((Whoosh! And they're off to the kitchen in Tonight, We Dine!))

((OOC: Continued from Unkempt Places))

Ghost went incorporeal after he kissed her forehead. He was gonna have to take the physical stuff slowly, though he'd been doing well to get this far. She glad he hadn't actually made her say anything official or make any formal commitment. Not that she was gonna run out or cheat or anything, but Ghost really hadn't planned on any of this. It was just too embarrassing.

She hesitated a full second as he turned to walk away before her form melted away into the wind, a mist spirited away right past Garrett and up through her open bedroom window. If he'd had any hair it would have all flown in front of him. As it was, the invisible hands of the breeze tugged at his clothing, urging him onward. She'd cheated and taken a shortcut because she wanted a shower before he got there - all that running around earlier had her tried and the heat had made her sticky.

She tidied her already immaculate room: it was still a near perfect cookie cutter when her things were all put away. As it was two pair of shoes lay next to the open door and 8 or so books stood aligned on her desk. Everything else looked exactly as it was from the day she moved in: especially the bed. There were two wrinkly places where someone had sat upon the cover, but that was as close as she'd gotten to ever sleeping there. Maya grabbed some very conservative pajamas out of her dresser and made a beeline to the shower.

She left the hall door open, but locked her bathroom door -- just in case. She imagined several one-in-a-million chance, freak accidents that involved her having to escape the bathroom naked. She shook her head and hopped into the billowing clouds of steam. It didn't have to be logical. She just wanted to avoid those types of situations.

Garrett almost fell as he kissed Maya's forehead, she had become incorporeal! Fortunately, it had been just a friendly kiss to close the moment. Had he had his eyes closed, he would have probably been kissing dirt. He walked as slowly as his tingling, waking-up legs would allow. He was still reeling from the events that had transpired. No more strange tension or awkward glances. They were together now, though he would probably never label it. Defining a relationship generally destroyed it, in his opinion.

A breeze blew over his shoulders and back as he made his way across the grounds. Surely, it was her, hurrying along. She probably had thought Garrett would be running to her room, but he needed to take the time himself to nurse his wounds and clean up.

As he arrived in his room and locked the door behind him, he disrobed and put the dirty clothes into the growing bag of soiled laundry. He needed to locate the washer and dryer soon. He stepped into the hot shower and washed off, finding he had many more nicks and scrapes then he had previously thought as the soap and hot water found them. He chose not to affect the pain, deciding that pain was there for a reason, indicating when to slow down and take it easy.

Once he finished up in the shower, he decided to wear some sweatpants over boxers and a comfortable over sized button down shirt. This way he would be comfortable and still be covered up. He wondered if Maya was worrying that he was coming to ravage her. He would be a liar if it had never crossed his mind, but he attributed that to biology. He would pass on shoes, however. They were filthy and it suited the occasion to forego them.

He looked over the room as he was leaving. Oh! He thought at the last moment prior to leaving to get one of the small censers he had and take some sandalwood cones for her to burn. He had remembered how she had enjoyed the scent the first time she had been here in his room. He gathered the items up and turned the lights off, closing and relocking the door behind him. He headed down the hall, turning into the girls' hall and finding himself at her door. It was partially opened, but to be sure he wasn't intruding, he said, " Maya? I am here. I come bearing gifts."

Maya exited the bathroom in a billowing cloud of fresh-scented steam. She'd completely fogged over every smooth surface in the bathroom with the heat, but such was the way of these things. She tried to alternate two "cold" showers to every hot one. That way she could justify the hot water usage if anyone ever asked. She'd partially expected Garrett to be there already and so when he wasn't she was a tad disappointed. Which was silly, of course, since he would be there eventually.

Bah. But until then she was left with a heart hammering in her chest, wet hair, and foggy mirrors. She plopped the towel on her head and scrubbed viciously at her white hair - it would really look white now that it was clean and her tried and true method for drying her hair left it wild and untamed. Ghost idly pushed the most humid air out the window so that maybe her mirror would un-fog one day. Just as she was closing the window to keep the icky hot and moist air out as she heard Garrett's timid call from the hallway.

"Come in!" She tossed her towel over the back of the ajar bathroom door exposing her "Happy Hippo" shirt - her favorite relic from Mondragon Labs. "Presents already? Gee, Garrett, you sure know how to treat a lady right."

