Well, 9,704 words later...
Warnings: Mentions of BDSM type stuff, but it's definitely not what you think. Other references to adult situations, curse words, etc.
Spoilers (duh): If you haven't read the manga...
Disclaimer: You know the drill
Quick note: Someone who shall not be named requested that I clearly define which language they were speaking, so from now on...
Bold: English
Unaffected: Japanese
Italics: Thoughts or emphasis or flashback.
Assume in a flashback with Lin, Noll, Gene, Evie, or any combination of the four they're speaking English unless I specifically say otherwise.
It had been too long since he last saw the smile. Before the news, he'd been so used to it, took the soft upturn of her lips for granted. Watching her now, chatting with the matron, she looked radiant. Her whole body exuded tranquility, acceptance, happiness. Any doubts he had about their decision vanished. This was right. So very right.
"Hello!" A little voice called, one that had become very familiar over the past six months. A small hand clamped in the fabric over his calf, half-tugging and half-clutching it just to hold it. Just so the connection existed. Maiko looked up at him with sweet brown eyes.
His daughter. The title came with minimal surprise. He wondered when he'd claimed her too. His wife certainly had the moment they laid eyes on the cherubic little girl. So much for wanting to adopt a baby. They'd be going home with a seven-year-old. Happily.
"Hello, Maiko-chan. How are you feeling?" he asked nervously, kneeling slowly on aging joints so he could be closer to her. Would she like the house? Should we buy her a puppy? Thoughts tumbled around in his mind, scenarios. She only liked them in small doses. She would miss the orphanage too much. She would hate them.
"Excited! I get to go home today, right Otousan?" she inquired beatifically, rocking on the balls of her feet, eyes wide and imploring. He felt his heart melt, and part of him questioned when he became such an old lady.
"That's right, Maiko-chan. You're coming home today." His hand reached out of its own accord to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "You're coming home," he repeated, more to himself because he needed the assurance. Before he knew it, little arms were locked around his neck, choking him a bit but he was too overcome to notice. He drew her into his arms, feeling her little body quiver with suppressed joy. She's so little.
She's mine.
The room grew cold, but he didn't notice, not with the warmth of his daughter wrapped around him. He didn't hear the matron's voice shouting at him to move, or his wife's terrified howl. He didn't see Maiko's face contorted in fear.
"Don't touch her."
He had time to think, it's a boy, before he was slammed through a window.
Evie was a baffling human being, Mai decided. Whether or not she liked her was a different story, one she'd yet to figure out.
There was nothing to suggest that she was evil, or harbored ill-intent towards any member of her self-described family, and her 'animal instinct' didn't seem inclined to believe so either. In fact she seemed honest, if not blunt, and for the most part got along with the members of the team she'd met so far. Except Masako, but Mai had yet to decide if that was due to the medium's…grating personality or if Evie knew something incriminating about her. From what Mai had gathered in the two days she'd known her, Evie was relatively normal (all things considered).
Yet every time she stepped within two meters of the woman, her stomach clenched and the not-voice said, warning! Watch her. So she did, even if she felt a little on the stalker side. She'd learned from the past not to ignore her intuition. When she did, someone got hurt. Granted, when she paid attention to it she got hurt. But given the options, she'd rather it be her.
"Mai, tea!" Naru called from his office, where the subject of her introspection currently resided. She couldn't hear well enough to make out what exactly they were saying, but from Naru' clipped tone and Evie's tendency to break into bouts of laughter, she assumed Evie was teasing him mercilessly.
Mai smirked, admittedly with more mischief than she was used to—she imagined she looked startlingly like Yasu at the moment. The best thing about Evie, enough to override her misgivings at least momentarily, was that she knew every embarrassing story, every dirty little secret from his past. And she had absolutely no qualms about sharing them. Mai learned more about Oliver Davis from a five minute conversation with her than she ever garnered from reading his books and papers.
Amongst many sparkling little tidbits, Mai had learned that: Naru's favorite tea had originally been black tea but since coming here, apparently it was now Earl Grey, which just so happened to be the exact kind Mai served to him daily. Naru hated Disney movies, made it his goal to point out every example of 'family racism,' but still watched them every time Evie and (mostly) Gene asked him to. Naru's favorite color, or at least the one he was inclined to wear most often, was actually forest green, not black. Most interestingly, because she could totally see it and barely imagine it, was that Naru knew how to ballroom dance, and was quite adept at it, thanks to Evie's tutelage.
"Noll was quite the charmer on the dance floor. Gene had the smile, but at these stuffy social events, Noll was the heartbreaker," she'd explained idly, as if recounting the day's weather in response to Mai's (probably too) excited inquiry.
"You'll have to show her sometime, Nature Boy!" she'd shouted, to which she'd received a gracefully raised eyebrow in response. "His middle-finger," she translated, then at the slightest indication of incomprehension on Mai's part, forced Naru to give an impromptu lecture on the Western derogatory gesture and its origin.
Mai's head hadn't really stopped spinning since.
"Mai!" barked "Nature Boy"—she'd have to ask later—his irritation increasingly more overt, which, given his stunted ability to emote, was never a good sign. Thankfully, in the time working for him she'd mastered multi-tasking, and had prepared a full pot while she thought.
"Coming!" Tray balancing somewhat precariously on her forearm, she shouldered her way through the office door, smile firmly in place.
She'd been right, apparently. Naru had his nose buried in a book, as per usual, but judging by his tense shoulders and too-unemotional face he hadn't read a single word. And judging by Evie's blasé perch on his desk, her stiletto-ed foot in his face, she was the reason why. Mai barely resisted turning her smile into a smirk. Naru certainly was thrown off balance by her arrival, if not her antagonizing.
"Would you like some tea, Evie-chan?" She couldn't keep the laugh out of her voice, especially as Naru leaned further and further away from her foot as if at the first hint of contact he'd combust. They're like children.
"No thank you, Taniyama-san," she replied distractedly, retracting her foot in favor of dangling upside down from his desk, regardless of the relatively short length of her dress. Scratch that; she's like a child.
