Mai and Naru walked in a paced manner to the kitchen, one step after another. Her head was beginning to ache a bit but she tried pushing that aside for the time being, she had too much to do to worry about a headache. Naru opened the door and she walked in behind, heading for the stove to start their breakfast, assuming that Naru sat with her while the others ate.
"Why not have me cook instead Mai?" Naru asked as he set a teapot on the burned, she looked over at him with a bit of surprise then shrugged and took out a carton of eggs.
"You're always taking care of me Naru, I might as well make myself useful as a woman" She said, and cracked the eggs on the pan, letting them sizzle. Naru stood by her letting the water run into the kettle then set it on the other burner, letting it become warm. He looked over and her and she glanced up, the two watching each other closely.
"Men are supposed to take care of woman"
"I suppose so" She said, smiling a little. He had been raised in such a kind family; she had met his mother one time when she had come to collect Gene. Naru had seemed happy to return home to her and his father, a well-known professor like his son. During the year he was gone it seemed he had in fact spent more time with his family, he had grown as a man. Madoka would send her pictures every once in a while of Naru and the family. It use to just make her sob even more, knowing Naru was growing without her. She wasn't so sure if she had become a woman though, she was always troubling him, she was too loud and getting in the way. If it wasn't for Gene, her connection to him, she wasn't sure if Naru would have come back.
"The eggs are burning" Naru said and she looked up quickly to lower the temperature on the stove before flipping them. She let out a sigh of relief and laughed a little.
"Sorry, I got lost in thought" The young woman said and then put the eggs on the two plates Naru had put out. She looked out the window and put her fingers to the glass. It was actually pretty warm today, and she glanced over at the man beside her with a mischievous grin. "Let's go eat outside today"
"Mai, that would put us closer to the haunted site"
"Just on the back porch" She said and he looked at her for a second, the glint of excited in her eye made him give in, the two went out the back door and sat on the edge of the porch, their feet dangling off to where they just brushed the grass. It wasn't freezing, but there was a chill to the air. Still it was nice and Mai let out a sigh of relief, glad to be removed from the suffocating auras in the home. The two chatted through their meal before she laid down on her back and Naru slowly followed after her, the two laying as they looked at the clouds.
"Would you ever look at clouds with me a year ago?"
"I would never look at clouds by myself a year ago, let alone with you"
"What made you change so much?" She asked, propping herself onto her elbows to look down at him. Mai never really intended to ask such a question but it had somehow passed by her lips and she could him thinking deeply, his eyebrows scrunching together in thought.
"Age, I suppose. Maturity, everyone changes as they get older, you've changed too Mai" He said and she laid back down, allowing the silence to settle in.
"How have I changed?"
"You're not as loud" He said quietly and she let out a snort. Of course Naru would say that and the two stayed there, admiring each cloud as it passed by. It wasn't long till she grew tired and her eyes began to flutter, she could see from the edge of her vision Naru's gaze landing on her. She could feel a coat being wrapped snuggling around her as her eyes finally closed.
She was running through a field of flowers, going to her favorite spot. Mother and father could never find her here, this was her spot. Her spot. She plopped down and pulled out a book and started to read. It was starting to get dark before she noticed someone in the tree line.
"Who is out there?"
"I'm a boy"
"Well boys aren't allowed in my secret field"
"Don't you want to see my secret fort?"
Mai woke up on the couch in the base. It seemed she had been taken inside; it had started to rain outside, not cold enough to turn to snow. She turned slightly to watch Naru and Yasuhara click on the computer. She had only been asleep for an hour or two it seemed, making her dream so short, but at least it had provided something. Two suspects for the ghost. The only problem was that she didn't know their names; in fact the only thing she knew was she had been a young girl who went into that field.
"Oh you're awake? I guess my loud manly clicks woke you up" Yasuhara said, turning around to see the young woman peeking out from under the blanket.
