Chapter 16

"N-naru, can I help you?" Mai asked flabbergasted at her unannounced guest.

"May I come in?" He said and she said nothing and merely made way. He walked in and observed that it appeared that his assistant was about to head to bed. Hearing the door shut behind him; Naru walked over to couch situated in the corner. Making himself comfortable, he sat crossing his legs in a very Naru like pose.

Silenced rang true for a solid minute before Mai dared to break it herself.

"So when I asked if I could help you it was a thinly veiled translation for What do you want? " Mai crossed her arms and placed her weight on her hip.

'Don't be swayed by how handsome he looks in the moonlight, Mai! Or how his eyes are practically glowing.' Mai thought as his literal perfection actually made her even more annoyed at the intrusion.

"What are you most afraid of Mai?" He asked looking directly into her brown pools. Mai was taken aback by his forwardness before she actually began to ponder the question.

"W-well, the normal things that a girl would be afraid of like spiders, dark rooms, creepy forward men…" Mai said raising her eyebrow at him while saying the last bit.

"Mai, you know that isn't what I mean. What do you fear the most?"

"Why does it matter? If the spirit comes to attack me, I will be able to face it. No matter what it is." Mai said walking over the window that was adjacent to his resting place. Mai didn't look at Naru when she said this, instead, her gaze ran toward nightscape on the other side of the glass.

"Besides, why me? Ask Monk or Lin." Mai pressed back defensively.

"I already know what they fear, and I know what I fear. You are the only missing link now." He perry back.

"You're smart I'm sure you can figure it out." Mai scoffed rolling her eyes.

"If I was capable of that, I wouldn't have come here this early in the morning to question you, now would I? Not that it bothered you much. You seem to be wide awake already." He noted callously.

"Oh, my. The great Dr. Davis admits some weakness, I should revel in this moment." Mai said and laughed lightly. She reminded herself of Masako for a moment, which made her pull back on the rudeness with a deep sigh.

"It's very personal, what I'm most afraid of, I mean. It involves a very extensive backstory that I don't think I'm ready to tell. Maybe I'll tell someone day when I'm ready, but until then I'll just say it's a person. That is all I want to reveal right now, okay?" Mai wrapped her arms around herself in attempt to feel secure. She could feel Naru's eyes on her and she dared to meet his gaze with a wounded expression.

He hummed in acknowledgemnt.

"If that's the case then I do know who." Naru said which Mai turn her head quickly and stubble backward from him a bit. Tension filled the room like a broken pipe, slow at first, but it soon became hard to breathe.

'He… he knows ?! He's Oliver Davis of course he knows. I was an idiot to think he couldn't puzzle it out.' Mai could feel tears welling.

Old emotions she swore had fossilized flooded up into her eyes. They felt raw and fresh all over again.

"H-how-"

"I conduct background checks on all of my employees. Its company policy. I cannot have anyone scandalous involved in my business. Confirming that it was a person made it elementary to connect the dots." Naru finished his portion but felt as though he'd something offensive.

He didn't need to be an expert in body language to read the pure shock on Mai's face. Naru wanted to apologize from the intrusion, but it also felt disingenuous to conceal the truth.

He dare not speak.

"S-so I just played right into your hand, didn't I ?" She spat cynically.

She felt used.

This could very well be the last case she shared with SPR after this turn of events. Tears fell of their own accord now, and she choked back a sob.

"I was merely doing my job. I wasn't playing at anything." He replied, but the words felt colder than he intended. Naru's chill was like a slap in the face, but exactly what she needed to bring her back to her senses.

'Life has handed me worse. This will hurt, but I can move past it. Just like everything before…'

Mai wiped her eyes and sighed attempting to calm herself, as devastated as she was, she refused to unravel now. Mai had come too far and worked too hard to let it all end here, it couldn't.

She wouldn't allow it.

"If you fire me, I won't stop. You've taught me too much for me to turn back now. With or without you this is what I'm meant to do.

Use my gifts to help those who need it. With that said I understand the importance of SPR to you. You tried to leave it behind, but you couldn't, and you came back here to continue working. If you let me go now, I won't lie; I'd be devastated. I might even want to hated you, but I'd have no reason to be upset with you. However, I won't let you get in my way either." Mai finished giving him a weak smirk surprising Noll and making his heart beat hard.

Noll rose from his seat and made his way over to the bedroom door, but stopped halfway.

