A/N: Back again ladies and gentlemen. This is chapter 2 of Memories Of Old. I really liked this idea so I decided to run with it. You will need to forgive me for any sucky romance because I have not had any experience in that field so this is just coming from the blue.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt. Do you think I would be writing fan fiction if I did?
10 am the next morning found Mai Taniyama flittering around the SPR office, cleaning. Not that it needed it. Despite how many people passed through, nothing in the small area ever seemed out of place. Not even the couches looked ruffled. But nevertheless, Mai wandered around, occasionally running a duster over the odd piece of furniture.
"Just another boring day at SPR" Mai muttered to herself as she began making Naru's tea. He would no doubt ask for it soon, so she decided to beat him to it. She had made the cup of tea, and now stood right in front of his door, when his silky smooth voice filtered through.
"Mai, tea," he said. Mai pushed open the door, to see Naru lift his head. A hint of surprise became evident in his eyes but it vanished just as quickly as it came. Mai just kept quiet and put his tea down on the desk. As usual, no word of thanks came so she just sighed loudly and left him to his "work".
'Honestly, how much work can one 17 year old really have?' she thought.
When the clock struck 10: 30 am exactly, a well-built man, who looked to be about 19, came striding purposefully into the office. She rose to greet him.
"Hello, you must be Paolo Keranzi, I presume" she said with a note of cheeriness to her voice. When the man's eyes met her own, Mai felt a shiver run up her spine, and not in a good way. His eyes widened slightly before he nodded.
"Yes," he drawled in a silky voice, "That's me. And you are?" Mai shook off her unease and held out a hand.
"Mai Taniyama, we spoke on the phone yesterday" she replied while he grasped her small hand. When he released her he then took a seat on one of the couches.
"I am here for help about a problem that is occurring within my mansion" he began.
"Oh well let me just get my boss then. He will need to hear this" Mai said interrupting him. She missed his obvious scowl as she walked over to Naru's door and knocked.
"Hey Naru, the guy from yesterday is here," she said through the wood. No sooner had she finished speaking, the door opened and out stepped said boss. Naru took a seat on the couch and his cool gaze assessed Paolo.
"Mai, tea" he ordered never taking his eyes from his subject. Mai was going to grumble at him but Paolo intervened.
"You should ask nicely you know. She is your assistant, not your housewife or your maid," he said angrily.
'What is he so worked up about?' the pair of SPR workers thought simultaneously. Lin chose this moment to exit the office in which he had been hiding all morning. Mai had completely forgotten he was here.
"Mr. Keranzi," Naru began, "I will address my employees however I see fit." His voice remained emotionless but there was a steely undertone that resonated loud and clear.
"Fine but you should address a lady with respect. Didn't your mother teach you any manners?" Paolo countered.
Naru began to speak but Mai cut him off.
"Knock it off you two! I'm standing right here, you know! And I have a name. Try using it!" she bellowed before storming past Lin and into the kitchen. Lin, Naru and Paolo were left gaping in her wake. Well not so much gaping in Naru's case.
Lin took a seat beside his "boss" before pulling his laptop from beneath his arm. He started typing. He was copying the notes Naru had already taken. Which were mainly descriptions about Paolo. Not very many of them seemed good though, the tall man noted.
Mai stood fuming in the kitchen as the others began arriving. Takigawa's loud voice was the first to reach her ears.
"Oh Mai-chan, where are you?" he said in a singsong voice. He stopped abruptly as he encountered the staring contest that Naru and, who he could only assume to be the client, were engaged in. He looked from one to the other before just shaking his head. He as forced to move however when Ayako decided he was taking too long.
"Move, monk" she said, pushing him aside and entering. Masako and John entered soon after and the pair almost reluctantly broke their contest and directed their attention to the newcomers.
"Ah, Masako, John, Ayako, Takigawa. I would like you all to meet Paolo Keranzi, our potential client," Naru spat his name with some evident disdain. A little move that didn't go unnoticed by the group.
Mai was still in the kitchen, clenching her fists trying to calm her anger. It wasn't just Naru or his attitude, it was something about Paolo. Something seemed off and it unnerved her greatly.
Nevertheless, she locked away her feelings for the moment as she prepared the long over due tea. She exited the small kitchen, with a tray full of tea cups, to find Naru, Lin and Masako sitting on one couch, Takigawa leaning on her desk, John and Ayako talking amongst themselves and Paolo staring at her again.
She ignored him and walked over to Naru. She tried not to slam his cup down but failed miserably. She then quickly gave everyone else a cup before standing in the corner.
"Now that everything is in order, perhaps you can inform us of your situation?" Naru asked Paolo.
