Recap: Naru and Mai FINALLY KISSED, they have a case at a family home where the kids are being messed with! enjoy!
The house was surprisingly quiet, the ticking of the clock in the corner was the only noise Mai could hear. Though the fact that it was one o'clock in the morning could could have something to do with it as well. She looked over at a sleeping Erin, whom she was sharing a room with. The girl, despite the fact she knew there was a ghost lurking around the house, was in a rather deep sleep; dark curls haloed around her and her mouth open wide a bit of dribble peaking from the corner of it. Yet Mai wondered how the girl looked so pretty even in this state. Mai was pretty sure she looked like a monster when she slept.
Mai sighed, pushing away her insecurities and rolled over hoping to try an catch some sleep. But ten minutes later when she was still wide awake she decided to get up and head to base. A blush rushed to cheeks when she thought about the fact that Naru might still be up and maybe alone.
Like a giddy a school girl she bounced up and flounced out of the room happy thoughts surrounding her as she trekked down the cool hallway. She was about ten feet away from the base door when she heard a soft sobbing sound whisper in her ears.
She turned her head from side to side trying to detect the location the sound was coming from. The hairs on the back of her neck started rise and her body instinctively crouched into a position that would enable her to run, if need be.
Mai listened closely to the sound, turning to her left she found an aptly placed door. She slowly reached out her hand and twisted the nob, reminding herself for a second that she should probably get Naru first. She threw cation to the wind though, hoping if anything, that if she did get in trouble Naru or someone would hear her.
When the door was fully she opened she found a set of stairs hidden in the dark, if she remembered correctly this led to the attic. She felt the chills all over again as she noted the sound had gotten louder with the opening of the door, along with the fact that she could now hear what sounded like a string of words mixed in.
'Why does it always have to be in an attic or a basement?' Mai thought to herself. She would ask one her paranormal expert friends later, for now she focused on the situation at hand – the loud feminine cry coming from somewhere in the attic.
Each step felt like it came to fast to Mai and before she knew it, she was taking the last step up the stairs into the attic where she found... nothing. Even the sound was gone, all she could hear was the snow falling on the roof lightly. It didn't look like the room had been disturbed recently, maybe a box here and there that had probably held the decorations that hung around the house.
She took her time wondering around a bit, the space was small so it didn't take much time finish up her investigating. Mostly the room was just filled with boxes there were some pieces of covered furniture and large covered canvases but nothing note worthy. She was just about the leave when she heard shuffling behind her. She froze hoping that when she turned around she wouldn't find some decaying ghost trying to kill her.
Thoughts zoomed around in her head as she snapped her eyes shut trying to remember every mantra and pray she's ever been taught to ward away ghost. "Mai," she practically jumped out of herself when she heard Naru's voice from behind.
Mai turned around holding a hand to her chest to calm her erratically beating heart and looked at her pajama clad boss. This didn't help her in the least bit because her heart only started the beat faster, a blush rising to her quickly heating cheeks.
"Naru, gosh don't just creep up on me like that." Her boss gave her blank look obviously telling her that she shouldn't be up here. Mai only rolled her eyes and then yawned, all the excitement of the last half hour draining her.
Naru softened a bit looking over the sleepily eyed girl. "What are you doing up Mai?"
"I couldn't..." Her sentence was interrupted by another yawn. "...sleep." She rubbed her eyes as the started to water with new found tiredness. "Why are you up here?" Naru just gave her a blank look and pointed to camera sitting in the corner. "Oh... Sorry if I woke you up." She whispered quietly averting her eyes away from him to some random place around the room.
Naru sighed and walked closer to her putting his hand on her head, running his fingers through her hair.
"I was already awake, but that's not the point. You shouldn't be up here by yourself, we don't know how strong the entity is or what it's capable of." He pulled her closer to him and buried his face in her hair. "All I'm asking is for you too not go investigating by yourself." Mai's cheeks flushed as he spoke, she never knew how much he cared for her til now and it made her feel all warm on the inside just thinking about it.
The peaceful moment was ruined by a loud yawn from Mai. Naru smiled into her hair and then slowly moved back. "We'll talk more about why you were up here in the morning." He whispered walking towards the door hand and hand with Mai.
The next morning the house was buzzing with life. The Uwa family was located around the kitchen making breakfast, from what Mai could see through the computer screen it looked like they were making pancakes. The younger children were running a muck chasing each other, laughter leaking form their lips. Erin and her youngest sister were attempting the stir the pancake mix while the boys ran through their feet, only causing more of a mess. Saki and her husband stood in the corner smiling and speaking to each other over mugs of coffee.
The scene had Mai happy and sad all at the same time. She missed the mother and father dearly and could see the flashbacks from when her parents use to attempt to make breakfast with her in her mind. Her younger self smiling a wide, toothy grin at her parents as she tried to stir the batter without tipping the bowl over.
