Mai's Point of View:
The next three days are completely hectic. Naru and I had to tell his parents that Gene had finally passed, which they took really badly. Luella sobbed and Martin teared up. I'd never seen Martin show any other emotion besides happiness and contentment. He was just a naturally pleasant person, yet for reasons I under stood completely, his son passing on to heaven was a very touchy subject for him.
Gene's passing hit us all hard, yet it did some good too, I think.
For one, Luella finally cleaned out Gene's room. Martin finally stopped saving him a seat every year in his class. And Naru… well, Naru is just Naru, like always.
However, he's more my Naru rather than the Naru that everyone else sees.
He tells me he loves me every day. Whether it's directly or indirectly. Like yesterday, I made him tea, and as I'm handing it to him, he takes a sip and sighs, "I love your tea."
I love you.
The message was clear to me and I grinned down at him, leaning and kissing his cheek, "I love your way with words." Then I sat down and began reading.
Right now, however, Naru is annoying the hell out of me.
"Just tell me where we're going!" I snap, annoyed that he dragged me out of the house while it's blistering hot. Luella had even been complaining about heat, and she's a summer person!
"No." Naru rumbles, his deep voice filling the quiet car.
"But Naaaaarrrruuuuu—" I whine, sitting back against the leather seat harshly and folding my arms against my chest in a pout, "You know I hate surprises."
Like the infuriating boyfriend that he is, the idiot ignores me and turns up the radio. A well-known pop song comes on and I feel my mood lift immediately. It couldn't have been on the actual radio sonar, because I'm sure that k-pop didn't play on English radio stations.
I hum along to my favorite girl group while Naru seems to enjoy my silence. Until I begin to belt out the lyrics.
"Wae neon ajikdo mitji motae? Jinjja! bimireul allyeojulge!" I belt.
Naru winces and turns it down, "Where did you learn Korean?"
"Why?" I ask, imploringly, "Is my pronunciation off or something?"
He shifts gears, "…Not really. It's actually very good. I'm just wondering why you like this music group?"
"You don't like Girls Generation?" I ask, appalled.
He rolls his eyes, "It's not that I don't like them. I just don't really like that song."
"Why?" I ask, raising an eyebrow, "If you didn't like that song, why'd you record it and put it on a CD?"
Naru's eyes widen as he takes a left turn on to the highway, "How'd you know—" he glances over at me briefly and I giggle.
"Naru, I know you better than you think."
He looks over at me with a soft expression and I grin back. He chuckles a rumbling laugh, "I suppose you do." His hand reaches over from the gear shift and clasps on to mine, giving it a tight squeeze as we right in fifth gear on the highway.
"I just burned every song on your laptop on to a few CD's." Naru tells me as we ride at seventy miles per hour, "I didn't realize that this song was on here."
"What's so wrong with the song?" I ask, tossing him a look. Naru glances over at me, and let's go of my hand to switch gears as we turn off of the high way. I lean towards him, watching him closely, "Naru, can you speak Korean?" He doesn't look at me and just keeps driving. My eyebrows shoot up, "You can't, can you?"
"It was never a necessity." Naru grumbles.
I smile, "Naru, that's adorable." He shoots me a look of outrage and I giggle, "I can't believe it. The magnificent Oliver Davis, who is multilingual, never learned Korean."
"Mai. Shut it."
He doesn't seem to appreciate my laugh.
We pull up to BSPR not long after exiting the highway and I send him a confused look. He just ignores me and gets out of the car; I follow suit, but still have confusion swirling through me.
He leads me up the stairs, but just before we enter, he grabs my hand and intwines our fingers. The motion makes me blanch.
Naru is, and will forever be, against PDA.
He opens the door and tugs me in, our hands still combined tightly. He pulls me in beside him and it seems everyone notices at the same time. Jaws drop. Eyes widen. Astonishment circulates.
"Naru, what are—" I whisper, but then he just shushes me and pulls me after him. We walk through the lobby and Naru leads me up some stairs and to another room.
It's the PK room.
I recognize those girls from before. The ones who had been saying things about Naru and I having sex. In reality, I probably shouldn't have listened to them in the first place. It was stupid on my part, and I'm sure that if Naru knew, he'd agree.
"I want to test something." Naru says in Japanese, pulling me in the PK-LP section.
"Well, okay, but what are we testing?" I ask, watching as Naru pulls away from me and begins to play with some buttons on a keyboard. The entire section lights up in glorious colors, and immediately, my instincts begin screaming at me. I can't tell if they mean to tell me that this situation is good or bad, so I immediately think the worst. I take a hesitant step back, "Naru, I don't know—"
"Do you trust me?"
