This winter had proven to be a challenging one so far.  In between visions,  students who needed her help,  and a whiney little brother who couldn't handle life with a broken microwave,  Mai found herself with less time and energy to spend with other people she loved and cared about. 

This morning, she woke up and realized three important things:

1. Today she felt awake, refreshed,  and energized
2. It had been ages since she had made gyoza and
3. Adon was probably in dire need of gyoza and a visit. 

Mai knew she had to take advantage of all three of those things.  Not that she'd take advantage of Adon.  So, after making sure that Kohaku was not in a sour mood and could take care of the dogs,  Mai prepared.  She bought groceries, pulled her homemade gyoza wrappers out of the freezer, and made her way to Hiraeth Gardens to visit Adon. The surprise visit had the potential to annoy the shit out of him.  She hoped the prospect of food and her somewhat delightful company could counteract that. It wasn't like she was going to subject him to lewd jokes. Dree's reactions were better anyway. 

Mai solidly knocked on his door to the tune of "We Will Rock You" by her favorite band.  The poor denizens of Hogwarts had all been subjected to Queen--their music regularly came from her office.

"Adon! I have a surprise.  I promise I'm not trying to buy your love!" She paused, hesitating. "Okay. I might be.  Just a little bit." Mai teased, leaning up against the door as if that would help her voice carry to the other side.

It was his day off--not even his mother or Dreogan had expected him to share in shabbat events today--which meant that Adon finally had the time to delve into the questions he'd been investigating privately; those that did not line up neatly with any active investigations, but somehow entailed far more than he might have anticipated.  The werewolf abductions had drawn his attention to Ira Almasy, and Ira Almasy had brought to his attention both Spectre and Glass.  He was still trying to make sense of that damned Witch Weekly article.  Was this how it felt to be a teenaged girl? Witch Weekly taking up the majority of your brainspace?

It was awful.

Adon turned a sheaf of parchment over, rereading his last thought before that meandering train of thought when a cryptic series of knocks came from the door.  Frowning, the Israeli rose from his seat at the couch, where he was spread in a seat of notes and loose parchment. A lazy, thoughtless twirl of his fingers, and the papers, like obedient soldiers, lined up to form a single pile, which Adon then slipped into his briefcase.  He grabbed his wand and headed for the peephole.  He could see nothing except the brick of the opposite side of the hallway.  But the voice was unmistakable.

Adon! I have a surprise.  I promise I'm not trying to buy your love!

Adon smiled, tucking the wand into a belt loop.  She was stammering her conditionals--ok and [/i]just a little bit[/i]--as he undid the latch and bolt, then the lock.  Flinging open the door with comedic exuberance, he was, indeed met by a surprise:  Maiko tumbling into him.  She must have been leaning on the door.

"So, are you the surprise, then?" he asked, his voice concealing a laugh.  "Because, I mean," he began, recomposing his face into a deadpan as he looked down at her, resting against his chest, "it's not that I can't be bought, but..."  He helped her regain her footing, rolling her to his side.  There was the rustle of paper, and Adon looked down to see a bag from the grocer's.  He frowned approvingly.

"What's the proposed price?" he asked, taking the bag without directly offering.  He sniffed and shifted the contents slightly as he kicked the door closed with his foot.  Tucking the bag under an arm, he used his free hand to latch the deadbolt and the lock.  "Good to see you Mai. Unexpectedly. Dree told me you've been busy? What's the occasion?"

He hoped it wasn't anything he'd forgotten.  Maiko's visits had that effect... he could never tell if he'd failed to write it down in his schedule, or if she was more prone to spontaneous bursts of kindness.  He suspected to latter; knowing Maiko well enough now had acquainted himself a bit more with chronic conditions as well.  You always had to live for the 'now,' when the now was good.  Adon tried, quietly and to himself, to settle down all of the thoughts of the things he needed to be doing today.  This was an unexpected break and, most probably, a needed one.

The door flung open. With a surprised squeaky cuss word under her breath, she fell forward-- only to be caught by Adon in a manner that reminded her of those dramas that Kohaku had been watching not-so-secretly on the television lately. For a brief moment, Mai worried that the her bout of awkward clumsiness would have hurt Adon. He held his ground though-- he didn't even stumble. He was tall, well muscled, and sturdy. He took care enough with himself to make sure he stayed that way.

"I've always been a surprise." She replied easily once she got her balance-- which usually wasn't a problem. But then again, doors didn't usually fling open when she was leaning on them. "But that's not the surprise I was talking about." He took the bag from her hand and locked the door.

"The proposed price--" Mai raised her eyebrows and motioned towards the bag for dramatic effect. "We are going to make gyoza." Her dad's recipe. It was one of the few things that tasted like home to her, and she wanted to share it with him.

"Also, I heard that you like gelato so there might be some in there. Just in case you don't like my gyoza and my company isn't enough to make up for it. " She wasn't sure who she heard that from. It was one of the Eleors. Hell, it could've been Adon himself. He also just seemed like he would've liked it. Did anyone ever, truly, dislike gelato? Besides lactose intolerant people anyway. They were to be pitied.

"Good to see you Mai. Unexpectedly. Dree told me you've been busy? What's the occasion?"

