Finding You:

Chapter 9:

Naru drew out a folder from his overnight bag and passed it to her.

"These are the remaining missing photos from the SPR photo album you have."

Mai blinked in surprise and accepted it gratefully. She opened it and experienced the development of her and Naru's relationship through the photos. In the early ones they were only sitting next to each other, in some they were holding hands. A later one caused Mai to flush to the roots of her hair.

The photo was of her being pushed up against a wall by Naru and in the next he appeared to be kissing her very forcefully.

Naru moved to look over her shoulder. "Is it that one? It was a very intriguing case and eventually you provided the solution and had a big celebration and I... rewarded you."

Mai looked up at him, she had completely forgotten to consider deeply how far they had gone together and the photo proved to be a hint that they had gone pretty far. To distract herself from those thoughts, she turned to the next photo and blushed even harder. The photo depicted Naru, who was dressed in a navy blue shirt instead of black and was smiling smoulderingly at the camera. She wondered who had taken the photo.

This unspoken question was answered by her former fiancée.

"You took that photo of course, who else would I show that smile to?"

Mai felt warm inside and she cheered up, feeling considerably happier than she had been the previous day. A hand snaked under her arm and turned the page to another photo.

"This case was at an amusement park and the owner was very grateful and we spent the rest of the day on the rides. Well, I only went on one; the Ferris wheel with you," he pointed to the photo where he and Mai was kissing on the Ferris wheel. "I absolutely refused to go on the spinning teacups though."

The image of Naru petulantly refusing to sit in a spinning teacup caused Mai to giggle and she had a sudden flash of a more concrete image of Naru being dragged by her past a haunted house and he was protesting that his love of tea did not mean that he wanted to sit in an oversized teacup and be spun around. Was that a real memory?

Perhaps Naru's confession was causing her memories to slowly return in small fragments. Keen to see another memory, she flipped to the next page and was confronted by the image of Naru sitting at a low table with a half full pint glass of what looked like beer in front of him.

"You drink beer?"

Naru nodded. "Bou-san invited us to his apartment after one case and he claimed that I wasn't a man unless I drank one glass of beer. Five pints later, he gave his full approval to our relationship and offered to be my best man."

"Did he not approve of our relationship before?"

"He did not say anything. However I think he just wanted to get me drunk so he could get Dr. Oliver Davis' autograph," Naru said wryly.

Mai grinned, that did sound like Bou-san and a thought occurred to her suddenly. She had been engaged to the famous Dr. Oliver Davis?

"Naru, did your parents approve of me?" she questioned worriedly.

For that she received a soft pat on the head from the former narcissist.

"Of course. They loved you. When we stayed with them in London, my mother would take you shopping, my father loved your anecdotes about our cases and they were looking forward to the wedding..."

He looked sad momentarily before continuing. "I suppose you would like to know how I proposed to you?"

The brunette nodded fervently and Naru began the story.

The renowned scientist Dr. Oliver Davis glared at the small red velvet box in his hand. Inside was a ring that he had spent three hours choosing in a jewellery shop. He was intending on proposing to Mai in a number of hours and was trying to find a non cliché method of doing it that would not be too sappy.

He stared at his reflection in the mirror and adjusted the collar of his white shirt self consciously. White was not his usual colour of choice; he had observed that wearing lighter colours always disarmed Mai and caused her to blush prettily so he was going all out tonight and wearing a white shirt. His trousers were black though; he had his limits.

A wrapped bouquet of red roses were lying on his coffee table and he turned his glare on them. The sight of him carrying red roses would either cause Mai to blush furiously or to giggle uncontrollably, he was praying for the first.

A glance at his watch told him that he was going to be late unless left now so he blindly grabbed the roses and left his apartment to pick up Mai for their date.

Mai was waiting on the curb when he pulled up outside her apartment block. She was dressed in a blue woollen coat and a scarf and a pair of woolly gloves that he had given her for her birthday.

"I can't believe you managed to get reservations for that restaurant," she said excitedly once she had sat down in the passenger seat. "Ayako told me you have to book at least three months in advance and even then you have to have good connections."

