**I've been so excited to share this chapter! I hope you are all staying healthy and enjoying the story, let me know what you think!**

Chapter Eighteen

Mai groggily opened her eyes and winced at the pain coming from her chest. Blinking, she looked around and noticed she was at the bottom of the cliff. She hadn't died? She thought she would have at least had a few broken bones from falling on the rocks. That's when she noticed that she had missed the rocks and was on a small patch of sand.

A grunt from behind her caught her attention and she finally noticed the strong arm that was unwrapping itself from around her waist. Quickly turning around she saw Oliver wincing in pain.

"Naru!" she gasped, checking him for injuries. "Are you okay?"

He took a deep breath and those cerulean eyes opened to look at her. "What were you thinking?" he glared.

Mai frowned at him, her anger resurfacing. "I was trying to be useful and find your stupid ghost."

"Well it found you," he shot back.

"Ya think?" she retorted sarcastically. "I heard crying and thought it was the spirit. I thought I could find where her body was and help her move on. I didn't think she was trying to lure me to my death."

The two stared at each other, neither backing down.

Suddenly, something caught Mai's attention and concern flooded across her face. "Naru, your forehead. You're bleeding," she whispered sadly, pushing back his hair to look at the cut that was beginning to drip down his forehead.

He pushed himself into a sitting position and hissed. "It's fine."

"No it's not. You're hurt because of me," she said brokenly.

He looked over at her. Her eyes were filled with guilt and shame. He looked out over the ocean awkwardly. "I'm hurt because of me. I was the one who chose to jump after you."

"But-"

"You're not to blame," he interrupted sternly.

Mai stared at him sadly for a moment before letting it drop. She looked around their surroundings, noticing that there was no path up to the top. They were on a small patch of rocks and sand surrounded by cliffs. "How are we going to get out of here? There's no way up except to climb the vines - oh…"

She looked up at the cliff and noticed the vines that had once covered it were now torn and tattered at the base of the cliff. She looked over at Oliver questioningly.

"Grabbing the vines during our descent helped lower our velocity, giving us a higher percentage of survival," he stated, continuing to look out over the ocean.

"You were able to think all of that while falling off of a cliff?" she wondered, impressed.

Oliver shrugged. "It's science, but also a natural instinct."

Mai nodded dumbly before looking around again. She bit her lip worriedly when a thought came to her. "What about the tide? If it comes in we'll drown."

Oliver gently lifted his wrist and looked at his watch. "The tide is going out so we should have several hours before we are in danger."

"Hours?" Mai gasped nervously. "You think we'll be here that long?"

"Lin is smart and will find us. Unfortunately I forgot my mobile back in the base but luckily our fall was most likely recorded on one of the cameras in the garden. When we don't return, he will begin his search," he reassured her.

Mai smiled shakily. "Right...but when will he notice we're gone? How about I just see if I can climb the cliff and get help," she exclaimed suddenly and stood to her feet. A wave of lightheadedness filled her and she staggered.

Oliver quickly reached out and helped her sit back down. His eyes narrowed and he reached out to move her hair away from her scalp. "You hit your head, too. You didn't notice?"

Mai bit her lip. She hadn't noticed. Her chest where the ghost had grabbed her was in such pain that she hadn't felt anything else. Each breath she took in felt sharp.

"I didn't realize," she whispered and put her hand to her head before pulling it back and seeing blood on her fingertips.

"It doesn't look deep and judging from our conversation it appears as if you don't have a concussion. You must have scraped it against a rock on the way down," he assessed. He looked at the vulnerable woman sitting beside him and took a long breath. "You're not useless."

She continued to look out over the ocean with a small frown. "I know you didn't mean what you said. You were tired."

He sighed. "You're a valuable member of this team."

When he opened his eyes Mai was smiling at him warmly. There was a look in her eyes that he couldn't place, but something in them made his chest tighten. He cleared his throat and looked forward once again. His head was still throbbing and he didn't dare try to stand just yet, knowing it would result the same way as Mai's attempt. He wasn't fond of sitting around if he couldn't do any work.

Mai followed his gaze and hugged her legs to her aching chest for warmth as a cool breeze blew from the ocean. "It's starting to get dark," she whispered nervously.

"We have some time before we lose light completely," he reassured her.

