Title: Entangled

Genre: Anime

Series: Ghost Hunt

Characters: Mai Taniyama, Koujo Lin

Spoilers: N/A

Rating: M

Summary: Mai is once again the target, but there is a solution.

Disclaimer: Not mine. No moneys to be made.

She'd sat in quiet contemplation for too long; not only were her legs prickling uncomfortably but her companions had all left for bed and she was alone with the most taciturn one. She shifted in her seat, trying for something more comfortable and smiled tightly when Lin glanced over at the motion.

"Do not let it worry you, Mai. We'll find a solution," he offered with a solemn nod before turning back to the cameras. She watched the lights from the rotating camera feed play over his face and held back the frustrated sigh.

"I don't understand why I'm always the target," she confessed, keeping her voice low so it didn't carry. The door was shut but the walls were thin. "I'm not particularly powerful, all I can do is dream. I'm not a threat."

"It's not your abilities that draw the spirits, Mai, though being a dream walker is a danger of it's own. Your...innocence has power." Lin hesitated to continue, and Mai knew it was because Naru had refused to elaborate on why so many ghosts were going after her.

"This is because I'm a virgin?" Mai asked incredulously, finally cluing in to what the others had alluded to but never out and out stated.

"Yes," Lin confirmed, and Mai was amused to find that though he didn't blush she could tell he was uncomfortable.

"Why is it so important?"

"The loss or taking of innocence can be a powerful boost. It's a state of transition, a movement of the soul, and it has reverberations on the spiritual plane when done by someone with close connections to it. For someone like yourself, the light you radiate in the aether is already blinding. An event like...that...would release a wave of energy that could fuel many things...including a hell gate," Lin finished, pointing out what the spirit here in the house was trying to do.

Mai was more than a bit lost in her thoughts by the time he was done explaining, but she knew very quickly the solution. "Well, I'll just have to lose it and everything will be fine. No more ghosts fixating on me." She grinned at what she considered a smart conclusion but grew concerned when Lin choked on the tea he'd been sipping. "Are you okay?"

"That is a drastic decision, and exactly what Oliver did not want to suggest," Lin pointed out, his tone dry.

"The only reason it hasn't happened already is because I spend so much time at work and on cases, I don't have time to date," Mai retorted, crossing her arms. It seemed the most logical thing to do, especially given that the spirit had locked them in this house and there didn't seem to be a way to remove the barrier. "If I'm not a virgin anymore, the spirit doesn't have what they need, they'll have to let us go so they can try to get a new one to open the gate. Once that happens, we can get out of here and figure out how to stop it. Seems pretty straight forward to me."

"And who would you have assist you?" Lin asked, his voice tense in a way that Mai usually associated with the feeling that she'd irritated him. He tilted his head, his bangs sliding forward until she could actually see both his eyes and they were both glaring. "Father John has a vow of chastity. Takigawa is involved with Ms. Matsuzaki. That leaves Naru, me, and-"

"Yasahura, who not only wouldn't mind but wouldn't make a big deal of it," Mai decided, and she wasn't wrong. Yasahura was a few years older, a terrible flirt, and he'd offered more than once to take Mai out. She was pretty certain he wouldn't say no if she asked for his help.

Lin turned back to the computer jerkily. "That's a terrible idea."

"Why?" She genuinely wanted to know; she respected Lin enormously and in the years they'd worked together she knew he'd grown to respect her as well. He treated her way better than Naru did, and was even a big part of her reasoning for staying on even after school had finished. The team were like family to her and she didn't want to leave them behind.

"Yasahura is a boy. Your first time shouldn't be a rushed necessity in a barren house."

"What was your first time like?"

He didn't answer, just glanced at her balefully before turning his attention back to the monitors.

"Come on, Lin! You can't tell me it's a bad idea and then not explain."

He swallowed and with a few taps of his fingers set the monitors to record. Mai waited for him to face her, smiling encouragingly until he began to speak again. "If you're insistent on following this course of action, I'll assist you."

That was not what she'd been expecting to hear.

He continued speaking even though she was gaping at him. "I'm experienced enough to make sure that it will not traumatize you and that you'll...enjoy yourself. If fumbled, a bad experience the first time can impact your sexuality for years."

"Was your first time bad?"

"No, but men don't have pain the first time as women do."

Mai had forgotten about that and suddenly felt terribly nervous. She'd been too young when her mother passed for them to have had that conversation, but she'd had a very clinical one with the school nurse several years ago that had proved jarring. She'd spoken with Ayako as well more recently, but that conversation had been highly romanticized.

"Do you even think of me that way, Lin?"

She watched as his eyes observed her, sliding from her face to her body and back again. "You have grown into a beautiful woman, Mai. It would not be a hardship for me."

She blushed so quickly that she felt lightheaded, her mouth dry as she stared back at him. They stayed that way for several minutes. She could feel her legs swaying back and forth under her chair as her nerves danced under her skin. Finally, she asked the question that was foremost on her mind. "What would make it so much better with you than with Yasa?"

