AN: This chapter was re-worked especially for Ariana Taniyama, who reminded me that Luella should have a reaction to all this. So Naru doesn't really get it until next chapter now. Heh.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt. If I did, Mai and Naru would have ghost hunter babies by now.

-0O0-

Chapter 5 – Dreams and Discussions

-0O0-

A terrified, awful scream rang through the Davis mansion. Then there was the sound of running feet, as Ayako and Bou-san jumped out of bed and raced down the hall to the guest room in which Mai was staying.

"Damn it, I knew I should have slept with Mai!" Ayako groused as they burst into Mai's room. Sure enough, Mai was thrashing in her sheets, arms waving and legs kicking, as though trying desperately to escape something. Ayako reached the bed just as Mai screamed again.

Naru had fallen asleep at his desk, still in his regular clothes with a book in his lap. A high-pitched shriek brought him back to consciousness. A minute passed and the scream sounded again, long and desperate. Naru knew that scream. He leapt out of his chair and ran blindly down the hall, passing his parents and a glasses-less Yasuhara.

Arcing into one of the guest bedrooms, Naru froze at the scene. Ayako was trying to wake a screaming Mai. Bou-san was sitting on her legs and holding her flapping arms. All of a sudden, Mai stopped shrieking and started choking. Naru moved to the bed in panic.

"Slap her!" Bou-san shouted to Ayako. "That usually does it!"

Ayako hesitated. Then Mai screamed again. Tears leaked from her closed eyes.

Naru opened his mouth to speak – and Ayako pulled Mai up from the pillow and smacked her hard across the face.

Mai's eyes flew open and her whole body jumped in the bed. It took her a moment to really come to. She gulped in a couple of deep breaths before freezing in place and holding her stomach, eyes darting around the room. Naru observed her silently, standing behind Ayako. He was puzzled when Bou-san pulled a wastebasket over to the bed.

The teen psychic saw Bou-san's answer to her current dilemma, but there was no way she was throwing up in front of Naru. Mai's eyes locked on the door of the en-suite bathroom and she found her escape. The still-hysterical girl launched out of the bed and ran for it. Ayako followed her in and shut the door just as Mai started retching.

Naru's eyes had widened as Mai unexpectedly vaulted out of bed. His shock only increased as the muffled sounds of someone being violently sick came from the other side of the bathroom door. His gaze turned to Takigawa, who was looking worried and still holding the wastebasket (which Naru now understood the need for).

His mother appeared beside him, wrapped in a dressing gown. "What's going on?" Luella asked softly. "Is Mai sick?"

"I don't think she's sick in the sense you mean," Naru replied slowly. "Right, Takigawa?"

Mai's adopted father sighed. "She had that death dream again."

Naru's eyebrows flew heavenward. "Again?"

Bou-san nodded heavily. "She's been having the same dream over and over again for over a year now." He winced as the sound of retching from the bathroom got louder. "It only happens once or twice a month nowadays. When it started, she had it five nights in a row. Then it eased off to about once a week. It's coming less frequently… Ayako and I were hoping it was almost over, maybe." Bou-san fixed Naru with a look. "It's also one of the reasons we're so happy that she's going to be here for a while. You guys research this stuff. And Mai does her best, but she needs help controlling her powers."

Martin shifted behind Luella. "And we are certainly willing to offer it. Taniyama is my student and obviously a quite powerful psychic in need of assistance. We can go to SPR in the morning, if you'd like."

The bathroom door creaked open. "No, I'm alright," Mai said hoarsely from the doorway.

"Clearly, you aren't," Naru noted tensely.

Mai tried to glare, but couldn't quite summon the energy. Ayako helped her back into bed and the previously unnoticed Yasuhara handed her a bottle of soda. Japanese soda, must have been in his suitcase. She smiled in thanks and sipped the liquid gingerly. When the room leveled out and the dizziness faded, she turned to Martin and Luella. "I'm sorry for causing trouble," she said formally. "I get weird dreams sometimes."

Luella rushed forward (Naru couldn't believe she'd held back this long). "It's perfectly alright, dear," she cooed, rubbing the exhausted girl's back. "We're not exactly unused to such things in this house."

Mai smiled beatifically at Naru's lovely mother. Mai felt like if she used her powers, she would sense golden happy light emanating from Luella. "I guess," she replied weakly, knowing that her death vision was one that Naru had also experienced here.

"It was that dream again?" Yasuhara asked knowingly.

