History of War

Prologue: Fading into Normality

2.8.10

AN: FYI this MAY or MAY NOT be taken as a sequel to Aversion Theory. It will be written as a standalone story, so you probably won't need to know (Famous last words…) the back story in Aversion Theory, but there is character development you may miss as to why Naru and Mai are closer and potentially considered "together" in this story.

Also, note, this story will venture into some serious themes. The story is happy in some places, and easygoing at first, but later on, there will be sexual situations, alcohol, narcotics (they are at a research facility) and violent scenarios. That's why this will be rated M from the get-go. Please avoid this story if, a.) you don't like it, or b.) Mature themes are not to your liking.

On that note, please enjoy History of War.

The 18th of July had never been a particularly important date to Mai Taniyama with the exception that it was considered a small part of her sacred summer vacation away from dreadful school with its well-meant, if slave-driven intentions. July 18th meant that she had a little under a month and a half before she would be back in school for her final year of education, her exam year. She planned to try to test into several universities (nothing grand as there was no way she could afford it) because that was what was expected of the average Japanese student. It would then carry her into an average white-collar job, cramming her hopes, dreams and livelihood into a 1.2 by 1.2 meter cubicle where she could carry on working for the rest of her life.

Michiru was following the same career path. Yuuri had the same intentions, even though her parents wanted her to inherit their piscine shop outside of Shibuya, and Keiko was already planning out her marriage and housewife-dom to Hiroki (who had no idea what was waiting for him on the other side of graduation like a trapdoor spider).

The problem with the average career path was the very nagging fact that Taniyama Mai was not the average person. Sure, she was smart. She was also unquestionably dedicated to anything she did. But there was the small and worrying tendency she had in seeing supernatural spirits on increasingly frequent occasions. Lately, though, Mai suspected that Naru had declined all the recent cases, no matter how viable they were because Mai had stumbled into a little trouble on their last case. After two weeks of denials, even Yasuhara had given up trying to convince their boss—and Yasuhara was normally unrelenting like a bulldog who wouldn't let go once it bit down.

Having the ability to see ghosts kind of took you out of the 'average schmuck' category and threw you into the 'freak/weirdo/abnormal' cesspool, which Mai embraced openly; after all, what was a little slumming when you're with good friends? If it was okay with them, it was okay by her.

But until school started, Mai would be far away from Japan with no studying if she had her say (it was vacation after all), and even further removed from any semblance of normal—in London…with Naru. Which made her a jumble of conflicting emotions: nervous (muggers, and an unfamiliar area); excited to travel (shiny new places!); happy (she was with Naru!) and worried (oh god—she was with Naru).

Mai had worked it over in her head several times and even rationalizing she had yet to ease the blossoming tension in her stomach. She'd been in his employ for over a year and half. She had no excuse to not be relaxed in his company, except that now she was a tiny bit uncomfortable at the prospect of being with him day in and day out for over a month. It was a heaven sent opportunity, but also a chance to ruin everything all in one go. Naru was tedious and testy and ever so easy to displease.

She might not have been so preoccupied if he hadn't picked up and left those months ago like she had meant nothing more to him than a paycheck twice a month to remember. Faced with the idea of him leaving forever, she'd wrestled each and every night when she was away from the office (where he was packing boxes to move home) with the idea of telling him how she felt.

The misery and the fear, and the 'what-if's driving her practically crazy.

Just that whole time—ugh, what a disaster.

So there she was, in an airplane hurtling 985 km/hr through the sky across a continent simply because Naru had asked—nix that, he hadn't asked. Naru didn't know how to ask, which was yet one more thing to add to her list of things she had to teach him.

Mai twisted and turned distractedly in her cushioned and comfortable seat that could have fit two of her comfortably. The plane's cabin was chilly enough to require a blanket since her black tights weren't providing much warmth under her skirt and boots.

Twisting her lucky keychain in one hand, she absently flipped through the pages of a book her teacher had given her right before school had ended. Unfortunately (or fortunately in the case of the academic book), everything was failing to hold her attention for very long. Her mind was a whirlwind mixed and muddled in too many roiling emotions and buzzing thoughts to even try to focus on the equations and language structure lining the cheap pulp pages. She closed the book with a sharp snap and tucked it back into her satchel. She shoved the bag gently under the seat in front of her to stow it away.

Next to her, a plump and taciturn woman sat, taking up the entire seat and perhaps part of Mai's, not that Mai was averse to sharing…

Sitting alone wasn't much of a problem for her. Mai appreciated solitude as much as the next person. She'd largely grown up in it. She was situated in Business class, which had cost a pretty penny that Naru had fronted through the company, while Lin and Naru were in first class. She had tons of legroom, an unnecessary swiveling book light (unnecessary because the plane was flying west toward the setting sun), and a list of other useless gadgets. Her favorite part though was that her seat almost fully reclined back. Which made it pretty darn comfy. Mai would have to thank S.P.R. for paying for her flight here, even if she was going to be one of their guinea pigs for the next month.

