42. "Mai? Are you awake?"

She opens her eyes, staring listlessly at the dark ceiling. "Need something?" There's a rustle of sheets and the bed on the others side of the guestroom creaks in protest. Footsteps make their way towards her bed and a hand pulls back her blanket as Masako lays down beside her. She closes her eyes again. Her best friend murmurs something about how boring the Morioka File is turning out and that they should've taken advantage of Naru's rare generosity and gone home that afternoon. "Yeah." Mai agrees. That would've been nice.

"Then you could've seen Heiwajima sooner. Do you miss him?" Mai hears the smile in the younger medium's voice. "From that….overt display before we left, I could tell he was going to miss you an awful lot."

Mai feels her face flush at the memory and she smiles. "Of course I miss him. And I'm a little worried about what kind of trouble he's gotten into. All the exciting stuff in 'Bukuro happens while I'm gone."

"Do you have any plans with him for when you get back?"

"It's kinda become a tradition for us to eat at Russia Sushi whenever I get back from an out-of-town case." Mai yawns. "We usually go for a walk in the park after that. Sometimes he walks me home, but he can't stand my roommate-"

"Mai, no one can stand your roommate." Masako interjects. "And I don't know how you've put up with him for as long as you have."

She grins. It's a gift, her patience. "He can't stand Izaya, so we normally part ways after our walk and I go home." It doesn't occur to her how lame that must sound to her, but Mai can't think of anything to add. Then again, maybe she doesn't she really want to. After all, no matter what she says, she doesn't think she'll fully be able to describe the sense of peace and contentment she feels with Shizuo. How happy she is when they're together. So what if Masako thinks it's cheesy-

"Have you slept with him yet?"

Mai bolts upright, her cheeks reaching a level of heat that's just shy of feverish and she stares down at the younger medium. "Whoa, hang on, where did that come from?"

Masako giggles. "I'll take that as a no. You're such a shy woman, Mai. There's no need to be so embarrassed about it. You're consenting adults, and you've been going out for three months now, so-"

"So what if it's been three months?" Mai lays down again, turning her back to her friend. She'd be lying if the idea hadn't crossed her mind at least once in a while, the two of them tangled in bed together, running their hands over each other-she short circuits the image with a shudder, mortified at her thinking. No way. As if….it wouldn't….I….oh….. "Haven't you ever heard of waiting-till-marriage?"

Her friend grips her shoulder and leans over her face, grinning elfishly. "Are you getting married? This is what I'm trying to figure out. How far are you taking things with him?"

Mai just groans and asks her friend to put it out of her mind and go to sleep.

-0-0-0-

Author's Notes: If you're wondering what happened to the other Chapter 42, after rereading it several times, I decided to replace it because I felt it was seriously out of place. I don't specifically write these chapters in advance, I just follow a simple framework and elaborate from there, so every so often I do miscalculate when I want things to happen.

A note on Mai and Masako's relationship: I always imagined these two would be friends if Naru wasn't in the picture, since their rivalry centered around him. If Mai's over Naru, then Masako probably is too, so any sour grapes between them now is just childish. And they are both in their early twenties now. Besides, I thought it'd be funny to have Masako teasing Mai about her relationship when it would've been the other way around when they were teens. Don't worry, Ayako's going to have her fair share of teasing Mai.

Ghost Hunt is owned by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada.

Durarara! is owned by Ryohgo Narita, Suzuhito Yasuda, and Akiyo Satorigi.