~On the 1st day of Kucios my ghosty gave to me, a Ghost Hunt DVD~

Me: Hi everyone, I finally get to start my 12 days of Kucios, and 13 days of Christmas.

Mai: What is Kucios anyway?

Naru: And isn't it supposed to be 12 days of Christmas?

Me: Well, since Kucios is technically Christmas eve I decided to change it to 12 days of Kucios, and 13 days of Christmas.

Mai: What's the big deal with Christmas eve? I thought that Christmas would be a bigger event in America.

Me: Well you see it's actually a Lithuanian holiday, and in my family Christmas eve is 10 times more important than Christmas.

Mai: Okay on with the story, Silver doesn't own us and or Ghost Hunt in any way.

Naru: R&R if you want to make Silver happy.

Naru's POV:

Mai just got out of the car and a half and left me sitting there speechless. 'What did she mean by she's going to be walking down the aisle a month after her sixteenth birthday, who is her fiancé, and why does she have to bear a child by the end of the year? But most importantly, why do I feel like my heart is breaking like when I lost Gene? I'm supposed to be here looking for my love, Aoi Ookami, so why am I feeling this way towards Mai? ' As these questions ran through my head I didn't realize that I was walking towards the stables until the smell of horses wafted into my nose and the sound of whinnying could be heard.

"Hey Naru, come on over here and choose your horse, after all, it's because of you we got to go here so you get first choice." Said Monk impatiently looking up as a large they horse with childlike eyes.

Shoving the conversation with Mia to the back of my head, I looked at the horses that were at the stable, and finally came across a large black stallion. Deciding that this horse seemed to be the most compatible for me I quickly grabbed a blanket and saddle and got the horse ready. Once I was mounted on the horse I let it out of the stall and into the hallway facing the rest of SPR.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" I said quickly becoming irritated at how slow everyone else was moving.

"How did you get on the horse so fast, and get it settled up without anyone helping you?" asked Ms. Matsuzaki, as she struggles to get on her own mere.

"Noll has been horseback riding since he was seven. In fact he started taking lessons right after he visited this town all those years ago." chipperly stated Madoka, who was easily able to maneuver her horse to stand right next to me with Lin not too far behind.

"Of course he has, after all he is the great Oliver Davis; the one person in the entire world who can do anything and everything perfectly." Yasuhara joked as his horse whinnied as if agreeing with him.

"Yasu, I think you're giving him a little too much credit than he deserves." Monk said smirking at the college student ready to begin their usual competition to see who can out sarcasm the other.

"At least he has the dignity not to make a total fool of himself in front of other people." retorted Ms. Hara, who was sitting right in front of John on a horse that they were sharing.

"For once I agree with Masako, you two are acting like five-year-olds." Sighed Ms. Matsuzaki as she pulled her horse next to John and Masako.

"Well at least I'm not acting like an old woman." said Monk now beginning his usual argument between him and his new fiancé.

"I'll show you who's the old woman, you stupid old man!" shouted Ms. Matsuzaki as she got ready to charge her horse at the stupid monk.

"Come on now, can't we all get along? After all, it's rude to fight when you're a guest at other people's places. Isn't that right Mai?" John asked searching for my Brown headed assistant. "Um, where is Mai anyway?" He asked bringing to attention that she was indeed gone, along with her family members.

"Knowing her she probably got herself into some trouble and everyone else went to go get her out of it." sighed Monk.

"We should all split up and search for her. John, I want you and Ms. Hara to go and see if they are somewhere in the stables. Takigawa, I want you and Ms. Matsuzaki to go to the front and see if they're there. Lin, I want you and Madoka to check by the forest trails and see if they're waiting for us there. I'll go check the back. Everyone meet up by Lin and Madoka in five minutes if you don't find them, but if you do tell everyone where you are and we'll catch up." I said issuing orders to them as if we were out on a case, which technically we were, but technically weren't.

Everyone went to the location assigned to them. Making haste I went to the back and saw a large corral surrounded by smaller ones. In the large one was Mai riding her horse through an obstacle course. On the outside watching her were Sakura, Dark, Momo, and Light mounted on their horses. Mai came up to a high jumped, that I was sure she wouldn't make. Quickly writing up to the fence I've tried to stop her, but when I got there she jumped and deleted over the obstacle with ease.

"You are getting better at doing jumps with Moeru now aren't you?" Complemented Sakura as Mai came out of the corral.