She had the aisle seat, which was okay by her, though she would have preferred the window to watch the clouds and ground far below pass under her like an ever-changing carrousel. Mai leaned against the armrest and contemplated what Naru and Lin were up to in first class. Leaning over further, she hung out into the aisle to glance up the remaining four rows. Nothing. She could only see blue, gauzy fabric that had been drawn between them as a curtain to separate the different classes of customers. Mai bitterly thought that class separation should have died with the Titanic.

Feminine laughter drew Mai's attention to the row on her right. An older Caucasian couple, probably in their late 50s from the beginnings of white and gray hair Mai noticed sprouting on their heads, were whispering excitedly into each other's ears and laughing delightfully. The woman's wrinkled, but pretty face was set in a permanent smile, the corner of her lips being tugged in either direction as she tried to quiet her laughter. The man shared much the same expression on a pleasantly plump face and pulled at the edge of his short mustache with his fingers, flipping the tips of his facial hair up into a tight handlebar curl. The woman giggled all the harder as he looked side to side in a rigid, mechanical fashion, like a noble acknowledging the little people.

Mai tucked her chin into her shoulder to hide her own smile as a warm feeling lit in her chest. She glanced coyly back at the couple and decided that although they probably were really enjoying each other's company, the Bloody Mary's and the small, empty, travel-sized vodka bottle probably had contributed to their merriment. Only having turned 18 as of minuscule two weeks ago, Mai would now be legal to drink in the U.K. and on an international flight to said country, she could have a drink or two if she wanted to. Maybe she would, after all, she'd never had vodka before.

Ridding herself of the errant and dangerous thought, Mai took the small headphones the airplane company had given her as a business class customer, and set them over her ears to give the older company a little more privacy, and provide herself some solitude. The couple had been touching in small brushes, a light hand running along the other's, and had even kissed briefly. It had been the kiss that had burst the happy bubble in Mai's chest and had accidentally lit her cheeks and the tips of her ears on fire in embarrassment for having witnessed such an intimate moment. She wasn't used to such open display of affection. The age-old cultural norms in Japan maintained that such behavior was something to be saved for more private places—even though her generation was doing their damndest to take chisel and hammer against the walls of cultural normalcy. Or maybe a sledgehammer was a more suitable analogy.

Michiru had been dating a boy for six months throughout their last school year and sometimes would plant a generous lip-lock on her boyfriend when she thought no one was looking. Michiru described it as a secret, adrenaline-rush of a game, but to Mai, who for most of her life had been boyfriend-less (Toshiro from third grade absolutely did not count—they had been 'married,' not dating anyhow), it was a big deal…

…which made her think of Naru. Naru and his magnificently formed mouth, which was more likely to verbally castigate you long before it would bestow you that elusive kiss. Two years of Mai's life could attest to that. Mai had long imagined what it would feel like to delicately lay her lips against her boss' and wondered just how many others had looked at Naru and thought of him in much the same way. Naru who was irresistible, appealing and emotionally repulsive all at once. He was far too beautiful to go unnoticed by either gender, even if it inspired a sort of lust-driven admiration among women for him and envy among men for the most part.

It was a fine line of indifference that Naru walked everyday where people were constantly enamored by his divine looks only to be so evidently conflicted with his less-than-sunny disposition. They were left reeling from the dichotomy between the two, and Mai didn't blame them. The difference between the two could inspire the harshest bout of whiplash.

Just standing next to him, Mai used to feel like she was invisible. Naru had an innate pull to him, a power over people that sucked them under like some sort of…well, tractor beam. Mai had struggled to find a better word. Standing next to him often meant that people overlooked you, even despite the custom of greeting each person individually so as not to insult anyone.

For the most part, Mai didn't mind. She admittedly had been sucked under by Naru's magnetism just as thoroughly, if not more forcefully than others. That made her much more sympathetic to anyone meeting Naru for the first time.

The monitor in the headrest in front of her flickered to the map of the airplane's progress. Eight hours in and four more still to go before she would be safely landed at Heathrow International in London. A bout of turbulence jolted the plane and Mai heard the familiar ding of the seatbelt sign as it lit up above her head.

She could have been watching a movie, or listening to music, but it was the map that interested her. It told them where the plane currently was, how fast they were going, how high they were: an amazing 10,000 meters, and how far away they were from Japan. It was frightening and exhilarating all at once. Her stomach flipped as she thought about the month to come, an adventure in itself.

