A/N: Eeto, I'd just like to say that I didn't read over this chapter and also have written it in five different times and therefore can't be sure of its accuracy in both grammar and flow of the story. And both Mai and Naru are pretty OOC in this one but I couldn't get the story moving otherwise. Thus, please forgive me.

Disclaimer: GH is not mine nor is the character but the plot and setting is 100% mine :D

Chapter 17: A Private Encounter

I didn't know if it was because of the earlier incident with Addair-sama or they really were like that normally, but the other noblemen who had asked me to a dance were not even half as bad as him. If anything, they were actually quite polite and hardly mentioned anything about my past. I was just basically spending most of my time dancing with them, making small talks about my study and getting to know the other nobles. I must say that chatting with them through the dance had been a lot more helpful for my study than the actual Politic and Governance class.

I spent probably another hour on the dance floor before I realized that I hadn't eaten anything the whole night and I was already very hungry, so I excused myself from my current companion after the end of the song and wandered off to the long lines of tables full of foods. I had finished piling up food on my plate and was looking for a place to peacefully eat it up when I realized that I hadn't seen Naru again after Duke Hara dragged me to the dance floor. I felt like face-palming myself for forgetting about him. What kind of a fiancée am I for forgetting her own fiancé in his very own party? I cursed to myself. I decided to go look for him before he found me first. I just hoped that one way or another Naru was able to shake off Hara-sama while I was gone so that maybe he wouldn't be so mad at me once I found him.

It took me some time before I finally found him in one of the balcony, drinking wine while leaning against the railing, looking over the dimly lit garden. I approached him quietly, silently grateful that he didn't seem to be upset.

"You drink alcohol?" I asked as I munched down the long neglected food while I was searching for Naru.

"Don't talk when you eat. It's not proper," he said instead.

I pouted. "Who cares? It's just you."

"I do care."

I sighed. "If only you care as much with your own manner."

"Who says I don't?"

"Well, you're still rude sometimes."

"I'm not rude. I'm just being honest."

"There's a thin line," I mumbled softly. Naru just glared at me from the corner of his eyes but didn't say anything else. I tried again. "You didn't answer the question."

Now he sighed. "About the alcohol?" I nodded. "I don't normally drink, but at times like this I usually need it to calm myself down."

"Times like this?" I asked. "You mean at parties?"

"Yes. I need it to dull my senses so I won't be snapping at every single one of them."

I mused at this. "They didn't seem so bad. I mean, Addair-sama is bad but the rest is pretty tolerable."

"They're probably afraid of making the same kind of commotion like Addair-sama did and get scolded by Duke Hara." He sipped some more wine from the glass. "Or maybe you're just good at it."

I blinked at him. "At what?"

"Handling those nobles," he said as he watched the wine swirled in the glass when he tipped it. "I could never stand all the small talks."

I snorted. I didn't know if it was the wine but he was kind of weird tonight. "Well, you do remember all the effort I did in the past week, right?"

"You only need one week," whispered him.

Now I'm really worried. I nudged his arm. "Hey, are you alright? You seem pretty depressed…"

"I'm not depressed," he said as he glared again. Though I could have sworn it was more like a pout than a glare. Holy Heaven, how can he be this cute? I shook my head back into focus.

"Well, you do look somber," I tried again. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

He kept his silent. I just sighed at his stubbornness. "Well, if you don't want to talk, I want to talk to you about something."

He peered at me. "What about?"

"Something that Duke Hara said to me."

Now he looked much more alert. He shifted his position so that we could face the other. "What did he say?" he asked, so then I told him everything.

I told him about how Duke Hara calling Naru and I's situation as 'too good to be true', about how he wasn't exactly opposing the disengagement, and also about how he was warning me about bringing harm to Hara-sama. At this point, I couldn't help myself to ask. "What does he mean by that? What kind of harm can befall to Hara-sama? What is this thing that Duke Hara's referring to be happening? Does this have anything to do with what you are planning, Naru?"