Mai cut her eyes at him, giving him a warning look. She didn't need Naru to know that she was having the same dream over and…

"How many times has this particular dream come to you?" asked the very person she was thinking of. "Bou-san says that you've been having it over a year."

Damn it. Mai threw a glare at an unrepentant Takigawa. "I don't know," she replied. "A few."

"Perhaps you are unaware of the meaning of 'a few?'" Naru asked, an edge to his voice. "I would hardly call every night for a week, then weekly, then bimonthly over several months 'a few' times."

Ugh, she was only throwing up for a couple of minutes! How had he managed to get so much information so quickly?

Luella's hand tightened on Mai's shoulder. "It must be awful to have had a vision of someone's death that many times," she lamented.

Mai closed her eyes. Not just someone's death, she amended in her head, your other son's death. And there was no way she was going to SPR and recounting Gene's death to his father and twin brother. How was she was going to get out of this? "It's… less bad now than it was in the beginning," Mai said truthfully.

"Yes, that's obvious from your violent reaction to it," Naru seethed.

Mai was recovered enough to glare angrily at his tone. "That doesn't happen because I'm upset about it, it's because at the end of the dream –" She stopped. No need to give him anymore help; Naru was too damn smart and would probably have the whole thing figured out in minutes. Gene had warned her not to give Naru any leading information yet. She wasn't even supposed to tell Naru that she could still see Gene.

Her sudden reluctance to speak set off a warning siren in Naru's head. He narrowed his eyes at the silent psychic and wondered why she didn't want him to know what she'd been dreaming about. They had a brief staring contest, but Mai was evidently harder to crack than she'd been in the past. She lifted her chin in defiance and sipped her soda.

It was then that Naru noticed the gloves. Long, black gloves tied in bows above the elbow, just like Yasuhara had said. He hadn't been able to see anything above her wrist until now – she'd been wearing a long-sleeved hoodie all evening.

"Why are you still wearing those gloves?" he asked.

Mai grimaced. Naru was good at client examinations; he knew what questions to ask and he knew how to ask in a tone that demanded an answer. "Because my scars don't disappear at night," she shot back.

Luella felt the tension in Mai's back and glared at her son. "I think it's time to call it a night," she said. She used a gentle tone for Mai's sake, but fixed steady eyes on a frustrated Noll and stared him into submission.

Nauru sighed in defeat. "Get some sleep, Mai," he said unexpectedly.

Mai was thrown a bit. Was Naru having one of his rare thoughtful moments?

"We're going to have a long discussion about this tomorrow."

Mai groaned and fell back onto the pillows. So short lived, the thoughtfulness.

Grim pronouncement made, Naru turned on his heel and marched from the room.

"Ah… don't mind Noll. That's how he shows he cares." Luella squeezed Mai's arm affectionately and eased off of the bed. She pulled Martin from the room and called, "Good night, dear," as they left together.

Bou-san took Luella's place on the bed and gave Mai a hard look. She could hear the lecture coming and wasn't surprised when he switched back to Japanese to give it. "Listen, Mai, I know you've come here for school, but I want you here because of SPR. You need help with your powers – don't argue – and this recurring dream is bad for your health and mental state. I want you to talk about it tomorrow."

"No," Mai said firmly.

"Mai, I don't understand why you won't tell anyone about it. You've never even really told us much." Ayako looked exasperated.

"I've told you about the drowning at the end," she argued.

"Only because I was anxious about the constant throwing up," Ayako replied. "You still won't tell us about the jerking in the beginning. Or where you are, or anything else about it. Maybe if we can figure out who you're dreaming about, we can stop it."

Mai sighed. She had to tell them before they said something to Naru. "Ayako, I know who it is."

"You do?" Bou-san asked incredulously. "Then why…"

"Because there's nothing you can do about it," Mai said. "I see this dream because I'm very psychically connected to the person it's about." She gave her substitute father a long look, and saw him figure it out.

"Oh, jou-chan," he said, wrapping his arms around her. Mai teared up again.

"So you see why we can't talk to Naru about it," Mai said in a quavering voice. "I don't want to force him to re-live that. And I certainly don't want to talk about it in front of Martin and Luella."

"I knew you were dreaming about… your spirit guide," Yasu said. He didn't want to say Gene's name aloud, since the name was English and somebody could hear them.

"You knew it was about him?" Ayako asked accusingly.

"I guessed," Yasuhara corrected. "It was the most logical option."

Ayako threw her hands up. "We need to work on information-sharing in this group!"

