Me: And another chapter is up! ^-^
Mai: Yay!
Me: Finally summer break is here, and I passed all of my classes!
Naru: At least you can do that.
Me: Meanie! XP
Gene: Please R&R! XD
Mai's POV:
"Mai, what will it take for you to believe that I'm sorry?" Naru asked, shooting up from where he was on the floor, completely taking me by surprise. My resolve had diminished immediately as I saw the fire in his eyes that I've never seen before. It was so intense that I had to look away and backed up a couple of steps.
I never really thought about what I would have him do to apologize for being such a jack ass to me. It was always one of those where I would just accept his apology and go back to work with him if he asked, but now that the time had come and he did apologize, I realized that it wasn't enough. However, I had no answer for him since I don't even know myself. 'Oh, I should have just accepted it from the start, but no, I had to argue with him. Then again he did take me off the case.' I countered, feeling my conflicting emotions take over my mind as I tried to come to a conclusion, but only making my head spin as I only furthered my own confusion.
"Well-" I said, not sure at all what to say, but feeling the need to say something.
"Well what?" he snapped, taking a step closer to me and making my head spin even more than it already was.
"Um-" I stuttered, trying to think of anything that would work as a punishment for him. Before they came, and when I had just met Hanayo, I had a whole spiral full of things that he would have to do if he wanted to get me back to work with him or to get any of his precious tea. I had so many ideas, but now, when it really mattered, I couldn't think of a single one. Before I could get another word out to try and prolong my time to think about a suitable request, Hanayo sneezed, taking the tension away as if by magick.
"ACHOO!" She cried, making everyone jump back to look at her and give me more time to come up with a response to Naru's question.
"Bless you Hana." Madoka said, watching as Izo went over to his wife and wrapped his arms around her while checking to see if she had a fever.
"Are you feeling alright? Maybe you should rest. We don't want you catching a cold." He stated, pulling back so that he could get a better look at her. She simply smiled and shook her head as to brush it off as nothing.
"No I'm fine, just dust."
"Anyway Mai, what do I have to do?" Naru asked, bringing us all back to the main topic that everyone was waiting to hear and I had yet to figure out. Nervousness started to bubble in the pit of my stomach as everyone's eyes were on me and waiting for my reply. Shakily, I took a deep breath, and decided to just say something off the top of my head despite how random or stupid it may turn out to be.
"If, if, if," I started, not being able to come up with anything as my mind went blank. For some reason, my eyes instantly went to Hanayo and I saw her doing some hand motions. She was pretending to write something on her hand and then pointed to her chest. I threw her a confused look, not quite getting what it was that she was trying to say, which resulted in me getting an eye roll from her. Then she pointed to her heart and wrote Mai over it with her finger. Suddenly it made sense and I remembered one of the many things I had written down on that long list of mine. "If you want me to forgive you, then get my name or something that reminds you of me tattooed right over your heart." I stated, looking fiercely at his surprised eyes. There was silence in the room and you could almost hear that little cricket going off like it does in the t.v. shows and movies.
"Mai, where in the world did that come from?" He asked, getting over the shock of my request and started to rub his temples to relieve some of the pressure that I was putting on him.
"Well, if anything, it'll be a constant reminder of me where ever you go, and won't be something that you can lose. Also, if you ever get it removed, then you'll physically feel the equivalent of my emotional pain." I explained, trying to make sense to everyone else why it held such a significance to me. Silence once again filled the room as we all waited for his response. He sighed and looked away from me, but he did have a pondering look placed upon his features.
"I see. I'll have to think about it. Is there any other way?" He asked, looking up at me pleadingly. My heart clenched at the sight of this, but I held me ground and pulled up another one of the things on my list for him to do. Luckily I remembered most of them thanks to Hanayo's quick reminder.
"Other then thirty years and a day of not leaving Japan and staying with SPR, then no."
"Mai you can't truly expect Oliver to do something that stupid to his body do you?" Masako asked, butting into our conversation. For some reason, my tolerance level was just not up to par at this moment, and extreme anger rose within me.
"Stay out of it. You already are dancing on my last nerve, so just. Butt. Out! It has nothing to do with you." I stated, turning to leave the room and get some much needed air to help cool me down. There was no point in getting into a petty fight with Masako. I know that, but if she provoked me anymore, then a fight would become inevitable, and if we did manage to avoid a fight this time, something tells me that next time there will be no choice to avoid it and the claws will come out.
"Why don't you stop acting like such a spoiled brat?" She snapped, making me stop in my tracks from my retreat. All thoughts of stopping before a fight broke out flew out the window. She had the nerve to call me a brat? She's the fucking definition of the damn word! If you looked up brat, stuck-up, and/or bitch in the dictionary, I'm pretty sure that you would see her picture under the caption.
