue rain jacket clutched around him.

"How could you do this? It's about to start storming, and you're sending a child, maybe your child, out with two idiots and a priest," Mai muttered to no one, her eyes tightening in annoyance, "Naru, you fool. You damn fool." With a sigh, one removed the picture from her pocket and stared at it longingly, wishing she'd known the two boys in the picture.

She dropped her hands into her lap. Closing her eyes, she let her head fall back against the wall. All was quiet in the room. Downstairs she could hear Ayako and Masako having a lively conversation with Kamin. There was the clanking of dishes, cups and silverware. The sound of running water immediately followed. Outside, there was only the howling of the wind.

At first, Mai didn't feel the dropping of the temperature around her. Her chest slowly tightened from the freezing air and her fingertips went numb.

She opened her eyes, frowning at the area around her. Besides her breath clouding before her, there were no indicators to show that a ghost was in the room with her. She stood slowly, cautious of her surroundings. Fear coiled deep in her chest crowding out the oxygen in her lungs. "H-hello? Is anyone here?" she stuttered.

For a second, she thought no one was going to answer until she heard a woman's voice. "Yes."

There you go. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. So I have finally initiated my new angle on this story. We'll see how it goes. The season finale of Legend of Korra is on Saturday so I doubt I'll get any writing done that day, but I'm going to try and get the new chapter of Ill Fate Reunion up tomorrow or Friday. Look forward to a new Legend of Korra story coming out soon. Btw, if my stories start ending really not happily it's because I'm starting to explore a new writing style where not everything is happy and unicorns and rainbows. Anyway, review please :D