Naru seemed lost in thought as he was listening to me. It took him a moment before he finally replied to me. "Are you scared, Mai? Do you want to quit?"

His questions stunned me. "Why are you asking me that now?" I answered back in annoyance. "Yes, of course I am afraid! How can I not when I'm involved in something that I know nothing about? But that is not my point! I have decided that I'm going to do this so I will do it! But a little bit of information about what I am doing will be very useful too, you know! I don't want to go making silly mistakes just because I don't have enough information!"

He let out a defeated sigh. "I understand. But we can't talk here."

I squinted my eyes. "You're not planning on getting your way out of this talk now, are you?"

"I'm not," he said. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the ballroom.

I yelped as he dragged me away. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere more private," he said curtly.

"Will that be okay? For us to leave these guests on their own?" We were currently going around the less crowded area of the room, towards a side door that was connected to an additional storage room. I knew because I went to explore the area some times before the ball day in case I needed to guide some of the guests around.

"It's fine. I always do it."

I pouted at that. "You always doing it doesn't make it fine."

"No one's paying attention," he said as he led me into the storage room and closed the door behind me quietly. I thought that that was it, but Naru tugged my hand again and pulled me towards one of the corner of the room. He opened one of the cabinet, moved around some of the tools inside then pushed on the wooden wall that turned out to be a secret door. I took a step back in surprise.

"What is that?" I asked, torn between amazement and wariness.

"A secret passage to my room," he answered while maneuvering his way into the passage. He looked back at me when I didn't make a move. "Come on."

"Do we really have to go around like this just to get to your room?" I asked in disbelief. "Can't we just go through the corridors like normal people?"

"This is a precaution," he said. He sighed when I was just giving him a perplexed look. "This is a sign to Lin that I'm going back to my room and I do not wish for anyone to bother me."

"Koujo-san?" I frowned. "But he's nowhere near us. How could he know?"

"He's around. You just don't realize."

"Seriously?" To think that Koujo-san had been around us without any sound nor sign of his presence was actually quite creepy. How could I know if he was someday somewhere watching me and I didn't realize it? I really need to start watching my surrounding…

Naru took hold of my hand again and tugged me forward impatiently. "Come on now." I had no choice but to follow.

The tunnel was completely dark and I was wondering however we were going to go through it without any candle or torch when Naru moved around the side of the tunnel and lit up a small torch on the wall. He took it off of the holder, closed the wooden door behind us and signaled me to follow him. It might have not taken as long as I thought it did, but the dark, quiet and winding tunnel made me felt uncomfortable that I felt like it took us forever before Naru finally slide open another wooden door and we ended up in another cabinet filled with linens and towels. He placed the torch in another holder, put out the flame and started making a way out of the stacks of fabrics. The cabinet turned out to be one inside of Naru's private bathroom. After a little struggle and one huge mess of tangled fabrics—"The maids will fix them later," Naru said, definitely under the influence of alcohol as he shoved everything in and shut close the cabinet door, we finally found ourselves in the privacy of Naru's bedroom.

It has been quite some times since the last I had been there, but it struck me how awfully clear my memory was to be here, being upset at Naru and meeting Gene for the first time. It nearly felt like it was just yesterday. How scared I was to look at my own body lying limp on the floor, finding out that I somehow had unexplained power to communicate with ghost, and even be in the same dimension as a ghost. I had nearly forgotten about all of this, what with all the hustle and bustle of the past few days preparing for the ball. But standing there in the middle of the room where I first made known of my ability, all of the anxiety and worry I had been feeling came rushing back at me. The thought of my unknown power made me think back to my earlier worry; the dream from last night. But it's just a dream, right?

As I was standing there, quietly taking in the memories of when I had first entered the room, Naru had lit up the candles, produced a bottle of wine out of nowhere and was currently sitting comfortably on the armchair, sipping from the wine glass while looking blankly outside of the window door. My eyes narrowed at the sight of the wine bottle.