"Evie, if you're done substituting my desk for a jungle gym, the adults have work to be done," Naru drawled before taking a sip of his treasured tea. Really, for someone who's known him for so long, she should've known better than to provoke him before his third cup. Evie simply chuckled in response and rolled feet over head to the floor, all with the same level of grace Naru possessed and Mai hurt herself trying to achieve.
"Oh, so that's what we're calling it now?" she teased, eyebrow raised elegantly. "In that case, Lin and I have work to be done as well."
Before Mai could ask (or throw up), Evie was out of the room, sashaying down the hallway, and Naru visibly deflated. His face seemed strangely contorted, though it was a subtle twisting, more involuntary as if he were remembering something unsavory. Which given the circumstances was not unlikely.
She couldn't resist. "Ew."
"For once, I'll share that sentiment." Mai paused mid-retort. Did she hear him correctly, or did he actually agree with her? His eyes were bored, but not flat and detached, and his posture was the same unfailing rigidity. There didn't seem to be any sign that he might have been possessed in that past five minutes. Maybe she should poke him, to be sure.
Before she could summon the willpower to pop his personal bubble, Evie's head peaked through the doorway. "Um, Naru-chan?"
"I thought you were off defiling my work space," was his disgusted response, for which he received yet another cat-like grin.
"In due time, I assure you. But for now, I believe you have a client. A Hamasaki-san, from the Morioka Girl's and Boy's Home?"
His head tipped upwards in interest. "Hamasaki? Mai, was there a scheduled appointment?"
She, luckily, had already begun sifting through her work agenda, scanning the week's page intently for the name. Just last week, she could have sworn someone by that name had called about an orphanage, which ordinarily wouldn't have caught her attention, as for some inexplicable reason they received two or three case requests at orphanages a month. However, ordinarily, her stomach didn't try to jump out of her body at the woman's brief summary. She'd made the appointment without a second thought.
There it was. Her finger traced over her own handwriting speculatively.
"Yep, Hamasaki-san, three o'clock." Mai bit her lip indecisively. Since returning from England, he'd taken cases more readily, but that didn't mean he was any less critical, and something in her demanded that they take this case, be it her clairvoyance or 'animal' intuition or some other strange power that may pop up. Now to tell Naru that without getting insulted in the process. "Um, Naru?"
He paused in his leisurely but purposeful trek to the door and looked at her curiously, if not a bit impatiently.
"I think you should take this case," she said on a rushing exhale, fighting the urge to close her eyes against his response. She could hear the 'idiot' forming in his throat now.
But he wasn't speaking, not even to insult her. His eyes were narrowed in thought, locked onto hers and damn it all she could feel the blush rising in her cheeks. She didn't look away though, not even when he smirk-smiled and shook his head.
"Is this your intuition speaking?"
Mai wasn't sure a comprehensible sound could squeak through her throat at the moment, so she nodded deliberately, meeting his steady gaze with determination she didn't know if she actually felt. They studied each other silently for a long minute, ignorant to Evie's awkward gawking just outside the door.
"Okay."
"Would you like some tea, Hamasaki-san?" Mai offered cordially, having placed the obligatory peace offering before Naru first, even if it defied her hostess sensibilities.
"Yes, thank you Taniyama-san," she replied shakily before lowering her head, brown eyes drawn to the carpet. Usually, Mai wouldn't feel much about a case from the client, aside from the obvious turmoil and occasional skepticism. She could read the person just fine, could readily identify pranksters over the phone and sometimes submit them to an hour-long lecture courtesy of her no-nonsense boss, but as far as premonition involving the actual activity, that didn't come until maybe the first night if they were lucky.
That said, her stomach was screaming at her. Help her help her help her help her. She clutched the spot automatically, something like a nervous gesture that she knew was too obvious but couldn't stop anyway. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naru watching her, his brow furrowed pensively.
"Getting right to it, what sort of activity have you been experiencing," he inquired without inflection, nose turned down to his notebook, while Mai took it upon herself to sit next to the obviously shaken woman. In a moment of impulsivity, he'd told her once that her presence was calming to people, and she'd made a habit of offering herself as support, especially when Naru seemed disinclined to show any hint of humanity during these interviews.
"Well, the home has a history of strange goings-on," Hamasaki-san explained, her voice strong even as she looked away from them, "It's been in the family for years. You see, my grandmother was the matron for sixty years before she passed. When I was a child she would tell me stories of knocking and footsteps in the night. I always thought it might be the other children playing games or she was simply trying to frighten me. But sometimes, I'd walk down the hallway during the summer, and out of nowhere the air turned icy. Once I heard a scream in the middle of the night, but no one else woke up. They hadn't heard it. When I came to work with my grandmother, I noticed the little girls in particular would giggle at the strangest times, when no one had said anything, or they'd walk as if they were holding hands with someone."
Naru looked up from his notebook. "That's not entirely disconcerting. Many young children have imaginary friends, do they not?" Mai shot him a poisonous look, one he very pointedly ignored. He could at least pretend to be blindly accepting, she thought with an internal huff of indignation.
"Yes," she conceded hesitantly, "and typically I wouldn't bother. But when I asked them who they were talking to, they all told me the same name. Hideyo."
He returned his attention to his notebook and nodded for her to continue. Hamasaki-san turned a questioning look to Mai, who simply smiled encouragingly. It would take a millennium to explain Naru's subtle, socially-inept (or maybe dismissive?) body language.
"This has been occurring for years, and I've never been too concerned. The children were happy, so I saw no reason to disrupt routine." Her expression abruptly twisted, tears pooling in her eyes as her hands shook violently. Mai clasped them between her own to try and quell the trembling.
She had seen many people come and go from this office, witnessed every emotion play out on their faces. Her whole profession was surrounded by fear and uncertainty, and she was no stranger to both. Yet somehow, no matter how many times she watched the terror bloom in their eyes, her heart broke for them. Maybe it was good that she hadn't grown numb to it, but it would definitely make her job less difficult if she were.
Naru evidently wasn't numb to it either, she thought warmly as he passed a box of tissues to their distraught client. He wouldn't bother if he didn't care. "Hamasaki-san, has something changed?"