"Thanks, but I have a long way to go before I can enter into an actual competition." She said not noticing my presence there quite yet.

"Just don't overdo yourself baby girl." Dark proudly said patting her head in a fatherly way.

"Don't worry, she won't. After all she has me as her aunt, and Sakura as a mother. With us two to guide her there won't be anything that she can't do." laughed Momo.

"And that is exactly the reason why were worried." sighed Light, making Mai, Sakura, and Dark laugh as Momo huffed. Mai and Dark continued to laugh, but Sakura instantly stopped and turned her attention to me.

"Why hello there Naru, is everyone from SPR ready to go on the trail?" She questioned now gathering the attention of everyone else.

"Yes, we were ready a while ago, but we couldn't find you so we split up to search." I said putting in a bit of irritation into my voice, which went unnoticed by Sakura since she just continued to smile pleasantly.

"I'm so sorry, but you see Mai hasn't been here in such a long time, and I thought it would be nice for her to go and practice her jumps very little that's since everyone else was settling up. But now since you all are ready to go let's head on out to the trails." She easily maneuvered her horse to go to the last towards the surrounding forest as everyone else trailed behind her. When we finally got to the trails I saw everyone waiting for us with a relieved expression on their faces.

"We were starting to get worried. First, Mai goes missing, then Naru. What's next the horse is going to disappear out from underneath me?" Monk exaggerated as we made our way to one of the trails.

"Actually, I believe that had happened once before to a boy that my befriended when she was six. It was his first time ever riding on a horse and the horse started galloping off and slipped right out from under him." stated Sakura making everyone laugh.

"Oh, I remember him. That was the day that Mai met him at the cemetery. He got himself into some trouble, and for once she helped him get out of it. After that they became real close and he spent the whole time he was in town with her." recalled Dark causing my interest in the matter to spike.

"And that's not all. He's also the one that we chose to become Mai's fiancé." Added Momo causing everyone to stare at her flabbergasted. She looked at everyone's expressions and tilted her head to the side. "What?"

"What do you me 'what'? What's this about Mai getting married?" exclaimed Monk startling the other horses a bit, but not enough to make them take off stampeding.

"Simple, my twin here is a physic who sees people's chains of fate and sets them up so they meet their soul mate. It's a talent that she alone possesses." Momo explained pointing at Sakura who blushed red at the mention of her abilities.

"Still that doesn't give you the right to just go on and arrange the girl's marriage!" argued Ms. Matsuzaki, voicing everyone's opinions.

"It wasn't Mom's decision, well actually it was, but not Sakura. My birth mother set it up for me as well as my fiancée's parents." Mai said gaining the attention of everyone around her. Everyone was in a state of shock that she would be all right with it. "Besides a promise is a promise, and I can't back out of it now."

"But Mai-" began Monk only to be cut off by Mai raising her hand.

"There's nothing we can do, so there's no use in arguing about it now. Please just let it drop, I would rather spend as much time with you guys as I can making happy memories, instead of said ones." Tears threaten to spill from her eyes making Monk and Ms. Matsuzaki go into an automatic big sibling mode. As they were comforting her everyone continued on to the trail through the thick forest until it was just Monk, Ms. Matsuzaki, Mai, and myself. After a while of Mai convincing her 'big brother' and 'big sister' to go on a head they finally gave in leaving me and Mai to ourselves. "Why didn't you go with the others Naru?"

"Because I want to know more." I said half telling a lie, and half telling the truth as we begin down the trail very far behind from the others.

"Didn't I tell you guys to please drop it?" She asked with annoyance peaking in her voice.

"You did, but then again I don't take orders from anyone." I replied giving the obvious answer that she should have already known.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because it's my job as your employer to make sure that you'll be well taken care of." I responded giving a crap reason trying to keep my real motive hidden until I could figure out exactly what this feeling that I had for Mai was.

"Of course that would be the reason now wouldn't it?" she sarcastically said rolling her eyes at me as she made her horse's speed pick up to get a bit ahead of me. If I weren't listening then I wouldn't have heard the little tid-bit that made my heart swell. "After all it's not like you care about me or anything." Deciding that it would be in both of our best interest to tell her part of my motive I got my horse to catch up to her.

"It's also because I'm worried about you." I admitted causing her to whip her head around to face me with wide eyes.