"I thought you said you only drink at parties." I tried not to sound too accusing.

"It is technically still in the middle of a party," he answered without looking away from the window.

A moment of silence passed between us as I didn't know what I should do and Naru seemed content to just sipping his wine away. I huffed when I couldn't take the silence anymore and finally decided to just go straight to the problem. "So?" I asked while crossing my arms in front of my chest. "Are you not going to explain yourself?"

Naru's eyes flickered to me as I asked this, face still as unreadable as ever. He gestured generally towards his room and said, "Make yourself comfortable."

Seeing that Naru was occupying the only chair in the room, I situated myself on the edge of Naru's bed. My eyes followed Naru's movement as he poured himself another round of wine.

"You might have realized from earlier confrontation with Addair-sama that the passing of the Duke title is not entirely hereditary," Naru said while stirring the wine in his glass. "While the current Duke's child might automatically have the title as the next Duke candidate, unless the majority of the council agree to it, this child will not be able to rise to the position. In such case, the council has a right to appoint another candidate to become the Duke. This sort of case is very rare though, since there are lengthy and difficult processes that they have to go through in order to do that, not to mention that the whole case needs to be processed and approved by the royal family before it can be decided who will take on the role as Duke. But it still doesn't mean that such case never happened."

I frowned, trying to process what Naru had told me. "So… are you saying that the town council is currently trying to oppose to your candidacy?"

"It's not the town council who do," said Naru, his eyes were dark when they gazed at mine. "It's the Duke himself."

My eyes grew wide in surprise. "Your… father?"

"Yes," he answered grimly, his eyes went back to the untouched wine in his glass. He seemed to be pondering at it for a bit before he chucked it all down and moved to pour another glass. "He has always wanted someone whom he can control to be the next Duke. Probably he's afraid of losing power. But I'm not someone like that and he hates it. We also have some differences in other matters and we ended up distrusting each other. Long story short, he wants me out of the Duke candidacy."

"But…," I struggled to find a word. "Surely it's not anything like that? I mean, you're his son. No matter how disagreeing both of you are, he wouldn't want to do something like that, right?"

"I've done my research," he said calmly, as if none of these mattered to him. "Those thugs in the rumor, the ones that have always been looking for troubles with me? They were under the orders of one of the Duke's most trusted people. They even said that they were ordered to spread things about me being involved in their dirty deals. As if I would ever be interested in those stupid meaningless trades."

"But… still… can't they just be bluffing?"

Naru hummed in ponder. "Highly unlikely. Especially with Lin threatening them to death."

A coldness went through my spine. "…did you…?"

"I didn't kill them if that's what you asked." His expression was as cold as it usually was, but this time I could feel the danger seeping out of it. I tried not to gulp under his stare. "But I got them scared enough to be able to get valid answers."

A silence passed through us as I once again tried to process everything. "So you are saying that the Duke, your own father, has been trying to get you out of the Duke candidacy by impairing your public image?" Naru merely hummed in affirmation so I continued, "Then what that has anything to do with me or Hara-sama? I mean, if you want to stay in the candidacy, can't you just… well, I don't know… try explaining yourself to the public or something? Clearing up your name off of the rumor?"

He threw me an unamused look. "Think about it. If you have heard me defending myself against those rumor, while you have never known anything about me other than the rumor themselves, would you believe me?"

I scrunched up my face, trying to imagine it. A couple of weeks ago, the me who knew nothing about Naru would probably brushed off his argument as him trying to save his own skin. I sighed out. "Yeah, you have a point. But then, I still don't understand why you're doing this instead?"

