AN: So, I'm back! This time with an alternate universe where Gene never died and SPR was never formed. My original intention was to explore the sibling au, but somehow the focus ended up being more on Lin and Mai...oops. So, instead of a family fic, this is more fluff with a side of family. Maybe next time.

I am going to give a warning here: there is some violence and mentions of blood and allusions to some pretty horrific stuff in later chapters. But not too much different from Blood Stained Labyrinth. I just wanted to warn ya.

Anywho, I hope you enjoy the story! Thank you for reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.

Language Key:

Regular = Japanese

Bold Italic = Chinese

Bold = English

Chapter One:

With the lights off, the room looked like every hotel room he'd stayed in before. Here, in the dark, Lin could imagine that he was simply on a case. In London. Far, far away from Japan.

He could pretend that Noll and Eugene were in the room adjacent to his. Although, that was a bit more difficult. Had they really been there, he'd have reason enough to be suspicious. They were rarely this quiet on the first night of a case - well, Eugene wasn't.

But burying his head in the soft, fluffy hotel chain pillows would not alter his reality. Despite choosing a hotel that he knew would suit his needs, it couldn't change his location. Eugene and Noll were still safe in their English home. And Lin was alone in Japan.

All parties would've preferred a different arrangement. But the twins' mother was certain that going on this trip would spell doom for one of her children. Eugene had been greatly disappointed by her decision. Noll was irritated by her lack of faith in their capabilities. Still, they reluctantly stayed behind to appease their mother. Well, Eugene was reluctant, anyway.

Noll didn't care if he went or not - so long as the job was done properly. Which is why they sent Lin. He was the only person the Davis family trusted with such a personal and complex issue.

Lucky him.

But if he was being honest, he'd do anything for that family. Even if that meant flying into enemy lines. Even if that meant following the proverbial bread crumbs to find one of those enemies amongst the sea of her kind - their kind.

Although, he didn't see them in that way anymore. They were just Gene and Noll: two kids adopted by English parents who just so happened to share half their DNA with an enemy.

A selfish, stupid enemy who had somehow fathered (and abandoned) three children.

Even if he wasn't one of the horrid race, Lin still wouldn't have any good feelings for a man such as he. No, man was too strong of a term - coward, maybe.

Lin still wasn't entirely sure how the coward managed to find the twins. But sure enough, he had. And he was quick to try and weasel his way back into their lives, too. Far too quick.

It was obvious, despite his display of guilt (or maybe because). He was on his knees begging for forgiveness, supposedly. But beneath it all, what he was truly begging for was their honorable reputation, status, and of course, their money.

Although the DNA test proved he was indeed their father, the twins had enough of him. Well, Noll was done with him before he'd walked through the door. Gene had given it his best shot, but even he didn't want to be around him too much.

They did their best to distance themselves. But the persistence, with which he'd crawled out of whatever hole he'd been in to find them, would not let him be phased out quietly. Fully prepared for a confrontation, they were more than ready to tell him off. But he had an ace up his sleeve.

Another child; a girl; a little sister of their own.

She was only about a year younger than they were. That, and her name, was all he could tell them. The reason for this was that he had abandoned her when she was five years old.

Well, that wasn't all he had told them. He did mention how he met her Chinese mother, who was visiting America. She didn't speak a word of Japanese, but somehow he'd convinced her to run away with him to his home country. So, he could get away from his first wife and young infants. Only to abandon his second family shortly thereafter.

Lin couldn't imagine what that poor woman must have gone through. She'd been undoubtedly deceived and then left on her own in a foreign country. She was far from any family or friends who might have given her some comfort. She was all alone with her young daughter to care for.

When Lin and the twins were doing their research, he'd read of her passing. It was painful to read, despite him never knowing her personally. But just the thought of the injustice of it all. To die on enemy soil after being treated in such a way.

It was part of the reason why he was so agreeable when asked to carry out this mission. Even though it put him in the midst of the enemies. He felt it his duty, his way of honoring his fellow Chinese sister, to prevent her daughter from having the same fate.

So, here he was, in Japan. The alarm clock on the night stand read that it was two in the morning. Which meant that it was around five in the afternoon back home. Naturally, sleep evaded him. But this was for more reasons than jet lag. His closing thought as he finally drifted off was to hope he could finish this task quickly and return home.

Mai had learned the importance of prioritizing at a young age. When she was little, she prioritized food over shiny new toys (her second hand, one-eyed 'fashion doll' had a way cooler backstory than fresh out of the box Barbie, anyways). When she was in junior high, she prioritized her mother's health over going to a fancy, smarty-pants school. And when she was supposed to be in high school, she prioritized rent over education altogether.