Bored again, Mai was sorely tempted to find Naru and see what he and Lin were up to, but she didn't want to go searching him out. He had come to see her about two hours into the flight under no false guise or pretense, other than he wanted to see how she was doing. As he'd drawn closer, walking down the aisle to her, Mai had watched as the people in her cabin twisted in their seats to watch him more closely, inevitably sucked under and drawn to him as per usual.

Mai was familiar with the experience, but it never ceased to amaze her. More than once, Mai wondered what it was about him that incurred such a reaction. Was it merely his appearance, or maybe the underlying aura of confidence he exuded? It wasn't a calm atmosphere that surrounded him like a political representative; quite the opposite, his was a turbulent and aching thing, but that only inspired the timeworn 'walking-wounded' allure of him. It instinctively triggered the need to nurture, Mai couldn't deny that. In his own way, Naru was as broken as the stereotypical bad boy that women could never resist the urge to 'fix.' Only he wasn't 'bad' and he didn't have the motorcycle or scars from bar fights. Maybe 'bad boy' was a poor comparison. Though, he definitely had the negative attitude down pat.

Mai had shifted uncomfortably at his incisive gaze, feeling like ants were crawling over her skin and nipping at her while he approached. The notion that he, someone that many people held in the highest respect, was seemingly taken and charmed by someone as simple as Mai, stirred a feeling of exhilaration in her that tingled all the way to her toes.

Caught in her thoughts, Mai leaned into the aisle again and almost had her head taken off by a passing flight attendant whisking by before he halted abruptly in front of her. He grinned down at her with a quirky smile that Mai awkwardly and hesitantly returned.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked with a laugh in his voice.

Mai paused, then smiled bashfully as a devious idea started to take hold of her. She eyed the aisle behind the attendant where first class was seated before she looked back to the attendant who was waiting patiently.

"Actually, if it isn't too much trouble…"

Falling asleep on an airplane during such a long flight had proven easier than Naru had previously thought, but because of the ease in which he'd slipped into sleep, he had a stiff neck and the corner of his book was soaked and bloated because it had fallen into his cup of water when he'd been asleep. He rubbed at the shorter hairs on the back of his neck in an attempt to ease the tension and reached his arms upward to stretch his frame, which proved easy enough with all the excess space he had in first class.

He squeezed the excess water from the pages onto an extra napkin and set the partially destroyed book aside, an expression of annoyance lining his face. At his side, Lin was deep asleep, but breathing lightly with an eye-mask covering his eyes to block out the light reflecting through the cabin. Naru rolled his eyes at the extremely feminine looking Lin who might have been able to pass for a woman at first glance if you noticed only the long sweep of front fringe hiding his eyes and skipped past the sharp line of his jaw and noticeable Adam's apple.

If not for his Chinese assistant's excessive height, Naru would have asked Lin to sit in Business and allowed Mai to sit with him because as much as he was loathe to admit it out loud, the tacit Naru would have preferred her upbeat, if sometimes overly chatty, company. He idly wondered just how bored she was right now, sitting in the same spot for over 10 hours with nothing more in her satchel than her wallet, cell phone and an academic book that Naru had encouraged her teacher to give her.

If first class had not been full, Naru would have bought Mai the upgraded ticket, but he had bought her ticket long after he had bought Lin's and his own. Naru doubted she minded much though, as he had bought her ticket and she had avoided a costly bill. She'd only complained about not being in first class once jokingly as she was tidying up his office with a feather duster. Naru had pondered her jeering comment and had quickly ended her objections with a sly remark of his own about sharing a seat. Mai had stuttered and pursed her lips in a startled manner before she'd took the proffered seat, and sat in his lap at the office with an impish grin splitting her face while swinging her legs with an almost childish glee (which, although it pleased him initially, it had also served as further distraction for the next week or so).

Naru glanced at the flight progress map and his frown turned deeper as he thought about his assistant and it occurred to him that she had yet to come see him. At two hours in, Naru had thought to check on Mai before he returned to his seat to make some headway on some material that Madoka had sent him in the mail a couple months ago.

But now, at ten hours in, Mai had yet to visit him, and the thought began to buzz around his head like an annoying mosquito. Mai, who could never resist the opportunity to barge into his office whenever it pleased her (even more so now that they were together—Naru refused to say dating).

To him, official titles were for the insecure and for those who needed to define what they had as if it were some sort of badge of acquisition for being able to tolerate another human being so long. Their relationship hadn't shifted all that much. They still did everything the same with the exception of the occasional touch or intimate moment (Naru was also averse to meeting her eyes for too long as that qualified as some sort soppy 'lover's gaze'). Those small changes, according to Naru, did not necessitate a label to announce to people what they were.

