((Thank you. I'm trying to get these next few up pretty quick because someone *coughcough* who shall remain nameless wrote me crying that Naru and Mai weren't speaking. So let's cut to the heart of the matter shall we? I tend to try and get it up faster when I know people really want it and all that. so yeah i also do not own ghost hunt. I just have fun. A special thank you to YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! Enjoy))
Mai was asleep on the couch in her apartment and Ayako and her new husband exchanged a look over her prone form. They both loved her as if she were blood and neither was angry at her for the interruption of their honeymoon. From what they'd been able to gather from the crying girl Naru had whisked her off after the wedding for some case and then done his usual hot and cold game. She'd been in a rather remote area away from cell towers and they'd intercepted her as she was coming home from said failed case.
While Houshou had gone to get some take away for dinner Mai told Ayako through her tears how Naru had claimed to love her and made love to her while Lin was away on business during the case. When she'd awoken after a night of spent passion she'd found herself alone and frozen out by him. Ayako looked at the sleeping girl and wondered how someone so sweet could be so unlucky. Mai had the purest heart she'd ever seen and she wore it on her sleeve, especially for that damn boy.
After they'd eaten and she'd fallen asleep from exhaustion Ayako relayed the story to her new husband. He'd cursed a blue streak and made several very colorful threats about physical harm being done to their former colleague. Lin had texted that he was just as in the dark as they were and apologized for the inconvenience of having their honeymoon interrupted.
"So, what now?" Houshou looked at his new wife for guidance. She couldn't help but feel her heart soften. The things that man could do to her with just his eyes.
"I'm going to get her a therapist tomorrow. She needs to get her head together and get her self worth to be based on her, not some stupid boy's behavior. Then I'm going to go over there and have a chat with Lin AND Naru." She moved a stray hair off of Mai's face. Rising from next to Mai she grabbed a blanket from the chair and spread it over her dearest friend. She signaled towards the door and her husband followed after scribbling a quick note and leaving it for Mai to find. As they pulled the door shut she kissed her husband's cheek softly.
"I'm sorry about the beach. We'll go back soon. I promise" He gave her a smiled and led her toward the elevator. When they stepped in he looked at her.
"I'm good so long as I've got you my priestess."
For the first few days after leaving the Hines's home Oliver had said very little and nothing about Mai. Lin noticed that he was very careful to avoid the subject. After about a week though he was still in a very foul mood and even Madoka couldn't break it.
He flat out refused to address the subject of Mai Taniyama. So they tried to be understanding. Lin had even blocked the Ayako's attempts to visit Noll twice, but now three weeks later he was wondering if he was actually doing the younger man a disservice by allowing him to avoid that which upset him. For as long as Lin had know Oliver everyone always cowtoed to him. They justified it by saying, 'Oh he's an orphan, oh he's a temperamental genius, Oh his brother was just killed, he almost died". While all that was true, no one ever pushed him to behave like a normal teenager. He'd never had real fun.
When he searched his memory he had none of Dr. Oliver Davis just being a kid. He hadn't gone to amusement park, ditched school, gone to a rock concert or even so much as purchased a dance ticket in his life. The only time he'd seemed to really have had any fun was when they were running SPR the first time and Mai forced it on him.
She'd drag him to the movies whenever she could or make him go out to eat with her at restaurants that were places he'd never normally consider. While Lin knew the reasons that his parents had forced such a strict life on their son perhaps they'd all gone too far. The result was that he was a highly controlled, tightly wound workaholic. How long had he considered Noll a peer? Ten years? Looking back he realized that everyone had done the young genius a great disservice with the exceptions of Gene; who treated him like a brother, and Mai who tried to treat him like someone her own age.
While he would never not protect him Lin decided that he had to stop babying Noll. The younger man might never thank him for this but it was time that Dr. Oliver Davis had his head pulled out of his ass. He sighed heavily and picked up the phone. When he heard the voice that he was trying to reach answer he didn't dare double think this.
"He's all yours. Tomorrow morning sound good?" When he received an affirmative they set a meeting time for just after nine in the morning. Before his nerve could fail him Lin hung up. He knew that this had to happen, but he wasn't sure if Martin and Luella would ever forgive him if they got wind of this.
