CONTACT
My Rude Awakening
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ghost Hunt. I wouldn't be writing this if I did.
WARNING: May contain spoilers from the manga and novels, including Akumu no Sumu Ie.
*This chapter is dedicated to AmyNChan, MaixVampire, Myth Magyk Fae, archagelBBQ, and CrescentMoonTenshi.*
Thank you very much for your guesses~! I had fun reading them.
CHAPTER 7
Third Law of Motion
10.26.2015
Outside Mai's apartment, Noll took the spare key of her front door out of his wallet.
He never thought he would ever have a use for it when she handed it to him after he returned from England. She had reasoned out that it was for emergencies and for the times when she forgot her own key. She had boldly declared that she deemed him trustworthy enough to be her key-keeper. Matsuzaki-san, who eventually took the responsibility of being the girl's physician and unofficial guardian, kept the other spare key.
The young man struggled with the lock for a bit. He mentally noted to ask Mai to change her doorknob to a newer one with a more secure and efficient locking mechanism.
The doorknob finally yielded to his forceful twist. He was welcomed with her soft sobbing as he rushed into the moonlit room. When his eyes had adjusted to the dim moonlight, he saw her huddled in the fetal position.
"Mai," he called out as he made his way to her futon. "Explain to me what exactly happened."
Oliver was bending down to sit next to the utterly disheveled girl when she grabbed his hand without warning to pull him down towards her.
"Naru!" Mai whispered next to his ear as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
They were currently sitting in an awkward position, but it did not matter to him. He was more concerned about the desperation in her voice and the way her body was shivering uncontrollably.
"What happened, Mai?" He inquired, but she only started whimpering against his shoulder. Her reaction implied that there was no use in asking her in this state.
Noll took her right hand and held onto it gently. He had decided to resort to using his psychometry to figure out what was going on. Mai was crying so hard by now that she did not even notice this unnatural action.
He cleared all thoughts in his head for a few seconds and then the vision played in full color. He was careful to distance his consciousness from Mai's so that the vision would not be in first person point of view, but concentrating proved to be a difficult task with his assistant weeping loudly while pulling him even closer to her.
His head rested on top of hers as he closed his eyes to view the rest of her dream. He saw the forest, the bullet through his chest, his falling frame, and then the grand ballroom where Mai – or in this case, he – committed suicide. By the time the vision ended, the young woman had calmed down considerably. Noll let go of her hand quietly, and they stayed in the same position for a while.
He patiently waited for her to calm down completely before asking her once more. "Mai, talk to me." He lifted her face with one hand to make her look at him. "What happened?" he inquired softly.
He already knew what she saw, but he could not reveal to her – or to anyone for that matter – that he used his psychometry on her. He was still forbidden to use any of his psychic abilities, and his use of PK during the hotel bomber case took a toll on his body way beyond his expectations.
She deliberately avoided looking into his eyes as she whispered, "I killed you, Naru, and I killed myself."
"No, you did not, Mai." He cupped her face to force her to look at him straight in the eyes. "I am here, and both of us are still alive." He took her hand and placed it over his heart to let her feel his heartbeat. He then stared at her for a moment, and her eyes started to water until she broke out into hysterical sobs once more.
Oliver Davis was officially at a loss on how to deal with her.
She pulled him into another tight hug as she began speaking almost incomprehensibly in between sobs. "I'm so glad… you're safe, Naru… I… seriously… thought… you're gone…" He could not catch the rest of it since her voice was muffled when she buried her face in his chest.
"Mai, please stop crying," he said quietly, trying his best to mask the desperation in his voice with a commanding tone. His plea remained unheeded as she continued to weep loudly.
When he realized that she would not be stopping any time soon, he frantically searched his memories for ways of calming down his own distraught brother when he had woken up from his nightmares. It pained him to reminisce about his childhood with Eugene, but he just could not stand hearing Mai crying like this.
Noll closed his eyes to focus and he was promptly flooded with images from the past.
"Everything will be alright, my dear boy." Luella murmured soothingly in her older son's ear.
The ten-year-old Eugene was tightly wrapped in their mother's embrace as he sobbed quietly against her shoulder. It was the result of another gruesome vision he had witnessed while taking a nap.
