Ghost Hunt 1. When Bickering Gets Old

**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._**

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**PROLOGUE  
**_When Bickering Gets Old  
_Published: 06.27.2014, Edited: 09.25.2015

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The dynamics between the boss, Oliver Davis, and his former assistant and now part-time investigator, Mai Taniyama, was changing. It had been half a year since Noll (and Lin) returned from England and the pair's regular verbal battles had become stale as of late. Noll did not tease Mai as much as before – or so the rest of SPR thought.

The others were unaware of the fact that Noll started inconveniencing his assistant with unnecessary physical contact, which seemed to set her off the edge and made her blush even more furiously than before. He looked forward to watching her fidget under his gaze afterwards. He thought Mai would take his teasing with a little more finesse and poise, since she was older now, at eighteen years old, and was about to graduate from high school. The only notable improvement to her reaction was the lack of post-contact verbal assault, which made him glad because he did not want the others to find out what he was up to. After all, what he was doing was borderline sexual harassment; he was definitely not looking forward to a lawsuit of that kind, although he might be served one if either Bou-san or Matsuzaki-san heard about this. Noll pondered over her lack of violent reaction and considered for a moment or two that she just might be enjoying this as much as he did.

In all honesty, Noll did not do this simply for his amusement. He was concerned about his assistant and her growing silence. A few months ago, Noll realized that Mai stopped sharing things about her life to the team. She was not as open as she used to be. She was now always on guard whenever he was there and he was constantly distracted because he cannot figure her out anymore. She had become quite skillful in hiding her emotions and her face rarely betrayed what she was really feeling. A part of him was impressed with the girl's progress since she was the type who wore her heart on her sleeve, but the rest of him hated it because he cannot tell what she felt and it bothered him to no end when he cannot read his assistant like he used to. It was not as if he could just ask Mai out for tea and have a heart-to-heart talk with her. That was not his style. He was a man of few words. He would not survive such an emotional talkathon because he admittedly did not possess the necessary skills to comfort her.

He found the solution to his predicament when his hand briefly came in contact with hers while they were setting up the base for one case. His mind was uncharacteristically idle that time, and all of a sudden, flashes of her recent past appeared in his mind upon contact. He froze in place for almost a minute in shock. After recovering from his daze, he realized that he could use this method to find out what was up with Mai. She had not been making sense as of late and Noll was _almost_ desperate to get to the bottom of things because (as much as he hated to admit it – even in his mind) he cannot stop thinking about her and it was significantly reducing his productivity during work hours.

Before he knew it, Noll had already begun doing a series of experiments to prove his hypothesis. He would touch Mai at opportune moments in the most nonchalant or accidental manner that he could pull off. He would then study the images from her past that would pop in his mind. Afterwards, he would lock himself in his office and record the parameters of that particular encounter in his notebook for further analysis.

He begrudgingly acknowledged the fact that it was a pathetic use of his psychometry and that he might even regret doing this in the long run, but his pent up frustration had reached an all-time high. Mai was never in the mood to share anything about her life to anyone so he had no choice but use such roundabout – and not to mention exhausting – way of finding out what was bothering her. He did not understand this new fixation of his so he simply shrugged it off as a way to regain his productivity.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** This fic is based on my headcanon on Naru's psychometric abilities. I'm posting the prologue to test the waters (i.e. to find out if it's interesting enough), and if you're curious about it, please do leave a review. Everything – including the "experiments" – will be explained in the future chapters. Just to be clear, the story is set after the case in the Ghost Hunt sequel, _Akumu no Sumu Ie_.

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**EDIT:** I fixed some minor grammatical errors pointed out by my editor (my sister). All succeeding chapters were also edited, but no changes were done on the story details.


	2. Square One

**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.**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 1****  
**_Square One  
_Published: 07.01.2014, Edited: 09.25.2015

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Everything started about half a year ago.

Two weeks after the horrifying Agawa case,* the SPR team headed to a resort and recreation center in the countryside. People drowned in the various swimming and diving pools in the resort and it was reported that both children and adults were targeted by the haunting entity.

It was close to midnight on the second day of their investigation. Noll accompanied Mai to check on an outdoor camera that was malfunctioning. Lin was left in the base to configure the live feed from the device once it was fixed. The camera had no external damage so Mai checked the battery and wiring. Noll watched her with slight amusement, noting the fact that she had learned how to diagnose and troubleshoot faulty equipment while he was away. He was thankful that Madoka had mentored his assistant the same way she had done with him and his brother despite the short time she had spent with Mai. He let a small smile grace his lips.

"Ne, Naru?" Mai gently called as she turned her head to where he was standing.

"Yes, Mai?" The tiny grin on his face immediately disappeared and his stoic facade was back in place.

"Did you hear that?" Worry and panic appeared on her features as she spoke.

"Hear what?" He strained his ears, but did not detect any unusual sound.

"Someone's drowning!" Before he can say anything else, the brunette young woman had already bolted towards the scuba diving training pool at the opposite end of the area they were at.

The young boss ran after her and watched in horror as she jumped into the placid diving pool. He immediately realized that Mai was caught up in an illusion created by the ghost that was haunting the place. When he reached the pool, Mai was nowhere in sight. He dived into the pool without hesitation and swam to where he saw her last.

He opened his eyes underwater, but it was too dark to see anything. Noll stretched out his arms in an attempt to find her in the darkness, only to be met by nothingness. He held his breath as he swam deeper and reached out in front of him yet still found nothing. He resurfaced for air and dived back in several more times before he found the unconscious form of his assistant near the bottom of the deepest part of the pool. He quickly swam to the edge of the pool and placed her on dry land before getting himself out of the water.

Noll checked for Mai's vitals. He cursed softly when he found out she was not breathing and had a weak pulse. He settled next to her, rolled up his sleeves, and immediately began performing CPR.

Mai finally opened her eyes and met Naru's dark blue ones as his face hovered over hers. She noticed that he was panting hard, most likely due to exertion from administering CPR. She would have blushed at the realization if not for the unadulterated anger that filled his eyes, along with another emotion she had never seen before in them. He observed her for any sign of injury with such concentration that she can almost feel his gaze against her skin. The sensation was unnerving for her, to say the least.

"I know what you're going to say, Naru," the brunette assistant started with a shaky voice. "It's the same old 'Mai, you're an idiot' speech you've been using since I began working for you during my freshman year. Can't you say something else? I am so sick and tired of putting up with all your crap. I did not sign up to be insulted when I agreed to be your assistant!" Tears formed in her eyes, but she fought them back fiercely. She was not going to cry in front of the narcissistic jerk. She will not give him the satisfaction of hurting her again.

"Mai, look at me." Her boss placed a hand on either side of her face to make her look into his eyes. "Nothing good ever happens when you're being reckless and impulsive. I am not insulting you by saying this, but you have to admit it was really stupid of you to just run to the diving pool without even telling me what was going on." Anger slowly made its way into his voice with each word he said. "What if I never made it in time? What if you drowned in that pool? YOU COULD HAVE _DIED_! DON'T YOU GET IT?!"

It was the first time Mai ever saw (or heard) Naru lose his composure. He could barely moderate his voice and the last lines he uttered sounded slightly desperate. It was uncharacteristic of him to put so much emotion in his speech. His eyes were flashing with rage and his hands were shaking, but his hold on her face was so gentle that it made her feel so fragile. Tears slid down her cheeks. Whether they were from anger, relief, sadness or guilt, she was not certain.

She steeled herself as she replied in a tone with hardly contained anger that rivaled his, "What did you expect me to do? Ignore the cries for help that I heard? Every second counted, Naru! I can never forgive myself for abandoning another person who needed my help. What if it were actually a kid who had to be rescued? _HE_ COULD HAVE DIED, TOO!"

"BUT IT WAS A GHOST AND IT ALMOST KILLED YOU!" Naru quickly retorted before she could continue. "I DON'T WANT YOU TO GET HURT, BUT YOU JUST KEEP ON FINDING TROUBLE FOR YOURSELF." He was shouting now and the girl's eyes widened in shock.

The young man noticed the frightened expression on her face so he drew in a deep breath to regain his composure – or what was left of it anyway.

"You weren't breathing when I got to you," he stated so quietly that she almost missed it.

"I had to help him, Naru. I couldn't stop myself," she said meekly. "And I never asked you to save –" He let go of her face suddenly as he pulled her closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Don't ever dare say those words to me, Mai Taniyama!" Naru whispered harshly against her ear. He was utterly livid now and she knew he was giving his everything to reign in his anger, but his hold on her was still as gentle. He felt her trembling against him and realized that he was scaring his assistant so he softened his tone once more.

"Which part of _'I don't want you to get hurt'_ don't you understand, idiot?" He sighed against her ear, which made her shiver in response. Mai tilted her head to meet his gaze as he continued painfully slowly, letting his words sink into her mind. "_You_ will listen to me and I _will not_ let you get hurt so I do not _have_ to save you every time."

She barely heard his words since her consciousness began to fade from fatigue. The last things she remembered were his midnight blue eyes that held so much concern in them and his panicked voice calling out to her desperately, as if she _mattered_ to him.

She could only wish she did.

* * *

_* The Agawa case is from the GH sequel, Akumu no Sumu Ie._

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Thank you for your overwhelming response. I didn't think people will like my idea. I am really grateful for your positive feedback so I decided to post the next chapter earlier than planned~! Just a fair warning, I am not very skilled at writing perfectly happy scenarios (i.e. fluff) so the relationship between Naru and Mai may be dysfunctional and twisted at times. Please forgive me in advance.

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**EDIT:** I fixed some minor grammatical errors pointed out by my editor (my sister). All succeeding chapters were also edited, but no changes were done on the story details.