For three weeks Oliver thought of Mai. He recalled the taste of her skin, and the way she had cried his name as her nails dug into his flesh. Every time he closed his eyes he could see the way she had flushed when he told her she was beautiful, or the sight of her naked body under him. He dreamed of how she'd looked and felt rising over him in the moonlight. For three weeks he felt like a man with a fever. He alternately cursed and blessed her name.
He loved Mai endlessly. He loved her smile and how her name was a brand on his heart. He hated Mai with a passion. He cursed how her eyes and smile were in his blood. They flowed through his veins and the twin feelings twined around his heart. He felt like a man possessed. Not even in those early days after having returned to England had he felt like this.
Through out the day he'd listen to people speak and realize he hadn't heard a damn thing that they'd said to him. All these emotions were so foreign to him. It wasn't till he'd tried to read the case notes for the sixth time in a row that he realized he could see a face in the shiny surface of the silver framed mirror on the wall across from him that was not his own. He frowned deeply when he saw his own face from four years ago smiling sadly at him.
Gene. He narrowed his eyes at his dead brother before rising to cross the room so he could talk to his missing half.
"Why aren't you off in your lover's dreams? I'm sur she's missing you." Nothing from Gene, just a sad smile and heartbroken eyes.
"Come to gloat older brother? You're dead and you're still better liked than me."
"Idiot scientist. You don't even realize."
"Realize what? That I'm just a stand in for you! My own dead brother! Why couldn't you have just left her alone! They all loved you more. Martin, Luella, Madoka, the pumpkins at the orphanage. The kids at school, you couldn't just leave me her! ONE BLOODY PERSON THAT LOVES OLIVER MORE THAN GENE!" He knew that he was starting to yell but he didn't care. He was so upset. He was so hurt and alone. Nothing was going as it was supposed to. He was supposed to be with Mai, working on cases and having her love HIM, not Gene.
When he stopped yelling he could see that Gene was crying. "You're so stupid. You don't even know what your pride has cost you. I love you Noll." As Gene's face faded and his own became clearer he clenched his eyes shut. HE didn't want to see his face, no matter how he was currently feeling he wanted to see Gene's face looking back at him. A much kinder version of his own.
He punched the wall beside the mirror and was pleased to see the hole that his fist created. He wanted to destroy something. Deciding that he had enough of this he left the room and grabbed his coat. He was going to his office and seeing if he could finish the Hines's case. Something had clicked in his brain and he knew how to help the family. He couldn't make Mai love him; even after making love to her. He couldn't bring Gene back. He couldn't be what everyone wanted him to be.
There was something he could do though. He could save a little girl and her family.
Mai was sitting in the hospital cafeteria waiting for Ayako to join her for a late breakfast. She had just finished a session with her therapist and was pushing some food around her plate. She was attending therapy three times a week. Once with a group of other women who'd been assaulted and twice with her private doctor. In the three plus weeks since her time with Naru she had to admit she was starting to feel a bit better.
The doctor and other women were all so nice and in a way it was nice to talk to someone who didn't know here to be bright, bubbly Mai and always expected something of her. To them she could just be. It was incredibly freeing. She was very thankful to Ayako for pushing her into therapy. It was hard, to recount what happened to her that night by the lake, but it was also a part of her now. She couldn't deny that Naru's inexplicable coldness to her after he'd held her so gently and pledged his love was painful but she was surviving it.
When Ayako breezed into the seat across from her and smiled Mai screwed on her own smile.
"Oh honey, look at you! Eating, Toast and Melon Slices? You're too tiny, get some bacon, some eggs! My TREAT!" Ayako teased her. Mai looked at her best friends plate and her stomach tossed around violently. Greasy bacon and eggs, sausage and biscuits just did not appeal to her. She could never quite understand Ayako's love with western food.
"No thank you." She said feeling quite green from the smell of the food that was piled high on the other woman's plate. As she took a swallow of her tea hoping it would settle her stomach Mai asked her friend how her day was going and how her husband was. Ayako beamed at her before launching into some elaborate story of how the Monk's band was doing some battle of the bands. As Mai made a valiant effort to listen her mind kept wondering back to Naru's promise that she mattered and she wondered if that was a lie.