Chapter 32 - Dusk Till Dawn - ZAYN and Sia

Recovery Day 2: 09:00

Mai

CW/TW!: This chapter contains scenes of trauma response, mentions of suicide, and light sexual content. Reader discretion is advised.

The next day the two of them were surprised with breakfast in bed from everyone. Drinks with electrolytes, ham, real eggs, toast with jelly, and of course hot tea. All of them were so curious to see how they were doing. It was loving. It was overwhelming. It was perfect.

"Alright, alright, let's not crowd them ok? Give them some space," Lin said, ushering them all out.

"Lin, hang back a moment please, and shut the door," Naru requested.

After everyone had left, Lin shut the door and pulled up a chair that he kept nearby. He sat down and looked at the two of them. Mai was especially grateful to see him up and moving again. When she last saw him, he was shot and bleeding out on the floor of the SPR office.

"How are you guys feeling?" He asked.

"Emotionally drained. Physically, I think we're well off," she answered. "How are you feeling?"

Lin chuckled. "Significantly better now that we have you two home. Physically I'm well enough that my physician won't be too pissed off at me for all the activity I've been doing."

"I'm glad," she said feeling relieved.

"Lin, we need to go to Mai's apartment today. Alaina told us that she broke into her apartment and destroyed everything that had traces of her. We need to see this for ourselves. See if that was true," Naru said.

Lin made a face that she didn't quite like. "While I was in the hospital, Yasu found out that they were destroying your documents and identity from public records. He wasn't able to get everything, but he got about 75% of things before they were all deleted. We hadn't even thought about her apartment."

"Can we leave soon then? If possible, I'd like to get some of my own clothes maybe," she said, then turned to Naru. "You should consider this shirt to be a lost cause. I'm never giving it back."

Naru and Lin chuckled and Naru leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Consider it yours then," Naru said.

"Yeah, we'll get going once you two are ready," Lin said.

They finished breakfast, got freshened up, and took off with Lin to her apartment. Once they arrived she went to her apartment door where she kept a spare key in a wooden plank that bent just far enough out of the way for her to hide and grab a key.

"That's smart. Not an easy place to find a spare key," Naru complimented.

She brought the key to the door and unlocked it. She stood there for a moment unsure about opening the door. Was she ready to see if Alaina's taunting held any action behind those words? She was suddenly scared.

Naru put his hand on her back and his other over her hand on the doorknob. "Whatever we find we face it together. You're not alone anymore Mai," he whispered in her ear. With a shuddering breath, she opened the door.

Her apartment was completely empty. No more furniture, no more electronics, no more pictures, nothing. Her eyes opened wide and shock overwhelmed her. She stepped into the living room and her eyes were starting to tear up.

'No, no, no, no, no!' She thought desperately.

She rushed over to her bedroom. Her bed was gone, laptop, pictures, everything. It was like how she found it when she first moved in. She opened her closet to find nothing. All of her clothes were gone as well. She opened up a back panel hidden in the back of the closet. Unnoticeable to everyone except those who knew it was there. There she found an old box with her name on it.

'Oh thank goodness it's still here!' She thought.

"What is that?" Naru asked, standing in the doorway. She noticed Lin standing right behind him.

"It's a memento box of my parents," she explained. "It has a picture of all three of us inside, their ashes from their funerals, plus a few things of theirs. I kept it there in hiding just because I didn't have a safe or anything. I'm so glad they didn't find this." She opened the box and gasped.

Her parent's ashes were not there, and there wasn't a picture. There was only a note and a small envelope. She shakily grabbed the note and read it out loud.

"'Little Mai,

In case you ever escape my grasp and find your way back here I wanted to give you a little parting gift from me personally. I will always be in your mind, I will always find you and make your life hell. Dr. Oliver Davis will be mine. You have nothing now because you are nothing now. And one day when you just can't take it anymore and are ready to give up, you'll find my gift to be useful.

Alaina'"

She opened up the envelope and felt something rolling inside. She poured the contents onto her hand. It was a bullet. A singular bullet. A final message from Alaina telling her to kill herself. She felt angry tears roll down her face and her rage and anger took hold. After everything they'd been through she still found a way to drive in one more torment.

She yelled in frustration and grief and threw the bullet away from her. Her eyes glowed gold as she grabbed the note in one hand and sent her own PK through it, igniting it on fire until it was nothing more than ashes. Then she doubled over into herself and screamed in agony.

