Finding You:

Chapter 10:

The group arrived back at the SPR office hours later with everyone only having had a few hours sleep. Unexpectedly Naru gave everyone the day off, citing the fact that Yasuhara became even more annoying when he was sleep deprived. Yasuhara immediately left and was soon followed by John and Lin, who judging by the dark circles under their eyes, were keen to catch up on sleep, leaving only Mai and Naru in the office.

Mai was snuggled up on one of the sofas and was close to falling asleep again when Naru tapped her on the shoulder.

"Mai, if you want to sleep comfortably, go home. If you don't want to sleep you can go out with me today," Naru offered.

She opened one eye to see him standing over her. "Will it be like a date?"

Naru seemed to think hard for a moment before answering. "If that is what you want it to be, then yes."

The amnesiac slowly sat up. "Where it will be?"

"Where we had our first date."

Those words were very enticing to Mai and she stood up instantly. Reliving her first date might unearth some memories now that she was learning more about her relationship with Naru which seemed to be a key part in all her years of missing memories. To her surprise Naru passed her a camera and told her to take photos whenever she felt like it as it would help her.

"This was where our first date was!?" Mai gasped. "In the woods?"

She looked around nervously for the trees were very tall and foreboding, casting an ominous shadow. If a bat came flying out at that moment she would have not been surprised as the atmosphere was befitting of a horror movie. Naru did not look fazed, only amused.

"To be fair, you did not know it was a date. You were under the impression it was for a case," he scoffed. "Like it would only be the two of us on a case in a location like this."

Mai glared at him, understanding her younger self's reaction implicatively.

"A forest as gloomy as this does not give a romantic vibe, Naru. Of course I would have thought it was a case. Why did you choose it?"

Now Naru was the one to look nervous. "I thought it would bring us closer together. You always cling onto me when it gets dark and scary and I don't entirely mind..."

Mai's eyes gradually widened. Naru was admitting that he liked it when she grabbed hold of him in the dark and had deliberately chosen a location so terrifying that she would get close to him. The past few days had contained a lot of surprises and she still could not get her head around the revelation that Naru had loved/still loved her and she had spent most of her early morning waking hours staring at the ceiling blankly. She had avoided dwelling on it whilst she was around others so no one would notice that she was troubled, but now it was just her and Naru.

The main things stopping her from reciprocating after hearing his confession were her amnesia and the niggling feeling that she had not been privy to everything that had happened two years ago.

Naru offered her his hand and she hesitantly took it, noting the familiarity as she did so.

"It's going to be dark. Hold my hand, just for safety though," he said.

Mai experienced a sudden feeling of déjà vu. The face of a younger Naru aligned with the current one as she stared at him.

"Did you say that last time?" she asked unsurely.

Naru looked watchful. "Yes. It seems as if you are slowly recovering your memories."

Her heart soared. She was beginning to recall events and if this kept up she would not be an amnesiac anymore. It was not enjoyable having amnesia, she constantly felt like she was wading through a marsh as her surroundings and relationships with people had changed a lot and she often felt lost by all the changes.

"Thank you Naru for helping," she replied with a smile and this time she did spot the sad expression on her former fiancée's face and picked him up on it. "Is is bad for me to recover my memories?"

He shook his head and his face turned unreadable. Without speaking he led the way into the forest. A few metres into the densely packed trees, Mai noticed that the sunlight had completely disappeared and she tightened her grip on his hand.

"This forest has rumours of a ghost and I did tell you that before we went it so you would not think too much of me taking you out and I was also interested to see if the rumours were true. This forest used to be a popular site for suicides," he told her. "Don't worry about not being able to see-"

"-just keep hold of my hand and in any case your animal instincts should take care of you," Mai finished his sentence, the words coming to her naturally.

She could hear the surprise in Naru's voice when he answered. "I brought a torch so you don't trip up and gain another head injury. You were right though, that is what I said last time."

There was a moment of silence between them and Mai was the one to change the subject. Naru's awkwardness was something she would address at a later point. For now she had to focus on regaining her memories.

"Were there any spirits here to exorcise?"

She heard Naru sigh.

"No, but ghostly noises were provided courtesy of Yasuhara and Bou-san."