	3. Suspension Bridge Effect

**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.**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 2****  
**_Suspension Bridge Effect  
_Published: 07.05.2014, Edited: 09.25.2015

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Mai was lying on her bed in the girls' room, and Osamu Yasuhara was sitting on a chair next to the bed. The college student and part-time receptionist at SPR was her assigned guard for the hour. Ayako Matsuzaki, their resident medical expert, had cleared her for the night after confirming that she sustained no injuries from the drowning incident. Mai was tucked in warmly and was allowed to rest, but she woke up after sleeping for too long.

"Yasuhara-san, how long was I out?" she inquired groggily.

"Over 12 hours. Everybody had lunch already, would you like some?" he explained in a quiet voice.

She shook her head in response and sat up.

"So, Taniyama-san. Tell me," he started with a sly grin. "How was it?"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she turned to her companion. "What are you talking about?"

"You know, the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with Big Boss? He did revive you, didn't he?"

"Yasuhara-san! How could you… I wasn't even conscious when he did CPR on me!" she answered with a flushed face.

"Alright, alright." The young man raised his hands in surrender. "You didn't have to get all defensive on me, Taniyama-san." He paused for a moment before resuming his interrogation. "How about telling me how it feels to be revived by the Big Boss with a kiss?"

Mai groaned softly and rolled her eyes at his persistence. "How about minding your own business?" She shot back at the bespectacled man.

"But I am curious. Everybody is, actually, although Takigawa-san became quite furious when he realized what happened. Something about his precious daughter being defiled by the big, bad boss." He chuckled as he recalled the scene, then shifted in his seat as he continued. "Did you know that artificial respiration is also called the _kiss of life_?"

Her eyes widened at his statement. She suddenly buried her head into her pillow and screamed into it without reservation. She lifted her head slightly from the pillow and met his gaze.

"They'll never let me live this down, will they?" she asked with an overly worried face.

"Well, you were _literally_ kissed back to life by Big Boss. To say this is fascinating is an understatement." He ended by giving her a suggestive wink.

It took all of her willpower to resist the urge to smack the smile off his face.

"It wasn't even a kiss!" she whined loudly.

* * *

A week had passed since Mai almost drowned in their latest case. She was forced to stay in the hospital after she fainted during her conversation with Naru that night. The case had been solved without a hitch by the rest of the team by the time she woke up from her long rest.

She was currently sprawled on her futon in her apartment, unable to fall sleep. There were so many thoughts swimming in her head tonight, not even the breathing exercises that Ayako had taught her a few months ago helped her clear her mind. She resorted to counting sheep until she lost count at around 300 and proceeded to tossing and turning in her futon for hours to find the best position to sleep, but her efforts were still futile. She finally gave up on evading her thoughts when she saw that it was close to midnight. She slowly closed her eyes to focus on her musings.

First on her list of issues: college. She never realized how much she wanted to go to college until she almost died last week. University life promised so many new experiences and she could not wait to try out all the new things that it had to offer. She really wanted to study psychology because she wanted to help people get over their emotional scars and move on to a better future filled with happiness. She had seen so many people die with regret and anger in her work as a paranormal investigator and it broke her heart. She decided she wanted to help others while they are still alive.

This, she was sure of, but she was still bothered by the fact that she might have to choose between studying in college and her part-time investigator position. She was not sure if she would be able to balance her studies and her work at SPR. The latter took too much time and she knew that classes in the university were way more difficult than what they had in high school. She could not afford to skip school for a week or so at a time just to join an investigation, but at the same time, she could not bear parting with her family. The SPR team was her family now and she could not imagine her life without them.

Another issue was her boss's attitude towards her. She was tired of Naru's cold and rude treatment of her. After her outburst in their latest case, he tried being nice to her, but he had failed miserably. She attempted to point this out to him, but he simply snapped at her and told her to just do what she was told. The insults kept on coming and she could not stand any more humiliation from and by him. She stopped making an effort to think of witty comebacks to his teasing. She was just too emotionally exhausted to care.

She thought things between her and Naru would be awkward after her confession and the 'me or Gene' fiasco he had created, but he only became nastier after coming back from England. She would've preferred being awkward with him over being hurt by his scathing words any day, to be honest. His response to her confession had already hurt her deeply, after all.

At this point, she was certain that what she felt for Gene was fondness akin to brotherly love. She was not in love with the dead twin, but with the living, breathing one who was currently making her life a living hell with all these emotions he was making her feel.

It was so preposterous that Naru – as brilliant as he was – even considered that she was in love with his older twin brother when she barely knew him. Naru was the one who saved her when she was in trouble, and put up with her when she was being difficult, and went out of his way to make her feel better. She could go on with the list of things he did with and for her if it would and could prove that she was certain it was the younger twin she was in love with.

Then again, proof from an idiot like her would never stand a chance against his genius scrutiny.

Her mind drifted to the night he saved her from drowning and she flushed at the recollection. The first thing she remembered was the feel of his warm lips on hers as she regained her consciousness that night. She knew he only did what he had to do since she stopped breathing, but she couldn't not like how it felt.

She was aware that Naru had a strong aversion to touch, but he still went through something as intimate as mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for her.

Her head shook slightly at the thought.

No, it was not an act of intimacy, she convinced herself. It was an emergency, and he had no choice: he had to act fast or she would not be here right now thinking about it.

She mentally slapped herself for her wishful thinking.

It was nothing to Naru, despite what Yasuhara-san or everyone else thought. In the end, everything was just work to him and he was only looking after his stupid, accident-prone employee.

She really should stop making something out of nothing.

* * *

It had been two weeks since Noll saved Mai from drowning, but the events of that night were still stuck in his mind. His actions that night did not make any sense to him.

He was surprised when he found himself unable to pull away quickly when his lips touched hers. Back then, something urged him to let his lips linger for a moment longer, and it puzzled him since he generally detested physical contact, let alone an intimate one such as this. Needless to say, he gave in without much resistance, which is why he was reflecting on this non-issue.

He came up with several explanations for it, but in the end, none of them were logical enough to satisfy him. In the end, most of them led to the conclusion that he was – at the very least – physically attracted to Mai, which was definitely not the case.

Or was it?

He paused to consider another possibility.

Hypothetically speaking, if such reaction was _really_ due to physical attraction, would it be possible for the incident to be a case of _misattribution of arousal_?

The panic he felt from seeing her drown may have led him to believe that the girl was very appealing at that particular moment, especially when he learned just how soft her lips were after giving her artificial respiration for the first time. He knew his senses were heightened that time because he was able to detect the slightest hint of her cherry lip balm that was transferred to his lips in contrast to the overwhelming bitterness of chlorine from the pool.

He halted his analysis at this point.

If his theory was sound, did it mean that he reacted on impulse when he…? The thought was left hanging and Noll let out a heavy sigh instead. Why did it matter anyway? All evidence pointed to her loving Gene. His _dead_ older twin brother. He almost felt bad for Mai, if not for the occasional stab of bitterness that plagued him when he thought about her. The worst part of it all was he could not pinpoint the exact source of such feeling. Was it honestly because he was attracted to the girl? That cannot be true since he barely knew her.

He let out another sigh. It seemed like he was going around in circles so he decided to leave it at that for now.

He let his mind wander aimlessly for a while, but it went back to Mai once more.

In retrospect, her outburst took him aback, more than he cared to admit. Noll knew that he had to do something soon, before Mai was driven into a corner and really quit her job at SPR. God knew how hard he was trying to make things right after seeing her break down in their previous case. He never meant to hurt her, but he always ended up doing so anyway and could not, for the life of him, figure out what he was doing wrong.

Noll resorted to asking his older brother the other day when he finally caught him "awake" in the other dimension. All he got was a single line from Gene when it took him about ten minutes to explain the situation. The only advice he was offered was "Just ask her, Noll." The rest of the conversation was spent on his twin teasing him for "taking advantage of his adorable, but totally unconscious assistant." He mentally noted that the description was Gene's and not his. Noll attempted to defend himself from the false accusation, but Gene began fading from the mirror before he even got a word out.

His musing was interrupted when the door to his office opened to reveal the subject of his thoughts. His eyes narrowed in annoyance as he regarded his assistant.

"What? I knocked several times already, but you weren't responding!" Mai said defensively while making her way towards his desk.

A cup of fresh tea was carefully placed in front of him. She hastily shuffled towards the door before looking back at him to ask, "Do you need anything else?"

He raised his head to reply, but was distracted when his gaze fell on her lips.

Noll grabbed the perfect opportunity to verify his theory. He silently observed how his body reacted at the sight, and was glad to note that no change had occurred.

He was right again – Oliver Davis was _not_ attracted to Mai Taniyama – but he already knew that, did he not?

"You may go." He dismissed her with a smug smile.

* * *

Gene was laughing his head off thanks to the pathetic reasoning of his brother. Noll was unaware that he had lowered his guard when he did the mini experiment on himself so the older twin was able to read into his thoughts easily.

Of course Noll's deduction was totally invalid and completely erroneous since he played the part of both the observer and the observed. Everyone knew that it was not scientifically sound to do so since it led to biased observations and ultimately, to wrong conclusions.

The idiot scientist did not even notice how his eyes dilated when she entered the room, or how his breathing hitched the moment his eyes focused on Mai's lips. Eugene Davis definitely saw these indicators from his vantage point inside the mirror that was on the living twin's desk.

The ghostly medium shook his head in disbelief after he was done laughing.

Oliver Davis may be a genius, but right now he was making a fool of himself by thinking this way. Gene could only hope Noll would snap out of his stupidity before he did something he would regret someday.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Thank you once again for all the reviews, follows and favorites~! I hope you guys liked this chapter. It's the longest one so far (over 2K words). Oh, and please do tell me if Mai (or her musing) was OOC here. I find her difficult to write since she's too emotional. I can relate more with Naru and his logical thinking. Also, I'd like to apologize for delaying the more cute, fluffy parts, but I thought I had to set up their emotional states first. Please do look forward to the next chapter since the fun starts there!