"She took everything from me! Everything! My parent's ashes were in here! The last picture I had of them, destroyed!" She sobbed. "Why? Why?! Mom…Dad…She had the audacity to tell me to kill myself?! I'd never give her that pleasure! I just want-" She choked up and continued sobbing.

She felt Naru come up behind her and hold her. "I'm here Mai. It's ok. Don't hurt yourself, but let it out," he said through the bond.

She sat up and turned around and latched onto him like he was her lifeline. She screamed into his chest and shirt. She couldn't stop crying. She had nothing! She was hurting so much. She cried and held onto him for a while.

"It's going to be ok love. You'll stay at my place. I'll take care of you. She may have taken all of this, but your parents will now always be with you. I love you, and we're going to work this out," he whispered.

She looked up at him. "My protector," she whispered.

"My golden light."

She leaned up, brought her hands to his head, and kissed him. He held her to him with one hand on her cheek and the other on her back. After a moment he helped her stand up, grab the box, and looked toward Lin.

"Lin, we're going to head to my place. Mai will be staying with me for now," Naru said.

Lin looked at her and went back to Naru. His face tried to remain stoic, but she could see that he grieved for her. "Yeah. Let's get moving," he said.

Naru wrapped an arm around her side while she gripped the box tightly. They made their way back out to the van and drove off. It took them twenty minutes to get over to Naru's place. It was the same apartment complex Lin's apartment was in. They all got out, had Lin unlock the door, and went inside. Thankfully everything was still where it was supposed to be. This was going to be hard to handle, but this was her first time in his place, and curiosity gripped her.

As she looked around she noted all of the books in bookshelves, the couch and table, and a hallway with a few doors down the way. It was nice. It was specifically his. She loved it.

"There is a guest bedroom, but I'm going to guess that you're going to want to sleep together?" Lin asked.

Mai blushed hard but nodded nonetheless.

He sighed and smiled. "I figured." He looked pensive for a second and Mai accidentally read part of his thoughts.

'They need to know, but how am I going to word it though?' Lin thought.

"What do we need to know?" She asked.

Lin stared at her for a second before he started chuckling. "I forgot that your abilities spread to telepathy now." He paused as he sat down in a chair near the couch. "Have a seat, you two; there's something you need to know."

They both did and sat on his couch. She reached out for Naru's hand and he took it.

"I'm just going to ask bluntly, but I think I already know the answer. The night after you two were tortured in the metal room, did you two have sex?" He asked.

She and Naru blushed hard, but they both held strong. "Yes. We did. How did you know?" She asked.

"Dr. Hiroa's camera was modified to pick up on energy and aura. It captured both of yours easily. They are completely blended now of gold and silver," Lin said.

"Great, so everyone knows?" Naru asked, a little annoyed.

"Funny enough, no," Lin chuckled. "So they saw your blended auras but they have no idea what caused it. I'm not going to say anything to them and I'm not going to tell you two to stop either. The opposite actually. I've been prepared for this day ever since you decided to bring Mai in as your assistant."

"Seriously?!" Naru asked. "But you never said anything? Or did anything!"

"Mai, are you ready to see him blush?" She nodded while smiling. "The condoms are in your left bedside table, second drawer down, probably still unopened too."

She was hit by intense feelings of being embarrassed and mortified. 'I am an idiot scientist,' she heard him think. She burst out laughing at that. "No, you're not, you've just never had this experience with anyone before. If it helps, I haven't either. Also, we're kind of an unusual case." Feelings of gratitude and love passed through the bond. But she could still tell something was still unsaid. "Lin, there's something you're still not saying. What is it?" She asked.

He took a large breath as his look changed into something serious. "Those people…those people that took you…they recorded everything."

"Well, yeah they completely set up the testing area to capture the experiments from all angles. They did a total recreation of the experiment that made him famous in the first place," Mai said, unsure of where he was going with this.

Naru caught on though to what he was implying. "No, wait…you're not saying…" he trailed off as his panic rose.

"I am. They recorded everything, Noll. There were hidden cameras in every hallway, every room, and some multiple cameras in one room. They recorded it all and had it saved to their database," Lin explained forlornly.

They didn't say anything for a whole minute as the gravity of those words finally settled in. Everything was recorded. They were watching them this whole time! They watched them sleep, get dressed, kiss. She gasped as she realized. They saw her naked in the shower while Naru cleaned her up. They saw them make love. They saw and heard everything!