The woman sucked in a heaving breath in an effort to calm herself, her hand tightening almost unbearably over Mai's. When she tried and failed to speak again, Mai offered, "Take your time," through her half-closed windpipe, looking desperately to her boss. Something's not right here, I can't breathe. Mai wanted to claw at her own throat, to try to tear free from the pressure, but there was nothing, she knew there was nothing. Even if she could move there'd be nothing.
"I'm alright. It's just, recently, whatever's there, a ghost or demon or whatever, it has been attacking people. Men, specifically, who look to adopt young girls. One was paralyzed." She inhaled sharply. "I don't know what to do anymore. The girls are terrified. They're afraid they'll never find a home."
Hamasaki was still talking, still shaking, her hand still wrapped around Mai's. But she didn't hear a word she said, it all sounded so fuzzy, fuzzy and loud, like the outdated radio blasting static from her neighbor's apartment. Her head hurt. Her throat hurt. Why can't I breathe?
Naru, help.
"Lin!" his voice broke sharply through the din, and suddenly there were eyes on her. Hamasaki, with her dark brown looking wild with shock and residual fear, Naru, the dark blue washing into the black of his pupils, flat and hard and she knew he was concerned, but she couldn't think of why. Every inch of her was tingling almost pleasantly, her vision swimming. The pressure around her throat seemed more caressing, comforting. Mai wanted to sleep.
Through the spots dancing across her eyes, she saw a bright light, then another, then three more, and the pressure was gone. Hands pulled her up, or forward, to somewhere with warmth and a voice in her ear.
"Breathe, Mai." A hand on her back, not gently and soothing, smacking it roughly, encouraging her starved lungs to work. Mai complied, even if she was sleepy, and let the air in. It assaulted her, forced its way angrily down her windpipe, stretching her lungs, and she tried not to cough but she couldn't help it. Once she started, she couldn't stop.
"That's a good girl. Just breathe." Another voice this time. Lin, her brain, drinking in the oxygen hungrily, reminded her. Were they his hands at her back? But he seemed too far away. Naru? There was a third person in the office, not a client, but she couldn't remember her name.
"Is she alright?" There were too many voices now. Mai wanted to sleep again. Her head was throbbing, and her throat felt like it would bruise and really, she just wanted to go home. All the weird shit happened to her. She slumped against the warm, hard thing behind her, and it tensed, but she ignored it, nuzzling into the scratchy fabric.
"Aw…"
"Evie," the warm thing rumbled threateningly, and distantly she realized it was a chest she'd fallen gracelessly onto, and it most likely belonged to Naru. Perhaps she should care, and normally she probably would, but being strangled by nothing seemed a good enough reason to forget what she normally did. I can freak out later, she thought numbly, clutching his lapel and trying to stop the shaking before it began.
"….spirit attached to you….gone now…." Voices drifted in and out as her conscious state fluctuated. A hand fell absentmindedly to her shoulder, not moving, just a solid point of contact that kept her rooted to reality for a few seconds longer.
"Naoki-san will walk you out, Hamasaki-san. We will be contacting you with our arrival time as well as our requirements as soon as possible."
Mai was out before she could celebrate.
The weather called for a warm day, about 24℃, very little breeze and bright, shining sun all afternoon. In their typical cheeky banter the anchor and the pretty, silly twenty-something year-old weathergirl laughed at the idea of visiting a beach for the day. It certainly wasn't sweater-weather, she'd commented cutely, before they moved on to sports or something.
So of course, Mai was wearing a turtleneck.
She'd woken up at her apartment (blushing because she was pretty sure she knew how she got there and she hadn't had time to clean the kitchen) with a massive headache, wounded pride, and a lovely purple ring of fingers on her neck. Popping Tylenol, she walked out of her apartment without much thought to the ugly bruises. It wasn't as if they hadn't seen worse on her, and she could handle perfectly well an overtly concerned Evie, who wasn't used to seeing her wounded in battle.
But then her damned neighbor, a promiscuous, boundary-ignoring, self-proclaimed 'starving artist' who called her little sister while blatantly checking her out, had given her this 'I know what you've been doing, and it's probably kinky sex,' look, and she'd darted for a scarf. Except she didn't have one, so she went for the next best thing.
She just hoped no one would notice if she turned up the AC.
As she stared forlornly at the stack of paperwork she had to sign and collate before they could leave for Morioka tomorrow, the door swung open with far too much pizzazz than was necessary this early in the morning. She didn't even have to look up to know who it was.
"Good morning, Jou-chan!" he practically sang, drawing out every syllable obnoxiously and loudly. Mai looked nervously to Naru's office door. He'd been in a bad mood this morning and Bou-san's….cheerfulness was sure to aggravate him all the more.
"Keep it down, you silly old man!" she hissed, but sprang from her seat to hug him regardless. His arms wrapped around her like a vice, not his usual bear-hug, but one that was filled with concern. She could feel him sigh in relief through his chuckles.
She frowned. "Did Lin-san tell you?" And here she was hoping she wouldn't have to tell them and worry them unnecessarily. She didn't die, she wasn't even that hurt. Hence, no reason to rile them.
Ayako, whom she just noticed had snuck through the door with John and Masako in tow, shook her head. "Naru called me, actually. He wanted me to check you over."
Mai stared at her in confusion as she circumvented the monk (not without offering a smirking remark to his age) and produced a penlight from nowhere. Oh, right. Ayako was a doctor. She didn't know how she forgot. It made a ton more sense for the fashionable redhead to be a doctor than a miko.
"No petechial hemorrhaging, all responses normal. Take off your sweater," she ordered in a voice Mai didn't recognize, more authoritative and gentler than the impatient bark she was used to. Ayako has a doctor voice. The thought made her want to giggle.
"What?"
Ayako rolled her eyes. "Naru told us you might have bruises. Let me see them."
She made to protest, but a heavy hand at plopping unceremoniously atop her head cut the words in her throat.
