Chapter 5
"Tea," came the imperious tone that caused Mai to scowl pointedly at the back of a certain guy's head.
"I'm just out of the hospital. Should it not be you getting me the tea?" Mai said heatedly as she got off the comfy sofa and tailed slowly to the door before marching out.
With Ayako and Bou-san interviewing the residents and John along with Masako trying to find the presence of the Sandman there wasn't anyone to speak to and poor Mai was bored! Lin doing research into the Sandman lore on the Internet and Naru reading books on it, left absolutely no one to talk to.
Bringing the cup of tea back into Naru Mai plonked back down onto the sofa. Lin had gone, and taken his laptop with him. Typical!
"Nee Naru, have you found anything yet?" Mai asked, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.
No reply.
"Are you going to answer me?" Mai gritted her teeth as her eyes bore in to the back of her boss' head.
…
Scowling Mai leapt up and tore the book from his hands, waiting to see his reaction. His eyes met hers momentarily full of irritation but there was something deeper. Before Mai could interpret it, it was gone as he grabbed another book and opened it.
"Are you going to speak to me outside of giving orders?" Mai spat at him, "What have I done to deserve the cold shoulder from you?"
Seconds went by… Naru sighed and shut the book before twirling the computer chair around to face her.
"What do you want me to say?" Naru said, "You know something and you're keeping it from me Mai. I'm not an idiot!"
"And neither am I!" Mai hissed, "All those trips you took, I knew they weren't holidays but you kept insisting they were. Tell me Naru, when were you going to tell me about Eugene?"
Naru's eyes widened slightly and he sat back in his chair, hands pressed to his face. Mai jumped back startled, she hadn't expected so much expression to cross Naru's face.
Mai's eyes widened slightly as something hit her, "You weren't coming back. As soon as you found him, you were going to leave… without saying goodbye?" Mai froze as the realisation hit her. Did he not care what his departure would have done to her? To the team? Her family would have fallen to pieces and she'd be on her own again. Just her against the world.
She stared at Naru as she saw him sigh slightly before looking up at her, "I swore to myself I'd return home with Gene's body. If I were to say goodbye to SPR, I don't think I'd be able to leave," Naru uncovered his face and stood up, staring down into Mai's face, "I tried not to get attached Mai," Mai's eyes widened at the small smile on his face and the gently expression on his face as he raised his hand to tuck a strand of lose hair behind her ear, she froze for a second, it was almost like it was Gene standing in front of her instead of Naru, "but everyone grew on me in the end, …you most of all,"
"Naru," Mai started to back away but Naru hurriedly grabbed her wrist.
"Hear me out. I've only got three little words to say to you, well they're not so little, kinda big actually," Naru said quickly and Mai could see a sheen of sweat above his brow.
"Are you ok Naru? You're looking flustered," Mai naively was unaware of what Naru was trying to tell her and brushed her hand against his forehead. He shivered and leaned back slightly.
"Mai, all I want to say is I-" Naru was cut short as the door was abruptly opened by Takigawa.
The monk didn't notice the close stance between his friends or how Naru abruptly stepped back from Mai and picked up a small black boring little book, all courtesy of Ayako who was unsurprisingly whacking him over the head repeatedly with her hand.
"Naru, Mai-chan, save me," the monk cried playfully as he ducked Ayako's swinging fist and ran for cover, namely hiding behind Mai.
"Bou-san, I'm not getting involved in this," Mai said as she tried to duck out from between the warring monk and priestess.
"This is not a playroom, Takigawa-san," Naru said frostily, "And both of you are distracting my assistant," Naru's eyebrow twitched as the pair ignored him and Mai simply shrugged helplessly as she watched him leave the room, and released a sigh.
"Bou-san, Ayako, I think its time you two went to bed," Mai said as she pushed them out of the base room with a sigh before shutting the door behind them.
Mai's eyes flashed open from her dreamless sleep. She didn't know what was more worrisome, that she hadn't a dream or something that wasn't her alarm clock woke her up. Mai wasn't one of those people who randomly awakened; she woke up for a reason, whether it be her alarm or Naru calling for tea.
The breathing of her two roommates calmed her slightly, they would have woken up of they sensed anything. She flumped up her pillow and shifted onto her other side.
…creak…
Mai bolted upright as she heard someone walk past the door to her room. She bit her lip with indecision, she knew she should wake Ayako or Masako to tell her she was going to investigate but then they'd want to come along which would cause too much hassle and she knew she'd probably not be able to investigate properly with them jabbering in her ear.
Getting slowly out of bed she winced as the springs creaked but neither girl stirred. She tiptoed to the door and left the room shutting the door behind her slowly.
"Lin-san?" she stared at the Chinese man who was at the end of the hall, "What are you doing here?"
Lin turned around to face her, "Taniyama-san," he said with a sigh, "Sorry if I woke you,"
More like 'Damn, she's awake, now I have to talk to her' Mai thought to herself as she approached the man, pulling her dressing gown more closely around herself.
"It's alright, you're a bit out of your way here," Mai stated, wanting an answer as to why he was by the girl's rooms.
"There was a temperature fluctuation, Shibuya-san asked me to check it out," Lin said as he started to head back to base.
"More like ordered," Mai muttered to herself before shaking her head. "So nothing interesting happened?"
Silence. Mai huffed to herself silently. Why was she always the one stuck in awkward situations?
They reached base in a matter of minutes and Mai felt herself relax slightly, that's funny, I never knew I was tense, she swallowed slightly before sitting down on the couch.
Naru was at the monitors, he didn't even bother to turn around and greet her, not that she expected it.
She sank onto the sofa and glanced over at the clock. Midnight exactly. Mai stared at the clock, there was something tickling at the edge of her memory, something about midnight…
"Naru!" Lin shouted out and Mai turned abruptly to see the tall man collapse to the floor.
"Lin-san!" Mai jumped up and raced towards him.
"Mai, stop!" Mai so used to obeying Naru's commands stopped before her thoughts could even think as to why she should.
"Naru!" Mai said scolding, "He needs help,"
Mai turned back to look desperately at Lin and jumped back in surprise. An old man stood before her, wearing a sandy brown suit. He had a long white beard and a white sleeping hat on top of his head. Beneath his eyes were dark circles and as he inched closer to Mai he grinned to reveal yellowing teeth.
"Naru…" Mai whimpered as she tried to back off but found herself unable to.
"Mai, what's wrong?" the teenage asked coolly as he stared at his frightened assistant.
Unable to speak Mai watched as the man reached for a small brown bad at his waist. His claw like fingers dragged out a sand coloured powder and blew it in his face.
It caught in her eyes, went up her nose and down the back of her throat, causing her to cough violently as she collapsed to the floor.
"Mai!"
My body, it feels like deadweight. Mai thought as her breathing slowed And my eyes are so heavy. I'll just take a little…nap.
Ok don't kill me guys. I know I haven't updated in a month, awfully sorry. On the plus side I'll send you all some christmas mince pies ;)
Well I'm in the middle of mock exams, have got a cold and can you believe it, it SNOWED, I know total awesomeness!!!!!!!!
Ok, if I don't get updated in a while I wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR
OH!!!! BTW THE MADNESS STARTS NEXT CHAPTER
STARTING WITH....
Duh duh duh
THE THREE LITTLE PIGS oink oink lol guess who