It had been a difficult decision. But after one year completely on her own, she realized she couldn't keep up with both her studies and the cost of living. No matter how lenient the school was, they wouldn't give her grades she didn't deserve. And since she couldn't attend any classes, she couldn't pass the tests or do any homework. So, she dropped out.

She didn't regret it. Or rather, she wasn't going to let herself regret it. So what if she didn't have a high school degree? She could still work the same odds and ends jobs she'd been working since junior high. She might not get a cushy office job, but she wasn't too bad off. She couldn't stand to be cooped up too long, anyhow.

Besides, just because she wasn't getting an education from an institution didn't mean she couldn't educate herself. Every time she wasn't working (or sleeping), she was at the library or traveling around, always learning something. Even at work, an illustrious (chain) hotel, she found new things every day. The bassist of a rock band that frequently did events at the hotel taught her how to play guitar (and some incantations to ward off spirits). He and a young priest visiting a nearby church answered many questions she had about paranormal and the like. And a shinto priestess, who was the residing nurse, taught her the Nine Cuts. And how to murder someone and not get caught, but that's another story.

She even taught herself English. Well, mostly. She tried her best, but in the end she hired a tutor. He was a high school student at the time (older than her, actually), so his rates were cheap. He wanted a little extra cash for when he started college in the next year. Plus, it looked good on his transcripts. But Mai was just happy she earned a new skill - and pleasant company. With his help, she was now fluent in three languages.

No matter how many languages she knew, however, it wouldn't help her talk to this one visitor. He'd been a guest at the hotel for three months now and he'd taken breakfast there nearly every day. On most of these mornings, Mai would be the one to serve him. Probably because no one else wanted to. It wasn't that he was unnecessarily rude or anything. He just seemed to naturally put off an aura of unpleasantness. It made most of the servers uncomfortable.

Mai didn't mind, though. In fact, she barely noticed it after the first week. Her concerns were more that she knew next to nothing about him after three months. She knew he was an early riser. He liked coffee. He was rarely seen without his laptop. His eyes were two different colors. This last fact came as a complete surprise, as his grey eye was the only one visible. But Mai happened to get a glance at the eye beneath his fringe - and it was blue. Quite a beautiful blue, too. She had to look away before she got caught staring.

Because one other thing she had come to know (upon first glance, really), was that he was one handsome fellow.

This was especially true when he smiled. But she had only seen that like once. And it was so brief, she was pretty sure she'd imagined it.

To be fair, she'd been engrossed in her own affairs. An older Chinese gentleman had been on a tour of Asia (as some sort of prize he'd won). His group was staying at the hotel while they hit the Japanese destinations. The poor man ended up separated from them and had no way of communicating this to the staff. Of course, this caused him to become very irate. Luckily, Mai happened to be passing by. She quickly rectified the situation. After she heard him out, she was able to calm him down and get him reconnected to his group.

As she was leaving with him, they happened to pass by her handsome mystery man. This was when the possible smile occurred. She wasn't sure what could've caused it. But she really wanted to recreate it. This was a difficult task, of course. Since all her attempts at talking to him were met with abrupt, one word responses. She'd been working with the public long enough to know when her presence was no longer desired. That didn't stop her from trying again the next day - with another smile of her own.

She wasn't sure why she tried so hard. Sure, he was handsome. But was that enough to keep pestering the poor guy? Something about him kept calling out to her, though. Something in her heart was telling her that he was there for a purpose - and that purpose had something to do with her.

Or maybe that was just her romantic, schoolgirl fantasies getting the best of her. Oh well, a girl can dream. And since her dreams lately had mostly been night terrors, she'd take all the happy daydreams she could get. An impossible relationship was far better than getting impaled (or worse).

The nightmares were also why she agreed to work a few hours in the night shift (despite having a morning shift both before and after). Well, that and more money in her pocket, woot. And the fact that it was her friend's band playing that night was just icing on the admittedly sleep-deprived cake.

Her friend, the bassist who taught her how to play guitar, was also a monk. You wouldn't know that by looking at him, though. His long hair and flashy outfits were a stark contrast to what you'd usually envision for a monk. A musician definitely suited his appearance more. But that didn't take away the fact that he was indeed a talented monk. His fans called him Norio, but his real name was Houshou Takigawa. Mai just called him Bou-san.

Another one of her friends whose looks deceived was Ayako Matsuzaki. Her ostentatious appearance and her loud personality didn't quite fit with her shinto priestess occupation. She was the on-site nurse for the hotel. You could usually find her mingling at the hotel restaurant and bar. Like now.

"I still don't get how they let you serve the drinks," Ayako frequently brought this up - especially after having a couple of said drinks.

"That's never stopped you from ordering them," Mai quipped back.

"Yeah, but you're like what? Twelve?"