The older twin only intended to rest for a while after spending the whole afternoon playing tennis with Oliver. He was too tired that he forgot to do the mind exercises he was supposed to do before succumbing to sleep. Now he was facing the consequences of letting his consciousness be more susceptible to visions from the dead.
It is Gene's fault, really, Noll mused as the frown on his face deepened. How many times did they have to tell his brother that their psychic powers are still beyond their control and they must take every possible precaution to rein them in?
He watched as their adoptive mother continued rubbing his twin's back consolingly while whispering words of reassurance, yet Gene would not stop crying.
Noll could understand why.
After all, he also saw the vision through their telepathic connection just a few minutes ago. It was about a girl murdered by her own mother. Had the younger twin been less callous, he would have been heartbroken as well, but that was not the case. If Noll had to feel something right now, it would be for his brother. He felt too much all the time, even for people he had never met, including the departed that he would never meet in his lifetime. Sometimes Eugene could be such an idiot.
Luella sighed in surrender and simply kissed Gene on the forehead.
The older boy suddenly stopped crying and lifted his head to gaze at their mother.
Gene had a shocked expression, but it quickly transformed into a gentle smile as he spoke quietly.
"It's the first time you've kissed me, mother."
Luella's eyes watered. It was also the first time she had been called 'mother' by her adopted child, after all.
"Oh, Eugene," she uttered tenderly, "that's what mothers are for."
Noll decided to leave at this point because it felt like he was intruding on the touching scene.
After all these years, he still felt a pang of jealousy at the realization that he never allowed Luella to comfort him like that.
No, he never let anyone do so, apart from his twin.
He was afraid of any intimate physical contact, even from his adoptive mother, because it would mean he would be able to see her past or probably even her future. He was terrified of what he could and would see, and he hated it because he could not control his psychometric ability when he was younger. Getting into and out of visions made his head spin to the point that he had vertigo for hours afterwards.
Eugene was the only person who could touch him and whom he could touch without activating his psychometry back then. They had always attributed it to the fact that it was some sort of defense mechanism between twins who possessed telepathy.
On the rare occasions when Noll would break down from the mental strain of seeing things that were too horrid for him – for anyone, really – his brother would comfort him the same way Luella always did for Gene. As they grew up, Oliver thought that this method was rather awkward; after all, they were both boys, but it was the most effective. Gene had the innate ability to calm people down and make them feel at ease, whether they belong to the land of the living or the dead. Needless to say, people always liked the older Davis twin better because of this, and it was one of the qualities that made him a good medium.
Noll could not directly read Gene by psychometry. Being twins, their genomes were essentially the same, with only minimal modifications occurring as they grew up. Because of their mostly identical genetic makeup and ability to share each other's thoughts through their telepathic connection, Noll's spirit recognizes Gene as part of his 'self' and not a 'non-self', rendering the use of psychometry ineffective. They eventually learned that it was not the case when it came to their personal belongings, which led to Noll's discovery of the death of his twin a few years ago when he touched Gene's clothing.
This ultimately resulted to him meeting Mai and the rest of SPR. He found it ironic that he had to lose his brother to find his team.
Like what people always said, 'You win some. You lose some.'
He was pulled back to the present when he felt Mai trembling in his arms.
He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts.
Oliver, now is not the time to stroll down memory lane, he reminded himself.
He pulled away slightly and swept her bangs to the side with his fingers. In one smooth motion, he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. The onslaught of images momentarily caught him off guard, but he quickly recovered the control on his consciousness.
He let his lips linger on her skin for a while to catch her attention.
And just like that, she stopped sobbing and was frozen in place.
The silence that ensued was deafening.
Oliver gazed at her wide-eyed expression, resisting the grin that was attempting to form from the corner of his lips. He let out a sigh of relief, which finally shattered the stillness of the room.
Mai also let out the breath she was holding, and eventually, her breathing slowed down until it reached its regular rhythm. She held his stare the whole time she was calming herself down as if she could find the answer to her unspoken question in his eyes.
He simply returned the stare, pointedly ignoring the bewilderment taking over her face.
"N-naru," she began with hesitation, "W-what just happened?" She could not stop herself from stuttering, most probably due to embarrassment from the gesture that she never thought he was capable of doing.
Seeing her confused and perturbed because of him gave him a sense of satisfaction, but he forced his current thoughts to the back of his mind. Now was not the time to tease her, especially when he had barely managed to halt her weeping.
