Chapter 9 - Push Through

"Gene."

Sure enough, the one who had wrapped his arms around her was Gene. As happy as she was to see him, the ongoing years have made it more obvious that he was dead. While Naru had aged into the young adult he was, Gene remained the same fifteen year old he was when he died. Gene had not aged, and it was a painful reminder.

"Hello Mai," he says with that familiar smile, unknowing to the thoughts in her head.

She wraps her arms around his waist, "Where have you been?"

"This ghost, Rina, she has been successfully blocking me from you, at least up until now she has been," he explains as he hugs her back.

She frowns up at him. "Then what changed that allowed you to reach me?" she asks in confusion.

"She's angry and distracted," he replies, looking thoughtful. "She's losing her composure having failed to kill you once, she's never been thwarted before. Now she's fixated on figuring out how to both deal with you and keep you away from Sora."

"Is that a good thing?" she asks hesitantly.

"I don't think I'm going to be much help," he admits with frustration. "But Mai, you have to understand that she is turning into a monster, and she will still kill Sora even if she gets to you. So you can't be a hero just to save him, do you understand? Once you get to him, you must get him and yourself out of there as fast as possible. Now wake up and tell Noll what I have said, leave nothing out."

"But-" she tries to argue, but before she could finish her sentence, she woke up.

When Mai opened her eyes, she found herself lying down on the couch rather than sitting against Naru like she had been before falling asleep. She looks over to the monitors and sees Naru watching them. She sits up and looks around to see if anyone else was around, but she discovers that they are alone. So she stands and makes her way over towards him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and putting her head beside his. "How long was I out?" she asks him.

He grabs her by the hands and turns to face her, keeping her arms in place. "A few hours," he answers. "It's already ten o'clock. Learn anything new?"

"Well for one thing, Gene is back," she reveals. "Rina was blocking him somehow, but her focus has shifted to me and Sora. She has apparently lost her cool and Gene was able to slip through. That's what he says, but he also says that it doesn't matter whether she gets her hands on me or not, she'll still kill Sora. At least as long as I'm alive, so is he, but once we find him, Sora and I need to leave."

"Oh, you're willing to leave?" he asks cheekily, brow raised in question.

"Hush you," she weakly slaps his arm. "This is serious Naru, there is so much more at stake here."

"I'm well aware Mai," he replies, joking tone gone. "This ghost threatened the woman I love, who is also pregnant with my child, and now she has kidnapped my godson. I've been aware this whole time."

Mai felt a little guilty now, especially since she had insisted on staying even when it was revealed she could potentially be a target. Now Sora was at risk and she felt useless.

Naru could tell what she was thinking from her expression, so he pulled her closer. "Monk will be here soon to take over, and then we'll get some sleep."

She was too tired to argue despite the nap she had just had, so when Monk walked in a few seconds later, she allows Naru to pull her towards the door. "Oh, you're finally awake Mai," the older man comments when he sees them. "Off to bed you two go, I'll handle the monitors now."

Naru gives him a small nod as he and Mai leave the base, heading towards their room. "I hope Sora is alright," Mai says out of the blue. "I feel so guilty that I'm the reason he was taken."

He stops them from walking and grabs a hold of her face gently, his eyes staring intently into hers. "Please don't ever feel guilty about not dying, no one could ever have guessed that she would take him, it's completely against what she has done so far. Never regret living Mai, I don't know what I would do with myself if you died," he whispers, his eyes full of pain at the thought.

She can see the myriad of emotions that cross his features as well and tears steadily fall down her face, "I'm sorry."

He pulls her into another hug as he waits for her to calm down. Once she had stopped crying, he looked into her eyes again. "Never leave me," he pleads. "I would be nothing without you."

With those heart felt words in the air, he led her to their room.

Mai wakes up from a dreamless sleep, both worried at another night without seeing Gene, and relieved at not having a nightmarish vision. She felt the arm around her waist and turned around to face Naru, still in a peaceful sleep. You would never believe this angelic face was such a cold narcissist when he was awake.

She did not know how long she stared, but eventually his eyes slowly opened to those familiar blue ones. "Good morning," she whispers when his eyes land on her.

"Good morning," he whispers back, gently pressing his lips to her forehead.

His eyes then trail over her shoulder, what ever he sees has his eyes widening in shock and him sitting up abruptly. Mai looks over in that direction to see the clock, revealing the reason for his alertness was that it was already one o'clock in the afternoon. Mai was surprised they had managed to sleep into the afternoon and that no one had bothered to wake them up.

The couple quickly get dressed and Mai was cautiously watching Naru's irate face. The pair make their way to base and Mai could only feel sorry for the others given the aura Naru was currently putting off. They make it back to base in record time, Naru banging open the doors, showing off his anger and startling the people in the room. As they take in the person who had just entered, Mai watched as they tried to cover up their fear at seeing Naru's face.

"Why didn't anyone wake us up?" he demands, eyes skipping from one person to the next.

Mai took in the room, noticing the absence of a certain pink haired woman. "Where's Madoka?" she asks.

"Um, she's in her room," Ayako answers. "It was also her idea to let you two sleep in."

Ayako looked a little guilty for throwing the older woman under the bus, but Mai was more focused on her boyfriend who was about to storm out of the room. She grabs him by the arm to stop him. "Just leave her be, I'm sure she did not do it to annoy you," she pleads with him.

"Madoka went to see why the two of you weren't here yet," Monk explains carefully. "When she entered your room, the of you were sleeping so peacefully and she didn't want to wake you. She figured it would be good for you both to get more rest, you're both under stress right now and you also stayed up pretty late on the monitors Naru."

Naru sighs, but Mai knows by the way his shoulders sagged slightly that he had calmed down. "Fine, I'll let it slide for now," he says, "but she better not do it again."

Mai watches as he pathetically sits over by the monitors, clearly sulking, and she rolls her eyes.