Mai laughed a bit. "Well, then, I guess what I'm going to say will piss you off."

Ayako leveled a glare at Mai, crossing her arms and waiting.

Mai stretched out with her senses and made sure that no one was listening before making her appeal. "Gene doesn't want Naru to know that I can still see him. He wants to keep it a secret for a while and has requested that I not say anything about him. And I'm asking you to do the same. He's helped us – especially me – a lot, and we owe him. So, don't tell Naru yet. Please?" Mai begged in a soft voice.

Ayako sighed heavily. "And why doesn't Gene-san want Naru to know anything? Can't Naru see Gene-san himself now?"

"Yes," Mai said. "Although we're not supposed to know that," she noted quickly. "But Gene thinks that Naru wants to make him move on, and he's not quite ready. Gene thinks that if Naru knows that Gene is attached to me, he'll think Gene is in danger of becoming an evil spirit and will try to exorcise him or something."

"Naru would think that because that is a danger," Bou-san replied testily. "I've been telling you that."

"He's not in danger yet, I'd be able to sense it," Mai argued. She turned to the shrine maiden for help. "Ayako?"

Ayako's tree spirits had told her that Gene was no threat. The miko had been worried and asked them about it one night when Mai had fallen asleep in a park.

Her almost-mother gave Mai an assessing look. "He's no danger," she said slowly. "I understand why you don't want to tell Naru about the dream. And we do owe Gene-san quite a bit. He's been very helpful on cases and with helping you train your powers. We'll go along with this for a while." She looked resolved and Mai rejoiced inside.

Bou-san sighed unhappily, but nodded. Yasuhara nodded as well.

"Thank you," Mai replied gratefully before bringing up the next issue. "We're going to have to tell them something tomorrow."

Ayako's lips twisted. "Yes, but what?"

Yasuhara raised his hand. "I've got something. Why don't you say that Mai is seeing the death of someone who was murdered close to your apartment in Japan? It's since been resolved by the police, but Mai lives close to the site of the murder and vaguely knew the woman, so she's attuned to the wavelength and unfortunately keeps seeing the death."

"It's as good a story as any," Bou-san said slowly, giving Yasuhara a suspicious look. "You're way too good at lying, Yasu."

The college student only grinned. "Comes in handy, though, doesn't it?"

"Alright, so that's the plan," Mai cut off an argument before it began. "Now let's get some sleep. I'll need my wits about me to deal with Naru."

"And you'll need to reign in your temper," Ayako reminded Mai, ruffling her hair.

Mai just grunted and burrowed into her covers. She heard rather than saw the others leave.

-0O0-

Her eyelids were stuck together like glue. Mai groaned and twisted her hands against them in a grouchy attempt at removing whatever salty gunk was inhibiting her sight. She'd cried after nightmares enough to know that it was the residue of tears. Although she had re-lived Gene's death countless times in the last year, it still brought her to tears every time.

As her crusted-over eyelids finally bent to her will and opened, Mai heard a noise in the hallway. Not yet ready to move, she stretched out with her powers and sensed the approach of a semi-familiar aura. Not anyone she'd come to England with – she knew their auras like the back of her hand. Not Naru's – his was too bright and linked with hers in a way that this one wasn't. Not Lin – his onmyouji powers gave his aura a very specific something. So that left Madoka, Martin or Luella. Mai concentrated harder – the aura was soft, warm, caring. Luella, she guessed.

She was proven correct as Luella Davis poked her head gingerly into the room. Her eyes found Mai in the bed immediately and her face brightened. "Good morning, Mai – well, afternoon, really."

"Afternoon?" Mai asked. Her voice was hoarser than usual. Damn screaming.

"Yes, dear. I thought it would be best to let the lot of you sleep. Jet lag and all that. Not to mention your ordeal last night." She looked at Mai with a great deal of sympathy and no small amount of curiosity.

Mai did not exactly know what to make of her expression. Ayako had her maternal moments, but Mai hadn't received that look in a long time. She wasn't sure whether to smile or cry.

"I've been popping up here every now and again to see if you'd woken up," Luella continued, padding over to the bed. "I think that tea is in order straightaway. I'll ask James to bring it up here."

"Oh, I can do it…"

"No, you're going to stay right there until you've had some tea." Luella gave Mai a mother-look again. A firm one. "Here in England, we respond to bad dreams with tea." She pursed her lips. "Well, we respond to a lot of things with tea."

Mai giggled. "I guess I'll like it here, then. Japan is pretty serious about its tea, too."