**PS.** Can I just say how much I love writing Yasuhara? He is such a sly bastard who can get away with anything with his charm and wit (and I mean this as a compliment to him).

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**EDIT:** I fixed some minor grammatical errors pointed out by my editor (my sister). All succeeding chapters were also edited, but no changes were done on the story details.


	4. Initial Reaction

**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.**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 3****  
**_Initial Reaction  
_Published: 07.10.2014, Edited: 09.25.2015

* * *

Mai had been avoiding Noll lately and it irked him. She did not respond to his usual baiting anymore. She would just look at him, shake her head slightly and then sigh. It was starting to get on his nerves and not even her tea could calm him down this time, but he still wanted some anyway. He always did.

"Mai, tea!" Noll demanded from inside his office.

The beverage was promptly delivered to him after a few minutes without a single word from the high school girl. She turned around and left the room silently as soon as she placed the tea on his desk.

He drank his tea as usual as he flipped through reports and files on the desk. He grew bored of them after two hours or so of non-stop reading so he decided to go out to the reception area. The young boss was surprised to see Mai bent over her desk writing something intently. He crept closer to her so as not to disturb the girl and looked over her shoulder. She was struggling with her math worksheet. He could not stop himself from pointing out her glaring mistakes.

"Mai, you answered numbers 2, 6, 9, 13 and 18 incorrectly," he stated condescendingly. She was startled by the sound of his voice so close to her ear. Noll straightened his posture and leaned against her desk as he continued, "Most of your mistakes are due to carelessness..." His words trailed off. Her head shot up to retort with eyes burning with rage, but he spoke faster. "…but this does not surprise me at all considering how _impulsively idiotic_ you always are."

The young woman looked away from him and exhaled loudly to dispel her anger. Her head hung low as she said quietly, "If you've satisfied your compulsion to insult me, please leave me alone already." Mai went back to solving her math problems.

_She was at it again_, he thought. He saw Yasuhara frown at him from the corner of his eye, yet Noll pointedly ignored the other man. He was simply being his usual self so why was everyone giving him a hard time now?

The blue-eyed teen strode towards his office to resume his work. When he reached his desk, he found his teacup empty. He was about to call for a new cup, but decided against it because he did not know how to handle his extremely silent assistant.

His mood significantly darkened.

He used to complain a lot about Mai's loud voice and incessant talking, yet there he was right now, unable to handle the silence she was giving him. A deep frown slowly marred his handsome face.

All thoughts pertaining to the brunette were pushed away to the back of his mind for the moment as he attempted to recover the focus he needed to complete the half-finished report waiting in his laptop.

Little did Noll know that this uncomfortable situation would continue in the days to come and he would not be able to disregard it for too long.

* * *

The SPR team was on another case when it happened.

Noll had already called out everyone's tasks as soon as they reached the room designated as their base. He assigned Mai to set up the base with him to keep her out of trouble – at least on their first day. It was easier to keep an eye on the girl when she was next to him. After the drowning incident, he did not like to take his chances when it came to her safety.

"Mai, secure the shelves." He commanded flatly. "'Lin and I will be placing the monitors there shortly."

"Yes, boss!" she acknowledged playfully, saluting as she made her way to where the shelves were.

Mai seemed to be in an _extremely_ good mood, he noticed. It was probably because she fell asleep without dreaming on the way to the countryside hotel they were to investigate. Noll was willing to bet that she had good sleep because her head was leaning against his shoulder. He clearly saw how his assistant relaxed when he so graciously let her snuggle against him in the van earlier. This was certainly an improvement from the usual moody and guarded disposition she seemed to have adopted as of late.

"Done!" she exclaimed with pride five minutes later. "What's next, Naru?"

"Tea." He replied without looking up from the report in his hand.

"Hmph! Tea addict." She murmured to herself, and then continued, "He hasn't even done anything yet!"

"I beg your pardon, Mai?" He finally raised his head to gaze at her blankly.

"Nothing, Naru~!" she sang sarcastically.

The brunette proceeded to make the tea for her boss. A table at the back of the base was set up with an electric kettle, just as she had requested from their client and host so she could make Naru's tea anytime without having to leave the room.

Noll and Lin worked on setting up the monitors and hooking up the rest of their equipment inside the base. They halted their work for a while to drink the tea Mai made for them, and then finished it. Afterwards, the young boss asked Lin to position the cameras where he had indicated on the blueprint, much to the older man's displeasure.

Lin left the room quickly to complete his task, leaving Noll and Mai all alone.

"Mai, come here," the blue-eyed teen called out. "Take care of the controls. I will instruct Lin on the positioning of the cameras."

"But that's boring, Naru, and I suck at handling electronics," she whined.

"I do not pay you to have fun at work." He countered bluntly.

The girl sighed and did what she was told reluctantly. She quickly pressed the buttons to configure the video feeds from the cameras. She could hear her boss giving out commands to the microphone on his own headset. After an hour of setting up and positioning the cameras (Lin was able to do it faster than Mai or the rest of SPR irregulars), all the video feeds were already online and data collection was well underway.

Noll was checking the monitors behind Mai when he decided to tease her out of habit. They had been watching the feeds for the past 10 minutes and nothing extraordinary was happening – just as expected.

He bent down and whispered very softly in her ear, "Mai, tea."

His action totally caught her off-guard since she was watching the monitors intently. A squeak escaped from her mouth out of shock. Then she fell from her swivel chair sideways and hit the floor before she even knew what was going on.

Everything happened so fast that even Noll was surprised, but he did not let it show on his face. He stepped closer to his fallen employee and offered her a hand as an apology. He did not expect her to get hurt from his little prank, but her reaction amused him greatly.

Mai took his hand to quickly pull herself up from the floor, then let it go as soon as she was standing. She was startled to see her employer frozen as if in a daze, his eyes blank and his hand still hanging in the air where she released it.

"Naru?" she asked while waving a hand in front of his eyes. "Naru, is there something wrong?"

Noll blinked rapidly as he regained his own vision. He started seeing flashes of Mai's recent memories in his mind the moment her hand came in contact with his. It seemed he lost himself for a minute or so as he was flooded with images from the past.

"I'm fine," he said nonchalantly as he saw her worried expression.

"Are you sure?" Her hand reached out to touch his face, but he grabbed her wrist lightly to stop her. Once again, his mind was assaulted with a surge of images upon contact. It made him slightly dizzy, but he was conscious enough this time, unlike earlier.

"I'm sure, Mai." He assured her quietly as he dropped her hand. "Just give me the tea I asked for. Now."

"Jerk!" She huffed and started ranting as she made her way towards the back of the room to prepare his tea. "Is it so wrong for me to be just a little bit concerned about you?! Huh? Fine. I don't care anymore, stupid scientist…"

The young man sat down on the chair his assistant had vacated and tried to recall what he just saw in his mind. He could distinctly remember the images of college and scholarship application forms, report cards with above-average grades, and a career aspiration survey form.

He closed his eyes for a moment to improve his focus.

There were also the images of the rest of the SPR team with concerned looks on their faces as they talked to him – to Mai, technically, since those were her memories – and finally, an image of himself smiling sadly with a lake as the background, and another one where he was completely soaked and looking down at her with both anger and relief in his eyes.

His eyes shot open when he heard Mai walking towards where he sat. He continued his analysis as he watched her approach with his tea.

Based on what he saw, Noll knew that he had unwittingly performed psychometry on the girl. The fact that he was only able to do so now utterly bothered him. He admitted that they had been physically in contact several times already in the past year or so, but he never saw anything from her. The issue required further investigation, but he let it go for now because they had a case to solve.

Mai placed the tea in front of him as she observed him with concern (despite what she had declared only minutes ago). He moved his gaze towards the monitor to check what the rest of the team was up to. His hand automatically reached out for the teacup and raised it to his lips. He savored the scent of the Earl Grey before drinking it.

As Noll sipped his tea calmly, it finally hit him.

He could use his psychometry to figure out what was going on with Mai.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Thanks for sticking around for my story~! I appreciate all the reviews, favorites, and follows. I changed the summary slightly, because it seems like the old one gave people the wrong idea. *grins* I'm so sorry if that were the case! I would love it if you can give me some feedback regarding my work (the pace is too slow, it is lacking in fluff, etc.) so I can improve on my future chapters. I look forward to hearing from you!

* * *

**EDIT:** I fixed some minor grammatical errors pointed out by my editor (my sister). All succeeding chapters were also edited, but no changes were done on the story details.


	5. Path of Least Resistance

**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.**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 4****  
**_Path of Least Resistance  
_Published: 07.17.2014, Edited: 09.25.2015

* * *

Mai was updating the database of case files on her work computer when she heard her boss call for his tea.

She went to the kitchenette to prepare his favorite, Earl Grey, as usual and headed to his office. After knocking and getting the permission to enter, she made her way to Naru's desk.

"Mai!" he said sharply.

She let out a squeak when his hand caught hers just as the teacup was about to slide from its saucer. The electricity that coursed through her body upon contact startled her. It made her wonder briefly if it was just a figment of an overactive imagination.

Her gaze fell on their hands that were still touching, causing her to flush deeply. She quickly pulled her hand away after seeing that the teacup was safely placed on his desk.

Once she was back at her desk, she slapped her cheeks and scolded herself for being so clumsy and for spacing out while she was working.

"Pull yourself together, Mai!" she encouraged herself under her breath. "You're NOT an idiot, no matter what your narcissistic boss says!"

* * *

It was Noll's lucky day.

An opportunity to test his hypothesis had presented itself in the form of stray highlighter marks on Mai's face. She fell asleep while reading her textbook and the highlighter was abandoned on the floor without its cap.

"Mai," he called out to her gently while caressing her face. She let out a soft groan.

