Telepathic Love:

Chapter 2:

Much to Naru's satisfaction he was able to see Mai the very next day. He had checked out the student canteen on an off chance that she would be there and fortunately for his headache she was.

It's Kazuya again. I've run into him quite a lot in the past two days.

He could detect that she was happy to see him and he felt appreciated. The only problem was that she was sitting next to male student that was blond haired and blue eyed. Naru concentrated on him to read his mind. His thoughts were in English.

He's giving me the evils. Did I do something? Does he like Taniyama-san?

"Sorry if I am glaring," Naru said and sat down in the unoccupied chair at the table. "I just haven't met you before."

"I'm John Brown," the blond said. "I'm in a society with Taniyama-san. I am doing the theological research course here."

John had a very strange accent that sounded like a mixture of standard western accent and Kansai-ben. Naru took a look at his hair and made a guess where he was from. It helped that he had heard John speak English with a detectable accent in his head.

"Are you Australian?" He enquired. "I'm Kazuya Shibuya by the way."

How did he guess?

"I am from Australia," John confirmed with a smile. "I learnt Japanese from someone in the Kansai region though so my speech is strange to some people."

"John is actually preparing to be a Catholic priest," Mai told him. "I was just asking him if he knew anything about exorcisms."

Naru understood the link there and it was interesting to find someone that wanted to be a priest. It was also a relief that John didn't have any interest in beyond friendship with Mai. He wanted to spend more time with Mai and a boyfriend would be an obstacle.

John took a glance at the clock on the wall and hastily stood up when he saw what the time was.

"I've got to go. It was nice meeting you Shibuya-san," he said and rushed off.

This left Naru alone with Mai. He guessed that she didn't have an impending lecture as she was relaxed and she was eying up the menu.

John didn't get to tell me about how he would do an exorcism…

He felt her disappointment and he decided to make it up to her. He always did like demonstrating that he had more knowledge than other people.

"Catholic priests will use things like holy water, crucifixes and passages from the Bible," he explained. "Shouldn't you have known that?"

"We haven't got into the Catholic part yet in lectures," Mai answered as she noted down what he said in her notebook.

Kazuya is very knowledgeable about things that he isn't studying. It's an attractive trait.

Naru swallowed a smirk. It was always nice to hear compliments that weren't about his looks. Not that he completely minded ones about his looks. They just felt too shallow sometimes.

"I see. Do you have any more lectures today?" He asked.

"I have one in an hour, then nothing else for the rest of the day," she answered. "What about you?"

"I do as well," Naru lied.

He was smart enough to survive skipping a few lectures. It was missing lab practicals that would get him in trouble.

"Would you like to go somewhere after?" Mai asked what Naru had been hoping she would ask.

"I would. I don't have much to do at the moment," Naru said which was only partly true. He had upcoming deadlines, but they weren't impending.

I wasn't expecting him to agree so quickly. He must have enjoyed yesterday more than I thought.

"I had fun yesterday," Naru commented casually. "Do you know any other student places to go?"

Mai was silent and lots of suggestions flicked through her mind. Most of them were too fast for Naru to catch properly.

"How much do you like eating? I have to confess that I haven't eaten lunch yet," she explained. "There's somewhere new that I keep hearing about from everyone on my course."

I heard that the desserts are to die for. Kazuya doesn't look like the type of person to enjoy sweet things…

Naru was struck again by how much she worried about other people than herself. He hadn't really heard anything selfish from her or anything negative that would change his perception of her. It was a refreshing change.

"I am happy to go anywhere you want to go. I don't mind sweet things either."

The place that she led him to turned out to be a new American diner style restaurant that had more of an emphasis on the desserts than anything else. He could tell that Mai was more transfixed by the dessert counter than by the burger menu without even hearing her thoughts.

Ooh there's lemon meringue pie. No, the death by chocolate looks better, no I should have the cheese cake. Wait, there's a chocolate sundae.

Did those thoughts count as being selfish? Naru didn't consider them to be. It was easy to get caught up in her excitement for sweet things and he was finding her inner struggle to choose amusing until she asked him for help.

"Shibuya-san, what should I have?" She questioned. "I can't choose…"

He elected to take the easy way out. "Just close your eyes and point."

Mai followed his instructions and ended up with a slice of lemon meringue pie with the meringue layer being double the thickness of the filling and pastry while Naru ordered fish and chips.

"Are you going to be able to finish it?" he asked doubtfully. For Japan it was a very large portion.

"Of course," she chirped.

Five minutes later he caught hold of a dissenting thought.

I feel sick.

He looked at her in concern and noticed that her pace had seriously slowed down. Her face was a normal colour so he judged that it was just a combination of an oversized and oversweet portion.

"You can stop if you feel sick," he suggested, having absolutely no idea what else he could say.

The brunette groaned and placed her fork down on the plate.

"At least it was cheap," she sighed.

I don't think I can eat anything for dinner. I was planning on finishing off the leftovers before they went off. I guess I can freeze it.