"And why is that? I always thought that you just found me annoying and my tea was the only good thing about me being a part of the team." It was now my turn to be shocked by this newly collected information.

'How could she think that all she's good for is just making tea? I mean sure she has her times of great annoyance and we have some spats every now and then, but that's about there is to her negatives. In my opinion she's one of the most valuable parts of the team. She alone has the ability to lighten the mood just by being there. Also her newly developing psychic abilities are absolutely astounding! Plus she managed to get me to open up my heart again to the world after Gene died. The only other person that was able to do that was… Aoi Ookami.'

"Mai no matter what you think I'm not a heartless bastard, also I do have a heart and worry about those close to me."

"So are you saying that I'm someone close to you?" She asked looking up at me with hopeful eyes.

"If you weren't then I wouldn't be prying into your personal life now would I?" After a few minutes of silence Mai sighed and looked at me with a half smile.

"What do you want to know?"

"What's he like, your fiancé I mean?" I asked that having been the question that first popped up into my mind.

"That's a very good question. I haven't seen him in a very long time, but I've recently gotten into contact with him. It was around the time that I joined SPR. He's still the same as I remembered him." She said giving very little information to the question I asked.

"How's he the same?" I asked hoping that she would elaborate a little bit more about him. She stared off in thought with a slight gleam in her eyes and a small smile on her thin lips.

"Well, for one he's absolutely obsessed with my tea, I swear he's probably the only person alive who cared to drink about three gallons of that stuff, and not have to go to the bathroom ten minutes later. Also, he's extremely vain and loves to put me down, but when he goes too far he always tries to make up for it. We always have little spats, but without them life would be boring."

"What do you think of the arranged marriage?"

"At first I was extremely upset by it, but now I understand exactly what I have to do since I'm now the head of the family, or at least I will be in a few days." She said having a sour expression set on her face.

"Why do you have to be the head of the family, don't you have an older sister?" I asked remembering the conversation with her big brother about when she was younger.

"I do, but she can't be the head of the family. In a way she's sorta disowned in a way, but she's still as close as Gene is to you."

"I see, she must mean a lot to you."

"She does. I would do anything to see her again." Seeing that this topic about her sister was depressing her I went and brought it back to the original subject.

"What do you think about spending the rest of your life with him?"

"I think that it'll be strange at first, but I'll get used to it eventually, and hopefully have a bunch of happy memories during our time together."

"Are you ready to become a mother with his child?"

"I'm afraid about being a mom, but if he's there with me, and Mom's there to help me along the way then I think I'll be just fine."

"Why would you be afraid?" I asked wondering why Mai the favorite of all children dead and alive would be afraid of being a mother.

"Well I just don't want to mess up and have the child hate me."

"You'll be fine. Just do what you always do and they'll be raised just right." I reassured making her smile slightly.

"Do you love him?" I asked with a hoarse voice as my entire body became tense waiting for her answer. She was pondering for a while, but soon smiled slightly to herself and spoke.

"I love him as much as he loves me." With that said my entire heart throbbed in a pain that I haven't felt since Gene's death. 'Why does it hurt so much? Why do I want to cry from hearing Mai say she loved another man?' I willed the thoughts away and quickly moved onto another question hoping that it'll distract me from the pain.

"Will I get to meet him before your birthday?" I asked hoping that I could set him straight, and make sure that if he hurt Mai then he would join Gene in the astral plane.

"You already met him." She said softly startling me as to how I could not have notice any exchange between her and him.

"How well do I know him?" I asked hoping that I could figure out who he was, and if he was worthy of having her. She was silent for a while contemplating how much she would tell me, or if she would tell me anything at all. I was shocked into silence by her answer, but before I could ask any more questions we ended up back at the stables with everyone else. She gave me a sign to not tell anyone about what we talked about, and to not ask any more questions for the time being. Night soon came and we all changed into our warmer cloths because of a surprise that Mai's family had for us. Though I was going along with everyone there was only one thing that kept replaying in my head, and that was my last question of 'How well do I know him?', and what keep it repeating was the answer she gave:

"Naru, you're the only one who knows him best."

Me: So what did you think?

Naru: I know you went a little OOC on my character.

Me: I know, but it's too hard to write you as the caring compassionate person that I have to make you be with your character. After all I think Mai likes you better this way. Right Mai?

Mai: Yep. ^_^

Naru: *Rolls eyes* R&R so that Silver can have this stupid story done with as soon as she can.