"Five more minutes," she murmured.

"Mai!" Noll spoke more forcefully.

Mai jolted upright in her chair. Her bleary eyes focused on him as she gathered her wits.

"What do you want, Naru?" she asked menacingly with a matching glare.

The random streaks of neon pink on her cheeks made it difficult for Noll to take her seriously at all. Without a word, he instinctively reached out to cup her face and started rubbing the marks off her face with the pad of his thumb.

"N-naru! W-what do you think you're doing?!" she demanded with a trembling voice, moving away from his touch.

"Removing the highlighter marks off of you," he said indifferently, although the warmth in his eyes betrayed his amusement. "You look even more stupid with the pink lines all over your face." The young man smirked as he continued, "I am only doing you a favor."

He silently watched as she struggled to restrain the retort that was about to escape her mouth. A minute later, his smirk widened when she moved her chair closer and fixed her eyes on him.

"Please make sure you erase everything," she requested timidly, blushing deep red.

He cupped her face with both his hands and let his thumbs feel the warmth and smoothness of her skin. He immediately read her the moment his hands touched her. The visions were longer, most likely due to prolonged contact, but they were in third person, much to Noll's relief. This time, he was simply an observer, and he watched as her past and future played out in his mind like a movie, with the scenes all jumbled up.

"Nngh~ Naru!" Mai exclaimed. "You're rubbing too hard, it hurts!"

His eyes rolled in annoyance. "Just bear with it. It is almost done."

"I said it hurts, Naru!" the girl cried out while wincing in pain.

Lin suddenly appeared from within his office with a bewildered expression. The older man took in the scene before him and sighed in relief. He had assumed the worst when he heard the sounds from the reception room and was thankful that things were anything but _that_.

"What are you doing, Noll?" Lin inquired, eyeing his charge suspiciously with a raised eyebrow.

The question hung unanswered in the air as the younger man finished erasing the last of the ugly streaks on the girl's usually flawless face.

Soon enough, Noll gave her face one last look before patting her cheeks gently and then letting go. Then he finally responded to his guardian's query in a bored tone.

"I was helping Mai look less idiotic."

A smug grin formed on the young boss' face as he strode back to his office, leaving his two employees speechless.

* * *

To say that Mai was having a bad day was an understatement.

She woke up late for school.

The train she was on was delayed.

She slipped and fell on her butt in the school's washroom after missing the Wet Floor sign.

It started raining as she made her way to the office and she left her umbrella at home.

Now, Naru was asking for his afternoon tea, but she just found out that they ran out of it.

The high school girl exhaled loudly in frustration. She was done rummaging through all the cabinets and drawers and not even a single tea bag, regardless of the flavor, was in existence in the office.

All of a sudden, she felt a presence behind her. She turned around abruptly to check who it was, only to bang her head really hard on the door of the overhead cabinet that she had left open. Her vision became blurry for a moment as pain spread throughout the area that had been hit.

Cool fingers trailed across her forehead. A gentle current passed through her entire body upon contact. When she looked up, she saw Naru wearing a displeased frown.

"You have hurt yourself again, Mai," he stated softly with a sigh as he shook his head in disapproval.

"Ah~!" she moaned in pain and instinctively turned her head away when his fingers reached a sore spot.

"I am not surprised you got yourself a large bump. The hit sounded so loud, I thought the cabinet door had been knocked out of its hinges," he said in a slightly mocking voice.

"Why you—" Mai was about to begin a series of insults to counter her arrogant boss, but he cut her off by flicking the sore spot he had found earlier. "Owww, Naru! What'd you do that for?"

He turned around without responding and got some ice from the small fridge. Mai leaned against the counter and waited silently as he placed the ice cubes in a clean Ziplock bag and then lightly pressed it against her recently acquired bump. She took the bag from him and continued pressing the ice against her forehead.

"Eh~ So you can be nice, too, Naru?" she questioned him in a playful tone, tilting her head to one side.

"I simply fear for the remaining brain cells in your head." Naru casually replied while he headed out of the kitchenette.

Mai huffed. "Will it kill you to admit that you were worried about me?" she shouted from behind him.

The young man stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around. "What made you think I was concerned about _you_?" he asked back impassively, leveling his gaze with hers.

"My instincts told me so!" she retorted. Then she added in her mind, _I can also see it in your eyes._

His eyes narrowed teasingly as he asked, "Have you ever considered the probability of your instincts being wrong?"

As soon as he finished talking, Naru turned away from her and strode back to his office, leaving Mai with her bump and the ice.

She let out an angry huff.

"He didn't even let me thank him!" she whispered to herself after hearing her boss enter his room.

* * *

A few days later, Mai began panicking because she had been too clumsy during the past few weeks. She kept on making mistakes and she was dreading the sermon from Naru, which she might get soon if she did not improve her work. She was so not looking forward to being called stupid, idiotic and all the other variations of the word. Damn her intelligent, narcissistic jerk of a boss for having such a wide vocabulary.

She was tired of being insulted, but it seemed like she just couldn't get things right no matter how hard she tried. It was even more embarrassing for her since her handsome employer was always within the vicinity during her episodic blunders AND he _never_ failed to save her in some way or another.

_And to think that I was the one who insisted that I didn't need him to save me!_ The girl berated herself mentally. _Way to go, Mai! You're just proving yourself wrong. Again… But then, it's not too bad to be saved by Naru, right?_

After his indirect rejection, she honestly wanted to stop liking him because the ambiguity had become unbearably painful, yet every time she thought she was getting over him he would do something that pulled her back in, and she would be entangled once more in her one-sided love affair. No matter how much she resisted all and any affection she held for Naru, she just couldn't stay away from him. Her resolve wavered every time she looked into those captivating blue eyes of his. Her heart would clench tightly in her chest whenever she caught a glimpse of his impossibly beautiful face. She almost lost her mind whenever he touched her – accidentally or otherwise – and it didn't help that she kept on feeling the proverbial jolt of electricity when he did.

It seemed that all her efforts at un-loving him were futile. She already tried being cold to him, stopped bickering with him and even distanced herself from him, but these didn't work at all. Maybe it would be better if she simply made herself believe that he cared about her – even just a little – to ease the overwhelming pain in her heart. She should probably cut herself some slack and just honestly and thoroughly enjoy the attention that Naru had been sparingly granting her. After all, she was too young to be lamenting over failed love. She was only eighteen and the rest of her life was in front of her. She would have her fun.

_Naru's scathing remarks be damned!_ She thought to herself.

Mai's introspection was interrupted when her mind wandered to their latest case.

She groaned inwardly.

He definitely saved her there, like a proper prince charming but with a sharp tongue. Everything was still so vivid in her mind, most especially the pleasant sensations from being completely covered by his supple body. Of course he did it to protect her and she absolutely felt so safe back then – and so precious at the same time – as he pulled her against him and held her close so desperately that she didn't want the moment to end. She blushed as she recalled how intoxicating his scent was, like tea with mint and something manly that she could not identify.

A dreamy sigh escaped her lips as she indulged herself in the memory of being so close to Naru.

* * *

_**Everything began at square one, where the promiscuous rabbits decided to play a dangerous game.  
On the seventh day, all of them were sent to hell.  
The wrathful, sullen rabbits were punished in their circle until the end of time.**_

You have 30 minutes to solve the riddle.  
If you do not find the room with the bomb, the entire hotel will blow up.  
If you find the bomb, well, who knows what will happen then?

Happy hunting!

* * *

Mai was asleep when the clue was sent to their smartphones. It was sent at exactly 3:00AM and they had a 30-minute time limit before the entire hotel was blown into smithereens. The culprit this time was not a ghost, but a sadistic, derailed psychic who wanted revenge on the high-profile owner of the luxury hotel. Noll only realized this after one day of observation, and it was too late. He was beyond furious at himself for not figuring it out sooner.

The perpetrator was hiding somewhere in the hotel and had been playing nasty games with them. The young boss was determined to put an end to it. Takigawa and Matsuzaki were sent to the hospital due to heavy injuries they sustained during their encounter with the crazy psychic. Only Noll, Lin, and Mai remained in the base.

"The keywords are most likely _square one_, _rabbits_, _seventh day, hell, and punishment,_" Lin said.

"Let us start with the rabbits. What comes to mind when you say _'promiscuous rabbits'_?" Noll asked.

"Sex," Lin replied seriously, fighting the blush that was creeping up his face. "Pardon my language, but have you ever heard of the saying 'fucking like rabbits'? I think that is how people describe a couple that produces too many children in a short period of time. It means they are having a lot of sex."

Noll hummed as he let out a smirk. He did not expect Lin, his ever-stoic guardian, to volunteer such information.

"So it is about sex, huh?" Noll contemplated. "What does it have to do with '_square one'_ and _'seventh day'_?"

"Could it be pertaining to the seven days of creation?" Lin suggested.

"What does it have to do with sex, then?" Noll countered.

"Sex can be viewed as an act of creation," Lin explained, and then added quickly, "After all, you can create a baby during sex."

"I know that!" Noll snapped, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "There is something off about that reasoning, though. Why must it start at _'square one'_?"

Silence filled the room as the two men considered all the possibilities.

_Sex. Promiscuous rabbits. Babies. Square one. Seventh day…_ Noll closed his eyes and let the words swim freely in his mind. Lin watched as his charge thought deeply while tapping the table with his index finger.

"Sex. Rabbits. One. Seventh." Noll snapped his finger in realization as his eyes snapped open. "It is about the Fibonacci sequence!" he exclaimed in a frustrated tone. "It is the mathematical model of the reproduction of rabbits. How could I have missed that?" he murmured to himself, but Lin heard him anyway.

"The clue says we should start with 1 and get the 7th term – the seventh day." Noll opened his black notebook and wrote the first few terms of the Fibonacci series.