"We're not stupid, Mai. Why else would you be wearing a sweater with a neckline up to your ears if you weren't hiding something?" Bou-san added helpfully, ruffling her hair and tugging her collar pointedly. Mai swatted his hand away, blushing.
"Fine, but no one make a fuss. It looks worse than it is," she relented, passing a threatening glare over everyone, even the wide-eyed priest half-hiding behind Masako, before slipping the sweater over her head. She thanked the gods that her head didn't get stuck in the neck.
At least no one gasped. She probably would've lost it if they even tried to be that dramatic. Ayako clicked her tongue against her teeth disapprovingly, as if Mai could control the random spirit that had wrapped its little hands around her throat, and prodded the darker spots were its fingertips had curled into her flesh.
Mai yelped. "Hey, not necessary!"
Alas, she went ignored. "Bou-san, what do you think?"
The suddenly serious monk invaded her personal space, holding his hand just above the prints on her neck. Comparing the size, Mai realized with a start. She hadn't thought much of it when she was poking the bruises disinterestedly this morning. "They're small. Probably a woman."
"Or a child," John offered, smiling sheepishly when Mai's irritation was directed at him briefly.
Ayako hummed in agreement, then turned her attention back to her impromptu patient. "I'll give you an ointment that should help the discoloration and bring down the swelling. Try to avoid getting attacked in the future, okay Mai?"
As if I have much of a choice. "Sure thing, Doc!" she answered brightly, smiling beatifically at the responding glare. The others took the exchange as a sort of dismissal from the conversation, making their way to the couches so they could begin their daily routine of distracting Mai.
They didn't waste any time. Just as she was seriously considering actually getting her work done on time, Bou-san of course had to sit on her desk and turn his pleading, kicked-puppy face on full power, so of course she couldn't resist, unless she wanted to feel like a horrible excuse for a human being.
"So Jou-chan…," he began with his trademark detective voice, too much curiosity and mischief mixed in there for her taste, "tell us about this visitor. Masako won't tell us anything and John's too polite to ask the nitty-gritty questions."
Mai rolled her eyes. She should've known there was an ulterior motive to their visit. If medical attention were the only thing, Ayako would've come alone. But no, even John was sitting on the couch, trying not to look interested even though he clearly was, and Masako looked ravenous for gossip. Anything to fuel the fire, Mai thought, amused.
"You're assuming I know any more than they do," she commented primly, then blushed, because she sounded a little too much like Naru for her liking. She was spending too much time with him.
"You sound like Naru. Come on Mai, tell us!" he insisted, pouting even more, if that was possible. She sighed.
"Her name is Evie. She's a childhood friend of Naru, and she came to see him after she found out about G—," she couldn't bring herself to say his name aloud, not when her boss was in earshot, "about Naru's brother." She looked at the paper she was about to sign. "That's all I know."
Bou-san visibly deflated. "You have to know more than that. What about your animal instinct?" Mai shot him a withered glare as she signed the next document. "Sorry, I mean your intuition. What do you feel from her?"
She paused in her absentminded work, staring, unseeing, at the desktop. What did she feel from her, besides a jumble of suspicion and twisted confusion she had no hopes of interpreting? Watch her. That's all she had. Two words that hummed in her stomach and in her heart. Watch her.
"I don't know," she answered slowly, honestly, "She's not evil, or planning to hurt us as far as I know, but there's something...off about her. I can't tell exactly what it is. Like there's something bad inside her, but she's good. Maybe the other way around. I just...it's strange to be around her. So confusing."
There was silence as they contemplated her words. John for his part was juggling respect for Mai's abilities and happiness that she was more comfortable with them, and turning her confusion over in his mind. He remembered when only a short time ago she would've dismissed her feelings as fleeting nonsense, and would've reprimanded them for even asking. Strange, how much she flourished when Naru left. Like she was trying to prove her abilities to herself and to him. Whatever the reason, John was happy she trusted herself as much as they trusted her.
"I don't trust her either, Mai," Masako admitted from behind her kimono sleeve, as if she were uncouth in agreeing with Mai. "She has a revolting personality."
"Perhaps we should let the others meet her first, before we start passing judgments? It would be wrong to poison their view of her, when we ourselves know very little about Naoki-san," John suggested carefully, mindful of the medium's fragile temper, and rose to his feet. "I'll make some tea while we wait."
No one felt the need to point out that they hadn't the faintest idea if Evie would be coming to the office that day. They let John escape into the kitchen without a word.
Every couple of steps, she'd let her hips bump against his. Outwardly, the soft collisions were a result of her choice in footwear and their proximity. The way she latched onto his arm, not too tightly but still a firm enough grip to feel his muscle flex and tense beneath, could be construed as equally innocent. He was simply walking her out of the restaurant in which they'd shared dinner and lingered for an hour after their meal to chat.
Walking her back to his apartment because in her haste to 'bitch slap Naru,' she'd neglected to book a hotel room for more than two nights. Not that he'd minded. Naru had insisted on a separate living arrangement, and as a compromise they were neighbors. He was free from a rather compromising run-in should his ward be home.
That was the problem.
It wasn't innocent. Evie knew exactly what she was doing. What's worse, Lin was disinclined to do anything about it.
"So, Lin-san," she began almost teasingly, if not for the edge of seriousness coloring her words, "What's with the Mai and Naru thing?"
Strange tactic, he thought, almost smiling at her intuitiveness while fighting the urge to groan in frustration. "I've told you to call me Koujo too many times," he answered, ignoring her question in favor of fielding his own war. Her body tipped closer to his once more.
"And I've told you, only on special occasions." It was dismissive, if not a little nostalgic but he caught the hint. Memories flashed across his eyes from years ago, awash in heat and gasping and if he were anyone else he'd blush. Score one for Evie. "You didn't answer my question."
He rolled his eyes. "Forgive me, Naoki-san, but I haven't the faintest idea."
"He likes her, right?"
Lin said nothing, his mouth twitching at the corners. Think a little deeper. Naru does nothing halfway.