Luella smiled and squeezed Mai's hand. "I'll be right back, dear."

"I'll be here," Mai promised. As soon as Luella disappeared, Mai bolted for the bathroom. She'd stay in the guest area alright, but she wasn't having her first real one-on-one with Naru's mother looking all bedraggled with crusty eyes.

-0O0-

Since Professor Davis was a parapsychologist, Mai had assumed that Naru's inquisitive nature came from him. And she was partially correct – Martin did ask a lot of questions. But he was rather fixated on the paranormal aspect of life (again, similar to Naru). Luella's prurient nature took a more… social form.

For one thing, Luella did not care very much about the supernatural. When Mai asked about it, Luella replied rather archly, "I suppose I have a distinct disinterest in it. I suspect it stems from despairing over the single-minded obsession with the paranormal that consumes my husband's and my son's every waking moment."

Mai had to grin. Then she tried to imagine living with two 24-hour-a-day parapsychologists. Yikes, poor Luella. Then a sillier part of her mind thought about spending every day with just Naru; the thought was electrifying and terrifying at once.

Thanks to her professed disinterest in the supernatural, Luella didn't press Mai for the details of her dream – for which Mai was very thankful. She wasn't up for that trial yet. Mai vaguely remembered that Luella had a degree in regular psychology, and figured that was why her people skills were so good. At least someone in this house isn't an idiot scientist, she thought, relieved.

Another cup of tea appeared in her line of sight. Luella handed it to her with a worried smile and Mai realized she'd been staring into space.

"Sorry, Luella-san… I mean, Luella." Naru's mother had said yesterday that she had never quite been able to get the hang of Japanese honorifics and asked if she could address them all by name. They had expected this and given her the okay. Mai shook her head to clear it and stirred her tea. The spoon thing was still kind of strange – Mai knew that it was used to stir in sugar cubes, but then why would one keep it handy after that?

"Are you feeling alright?"

Mai suddenly felt a very strong sense of déjà vu. A vision of a pajama-clad Naru handing her tea and asking a similar question appeared in front of her waking vision. Mai stared at the tea and smiled.

"In England, tea for bad dreams," she repeated. "I guess I knew that already."

Luella raised a quizzical eyebrow.

Mai smiled again. "The first time I ever had a first-person death dream, Naru gave me tea and asked if I was okay."

Naru's mother stared in fascination at Mai Taniyama's soft smile – and became more curious than ever. Yesterday, she'd been more focused on Noll's extremely interesting reactions to Mai. She had tried discussing her thoughts with Martin, but he was irritatingly focused on the exciting paranormal possibilities that their guests represented. Even after the traumatic dream incident, Martin was useless. He had sat at her dressing table writing down questions to ask Mai. Luella had barely refrained from whacking at him with a pillow.

After a couple of hours staring at the ceiling and going through the day in her head, she decided to operate under the suspicion that Noll was (unconsciously) interested in Mai. So now, Luella wanted to know more about Mai's thoughts on Noll. And if that soft and longing look Mai was currently wearing was anything to go by… then Noll might actually get a real, live girlfriend.

No, maybe not just a girlfriend, Luella amended in her head. Maybe love. Hope rose in her chest.

"Mai…" Luella said slowly, her psychology training coming to the fore. Not too blatant, don't want to scare her off. "What was Japan's SPR like?"

And Luella earned Mai's brightest smile yet. "It was really fun. I mean, scary, too…" She shivered a bit, and Luella thought of the case reports she actually used to go through. After reading about the insane ghost of a cult leader who collected children to 'open a pathway to another dimension' Luella had decided that ignorance was bliss.

"But I really loved it," Mai continued gushily. "It's where I met my new family, like I said last night. We actually all met on my very first case with Naru and we all stayed together after that."

Which was strange – this abundance of employees had always intrigued Martin and Luella. Noll disliked working with almost everyone – and yet in Japan, he'd had a great deal of 'very noisy' employees. "How exactly did that work – Noll just employed them all after your first case?"

Mai grinned. "Hmm… our first case – it was at my high school, you know. I first met Naru in the AV room after classes – my friends and I used to tell ghost stories there. I found out later that Naru snuck in to get information about the haunted part of the school – he was eavesdropping on my friend Keiko-chan's ghost story. I met him by accident the next day… when I, er, snuck into the haunted school house and um… accidentally whacked into a bookshelf, almost killed Lin-san, and broke a camera."

"And Noll… hired you after that?" Mai was clearly a lovely girl, but how exactly was that a good recommendation?