Unbuckling his seat belt, Naru stood stiffly as his muscles and joints tried to loosen themselves after hours of inactivity. The rest of first class had been sleeping as well except for a small girl who was reading her picture books next to the window. Pacing swiftly down the aisle and carefully skimming stray limbs of the sleeping patrons, Naru swept the blue, gauze curtain aside and let an attendant pass him (though she did so rather slowly and with a roaming eye). Naru fought the cocky grin that threatened to alight his lips as the effort would be wasted with no one to irritate with it.

At first, he didn't spot Mai in her assigned seat, but as he approached, he found her curled up, knees raised to her chest without difficulty and a sloppy grin on her face as if she had just fallen asleep.

He leaned against the seat in front of her, braced himself with his elbow and chuckled lightly which was becoming easier and easier to do with the more often he was around her. Mai's sunny aura was something nearly tangible, something you wanted to wrap yourself in and just bask lazily in the warm glow of it. Even Naru could only barely resist the urge, and it was only successful due to long hours of practiced restraint. This time, Naru didn't bother to hide the cocky grin as he thought about the young woman in front of him. He pressed a fingertip on the center of her forehead and pushed playfully to see if she would come out of her light sleep. Naru felt like a child who wanted his teacher's attention and wouldn't stop pulling at the hem of their shirt until he got his way.

The woman in the seat next to Mai who had a nose like a canine pug eyed him distastefully as he toyed with Mai, a puzzle-crossed serious look filled his face when Mai still didn't react to him. How could she possibly sleep that soundly?

Unfortunately for Naru, Mai was well and truly out as her head bobbed back and forth at his gentle touch and her tongue seemingly glued to the roof of her mouth as it protruded slightly from under her tiny teeth.

Naru surveyed the whole scenario and quickly deduced the problem: a translucent little bottle that would have fit in his palm with room to spare. A suspiciously empty, translucent bottle with a neat little red label reading Vodka that sat tipped over on her tray table next to an equally empty cup and partially-full orange plastic container which he suspected was orange juice.

His assistant had been tippling on screwdrivers discreetly in the middle cabin. Now that he was clued in, he did notice that she was looking a little flushed, which probably explained the tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth and the fuzzy sleep she'd slumbered in.

Naru sighed loudly at the unexpected disappointment he felt and the plump pug-nosed woman watched him from the corner of her eye again as if he was someone suspicious while she fiddled nervously in her purse.

Like the woman had really forgotten someone as good-looking as him so quickly. After all, she had seen him at the beginning of their flight, even if she had pretended to be looking out the window and not ogling him. He resisted the urge to snort, though he considered it briefly. He tilted his head curiously and looked to the other woman with a challenging hint in his eyes, watching her expectantly while she hastily looked out the window yet again to escape his steady, measured gaze.

Mai turned in her sleep, and made a small smacking noise which was most likely her tongue un-sticking from the roof of her mouth. She shifted and muttered again, promptly tossing off the edge of the blanket that had been barely hanging onto her. The dark edge of her deep purple shirt sank lower as the edge of it was stretched taut, caught between her and the seat. Admittedly, Naru was distracted by the exposed span of skin, but only minimally. The top of her diminutive chest was in full view at the whim of any passerby and unless he wanted this trip to start out less than successfully, he had better resolve the issue quickly.

Despite himself, Naru didn't mind it as much as he should have, which only made the imagined taunts of his brother more fully realized within his mind. He knew what Gene would say. Something immature, something suggestive, something annoying. In fact, he could have teased his brother with the memory and present it dangerously out of context to fluster his twin, but it seemed rather callous…and cruel as he knew his brother shared a fondess for the sunny Mai that tottered between a kind of student-teacher admiration and an active interest in the young woman.

Without taking a last look, (there would be plenty of time for that if he really wanted), he grabbed the top of her shirt between his finger and thumb, and hefted it upward quickly before he could be caught in such a potentially scandalous looking move.

Mai merely wrinkled her nose at him, and Naru was glad that he wouldn't have to cop to such an altruistic move. Then he would lose points for his hard-earned cold-hearted, bastard persona, and that wouldn't strike fear or productivity into his employees at all.

Just to make sure, he tugged her shirt back down, but only a little bit.

Quick AN: Updates will not come as quickly as the last story as I was on vacation when I wrote Aversion Theory.

Because the timeline of the original story has been shifted post-The Forgotten Children manga chapters (Naru leaves for five months in this story, not three [because I'm keeping their ages in check]) this will venture into slight AU because of that small change.

Lastly, I got antsy and wanted to post this, so it is completely unbeta-ed and very rough. I apologize and corrections will be made periodically, I guarantee it.