Ren furiously scribbled on the coloring book he had in front of him on the coffee table. He was in the living room along with both his parents, his father looking content with a book in his hand and his mother glaring at him from her place across from him. She had originally been in her office to continue with her work in finding someone that Ren didn't even know existed, but he also didn't understand much of what was making her stressed in the first place. His father wasted no time after he watched her go in there, following her inside. After a moment he was distracted by his coloring when he heard his mother yelling at his father.

She exited first still sitting in her office swivel chair, laptop in her lap and her arms crossed across her chest. A pout marred her face and Ren watched with a smile at the look she had on. He hadn't seen this side of his mother; she had always been withdrawn when it came to her job and took immeasurable steps to keep her family life and work-life separate.

His father was behind her and had his hands on the back of her chair, rolling it along the floor with a smirk. "Just because you are feeling better, does not mean you are going to seclude yourself in your office. I said I was going to keep an eye on you and I meant it."

His mother avoided eye contact with his father as he walked around to the front of her and took a seat on the couch behind Ren's position on the floor, a crayon poised in his hand ready to continue its coloring expedition.

"I just don't see why you cannot just let me work in my office, Naru!" His mother said with irritation lacing her voice.

Naru appeared not to mind as he happily opened his book and began reading, not giving Ren's poor frustrated mother any attention. It only seemed to annoy her further as she began glaring at him with fury. Ren could almost see her eyes grow a red mist around them in her anger.

While his mother did look upset, Ren was happy that his father was around to make Mai come out of her office and be outside with everyone. Typically, Ren usually played by himself when his mother was working, not that he minded, but he did miss the free time she had to allocate to him. She seemed to have less and less energy as time went on, but now Naru and the rest of his mother's friends from when she was younger have forced a bounce back in her personality.

"Mama?" He had been watching her for a few minutes and she had yet to move from her current position. When he said her name, she snapped out of her glare almost immediately.

"Yes, baby?"

"Can I have a baby brother?"

Mai almost fell out of her chair at the question and a blush caught to her face after only a second. The innocent look on her son's face didn't help the panic she felt in her brain as she tried to come up with an answer.

"Well," A cool voice spoke across from her and Mai met Naru's cool stare, a cocky grin painted on his lips. "What's your answer, Mai?"

That son of a- Mai was once again leveling his stare with a glare, but her lips began to curl up and she measured her stare up to his. "Unfortunately, I think you are all I need in my life, Ren."

She watched his smirk falter for a moment but snapped back when he realized what she was doing.

"But why not?" Ren said sitting up straighter and bringing his mother's eyes back to him. "Where did you get me?"

Mai could already feel her head aching at the questions he was needling her with. Bless his heart, he was too cute to ignore. He was too young to be thinking about this, she knew, but despite the obvious elephant in the room and the teasing look Naru was shooting her way, she decided to tell him.

"Honey, I didn't get you anywhere," Ren's face screwed up in confusion and Mai continued. "Your idiot father and I made you."

Naru coughed into his hand and Mai smirked triumphantly. Good. Now he could be just as uncomfortable as she was. His head snapped up to look her in her eyes and Mai just raised an eyebrow, daring him to object to her claim. Ren watched between the two of his parents, his confusion forgotten and now replaced with mirth.

The two parents looked quickly at their son when he started laughing so hard that he slumped to his side holding his stomach. His discarded crayon rolled across the table and before it could hit the ground, Naru leaned over and grabbed it, setting the color back on the table.

"I love you two!" Ren said. He was currently feeling a good bit of happiness. His mother was more relaxed than he had seen her in years and his father was smiling at him. He might be five years old, but Ren prided himself on his observation skills. The other man in his dream, that he now knew was his uncle Gene, smiled often when they met. But his father's smile was something else, altogether.

Warm arms wrapped their way around the front of his torso, and Ren was pulled up into his mother's body, his front, facing his father. She placed a kiss onto his forehead and held him tighter, leaning a cheek on the top of his head. Ren reciprocated, his hands coming to rest over the top of Mai's arms and they had a moment of silence before she spoke.

"We love you very much, baby boy," Mai said ignoring the pain in her body that protested against the position she was currently sitting in.

Ren huffed a little. "Mom!" He said looking up at her. "I'm not a baby!"

"You will always be my baby," Mai countered quickly.

Another presence startled Mai as a firm body came behind her and arms wrapped around the two of them. The family of three was content to stay as they were, but pain erupted in Mai's stomach and she grunted in pain, wincing and curling in on herself to help alleviate the uncomfortable aching she was feeling.

"Mama?" Ren's little voice brought her head back up and she forced a smile onto her lips.

"I'm okay," It was meant to reassure, but unfortunately did the opposite. Naru came around to the front and scooped up the boy off her lap and set him on the couch.

His little legs dangled off precariously and Ren watched with worry as his mother quivered on the ground. His father got up quickly and made his way to the kitchen and quickly returned with an orange pill bottle.

"Here," He handed over one of the tablets and she looked at it wearily. It sat in the palm of his hand, glaring at her with a slight malicious intent. She looked up to him, worry etched in her features.