There was a sudden tug on his arm as she stopped abruptly, her mouth fallen open in surprise and any trace of seduction gone from her eyes. He tracked the miniature explosion occurring across her face, from shock, to disbelief, to joy, then back to shock, then to mischief, and he didn't have the energy to interpret that last one.
"No way." A smile burst from her lips. "No way!"
Lin could do little but raise his eyebrow as she danced in an altogether too ridiculous manner for someone her age, in her profession, in public. But she didn't seem to care that she was attracting unwanted attention from nearby pedestrians, content to celebrate even as he tugged her insistently towards his apartment building. He'd missed this, he realized, her complete lack of regard to social norms and her ability to make him forget the time that had passed, the years between visits and weeks between phone calls. Forget that he wasn't a gangly, over-serious fifteen year-old babysitting a set of psychic identical twins while he studied to be an onmyouji, and that she wasn't a thirteen year-old ballerina learning to separate her emotions from those around her and hiding a gift that was more of a curse.
Part of him felt like maybe he should share his unexpected sentimentality in a more verbose fashion. But then, he was never one for words, if he could avoid them. So instead he tucked her beneath his arm, pressing her closer, and offered a fleeting smile.
"I missed you too, Lin," she murmured affectionately, reaching up to clasp his hand in hers.
His apartment was too cold, as if he hardly ever stayed in it, which, considering his occupation, made a shit ton of sense. In any case, Evie's attempt to fall back asleep did not appreciate the chill keeping her awake.
Though, she thought to herself, a little giddy either from sleep deprivation or good old-fashioned excitement, Koujo's doing an excellent job keeping me warm.
He was molded around her back, one arm slung over her waist, face tucked into her neck, his warmth radiating at every point of contact. She could feel it tingling in her half-awake nerves, along with the sleep-muddled and unrestrained emotions exuding from her companion. Contented, affectionate, perhaps a little aroused, though that could be the vestiges of the night before, and underneath he was weary. Too long away from home, too long dealing with Noll. Or at least that was her interpretation. She could be wrong.
Probably not.
When he tucked her closer in his sleep, nuzzled in her neck and breathed a deep sigh, she couldn't help but giggle silently. For such an intimidating, mysterious man, he was such a cuddle-whore. But the embrace was soothing, and soon enough she felt her eyes grow heavy again, shutting out the pale morning light.
She didn't hear the front door open, nor the cautious footsteps in first the kitchen, then the living room, then finally making their way to the small, spartan bedroom.
"Get up." The voice was sharp, not loud but it still cut at her ears. Maybe it was the alarm clock going off and if she punched it hard enough it would go away. Her arm thus began a strange flailing search, fist swinging dangerously towards the source of the voice.
"Please refrain from damaging my face," the voice reprimanded, before a strong grip caught her wrist. Evie pried her eyes open and looked up at the black-clad figure looming beside the bed, his pale face a vision of subdued rage. How he managed to look like an avenging angel this early in the morning, she was loathe to understand.
"Lord knows that would be a tragedy," she groaned, her throat rough from sleep, and sat up, heedless of her state of undress and the way-too-apathetic-in-the-presence-of-a-naked-woman teenage boy looking pointedly to the side. Lin huffed in his failing sleep.
"Tell me this is a nightmare and Noll isn't actually in my apartment," he growled, face in the pillow because he'd yet to wake fully and he wasn't sure he wanted to open his eyes just yet.
"If only. We were supposed to be on the road by now," said boy returned icily, crossing his arms. Evie had to admit with the couple of inches he'd gained since last she'd seen him, plus the clothing choice, he actually seemed intimidating.
Lin had the good grace to turn over and face his young charge. "What time is it?"
"Five."
Evie stretched languidly, like a cat, and made her way to the bathroom in hopes of a shower and avoiding Naru's wrath. It was way too early for that. "Just give us a minute!" she called from behind the sanctuary of the bathroom door.
"In the future, could you pretend to have any sense of modesty," he quipped, with that irritating lack of inflection he'd mastered at too young an age, "There are some things I'd prefer not to see."
"It's not anything you haven't seen before," she reminded him over the streaming water. Lin rolled his eyes at the memories he'd rather forget.
"And to think I'd almost managed to repress those memories." Noll looked a little green around the edges, his nose wrinkled in obvious disgust. "Hurry up."
It was difficult to decipher beneath the roaring of the shower, but Lin could just make out an irritated "impatient" followed by a squeak when she dropped what was probably soap. As he chuckled at her expense, Naru turned on him, his blue eyes narrowed as if to say I'm not finished with you just yet.
Lin sat up, carefully covered by his mangled sheets, and faced him unafraid.
"We are behind schedule now, thanks to you. When the others ask why, I'll be sure to explain the situation quite thoroughly." With that, he turned on his heels and left, too gracefully to be considered stomping. Lin just barely suppressed a groan of dread.
Today was going to be a long, long day.
It was five-thirty on a Sunday, and not one of them had stopped squawking since Naru spilled the proverbial beans, much to Evie's apathy and Lin's dismay. Even John's awkward accent intermingled with the din, though he at least attempted to change the subject, for which Mai was incredible grateful.
If she heard one more jab about the "Situation", she was going to punch someone. Preferably Yasu. Actually, she had a crappy right hook. Maybe she could rile Lin enough to do it for her.
"So, who's riding with the lovebirds?" Bou-san, now and forever more known as the Unfortunate One, chortled. That's it. Mai cracked her knuckles in preparation.
"OW! What was that for?" he howled, rubbing at his throbbing bicep and pouting childishly. She spared him no mercy and shot a dangerous glare in his direction.
"So Lin-san got laid, big freaking deal! I'm tired of hearing about it, and I'm pretty sure Lin-san and Evie-chan don't want their personal business broadcasted." It's awkward enough with the mental images. Ignoring his wide eyes and slack jaw, she turned on her heels to face the remainder of their team, her sight honing in on her boss. He was to blame for this, she decided, he and his stupid temper.
"Naru, you had no right to share that information. A simple 'we're late, sorry' would have been more than enough. Now we have to deal with these two," she gestured wildly between Bou-san and Yasu, who would be assisting from the office but had come to see them off, "making jokes for the whole case! Next time, when you feel like being petty, make sure they're not in ear-shot. The rest of you, if I hear one more word about this, you'll have to get my boot," she pointed to her toe threateningly, "surgically removed from up your ass!"
