Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt. If I did, I wouldn't know what to do with it...

Trust

Oliver Davis had been up to his ears in the paranormal since childhood. He could recount far too many times when Eugene would awaken from a spiritually induced nightmare or he would start speaking with someone that wasn't there. There were far too many memories of his fingers brushing against an object, only to see a vision of something he shouldn't have. Even worse were all the memories of what happened when he had lost his temper. Not to mention all the conversations he had with his brother, without bothering to even open his mouth.

When the twins had been adopted by Martin and Luella Davis, this had not ceased. Yes, the twins gained control over their abilities and had less trouble with them, but they had also gained a new interest… Ghost hunting. Suddenly, their strange powers were not so scary and unfamiliar. No longer did Gene fear speaking with spirits. Oliver was pulled into random visions less and less, though it still happened if the aura around the object was too strong. Gene still had his nightmares, still accidentally pulled his brother into a few of them, but they understood, and that helped.

They had gotten to go on cases when they were thirteen – their mother had put up quite the protest, but Gene was quite persuasive when he wanted to be. Oliver should know – he was usually on the receiving end of it, after all.

The two boys had been targeted quite frequently. Gene because of his status as a medium, deemed as "someone who could help" and Oliver because he rarely left his brother's side, so the spirits often decided that they needed him gone before they could get to his brother.

After all of that, one could say that few things scared Oliver Davis. And this was no boast, only simple fact. He had built up quite a tolerance to "scary things" over the years. After all, he had encountered more dead bodies, more volatile spirits, seen and experienced more deaths than the average human being did in their entire lifetime.

But as he sat in his office in Japan, he was scared. There were no spirits about, no dangerous human beings, no threats being made against him or anyone he cared about… but he had come to a realization that had shaken him. It had – once again – been caused because of Mai. It had been a conversation he overheard her having with their client.

"You all really trust him a lot, don't you…?" Yuuka Akiyama had asked confusedly, not understanding how they could trust someone so young with so much, especially in such a dangerous job. Actually, her reaction would probably have been the same even if he had been older; it was just more pronounced because of his youth.

That was one thing he hated – people judging him because of a simple number. If they wanted to judge him based on numbers, perhaps they should look at the ratio of his solved cases to his unsolved cases... That would be much better for them to focus on, in his opinion.

"Of course," Mai smiled. "Naru would never let anything happen to us… he cares too much, even if he does act like a total jerk most of the time. We trust him with our lives."

He had quit listening then. Of course he knew that they put a lot of faith in him – and why shouldn't they? He was extremely good at what he did; there hadn't been a case yet he was unable to solve. But for some reason, this thought gave him no pleasure…. because he couldn't help but wonder – what if their trust was misplaced?

He was human, after all, and humans were prone to error. One day, he could slip up – make a mistake. In their line of work, mistakes could all too easily cost someone's life. It was because of this that he strove to be absolutely, irrefutably correct. He worked himself hard, sleeping little and thriving mainly on Mai's tea, to ensure that he had all the information he needed to make a decision, because they were counting on him. But he had never thought about how much until he had heard her words.

Funny, how in London he had desired nothing more than to have his own team, picking his own cases, running the show and not having to listen to his teacher constantly harp to him about his manners, or lack thereof. But now that he had that, the gravity of it was coming crashing down.

It was a lot to expect of anyone, let alone a seventeen year old. Sure, he was a lot more mature and rational than others his age. Most people forgot he was so young after spending a couple hours with him. That was good; that was his intention. If people forgot, then they would treat him with more respect, give his words more weight. He didn't want to be seen as too young or incapable of doing his job simply because he wasn't an "adult" yet.

But that also made it difficult... because he really was young. He may have acted older, he may have the experience and intellect of someone older... but at the end of the day? A teenager was what he was. A teenager who didn't always know the right path; a teenager who could only hope that the decisions he made would be good ones.

However, he wouldn't complain, and not just because it would damage his pride. He wouldn't complain because there was no point. He had to keep moving forward, to strive to be the best of the best because he had people depending on him to keep them safe… and that is exactly what he would do; even if it killed him. He had never let anyone down before, and he wouldn't start now.

Tauria: So, I was reading SPR: Is This Normal? by 14AmyChan (which I recommend reading!) when a conversation between Ayako and their client sparked this idea!It took a while to get everything right, and I'm not sure I conveyed everything I wanted to say, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!

~ Thanks for reading ^^