"No, I like the sound of the keyboard, I actually just had a dream" She said and Naru then turned around as well, an expecting look on his face. She pulled herself from the blankets and slowly recalled the events, it didn't seem too special, but the two men listened intentionally before turning back to their computers and starting to scroll. They were obviously looking for something and she pulled herself from the couch to walk up behind them. It seemed they were looking through pictures of young people, scrolling up and down before Naru finally stopped and frowned.
"It's impossible for us to pinpoint which of these children are the ghost without you knowing names or their features. For the time being we can assume it is two children, that will get us somewhere" He said and she watched the two men shut down the computers.
"Who were all those children?" She asked and Yasuhara glanced over at Naru who paused. He was thinking for a moment, considering something.
"They are the children who have died here, well as far as our information goes back. It's hard to pinpoint the children because this home is so old, and children dying at young ages were normal, so we also have to take into account those who died before those two"
"Oh, I see" She mumbled but Yasu wouldn't allow her sadness and jumped up, grabbing her. She squealed as she shook her body and she managed to escape, running across the room.
"You better run, I'm coming for you. I am, the woman eater!" He shouted and ran after her, down the hallway as laughter rang through the home. Naru watched with amusement, while slightly annoyed with their close behavior, it was good for the young man to keep Mai in a cheery mood. It seemed this tale went past just ghost, these attacks were too powerful for just two children to be involved, and he wasn't sure if he could save them.
"Monk save me!" Mai shouted with teary eyes of laughter, she hid behind him as Yasuhara chased up behind her, the two running in circles around the man till the middle-aged man managed to catch him and give him a good scolding for playing around in such a place. While Mai recovered her breath she realized Masako was in the room, looking at her nervously. It seemed John was sitting by her as well, trying to get her to go up and talk to the other young woman but she kept shaking her head. Mai knew without some help her friend might in fact avoid her the entire case and she walked over to her and sat down on the chair beside her.
"I'm sorry" Masako blurted out, and Mai let out a chuckle
"You know you don't have to be Masako, it was pretty cool when you attacked me and because of that Naru stayed and watched over me. I should be thanking you" She said and the spiritualist looked at her curiously. Her shoulders had relaxed and John's hand wasn't turning blue, which he seemed very grateful for.
"What happened between the two of you?" She asked and the two were best friends again, whispering about what had happened while Naru watched over her. Masako assured it that Naru was falling for her, and that Mai should make a move. She denied it though, saying that was just the way he had been raised, to watch over woman, he had even said so, it was man's job to look after a woman.
"There is a difference to watching over and caring for" Masako said and Mai grinned weakly at her friend before Naru came in. Lin came in after him and they all got up to welcome him back.
"How are you feeling? Why are you back so early?" She asked curiously and he looked down at her with a small grin.
"I decided to leave the hospital before Madoka got wind of my injury" He said and they all broke into laughter. While on the outside it seemed he didn't want to face his fiancé's torture, Mai knew he didn't want to worry her. While she was a cheery woman she did in fact worry over others, whenever Mai would get hurt she would act more motherly than her own, Ayako.
"I still think you should have remained in the hospital" Naru said, frowning but Lin shrugged, obviously not affected by his boss's argument.
"I did notice something while in the field though" Lin said, looking out the window, the rain still going heavy against the window. "Something was buried, I could feel the presence under the grass" Naru looked out the window as well with narrowed eyes, studying the consequences of going out. Mai knew he would go, for the good of the case, no matter how much danger it could put him in.
"Well if you all are going out there you're going to need some rain coats" Suga said and Mai quickly turned around to see the woman at the archway and with a grin. Naru looked at her then nodded and headed after her, with Lin behind him. Mai watched before going after them.
"You're going to stay here Mai" Naru said after noticing that she had followed behind them to the coat closet where the older woman was pulling out three sets of rain coats.
