'Stupid idiot Naru, the narcissist!' Mai stomped her feet as she stormed down the street, not caring that she was getting soaked or that people were looking at her. She was thankful that her bag, containing her study materials, was waterproof. Her clothes, on the other hand, were not. She dashed into the nearest café she could find to shelter from the rain. It was only after she'd taken a seat that she realised she didn't have her purse on her. She had some coins in her bag, she fumbled around inside as she tried to figure out what coins were what. Stupid foreign currency… She thought, exasperated by her current situation.

A cup of tea was placed in front of her, and she looked up to see Oliver sitting down opposite her. She hadn't even noticed him following her into the café, let alone going up and placing an order.

Mai considered for a moment as she tried to sip her tea. She glanced over at Oliver. Keiko had wondered if Oliver was more attractive than he had been at seventeen, and the answer was that somehow, he was. He had grown around a couple of inches taller to what Mai now guessed would be somewhere around 5"11, herself standing at 5"3. His hair was similar, it was now slightly shorter on top giving a bit of lift, and there was a slight part in the hair that fell over his forehead, breaking up the fringe. His frame and shoulders had filled out a bit, too. He had grown into his sharp jawline and high cheekbones. Mai could see the faintest shadow of stubble. He still seemed to have a penchant for wearing head to toe black. Mai suddenly felt self-conscious of her drowned rat aesthetic from running into the rain without an umbrella.

They sat in silence, and Mai watched the rain as she sipped her tea.

Oliver sighed. 'Are you going to talk then?' He asked her, in Japanese. 'Or are you going to keep stealing furtive glances at me as you burn your tongue?'

'I don't know what to say to you,' Mai said truthfully. She put her cup down.

After a minute, Oliver spoke up. 'After finding that lake I thought I'd have some closure... I resented you for a time, truthfully. You had a connection with Gene after his passing that I, as his twin, didn't. You harboured this delusion that it was me. There isn't a secret nice side to me. I'm nothing like Gene; I don't have his annoying personality.' Oliver paused for a minute. 'I might be his identical twin and we might have had shared psychic powers; but I wasn't fully comfortable around Gene. Everyone seemed to see him as the better twin, and I as his shadow. I hated him for that at times.'

For Oliver, he had spent his life being compared to Eugene, 'Why can't you be more like your brother,' was a phrase often said to him. He knew his adopted parents loved them both, but it seemed so much easier for them to bond with Gene and his sunny, warm, open disposition, compared to him. Girls who couldn't tell them apart, would confess to him, and be mortified when it wasn't Gene, but the wrong twin they'd admitted their feelings to! To deal with the feelings that being around Gene generated, he had started distancing himself from his brother. Closing off their psychic link and pulling back. As they grew older their psychic connection, although still present, had been weaker, and they both had more control over it. Cutting Gene off from his thoughts more and more had been easy to do.

He knew he was hurting Gene with his actions. He'd agreed with himself that he needed to apologise to Gene when he was back from Japan. As much as it was difficult to be in Gene's company sometimes, he was the only person who truly understood him. Pushing Gene away was not only hurting Gene, but himself, as well. A mere hour after he had made that resolution to reconcile with Gene, Oliver had had that vision.

He'd gone into Gene's room, intending to borrow a tie, and as soon as his fingers touched the silk fabric, he had felt the impact of a vehicle crushing into him, it had winded him and sent him to the floor. As the images and the pain continued, he'd ended up curled up on Gene's bedroom floor, his tie wrapped around his hands and fingers. The vision had finally ended with an explosion of green that felt like an assault to his already exhausted senses. He'd felt the visceral snap of his connection to Gene severing.

It was Lin who had found him, still curled up on the floor, clutching the tie, a couple of hours later.

Oliver had had to come to terms with the fact he'd pushed away, and then lost, the only person who had ever fully understood him. He couldn't cope with the onslaught of emotions; it was all too much.

Oliver looked out the window, Mai sensed that whatever he was thinking about saying next was going to be hard for him. She waited. He had always seemed to struggle with his emotions, hiding it all under a carefully controlled icy façade. She could feel the tension emanating off his body. He leaned forwards, hands clasped together, between his knees. His head bowed.

'When you admitted that you didn't realise it was Gene in your dreams and you thought it was a hidden side of me, that you wished you could see in real life, I was once again faced with the idea the wrong twin had died.'

'Oliver, I'm so sorry, I had no idea.' Mai felt her heart strings pull at the rare show of vulnerability from her old boss. She felt like this was the most he'd ever spoken to her in one sitting. She began to realise now, how much pain her confession must have caused him in that moment in the woods all that time ago. How it must have wrenched his heart to hear those words as they searched the lake for his dead twin's body. Her inability to answer his question 'Me, or Gene?' Alongside the ever-present thought in his head, that where Gene was an option, he was always chosen.