She nodded skeptically and hugged herself tighter. Oliver watched her from the corner of his eye. She was trying very hard to stay brave but he could tell thoughts of worst case scenarios were playing in her head. It was written on her face. He furrowed his brow in thought.

Mai worried her lip between her teeth. What if they weren't found in time and the high tide drowned them? What if the spirit returned and finished the job? What if -

"Hello," a high pitched voice rang out through the silence.

Startled, Mai quickly turned towards the man sitting next to her. That wasn't his voice, so whose was it?

A gold coin poked itself from behind Oliver's hand and wiggled back and forth.

"I said 'hello,'" the coin repeated.

"Huh?" Mai stared at her boss incredulously. His mouth hadn't moved when the coin spoke.

"You're the clumsy one who fell off the cliff, aren't you?" it squeaked.

The burnette bristled and glared at the coin. "Hey! Who does this coin think it's talking to?"

She gasped as the coin twirled in between two of Naru's slender fingers and disappeared.

Oliver sighed monotonously, "Look what you did. You yelled and he hid."

"No, it's in your hand," she accused.

A shimmer of amusement flashed through Oliver's eyes and he opened his hand. It was empty.

"Huh? It must be in the other one then," Mai frowned and pried open his left hand, unaware of the wince that crossed his face as she turned his wrist in her search. There was no coin. "Where is it?" she muttered to herself.

Oliver's right hand reached up and grabbed his left elbow. "Here it is," he smirked and the coin reappeared in his grasp.

Mai's mouth fell open. "How did you do that? Let me see," she said and reached over him.

"Here," he said and threw the coin in the air. Mai reached out to catch it but it never came back down.

She looked over at the dark haired man and laughed lightly. "You didn't even throw it."

"He told me your voice is too loud so he hid again," Oliver shrugged nonchalantly.

"I'm not l-" she began to yell but finished in a whisper. "I'm not loud."

Oliver smirked and reached his hand out to push a strand of hair behind her ear. Her breath caught in her throat and she could feel her heart beating against her ribs. His deep blue eyes were trained on his hand.

"Found him," he said and pulled the coin out from behind her ear.

As he pulled away, his fingers gently brushed against her neck and she felt a jolt of electricity run through her. She gasped lightly and her brows pulled together at the sensation. She could sense something.

"Wait," she whispered. "How are you doing that?"

The man shrugged again. "Maybe I'm a magician?"

She leaned forward and studied him.

Oliver watched her hidden amusement. "Do you want to ask it a question?"

"A question?" she echoed, lost in his eyes.

"What is she, a parrot?" the coin squeaked.

Mai straightened up and frowned. "Hey! Why you-"

"You scared it again," Oliver stated blandly as the coin disappeared once again. "Come on out and say goodbye."

The coin poked out between two knuckles. "Goodbye, Parrot," it chirped before disappearing for good.

"Goodbye," Mai muttered distractedly.

Oliver looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Did you like my pet?" he asked blankly.

Mai turned to look seriously at the man sitting beside her. "Naru...how did you do that?"

"I told you, I'm a magician," he smirked.

"No...it's not sleight of hand or trickery. It was real…" she said softly in awe. She was studying him closely again. When his hand had brushed up against her she had felt it. He was using his powers wasn't he?

Oliver looked at her attempting to conceal his shock. How had she known?

Mai was looking at the hand that had been holding the coin before and mindlessly took it into her own. He froze and watched her curiously as she seemed to be in a daze. She slowly turned his hand so his palm faced towards the sky. Her eyes were distant. The pads of her fingers gently grazed his fingers and stroked his palm.

She didn't know what she was doing, all she knew was that she could feel something rolling off of him. Almost like a hum. She traced her fingers along his palm but she felt the humming grow stronger when she trailed them up his fingers again. She smiled softly to herself as she realized how warm his hands were.

Badump.

And how large they were.

Badump.

She slid her hand over his completely, nearly holding it and an image flooded her mind. An image of the blue eyed man grabbing her arm in panic as she called his name. He was holding onto her hand at the top of a well but he was so young, probably no older than seventeen. Something about it was so familiar...

Her eyes grew wide once the image left her mind and she finally realized exactly what she had been doing. She quickly pulled her hand back as if she had been burnt.