_1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34…_

"The seventh term is 13," Lin pointed out.

"So it is the 13th room, since the hotel only has 7 floors and each floor has 20 rooms. Which floor is it?"

The older man glanced at the clock. "Noll, we have 14 minutes left."

"Shut up, Lin. I am thinking." Noll said harshly without looking up. "…the rabbits were sent to hell. Why? And they were punished in their…circle." He grabbed his laptop and opened a web browser. "What do you know about the _circles of hell_?"

"Dante's Inferno? That is about it, I guess. I never had the chance to read it," Lin replied vaguely.

"The rabbits were wrathful and sullen…" Noll recited, and then continued. "They were punished for their anger... in the fifth circle!"

The blue-eyed teen stood up from his chair at the same time Mai sat up abruptly from the couch, as if she was jolted awake by electricity.

* * *

"The bomb is in Room 513!" Mai announced frantically the moment she woke up from her slumber.

"I know," Naru replied hastily as he rushed out of the door.

"Wait, Noll!" Lin called out, but was ignored by the younger man.

"NARU! YOU CAN'T!" she shouted in panic as she rose from the couch to run after him. "NARU!"

She turned to her other companion as they chased after Naru. "Lin-san, we have to stop Naru. The bomb will explode 10 seconds after the door of the room has been opened!"

They moved as fast as they could, but were met by the crazy psychic on the way.

"Taniyama-san, go on ahead. I will take care of this," Lin assured the girl.

Mai continued chasing after Naru who had gone further up the hotel. When she finally caught up with him, she was out of breath and he was already in front of Room 513.

"NARU, DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!" she screamed from the end of the hallway.

Her warning went unheeded. Naru had already turned the knob and pushed the door open. It was then that they heard the shrill ticking of the bomb.

"GET AWAY FROM THERE, NARU! IT'S A TRAP! IT'LL EXPLODE IN 10 SECONDS!"

She stood frozen in fear.

Upon hearing her words, Naru ran towards her as fast as he could and reached the opposite end of the hallway just as the ticking sound became louder and faster. He pulled her against him, covered her head with his arm, and threw both of them to the ground right before the room in question exploded behind them.

The explosion was loud, but the damage from it was isolated in the vicinity of the room. Debris from the blast barely reached the area where the two teens were.

"Are you alright?" Naru asked Mai with undisguised concern on his face while he looked down at her.

"Yeah," she moaned loudly. "My back hurts, though. You could've been more gentle."

"In case you did not notice, I was in a hurry," he answered with some difficulty. Only then did she notice that he was panting hard from all the running he had done.

"Are _you_ alright?" she returned his query back to him, gazing up to face him.

"Still alive, at the very least," he replied weakly while closing his eyes as he collapsed on top of her from exhaustion.

Mai let out a pained groan as his weight crashed onto her small body. A small blush formed when she realized that it came out sounding too sensual.

Her boss hummed knowingly, then accused her in a cool voice, "You are enjoying this."

"No, I'm not!" she screamed with all her might underneath him, her cheeks flushing even more.

She tried to push him away from her, but her efforts were useless since his dead weight simply pushed her back harder against the ground to keep her in place.

Then she remembered that Lin was left with their enemy.

"Oh no! Lin-san's still with the crazy psychic!" she informed him in a panicked voice.

Naru did not make any effort to move from where he was. He only opened his eyes and looked straight at her.

"Lin can easily take care of that second-rate bastard. It is better to stay out of his way while he does so," he declared with full confidence, although she detected anger in his voice at the mention of the culprit of the case. "That useless psychic is hardly worth anyone's time, really."

"So what do we do now?" Mai inquired in resignation.

"Wait for Lin to come and get us," her boss said nonchalantly as he closed his eyes once more.

"OK," she replied, then after a short pause she announced, "Well, in any case, I should go check out Room 513."

Her attempt to get away from him was thwarted again. He was too heavy to push away, and for some reason, her body refused to cooperate so she couldn't find the energy to shove the young man off of her.

"What is wrong with you?!" she demanded angrily as she tried to get away from him.

"Mai, behave yourself," the young man reprimanded her sternly with his eyes still closed. "You are not going anywhere."

"At least get off of me, Naru!" she practically begged while still pressed beneath him.

"No," he rejected her request harshly, and then explained in a condescending tone, "You will run into trouble again the moment I let you go."

"That's not true!" Mai exclaimed stubbornly while shifting like a relentless child under him. Mai was about to add something, but was effectively silenced when Naru rested his hands on either side of her body to trap her on the floor and to prevent her from moving further.

He opened his eyes and stared at her seriously.

"If you do not stop moving, I will –" his threat was interrupted by Mai.

"Kiss me?" she finished for him with a flirtatious wink.

"Cut your pay in half for this month," he corrected her flatly while smirking.

"This is sexual harassment, you know!" she complained violently, her eyes flashing with defiance.

"Not when you are so obviously enjoying yourself," Naru stated smugly, and then added to rile her up even more, "Which is exactly what you are doing right now."

"You're wrong!" she insisted ferociously. "That's not true!"

He then shifted slightly on top of her and she resisted the urge to let out another groan.

"You are such a bad liar, Mai," he whispered in a low tone against her ear, then continued after a short pause, "And I am never wrong."

"You're so despicable, Naru!" Mai immediately countered, then muttered under her breath, "You're not adorable at all!"

Naru let out a small smile and looked at her directly. "Like I said, bad liar," he murmured teasingly.

She gasped at the rare sight, and then quickly huffed in disagreement. She impulsively adjusted her head so she could hear his heart beat. Its rhythm was even and steady, unlike her heart's erratic one.

"Stop moving, Mai," he chastised mildly. "Or else I will think that you are taking advantage of my body."

Mai could only huff again in both embarrassment and frustration at his statement after burying her blush-tainted face in his chest, while Naru remained still, not moving at all from their awkward position.

When she called out to him after a few minutes, she was surprised to find out that he was already asleep. She just realized now how extremely tired he was. After all, he had not slept a wink during the night and had spent so much energy on running earlier.

While waiting for Lin to arrive, a brilliant idea suddenly crossed her mind.

Since Naru already convicted her earlier for a crime she had yet to commit, she decided to do exactly what he had accused her of. It was a rare chance and she wasn't about to let it pass. She giggled quietly.

"I'll gladly take advantage of your body, Naru~!" She whispered softly to her sleeping boss. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle."

She carefully pulled her arms out from under the unconscious form of her boss and hugged him tightly. To her astonishment, his body completely relaxed after she embraced him. She felt the tension in his muscles ease up as she boldly ran her hands up and down his back. A huge smile took over her face when she realized that his body liked what she was doing.

_Heh~! At least Naru's body is rather honest with me. _She thought to herself smugly.

Mai tilted her head to press her ear against his heart once more. Eventually, her own body also relaxed, and soon enough, she was lulled to sleep by the calm beating of Naru's heart.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Thank you for your feedback~! Your reviews, follows and favorites inspire me to write more. Here's an extra long chapter for everyone! I hope you enjoyed it. I had so much fun playing with both Mai and Naru's contradictory nature. I apologize to those who were disappointed because the first parts of my story are lacking fluff. I hope this chapter makes up for it.

**PS.** I just found out after reading the novel translations that Naru occasionally taps Mai's forehead during investigations. He never initiates unnecessary contact such as this with anyone except her. I find this so adorable and I'm rather disappointed that they never showed this in the anime/manga. Most of the cute Naru x Mai contact from the novels were edited out. It's so sad.

* * *

**EDIT:** I fixed some minor grammatical errors pointed out by my editor (my sister). All succeeding chapters were also edited, but no changes were done on the story details.


	6. Laws of Attraction

**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.**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 5****  
**_Laws of Attraction  
_Published: 07.31.2014, Edited: 09.25.2015

* * *

Noll stirred from his slumber due to the sound of approaching footsteps. His entire body stiffened to alertness and all traces of sleep immediately disappeared as the steps sounded closer to where he was. It took him another second to realize that he was lying on the ground with Mai beneath him, and that she was holding him captive with her arms wrapped around him tightly. He sighed in amusement and shook his head at the girl's antics before trying to pry her arms off of him. The task proved to be a challenge since she refused to let go.

When he finally managed to extract himself from her embrace with as much gentleness as he could manage, he heard Lin calling out to him.

"Noll, what happened?" Lin asked without delay as soon as he caught a glimpse of the two teens on the floor.

"We are fine, Lin," Noll assured his guardian and then continued in a flat tone, "Mai only fell asleep. We were not harmed from the explosion."

Noll gave the older man a once-over and quickly concluded that despite his confidence in Lin, the fight with the sadistic psychic was not as easy as he thought it would have been.

The onmyouji carefully made his way to the room where the explosion had occurred. After checking out the result of the blast, he walked back to where the young boss and his assistant were.

"Based on what I saw, the explosion was contained within the walls of Room 513. Fortunately, the culprit used a smaller, less lethal bomb and it seems like this was just a prank. He failed to activate the larger, more complex bombs that he set up all over the hotel after I managed to destroy the remote detonator. He is currently bound and unconscious in the staff room, and two of my shikis are watching over him as we speak. The police, along with a bomb disposal squad, will be here in an hour or so," Lin reported dutifully in a hushed voice so as not to wake Mai.

Noll simply gave a nod in acknowledgement, then started after a short pause, "We better get back to the base."

Lin promptly moved towards the sleeping girl, but Noll raised a hand to stop him.

"I can handle this," the younger man said dryly as he bent down to lift her off the ground, then added rather hastily, "You look terribly exhausted."

Mai shifted in Noll's arms as he stood up and he staggered when she suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him tightly while resting her head on his shoulder. Lin chuckled softly at the sight before him, only to receive a piercing glare from his charge a moment later.

"Do not tell Mai about this," Noll stated threateningly, locking his eyes with Lin's.