"You should feel better after an indigestion tablet," Naru told her. "Try not to skip dinner either, you will regret it later on."

Hmm.

Naru blinked. What did that thought mean? Did she feel too sick to verbalise her thoughts properly? He kept a close ear on her thoughts in case there was something wrong.

After they split the bill, Mai rushed to the toilet and when she came back her thoughts were normal for her. That entailed worrying about her paper and about other people.

That was until they reached her apartment block. Her thoughts took a turn for the strange then.

I wonder if Kazuya will kiss me?

Naru flinched. Where had that come from?

Shall I invite him in? Keiko and Michiru won't be in. There won't be any interruptions then.

That made Naru take a hasty step back from her and his face heated up. He felt uncomfortably hot.

"I had fun today, Taniyama-san. I'll see you another time," he said quickly.

She looked at him with a strange look in her eyes.

Shibuya-san, can you hear me?

He was in trouble now. He took another step back.

If you don't answer me, I'll start thinking of things that will make you squirm... I wonder what it's like to kiss you…

Naru held up his hand. She had got him there.

"Okay, I can read your mind," he admitted reluctantly.

Mai smirked at him. "I thought so. Shall we discuss it in private?"

There were a few people in the street giving them curious looks so he acquiesced. As Naru was already aware, Mai's apartment was not the tidiest. There were dirty dishes scattered all over the kitchen. The brunette took one look at them and stacked them all up in the sink.

"When did you work it out?" he asked.

He needed to know what had given him away. Mai was the only person in Japan that he had interacted with properly. If everyone was going to be able to work it out, he didn't want to make friends.

"At the restaurant. I went to the toilets so I could be away from you and had time to sort it out in my mind," she explained.

That explained her strange and out of place thoughts.

"What gave me away?"

Mai smiled at him. "I thought it was obvious. You kept responding to things I hadn't said. I realised they were things I were thinking."

All of his conversations with her flashed through his mind and he knew that she was right. When he had first met her, he had been careful. The second time he had thrown caution out the window and he'd been even worse the third and fourth time.

"I started to get a suspicion when you lent me your gloves. I wasn't visibly cold, I had just thought about it."

He should have thought more about that.

"When did I start really slipping up?"

"I really started to notice when we were talking in the canteen. You kept saying things I had only thought about like about eating sweet things. You also responded strangely to John- you apologised for doing something he hadn't mentioned aloud."

Naru grimaced. This was why he hadn't wanted to make any friends or even talk to people. He felt Mai looking him sympathetically.

"Shibuya-san, I only noticed because I'm observant and I study the paranormal. An average person wouldn't notice anything strange about you," she reassured him. "Can you hear everyone's thoughts?"

"I can, but when I'm with you I can only hear yours."

He still didn't know why she was the exception to the rule. Maybe her mind acted like Gene's had. However that would mean that he would be able to exchange thoughts with her. There was no harm in testing it.

He stared into her brown eyes and broadcasted something to her.

Mai.

The reaction was immediate. Mai flinched and her eyes widened.

"What?"

It had worked. He had even heard his thought in her mind. She was similar to Gene. The question was if Mai would want to be around him now that she knew he could read her mind.

"If you like I can teach you how to block me from hearing your thoughts," he offered after a moment of awkward silence. "Our minds are too compatible. I can't usually broadcast my thoughts."

Mai screwed up her face in thought. "I don't think I really mind you reading my thoughts. I don't have anything to hide."

Her response hadn't been what he had been expecting. It showed her open and honest she was.

"Thank you, Mai," he said gratefully. "For not treating me like I'm abnormal and for wanting to stay around me."

It's because I like you.

Naru flushed a deep red. Mai looked at him with an innocent look in her eyes and then she winked at him. This made him feel even more out of his depth.

She was the first person he had met with such unselfish thoughts and he didn't feel uncomfortable around her either. In fact she was his favourite person in Japan.

"I don't mind you either," he answered.

She pouted at him.

That's all?

"I do quite like you," he confessed. "More than everyone else."

Do I get a kiss now?

"You are very confident about it," he teased and leaned across the table to press her lips to his.

It was his first time kissing anyone so he was completely new to the sensation. It felt a lot better than he had been expecting. He had considered kissing something that was unnecessary and annoying. Now he was finding it rather addictive.

I need to breathe.

Reluctantly Naru let her go.

"Are we a couple now?" she asked hopefully.

The two of them were starting to behave like people on those dreadful romance films that his mother favoured. He shuddered at the image in his head.

"That sounds so cliché," he groaned.

"There's nothing cliché about being able to read minds," Mai reminded him cheerfully.

Naru was forced to concede on that point. They weren't the most conventional boyfriend and girlfriend and he was perfectly content with that.

The End

A/N: I am glad that lots of people liked this scenario. Thank you. I felt it was a little out the ordinary compared to my usual fanfics.

Regarding my next Ghost Hunt story I am still plotting it out so I can't say when I will start uploading it.