"I don't want that," Her head shook back and forth and Naru eyed her with insistence.

His hand closed around it and he retracted his arm. "Mai, I know you don't want to take them, but they will give you some relief and you'll be able to sleep."

She adamantly shook her head more firmly. Her body recoiled and she pushed herself up onto her knees before moving to her feet, still in a bent over position with a steady hand on her injury.

"I want to take something over the counter - I would rather take those."

Naru sighed but nodded his head and went back into the kitchen to appease her wishes. Seeing Mai in pain was never something he liked to see and knowing that he had a way to help alleviate her discomfort, he would have felt more at ease knowing she was no longer in pain. He grabbed the bottle of acetaminophen in the medicine cabinet and came back into the room.

She happily accepted the new medication and the offered hand that Naru held out to her so she could get some help sitting back in her office chair. He leaned down and picked up her laptop from the table and handed it back to her, and quickly pressed a kiss onto the side of her head before taking a seat back to his original position.

Ren watched them for a moment and the family of three fell into a lapse of silence and Mai watched their son scoot to the floor and continue with his coloring. He seemed content with the stillness of the room and she found it funny that a child as young as he was could sit still for any length of time.

She looked back to her laptop just as a notification popped onto her screen indicating she had an unread email. Maki's name flashed across the screen and she clicked on the notification taking her to the email. Skimming the content, it was detailing a crime scene report. Mai looked up and glanced over to Ren and when it appeared that he was happily distracted, she proceeded to look at the crime scene photos. Her subtle movements were overseen by Naru who was flipping through a book detailing different religious beliefs circulating supernatural events.

Scrolling through page after page, Mai winced and grimaced at the sights of the mutilated bodies that decorated the screen. You'd think that after the number of gruesome scenes she had seen, she would be desensitized to the new horrors. She didn't think it would ever get any easier.

This time, Stone had killed a family of three. The bodies of a mother, father, and three-year-old boy were presently decorating the living room floor, their blood was circling their bodies and splashed over the walls. It was obvious by the bloodstain pattern that they were originally killed in the room next to the living room and drug over to their current position. She looked for the body of the email and found it near the top of the page. Maki was stating that this had occurred yesterday and another message was written in the victims' blood all over the boy's room.

'See you soon.'

Shivers ran down her spine at the intent of the message and a stress headache began to grow on her temple. The pain grew sharply, making her shut her eyes and place a hand to the aching area in hopes that it would alleviate the pain. It ebbed and flowed for a few more minutes before she was able to open her eyes and came face to face with a steely blue-eyed gaze.

"Alright," Naru said shutting the laptop. "That's enough."

"Naru, what are you- "

"You are taking a break." He said pulling the laptop out of her lap and placing it on the coffee table. She furrowed her brows and was about to object before he spoke again. "No. So help me, Mai, I will lock you in our room. You do not need to be sitting here and staring at these photos, it's not good for you."

Mai growled under her breath. "How would you know what is good for me?" She looked away from him and bit her tongue. She didn't want to drudge up a bunch of hidden feelings and thoughts just because she was angry at him for doing what was probably the best decision.

He watched her with his arms crossed. He vaguely saw Ren stiffen as they started talking, his little face confused. Her lashing out was something he had expected, but he also wasn't sure if this was because she was scared or stressed. Or both.

"The same way I know that you keep a light on in the hall because you are scared of something supernatural occurring," Naru said after Mai had a moment to calm herself. "Or that you carry bandages in your purse just in case someone needs them, or that you keep things to yourself out of the fear of burdening others with any of your problems and thoughts."

Mai watched him as he moved to her. Slowly and calmly Naru knelt and stared up at her from his crouched position in front of her. He covered her clenched fists sitting atop her lap with his hands.

"The same way that I know you are scared." He said. "Scared of losing Ren or someone on your team, and you feel helpless because you are fairly detained here at home."

Eventually, Mai's lips curved into a small smile following his words.

"You don't know me, do you?" She said with her smile still intact. He looked puzzled and leaned back from her a bit, inducing a space between them that Mai wouldn't let happen. She pulled her hands out from under his warm ones and cupped his cheeks, keeping him close to her. "I am also scared of losing you." She admitted shaking her head. "I don't know what I would do, now that I have you back, I feel as though I've been spoiled with your presence and I don't know if I'd be able to keep going without you."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Can you promise that?" Mai said. "Promise that you won't be taken away from me? Or that you won't be reckless?"

Naru's eyes narrowed and he looked away from her pleading stare. "You know I can't do that." He looked back at her. "But I can promise that I will never do anything to intentionally hurt you and that I want to be with you from here on out."

Mai rubbed at her eyes and nodded her head. "Okay, then can you do something for me?" He waited. "Can you help me through this?"

Naru's arms snaked up to her back and pulled her off her chair and into his chest.

"Always."

Hi hi! Sorry, this was a late update but it is here now! I'm going to start getting into the thick of things in the chapters to come, so be prepared! See you all at the next chapter!

Cheers!