"Well, Lin-san was hurt after that, so Naru needed an assistant for the case. So he told me that since I'd broken his camera and injured Lin-san, I had to work off the debt."

"He did not!" Luella cried indignantly. Noll had reportedly behaved more freely in Japan – apparently, that also meant freedom from any kind of manners.

"Yeah, he did," Mai answered, rolling her eyes. "But… I actually liked working for him. I mean, he was obviously a Narcissist and a slave driver…" Another eye roll. "But he was really good at his job. And he was actually less stuck up than Ayako or Bou-san, both of whom were kinda jerky when we first met them. They were so condescending toward Naru that I wound up defending him a lot."

"And Noll allowed all that?" Luella asked, astonished.

"Well, he wasn't really there for most of it," Mai said sheepishly. "He kind of ran out after he sorta-but-not-really messed up. He was really angry with himself for missing something and we didn't hear from him for two days."

"That sounds more like it," his mother said, shaking her head.

"Then, of course, he came back with the case pretty much solved and wouldn't tell us anything. But once it was over…" Mai's eyes grew soft again. "He told the higher-ups that everyone worked together to solve the case so we'd all get credit. And a couple of days later, he called me at school and offered me a job as his assistant. He said that someone had quit – although I wonder about that…"

"No one had quit," Luella confirmed, watching Mai's face. Her vigilance was rewarded almost instantly – the girl smiled hugely.

"I knew it," she whispered. She turned knowing eyes to Luella. "Naru told me later that he knew I was an orphan – the school had said something when he asked for an address to mail my check to. He was an orphan, too – that's really why he hired me."

"He has a heart," Luella said softly. "He buries it deep, but it's in there."

Mai smiled again. "Madoka termed it, 'He's not a robot.'"

Both women laughed.

"And the other Irregulars?" Luella pressed subtly.

"Naru called them for our second case… and then they kinda just kept showing up. I remember Naru and Lin-san asking about why they were in the office all the time, and Naru complained about the noise every day… but he kept asking them to work with SPR."

So her son had initiated and continued the group's interactions… Luella was amazed. She was also a bit sad. She'd only met SPR in its Japanese form once, for such a short time. She would have loved to see Noll as the President of his own business, running the show and being… himself, but with less reserve.

"What were your other cases like?" Luella asked. She really wanted to hear Mai's more human side of the story. Her son and his assistant-slash-bodyguard took impeccable notes for Martin – but those were completely useless to Luella. She didn't really care about the description of spirits and the effects of ground sinking. She wanted to know what Noll had been thinking those two times he'd hurt himself overusing his PK.

"Well… Naru, as you must know, only takes cases he likes – and just flat-out refuses ones he doesn't find interesting enough. So, we wound up with extra-weird cases that took a lot of time and got pretty dangerous."

Ah-ha, this was going exactly as she wanted. Luella fought a smile. "Dangerous?" she asked off-handedly.

Mai nodded, sipping her tea. "Somebody wound up hurt or possessed on every case, I think. Like on the first one… Masako-chan fell down the stairs, we all got glass all over us, I was hit by a bookcase, Lin-san was hit by a bookcase, and John-kun almost had a ceiling collapse on him. Second case, the client's daughter almost drowned and I got yanked down a well by the spirits. On the third case, Masako-chan wound up in the hospital for a night, and I… well, I fell into a sewer and dragged Naru down with me." Mai blushed, remembering her 'own private world' with Naru.

Luella wasn't sure what to ask about first – the dangerous details of the sewer incident, which had ended with Noll in the hospital… or whatever happened that caused Mai to blush more than two years later.

The embarrassed teen chose for her. "It's sort of my fault that he wound up in the hospital… I'm pretty sure that Naru used his PK to move the rocks out of the way before we fell on them."

"How is that your fault?" Luella asked.

"Well, he was trying to help me back up – the ladder gave way underneath me and he was holding my hand. He said that I was gripping his hand so hard, he couldn't have avoided falling down with me… but I think he would have gone in with me, anyway." Mai rolled her eyes again. "Naru's too proud to just let me fall on his watch."

Too proud and cared too much to let you fall, his mother corrected in her head. Out loud, she asked, "Did he pass out right there?"

Mai shook her head. "No, it actually took a while. I don't know how long I was unconscious, but he was okay when I woke up and the whole time we were down there. Well, he was sitting down, probably because he was feeling the strain. But then he used PK again, to play with the coin and make me feel better…"

"What?" Luella stared.

