Chapter 2 Star sees the world

Mai walked around the kitchen getting it done with its cleaning before letting Star watch her find her wallet. While answer any questions from her, Mai found she didn't know most of the basic behaviors of a Japanese person. At most it was awkward when she tried to behave right. Star herself was struggling with her own frustration since she didn't like it when she was wasting time. "How about we say you're a foreigner?"

"Are foreigners a normal thing here?" Star asked as she petted down her long silver hair.

"Where did all that excitement to see the world here go?" Mai stated with a playful glare showing on her face.

"It walked out that door without me." Star stated with a completely serious face.

Mai raised her eyebrow at her and soon she saw her new friend was just joking and was slowly cracking at being stared at. Soon both joined in laughter as they walked out the door to show Star the world she landed on. Star was nervous to say the least. She had no idea what was normal but she had Mai so it should have been fine right? Wrong the moment Star stepped outside she was met with the noises of the world and she didn't like it. Turning to Mai, she saw that the sounds didn't bother her, so she tried to hide it so she could enjoy the day.

"You okay?"

"Just a lot of noise."

"Ah, come on let's take a walk in the park near by. You'll like that place better than right by this street."

Star smiled at her host as she followed, every so often Star would ask what a thing was and request what it does. As Mai watched her friend take in the world, she didn't even notice the person in front of her. The sudden voice being called out was shocking and startled Mai and confused Star. "Mai!"

Mai saw Yasu walking over as both of them were on their way to the ice cream stand. Mai was slightly stunned he was coming over. After all since SPR disbanded none of them kept contact. She was depressed about it but she didn't let it get her down and now she had Star to keep her distracted. So when Yasu stopped in front of her, with the same usual smile and the confused and worried looks from Star, she knew she had to talk her way out of it so Star didn't act like she thought she would.

"Hi Yasu. How have you been?" Mai asked a little oddly, since this was Yasu.

"Hey Boss, I haven't heard from you in a while. What have you been?" Yasu then noticed the girl standing rather close to Mai. "Who's your friend?"

"Yasu this is Star. She's a friend visiting for a while." Mai introduced. Star looked at Mai and saw and read through their link that she need to play along with whatever she said. Smiling at her hostess Star turned to Yasu and gave a nod to him.

"Hello"

"Wow cool hair Star? Where ya from?" Yasu asked, making Star feel confused. After all this was Mai's friend why ask about her when the one he originally wanted to talk to was right next to her. Star just couldn't understand it.

"I'm more or less from the northern arctic." Star stated a little critical. Yasu looked confused.

"Where do you know Mai from?"

Star sent for a small bit of help to Mai, since she didn't know much of the place here on Earth from her place in the sky. Getting a single word from her she just let it flow from her mouth. "School, I went to the same high school for a year before I transferred. I came back to Japan to study it again and I want to reconnect with Mai." Star stated almost word for word as she waved to Mai as if to let Yasu know she was still here.

Yasu turned to Mai and smiled sadly.

"Mai, where did you get such a cute friend. You must have been hiding her away from the world." Yasu stated while being overly dramatic. Mai smiled slightly at his behavior and shook her head while Star was even more confused at this strange humans behavior. We all males like this? Or was it just him? "Well, I just came over to say hi and meet your new friend, before I go back to the dorms. See you later."

And with that the guy named Yasu left. Star was confused even more. He said he was a friend but he acted like he didn't really care to talk to Mai and only wanted to talk to her. Star looked into the well-being of Mai and saw she saw that too and was slightly hurt by it. Lightly touching Mai on the shoulder caused her to snap out of the spiral she was about to send herself into.

"Sorry, say you want some ice cream?"

"What's ice cream?"

Mai laughed a little before looking stunned and smiled at her. "Then we need to get you some! Here pick on from the list."

"Um...mint chocolate chip?"

"Okay. One mint chocolate chip and one normal chocolate ice cream cone please." Mai asked the old man at the stand. He nodded and gave them to Star to hold as Mai paid for them. Star followed Mai to a large tree in the park where most people wouldn't see them. Mai would be able to hide how hurt she is if she ran into another of the old family of SPR.

Handing Mai her chocolate, she waited until she took a bite of her ice cream before Star deemed herself brave enough to eat it. Taking a bit she could believe she went as long as her life without ever eating one. Smiling as they ate, they almost forgot about the whole issue that the male Yasu caused. After they finished Star looked at Mai. "The male, he was once a friend?"

"Yasu? Yeah he's a friend."

"No, maybe the word friend means something different here but he did not act like a friend when he saw me…"

"I think he was overcome with how pretty you are that he forgot I was there. He didn't mean anything by it."

"Just because a pretty girl is around doesn't forgive that kind of behavior." Star blushed a little and pouted at Mai defending the male who was in all a oddity to her.

"Calm down Star it's just Yasu. Come on the city should have quiet down so let's go out and see the town."

Star huffed at that but smiled softly as she and Mai continued to walk into town. The trip was uneventful since Yasu made his appearance. Mai was smiling a lot more and Star found she liked her friend's smile more than anything. And that she wanted to see it more often. So Star made it a goal, to give her host something to be happy about everyday during her stay here. While walking back to the apartment Mai saw Star fading at random times, but luckily no one saw. Once they were inside Star collapsed onto the floor as she tried to keep up her solid form.

"Star go ahead and return. And rest. After all it's no big deal, it's not like you'll really be leaving me alone." Mai smiled, she saw the looks of her friends face whenever they got separated for a while. She saw that Star was slightly terrified of being alone and Mai found she was overly worried about her if she was gone from her side for too looked up and nodded, finally letting go of her form as she turned into star dust and floated into the star on her wrist. Still only one was aglow. But the second gave off a small dim light to show that her powers were returning. Once she was safely in her host Star gave a hug to Mai as a way of saying thank you for showing her the world around her before slipping off to sleep and regain her energy.

Mai felt the calm and soothing star dust disappear as her friend went to sleep when she started to prepare dinner for the night. A single meal alone. She had to remind herself that Star was still there only sleeping and couldn't keep her form for any longer. She took comfort in that she wasn't alone at the moment. When she was cleaning up after dinner she heard her phone ring. Which was odd since she was sure no one would call her. Her high school friends were gone and SPR no longer were around. No one of the irregulars ever called her so who could it have been?

Answering the phone she could hear someone on the other end. "Taniyama…"

"Lin? Hello. What do I owe the pleasure for this phone call?"

"SPR is reopening. I'm calling in everyone to see if you would be willing to work for us again."

"Naru is back?"

"Yes"

"Alright, when is everyone meeting up?"

"In two days from now."

After getting done with the phone call from Lin, Mai was surprised that they were coming back. She never thought that they would return. It's been a long time, but she was certain that maybe just maybe she could have a family again. And now that Star was around she would never feel alone. Wait, Star! Mai felt like she should hit herself. If they found out about her friend they might try to force her out. And that was something she wouldn't stand for. "I guess I'll have to keep her a secret for a while. How hard could it be."

Little did Mai know, Star woke up during the phone call and knew of the fears her host was going threw and knew she should keep quiet. After all, Star didn't want to be forced away not simply for her own survival but because she was growing very fond of Mai. And she too thought, how hard could it be hiding herself from some simple humans?