"I wouldn't have had to if it's not because of my engagement with Hara-san." I looked up at him in surprise. This might actually the first time I had ever heard him referring to Hara-sama by her name instead of just 'that girl' or something along that line. Naru though, wasn't paying me any attention as he went back to stare at the wine in his hand. "You see, this plan on spreading bad rumor about me can only do for so much. After all, rumor are still just rumor, and while I have never deliberately announcing my innocence, I have also never confirmed that they are true. This, at the most, can only create unease within the council but they still can live with that. After all, there are other nobles with even worse problems than just hanging out with shady thugs. The Duke probably has realized it too so he chose the next best plan; using Hara-san as a tool to balance out my influence."

"Wait, what? What do you mean to balance out?"

"You do realize that the Duchess title is not just for decoration, do you?" His tone filled with exasperation. "A Duchess does still have quite a lot of power and influence in the council even if it's not as big as the Duke. She can even fill out the role and duty of the Duke if ever anything were to happen to him. For my father to get control over Hara-san as my fiancée and Duchess candidate, it's the same as him getting half of the ruling power."

I could feel the coming of a headache as I rubbed my temple lightly. "And how could you know all of this? Are you like, spying on your father or something?"

Naru grunted a little at that. "Sort of. And circumstantial evidence and logical thinking. It's not really that hard to figure it all out."

I took a deep breath. "Ok… So let's say that your deduction is true, your father is trying to get some control over you through Hara-sama, still Hara-sama is not just some tools, you know? She has a mind of her own. Certainly she won't just agree to that?"

"Whoever say that she knows about all this?" Naru's eyebrow arched up in that rhetoric question. "Hara-san might be a hard-headed person but she's still a naïve protected young noble lady. Not to mention that she bears some feelings toward me. The Duke can basically say that everything is for my sake and she will do whatever he tells her to."

I opened my mouth to protest, but then I realized that what he had said was true. I could easily imagine Hara-sama doing everything the Duke asked her to, believing that it was all for the well-being of Naru. She might be completely in love with Naru, but that was exactly what would cloud her mind in making judgment. She had after all kidnapped and accused me as a witch just because Naru tried to cut off their engagement. I sighed in defeat, knowing that I couldn't say anything to counter Naru's argument. "Then basically my role here is just to substitute Hara-sama's position as your fiancée so the Duke won't have anything to hold on you?"

"Basically, yes. And also to improve my public image."

I raised an eyebrow to that.

"Well I can't just let those rumor keep on hurting my reputation now, can I? After all as the Duke candidate I will still need backing from the citizen." He gave out an indignant look.

"Is this why Duke Hara was referring to our situation as fairytale-like?" I asked, an eyebrow still arching up. "You are creating a setting where the rich blue-blooded you fall in love with a poor and ordinary orphan me who despite the status and lineage difference manage to go through everything and become one in the name of love? To make you, what, seem pure and noble?"

It was probably the alcohol but Naru managed to look embarrassed. If it was not because of my irritation, I would have laughed at him. He soon covered his embarrassment with annoyance though. "What's wrong with that?" He asked, his tone was challenging me.

I shifted my gaze away from him but didn't answer. There was nothing wrong with that, I might say. It was actually a pretty clever move if he wanted to gain the public's sympathy. What could be better than to show the public that their rulers did not give any mind regarding to status and even courted an ordinary citizen as his wife? It certainly seemed a lot like a fairytale story that the public would fall for. "Almost too good to be true…" I remembered what Duke Hara had said. How true that saying is…, I thought bitterly.

Naru must have seen the irritation on my expression because I heard him shifted a little in his chair and asked me in a tone that almost sound hesitant. "Are you mad?"

The question made me glared at him. Was I mad? Yes, of course I was mad! Who wouldn't when they found out that their past and misfortune were being used by another to make the other looked good in public? To think that Naru was using the fact that I was an orphan for his advantage… it made my blood boiled. However though, as I saw him pressing down into his chair, glass of wine was now empty, uncertainty—and was that fear?—filled his eyes, looking very much like a child who was about to get scolded, I couldn't help but felt my anger subsiding. Because, what could I say now? I had agreed to be a part of his plan and that meant that I had to play my part of the scenario, even if that included making use of the fact that I was an orphan. I believed that Naru wasn't feeling any better in this situation, seeing that the whole reason he was doing this in the first place was because of his father trying to make use of him too. At least in my case Naru had asked for my consent to the plan. His father had not asked for his.