Then she saw what he'd actually brought. "Oh perfect, actually!" she took the censors and set them ontop of the bedside table. She knelt there as she did so, a graceful and practiced movement, and opened the drawer that held all her own personal holy items. She grinned at the thought. It would probably look like a jumble of blue silk and white cotton to Garret, but this drawer contained everything that she ever cared to own - the things she'd risked knowledge of her existence to get.

"Here it is. Ghost's Holy Grail." She grinned again and passed him the first item that was key for him to know about her: her old Japanese ID badge. It was contained in a leather pocketbook marked only by a small sparkly four leafed clover sticker on the front bottom corner.

Inside was her student ID. She knew the picture would probably confuse him so she watched his expression as he looked over the ID an then the small photobooth "pickukura" sticker pictures stuck on inside the leather case. The only non-Asian in the groups and featured in the ID was a medium-blond haired girl with long hair. The face looked slightly younger, but the eyes were definitely the same.

Garrett waited at the door for only a second before Maya called for him to enter. Rather than crunch every possible scenario and every possible response, he opted to just smile and come in as asked to. As he stepped by the door, he let his fingers push it slightly, enough to give more privacy without actually shutting it. She was freshly washed, her hair whiter than he had seen it in sometime. She seemed to glow, but he wondered if she glowed to everyone or just him.

She took his gifts and he watched her execute an amazingly formal movement as if it were breathing. He found her formalities incredible and enjoyed watching her pleasantly peculiar ways. When she commented on his knowing how to treat a lady, he just smiled and made a bit of a face like he thought an expert might. The ambiguity of silence seemed a better way to go than opening his mouth wide enough for both feet.

"Here it is. Ghost's Holy Grail."

A drawer full of silk. His impulse to be sarcastic melted away at the genuine shine her eyes gave off as she revealed more of her secrets to him. He watched as she handed him a small leather pocketbook. He fingered the small clover sticker and then opened it. He smiled as her eyes peeked out at him from an apparent ID. Unfortunately it was in Japanese. He had wanted to know her last name, but due to the anonymity she wished to have and her general formality, he had figured it was best to wait. Patience had gleaned him much of late.

His face was soft, yet puzzled. He decided the only way to find out anything was to open his mouth and be wary for feet. " Look at this lovely young girl. Any relation?" He smiled and winked at her. "Hmm, so how is it that your hair is white now? It seems too luxuriously soft to be a dye job. And what does all of this say?" It was a smooth move, he thought. He handed her the ID, while truly curious as to the literal meanings of the characters, but also hoping she might slip and say her last name herself.

"The hair?" She grinned, ready for this one. "It dyed of shock! Get it?" She grinned in a way that let him know that she knew how bad that one was. She decided to placate him with a real answer. "Okay-okay. It started growing white after mom kicked. It was stressful and I had a little bit of a power mishap. Mom and I never let Dad know since he was normal. Well... after that he definitely knew. So did everyone else." She tried to keep her tone light like it was no big deal. She scratched her head just above her ear. "I started growing white roots so I had to cut it all off. It was really short for a while, but I think I like it like this." She smiled as he pried for information from her school ID.

"Can't you read it?" She leaned so she could read it for him. "This is my name. This is my school name and my class number - you can probably read that one, 4-C that's pretty universal." She continued point to the boxed off sections and tell him nothing particularly useful. He could press if he wanted - but he was going to have to actually ask.

"Ready for the next one?" Actually, nothing else she had in her drawer was nearly as easy as the first had been.

Garrett shook his head and made a 'wah-wah-wah' sound when she cracked the bad joke, sharing the corny grin with her. As Maya explained the source of her white locks, he was pleasantly surprised at her general ease with the situation. Though she may have fought any type of relationship before, giving in a bit may have helped her a bit. Helped them both.

As she prepared to explain the ID card, he took a seat on the floor near her. Not too close, but not too far away either. She was pointing out the sections and their meanings, clearly sidestepping his attempt for more information. He began to realize that she was certainly his match intellectually, a fact that made him like her that much more. Since she was not going to volunteer any information, he realized he would have to find out himself.

" Well, since I can't read any of that, could you tell me what your full name is? You do know mine, after all. Promise I won't tell." He then waited to see what the next secret treasure would be.

"No laughing. No telling." Maya gave him the eye before pointing to each character in turn. She started with the last word as it was listed middle name, last name, and then first name. "Ma-I-Ya" She sounded out each character as its own syllable, as if she were spelling it for him in Japanese. "Ri-E-N . Su-I-Fu-To" She looked up at him then through the lace of her lashes as she slipped her hand into his and shook it like they were just meeting. "It's nice to meet you Garrett Theodore Wills, my name is Maya Leighanne Swift."