Naru is turned around now. His blue eyes are boring in to mine, and I feel a sense of calm as I watch him. Naru is becoming my rock. He'd always been a very important figure in my life— considering I love him— but now, he's becoming something that I can't function with out. I have this need to please him. However, I know he wouldn't want me making decisions based on his pretenses. So I try to think about it rationally.
Naru has defiantly gained my trust back. So there is no way in hell I'd ever have a reason not to trust him.
"Of course I do."
"Good. Come here."
3rd Person's Point of View:
Luella watches them. It's just after one in the morning, and her two children (she has no idea when she started referring to Mai as her own, but it felt right) are stumbling in to her house.
Mai leans heavily on Noll, and her son just looks down at her. If this were anyone else, he'd have pushed them away, however, with Mai, he leans down and scoops her up in his arms. Mai seemed to be so little compared to her son, but Luella knew better. It wasn't that Noll was significantly bigger than any male his own age— in all actuality, he was just in better shape— it's just that Mai is so little. That's why she always wears heels. The girl was barely over five feet tall.
"Idiot." She hears her son whisper in Japanese, his go-to language.
While most couples, who are of different ethnicities, worry about the communication barrier, the truth of the matter is that Noll was more comfortable speaking in both languages. Luella remembers fondly how when Noll and Gene would argue, they'd switch back and forth between English and Japanese so fast that she had a hard time keeping up.
The truth of the matter is that Mai learning English was probably the best thing she could have ever done.
"Oliver." Luella greets warmly. Her son turns to her in question and it's then she notices the suction circles on Mai's temples, "You took her for testing?"
Noll nods, "I wanted to test her abilities out puts. It seems that from being connected to Gene for so long modified her internal brain receptors. She eats up the energy of those around her."
Luella's eyes widen, "You mean like—"
Noll nods, "Yes. Exactly like that."
Luella sighs, and see's Mai squirm in her sons arms, "Why don't you go and put her down, then come back? We have much to discuss." Noll nods, before beginning to make his way down the hall.
—
"What do you mean you knew about this?" Naru practically growls in to the phone.
Madoka sighs, "We noticed it not long after she got her PK-LP. Did you ever think to question why she even developed the power in the first place?"
"I figured it was just a dormant ability that awakened with Gene being linked to her subconscious."
"I though you had." Madoka says, sounding tired for whatever reason, "Just know that your little experiment has triggered her negative sectors."
Naru's eyes widen, "You don't mean—" Mai's scream cuts him off.
—
Luella has never seen her son move so fast. He was up out of his chair and down the hall faster than the dark-haired woman thought was humanly possible. She stands as well and moves as quickly as she can. She's at the doorway of the room as Noll reaches the bed.
Mai is there. She's shrieking with her eyes closed. Whatever was behind her lids was obviously terrifiying, because she kept moving further and further in to the bed, trying to get away from whatever was in front of her.
Martin is behind Luella then. He puts his hands on her hips, and she can see the astonishment in his face as he watches the same thing she does.
Noll gets on top of Mai, pinning her to the bed, all the while shouting her name out, "Mai! Wake up!"
After a few more moments of struggle, Mai grows quiet, and then her eyes pop open. They seem unfocused, but both of the adults had to admit that even in the throws of terror, Mai is probably the softest beauty they've ever seen. Her eyes focus, and she says "Naru?" in a strangled and quiet voice.
"It's okay." Their son whispers, grabbing the girl and cradling her in his arms like a precious object, "It's alright."
Tears fall down Mai's face, and Luella is appalled. She'd never seen the girl cry. Noll, however, didn't seem surprised at all, as if her crying was a common occurrence. It's then Luella realizes it.
Mai may seem like such a strong 'can-do' kind of person, yet, she's also a tidal wave of emotions and contradictions. Just like Noll. He's so heartless and cold to everyone, yet, he's also a very caring person and a bubble of awkwardness.
They complimented each other in ways that only those like them can understand.
Luella looks up at Martin, who smiles, before tugging her away. But not before they both heard their son whisper, "It's alright, baby."
Mai's Point of View:
When my eyes open, I'm being stared at. Now, normally that would creep me out, but considering I was being stared at by cobalt blue eyes and a fond expression on a handsome face, I didn't really find a reason for worry.
"Are you alright?" Naru asks me, his dark blue eyes flashing with something.
I nod, not trusting my voice. I sit up and Naru follows suit. I stand, and walk to the bathroom; Naru follows me. The entire day, he hovers like an overly-attached puppy.
I'm not sure whether to be angry or flattered. I can tell he's obviously feeling guilty about running tests on me and triggering (what Madoka calls) the nightmare part of my brain. I don't even remember the nightmare. All I know is that I was terrified and I had to get away from it.
Naru, however, has the conscious of a saint, whether he likes to admit it or not. Especially when it comes to some one he cares about. I know he cares about me— he says he loves me— but this insane need to make sure that I'm alright is getting kind of irritating.