The older man just lowered his head in affirmation as he tried to hide the knowing grin that was slowly taking over his face.

* * *

Noll leaned back in his chair and sighed contentedly as he scanned through his notes on the successful experiments with Mai. A satisfied smirk settled on his face as he recalled some of the trials. He never expected setting up situations wherein he could touch her would be so easy due to her natural clumsiness.

The easiest trials to conduct involved his fingers brushing casually against hers whenever Mai delivered his tea. She never reacted verbally to the contact, but he knew she was perfectly aware of it based on the bright blush on her face every time it happened. The other trials were trickier, but he got around them easily since he could accurately predict his assistant's reactions most of the time.

Or at least he used to be able to do so.

Lately, her reactions puzzled him. They were beyond Noll's predicted parameters and it baffled him since he sometimes did not know how to respond in turn. He did not expect her to go along with his schemes without resistance.

When he cupped her face during the highlighter episode, he thought she would slap his hands away, but she instead yielded to him, giving Noll an opportunity to read her extensively. Furthermore, the fact that she kept on leaning into his touch was not lost on him. It was an irregularity that he deemed significant and he was determined to find out the reason for it.

His confusion increased when he woke up in Mai's embrace during the psychic bomber case. It was surprising to find out that he was not repulsed at all by her touch. Her body felt so soft and warm against his and she looked so vulnerable and inviting. If Noll were a lesser man, he would have already blushed at the recollection, and then some…

As much as he hated to admit it, he woke up feeling pleasantly rejuvenated despite the short time he had rested back then. Doing a little psychometry on her later revealed that she had been rubbing his back soothingly while he was passed out on top of her. The reliving of this memory from her perspective evoked an overwhelming sense of calmness from within him that he could not comprehend.

He dismissed it as a side effect of completely syncing with her during his vision. He was simply picking up what she felt at that moment. After all, he was significantly weakened by the use of his PK to move the bomb away from the door to protect himself and Mai from the explosion. At that time, he did not have enough control over his abilities. He could not prevent his mind from having a first-person vision when he briefly caressed Mai's face while she dozed off in their base. He could distinctly remember the sound of her voice as she softly uttered his name in her sleep and –

Noll was abruptly pulled out of his reverie by the loud, ungraceful entrance of the girl who was the current focus of his musings.

* * *

Mai barged into Naru's office after setting her things on her table outside.

"Mai, how many times do I have to – " her boss began his usual lecture but was immediately cut short by the brunette.

"You've got to help me, Naru! I'm failing physics and Yasuhara-san is too busy with his own exams to help me study," she ranted tearfully.

"I am busy right now," he responded dismissively. "Do not bother me when I am working."

"Please help me!" she desperately pleaded with tears in her eyes. "I can't afford to hire a professional tutor since it's too expensive." An exhausted sigh left her lips. "It's not my fault I'm not very good at numbers."

She stood in front of his desk with a dejected look on her face while she waited for his response. He ignored her and went back to reading the file in his hand.

It took her five minutes of silence to finally realize that he was not helping her. She turned around to leave and murmured sadly, "I just don't want to fail."

She was already halfway out the doorway when Naru let out a sigh of resignation as he shut the file in his hand and began clearing his table. "Fine. Get your stuff in here and grab a chair." Her eyes lit up upon hearing his instructions and she hurried to gather the required materials. "Do not forget my tea," he added smugly.

A few minutes later, she was finally seated next to her boss (and currently her tutor) behind his desk. Her textbook, notes and worksheets covered every free surface of the said desk and a cup of tea was steaming right next to each of them.

"Where do we start?" he asked quietly.

She showed him the worksheets she attempted to finish on her own. His eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw her answers. One look at his reaction was all it took for her to know that she was screwed.

"Was it that bad?" She looked up to see the deep frown on his face.

Naru shifted towards her and took the pen from her hand. He started explaining the concepts to her in a very low voice that she had never heard before. She was struggling to hear him so she leaned closer to him, but he didn't seem to notice. He was about to move on to the exercises in the book, but she stopped him.

"Wait, Naru. What's up with the letters with a hat on top of them?"

Her tutor sighed once more and then proceeded to explain to her how vectors worked.

"…so you're saying I can use the right hand rule to predict the direction of the resulting vector?" Mai summarized after listening to his lengthy discussion.

The way he was able to make the difficult concepts so easy to understand was amazing. She was really grateful for the patience he was showing her this time. He hadn't dropped a single insult on her intelligence today and she thanked the heavens for it.

"Yes. I am glad you finally understood. I dumbed down my explanation so even an idiot like you can understand it." A smirk appeared on his face as she grimaced at his statement.

Mai lamented the fact that she spoke too soon and jinxed everything instead.

"OK, so let me try this right hand rule. First vector points forward, then you cross it with the second one pointing to the left," she said to herself as she did the associated motions, "and you get the resulting vector in which direction again?" Her brows furrowed as she turned her right hand around repeatedly in confusion.

The young man shook his head and sighed in exasperation. He quickly grabbed her hand, which she was turning at an alarming speed, to stop it from doing its dizzying motion. His long, pale fingers gently guided hers so they were pointing towards the correct direction.

"N-n-naru?! What are you doing?" The sudden physical contact made her stammer. It didn't help that it was her boss who initiated it.

"Teaching you the right hand rule, since you obviously cannot figure it out," he replied in a bored tone.

She was startled by how near he sounded when he spoke and belatedly realized that he had moved closer to her during the course of their tutorial session. Her heart was beating faster now, and she was certain that her face was flushed from everything that was happening.

"Ne, Naru?" She turned around to look at him, only to be greeted by his pale face, which was so near hers that her lips almost grazed his cheek. He looked down at her without moving away. She forgot what she was supposed to ask and blatantly stared at his face instead.

"You're even more handsome up close," she murmured to herself as she raised her left hand with every intention of caressing his face. She snapped out of her daze when she felt his fingers wrap around her wrist gently to hold it in midair. He met her gaze and let out a miniscule smile.

"Are you flirting with me, Taniyama-san?" he drawled in a tone lower than his usual one.

She froze for a while at the sudden formality, but eventually beamed at him.

"Do you want me to, Dr. Davis?" Mai countered suggestively. She was not about to back down from this showdown.

They looked into each other's eyes for a while until Naru decided to break the growing tension between them.

"What I want right now is you focusing on your physics review so you will not fail your exam," he stated calmly.

She looked away in embarrassment. She didn't know what possessed her to say and do those things. Maybe it was her pride, she decided. The high school girl panicked internally as she fought the intense blush that was threatening to take over her already red face.

"C-can I please have my hand back?" she stammered once again. Her boss released his grip on her left wrist as he slightly shifted away from her.

Her heartbeat was going crazy now, but she forced herself to calm down so they could resume studying. At this point, her entire body had become too warm from embarrassment that she barely felt the chill from the air conditioner. She felt his other hand let go of her right one as he cleared his throat.

"Now, where were we?" His stoic mask had returned and his voice was back to normal.

They continued reviewing her worksheets without any other disturbances except for Naru's demands for tea. He kept on helping her with the right hand rule because he insisted it was very important in solving physics problems. She had gotten more comfortable with his hand guiding hers since he had done it a few more times that afternoon.

The sun had already set when the two teens finally noticed that they had been studying for too long. Naru told Mai to go home after giving her some more tips on problem solving. She prepared a cup of tea for her boss-turned-tutor as thanks for his time and effort before she left for the day.

She let out a happy squeal as soon as she stepped out into the cold autumn night. Mai had promised to herself that she would cherish every act of kindness from Naru, no matter how small it was, but today was just too extreme for a young maiden's heart such as hers. She could not help but enjoy herself too much earlier, since Naru rarely went along with her antics. Despite his nasty personality, he was unexpectedly good at teaching and was very patient with her and she was utterly ecstatic over having the chance to see this different side of him.

As Mai made her way to her apartment, she recalled one of the concepts they discussed in class. Newton said attraction was inversely proportional to the square of the distance between two bodies. It finally made sense to her this time.

Now, if she could only remember whether the law said anything about the attraction being mutual…

* * *

"Thank you so much, Naru!" Mai called back cheerfully while standing at the doorway of his office. "You're a lifesaver."

Noll gave her a small wave as he continued reading the report in his hand. "Make sure you pass your test." He leveled his gaze with hers and narrowed his eyes threateningly. "Do not make me regret teaching you today."

"Yes, sir!" she said in mock seriousness while giving him a salute. The girl promptly turned around to leave him alone in his office, but he stopped her.

"One more thing," he stated coolly. "I believe I would make a better tutor than Yasuhara-san, especially in English, so if you —"

"I'll ask you if I need help, then~!" she happily finished his sentence for him. "Thanks again, Naru!"

He allowed a small grin to grace his face as he heard the door close quietly.

Noll leaned back in his chair for the second time that day. He was feeling quite lightheaded from repeatedly using psychometry on Mai during their impromptu tutorial session.

She was not lying when she said she was failing physics class. Images of checked exams had Ds on them and he was sure he saw at least one test paper marked with an F. Anxiety flooded him when he synced with her and he went through her consultation with her homeroom adviser about going to college and the entrance tests. He finally figured out one of the things that were bothering Mai. She was determined to go to college but was very worried about the expenses it will entail and her qualifications to get into university. Before their review that afternoon ended, he also tried looking into her future and saw that she would do very well in her upcoming physics exam. His smile widened fractionally in satisfaction.

He then remembered how Mai had openly flirted with him and his smile grew to the point that his face – unused to smiling widely and for long periods of time – started to hurt. Noll really liked how she looked that time with her flushed face, wide, hazy eyes and slightly parted lips. Back then, he had wondered if she would taste like cherries again, just as she did the last time his lips were on hers. He had almost leaned down towards her to find out, but he caught himself just in time. He only hoped that his face did not betray his intentions earlier.

