A week later, a client finally came in with a promising case. Promising, in that at least it didn't sound totally bogus, but it was still the type of case that Naru normally wouldn't take interest in. Nonetheless, he accepted the job, to Lin and Yasuhara's visible surprise.

The next issue was whether this case actually had any legit paranormal activity, and if not, would Gene even appear? Naru had Mai contact Masako right away, and while they were setting up the base, she spied him checking a hand mirror periodically.

They had managed to get through the past week without another nightmare marathon, but Mai could tell he was impatient to get his dreams back to himself. She tried not to take it personally.

Masako arrived on the evening of the first day. So far, they had collected very little data, and their investigation showed that the reported phenomena could be easily explained.

Mai watched anxiously as Masako walked around the house. At last, she came to a stop.

"There is a spirit here," she said.

They breathed a sigh of relief.

"It is the spirit of an old man," Masako went on to explain. "I see this kind often. I believe he must have passed away in his sleep and simply hasn't realized he has died. It would be very easy to purify him." She turned to Naru. "Shall I?"

"No," said Naru, a bit too quickly.

Masako blinked.

"I'd like to gather more data first," he lied. "If you could please come back tomorrow."

"If you insist," she smiled.

Mai facepalmed and sent the medium a mental apology. This wasn't what it looked like!

That night, Naru and Mai left Lin to watch the base and went to bed at the same time. This earned them a suspicious look, but they could deal with that later.

They sat in the train compartment and waited. And waited.

Finally, they heard someone walking down the corridor. Gene appeared outside the door, and his face lit up when he saw them inside.

He opened the door and came in. "It worked!" he said.

Naru stood up. "Like hell it did."

Mai jumped back. Yikes! She could actually see the murderous aura gathering around him. Naru was furious.

As his brother approached, Gene's smile widened nervously. "N-Noll?"

Naru grabbed his twin by the shirt collar, and Mai decided now would be a good time to intervene.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" She cut in between them, holding Naru back as best she could. "You can't kill your dead brother!"

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Naru seethed.

"I'm sorry?" Gene looked confused. "I didn't know if it would work! It was just an idea I had...and then I fell asleep before I could fully see it through...why, did something go wrong?"

"Oh, Gene…" Mai groaned.

"What?" he looked at her, now worried.

"It worked," Naru said through grit teeth. "And it's been stuck that way for over a week."

"Oh." Gene looked between them. "Ohhh."

They watched as the news continued to sink in.

Then finally, Gene put on a smile. "Did you guys have fun though?"

Naru smacked him upside the head.

"NARU!"

"I'm sorry!" Gene put up his hands defensively. "I'm sorry, both of you! I just...ow, why does that hurt, I'm not even alive…"

"Give me one good reason not to do it again," Naru said.

Gene hung his head. "I'm sorry…I only wanted to see if I could meet you face-to-face, instead of just through a mirror. So I thought, maybe this way…"

There was an awkward silence.

Naru lowered his hand and let out a sigh. "If you ever pull something like this again, I swear, I will exorcise you."

"Naru!"

"I guess that's fair," Gene smiled wryly. "It is good seeing you again, though. Despite the violence."

"And? Can you undo this?" Naru crossed his arms, with an unspoken 'you'd better.'

"I'll try my best." Gene turned to Mai. "I'm really sorry, Mai. I didn't mean to subject you to my brother's subconscious for that long."

"Oh, it's okay," she said, blushing a little. "It was, um...interesting."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naru huff and look away. A little bit of regret settled in her heart.

Mai and Naru saw Gene out at the doorway to their compartment.

"Just sit tight, you two. I'll go get this sorted out." Gene wandered off down the corridor.

As they watched him go, Mai gripped the door frame.

"Hey, Naru?" she asked. "Before we wake up...can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"Do you ever dream about me?"

Naru hesitated.

She already knew the answer. And judging by the look on his face, he knew that she knew.

"Sometimes," he admitted.

Mai knew that wasn't necessarily a good thing, as she'd seen before. But judging by how unphased he'd looked seeing her in his dream the first time, she hoped those instances didn't all become nightmares.

Author's Note:

Hello, thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed!

I wrote this story for the 2020 Ghost Hunt Fanworks Weekend, to this prompt by seoulsborne123: "Naru and Mai shares a dream (or multiple dreams), but neither of them know they're actually sharing it."

I'd seen this premise done before in fics, but they usually went a more romantic (or sexy) route. So I decided to try something different and actually try to explore what Naru's dreamscape might be like. And when you take into account all of the horrible visions he's had, the trauma, survivor's guilt, and feelings he usually buries...the conclusion is pretty disturbing.

Of course, he can't be having nightmares all the time, or his PK would still be out of control. So let's say he's trained himself to have uneventful dreams most nights, and it takes a trigger, or a curious intruder, to open doors on the darker stuff. But that means much of the good stuff also stays locked away.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my attempt at psychoanalyzing Naru, and bringing him and Mai a bit closer together. Also, this isn't planned, but I kinda consider all of my works written for Ghost Hunt fan exchanges and events to be in the same timeline. So you can read them as a series if you wish! What will happen next? I don't even know. XD