So I let out a sigh and answered him, "I'm a bit mad, but I get where you're getting from. I guess there's no helping it."

He seemed visibly relaxed at my answer and moved to pour himself yet another glass. I watched him pouring the wine in wary, not sure if I should get him to stop drinking or not. He was clearly drunk enough to have let go of his usual restrain over himself. I certainly did not want him to go berserk or something because of the intoxication.

Naru sighed appreciatively at the first sip of his new round of alcohol before he addressed me again. "Going back to the topic, so yes, I did create this kind of setting to gather public attention and sympathy as to increase the support towards our engagement. If the public has shown their support towards us, even for the Duke himself, it will be difficult for him to refuse the engagement. And with that, I should be able to cut off another possibility of his interference to my rule." I raised an eyebrow again at how hollow his voice sounded while he was talking about something akin to his ambition but I didn't make a comment. "But from what I gather through your conversation with Duke Hara, it seems that he has realized what is happening. Or at least some of it."

"Is that a bad thing?" I asked, not sure how to feel about that knowledge. Duke Hara seemed to be nice and compassionate enough but it didn't mean that he couldn't be dangerous. Something that I learned soon enough from the warning he had given me about Hara-sama.

"Honestly? I don't know. In a sense, he should be grateful to me for getting his daughter out of this mess, but he's also a close friend of my father… so I can't be sure how cooperative he will be regarding the situation. Or if he's going to be any cooperative at all." Slowly Naru went into a musing state, getting lost in his thoughts. I heard he softly said, "This sucks," before reverting back into silence. I didn't know what to say to that.

As silence came over the room, I thought back to my own problem, the initial reason why I had been involved in this mess in the first place. At first Ayako-san and Rein had suspicion that Naru knew about my past and thus his interest in making me his bride. However, hearing from what he told me tonight, it seemed that his reasons were just basically trying to get into the favor of the citizens and the fact that he had chosen me was probably just some kind of randomness; anyone he had chosen would probably ask the same question of 'why me?' and there was no other answer than 'just because'—or maybe to be more accurate, it'd be 'just because you're an orphan', which was actually a way worse answer than 'just because'. We were also around the same age and it just added in the convenience of me becoming his bride.

But then, what was that letter all about? It was saying things about how it would be dangerous for me to get close to the Duke and his family, but why? From what I had seen, the only secret this family had was about the power struggle between Naru and the Duke. It was all about politics and surely it had nothing to do with me. Then what sort of thing that I held that would make me so… unwanted that it was necessary to get rid of the orphanage? The whole of the Matsuzaki family? As if they were to make sure of our elimination? Then my thought went back to Gene, about the discovery of my power. Was that it? Could it be that that warning letter was talking about my power? Could it be that my power was something that was unwanted, deemed to be a threat perhaps to the Duke family? Or the people in general? But, however rare and certainly abnormal an ability to communicate with ghost was, it couldn't be something that pose a threat to anyone now, could it? Moreover, my parents or whoever left that letter couldn't have possibly known about my power seeing that I was only around one year old when they left me in the orphanage. Except if maybe they had the same power too… Gene did say something about someone who could communicate with him too. Could it be that this someone was related to me? I had to confirm about it with Gene, but however I could get into contact with him again?

I held back a groan as I closed my eyes, feeling the hard thumping in my brain. I really am not equipped for this much thinking…, I thought tiredly. I wonder if it'd be wise to consult about this with Naru. He has after all explained about his circumstances to me. As my thought drifted to Naru, my eyes were falling back to where he was currently sitting, only to find him to be seemingly asleep.