"I have very good connections," he corrected and scrambled for a way to give Mai the roses and ring without it looking overly romantic. He soon found it. "Mai, the wing mirrors are too dirty to drive with, go and get the cloth out of the trunk."

Rather understandably, his girlfriend narrowed her eyes at him and reluctantly got out the car and opened the trunk. He was sure he would be forgiven for his rudeness when she found what was in there. Mai was always lecturing him about his manners.

He heard a gasp and knew that she had seen the roses and would hopefully find the ring box. Moments later Mai got back in, carrying the ring and roses and regarded him silently with an unreadable look on her face.

He took the ring box from her. "Do you like the ring? I spent hours choosing one for you."

There was no reply from his fiancé.

"Mai...?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Is this a marriage proposal?"

Naru twitched. His hastily formulated plan had a flaw- it wasn't actually clear that he was proposing to her. He needed to rectify that. He plucked out the ring from its box and carefully slid it onto the appropriate finger and admired how it looked.

"Your finger looks best with it on," he complimented. "So you had better not lose it and I will be adding another one to it soon."

He watched her face nervously. It should now be evident that he was proposing to her. For a few seconds Mai was quiet and then she burst out laughing.

"Everyone guessed wrong! Even Lin-san couldn't predict how you would propose."

Naru's mind cast itself back to a few weeks ago when he had seen all of his employees and Madoka sitting around a table and noting down sums of money on a piece of paper and he had heard the words "bet" and "proposal".

"Do you mean to say that there was a bet on how I was going to propose?" he groused.

"I win ¥50,000 then because everyone got it wrong!" Mai smiled. "But I did think that Yasuhara was going to win."

Naru groaned. Knowing Yasuhara it was going to be perverted in some manner.

"What was his prediction?"

"You were going to throw the ring at me casually and tell me that no one else was going to marry me so I might as well marry you."

Naru's eyes shifted tellingly to the right and Mai rolled her eyes.

"It seems that Yasuhara-san is due a pay cut," he said and changed tack. Talking about his employees when he was trying to propose spoiled the mood. "What is your answer?"

"It's yes of course!" she exclaimed and threw her arms around him.

The amnesiac Mai gaped at her employer and former fiancée.

"You proposed to me like that and I didn't mind?"

If Naru proposed to her like that now she would have not been impressed. It didn't sound particularly romantic. Then again it was Naru...

"You mellowed out over the years and did not mind it too much when I did supposedly romantic things in an unromantic way," he explained, looking distant. "That is what confirmed the fact that you are for me; anyone else would have dumped me very quickly."

The atmosphere in the room turned uncomfortable for Mai and she yawned loudly and deliberately looked at the clock.

"It's 4 in the morning, I'm going to bed. Bye, Naru," she said and left the room hastily.

She was not the person that Naru loved. She was the 17 year old Mai Taniyama who was still adjusting to her abilities, not the older Mai who was more skilled and got along better with him. She was so wrapped in her thoughts that she didn't notice that someone had followed her until a hand grasped her arm.

She jumped and whirled around to see Naru standing behind her, his skin looking particularly white in the moonlight coming in from the window.

"Mai, I didn't tell you this because you've had a lot to take in today, but..." he paused. "I love you."

Her eyes widened and she was about to protest when Naru placed a finger over her lips.

"Before you say that the one I love is not you, listen. I have loved you for a lot longer than you think, I just kept quiet because I thought the one you liked was Gene. I just wanted to tell you that and I don't need an answer from you."

With that he removed his finger and walked away.

"Naru!" she called after him once she had recovered her breath.

He turned. "Mai."

"Did you love me when I confessed to you?"

"I only realised it after I left for England. Why do you think that I returned so quickly?" he asked with a small smile.

"You told me it was because Japan has more spiritual activity," she said sharply.

"That too. Good night, Mai."

Mai remained frozen on the spot until he rounded the corner of the hallway and she rubbed her eyes. Naru really had changed since they had first me. He had said phrases that she would have never imagined him saying like "I love you".

Like a robot she returned to her bedroom and got into her futon. It had been a long day and maybe in the morning she would be able to process it better.

I apologise for the late update, I was worried about A level results day, but it is all fine now. I got accepted by my first choice university!