Oliver chuckled, but there was no humour in it. 'You couldn't have known. I shouldn't have made such a strong effort to push you away, not after you'd lost Gene when his connection to you was severed.'

Mai remembered that he'd tried to comfort her, in his own way. Telling her she'd likely see Eugene again, even if he followed it up by saying she was too stupid to ever die. She had apologised to him for being mean and Oliver had simply responded 'I'm used to it.' She remembered how she'd told Naru that she liked Gene's smiling face, and he had just said, 'Okay.' In that moment, Mai felt awful for the timing of her confession.

They fell into silence together.

'You're never this quiet.' Oliver remarked. He'd nearly added on a customary insult, but thought better of it and caught himself at the last moment.

Mai pulled at her knuckles as she wrestled with her thoughts. She eventually settled on the simple words of: 'Oliver, I'm sorry.'

Oliver blinked at the hardwood floor, and then looked up, but she was avoiding his eyes. Her gaze was turned to the hubbub inside the café. 'What could you possibly have to apologise for?'

Mai glanced at him, and then pulled her gaze away. 'It was wrong of me to say what I did back then. You had been searching for that lake, all that time, and I picked that moment, to tell you what I felt. I felt keenly in that moment that I was running out of time with you, it was selfish of me. I shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry.'

Oliver ran his hand through his hair. 'It's fine, you don't have to apologise for it.'

Mai was aware she had likely hurt him back then, in the woods. She knew as well, that even if Oliver had been hurt, he wasn't going to admit it to others. She knew he wouldn't admit it to himself, either. He'd told her he was used to people being mean to him after all. She did feel a bit better for apologising all the same.

'I did plan to come back.' Oliver said. 'It just never happened, but I had full intentions at the time of coming back and taking over SPR again.'

After Oliver had gone back with Gene's body, he had fallen into a deep state of despair. He had hoped bringing Gene back home might give him a sense of closure, but the drive to find Gene had given him purpose and allowed him to keep his emotions pushed down. Without that, he was forced to face the fact that he'd lost half himself and half his mind went with the realisation. The grief had overwhelmed him pulling him into its inky blackness. He would walk around Gene's room, picking up items and feeling nothing. The only way he could feel a trace of his brother, was to relive the vision and the pain of his death. He was in no fit state to be travelling and his parents were firmly against the idea. Instead, they encouraged him to pursue his studies. Somehow, five years had passed.

Mai just hummed in response and went back to looking out the window. She felt like she understood a bit more why Oliver had acted the way he did. Why he didn't keep in touch, and why he had changed his email address after she had reached out. It didn't ease all the hurt, but it did help. She was keenly aware she had hurt him, too. She knew she could forgive him. At the end of the day, they were both very different people now. It had been five years. She wasn't the same girl she was at sixteen, and yes, she came to realise that it was Oliver she had been in love with and untangling that from everything with Gene had been messy, but there had been so many lies, and so much deception on his side for so long.

He would always be her first, unrequited love, but she'd processed and dealt with those feelings on her own a long time ago.

Mai stood up and stretched. 'Right, time to head back I think.' She looked around her at the hubbub and bustle of the coffee shop.

'Mai, you've changed.' Olive was having a hard time piecing together who Mai had become. In his mind's eye she was the fiery, passionate girl he had known at sixteen, who was fiercely loyal, rash, and impatient. She had been one of the few people who could get under his skin; overbalancing the careful veneer of control he held over himself. But the Mai in front of him now, she felt different. Oliver knew logically people were capable of change, and he supposed in five years, it was about time for Mai to finally mature, but it unsettled him, this unknown.

Mai turned back to face him, to see him sat down, still regarding her. It was the first time he'd called her by her name since she'd arrived in England. They dropped the honorifics with each other very quickly as teens, and that was mainly because Mai had accidently called him Naru to his face and he thought she was calling him Noll. The nickname she'd given him had been tied into his true self, even back then, on some unconscious level, her intuition had tried to clue her in.

'It's been five years. You've changed too, Oliver.' She knew him as Kazuya Shibuya for so long and continued calling him Naru as a nickname when he didn't seem to oppose it. Then she found out it was an alias. It should have been obvious, really. Shibuya. He'd just picked the name of the town his office was in. Then to find out that was all a lie, and he was The Oliver Davis. Calling him Oliver felt wrong on her tongue, in her mind he was and always would be Naru. Calling him Naru to his face again, Mai didn't think she could ever do it. He'd seemingly had no complaints back then, but it felt different now they were older, and there was a five-year gulf to cross. Mai felt the chasm between them, it felt less daunting after their conversation today, but the distance still stretched out between them.