No one was quite sure what to say in response, and Evie was wondering if this were a daily occurrence or something she could only look forward to occasionally. Mai, having said her piece and being content in it (if not a little guilty because she cursed, and told off her incredibly vindictive boss in one glorious display), marched deliberately towards Bou-san's car.
Lin couldn't help but notice how similarly the young girl and Naru stormed off. It was amusing, to say the least, especially now that Naru was blinking owlishly in shock. Mai should reprimand him more often, he thought, smirking as he slipped into the driver's seat of the van. The cars had been packed long before Naru, Lin, and Evie had finally arrived, in hopes to avoid inciting the already dubious temper of the aforementioned boss, a fact for which he was exceedingly grateful. After being demolished like that, he was certain to be in a bad enough mood without any further delays.
"Taniyama-san, why don't you ride with me and Naru?" he called, outright smiling as she turned her stomping towards the van. He didn't need the protection of course, but he felt it would be vastly more interesting to have a snappish Mai deal with Naru's moodiness than himself.
Ayako, for her part, was still turning the events over in her mind with little success. "What's gotten into her?" she finally barked, her confusion sharpening her voice.
John shrugged, trying valiantly to fight the small smile threatening to turn his lips, and started for the car he, Ayako, and Bou-san would be sharing. He'd long since learned to avoid questioning Mai and her strange ways.
"It's too early for this shit!" the aforementioned girl declared in parting, slamming the door shut.
The trees were a blur of red and gold. She'd tried, she really did, to entertain herself by chasing individual trees as they passed, but it didn't hold her attention the way it did when she was a child. And now she was stuck, bored out of her mind, in an utterly silent car.
No music, no conversation, no make-shift sign language to John in the next car if they happened to line up, no writing 'help me' and holding it up in the window so someone would save her (which she did try, but was utterly shot down by Naru's pointed look). Lin and Naru never spoke a word on these rides. Normally she'd text Bou-san, but they were in the country and her service was spotty. She thought maybe Evie would engage her in conversation, but the woman was curled up next to Lin, her face tucked in the crevice between his back and the bench seat, fast asleep.
Maybe she should follow Evie's lead. They'd been driving for two hours, and they still had five more to go.
"Mai," Naru said softly, tracking the indecisive shift of her features from one thought to the other in his peripheral. An attractive blush bloomed along her cheekbones as she turned to look at him, and despite the obvious desire to fall asleep she was bright-eyed and curious. Naru smirked to himself. Her preoccupation with his face created such interesting contrast in his assistant. On one hand, she openly disliked his 'narcissistic' behavior and was quick to challenge him, but on the other she actively sought his approval. Not to mention her blatant attraction to him.
At least my face, he added, thinking back two months.
Don't worry. You'll see him again.
Somehow the idea made him queasy. Which was only natural, he supposed. After all, he did care for her. He wouldn't wish her predicament on anyone, and was especially concerned for his more emotionally-inclined assistant. Not that he'd ever tell her that much.
"If you're tired, you should sleep, dummy," he said casually, turning the page he hadn't read and skimming his eyes uselessly over the words. He was much too focused on the way Mai visibly bristled, her whole face adopting the red of her cheeks and her brow furrowed in barely restrained anger. Even riled, she was still mindful of their sleeping companion.
"Fine!" she hissed eloquently, beating herself up for thinking of nothing better to say. Well, she was tired. With all the aggression she could manage to express to a pillow, she tucked her legs to her chest and shut her eyes with righteous indignation, blind to Naru's silent chuckling at her expense.
Great, I'm angry. Now I'll never fall asleep.
About two minutes later, her breathing had evened out, and Naru was finally able to return his focus to the illuminating discussion of spirituality in parapsychology. That is, until Mai made a barely perceptible squeak in her sleep, her head slipping from the pillow to rest heavily against his arm. His whole body tensed at the unexpected contact, book forgotten in his lap, as he debated whether to move her or let it continue. While waking her would definitely invoke very satisfying embarrassment on her part, he lacked the energy and the inclination to waste effort on a very miniscule dilemma. He picked up his book, strangely relaxed as her breath fanned along his arm, and continued the chapter.
Lin watched him from the corner of his eyes, lips quirking in an amused smile. He just hoped Noll figured himself out before Evie called Madoka and Luella and they got to scheming. There wasn't a force in heaven nor on Earth that could stop those three when they put their decidedly manipulative heads together.
Mai woke to little lights dancing in her vision. At first, she was entranced. One stayed in her vision, flitting from left to right playfully, like a puppy rousing its littermates to a game. It had yet to register, why this place was so horribly, horribly recognizable. Why her heart dropped to her stomach.
Oh no.
"Mai," the all-too familiar voice called, a warm hand guiding her to her feet while she stared uncomprehendingly. This couldn't be happening. It's not possible. He's gone. He left me without a word.
But there he was, clad in black just the same, smile soft if not a little more sheepish than she remembered. She could see the differences, now that she knew. The little layer of baby fat that had disappeared from Naru's face over the years, the imperceptible lines around Gene's eyes engraved by his smiles. The natural way his lips turned up. Mai hadn't realized how much she'd missed him.
"Gene!" she cried happily, flinging herself into his arms with a little too much enthusiasm, and he stumbled back under her weight. She didn't know whether to be offended, or confused because technically they were incorporeal.
"You said my name," he responded with a hint of wonder, hugging her tightly but briefly before pulling back to look at her. Mai rolled her eyes.
"Of course. I would've done it from the start if you had told me who you were!" she half-teased, half-reprimanded, shifting between being angry and excited to see her friend after all this time.
Gene scratched the back of his neck nervously, and had the good grace to look at his feet ashamedly. Something Naru would never do, she noted distantly. "Sorry about that. You assumed I was Noll, and I thought correcting you might complicate things too much."