"No…oh god no!" she cried and started sobbing into her hand. She felt sick!

She felt Naru's feelings of rage, indignity, and mortification increase significantly. "We never had a chance. They knew we were trying to escape from day one. They knew Dr. Hiroa was helping us escape! They knew! It was a trap this whole time. Those bastards raped her and then watched as she broke down from it all! Akio…he probably watched us-!"

"Bathroom, where?!" she interrupted. The nausea was rising and she knew what would happen. She jumped up from the couch with Naru and he grabbed her hand and rushed her down the hall and through a door. She managed to make it just in time to throw up. After everything that happened, finding out now that the best and most beautiful night of her life was being recorded and watched by perverted old men made the nausea and bile insurmountable.

"Mai, I'm so sorry. I had no idea-!" Oliver said, panicking.

"No!" she coughed out. "We didn't know!" She wiped her face and looked at him. He was crying lightly and feelings of guilt rose again. "I don't regret that night. Not a single second of it. It's hard to stomach that information, but I still love you. I'm still here. And we won. Today's just been…a lot."

"Yeah, it has been," he said before calling out. "Hey, Lin?"

Lin came over from the living room and stopped at the door frame. He looked distraught by having to tell them. 'I wish that I didn't have to tell them this. That's not how they should remember their first time,' he thought.

Mai was touched. "Thank you, Lin, for telling us. It is important that we know about this now and not when it's sprung on us," she said.

"Are you going to be watching those tapes?" Naru asked.

"Yes, I'll be the only one too."

"Good," Naru breathed a sigh of relief.

"Um, Lin? Is it possible that when you watch those tapes, I could as well?" she asked tentatively.

Naru whipped around faster than she'd ever seen. "Mai I don't think that's a good idea. You'd be rewatching everything that they did to us. You already broke down once when trying to tell Ayako what happened," he said.

"It's just…there are things that I don't want anyone to see. Even you Lin," she said, looking downcast.

Lin took a deep breath in. "How about this instead? You two just got back home. The memories are still very fresh. I won't watch them immediately. I could wait a week, two weeks, a month, a year even. However long you need. The data collected, aside from the names to faces of those who got away, can wait to be assessed later. Unless there is something relevant you want me to go over with you, I won't even touch them."

She breathed a sigh of relief and felt more at ease. She nodded, "Thank you."

"Hey, why don't we go see what we have that is still fresh in the refrigerator?" Naru asked. "Then we can figure out what we want to do for food later."

She perked up at that. "That sounds great actually," she said.

Lin and Naru helped get her up from off the floor and freshened up a bit. They looked around and had to throw out some expired food while they were gone, but for the most part, things were shelf-stable. They made a list of things they'd like to eat and make and things they think they could handle. Lin had added to the list for shopping for various clothes, hygiene supplies, shoes, and items for Mai.

"I'll have Ayako, Masako, and Luella help with that part. I don't trust the others to know what to get for you," Naru said smirking.

"That's a lot of things though, who's going to pay for this?" she asked.

"I will. Well, mother and father will. You've never wondered how I can pay you so well?" he asked.

"Well obviously I did, but it's not as if I was going to ask you why or how you pay me so much!" she argued, "You'd probably come back at me with, "I guess I should drop your pay then," and then make me get all flustered!"

Naru smirked and chuckled, "Yeah that is true. Your face looks so cute when you get flustered though."

She blushed hard and stared at him for a second. He had the egotistical look of someone who won an argument again. But now she had a little upper hand. Right as he was drinking some water she sent a message over through their bond. "I know you make the same face when I moan your name in bed."

He immediately spit out his water and started coughing. She smirked but pretended like nothing happened. "Are you ok there Naru?" she asked cheekily.

"No fair. That was not fair!" He challenged.

"Really? How so?" She asked.

"I'm leaving!" Lin exclaimed while throwing his hands up. He grabbed the shopping list from off the table. "I'm leaving! I don't want to know! We'll call before we come in, yeah? Bye!" With that, he left the two of them alone.

Naru rushed for her and pulled her in for a deep kiss. She melted immediately into it and wrapped her arms around him. He ran his hands up and down her sides, and she moaned.

"I thought they'd all never leave us alone," he said while breaking away from the kiss. "I can't believe it. I have you in my arms and in my home. If this is another dream I never want to wake up from it."

"Another dream? How often do you have these dreams?" she asked while smirking.

