Me: Hey everyone! Back with another chapter!
Mai: Yeah! And Shellsan still doesn't own anything
Mai shuddered. She didn't think it was intentional but she could feel Naru's breath ghosting over her skin.
"U-um th-thanks" she muttered quietly, trying not to let him see her blush as she turned her head slightly away from him. Sensing the movement Naru looked down at the girl. He smirked slightly when he noticed the pink tips of her ears.
Her blush darkened when she felt Naru move around, reaching over her again. "W-what are you doing?" she stuttered.
His smirk widened, she really doesn't know how cute she looks right now he thought, fumbling around before grabbing the sugar.
"You're going to need this too aren't you" he spoke, moving away from her only enough so that she could move around but not far enough away to make her comfortable. Placing both the tea and sugar on the counter, he smirked at the blush that still adorned her face.
She went to move around and make the tea but found it hard to do so no thanks to the closeness of Naru. "Can you move away?" she asked, slightly irritated. Naru smirked, "oh you don't like me this close?"
The brunettes face flushed. "Th-that's not- N-no I-I mean y-yes. Gah" she stuttered in frustration. The other teen smirked but moved away so that she could make his precious tea.
Mai sighed quietly in relief. 'stupid narcissist, making me feel all flustered' she mentally grumbled as she prepared the tea, placing cups onto the tray. She turned around and held one out to Naru.
"Drink this now so that I can re-fill it before we go back to base. Maybe then you'll drink it slower" she mumbled, face still slightly red.
The boy reached over and grabbed the cup, his fingers brushing slightly against Mai's causing a tingling sensation. He wasted no time at all taking a long sip of the warm beverage, enjoying the familiar taste earl grey.
Mai giggled in amusement at the content look on Naru's face.
Naru looked down at her curiously with a raised eyebrow. "And just what –may I ask- is so funny?"
The petite girl grinned, "Nothing much. I just don't think I ever see you look content except when you're drinking tea. It's fascinating but also annoying-" she rambled, catching herself before she went too far and made a fool out of herself.
The man in front of her only seemed inquisitive and perhaps a little shocked.
"Annoying how?"
Mai blushed, "So have you finished drinking that cup?" she asked, changing the subject the best way she knew how. Naru glanced to realise he had –in fact- finished the drink. She gently grabbed the cup from his hands, placing it on the bench and moving around to make the second cup.
She worked in silence in the hopes that Naru would forget his earlier inquiry and just focus on the case for the time being.
It wasn't long before she had tea placed on the tray and another cup for Naru. She passed him the tea again. "You can carry your own tea."
Naru nodded absentmindedly.
Sighing, Mai picked up the tray and they began walking back to base. It wasn't a particularly long walk but it was double the amount of time she wanted to spend with Naru. Speeding up slightly, she noticed Naru was still lost in thought.
"Naru" she spoke snapping him out of it.
"What Mai?"
The brunette rolled her eyes, "Well unless you want me to drop the tea I can't open the door."
Naru sighed, opening the door so that she could move in and place the tray onto the table.
Once she completed that task she collapsed onto the couch, sighing quietly. 'If I could get some peace and quiet then maybe I could actually look for information' she thought. She was worried for the little girl that had been kidnapped. Reaching over the table she picked up her phone which she had placed there earlier. Quickly she unlocked it and clicked on an app.
Yesterday as soon as she found out about the child she had put a timer on to see how long the little girl had been missing roughly. [18:42:39] it read. Mai sighed, 'she's probably been missing slightly longer than that too' she thought. Wasting no time she stood up causing everyone to look at her.
"Where are you going?" Naru asked.
Mai sighed, "Theres a little girl missing because she's been kidnapped by an angry and highly abusive spirit. I'm not going to sit here and mess around waiting for some information to come to us."
"And just what do you suppose we do?" Naru shot back, slightly annoyed.
The brunette sighed, "That's the thing. You can't do anything."
"Then why-"
"Because I can" she immediately interrupted.
Naru's eyes shot up. "How?"
Mai crossed her arms, "I'm not going to stand here and explain to you how my powers work or what I'm doing in the middle of a life threatening case. You can question me later, I however am going to go up to the little girls room to find out what happened and maybe where she was taken, we're losing time. Every second I stand here talking to you is another second that girl is in danger."
Her temporary boss blinked before running a hand through his hair. "You aren't supposed to be walking around on your own" he stated pointedly.
The petite girl groaned in annoyance, looking around the room. Her eyes landed on Lin. 'He's quiet and doesn't make me nervous… most of the time.'
