Finding You (Ghost Hunt) (NaruxMai)

Proposal

Finding You:

Chapter 9:

Naru drew out a folder from his overnight bag and passed it to her.

"These are the remaining missing photos from the SPR photo album you have."

Mai blinked in surprise and accepted it gratefully. She opened it and experienced the development of her and Naru's relationship through the photos. In the early ones they were only sitting next to each other, in some they were holding hands. A later one caused Mai to flush to the roots of her hair.

The photo was of her being pushed up against a wall by Naru and in the next he appeared to be kissing her very forcefully.

Naru moved to look over her shoulder. "Is it that one? It was a very intriguing case and eventually you provided the solution and had a big celebration and I... rewarded you."

Mai looked up at him, she had completely forgotten to consider deeply how far they had gone together and the photo proved to be a hint that they had gone pretty far. To distract herself from those thoughts, she turned to the next photo and blushed even harder. The photo depicted Naru, who was dressed in a navy blue shirt instead of black and was smiling smoulderingly at the camera. She wondered who had taken the photo.

This unspoken question was answered by her former fiancée.

"You took that photo of course, who else would I show that smile to?"

Mai felt warm inside and she cheered up, feeling considerably happier than she had been the previous day. A hand snaked under her arm and turned the page to another photo.

"This case was at an amusement park and the owner was very grateful and we spent the rest of the day on the rides. Well, I only went on one; the Ferris wheel with you," he pointed to the photo where he and Mai was kissing on the Ferris wheel. "I absolutely refused to go on the spinning teacups though."

The image of Naru petulantly refusing to sit in a spinning teacup caused Mai to giggle and she had a sudden flash of a more concrete image of Naru being dragged by her past a haunted house and he was protesting that his love of tea did not mean that he wanted to sit in an oversized teacup and be spun around. Was that a real memory?

Perhaps Naru's confession was causing her memories to slowly return in small fragments. Keen to see another memory, she flipped to the next page and was confronted by the image of Naru sitting at a low table with a half full pint glass of what looked like beer in front of him.

"You drink beer?"

Naru nodded. "Bou-san invited us to his apartment after one case and he claimed that I wasn't a man unless I drank one glass of beer. Five pints later, he gave his full approval to our relationship and offered to be my best man."

"Did he not approve of our relationship before?"

"He did not say anything. However I think he just wanted to get me drunk so he could get Dr. Oliver Davis' autograph," Naru said wryly.

Mai grinned, that did sound like Bou-san and a thought occurred to her suddenly. She had been engaged to the famous Dr. Oliver Davis?

"Naru, did your parents approve of me?" she questioned worriedly.

For that she received a soft pat on the head from the former narcissist.

"Of course. They loved you. When we stayed with them in London, my mother would take you shopping, my father loved your anecdotes about our cases and they were looking forward to the wedding..."

He looked sad momentarily before continuing. "I suppose you would like to know how I proposed to you?"

The brunette nodded fervently and Naru began the story.