"Mai?" Luella calls, reminding me that I'm not home and I shouldn't yell. I look up, hopeful that she'll pull me away from my over-baring boyfriend. She grins at me, "Why don't you come help me with dinner?"
Naru stands the same moment I do, and Luella shoots him a sharp look, "You stay here and read that case file that your father gave to you."
Case file? When did this happen?
Naru almost glowers at his mother, but he and I both know that Luella is much more terrifying than his anger. He sits and grabs a folder from beside him. I wonder briefly where it came from, but then I'm being jerked in to the kitchen by Luella.
Luella sets me up chopping up vegetables while she busies herself with everything else.
"Mai?" She calls. I look up just as she sits across from me, she gives me a soft smile, "I know this may be out of line, but I just want to say thank you."
"For what—?"
"My son is happy." Luella says, her eyes filling, "I can't ask for anything better."
My heart stops and then warms, beating a millions miles per hour, "Oh, Luella…" She waves me off, and with a wink, begins to fix our meal again. Even as she moves around me silently, almost peacefully, I know she's thinking of what has happened up until this point. I know that I am.
3rd Point of View:
He could hear them talking. The murmuring that ended in a sniffle. Most likely Mai. She was and is the biggest crybaby he's ever met. However, she's also the strongest person he's ever met.
Naru knew better. His mother is probably the most meddling person he'll ever know— though, Madoka and Luella defiantly play a close game— so Naru knew better than to think his mother actually needed help in the kitchen.
He also knew he was annoying the hell out of his girlfriend. However, it's okay, because Mai hovers too… especially if she's half as worried as he is right now.
Trying to distract himself, Naru opens the file that his father gave him and begins to review it. If anything, it's definitely interesting. Over the last twenty-five years, eleven people had been murdered, three went missing, and twenty-two have ended up in comas. Quite a novel.
Naru flips to the researched history about the place, and he can't help but blink at the completely ordinary information displayed there. It's a completely ordinary hospital.
Naru's mind begins to move. Thinking of all the possibilities. Thinking of anything and everything.
"Is that a new case?" A excited voice says. Naru looks up to see ecstatic cinnamon brown eyes watching him. Wordlessly, he hands her the file and she sits down next to him, opening it and reading over the file with an intensity that he'll never stop thinking isn't the sexiest thing he's ever seen. Mai leans back, her thoughts passing over her eyes.
"What do you think?" Naru says, leaning against the back of the couch.
Mai sighs, "I think we'll know a lot more if you can get me in there."
"Another words, you want to take the case?"
"Hell yeah!"
He hates it. It's childish of him, but he wants to go over there and grab his Mai away from those idiot teenage boys that think they're going to get lucky.
"Oliver," his father says, suddenly beside him, "I think you're scaring them." It's only then he realizes he's been glowering their way. They were sending nervous and confused glances his way while they continued to flirt with his girlfriend.
Mai pulls away from the boys with a brilliant smile, which they all melt at. Mai struts over to them. Naru's eyes immediately go to her legs, which were only enhanced by the dress and heels. She's dressed casually in a jean dress with sandals that have some kind of heel on them. Naru doesn't get fashion, but he knew that Mai looked really good in that.
"You look like you're about to kill someone." Mai murmurs in English, passing by him.
"Maybe I am." He snarks, immediately regretting it when she sends him a glance. He sighs, and touches Mai's elbow briefly, before she walks away with a click clack of her heels.
Naru turns when his father chuckles, "She is just like your mother." He sends his father a look, which Martin promptly ignores and turns to the rest of his crew, "Alright, let's get started…"
—
Mai's Point of View:
Naru has been acting strange all day. Ever since we showed up for the case, he's been glaring at me like I stole something of his (well, something valuable. I know he doesn't care about me 'borrowing' his t-shirts that he never wears. I'll give them back… eventually).
To top it all off, when I tried to figure out what his problem is, he just got an attitude with me and then tried to grab my elbow. Probably to smart off to me more, but I just keep walking.
"Alright, let's get started…" Martin starts in his crisp English accent, catching my attention. I turn quickly and hold the clipboard to my chest. Martin smiles at everyone as they all quiet down, "I'm sure everyone has read the case file, correct?" Everyone murmurs some type of agreement and his smiles brightens, "Excellent. For those of you who don't know, this case is going to be a wide berth, so everyone will be grouped. For instance, researchers, equipment specialists, scientist, psychics and so on. Everyone will have a group leader and a group co-leader, so be respectful of your peers. Now, for the groups…" he begins to rattle off a few names of leaders and co-leaders, eventually, he says, "Oliver Davis and Mai Taniyama."
Before coming here, Martin had called everyone who would be leaders and co-leaders. I already knew all of my immediate co-workers for now, but my heart still did a little flutter when I'm paired with Naru. I'd expected it (Naru HAD told me that he'd be with the psychics this time around), but I couldn't help that high school worrying feeling from popping in to my head.