This gave Mai a mental image of the monk and Yasuhara hiding behind trees and doing their best impression of ghostly noises. Considering the number of cases they had all been on, they had plenty of inspiration to draw on. However she could not see Naru enlisting their services to give their date atmosphere.

Naru seemed to be thinking along the same lines for he explained before she had a chance to open her mouth.

"Before you ask, I did not get them to help me. They got wind of my plan to ask you out- I still think it was Lin who told them and they decided to help. Just so you know, I was planning to tell you the truth when we got here, but the noises scared you so much that you would not let go of me... and I saw no reason to spoil the atmosphere."

Hidden by the poor light, she shot Naru a glare. Who knew that a 21 year old Naru would be so devious? He seemed to sense her glare and hastily changed tack by switching his torch on and gently pulling her along the path, warning her when there were tree roots and helping her across puddles. He stopped in a clearing and shone the light up a slope at a group of trees.

"Those two idiots were hiding over there," he pointed. "Yasuhara-san did an admirable ghostly wail causing you to hug me tightly."

The only thing preventing her from fleeing the forest was Naru's hold on her hand. It seemed strange that there was only two of them in a place said to be inhabited by a spirit and Naru never went anywhere like this without a van full of equipment. That said, she was there now and she would not wimp out. She just wished that Naru had brought some source of light. It was unlike him not to be prepared.

A mournful wail stopped them in their tracks and Mai clutched at Naru. Another wail had her throwing her arms around him and hugging him as tightly as a limpet.

"What was that!?" she hissed as close as she could to his ear.

"I don't quite know," he whispered back sounding more puzzled than scared.

A minute passed and the psychic was about to let go when the wail returned and she clung onto him even harder.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "It's scary."

Naru's reply was unlike his usual responses to anything she said.

"It's fine," he answered, sounding out of breath for some reason.

Mai attempted to look up at his face before remembering it was too dark. Last week, on their most recent case, Naru had rescued her from the spirit that had been about to attack her, had told her that she should always stay close to him so he could protect her and had kissed her for a long time and then he hadn't done anything since then. Today he had asked her to go with him to investigate a possible haunting which was not a date. Unless it was a date by Naru standards?

The wailing stopped and she relaxed briefly before the sound of a twig cracking tensed her up.

"It's okay, Mai. I think that whatever it was has moved on now," Naru reassured her in an amused tone for some reason. "...We can stay here if you want to."

"Just give me a minute to calm down."

Once Mai's heartbeat had slowed down to its normal rate she let go of Naru, but kept hold of his hand. There was no way she was going to let go of it now that she knew something was hiding in the darkness.

Further into the forest a wailing sound could be heard again with this one being lower in pitch suggesting that there were at least two spirits roaming the woods. She grabbed onto Naru's body and held on for dear life. She was not usually this scared of ghosts, but the forest was pitch black and she could not see anything to aim the Nine Cuts at.

Naru's hand patted her on the head and he bent down to whisper in her ear.

"Would you like me to get rid of them? It will be quite easy and does not require PK."

"Yes."

She felt him straighten up and she experienced another surprise. Instead of calling out something that an exorcist would say, he simply loudly said,

"We don't want you here. Leave or else you might find you have a pay cut when you get your next paycheque."

Ghosts did not get paid with cheques to Mai's knowledge. Neither could they crack twigs and then she remember seeing a familiar car in the car park outside.

"Bou-san?"

"It's Bou-san and some other idiot," Naru said calmly. "I supposed I should be thankful to them."

Mai realised that now that there was no danger should not be clutching at Naru so she released him and felt herself being pulled back into his arms.

"Naru?"

He kissed the top of her head. "Whilst I was interested to see if there was a spirit, it was not my main objective. I wanted to spend some time alone with you."

Mai stared wide eyed at him even though she could not see him.

"Is this supposed to be a date?"

"Perhaps."

"Naru!"

Her next shout was cut off by Naru's mouth covering hers and she found herself unable to talk properly for the next few minutes.

The amnesiac Mai blinked, returning to the present. It seemed that another memory, this one longer and more detailed, had returned. She grinned, she was so close to getting her memory back.

Sorry for the late update, I completely forgot that I was going on holiday. I did write part of this chapter there, but we were staying in a very fancy guesthouse and I got pen on the bedcover so I decided it would be best not to work on it until I got back.