There was something very intimate about letting someone know everything. Most people at the mansion knew nothing personal about her beyond the code name of Ghost. And yet, here she was, showing Garrett every secret and every detail - even the bits that could get her in trouble. Anything he wanted he had but to ask. She found herself wanting more. If this was what it was like to really know someone, to truly trust someone... maybe even some day love...

The tension started building making her chest squeeze so she pulled her hand back and started pointing to the smallish sticker pictures. The quality wasn't wonderful, but you could tell boys from girls and general hairstyles. "And, uh, This is Ai. This one is Eri - we're in front of a train station backdrop here. This is Yuu. Last time I checked Ai and Yuu were dating." She hesitated, realizing what the last sentence sounded like. She was beginning to feel a bit self conscious about all this. Normally she wouldn't have even thought like that at all.

Ghost snapped the pocketbook closed, jumping a bit at the sudden soft slap. She slid the book away and started rummaging through the wadded silk for her next sacred item.

Maya Leighanne Swift. He had thought Maya alone was a lovely name. Adding the rest made it even sweeter.She looked in his eyes and shook his hand, saying it. " Pleased to meet you.", he said as he squeezed her hand slightly, his thumb tracing over the knuckle of her own. The tension was electrifying. He felt it in a peculiar way, as if her energy moved up his arm and made a warm jolt through him.

She pulled her hand free and explained the rest of the people in the scene. Her inflection made it clear that she was just as enthusiastic about the evening as he was. He nodded and listened, catching a bit of hesitation after she had said what sounded like I and you were dating. She then shut the pocketbook closed. He knew her feelings. Someone with less nobility might capitalize on such a thing, but he wanted her to be around forever, so he made sure to lighten things up a bit.

" It must have been fascinating to live somewhere else, especially somewhere like Japan. You really seem to have absorbed all you could from it. I wonder, in a place like that of epic natural beauty, where did you find yourself the most? " He secretly wished that he had been able to experience more of the world growing up. His memories, unfortunately, were mostly of nurses and doctors. Bland gray rooms and the beeping of monitoring devices.

Maya carefully slid her nail underneath the edge of the two pictures, careful not to mark them. She made a fuss with the silk as he finished his tourist magazine interview-sounding question. She looked down at the photos in her hands. "Mom called it full immersion. I think, she really liked cultures." She touched the face in the picture. "I didn't really want to be there at first... and by the time I left, I was already used to it. It really was beautiful compared to here." She laughed and passed him the photos.

"Meet my Mom and Dad." She pointed to the woman in the picture. Maya obviously got the heart-shaped face and the shape of her eyes from her mother. Meredith had blue-grey eyes. "This is Meredith, my mom." Next she pointed to the attractive man with piercing chocolate-colored eyes. "This is my dad, Jonathan." She his long and straight nose that had a very slight slope at the end. She also seemed to share his hair color... when her hair had color.

Ghost said nothing about the second photo in his hand. It was rather self explanatory and a nice segue into her next item which she began to fish out of the drawer while Garrett looked at the picture of her Mother and Sister's grave. It was the only English headstone in the tightly packed cemetery. The tall pillar of a headstone was long with two sections of small but clear writing. Fresh white chrysanthemums adorned the grave site.

Evan Sabrina Swift
Gone too soon.
October 1993 – September 1996
From the earth she was born and to the earth she was reclaimed.

Meredith Harper Swift.
Beloved Wife and Mother.
July 1958 – January 2008.
We never know the worth of water until the well is dry.

Maya busied herself by pulling out the wads of silk. She waited with the cotton covered rectangle until he had finished with the photos.

Maya seemed to lighten at first but as she pulled some photos out of the drawer, she remained quiet in her explanations. Garrett knew that they would eventually reach the subject of her mother, having spoken of it the first time they had been here. It seemed like ages ago. This new age of understanding and compassion was much nicer.

"Meet my Mom and Dad.[/i]"

She handed him the picture and he made sure to handle it carefully. He could see her in both of them. As she spoke of them, he saw the warmth in her mother's eyes and from all Maya had said of her, was sorry that he would never get to meet her. A moment of clarity passed through him as he recalled this feeling and remembered Maya's interest in the medium shop. Perhaps one day he could meet her after all.