She wasn't really considering Yasahura anymore, not once Lin had made his offer. Lin was the subject of many late night fantasies and dreams. He was older, significantly, but intelligent and gorgeous and he was charming in his introspective way. He had a sense of humor that most people never experienced because he didn't let many people close. Mai had the privilege of knowing it and since the first time she'd seen the half smile he let slip when he was amused, she'd harbored the tiniest secret crush.

She was jittery though, so she needed to know more before she'd agree.

Lin smirked, and it was close to her favorite half smile but was far sexier. "Yasahura is a boy. You give him the opportunity and he'd rush. He'd do the bare minimum to prepare you before proceeding to the main event and while you wouldn't suffer, you wouldn't gain full experience. I would take my time. I would make sure you were so far gone that you wouldn't feel the pain when we joined."

Mai swallowed, and dared asked, "How would you do that?" She wasn't fidgeting anymore, instead sat still and watched Lin closely. She watched him out of the same instinct of prey scenting a predator, fear and anticipation and something coiling in her stomach that felt like hunger.

Lin leaned forward, steepling his fingers and gazing at her steadily. "I'd start with a kiss. We've never been that close physically, so I'd take it slow. You need to be comfortable with me if you're going to enjoy it. So I'd kiss you. And then again. Short brushes of my lips against yours until you open that pretty mouth to me so I can taste you. Then I'd kiss you deeply, pressing our bodies together until every place we touched burned with heat."

She could feel it, the imagined heat of their bodies together. Mai didn't understand why her body reacted as if he was doing the things he described, but it was. Maybe it was something to do with his sorcery, or maybe it was just the effect of his voice. She'd rarely heard him speak this much, but she enjoyed it. His voice was deep, but this was something else. There was a rasp to it, a gravely quality she'd never heard before. She wondered if his throat was dry too, thirsty for something that wasn't physical that she'd never tasted before but yearned for now.

"When we've kissed enough that you're relaxed, soft and plaint in my arms, I'll begin to touch you. Over your clothes first, because I'll need you to tell me when you want more. I will not push you, you set the pace. If you want to back out at any time, you need only say and I will. If you don't say, I could touch you for hours. Running my hands down your back and over your hips. Up again your taut stomach and just barely skimming your breasts. I'll want to touch them, to cup them in my hands and to play with them until they're tight and flushed but you have to tell me when."

"And if I say I want more?"

"I'll unbutton your shirt, slowly. In my head you're wearing white, not plain but not ornate, just a bit of lace around the border. I know there's lace because I've seen the straps that fall when you're working with the cameras."

"You've been watching me?"

His eyes are dark as he nods and Mai shivered at the idea of it. She knew it was his job, he was always watching, but that he was watching her felt different.

"Once your shirt is off, I feel like I'd have to pause. To enjoy the way you look before me, to memorize that way you move as you breathe and look at me with anticipation. This time when I touch you, I won't be shy. I'll cup your breasts and thumb your nipples until they're hard and begging and then I'll kiss them lightly through the fabric. I hope you don't mind but I like to use my teeth, nibbling at them until you're moaning from the pleasure. When you can't take anymore, I'll wrap my arms around you and undo the bra and then it's just your soft flesh and my mouth and my hands and I'll suckle at your breast until your whole body vibrates with the need for more. Do you want more?"

Mai nodded, clenching her hands in her skirt to keep herself from reaching for him now. Her body was aching with sensations she was only vaguely familiar with. She knew arousal, had touched herself before, but this was another level entirely. She could feel how slick she already was and for a moment worried at the decadence of her response. If this was just from a description, how much worse would it be if he followed through?

She desperately wanted to find out.

Lin waited until she nodded before continuing. "I would want to kiss you again then. Tangle my tongue with yours and massaging your thighs until you're trembling and I can press my hips between them with no resistance. When your body is curled against mine I'll slide my fingers under your panties and touch you."

Mai gasped aloud and knew that he could see the way she crushed her thighs together, unconsciously trying to mimic the touch he described.

"By then you're wet and I spread the slick all around until I find your clit. I imagine you're familiar with it?"

Mai looked down for the first time, biting her tongue and nodding before forcing herself to straighten up and stare back at him boldly.

"I want to know it as well as you do, so I play with it. I want to know how you like it. Do you like circles? Tightly circling the nerve until your body is so tight you could scream? Or do you like strokes? Long lazy caresses that have your hips dancing, pressing your body back and forth until you can feel your toes curling? I will make you come on my fingers not just once but twice. I want you out of your mind, panting and flushed and feverish."

"And when I am?" She already was.

"Then I'll slide your panties off and taste you. Taste all that release that covers your thighs and my fingers and I'll make you come again. Then, and only then, as your body still shakes with it, will I fuck you. I'll slide in so deep with my cock that you won't feel anything but me for days. You'll wake in the morning sore but you'll enjoy it because you'll remember all the things I did to you."

She could imagine it. She was near certain that if he touched her right now she'd explode with an orgasm and she'd would not feel bad about it at all.

Lin smiled, the half smile that was her favorite. "At least that would be the plan. Making love does not always follow plans."

"I think it's a really good plan," Mai decided, biting her bottom lip before announcing. "We should do that."

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