"They weren't as often when I first met you. I think it was falling down the well chasing after you that made me start having them more and more," he whispered.

"Oh god, Oliver!" She moaned.

He brought her in for another deep kiss and reached down and grabbed her by her butt before lifting her up in the air. She instinctively wrapped her legs around him as he carried her down the hallway to his room. She felt his pleasure and joy rise in him as they made their way to his bed. He laid her down gently and climbed on top of her. His thoughts were coming in loud and clear.

'Oh god yes, finally yes! I'm home, with her, in my bed. I can die happy now.'

She laughed, "I'd prefer you not to die. Not after everything."

"Did I say that out loud?" He asked panting.

"No love, your thoughts are so loud. So powerful. It's impossible not to hear them," she replied.

"Mai," He groaned.

She felt him reach out with his PK searching for her aura. They connected immediately and pleasure consumed them both. She was desperate for his touch, it was intoxicating. She had to double-check something first.

"Check…check your side table," she panted heavily.

His eyes widened in understanding and he scrambled over to the table and second drawer in question. He started laughing and shook his head. "I'm an idiot. How could I not notice these before?!"

Mai repositioned herself up higher on the bed and relaxed into the pillows. "You probably never needed to look there," she answered.

He closed the drawer and crawled into bed next to her. He caressed her cheek and kissed her forehead. "Tonight is going to be our night. Once they all come back with everything, I'm going to make you dinner and treat you how you should have been treated long ago. No more interruptions, no more pain, no more agony. Just you and me. Then I plan on making love to you for the rest of the night. Without any fear of being watched, without pain, without the fear of dying. In the safety of our home."

The words 'our home' felt inscribed on her heart in silver ink. Funny how it comes circling around. She moaned and pulled him on top of her and into a kiss. "I can't wait, Oliver," she whispered. His face got red for a moment and she lightly chuckled. "See, I told you you make the same face."

He covered her face with a pillow. "There," he said, "now you can't see my face."

"Naru!" She called out in a muffled voice. She remembered how he was able to flip her so easily. She thought with a newfound sense of courage she'd be able to do it too. She positioned her hands at his shoulders and gripped his shirt. She bent one leg up and sent a small jolt of PK through her leg and foot. She flipped him with ease and landed on top with her legs on either side of him. She removed the pillow from his face and smiled at his stunned expression.

"I win!" She said, smirking.

His face blushed again and then he smiled up at her. "From my perspective, it feels as though I have won." He ran his hands up and down her back.

"Nnn," she moaned. She laid down on his chest as he kept moving. "That feels really good," she said, contentedly.

"Good. You deserve it. You deserve to feel good," he whispered in her ear.

"Ah!" She gasped and ground her hips into him.

"Good, let yourself feel this. Give yourself pleasure. Keep going," he whispered. He reached down and gripped her hips and moved his hands in time with her movements.

"Aah, Naru," she panted. She couldn't stop grinding herself on him. She didn't want this to stop. She wondered if he was truly ok with this; if he was even getting pleasure himself.

"I can assure you that I'm very ok with this, and I'm receiving a lot of pleasure myself. Chase your own pleasure, Mai. Make it yours," He said. He sent out jolts of his PK into her and she gasped. She ground her hips down hard. "Nngh! More, please…" She moaned.

"Of course," He whispered. Just as he sent more intense jolts of PK he bit her neck just below her right ear.

"Haa-ah ah! Oliver!" She lightly cried out. She ground her hips harder and faster into him. It was so much pleasure she wouldn't last long.

"Good. Let yourself feel this. Give your body what it needs. Keep going, Mai. Harder. Faster."

She was moaning and gasping as she moved harder now. "Oliver please!"

He brought her in for a deep kiss right before grabbing her hips and thrusting his own hips upward. Pleasure overtook her and she cried out, "Oliver!" Golden energy pulsed around them both as she crested over her peak and jerked her body in the aftershocks.

"Good, good… Let yourself enjoy this feeling. I'm going to make sure you never forget it," Naru said, kissing her neck. "I love you, I love you so much, Mai."

"I love you too," she panted. "Thank you. Thank you."

He moaned, "Thank you. That was beautiful to watch and feel. I'm glad I could give you this."

"Mmm, this is going to be the best week of my life," she said, sliding off of him and onto his side.

He pulled the blanket over them both. "Rest, love. We're safe now."

She passed out curling up on him.