Looking at her father, he wondered about the man. He was military and had sent his own daughter to the camps willingly.Nonetheless, Garrett was glad that his mutation was not one that could be seen on the surface, so that if he ever did get the opportunity to meet the man, he might approve of them. He looked at it a moment longer and then handed it back to her as she then handed him another photo.

He nodded to himself and then looked at her, sliding his arm around her in a comforting way. " A sister too? Oh, Maya, I'm sorry.", he said, giving her a squeeze. He handed the photos back to her carefully. " I can understand more why you worry about people leaving you. Death would be the only thing to keep me from you and with you to fight for, I'd give Death a hard time."He smiled and slid his arm back to his side, nodding and smiling. His eyes showed her that he meant every last word.

He gave her a little hug when he figured out what the first name on the headstone meant. She never said a word the whole time, though she did accept the hug, however brief it may have been. He handed the photos back to her carefully and she slid them on top of her pass book. At least now he understood a little. No one in Japan had ever known - they moved out as soon as it happened. They'd escaped all the questions surrounding Evan's death when her dad had been transferred to Japan. She sighed then and carefully unwrapped the under kimono from around the ihai.

"This is why the incense is a very appropriate gift." The stone tablet was rough hewn stone on all sides except the large front and back sides that were polished. The words were in beautiful calligraphy version of Japanese symbols. "It's a funerary tablet for my mom. In Buddhist tradition you light incense to honor the recently deceased among other things." She smiled a bit, but it was a bit hollow. "I haven't had a chance to yet."

Maya offered him the tablet if he wanted to hold it before she set it up on the night stand and arranged the censor and a cone in front of the tablet. She set the photo up against the stone. It almost looked like a proper butsudan without a food offering. She didn't really believe in that part anyway. She did like the idea of her mother's soul possibly reincarnating one day. Surely with as good a life he she had, she would have a better life next time.

Ghost got up to fully close the door and came back with the same formal way of sitting - it had become habit since she had to wear a skirt to school and it came in handy for not flashing people now that she continued to enjoy wearing skirts. "Do you mind if I light the first cone?"

She wasn't really thinking about it until she had everything arranged and had started the motion of striking the match. It all sort of caught up to her as she saw the sparks ignite the match head and the orange blaze that followed. The orange teardrop-shaped flame bent awkwardly until it latched firmly onto her fingers. Ghost gasped and dropped the match, but it was too late.

Like a hungry leech, the flame blazed to real life now that it had something pure to feast on. The flame grew easily twice the size of what was expected and glowed blue with white tips. The sudden growth and flare of the fire scared Ghost even more than the initial match strike. She shook her arm frivolously as if she could shake the leech from its growing perch on her hand. Intuitively she held her whole arm out as far from her body as possible. Some part of her knew that stopping, dropping and rolling was her worst option at the moment.

Ghost squeezed her eyes shut still trying to shake the hungry flame, it was all happening too fast. Her frantic waving probably didn't help, though as the flame was licking faster and faster up toward her wrist. Normally she didn't feel anything but drastic temperature changes, though a fire this hot was drastic enough that she could feel the burn just like anyone else would. It was hot and it sure as hell hurt, but the worst part wasn't even the burning. It was the leeching. It was feeding off of something she felt was sacred to her well being. She was already gasping for air like a fish on dry land-trying to replace what the sudden conflagration was consuming.

As he handed her the pictures back, Garrett wondered if he should have held her longer. It seemed appropriate. Besides that, his instincts and emotions were running high and all of this thinking about everything was going to lose before long. Maya then unwrapped a beautiful stone tablet with characters inscribed on its polished face.

"This is why the incense is a very appropriate gift.[/i]"

She explained the stone's function as a Buddhist funerary tablet. He had seen items like this in general, but never in person. The fact that it was something so sacred to her and she was going to share its initial use with him meant so much. She handed it to him and he smiled and took it carefully, as if he were taking someone's newborn. He admired it and ran his finger over the characters before handing it back to Maya. She set it up with the photo and the censer, preparing a makeshift altar for a funerary rite.

As she stood to walk across the room to close the door, Garrett decided to let his analysis go. Though the Taoist acted in a different manner, one thing was for sure. The now moment was the only moment of worth. Though they were about to honor her mother's passing, it was the celebration of her spirit in the now and their presence together in the now which mattered most. He bowed his head for a moment and prayed to himself that he could relieve the trappings of paranoia and too much thinking.