"S-Sorry!" she stuttered. Holding her hands to her chest, she could feel her cheeks growing warm and turned her head away. The last thing she wanted was to see those eyes of his staring back at her.

Oliver was looking down at his hand and felt something odd in his chest. She had been sensing for his powers. Something about it had been...mesmerizing. His fingers tingled in the wake of her touch and he looked over at her in thought.

The woman next to him cleared her throat and forced a smile. "You know, aside from almost dying, it's quite beautiful here isn't it?" she asked rhetorically and he smirked slightly at her nervous ramblings. "My parent's loved the water. Whenever we would take a trip as a family it was always to the ocean or a lake." Her smile softened and her eyes drifted away. "It's rather tranquil. It's almost like all your worries could float away with the waves..."

Blue eyes looked out to the horizon. The sun was nearly ready to set. The sky up above looked almost picturesque with it's bright orange, yellow, and pink clouds. He huffed slightly. He wasn't usually one to take the time to appreciate scenery, but she was right. Something about the view made him feel at peace.

"One of the only memories I have of my parents is at the beach," he recalled, almost hesitantly.

Mai turned to him in surprise. Not just because he was speaking Japanese but because the confession confused her.

"We had a picnic on the shore, made a castle, and chased waves. We were quite young. Gene doesn't even remember…"

The brunette beside him gave him a curious look as he continued to stare at the setting sun. He wasn't used to talking about such things. Hell, he never even talked to Gene about it since he didn't remember much.

"My biological parents died when Gene and I were three," he admitted.

Mai studied his expression for a moment. "And Luella and Martin?"

"They had been in American on a case at our orphanage. That's how they met us."

Mai tilted her head. "A case all the way out in America? What was happening at the orphanage that took them all that way?"

"Apparently a child moving things with his mind was a little too much for the staff at the orphanage to handle," he shrugged. "They told my parents I was 'odd and unusual.'"

Mai gasped. So Luella and Martin were there to investigate Naru and Gene? She frowned at the last thing he had said. "What a bunch of pansies," she muttered, offended on his behalf.

"My thoughts precisely," he chuckled.

Mai stared at him, enchanted as the rays of the setting sun created an almost ethereal halo around the man as he reminisced. His blue eyes glimmered at a certain memory and Mai felt her heart flutter.

"It also didn't help our popularity that Gene was always off in the corner talking to spirits from the nearby graveyard. I can recall one time he told Miss Kayla her deceased grandfather said to stop sneaking off to smoke behind the playground. She wasn't too keen on that."

Mai giggled. "I guess I can see how other people might find that different."

Oliver smirked. "Luckily Mum and Dad like the odd and unusual. They were never able to have children of their own so within a few days they adopted us. It was a win-win for everyone. The orphanage didn't have to deal with us any more, my parents finally had children, and Gene and I were with a family that understood us."

Mai smiled gently at the man's confession.

He paused for a moment before continuing. "Our birth parents were actually Japanese. My birth name was Shibuya Kazuya," he admitted.

"Shibuya? Like where I grew up," she beamed.

Oliver nodded. "Even though we knew some English, Gene and I would talk to each other in Japanese. Mother quickly learned it as well in order to communicate better with us."

"I'm very sorry you lost your biological parents. In a way...it's oddly comforting to know someone else has gone through something similar to me," she admitted softly. She gasped when she realized what she said. "I hope that isn't insensitive!"

The raven haired man shook his head in reassurance and she smiled fondly out at the reflection of the sunset on the crashing waves.

"I'm amazed you remembered all of that. You were only three," she praised.

"I have a very good memory," he shrugged.

Mai giggled softly. "Of course you do. I really shouldn't be amazed."

"It's only natural to be amazed in the presence of greatness," he smirked, causing her to laugh.

The tide was rolling farther away. Mai sighed happily and leaned her head against the man's shoulder. Oliver's eyes widened and his body tensed slightly at the touch. He looked down at the woman resting her head on him.

"Thank you for sharing that with me, I know how difficult it can be to talk about the past and those we've lost," she whispered tiredly.

He opened his mouth to respond but closed it when he couldn't think of what to say. Instead, they sat in a comfortable silence together as they watched the sun dip below the horizon before Mai began to feel her eyelids grow heavy as sleep consumed her.