Mai smiled, "A lady never reveals her age. Isn't that what you always say?"

"That's for women over twenty, like me. And just barely, mind you," Ayako pointed her freshly manicured finger at her. "Not some kid like you. Do you even know what alcohol tastes like?"

"I've had a sip of a few different drinks," Mai shrugged.

She hadn't really cared for the taste of any of them. She wasn't biting at the bit to get to the legal drinking age, for sure. At seventeen, she still had three years to go. Then, she officially (legally) would be considered an adult. And then, she could stop working under the table. Or maybe, at least, use her own name.

She'd been on her own since her mom passed. Her dad had bounced when she was really little. They thought he was dead for the longest time, but records would pop up on occasion to show he was alive in different parts of the country. It was usually a brief appearance every so many years - just enough to not be declared dead. Just enough so that she was not legally an orphan. Just enough to mess up her chances of getting a job the proper way.

No one wanted to hire her without her parents' consent. So, she got a fake last name and declared herself an orphan. No, none of it was legal and she wasn't proud of it. But she did what she had to do to remain independent.

It was kind of nice in some ways. A lot of people in the music industry knew the Taniyama family. They knew the man that disappeared 'from the spotlight'. They knew the daughter that, afterwards, was following in his footsteps before stumbling at the start.

But Mai Shibuya? Nobody knew who that was. Well, except for a few people who frequented the Shipton Hotel in Shibuya. And she liked it that way. She was free (mostly) to live her life the way she wanted to. Without help from the industry. And especially without the help of her basically nonexistent father.

"I'm not sure how many more sips you should have," Mai gestured to Ayako's half empty glass. "Aren't you on call, tonight?"

"This won't bother me," she dismissed Mai's concerns with a wave of her hand.

"Alright, if you say so," Mai shook her head as she turned to the other guests at the bar. She froze as she saw who had joined them.

He stood tall in a dress shirt and vest with his suit jacket folded over his arm. Exhaustion was etched on his face as his hair fringe now concealed both of his beautiful eyes from her view. He chose a bar-stool and nearly slumped over the countertop.

Mai bounced over to him, "What can I get for you, sir?"

He looked up at her, then. His one visible eye was wide in surprise. Then, he furrowed his brows in concern. "I thought you were already a waitress and a maid."

"I'm a little bit of everything, just depends on what the situation calls for. Tonight, we're short staffed, so I'm a bartender," Mai shrugged again, hoping to play it off as normal. Maybe he'd think she just looked young.

He ordered a drink and said nothing else, so she was still none the wiser about his true thoughts. As usual. But she had no time to dwell on it, as Bou-san's band had just finished their set. A myriad of concertgoers came up for refills before the next band took the stage.

One of these concertgoers was a familiar face that had no business coming up to the bar. The young Osamu Yasuhara, who had tutored her in English, stood off to the side. He stood with another kid who looked to be around her age - they both had special bracelets that warned people not to sell them any alcohol.

"Why are you here, Yasuhara?" Mai asked once the mob subsided and the next band began to play.

"To watch a monk in action, of course!" he said with a mischievous grin.

The kid beside him scowled, "This is not what I thought you meant when you brought me here."

Mai bit her lip to fight off a laugh, "And who might you be?"

"Ah, this is Sakauchi-kun. He attends my old high school," Yasu introduced them. "And this cute lady is Mai Shibuya."

"It's nice to meet you, Sakauchi-kun," Mai grinned.

"Likewise, Shibuya-san. Although, I wish it wasn't under these false pretenses,"

"Still, was it any fun?"

The teen pursed his lips in thought, "I suppose the band wasn't bad. Though, I'm not sure it was worth sneaking off of campus for. Their cover of IKUTO's song was pretty good."

Mai faltered at the mere mention of the musician's name. Her trembling fingers caused her to drop the mostly empty glass in her hands. It didn't break (luckily), just clattered noisily on the countertop. Mai busied herself with cleaning up the little bit of liquid that splashed out upon it's crash. All while trying to ignore the pounding heart in her rib cage.

"Come on, that one's so old school," a deep voice spoke from beside her. Mai looked up to catch a wink from her favorite bassist. Who had joined her behind the bar.

"Bou-san, what are you doing?" She put one hand on her hip and tried to sound exasperated, but the grin on her face gave her away. She was always grateful for his presence.

"I'm giving you a helping hand. It's not right to have one little lady all by herself back here," he grinned back, giving her hair a ruffle. He, like Ayako, was none too happy with her work situation. But, unlike Ayako, he knew why she did it.

"So, she gets to work with a pervert. That's great," Ayako rolled her eyes. She had an issue with Bou-san ever since he broke up her 'date' with a known gold-digger. "And if you disapprove of IKUTO so much, why play it?"

