Don't own.

Yes, it's been a while. Yes, I plan to update/finish my other stories.

FIVE THINGS THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN TO TANIYAMA MAI

1.

Taniyama Satoshi was a hard worker, always ready to put aside his personal time in order to ensure the company’s success. That was why his immediate superior found it so odd when the man asked to leave work early that day.

Satoshi himself didn’t exactly know why he was doing it; he had never been the type to cut school, finding the worry about what he might miss too annoying. That was how he’d met his wife, a sturdy-looking woman who remained cheerful in spite of a lifelong frailty that meant that she spent more time recuperating in bed than at school. Satoshi had been the one to bring her her work and tutor her.

But that day, Satoshi couldn’t help himself from claiming illness and heading home in the middle of the day to be with his wife and two-month old daughter. Walking to the bus stop the next morning, he barely glanced at the crumpled sign and shattered windows that suggested there’d been a car accident there the night before.

His wife, Ann, had heard about it on the news while he was rocking Mai to sleep and had felt a sudden, strange relief when she’d heard that no one had sustained serious injuries.

(Eleven years later, Ann would die of another in a long line of illnesses, and Satoshi would finally accept the transfer to Osaka with a pay-raise he’d been offered. Mai would be sad, but she’d never think to tell her father that she didn’t want to go.

One day, when she was sixteen, Mai would have the feeling that she’d missed something important and cry for a week. Satoshi would comfort her, and they’d move on with their lives.)

2.

Though Taniyama Mai loved ghost stories, when her friends suggested telling them in the classroom after school that day, she had to say no. She hadn’t had a chance to do her laundry last weekend due to a babysitting job that had gone on for much longer than she’d anticipated.

The next morning, she’d go to school early, ignoring the old school building as she always had. She’d defend the weird girl in class to her friends during break and simply roll her eyes when they started cooing over a handsome stranger they’d seen talking to the principal. All in all, it was a normal day for Taniyama Mai.

3.

Taniyama Mai was a reasonable, practical person. She had to be, having raised herself for most of her life. But, it was a fact that she was also an intuitive person, so when she dreamt of her mother and a lake, she borrowed some money from her friend Keiko and got on a train heading north.

She was dozing off when a boy her age asked if the seat next to her was free. He was a bit too handsome, but he seemed kind, so she said yes. They talked for the entire six-hour trip and Mai ended up telling him not only about her life before and after her mother’s death, but also about her moments of intuition and the nightmares she can never quite remember.

The boy--who’d introduced himself as Gene Davis--grew thoughtful at that and asked her where she was going. Without thinking, Mai named an inn she’d never heard of, and Gene smiled and said that he was staying there as well. When she admitted that she had no idea where the words had come from and the inn was probably full, Gene offered to let her stay in his room, with promises of not being a pervert or weirdo.

Mai, fully accepting that her intuition had guided her to the mysterious boy, agreed.

(Two days later, she’d wake up from dreams about being hit by a car and dumped in a lake. Gene would comfort her as best he could, but she’d continue to have that dream for the rest of her life.)

A few months later, after countless emails, Gene would finally introduce Mai to his younger twin, Noll. Noll wouldn’t be as sweet as Gene, and Mai would often find herself arguing with him as he tested her for psychic abilities.

(She’d never tell him, but she enjoyed their arguments. He’d never tell her that he felt the same. Gene would do the telling for both of them.)

Six years after meeting Gene Davis, Taniyama Mai would move to England to join the twins in their psychic phenomenon research and investigation group. Two years after that, Noll--who Mai called Naru because of his narcissism--would sigh and say that, since it seemed like she’d be around forever, he may as well marry her, if only because ‘Davis Investigations’ sounded better than ‘Davis and Taniyama Investigations.’

Seven months later, she would give birth to a girl, and Gene would have ammunition for teasing his brother for the next five years, until Noll and Mai‘s second and third children, twin boys, came along.

(Noll’s assistant, Koujo Lin, would do his best to spoil the girl. Mai was the only one who knew that Lin was incapable of having children, and she would eventually suggest--casually--to her husband that wouldn’t it be nice if their daughter was trained as an Onmyouji as well?)

4.

Mai thought about Naru’s offer of a job, trying to examine all of the angles as quickly as possible. She did want to see Naru and the others again, but the whole ‘ghost-hunting’ part was nerve-wracking. After taking a deep breath, she gave her answer.

(“But still, would you like to come over for dinner one night? I’m a good cook.”

“Sure.”)

5.

Mai glared at the man in front of her, shocked that he could say something so stupid.

“Naru, how could I fall in love with someone I thought was just a dream? You’re the one I like, sour attitude, narcissism, arrogance, and all.”

Naru blinked, unsure of what he should say. All girls preferred his brother; he’d been accidentally confessed to before, and he’d assumed that this time would be the same. No one, except Gene, had ever imagined that someone could like him the way he was; even his adoring mother had said that he’d need to change to get a girlfriend.

With this running through his mind, he looked at Mai again, examined his memories of their interactions. He found himself smiling again as the stepped closer to the girl, enjoying the way her eyes widened and knowing that Gene would have been cheering him on, if he were there.

(“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“The tea, of course.”)