She was pulled from her thoughts when Monk lightly placed his hands on her shoulders. "They seem like a happy family the despite the on goings." Monk smiled at the scene as well, in the back of his wondering when him and Ayako would have their first child.
Naru cleared his throat to get every bodies attention and then looked at Lin. "Anything from last night?" Lin shook his head staring intently at the screen.
"I haven't listened to the tapes yet though." Lin said quietly, clicking away on his keyboard.
"Hey Lin could you check around 1:15 last night?" Everybody gazed at Mai inquiringly, even Naru who waved his hand to Lin to do as she said.
The room stayed quiet for a few seconds before you could hear the slightly buzz come from the speakers. The seconds ticked by and Mai began to wonder if she was going crazy last night when a sound came from the computer. It was quiet but the team could here the quiet cries of a female. Though they could make out nothing more than that.
"What happened last night Mai?" Mai knew by the sound of Naru's voice he meant business.
"I was just laying in Erin's room tossing and turning when I finally decided to get up and go to base. I was only a few feet from making it here when I heard the crying. I figured it was coming from the attic and so I decided to go and investigate when I got to the top the crying stopped, I stayed a bit longer to investigate and that's when you found me." Naru held his signature pose, his chin held between his thumb and pointer finger.
"Did you find anything suspicious?" He grilled.
"No just a bunch of dust and boxes, though I didn't really have the time or the means to thoroughly look over it all." Naru nodded, pausing to think again.
"Yasu did you find anything interesting yesterday?" Naru questioned moving his eyes from Mai to the bespectacled college student sprawled in a computer chair, his own laptop in his lap.
Yasu yawned, ruffling his hair as his other hand clicked away, going to the saved files. "Not much more than it was a orphanage around 50 years ago owned by a Carol May. She died in her sleep of a heart attack on Christmas Eve night. The next morning one of the older children found her and called the police. After that the children were moved to a different orphanage and the house was put up for sale. And wasn't occupied til the Uwa family moved in." Yasu finished by looking up at the team, who by this point were slumped against there seats. The whole story equaled a whole big nothing to any of them.
Yes it was sad, but they had heard worse and most of them were more worried about getting home to their families for Christmas. All this meant was that they had nothing to go off of.
"Any burial sights or scared land in the area?" The team knew Naru was trying to cover all aspects but this was stretching it a bit.
"None that I could find note of, not all plots of scared land are always cited but, I don't think that's the cause." Yasu sighed trying to find something, anything about the plot of land.
"It could just be residual energy from the orphanage." Ayako spoke, "I could do a cleansing on the trees and see if that helps." Naru sighed, knowing that was the closes thing to answer they had.
"Father Brown would you mind doing a pray as well." John smiled nodding. "Okay then get prepared and we'll start at two o'clock, Father Brown you'll be in the attic and Miss Matsuzaki you will of course be outside." The team all stood up and moved to get ready Monk accompanying Ayako to prepare along with John. Yasu mumbled something about a restroom and Mai decided to go and make some tea to which Ryan joined. Naru and Lin were left in base, sitting in front of the monitors looking over some last minute things.
It was quiet between the two of them for a little while til Lin spoke. "I erased the footage of you and Mai from last night." Naru looked up at his stoic warden with a raised eyebrow.
"Why?" Naru knew full well why Lin might, but he was still curious.
"I figured you wouldn't want any prying eyes finding it just yet." Was Lin's short reply.
"Thank you," Naru said quietly looking back down at his notes. But Lin interrupted him again.
"Are you going to tell the rest of them soon?" Naru sighed laying down his notes.
"I was just going to let them figure it out for themselves really." It was Lin's turn to raise an eyebrow, but he didn't question Naru's statement.
"Are you going to invite her?" Naru placed his face in his hands an sighed again, making Lin smile. 'Good,' Lin thought, 'he's finally acting like a really teenager.'
"Should I?" Was Naru's question.
"If you don't Madoka will and then it'll make Mai feel like you don't want her there." Naru narrowed his eyes at Lin's accusation.
"I never said that."
"I didn't say you did, I'm trying to warn you that if you don't ask her then it will look bad." Lin spoke calmly giving his ward a firm look, Lin knowing full well how bad it could get.
"I just don't want to overwhelm her." Lin chuckled under his breath.
'Yeah that's what he was worried about.' But before Lin could voice himself Mai and Ryan walked in with Yasu effectively ending the conversation, much to Naru's pleasure.
Errr... Hi... Ummm here's the next chapter a bit of a wait I know, but I hope you guys like it! A bit of fluff and other stuff... I love you all and would like to apologize for the wait!