Would they like me?
Martin says a few more words, and then we're all dismissed. Everyone begins to group up and then split up. I glide my way over to Naru and the rest of my group. He glances at me before looming over the rest of our group, "Let's get this done quickly. No unfortunate accidents, if we can help it." A hand raises, and Naru glares at them before saying cooly, "Yes?"
"Who is Mai Taniyama?" The guy— who couldn't be any older than seventeen— asks.
"That would be me." I say, smiling brightly as everyone's eyes turn to me, "I hope we can all work together happily!" Some look shocked by my cheerful attuide, others look annoyed, but almost everyone looks just as happy as I do. I grin at them all, "And you can just call me Mai."
•
Fifteen minutes later, I'm doing a walk through with two girls and one guy. The girls are twins, named Farrah and Sarah. The young man is named Benny… I think. The twins are flighty, but very easy to talk to. Benny, however, is the complete opposite. He doesn't seem to want to be here with us at all.
"So Mai," Farrah— or Sarah, I'm not sure yet— says, beginning a conversation, "What kind of psychic are you, exactly?"
Without thinking, I prattle off, "I'm a medium, mostly, but I also have PK-LP, however, I don't use it often. I can Astral Project as well, which comes in handy on cases." I turn to smile at her shocked face, "But my favorite power is my latent psychic abilities. It helps me in everyday things, not just cases."
"So you're multi-talented?" Benny asks, interested in the conversation all of a sudden.
I clear my throat, "I suppo—"
Something. A flicker of power. The three of them grow quiet as they realize my sudden silence. I close my eyes and reach out with as much power as I feel safe using. Something is there. It's seeping on the very edge of my consciousness. I reach out a little more, my alarms beginning to go off in my head at how much power I'm expelling.
However, it works. I grab on to whatever spirit is trying to remain anonymous and wrap my spiritual output around it. The spirit thrashes and pulls against my restraints, but I yank it to me.
"LET GO!" The sudden shout makes me jump, but my powers don't waver. The three begin me must have heard it to, because they all let out some semblance of a shriek.
My eyes fly open and I'm face to face with a woman. Her hair is black and it's very frizzy and broken. Her eyes are wide and bloodshot. Underneath of her eyes are so baggy that it looks like she took black eyeshadow and just colored it in. She's slight over weight, and her skin is a pale fluorescent white. The most astonishing thing about her, however, is the fact that pieces of her skin are fried. As if by little bolts of electric shock (I've worked enough cases like this that I know what it looks like), yet instead of in the normal places, like her temples or forehead, the fried pieces are under her eyes, over her eyelids, on her cheeks, on her nose, and all over her throat.
"I SAID LET GO!" She bellows, the muscles in her throat straining as she struggles against my invisible ropes.
My power is fading fast, so I have to make this quick, "What's your name?"
She glares at me and laughs harshly, "As if I'd tell—" I mentally command the invisible ropes to grow tighter and she hollers with pain and submissiveness, "Argh! Fine! My name is Linda Fellows."
"Why are you here?"
"I died, obvi—" another mental command and she hollers another time, "Ugh! Will you stop that? I'm here because I was murdered and I want someone to damn that basturd to hell."
"So why don't you tell me? I'll help."
Linda barks a laugh, "I know you can. That's why I'm staying away, stupid girl. He'll find you and kill you now."
"No he won't." I say it with such assertiveness, that she blinks. Taken back. I raise a cool eyebrow her way, "What's his name?"
Linda swallows, "I don't know officially. All I knew was that everyone else called him Doc. But when they were mad, he was just Doctor El."
"El? Or the letter L?"
"El." Linda confirms, "I have no idea what it means." She squirms, "Now let me go before he finds me." I release her with a silent thank you, and turn to the rest of my small group.
"Bloody hell." Benny says, staring down at me, "How did you do that without pissing yourself?"
I give him a rueful grin, "Years of practice."
Martin had me sit down in front of all the group leaders and co-leaders to tell them, word for word, happened in the hallway. He kept asking me the same questions, just phrased differently. As if to make sure I had the story right.
Eventually, I was dismissed. And Naru had me tell the entire group of psychics all over again what happened, and by the time they finished grilling me too, I'm exhausted. I walk over to the couch and plop down on it.
Everyone seems appalled that I'd lay down on the job, but their shock increases when Naru slips a throw blanket out of his bag and walks to me, laying it on top of me. It's my favorite blanket. So soft and so warm. Of course it's Naru's and according to him 'old and time to be thrown away,' but I love it, so I refuse.
I close my eyes, smiling to myself as I think of my caring boyfriend (who is currently typing away on his laptop across the room) and I doze. Falling asleep not long after.