Or not.
He let a smirk escape from his lips as he countered her nonchalantly with another query, "Must I really state the obvious for you, Mai?"
She pulled away from him, suddenly becoming aware of the intimacy of their position.
He shook his head in feigned disapproval. His assistant never failed to amuse him with her antics.
The young boss began to drawl mockingly, "I rushed to your apartment in the middle of the night to become a prince charming to your damsel-in-distress and all I get is…" he paused for effect, then continued with faux disdain in his voice and a false look of reproach on his face, "…this? Do you not think I deserve a 'thank you' – at the very least – for calming you down when you were so preoccupied with bawling your eyes out over something you would not even tell me about?"
For the second time that night, Mai's eyes widened from shock and she was as still as a statue. Her mouth parted to form an 'o' from the mini monologue of her boss.
She abruptly turned away from him in a pathetic attempt to hide the blush that he knew she was sporting but was hidden in the shadows. By now he was sure she was utterly mortified by the turn of events.
The distraction Noll had cleverly constructed and eloquently delivered effectively returned the girl to her senses and her usual self. He let out yet another sigh of relief.
A blush gradually bloomed on Mai's face when it finally dawned on her that she was the one who asked him to come.
Oh God, I'm screwed, she realized belatedly as she turned away from her boss.
Naru had spoken too much and was being more sarcastic than usual. These were definitive signs that he was furious with her.
This is really, totally, unbelievably bad, she told herself.
The worst part of it all was his anger was perfectly justified because she made it sound so urgent over the phone, but all she had done so far was to cry from the moment she saw his face.
She had to say something. Fast.
She racked her brain for anything that would break the growing silence that was starting to drive her to the edge of her sanity.
Words seemed to elude her as her consciousness came into head-on collision with the fact that the great Oliver Davis – her boss and long-time unrequited love – had just kissed her. Never mind the fact that it was only on the forehead, the more important point was Naru initiated contact with another human being, and a very intimate one at that. A dozen or so questions popped up in her mind as she tried to comprehend the situation.
Am I dreaming again?
Oh my God, did Naru really kiss me?
Why did he do that?
Is he drunk?
Am I even awake?
Has he gone mad?
Maybe I'm the one who's gone crazy?
Could it mean he cares for –
"Mai." The young man behind her interrupted her mental struggle.
She refused to face him.
"You are being ridiculous right now, Mai," he declared sternly, his exasperation apparent from the coldness in his voice. "Tell me what you saw in your dream or I shall take my leave now."
That made her turn around.
She raised her hands up in surrender as she faced her frightfully annoyed boss.
"Alright, I will tell you so just please calm down, Naru," she acquiesced with an uneasy smile.
Mai still did not have enough resolve to look him in the eyes, so she settled with looking down while she recounted the contents of her dream. She had expected him to give some comments when her narration ended, but she was simply met with another long stretch of silence once she stopped talking.
It was unnerving at best.
She wanted to know his thoughts on her latest vision. It was horrifying to have gone through it herself and they were not even on a case. As far as she could remember, they had not yet encountered such history from prospective clients.
Her patience was wearing thin, but her boss remained silent with his infamous poker face.
She decided to count backwards from ten before saying anything.
She only reached five because in the next moment, Naru collapsed on the futon.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello! Thank you for reading Contact. It has been over a year since I last updated because grad school was crazy. No, I'm not dead (obviously!), but I had a hard time writing this chapter because I couldn't get the emotions right and I didn't want to rush it. I'm so sorry it took so long! I am forever grateful for your reviews, follows and favorites. They cheered me on as I struggled to finish this chapter (and to survive the first year of grad school, too!).
By the way, I published the pilot chapter of my new story a few weeks ago. It's called Detour. I've always believed that Naru and Mai will get together when they are much older (in their mid-twenties) and more mature. The story (if I ever decide to continue it) will be my headcanon dump for Adult!Naru and Adult!Mai. If you're interested, please check it out! I would love to hear from you.
As for the game from last chapter, nobody got it exactly, but my reason for the title is this: every time something happens to either Naru or Mai, the balance of the relationship shifts to the other person. In the previous chapter, Mai was in trouble, and so Naru came to her aid as you have seen in this chapter.