* * *

_I like your style, Oliver Davis. Very smooth._ Gene said to himself as he watched his brother flirt away the entire afternoon with Mai with the pretense of teaching her about vectors and the right hand rule. His vantage point from within Noll's mirror on the desk was ideal for spying on his stubborn younger twin. He watched as Noll relaxed on his chair with a satisfied expression.

An idea occurred to Gene. Maybe he should visit Mai in her sleep tonight. He let out a grin of his own as he came up with a list of things he would like to discuss with Mai.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Thank you for your encouraging words~! I am so happy to receive so many reviews for the previous chapter. I had fun writing the light flirting between Naru and Mai (although it took me a longer time than usual because I wanted to keep them both in character) so I hope you enjoyed it.

* * *

**EDIT:** I fixed some minor grammatical errors pointed out by my editor (my sister). The next chapter was also edited, but no changes were done on the story details.


	7. Le Chatelier's Principle

**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 _**Kars**_, my 100th follower, and to _**AlphA-nl**_, the 50th user to favorite this story.*_**_  
_**

**Thank you very much for supporting Contact~!**

* * *

**CHAPTER 6****  
**_Le Chatelier's Principle  
_Published: 09.20.2014, Edited: 09.25.2015

* * *

Her heart was pounding hard against her chest. Her breathing was ragged and her vision was hazy. An old revolver in her hands was currently pointed at Naru. Her thumb pulled the hammer back, preparing the gun for a shot. She exhaled loudly to release the tension within her and blinked to clear her vision as she steadied her arms and aimed for his heart. Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger as a vicious smirk formed on her lips.

"Good bye, Naru," she said quietly in a sickeningly sweet voice that was dripping with venom.

The scent of burning gunpowder accompanied by the deafening sound of a shot fired overwhelmed her senses, and before she knew it, her boss had fallen on the ground, bleeding profusely from the bullet wound she herself had inflicted. When her gaze locked with his, there was no anger in his eyes, only undisguised pain and genuine worry.

Naru continued staring at her despite the pain in his chest and she simply watched as he struggled with the excruciating pain. She waited patiently, unmoving and the revolver still in her hands, until finally, he stilled before her, not breathing, eyes closed, arms limp at his sides – he was dead.

A shrill, otherworldly laugh escaped her lips upon realizing that Oliver Davis was no more.

Suddenly, the entire landscape was sucked into a vortex, hurtling Mai into a spiral of colors and lines. Everything continued to spin at a dizzying rate until she was violently thrown out of the vortex as another scene was formed.

She was in the middle of a vast ballroom. Several chandeliers with sparkling crystals hung magnificently over her head. The tiled floor had colorful complex patterns that linked elegantly with each other. She was garbed in an exquisite royal blue dress that barely reached her knees. Looking around her, she realized that she was the only one in the room. Something heavy was weighing down her right hand. When she lifted it to eye-level, she saw the same battered revolver from the previous vision.

Her thumb once again pulled the hammer back, this time against her will. She felt her hand moving on its own to position the barrel of the gun against her temple. She fought the involuntary motions with all her might, but her finger on the trigger started moving. Mai heard a click, then a bullet was launched with a bang, heading straight towards her head. She tried to scream, but the blinding pain reached her before her mouth could even make a sound. It all happened in an instant, yet each action played out in slow motion and every sensation was heightened, prolonging and intensifying the pain that she was experiencing.

She attempted to scream once more. Her body began to jerk violently in all directions due to the pain and the seizures did not stop until a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her protectively. The entire scene began to evaporate into thin air, along with the unbearable throbbing in her head. Her surroundings was now enveloped in darkness, but bright orbs of light started to drift towards her and her savior. When she looked up, she saw the younger version of Naru with a troubled expression on his face. A loud gasp escaped her lips as she realized that she had been dreaming and she was currently in the astral realm with Gene.

"Mai, are you alright?" the older twin asked with sheer concern in his voice.

She shook her head sideways in response and he tightened his hold around her. Mai buried her face in his chest as she began sobbing uncontrollably in his arms.

"Do you know what's happening?" he inquired quietly, and was answered with another shake of her head to signify that she had no idea what was going on. He rubbed her back soothingly, making her body relax a little.

He lowered his head to whisper to her gently, "You have to wake up soon and tell Noll everything you saw in your dream. He can and will help you. Do you understand, Mai?"

She nodded slightly in confirmation. After a moment, Gene's form started to fade as her eyes slowly closed on their own.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back in her body that was lying on her futon in her apartment. She then scrambled to find her phone. In her haste, she misdialed Naru's number several times until she finally got it right and the call connected.

"Naru? Naru!" she sobbed into the receiver when the ringing tone halted, then continued quickly, "I need you." Her voice had a hysterical edge to it, but she did not care at the moment. She wanted him beside her right now and it was all that mattered to her. The hand holding the phone was shaking uncontrollably, but she kept her grip as firm as she could.

"Mai, where are you?" Naru asked urgently in a calm and steady tone.

"My apartment," she replied with difficulty in between sobs.

"Stay where you are," he commanded gently and after a short pause, added reassuringly, "I will be there as soon as I can."

Mai nodded vigorously at the receiver, only to realize that he could not see her. She spoke up weakly instead. "OK."

"Can I trust you to compose yourself until then? I can make it there in thirty – no, fifteen minutes." He said this so comfortingly that she felt herself calm down a bit. From the other end of the line, she heard him huffing slightly. He was probably running out of his apartment building as they spoke.

"Yes," she answered weakly, resisting the urge to continue sobbing.

"Alright," he responded and with that, the call was terminated, leaving her in the midst of the deafening silence of her room.

* * *

This was not how Eugene imagined his meeting with Mai would turn out.

He was horrified by the sight of the girl convulsing in pain in the astral realm and he just hoped his brother would do a decent job of comforting her.

Gene wanted to be the one beside her, but he knew that the only way to make her pain stop was to let her go so she could wake up in her own body. The conversation he was planning to have with her would have to be postponed for another time.

Right now, he could only watch from inside the wall mirror as Noll wrapped his arms around the stuttering, shivering Mai.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I am really sorry for the late update. The past few weeks had been crazy since I moved to the other side of the world for graduate school. To top it all off, my luggage (with practically all my stuff in it) was lost in transit after my first connecting flight (I had two) and was only returned to me after 11 days. It was really stressful, but I'm quite fine now. I hope you liked this new chapter and forgive me for the slight cliffhanger. I might not be able to update as regularly as I have done so in the past, but I will try my best to update when I can (if my classes will allow me, that is). I'm taking up Quantum Mechanics this term and I don't think I will be sleeping much for the next 4 months! =))

**PS. Let's play a game: **If you have (or maybe not) noticed, most of the chapter titles are related to the events in the story. Can anyone guess the relevance of this chapter's title? I will dedicate the next chapter to the person who can guess correctly! :3

* * *

**EDIT:** I fixed some minor grammatical errors pointed out by my editor (my sister). All preceding chapters were also edited, but no changes were done on the story details. Editing ends on this chapter / 09.25.2015


	8. Third Law of Motion

**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.


	9. Second Law of Thermodynamics

**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 all those who reviewed, followed, and favorited_ this story_~!*  
_CONTACT has already passed the 100 reviews and favorites, as well as the 200 followers mark.

Thank you very much for your overwhelming support!

* * *

**CHAPTER 8****  
**_Second Law of Thermodynamics  
_03.15.2016

Mai forced her eyes to open.

She had tried so hard to ignore the buzzing sound, but she was not able to block it out – not when it had already woken her up. She sat up and squinted at the sudden brightness that assaulted her eyes. The young woman slowly figured out that the noise was from a vibrating phone.

Someone was calling.

She groped for her mobile next to her futon and realized that it was not the offending device. Her unfocused eyes scanned the room until her gaze landed on her boss' coat that was thrown haphazardly on the floor next to his futon.

She sleepily reached over him and grabbed the annoying piece of technology from the inside pocket. She tried very hard not to wake up her boss whose pallid complexion practically screamed "more sleep" to anyone who saw it.

She slid a finger across the cool glass of the phone to answer the call without even bothering to check who the caller was.

"Hello?" she croaked in her just-woke-up voice.

"_Oh dear, have I gotten the wrong number?_" the feminine voice on the other end of the line stated worriedly.

Mai was brought to attention by the fact that the caller spoke in English. She collected herself as she tried to recall how to speak in the language.

Finally, she replied in heavily accented English, "_Oliver is sleeping right now…_"

She heard some static for a minute and thought that the other person had hung up, but was surprised when she got a reply in Japanese: "Oh, it is fine. Let the boy sleep. He is such a workaholic like his father. By the way, this is his mother, Luella."

Mai silently gasped at the revelation.

"May I know who is on the line?" Luella inquired good-naturedly, her warmth seeping into her voice.

"This is Mai Taniyama, one of your son's employees," the young woman dutifully answered.

She was about to explain the situation to the older woman over the phone when it was suddenly pried off from her hand.

The part-timer turned her head around and saw Naru with a terrible bed head and narrowed eyes that did not quite match his current look. Her boss placed his phone against his ear and began speaking in English.

* * *

"_Hello, Luella_," Noll greeted flatly. "_How may I help you?_"

Luella heard something rustling – bedsheets, she guessed – in the background as her son took over the phone conversation.

"_Oh Noll! Please don't be so formal so early in the morning_," she pleaded, then added enthusiastically, "_I was just about to have a pleasant chat with Mai. She sounds like a darling!_"

"_You do not have to do that,_" her son replied flatly.

"_Don't be so cold, my dear boy,_" she chirped as she imagined her son cringing at the term of endearment he rather disliked. "_I am simply curious about _her_. She _did_ answer _your_ phone. Did you spend the night with her_?" she probed teasingly.