"Of course. Well as I was saying, there have been some strange occurrences taking place in my mansion," he began.
'Why is it always a mansion?' Mai wondered silently.
"Some of the maids, or even the guests, would disappear for an entire day and then reappear without any memory of what happened. It was always the women though. At first I thought they were just being forgetful, but then one day a maid didn't return. We still have no idea what happened to her," he said with a hopeful glance at Naru.
Naru just shook his head.
"Mr. Keranzi, this case doesn't appear to be parano-"he began but Paolo cut him off.
"But that's not all. Some of the men have said that they have seen a floating white orb, which glows, in the halls and in the middle of the day too. They also claim to have heard a man calling out the name 'Isabella'. There is no-one by that name in my house hold so it couldn't just be a coincidence," he said almost nervously. Mai stole a glance at Naru and found him to be in deep thought.
"Very well then Mr. Keranzi. We accept. We will need to have three rooms for our personal use and also access to any and every part of your mansion. We will also need you to dismiss your servants until further notice. All except the ones that have seen or heard anything" Naru said finally.
"I have already dismissed my servants. I will just need to get into contact with the few you requested to see," Paolo explained.
Mai released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. After he finished explaining, Paolo nodded ecstatically and quickly stood. He bowed slightly to Naru before speaking.
"Oh thank you. Thank you, thank you….uh by the way, I didn't catch your name Mr……" he asked Naru.
"Shibuya" he replied without a hint of care. Paolo nodded once again and swiftly left the building. Everyone sat in silence for a few moments before Naru made a move to speak.
"Mai I want you to be her-" he began.
"On time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know" Mai cut him off. With that he stood and re-entered his office. Lin mimicked the movements shortly after.
"Bou-san?" Mai said nervously.
"Yeah?"
"I just want to apologize for yesterday, I was just embarrassed and I had no right to go off at you like that," Mai said very quickly. Takigawa just burst out laughing. Ayako slammed her handbag across the back of his head.
"Jeez. A little sensitivity would be nice ya jerk," she scolded him. Once he had finished whining, he apologised to Mai and told her there was nothing to forgive. Mai noticed that Masako was looking at her oddly. Almost as if she was examining, or looking for something on the girl. Eventually she just shook her head and walked into Naru's office.
'What was her problem?' Mai thought. When she turned her attention back to the others, she found John trying (in vain) to stop Ayako from strangling Takigawa.
'Looks like he made her mad again' she thought whimsically. Once Mai had given up on watching the group, she noticed Lin standing there with an amused expression on his face.
"You know we really need to be careful when it comes to those two," Mai commented approaching the man. He raised an eyebrow at her statement.
"And why is that Taniyama-san?" Lin asked. Mai just rolled her eyes.
"Because one day, there wont be anyone around to stop her. And I personally don't want to lose my big brother," she finished with a baby like voice. A small chuckle emerged from Lin's lips before he quickly masked it.
"I didn't know that you held Takigawa in such high regards," the tall man mused. Mai's next words made him look at her shocked.
"I consider you all my family. I see John and Bou-san as my brothers. Madoka is like a mother to us all. Ayako is the really cool older sister whereas Masako is the annoying one that thinks she's better than everyone else, and you're like the stotic uncle that doesn't like kids, let alone his own nieces and nephews," she finished with a laugh.
"And what of Naru?" he asked finding one flaw in her story. She replied without hesitation.
"He's the creepy next door neighbour that no-one likes, but has to play with regardless." Lin just nodded with a ghost of a smile gracing his features. He wandered back over to his office door before stopping and turning to the schoolgirl once more.
"Do you develop a crush on all your neighbours?" he asked and without waiting for an answer, disappeared into the seclusion of his office once again. Mai's face burned a bright red and she vowed never to trust Lin. Although she did wonder if it was really that obvious. Little did she know that one particular 'brother' of hers, amidst all the strangling, had heard their little conversation.
'Bingo,' Takigawa thought, 'I always knew that she liked him.' The monk right then and there vowed to make Mai pay for hiding that little tibit of information from him. Pay dearly. Luckily for Mai, no one else heard the conversation, but Takigawa knew that Ayako would literally kill him for not sharing his wisdom with her. And of all the things Houshou Takigawa could possible fear, Ayako Matsuzaki took the cake. Easily.
Still, his heart was warmed at the fact that Mai believed them all to be her family.
The said 16 year old had erased the blush that had invaded her usually (yeah right) clear cheeks. When she glanced at the clock she realised that it was now lunchtime. Her stomach groaned very loudly which drew the attention of the gang. She shrunk under their gazes as they began laughing.