"I'll take Lin with me," she decided.
Said man's head shot up from where he was working at the monitors. "Why me?" he asked curiously.
"I'll explain as we walk. I don't have time for this" Mai practically snapped.
"Alright" Naru conceded. Truth be told, he was also worried about Megan however Mai's safety came before any of that.
Lin blinked before getting up without a word and following Mai out the door.
"Are you going to explain why you volunteered me?" he inquired.
The brunette rolled her eyes. "It's not rocket science, the others are too loud" she stated.
"What about Masako and Naru? Neither of them are loud."
Mai turned to look up at the Chinese man and smiled, "they're both annoying" she stated without a second thought.
The look on her face was so innocent but her words held clear mirth at the statement. Lin couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the girl's antics. This girl who had –somehow- managed to weave herself into the lives of everyone, himself included. To this day he still wasn't sure how it had happed, only aware of the fact that it had.
They walked in silence for a few more moments before Lin spoke again. "What exactly are you going to do? And don't even try to give me any of the speech you gave Naru because I'm not buying it."
From beside him, Mai mentally groaned. 'Okay Mai calm down. It's not like you didn't expect someone to figure it out. Just tell him the truth and hope to god he doesn't tell Naru until after the case' she mentally assured herself.
"I'm still waiting for an answer."
The brunette snapped out of her thoughts and let out a deep breath. "You have to promise not to tell Naru. At least not until the end of the case."
Lin stopped walking and looked down at her. "Ma-," he began. Before he could finish so much as a word, Mai looked up at him. "You have to promise me or I'm not telling you anything." She demanded, whipping around and walking ahead.
The Chinese man sighed. 'If I go with Mai on this and don't tell Naru then I could get I deep trouble but on the contrary if I let her tell me then at lease I can figure out a way to help her at one point or another…'
Making up his mind, Lin quickly caught up to Mai. "Alright. You have my word but if I think you're in too much danger then I'm getting you out of whatever you're going to do" he warned.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple. What I'm going to do is a form of astral projection… an extremely dangerous one."
The elder looked down at her in confusion. "How is astral projection going to help find the little girl?" he asked.
Mai sighed, "First what I'm going to do it find something on hers in her room. Then I'm going to get a feel of her aura. Once I've done that I can search for her aura inside the house. After finding her aura I can astral project to where she is and try to find a way out –backtrack to where I am and if I'm lucky, get her out of there" she explained.
Lin nodded in understanding. "I get all of that but then how is it dangerous."
The petite girl gave him a surprised look. "And here I was thinking you could figure out the dangerous parts yourself" she muttered.
"Mai, " Lin warned, giving her a glare
She rolled her eyes, turning onto the next set of stairs that would lead to her destination. "Okay okay. When I'm not in my body it has no soul and the danger becomes that anyone or anything can possess it. If Ge-" Mai caught herself before she could do anymore damage.
"U-umm if a spirit decided to come along and possess my body then I would have no-where for my soul to go back to her and I could end up wandering. The other dangerous part is worse though…"
Lin gave her a disbelieving look as if to say "there's more?!"
Mai twiddled her fingers and pretended to kick an imaginary rock. "Uh-um-well you see…" she stuttered, "If the spirit catches me wandering around and attacks me, every hit I take –much like with strong connection dreams- will also hit my real body…"
The Chinese man next to her stopped dead in his tracks. How many risks was this girl going to make before she stopped? How many times does she have to hurt herself before she's had enough. Was this some type of game to her or something? And just what was is that she was going to say before. If he didn't know any better he would have guessed he was going to say Gene… Thoughts ran through his mind faster than a train but for some reason he couldn't forget Gene's name.
By this point Mai had also stopped, not daring to look up at Lin.
"Mai, before you were going to say something… what was it" 'I hope I'm wrong.'
The brunette's body stiffened visibly and she felt as though the temperature had just dropped several degrees. "I want to lie to you. I want to pretend that the truth doesn't exist but I have a feeling you wouldn't buy it no matter what I said. Because of this I'll give it to you straight. I was going to say Gene."
Me: So there it is. I know it's shorter than normal
Mai: I'm so weird…
Me: uhhh and so Mai's probably a little on the OOC side of things as it stands. It might be slightly more OOC than anticipated but her being slightly different is planned. If anyone has any questions as to why I'll explain it to you
Naru: It's obvious that you're just making excuses
Me: And it's obvious that you're mean!
Mai: Until next time, please read and review!