"_That's it, Mother. I am hanging up if you have nothing else to say._" He replied icily.

Their connection was abruptly severed, as signaled by the dull beeping from her mobile.

_Bingo!_ Luella snapped her finger in triumph. She had guessed it right and Oliver was evading the issue. He had spent the night with the girl for some reason. Her mind was quickly filled with a spectrum of scenarios ranging from the most innocent to very naughty.

Luella knew right then and there that she had struck a nerve. She could not suppress the silly grin which was forming on her face.

She had heard a lot about his son's assistant from Madoka and – after a few rounds of threatening and guilt-tripping – from Lin, her son's mentor and guardian, respectively.

It seemed like her son had unknowingly become attracted to Mai who was his complete opposite in almost every way possible. The most amusing – and, quite frankly, slightly tragic – thing about this was that Noll, for all the brilliant boy that he was, could not figure out how to deal with his feelings. She wanted to confront him right now, but Luella knew that doing so would simply ruin her (most likely) only chance to have a daughter-in-law.

She sighed dreamily. She still wondered why Oliver had stayed with Mai last night.

Maybe her son was not such a hopeless case after all.

* * *

Oliver was nothing but bewildered by the turn of events.

_Why was Mai talking with his mother on the phone?_

_Why did Luella ask him if he spent the night with his assistant? How did she know, anyway?_

_Why was he sleeping on a futon in Mai's apartment in the first place?_

_What was going on?_

He rummaged his memory for fragments of what happened last night, but he could not remember anything after he had done that despicable thing to the girl who was currently staring at him with undisguised curiosity.

After another minute of silence, Mai let out an exasperated sigh as she began explaining.

"You fainted last night, right after I told you about my vision. I could not carry you back to your apartment so I let you sleep on a spare futon instead."

She waved her hand to indicate the said futon on which he was sitting.

"Just so you know, I did not take advantage of you," she continued defensively, "I only removed your coat and shoes, then opened the first two buttons of your shirt to make you feel comfortable. You looked like you were having a hard time breathing last night."

"Why did you not call Lin, then?" he inquired nonchalantly. "Or did you want me all to yourself while I was unconscious and vulnerable?" Noll could not pass up the chance to tease the girl.

A fierce blush took over her face as she stuttered, "I-I f-figured you were simply tired from running all the way from your apartment to here. No need to bother Lin-san over something so trivial."

His eyebrows rose slightly at her statement. If she knew that he had completely exhausted himself from excessively using psychometry on her last night…

He never finished his musing because his phone began vibrating for the second time that morning. He looked up to the heavens and silently begged for patience because it seemed that he would need a lot of it today.

He picked up the device and checked the screen. It was Lin.

Speak of the devil.

"Lin," Oliver said calmly over the phone.

"Noll, where are you?" his guardian asked harshly. "I checked your room and you weren't there. You didn't even sleep on your bed."

At that moment, Mai – with her impeccable timing, as usual – chose to speak up from beside him.

"Naru, is that Lin-san?" she inquired innocently.

"Noll, are you with Taniyama-san? Is everything alright?" Lin demanded over the phone.

"Everything is perfectly fine. And yes, I am currently with Mai. She ran into trouble last night and I have been with her since then," the younger man responded smoothly.

"Noll…" Lin uttered in a warning tone, "what are you up to?"

"It's none of your business," the young boss dismissed his other assistant coolly, and with that, he hung up.

Noll glanced up from the screen and saw Mai's bewildered face.

"Did you just…?" she started, but he interrupted her with his own query.

"Do you really want the others to know about your visions?" He gazed at her with complete seriousness.

She immediately shut her mouth at this.

He smirked, then added, "And besides, you do not want people to get the wrong idea. In case you have forgotten, I spent the entire night in your apartment."

She once again found herself blushing furiously at the implication of his statement.

"I swear, nothing happened, Naru!" she cried out nervously while shaking her hands.

"I will never know now, will I? I was unconscious the whole time, Mai," he said with the best poker face he could come up with at the moment, but he was unable to hide the mischief in his eyes.

Her expression quickly turned belligerent as she screamed, "How dare you! I-It was you who k-ki-kissed me last night and I don't even know what to make of it!"

"You would not stop crying. I ran out of ideas. That was how Eugene comforted me when we were younger," Noll explained quietly as he held her gaze with perfect calmness.

"I-I'm so sorry, I didn't know," Mai looked away from him as she mumbled her apology. "I'm sorry for overreacting. You were just trying to calm me down."

"Why are you apologizing?" he asked expressionlessly.

"Because it's embarrassing!" Mai insisted as she buried her already red face in her hands.

"You are ashamed of being kissed by the world-renowned Oliver Davis? Shouldn't you be thanking me instead?" he inquired with a smirk, then continued condescendingly, "After all, it is not every day that you get this kind of special treatment from a famous person like me."

Her blush deepened upon hearing this, but she raised her head and narrowed her eyes at him.

"You didn't have to kiss me, though," she pointed out unabashedly, "…idiot scientist."

Noll swiftly moved towards Mai's futon and leaned in closer to her until his lips were almost brushing her left ear.

"I beg your pardon?" he whispered huskily. "Did you just call me an idiot?"

Mai pushed him away forcefully, then retorted, "Yes, I did, and right now you're not only being an idiot, but a pervert, too!"

"You wound me, Mai," Noll began as he sat next to her on the futon. "It was not even a real kiss. It was only on your forehead. You are making a big deal out of this. Here is what happened last night: you were borderline hysterical and I did not know how to deal with it. I remembered my childhood when I used to get the visions and how Gene calmed me down. I did exactly what my brother used to do. You stopped crying. Mission accomplished. The end justifies the means. End of story."

"That's it?" she asked softly.

"That is all," he confirmed offhandedly.

"OK then~!" Mai turned to beam beatifically at him, as if she suddenly reached divine enlightenment.

Noll took his time to stare at her as he shook his head in half bewilderment and half amusement at her fickleness.

Without warning, she pecked him on the cheek and she was off, leaving a dazed Noll behind her.

After another moment, she called out from the doorway of her room, "Now we're even, Dr. Davis!"

It took him about fifteen minutes to recover from Mai's surprise attack.

The next time Noll saw her, she was dancing by the kitchen counter as he stepped out of the washroom after freshening up for another day ahead.

He strode towards her at the same time she dramatically turned around to end her dance routine.

"Breakfast is ready, Naru~!" she greeted him bashfully without meeting his eyes, with a plate of toast in one hand, and a box of milk in the other. The girl started walking towards him, then next thing he knew, the plate was in the air, the toasts were flung in every direction, and his left foot was crushed by something cold and heavy: the milk carton.

The worst (or maybe, the best) part of it all was the girl trapped in his arms. He reflexively grabbed her when she had tripped on her own feet. Her eyes were wide, her cheeks were flushed, and her mouth was hanging open from sheer shock. He himself could not contain the incredulity that made its way onto his usually stoic façade.

Noll inhaled deeply and her scent overwhelmed his senses. It was a mixture of cherries, strawberries, and something else that was too temptingly sweet, but definitely very Mai. It made him momentarily dizzy – as if he were intoxicated.

He eventually realized that she was too close for comfort, making him hyperaware of how soft and warm she felt against him.

The young boss shuddered at the thoughts he just had. If someone could read his mind, that person would surely think he was a romantic fool who was hopelessly in love with the girl – no, woman – in his embrace.

But he was not.

Or at least, he should not be, since Mai was still in love with his absolutely-dead-but-somehow-alive-in-her-dreams twin brother.

He would never allow himself to become a stand-in for the more amicable twin.

Noll was pulled back to reality by an exaggerated cough that sounded uncomfortably familiar.

Unfortunately, it did not come from the girl he was holding on to.

* * *

Osamu Yasuhara only agreed to tag along with Ayako's idea of a surprise brunch at Mai's apartment because the self-styled miko promised gourmet food from one of the fanciest catering companies in Shibuya. He looked forward to a Saturday filled with good food and jovial company. He had prepared some interesting (err, dangerous and probably scandalous) conversation topics, but the best one had just presented itself in front of them once the front door was unlocked.

It was as if the joke was on them.

He promptly dropped the bag of food once he saw their boss and the young woman entangled in a compromising position.

Ayako's hands covered her mouth which ungracefully hung wide open from unadulterated surprise.

Bou-san's jaw dropped along with the box of pastries for their dessert.

Masako fainted from the sight and John gallantly caught her from behind.

The priest averted his eyes from the couple as he colored slightly from the embarrassment of walking in on such a scene.

Yasuhara cleared his throat comically and began speaking in a suave voice after sniffing the air like a hungry dog, "Wow~! There's just too much sexual tension in the air, I could have it for brunch! Forget about Matsuzaki-san's high-grade fillet mignon, this one smells too good to ignore~!" He looked at the rest of SPR, then added while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, "Come on, guys! Can't you smell the sweet, sweet scent of hidden desire?"

The college student flashed Naru and Mai a huge grin that would have put the Cheshire cat to shame. He then snapped his fingers as if he remembered something.

"Oh, by the way, surprise, Taniyama-san!" Yasuhara declared enthusiastically, then he turned to Naru with faux surprise, "Why hello there, Big Boss! What brings you so early in Taniyama-san's apartment?"

Mai gasped at his statement, while Naru casually pulled away from the girl as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

As their boss did so, the piece of toast that was precariously balanced on top of his head fell down in front of his face.

The rest of the SPR team burst out into hysterical laughter as they watched the esteemed Oliver Davis let out an exasperated sigh.

Today was not his day.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I am really, totally, absolutely grateful for all the support you have given me and this fic. I can't believe so many people actually like it. CONTACT was just supposed to be my headcanon dump, but it eventually evolved into something better. It's all thanks to your encouragements. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I had fun writing it. Please let me know what you think by leaving a review.


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