Mai thought that his excuse was just a little too half-assed to explain away confusing the hell out of her for weeks. "Well, it's done. Anyway, why are you here?" she asked with more nonchalance than she felt.
"Well, you see…" he began warily, straightening his shoulders as if he were preparing to do something unpleasant. Which was quite possible. However, she wasn't really all that concerned by his unwillingness to respond, because she'd just inadvertently reminded herself of one crucial fact:
Gene hadn't crossed over.
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU STILL HERE?!" she shouted before he could continue, shocking him into silence, "You know what happens to spirits who become attached to the living world for too long! What are you thinking?!"
"Actually I—."
"If Naru finds out you're still here, he'll flip! And I'll have to deal with him!" Her body shuddered at the thought of Naru finding out his brother had yet to find peace. She never wanted to see that haunted look on his face again.
"Mai, if you'd let me—."
Tears welled in her eyes. "You can't go insane, because then we'll have to exorcise you and I don't want to watch that, Gene, and think of your broth—."
"MAI!"
Her jaw snapped shut with an audible clack. His hands rested heavily on her shoulders, keeping her still as if she'd run away at the slightest opportunity. For a moment he just looked at her, tracing her features with a fond sort of smile, and a strange satisfied amusement. Nothing like the self-important sneering she had grown to cherish, but warm and inviting in its own right.
"If you'd let me finish, I would've said I don't know why I'm back in your dreams," he explained with an eerily familiar smirk, chuckling at his own accidental joke before releasing her.
Mai had worked for Naru for almost two years. Wording, she'd come to realize through him, was everything. In the past she would've missed his lie by omission, but she knew better now, and his attempt to placate her failed brilliantly.
"That wasn't my question. I want to know why you haven't moved on."
He looked proud for a moment, but it gave way to frustration. "My reasons are my own. But," he added, seeing her brow furrow in recharged anger, "I'll be careful. If I feel even slightly off, I'll leave. My choice to stay is exactly that. A choice."
She let herself be assured, even if part of her burned to know. But she knew it was simple curiosity. If she didn't need to know, she didn't need know, and she'd push him no further.
"Do you have any idea why you're here?" she asked instead, gesturing to the familiar black nothing filled with floating lights. Gene looked around in hopes that the answer would appear from nowhere, and shrugged.
"Not the faintest. You've accepted the existence of your gifts, which was my original goal, so I don't really need to help you into dreams anymore." He smiled disarmingly, but she could see something twinkle in his eyes, something like mischief. "Maybe you called me. Anything you want to tell me, Mai?"
His look was very pointed, a little suggestive, and despite herself she blushed. He took it as confirmation.
"Ha! I knew it! You told him, didn't you? Come on, tell me! What did you say? What did he say? Did you kiss? Oh Lord, Mother and Madoka will have a field day!"
Mai watched him babble excitedly with fascination. She never would have pegged him as a gossiper, but then, she didn't know that much about him. The thought made the smile slip from her face. He didn't seem to notice, content to bounce on his toes and speculate wistfully. She wished his speculation had more truth.
"Do you want to hear the answer or not?" she asked, if only to cease his incessant babble. She was suddenly very glad she hadn't fallen for this twin. Aside from the obvious issue, she didn't think she could handle his exuberance on top of her own and the other Irregulars'. Her head would never stop hurting.
He stopped suddenly, so suddenly she started a bit, and plopped to the ground with his legs crossed, chin resting on the palm of his hand in theatrical focus. She rolled her eyes, but followed suit.
"Yes I did tell him." Before he could unleash the cheer she could see building in his throat, she continued loudly, "but we're not together."
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What did you tell him?"
"That I, um, liked him. In a very special way," she repeated awkwardly. Normally, when she shared such stories, it was with her female peers or Ayako, not a man. Especially not the brother of the man she'd fallen in love with. Especially not his twin.
"What did he say?" Still suspicious. The narrowed eyes just looked wrong on him, somehow.
Mai didn't exactly enjoy reliving the moment, but she shared it anyway. "That I loved you, not him. Then he said it would be okay, because we'd see each other again. I think he was trying to comfort me."
Gene said nothing. His jaw was slack, eyes wide in disbelief. For a long minute his mouth opened and closed like that of a fish, searching for words she didn't think he'd ever find again. Then his manner shifted abruptly, shoulders tense, brow furrowed, eyes narrowed. He looked furious.
He looked like Naru.
"That…unbelievable…utterly dense…completely masochistic little fucker! He was so bleeding close! Damn him!"
Mai was pretty sure she'd never heard that many expletives used in one breath before. And he wasn't done, which was a frightening prospect indeed. He'd even begun pacing, his hands thrown in the air exasperatedly.
As she followed his goalless trek, she felt a tugging at the edges of her consciousness. Her shoulder was warm, like a hand was resting on there. Her actual shoulder. There was faint buzzing in her ears that became gradually clearer, and she could make out voices.
One voice.
"Mai," it echoed in her dreamscape. Gene stopped abruptly and looked at his hands, which had already begun the tell-tale fading. She was waking up.
"Mai, don't tell him I'm still here. Please. I need to talk to him myself," he pleaded with a twinge of desperation, his voice sounding very far away as the new voice took over. Mai nodded, unsure if she could speak while transitioning to reality.
"Mai, come on, wake up," a woman demanded impatiently, and she felt the warmth at her shoulder more powerfully. Evie. Evie was trying to wake her up. Weird, she'd never heard voices in her dreamscape transcend from reality before.
Gene looked heavenward, his body translucent, a strange look on his face. "Who is that?"
"Evie, I think." So she could speak, it just sounded very hollow.
"Evie's in Japan?"
Mai couldn't answer this time, her vision fading quickly. Gene was no more than an outline, the lights little pinpricks against the black backdrop. The view was shrinking, closing in on itself and soon she could see nothing but darkness. Her eyes were shut compulsively and uselessly; she couldn't see anything anyway. She was falling, but she was used to the feeling, the plummeting in her stomach and the almost nonexistent fear of hitting the ground.
Her landing into her body was vastly more graceful than it normally was. She opened her eyes to an empty van and a pale face invading her personal space.