Mai pulled together her stuff and left the coffee shop without waiting on him. Mai paused for a second on the threshold looking up at the sky, the rain was thankfully a bit lighter.

Oliver caught up to her very quickly, she cursed that she'd grown a bit, but so had he. Now at twenty-one, she wasn't going to get any taller.

Oliver held the umbrella up and over them both, but Mai stepped sideways ever so slightly to create a bit of space.

Oliver noticed that her shoulder was getting wet. 'Mai, I don't have any rare infectious diseases that you're going to catch from sharing an umbrella with me.'

Mai sighed and stepped back a bit closer.

They fell into silence for a while as they walked. Oliver observed Mai, it felt strange, seeing her quiet, lost in thought for extended periods.

'My dad says you're thinking of moving out.' He said, finally breaking the silence and being surprised at himself for being the one to do it first.

Mai sighed. 'I'm not sure yet.'

'Not sure of what?' Naru asked, a realisation that she was referring to more than just moving out of his parent's house, dawning on him.

'All of this,' Mai waved her hands empathically in front of her. 'Coming here, studying in England, it's been a rough week.' She sighed. 'It might have been a bad idea.' She looked around her at the unfamiliar streets, sights, and people. 'I didn't really give it too much thought before I came over. My gut instinct said to do it, so here I am, but maybe that was a mistake. My instincts have never really done me wrong, but maybe this time they did… I'm on the other side of the world, it's such a big culture shock.'

Oliver felt a sharp prick somewhere in his chest. He couldn't think why. With some difficulty, he pushed the sensation back down. 'You haven't even done a day at University yet.'

Mai just shrugged. 'I'm planning on giving it sometime after I start, before I make a decision.'

'Good to know you're no longer as rash as you used to be.' Oliver smirked as Mai clenched her fists and went to step away from him in frustration, but in doing so she slipped on a wet drain cover. Oliver caught her by the arm, steadying her. 'You're still as clumsy as ever though, I see.'

Mai pouted in frustration, partly at him, partly at herself. She swore she wouldn't let him get to her. She glanced sideways to see the whisper of a smirk playing on his lips. She pointedly looked away from him, ignoring her heart that started beating a little faster.

'Why would you want to move out, though? If you do stay, that is.'

'A year is a long time; I don't want to impose on your family for that long.'

'You know they don't see you as a burden or imposing.'

'I know, but I also value having space.' Sometimes Mai found it lonely being on her own, but after spending a year living with her two best friend's she also liked the idea of having her own space again. She was aware she had shown up on Naru's doorstep with no advance notice and she was keen to give him back his space again, knowing how much he valued it.

Oliver thought on this. 'You lived alone in high school, didn't you?'

Mai nodded. 'I had an old teacher agree to be my guardian which allowed me to live on my own and the money you paid me at SPR really helped with living costs. I was able to live on my own in college too. For university though, I've been living with Keiko and Michuru. Do you remember them?' Mai smiled fondly. 'They were there when I first met you.'

'You were telling ghost stories; I still remember your screams when I entered the room.'

Mai laughed. 'It was scary! We really thought you were a ghost!' Mai remembered the story they'd been telling and how he had chimed in with 'four' and made them think there was a spirit! Mai knew that he did that deliberately, unable to resist himself from winding the three of them up.

Mai considered. 'You know, I didn't trust you when I first met you.'

'I remember. Your two friends came over asking questions, wanting to know everything about me but you hung back; it felt like you were studying my responses.' Oliver was used to being able to win people over, charm them, to get what he wanted. He'd noticed from the outset it wasn't going to work with Mai and he'd never been able to figure out why. Now he supposed, it was down to her instincts clueing her in on his deceit.

'You said you were seventeen, rather than just saying you were a second year, and then when you smiled... It didn't meet your eyes. It was fake, and why would someone fake a smile in that situation? It put me on my guard.'

'Your animal instincts made you wary of me from the get-go then.'

'Stop comparing me to an animal!'

He looked at her, 'You know, I never meant it to be so much of an insult. Sure, I tease you, but It's not a negative thing. Its kept you and us safe more times than I can count. Even if your rash behaviour often landed you in trouble.'

Mai quietly fumed. She was annoyed at him referring to her as an animal again, but he'd also complimented her which left Mai in a conundrum.

Oliver's phone began to ring. He passed the umbrella to Mai as he fished it out his pocket.

A/N I spent a lot of time editing this chapter, trying to convey exactly what I wanted, I think I'm happy with how it turned out in the end. Everyone that has left a review, added this story as a favourite, and given it a follow - thank you. It's been really great hearing from all of you. It's nice to see that I'm not the only one still obsessed with Ghost Hunt even after all this time! I hope you have a good weekend and I'll see you next week :)