"Sorry," she said meekly, "I didn't get a chance to have breakfast this morning. Naru wanted me here on time so I got up early so I would have time for breakfast but my neighbour knocked on my door and said she had lost her cat, so I was out all morning helping her find it and by the time I got back I barely had enough time to get ready and get to work."
"Then I suggest you remedy that stomach problem of yours so that some of us can work without interruption," a voice sneered from behind her.
'Damn. When did he appear?' she mused silently. When she turned, and of course, she came face to face with none other than the deep blue eyes of Kazuya Shibuya.
"Well sorry for being nice enough to help my friend search for her cat," she said sarcastically.
"You could have just gotten up extra early so as to help her," her boss replied coolly.
"What do you think I am? Psychic?" she replied without thinking. Naru just looked at her as if to say 'You are joking right?' Mai felt like slapping herself across the head.
'Duh. You are supposed to be psychic. Moron.' Her conscious retorted. She felt like slapping herself so much that that's just what she did, effectively earning odd looks from her colleagues.
'Damn him. He tricked me again!' she thought angrily.
'Oh so this is his fault is it?' another part of her mind questioned.
'Yes'
'But you're the one who asked the stupid question' it replied. Mai didn't really have a response to that so she just said anything.
'Shut up.' With that she ignored any response from her brain.
"Fine then," she huffed and stalked from the office, leaving everyone in her wake.
(A/N: Okay well as you can all guess, Mai is not happy right now so she is going to get some lunch. I won't really go into detail about that. I'm sure you can all come up with something in your imagination's. So I am basing this part around what happens after she leaves.)
"Way to go Naru," Takigawa said sarcastically. Naru just turned an icy glare on the monk, who was still sitting on the floor.
"She asked the stupid question," Masako replied to the monk. He just scowled at her and she smiled behind the sleeve of her kimono. Naru then headed back into his office. As he disappeared the group heard a snide remark slip from his lips.
"This is not a café by the way." Takigawa just shook his head and stood from the floor.
"Well, I am heading off then. I have a gig tonight and if I have to go on a case tomorrow, I don't want to be late," the man replied before leaving. Everyone else quickly followed the monk's example. Naru eventually found himself standing all alone in the middle of the SPR waiting room.
'Finally' the young president thought, 'Peace and quiet.'
'Sour puss' his brother replied.
(A/N: Just clearing this up. I have decided that, for the purpose of this story, Mai doesn't know about Gene yet so she still believes he is just dream Naru. Naru can mentally converse with his brother but is unaware of the contact Mai has with him.)
'Bite me' Naru replied.
'Don't tempt me Noll.' Naru just shook off his brother response and headed into his office.
About an hour later Mai finally returned to the SPR office. She had three bags clutched in her hands as she tried to open the door. She juggled the bags and was leaning against the door as she tried prying it open. Before she could move, someone pulled the door open and she tumbled through. Landing straight on whoever it was.
"Please don't let it be him. Please don't let it be him. Please don't let it be him. Please don't let it-" she begged silently.
"Be him. I get it. You didn't want to fall on a handsome guy now will you get off me. I can't breathe." Well maybe not so silently. Mai scrambled to get off her boss and when she finally succeeded, he turned an icy glare on her.
"What were you doing anyway?" he asked coldly. Mai blushed and grabbed the discarded bags off the floor.
"Trying to open the door if you must know," she replied. Naru simply stood discreetly looked his assistant over and when he had checked she was unharmed, went about scolding her.
"Well that is what you get for being stupid enough to carry more than you can handle," he said reaching for a bag. Mai just danced out of his reach and placed the bags down on her desk.
"There it's alright now," she said while inwardly fuming. How dare he insult her. Again!
"Fine. I am going out," Naru said while shrugging on his coat and walking out the door.
A few hours later Lin left for the day and Mai finally decided to head home herself. She took out a bag from underneath her desk, wrote a quick note and taped the package to the door. She then left and headed home.
When Naru returned to the SPR office all he found was a paper bag and a note out the front.
Hey Naru,
I know that you probably haven't eaten anything so here are some cookies.
Mai.
Naru let a whisp of a smile dance across his features as he read the note. He then shot a glance into the bag and sure enough, there were the cookies. It was then he noticed the added note on the bottom.
P.S. Next time you insult me, I'll poison them.
Naru let a chuckle slip forth at Mai's threat. On his way home he thought about it. He really should be nicer to her. After all, if Mai says she'll poison him, she probably will.
A/N: Wow. This chapter took me a while. I really liked the comment about Naru being the neighbour. My friend cracked up when I told her about it. Read and review people. Sorry for not updating sooner.