"We're here, sleepyhead."
"This is a waste of time."
"Oh, come off it Noll."
Lin watched the three argue. It always seemed the same division, he thought, Gene and Evie against Noll, at least when it came to doing something the latter thought to be either pointless or 'demoralizing.' Though in this case, rather than annoyed at their bickering, Lin was confused. Noll hardly ever turned down practical application of their studies without blatant reason. His student was nothing if not intellectual.
Noll ignored his older brother. "Evie, you are more than aware of your powers. I see no reason to put myself under your scrutiny for the sake of boredom."
He was far too well-spoken for a ten year-old, Lin thought with a twinge of irritation. A child should not be more intelligent than himself. But then, Noll was probably smarter than most of the individuals working for BSPR, Dr. Davis and Dr. Naoki included. What a frightening prospect.
"This isn't for me, Nature Boy. It's for you. To practice mental blocks against people like me," Evie explained, her already dubious patience thinning every second, "And besides, Gene would be the one 'under my scrutiny,' not you. Actually, you have no right to complain. So stop."
She probably would've been more convincing without sticking her tongue out. Noll's eyes flickered uncertainly to his brother, just a fleeting glance, but it spoke of his true concern more plainly than words; he was protecting Gene. An unwarranted urge, as Evie had an unusual level of control over her abilities, but there was rarely anything rational about love.
"He'll be fine, Noll. Don't doubt my teaching skills," he half-teased, half-assured, looking to his young student seriously. An unspoken agreement passed between the two. Noll would let it happen, and Lin would step in if necessary.
Gene rolled his eyes. "You worry too much. Like Lin-sensei said, I'll be fine." Lin bristled at the nickname as he turned to Evie expectantly. "Bring it on, Bambi."
She didn't react to the nickname like she normally would (violent flailing and indignant huffing). Despite her relative immaturity, she had the uncanny ability to slip into a more professional mien. Her features were blank as she stepped closer, the proximity easing some of the strain of reading. She was a powerful empath even at fourteen, his father told him, capable of slipping past some of the strongest mental walls. Coupled with Gene's tendency to become easily distracted, Lin was on edge. Evie might go too far. Gene may not be prepared.
He needed to relax. It wasn't like him to get worked up over possibilities. Gene seemed to be doing fine, anyway, his youth-plump face contorted in concentration, his hand curled around Evie's like a vice. They weren't moving, staring hard at each other but unseeing, one searching for weakness, prodding along the walls the other built and rebuilt in a constant cycle. He could almost see the energy crackling between them, the push and pull that was so much like water, fluid and changing. That was the nature of their abilities, both separate and combined. Dynamic.
So entranced, he didn't see the Gene's eyebrow twitch, or his hand tighten around Evie's. He didn't see her completely lost in her searching, her mind asleep as it made room for Gene.
"Lin," Noll started in warning, his eyes glued to his brother's face, a mirror of his own.
Several things occurred at once.
A sharp yelp, from who no one could distinguish, then a scream, a long, hollow scream. Lin was moving before the sound had registered, his arms around Evie's waist and tugging, trying to pull her arm free. Break the connection. Break the connection. But Gene was seizing, his hand clamped around her wrist, the scream tearing from his throat. Evie was limp in his arms, like a ragdoll. Break the connection.
"Noll, I need to you to break his grip," he ordered calmly, even if his mind was screaming right alongside Gene. The younger boy was staring at the pair in horror, eyes wide and unblinking. "Focus Noll. Break the grip."
He seemed to shake himself awake, brow furrowed in concentration as he nodded. Lin turned his own attention back to Evie, readjusting her in his arms. Her eyes were open still, but utterly blank, almost dead except he could feel her heartbeat fluttering against his chest. He smacked her gently at first, then harder, desperately.
Nothing. She wasn't in her body anymore.
"Come on Noll!" No sooner had the words left his lips than her arm sprang free and she fell hard against him, knocking him off balance but he managed to stay on his feet.
Gene had no such bulwark. He hit the floor with a loud thud and jolted as if electrocuted, body tense, fingers clenching and unclenching around nothing. Noll was half-hysterical, cradling his head to keep him from slamming it against the floor.
"Lin, what's happening?" he asked desperately, but he ignored his student, looking between the two unconscious children in frustration. He was sixteen for fuck's sake. There was only so much he was prepared for.
"Calm down." He heard his own voice as if through a tunnel, soft and useless and fuck they needed to wake up. "Try talking to him."
Evie's eyes had slid shut, her breath even. He slapped her already bruised cheek with force than he probably should've, but he found he didn't care as long as she woke up. If she woke up, then Gene would be okay too.
She groaned, twisting her head away from him. "That's it Evie. Wake up."
"Gene, it's me, it's Noll. Wake up. It's okay now, just wake up," he heard Noll whispering to his finally still brother.
"Koujo?" she managed, struggling in his arms before he realized she wanted to sit up. He helped her, even let her lean against his chest when she lost her balance. Relief flooded every vein in his body until he wrapped his arms around her absentmindedly. He needed the comfort. She was okay. They were okay.
He glanced at his student to be sure, and found both boys sprawled on the floor, with matching, bewildered smiles, looking distinctly shell-shocked. Gene rubbed at his temples and let his smile turn rueful.
"Well that was a dumb idea."
Lin didn't think a 'no kidding' would suffice.
Yay for Bou-san the Unfortunate One! I like the idea of Mai being a morning person only after seven. Before that, don't mess with her. Also, yay for Lin getting laid. And yay for Naru sort of not being a dense jackass.
The holding up a help me sign to the window is a shout out to Malindorie, who wrote a beautiful story called the Transfer. I highly recommend it. Especially if you're feeling particularly LinxMadoka deprived.
Just a note on the orphanage thing: I know its cliche, but to me, there is nothing on this earth that is even as remotely creepy as children. They just freak me out. If you noticed the little jab at myself for going with that plot line, props to you!
Thanks for the reviews! It's really helping me keep on track with this story and boosting my ego (though I'm not sure how much help I need there). You guys are wonderful, I hope you know that.