I blinked at the view of him with eyes closed, comfortably leaned back in his armchair and wine glass still half-filled dangerously propped on his chest. It was rising up and down slowly, rhythmically, increasing my suspicion on his state of slumber. Maybe the alcohol was finally catching up to him. I was eyeing him restlessly as my mind was deciding between two options, leaving him as he was and went back to my own room, or trying to wake him and get him into the bed before going back. I was not sure whether it was appropriate or not to wake someone of the higher status in this kind of situation but I couldn't just leave him sleeping on an armchair all night long so I decided to do the latter option.

Moving carefully as to not surprising him awake, I went to the chair, gently removing the wine glass out of his hand, and nudged him slowly on the shoulder. "Naru?" I called out tentatively when he still didn't move. "Naru? Wake up, please. You should move to the bed."

He grunted a little but otherwise didn't make another move. Without the intense glare of his brilliant blue eyes and the frown on his face, he looked exactly like the teenager that he was supposed to be, grumbling as his sleep was disturbed. I found it very cute and amusing. As my lips quirked in a smile, I tried nudging him a little harder.

"Naru… Come on, wake up. If you want to sleep, you have to move to the bed or you're going to be in pain in the morning." I shook him slightly now, nearly pleading. "Naru…!"

Grumbling a bit louder than before, Naru finally started to open up his eyes. He stared blankly ahead, opening and closing his eyelids slowly as if he was still not sure what was happening, before his eyes traveled slowly to my face. I could feel my cheeks blushing as I met his blue intense gaze. Without waiting for him to say anything, I pulled him up slightly. "Come on, you're sleepy. You have to move to the bed."

Surprisingly, he was obediently following my command. Looking like somewhat still half unconscious, he followed my tug on his arm as I directed him to his bed. If he had looked like a normal teenager while asleep, this half-awake state of him really made him looked like a small child. Oh, how I wished I could somehow keep a record of this moment!

The short trip to the bed was quick and as soon as his knee touched the edge of the bed, he crawled on top of the comforter and closed his eyes again. I huffed at his messed up position, realizing I would have to fix him up if I didn't want any of the maid found him in this sort of undignified state. Getting to work, I slipped off his shoes and put them by the bed side. Carefully and with a little struggle, I straightened up his position on the bed, putting his legs onto the mattress instead of off of it, and dragged up his upper body so his head found the pillows. Next I eyed his party attire. The stiff royal jacket looked very uncomfortable to sleep in but I had no idea on how to remove the thing—there were just so many buttons and ropes hanging across it—and I didn't want to handle the awkward situation of me undressing him so I decided to leave it alone. As I grabbed the comforter and blanket, struggling to get it out from under his sleeping figure and covering him with it, I felt myself being pulled down and before I knew it I was sitting on the bed, Naru's head on the side of my stomach and his arms had wounded around my waist. I blushed instantly.

"N-Naru?" I called out in horror.

There was no answer.

I chanced a peek on his face. He was still sleeping peacefully. I stared at him in disbelief.

After a few moment of shock and confusion, I tried to wriggle out of his arms but his grip was just getting tighter. I tried carefully to pry his arms off but he was unexpectedly pretty strong, I wouldn't be able to get him off without being rough and waking him up—which would be pretty bad and awkward in itself.

I huffed in annoyance. Now what?

I looked over him again, watched as his facial features were smoothing out once I ceased my struggle against him. I would never have imagined him as someone who would sleep with dolls or plushy or anything huggable for that matter so it kind of surprised me how contented he seemed to be hugging me. My stomach churned at the thought of our current situation but I felt a warmth spread over me seeing his peaceful expression. I'd feel bad disturbing him after what seemed to be a tough night for him, if I was to judge from the amount of his alcohol consumption, so I relented and moved to tuck the blanket properly over him before shifting to lean on the headrest. My best bet of escaping would be when he turned around in his sleep after all, might as well get comfortable for the long wait.

Another chapter finished! Yeeiiy! And God knows how many chapters left to finish, so please bear with me.. This story is seriously getting way bigger than what I first thought it would be.. R n R! :D