Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!
As Mai finished up her bath later that night, she found herself thinking and remembering.
When Akira had walked into SPR the other day, calling himself Hideki Kiyoshi, she remembered getting an odd feeling about him. She hadn't thought much of it at the time, since she'd had other things on her mind, but thinking back on it now, she was finally realizing what that feeling was. It was familiarity. And now that she knew the truth, well, it explained a lot.
Leaving the bathroom, Mai was heading towards her room when she came across Naru leaving his own room. He was still in his day clothes, but he had a towel over his arm-no doubt he was going to take a bath now too. But she paused in place, watching him as he turned to say something to Lin, who was still in the room.
He was paler than usual, she noticed. It was making his hair and eyes look a lot darker than they were. It seemed like this case was affecting him more than she'd been thinking. That...kind of made Mai a little sad. They'd all been so focused on her, but Mai hadn't bothered making sure the rest of them were handling things alright.
The case couldn't possibly been going any easier for them than it was her, after all.
"Are you going to stand there staring at me all night, or do you intend to return to your room any time soon?"
Startled out of her thoughts, Mai found Naru standing right in front of her now, and blushed furiously. "U-um, sorry." The embarrassment faded, and just as Naru made to move past her, Mai blurted out, "Do you think I'll ever be able to tell him who I really am?"
Naru didn't have to ask her to elaborate. "I can't say. Honestly, a lot of it will depend on how the case goes and what else we can learn." He hesitated slightly, then decided to be blunt. "You have to realize that even if he was possessed and fully unaware of what he was doing, he can still easily be imprisoned for their deaths. Possession is not exactly an accepted alibi."
"Who would blame him though?" said Mai with a frown. "We're the only ones who know, and we aren't going to go tell the police about it or anything, are we?"
"No, but there is no guarantee Akira-san won't do the same."
"What- What do you mean?" asked Mai, startled.
"I'm not pretending to speak for him, Mai, and I'm not saying that it's definitely what he might do, but it's very possible that even though it was a helpless situation, he may still feel guilty about it. He may feel as if he deserves to be punished for what he did."
"But he didn't do it," protested Mai. "Jack did it!"
"I know, Mai," said Naru with a sigh, reaching out to drag his fingers through Mai's hair. "I know he was possessed. I know that what happened wasn't technically his fault, but Mai…it was his family."
Mai buried her face into Naru's chest, clutching his shirt. "I know! I know that dammit, but still!"
Naru released another deep sigh, before wrapping his arms around her. "It'll be alright, Mai. We'll work this out, alright? All of us."
Mai nodded slowly, glad for the uncharacteristic show of concern and comfort. "Un…"
"Just sleep for now, okay? We'll try and figure things out in the morning."
Mai pulled away and nodded. "Yeah, okay. Good night, Naru." A light flush appearing on her cheeks, she leaned up and touched her lips to his gently.
Naru smiled inwardly and reached out, cupping the back of Mai's head and bringing her into another kiss, pleased when Mai readily parted her lips for him. She tasted of toothpaste, he noted, and she was gripping his shirt again, and that adorable muffled sound of pleasure went straight to his head.
Naru was the one to pull away first. Mai's eyes were still closed, her lips were red and parted and she was still a little breathless and-dammit. No. He had to stop this now.
"Good night, Mai."
Watching him go down the hall, Mai wondered how the jerk thought she'd be able to sleep at all after that!
That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!