"Um, he played with a coin and made it talk to me," Mai said, looking down to (unsuccessfully) hide a blush.

Luella's eyes danced. Gene had always been the more emotional twin, and Oliver's secret method for cheering him up involved PK tricks with a coin and throwing his voice. It was something he'd picked up from one of the kids at the Children's Home (minus the PK, obviously). Luella almost couldn't believe Noll had voluntarily done it for someone else. But then again, she was quickly learning that Noll's behavior towards Mai was consistently special.

And going by this chat, Oliver was special to Mai, too. Luella felt something in her soul ease. She had been so worried about Noll – he was so uninterested in everything lately, and he had never really shown any desire for romantic companionship. Even her troublingly single-minded husband had been concerned about Noll's distinct lack of sociability. Mai and her companions were the surprise answer to Noll's apathy problem… and perhaps Mai could be the one to – Luella stopped herself from finishing the thought. No jinxing it now.

She realized that Mai was waiting for some kind of response. "Well, that's a talent of his… he used to do it often when he was younger."

Mai grinned, excited to have learned something about Naru's childhood. "It's so hard to picture sometimes – Naru being a kid."

Luella mentally celebrated at the fondness she could see in Mai's eyes. "Well, he was one of the oldest children I'd ever met. Old in a… developmental sense, I mean."

Mai nodded, sympathy in her eyes. "He probably had to grow up really fast. Being an orphan with intense spiritual powers and everything."

Mrs. Davis considered the orphan with spiritual powers in front of her. "Yes, that's true. He had a tough-to-crack outer layer and he was a private person even after his father and I worked our way in. But he was always Noll – he was amazingly intelligent, frighteningly powerful, surprisingly self-assured for an orphan (Mai smiled softly), and very attached to his brother." Luella was so caught up in remembering the young twins that she forgot to be upset over Gene. "I remember once, when they had first come home with us…"

Quick steps sounded in the hallway and a worried Bou-san rushed into the room. "Mai, how are you feeling? Are you okay?"

Ugh, Bou-saaaaaan! I was just about to find out something good! Mai gritted her teeth. "Yes, I'm fine," she said tightly.

Bou-san nodded in satisfaction. "Awesome. Want some breakfast?"

Her adopted father had no sense of timing. Didn't he notice he was interrupting something?

Luella sighed, privately enchanted by Mai's scowling at her parent-figure. She obviously wanted to keep talking. And that disgusted glare reminded her so much of her son's. "It would be lunch, actually, and I'll ask James to make something Japanese."

"Oh, it's alright, Luella," Mai waved her hands. "James-san can make whatever he wants to…"

"He's been studying up on Japanese cuisine since we found out you all would be staying for a few days. Martin's request, actually." Luella had been surprised herself at Martin's thoughtfulness. She couldn't help suspecting that Martin wanted his experimentees comfortable enough to talk shop.

"Excellent," Bou-san enthused. "I want udon."

"It's not a hotel!" Ayako's voice yelled from down the hall.

Ah, well. Tete-a-tete over, Luella thought. No matter. She had gotten a better idea of Mai's feelings and lots of useful information about Noll in Japan. And she confirmed that she really liked Mai – not only for Noll, but as a lovely woman in her own right.

"Alright, Mai, let's get going. I'd like to have you washed up and fed by the time the merry band of Inquisitors comes home from SPR." Luella pushed off of the edge of the bed and carried the tea tray to the door.

Mai felt a cold wave of dread pass over her. She'd forgotten about the 'long discussion' that Naru was intending to subject her to. "I can't believe they left this morning without interrogating me."

Luella stopped in the doorway and pursed her lips. "Oh, they tried. I made sure to be up before Oliver and Martin were ready and forbade them from waking you. Sometimes the two of them forget to take important matters – like recovery – into consideration when they get going. I find myself to be especially impatient with the paranormal when it interferes with health."

Mai giggled. She was sorry she'd missed that.

"Your Ayako woke up in the middle of the argument and had some rather strong words for them as well," Luella continued. "Our combined efforts successfully derailed both Noll and Martin. Oliver pouted, but we did manage to get them out the door."

So Naru would be in a great mood tonight when he interrogated her. Better psych myself up now, Mai thought. "Shower time," she decided. She always felt more prepared after bathing.

"That's the spirit!" Luella called as she left. Noll usually stayed at work until dinnertime, but his mother had a feeling he'd be home early today.

AN: Until next week, folks! Please read and review!:)