"I'm the spoiled brat? I wasn't the one using black mail to get a date." I reminded, shooting her a glare in which she took a step back from. At this point in time, I didn't care if I started to scare people. Nor did I care if my eyes turned completely black and I looked like I was being possessed by a demon. She surprisingly met my gaze and held it steady as she retook her step and moved forward to me giving off an air of confidence that she would win our little battle of words. However, it didn't really show too much since I could tell that she was trembling thanks to my wonderful eyesight.
"All is fair in love and war."
"Not when you're pushing away the one you love!"
"You're such a child! I can find it so hard to believe that you haven't matured at all since you left SPR. Maybe you really should stay here in the country where stupid girls have it easier then out in the city at Shibuya." She said, making me mentally take a step back at what she said. Naru always teased me for being childish and being stupid, and at the thought of always being at each other's throats all the time made me want to actually stay here instead of go back to where I came from in the city.
"I am NOT a child! And who knows, maybe I'll stay in the country, or maybe I'll go back to the city." I said, letting my emotions get the better of me and voice how much this was actually affecting me.
"If you go back then you'll only be a hindrance to us. You always were and always will be. You were nothing but trouble from the first day we met you, so do us all a favor and just stay Hanayo's and don't come back to Shibuya!"
"Fine! I won't be in your way anymore. Good day and good riddance!" I exclaimed, quickly rushing out of the room to end the argument and also to make it so that I had the last word. There were footsteps behind me, but I paid no mind to them as I quickly headed outside to cool down and to let myself escape from reality. The words that were said began to run through my head, and I started to regret how caught up I had gotten in the argument and at what I had said. I found myself by the hammock Hanayo and I had set up last month and decided to sit in it since I doubted that my legs could handle my weight any longer than they already have with all of the excitement that had happened within the last half hour. The sound of footsteps returned, and when I looked up, I was surprised to see that it was Gene, Yasu, and John who had followed me out here and hunted me down.
"Mai!" Gene cried, wrapping me up into one of his hugs as he sat down next to me. As much as I wanted to lean into the hug and let what happened fade away as I pretended that none of the argument happened, I couldn't give in and show my weakness to them, but I also couldn't push him away, so I just settled for letting him hold me while being like a life-sized, lifeless doll.
"What do you want?" I asked, not wanting to hear excuses for what happened in there and pleas for me to stay and rejoin SPR. In all honesty, all I want is for all of this to disappear and have this case be over so that I could just go back to how things were before all this started to happen and put all this behind me.
"We want to talk." Yasu replied, taking a seat on the other side of me, that his boyfriend wasn't currently occupying, and wrapped his arm around me. Again, I just wanted to give in and be comforted, but my pride wouldn't let me, so I shook both of them off.
"Why, I'm just a hindrance after all."
"No you're not." John stated, giving me a strong look that I haven't often seen from the priest. Normally he was sweet, gentle, and passive; however, as of now he has a very strong presence that makes it so that you can't really ignore him or what he's saying. 'Geez, where is this when he's trying to calm down Ayako and Monk from fighting. If he does this, then I'm sure they would listen to him right away.' I thought, slightly wondering why it was that he hasn't tried this trick on them as of yet.
"Oh yeah? Then why didn't anyone stand up for me when Masako ran her mouth? Why didn't anyone look me in the eyes as she spoke? Why didn't anyone come and save me before it got to this?" I asked, finally breaking down and letting the solid walls I built up around me break and crumble to the ground.
All I could do from there was sob as the questions, insecurities, and tears came out, showing just how weak and torn apart I really was behind this mask that I had put up. 'Looks like I'm more like Naru then I first thought.' I realized, seeing that we both had masks to hide how we really felt about things. I felt embraces from all three guys, and this time I actually gave in and welcomed them and the comfort they provided for me. We stayed like that until the sobs stopped and all that was left was sniffling. They then pulled away, giving me much needed breathing space so that I could truly calm down.
"Mai." Gene began, rubbing my back as I started to tame my haywire emotions. I looked up at him hopelessly and he smiled back at me warmly. I felt Yasu put his hand on my shoulder, which drew my attention to him as he took his turn to try and get me to a stable emotion.
"Mai, listen. We love you. All of SPR loves you. We would have been at your door in less than a millisecond if only we hadn't have listened to Masako."
Me: And here I leave with another cliffhanger. ;)
Mai: But, but, but-
Naru: Spit it out Mai.
Mai: THE DRAMA!
Naru: Child
Gene: Please review! XD