When he raised his head and opened his eyes, she was just in the process of sitting next to him in her formal way. She asked if she could light the first cone and he graciously handed her the box of matches. He smiled and nodded, ready for now.

As Maya lit the match,the flame leaped at her hand. Garrett thought it was just a brief bit of wind or her breath but when she dropped the match and the flame was still there, now came quickly.Time seemed to slow as the flame doubled in size and turned blue and white, feeding on her like living fuel. She stuck her arm out and her eyes squeezed shut as she winced in pain. That look on her face put Garrett into action.

In one movement, he scooped her up in his arms and took her into the bathroom. She was holding on to his back with the burning hand and it was starting to sear his shirt, but he would take alot more pain before he allowed her to suffer another second. He jumped into the shower and turned cold on full blast. The water blasted the two of them, soaking them from head to toe. The initial shock made her eyes open wide.

Once there was no danger of her burning, he knelt down and supported her legs with his knee and used the free hand to turn the water off. He held her close, their saturated bodies close enough to start another fire. He smoothed the water and white locks from her face. " Maya! Say something!"

She'd noticed that fire seemed attracted to her, but she'd never actually been lit on fire... or rather, she'd never lit herself on fire before. When he'd picked her up, she'd clung to with with no hesitation. There was no time for thinking, only action. She was sucking in air in huge gulps as if there wasn't enough left.

She was only aware that they were in the bathroom when the cold water hit. It was shock enough to make her gasp. The fire sizzled in protest, refusing to be extinguished until a steady stream of water had built up and was running constantly over the flames. Ghost shut her eyes briefly, the cold kicking her brain into action. She concentrated on the area, making sure the flame fully extinguished and no spark had found its way inside her. She didn't know if it could go inside, but the thought was enough to make her suck all usable air away from the effected area... just in case.

When she opened her eyes again, Garret had shut off the water. Her legs felt like Jell-O and she wasn't sure how, but she was sitting essentially on Garrett's knee. He'd seen the flames fizzle out and now he was holding onto her like she was in danger of running away. She was vaguely aware that she was still gasping, but somehow it was less urgent. He was smoothing her hair then, sliding the damp clumps from her eyes and out of her face.

"Maya! Say something!"

She blinked at him unable to say anything, her face screwed up in a mixture of pain and thankfulness. Water was dripping into and out of her eyes. She leaned fully against him, burying her face against his neck. She didn't dare look down at her hand. It felt dry and crackly which was strange since the rest of her was soaking. It was also still burning. Not a physical flame but she felt nothing but hot and hurt from her hand. She didn't dare move it and so her arm hung strangely beside them.

Finally after what seemed like forever, Maya's light-headed brain was able to puzzle out a sentence. It came out between soft sobs, her lips practically against his throat, "Make it stop burning."

Garrett was a bit frantic once the initial adrenaline wore off. The fire had seemed to fight the water, not wanting to go out. Once it had, he was worried over her as she kept gasping for breath. He had to learn about fire and its effects on her to ensure nothing like this ever happened again. Thankfully her eyes opened after what seemed like forever. She buried her face in his neck, sobbing. Her arm fell limp and she begged him to make the pain stop.

Perhaps it was the familiarity of the region or of Maya herself. Perhaps it was pure instinct. Either way he made it stop hurting. He didn't look at her arm or meditate. He didn't take his eyes off of her, making sure she didn't lapse into unconsciousness. Once it was clear that he had done so, he put his arm back under her legs and lifted her gently. He stepped out of the shower and carried her to the bed. The thought crossed his mind of her not wanting to mess any of her formal foldings up, but this wasn't the time to worry about little details.

He laid her gently on the bed, propping her head up with a pillow and placing the second pillow under her arm. He did look at it then. It looked hideous. It was a severe burn and was equally shocking in that no human could ever be burned so badly in such a short time. By a match no less. Fortunately, with the horrors he had seen between the camps and the streets, he didn't flinch. He quickly went into the bathroom and pulled some towels loose, returning to her side and covering the arm lightly with the towel, to prevent any initial infection. He dried her legs with the other one and placed it near her hand.

He leaned over her and caressed her cheek. " Maya." he said in a whisper."I have to go get the DocProf so he can heal this up. It doesn't look good and I don't want it to get worse.I'll be right back. I promise." He leaned in and pressed his lips softly against hers and then stood. " I promise."

Before she could respond, he opened the door and left quickly, still dripping.