"Lin is hurt and you're going to need help if something goes wrong" She said firmly. While she knew quiet well that they could take any of the other men she tried to make him ignore his senses for the time being. Naru was probably too prideful to ask for help from the other men anyways and she pulled on the last raincoat, the heavy coat weighing down on her shoulders. She zipped it up to her chin and looked at him expectantly. He looked down before pinching the bridge of his nose with a sigh and pulled the hood over her face, making sure her face was covered. The three pulled on the rain boots, and grabbed umbrellas to protect themselves. Lin then took a shovel from the older woman with a nod, the three stepping out of the door.
"You three hurry up, I heard this is going to turn into a tropical storm" Suga said as they stood on the front porch, wind tearing at their faces.
"Don't worry we'll be back soon" Mai said with a grin and put up her umbrella, running after the two men who had already started for the field. The rain was heavy enough to sting her skin and she caught up to them slowly, ducking her head from the wind. They continued on, making it to the tree line to stop for a moment to rest. They couldn't speak to each other over the wind and after a few moment went out into the open field, walking till even Mai could feel the presence, a dark aura covering the area. She shuttered and pulled in closer behind Naru as they stopped at the spot and Naru took the shovel from Lin without a word and started to dig, he kept going, deeper and deeper till Mai offered up her help and with a pause he handed her the shovel. The young woman started to dig like he had, the two pulled close to protect her from the weather, finally she could feel the presence right under her shoulder and she reached her hands down to uncover it, a piece of paper and shoved it into her pocket. Then her umbrella broke free from her hands and flew away, she tried reaching for it but Naru just pulled her close to be under his instead.
"Leave it, we need to get back in" He shouted over the wind, the three ran back to the tree line and then back to the home. Everyone was at the door, welcoming them back like they had done for Lin. Ayako helped her pull her jacket off and wrapped a towel around her. Even with a raincoat in, her clothes had still gotten soaked and she let out a laugh as Monk messed with her soaked hair, ruffling it up.
"I'm sorry Suga-san. I lost the umbrella in the field, it flew away" She said to the older woman but she just laughed.
"No matter, what did you three of you find?" She asked and Mai reached down in the pocket of her raincoat to pull out a folded piece of paper. Looking up at Naru for confirmation she unfolded it and looked down at the weird shapes on the paper. There were two names.
"What is this?" She asked, looking up.
"It's a circle to call demon, it seems those two children called them and they became the sacrifices" Naru said, taking the paper from her.
"So now-" She said and Naru nodded
"The demons are controlling them to get more sacrifices"
The weekened is such a good time to type up stories! ^^
Welcome to my new subscribers! I can't wait to get every one of you!
Muscial Teardrops, oh I know, I think I actually...watched the anime first then read the manga. The anime is real scary isn't it . Well maybe I feel that way because I watched it when I was 12 at 4 in the morming. Urgh. So many feels! I mean to make the entire thing...complex, like there is no' good' and no 'bad' feelings or people, just a weird gray inbetween.
Haha, it's good it'll be fixed so soon deadlyrose123, that way you two won't have to share much longer ^^ I know that sharing a computer is very hard. But yup, my foot isn't too bad, it should be healed pretty soon. Glad you both enjoyed this chapter!
thearistcrat, haha, ya I guess they are both kind of stupid like that, but they just-care too much about the other. Love does make your brain pretty stupid, or so i've heard. Naru taking care of Mai is pretty cute, but I guess it works out that way just because they are older.
p. ageha, so many ideeaaaaaaa. I actually meant to put up a valentines ghost hunt chapter but my ideas went to waste when I lost got in the icecream and dog cuddling bliss. Sigh. hope you get your laptop back soon!
I played lazer tag yesterday with a group of Hetalians. If you want a workout, go play lazer tag on a three story buildng, dear lord...
Just make sure to eat right or else you'll get the shakes like me, I almost went Mai on everyone and passed out! I don't think there was a Naru to catch me though. That would have hurt...
Thank you for all the reviews, and welcome to my newcomers, let's all get along together as a group!