"Look, I don't mind the music. He was a talented artist," Bou-san crossed his arms. "He's just not my favorite."

Mai snorted at the ambiguity of that statement. He'd been a huge fan until he got to know her secret. Now, not so much.

"The music isn't your favorite - or is it the man himself?" Leave it to Ayako to get to the heart of it right away.

"No comment,"

"What's wrong? Was he rude to little Takigawa when he asked for an autograph?" Ayako pouted teasingly.

Bou-san barked out a laugh, but didn't respond. The conversation was getting uncomfortable rather quickly for him. Mai was unable to assist him as it was nearly unbearable for her.

"He was quite a controversial person," Yasu piped up, hoping to ease the tension.

"Yeah, didn't he vanish some ten, fifteen years ago?" Ayako recalled.

"Twelve," Twelve years, three months, and fifteen days. Not that she'd been counting. "I mean, I think it's been twelve years."

"That sounds right," Ayako nodded along. "He had a daughter, too. Didn't he? She created a stir there briefly when she tried to get into the music business. What was her name again?"

"Mai Taniyama," Yasu answered right away. Mai kept her head low. Her hands shook on top of the counter. "She vanished, too. Shortly after that."

"Like father, like daughter," Ayako joked, throwing back the last of her drink. Mai couldn't help but flinch at her words.

"I'm sure she had her reasons," Bou-san ground out. His protective instinct went into hyper-drive. Unfortunately, Mai didn't have any spare energy to hold him back. All her's was spent trying not to spiral back down the rabbit hole of her past in front of everyone.

"Still, it is curious, though," Sakauchi commented. Mai had nearly forgotten about him.

"Her mom became sick!" The unexpected words came out louder and sharper than Mai's usual tone. Her heart skipped a beat as several eyes fell upon her. Her next words were much softer, "That-That's what I read in an article, anyways."

Tears threatened to fall as they continued to stare. Perhaps she messed up. Maybe they saw right through her. The world around her started spinning. Her hands would not stop trembling. Her body flushed with heat. Her chest felt cold.

A manicured hand reached out, aiming for her forehead. Mai instinctively jumped back, not expecting the physical contact. She would've fallen had it not been for Bou-san's steady hands. Ayako frowned.

"You've overworked yourself again,"

Mai blinked at the nurse. Overworked herself? She could roll with that. "I-I'm fine."

"Please! We're all standing around talking and you're over here having a mental breakdown," Mai couldn't really argue with her about that. "When's the last time you slept? And I mean actually slept for more than a couple hours at a time."

"Uninterrupted?" Mai asked sheepishly, before pulling herself away from Bou-san. She steadied herself as much as she could, smiling at a scowling Ayako. "See, I'm fine. I only have like another hour and then my shift's over, anyhow."

Ayako's eyes narrowed. Her bright red finger nails tapped on the counter. "You're calling in sick, tomorrow."

"Yes, ma'am,"

"And you're going to sleep for at least a full eight hours,"

"...yes, ma'am,"

"Alright, I have to go. You take it easy and let this idiot do most of the work," Ayako shot Bou-san a glare when he started to grumble about being called an idiot.

"I'll be fine, you go," Mai gently nudged her arm with a smile. The woman truly did care about her. It was kind of weird, after being on her own for so long, to have people who worried about her - even without knowing everything about her.

"I'll take care of her, I promise," Bou-san called out. Ayako ignored him as she disappeared into the noisy crowd.

"We should get going, too," Yasuhara reluctantly admitted. "I'll come back again. Maybe after you've gotten some rest."

"See you, Yasu," Mai smiled. "And it was nice meeting you, Sakauchi-kun."

"You, too, ma'am," he nodded, dragging Yasuhara back to his school.

That left Mai and Bou-san with the few customers that wandered over. Bou-san really did most of the work, despite Mai's protests. She felt bad that he was doing her job after he just finished a show. But he wasn't hearing it. While he was tending to another customer, she glanced over and noticed that her handsome stranger was still there. He was still hunched over his drink. The drink appeared to be untouched.

"Lin-san?" His eyes met hers. An intense expression was on his face, but she couldn't decipher what it meant. "Um, is everything okay over here. Do you need anything? Is there anything I can get you?"

His gaze softened and Mai swore she saw his mouth tick up at the corner, "No, thank you. I'm alright, miss."

"O-okay," Mai stammered out. "If you need anything, please let me know."

"Thank you,"

"Mm-hmm," Mai hummed, before heading back towards Bou-san. Before she ended up embarrassing herself.

He'd smiled! Well, sort of. But she was going to call it that. He had looked at her with emotion. A friendly emotion at that! Her night had sucked for the most part, but that almost made it all seem worth it.