"It's just like you to make early accusations before you know all the facts. I never said I was going to fire you. I merely came here to confirm my suspicions. If firing you was my aim, I would have done it long ago when I first learned of your circumstances. Finding out your fears is what is most important at this stage of the investigation. I have what I came for." Naru opened the door now.

"Wait! Why are my fears so important?" Mai yelled forgetting their setting for a moment and knowing only of the two of them. Naru hesitated for a moment, but then left without a word closing the door behind him.

Mai let her outstretched hand fall to her side and she bowed her head.

Relief.

She didn't expect to feel that.

Someone else knew… and they stayed…

'I wonder if he'll tell anyone.' Was Mai's last thought before she fell into her bed emotionally wrought and needing the sleep more than ever.

Mai couldn't have slept worse if she tried. Not only were her dreams unrelated to the case, but they were nightmares about her not-so-glamorous past that Naru knew about. At least when it was just her, she could pretend that it wasn't real and forget the pain.

'I'm sure the team will be thrilled when they find out I didn't dream anything new. Can it already be a bad day at 7AM?' Mai ate breakfast with the rest of team and said nothing. The three men in her company could feel the negativity coming off of her in waves.

Mai was usually the life of the party, which wasn't terribly hard when a Chinese stoic and a narcissistic genius were on the guest list.

Noll looked over at Mai and his heart felt heavy at the sight of her.

'Why do I feel this regret? All I did was state the facts, but it seemed to hurt her. Am I the cause of her distress or is it because of a dream she had? She must resent me even more now.' Noll rattled of endless questions in his mind.

Lin eyed the younger staff curiously. His shiki had heard the entire exchange between the two last night.

'Why couldn't you just tell her that you fear losing someone else you care for? Losing her.' Lin rolled his eyes at the site of the melodramatic teens and decided that this too would pass. He rose from their table in the hotel lobby to refill his tea. Monk took this time to finally say something to the pouting girl.

"Hey Mai. The staff just put out chocolate chip pancakes, do want me to grab you some?" Monk lured wiggling his eyebrows for emphasis.

"Nah, my eyes are bigger than my stomach I could never finish an entire one." Mai said continuing to work on her fruit cup. Monk tried not to noticed that it seemed like she was purposefully stabbing through the Styrofoam with her toothpick.

"Well then we could split it, and whatever you don't finish I'll eat. How about that?" Monk suggested again, and Mai brightened up a bit realizing his efforts.

"If you promise to finish it then sure." Mai mumbled, a response being all that she could muster.

"Alright, I'll be back. You two play nice now you hear?" Monk joked as he picked up his own plate and was off.

This left the two alone.

Mai let her smile drop into a deep-set frown facing the narcissist.

"You'd better not tell anyone." She threatened bitterly.

"Now, what could you be talking about?" Noll humored her with a saucy smirk.

"You know what I'm talking about. So don't go running your dam-"Mai could feel her anger building but calmed herself immediately.

Vinegar never worked when it came to Naru, so she decided on honey instead.

"Please. Keep my secret Naru. Whether you like to admit it; the two of us are friends, and I trust you a lot. So please, j-just don't tell." Mai said and Naru looked at her briefly and glanced away again in false boredom.

Internally Noll already decided not to tell anyone else. It really wasn't his business. Initially, it was merely a routine background check that led to some more digging, but after that was finished, he'd have to reason to tell anyone else.

"On one condition." He spoke.

"Which is? Mai voiced trying not to sound too eager.

"I want you to go in the kitchen and make me some tea because this hotel's batch is awful." He said disgustedly and push his half-full cup towards Mai. She rolled her eyes and grabbed the cup and took off to the kitchen. She passed a confused Monk on his way to the table who sat down with his newly acquired pancake.

"I don't know what's going on between you two, but it doesn't look great Naru. It's not that I think you don't care about her, but feeling something and showing it are two very different things. I'm sure living with her is showing you how she can be. Use what you know to help her. And for the record you better be keeping your hands to yourself." Monk said getting more serious toward the end of the conversation. Lin chose this time to sit back down and assure Takigawa that he'd made sure the two were respectful of each other's space. Lucky for Mai and Naru this part of their little chat was over by the time she came back with the tea.

This was a moment Mai remember fondly, as most do before the storm arrives.

Not a bad turnaround, but a bit shirt. Thank you for all the kind words and encouragement. R & R and I'll see if I can put another chapter out ever faster.