She had been busy. And stressed. And all sorts of not-so-fun things that usually came with being busy and stressed. However, things were... Well, not settled. But stable in their own chaotic way. Working at Hogwarts meant that there were always new problems cropping up. It seemed like the wizarding world was just as prone to pain and disaster as it had been when she was a student.  One thing was for certain-- Mai didn't think she needed an occasion to visit the people she cared about.

"The occasion is that I missed you and wanted to spend some time with you. Catch up a little." Mai replied earnestly, a warm smile spreading across her face. "Give you a hug--" And with that, she wrapped her arms around him and gave a little squeeze. "You've been busy too. You need a break." Being an auror wasn't easy. She didn't know how they did it, day after day.  Merlin, they both needed a break and some relaxed fun.

"Gyooooooh-zah?" he repeated, eyebrows raised.  Whatever that was.  He could pretend to like something he didn't know.  He accepted the hug with vigor, did not insist that he was fine and was in fact too busy at the moment, and was, on the whole, quite accommodating about it all.  Best not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Especially when it came with "gelaaa-to," he echoed again, as he craned his arm to reach into the bag, deftly curling his fingers around the top.  Several steps ahead of her, he placed the bags on the countertop and had two spoons out before she arrived. 

"For you," he said, offering one.  If he played this right, she wouldn't even notice how stressed he'd been. After all, Dree hadn't. And Dree was paranoid about everything. 

"So," he said, popping open the lid of the gelato.  "What is gyooo-zah anyhow?"

It was no secret that the auror office was dealing with a heavy workload. It seemed like disaster after disaster kept striking, and obliviators, aurors, and healers were left to clean up the mess. Zel Trumble was in classes, looking a bit more haunted than he usually did. He had stopped by her office a couple times to talk. He was handling himself as well as he could, and his social worker was a great help.

"Gyoza is a dumpling. It has ground meat and... Whatever vegetables I have on hand. Seasonings to make it taste good." She accepted the spoon and took a scoop of the gelato, straight out of the carton. Coconut was one of her favorite flavors. Adon didn't make any grossed-out faces when he saw the label, so she assumed that it was not a flavor that was strictly banned from this kitchen. 

"I pretty much, just have to mix up the ground meat with the chopped vegetables, and then put it into wrappers.  Then, I'll pan fry them."

Adon was being... Awfully energetic.  Not that it was out of character for him, but... Something about it seemed off in a way that she couldn't place. He carried himself with a tension that he tried to play off as casual. What, it wasn't like she had walked in on him watching porn or anything. "How are you?" She asked earnestly, deciding it was best not to comment on his peppy mood.

"Didn't peg you as a Carton Girl," Adon's tone was impressed.  In ways, he felt like he knew Maiko better than many of the women he associated with.  But, and he'd thought about this, she had this singular skill of deflecting and turning the conversation to her companions. 

Just like right now.

Ultimately, Maiko probably knew most of her friends better than they knew her.  And the knowledge that she was a Carton Girl was somehow reassuring to him.  It was just one more Maiko detail that he knew about her: like her dogged determination to turn Dree a darker shade of red than before; her slight swearing habit when surprised or frustrated; her inclination towards transfiguration as a punishment...  He'd learn more about her past in time, he was sure. And he'd certainly get to hearing about her life during this visit, but right now, she was looking at him like his cat had just died. Not that he had a cat--because they were horrible, entitled creatures and  he wasn't going to take one on, no matter how many times Margo offered one of Lizard's bastards.

From anyone else, that display of sincerity would have felt trite and grating. "Adon! How are you?"  From Maiko, it was just... Mai.  Knowing that Maiko was not going to accept anything less than a moderate display of emotion to her earnest inquiry, however, he allowed his shoulders to slump.  "Work's rough." He confessed with a little shrug.  "I had hoped that taking the time off in November would have helped a little, but..." another shrug.  Poisonings. Kidnappings. Level Two tensions. Flying solo--in so, so many ways.  He dug out a scoop of the gelato as he thought, frowning.  "I'm making good progress on several cases, though."  That was part of the problem.  The Ira Problem. The Ira Predicament. The Ira Fiasc--

"You'd be proud," he added, a familiar smirk crinkling the corners of his mouth, "I'm trying to make friends."  He'd met with Balfour Spectre.  He'd officially requested a partner from Riordan.  He even talked to Riordan about not-work-stuff.  (Quidditch. They'd graduate to talk of womenfolk once he felt a bit more confident.)  It didn't matter that his concern about that whole Ira Conundrum had been the trigger.  Good things could come out of bad circumstances, at any rate.  Hell. That was how he launched most of his friendships--and even romantic relationships. Raizel had--he had hoped affectionately--termed the phenomenon "the Gauntlet."

"But don't be jealous. They're not competition. None of them bring me food."  A pause. "But they probably should."  He smiled at her fondly before unpacking the contents of the brown paper bags item by item, until they--and several stainless steel appliances about the kitchen--were laid out on the counter with a surgeon's precision.  Adon was proud of his kitchen. He was proud of his cooking.  He was sure he was equal to the task.

"So, dumplings." He nodded.  "I haven't made them before, but want to learn. Where do we--" she'd talked about her doing all the work. Not likely. "--start?"

"I'm definitely a carton girl." She replied. Her brother, however, was not a carton girl. He was a picky little dish boy. Kohaku treated carton-people as if they had committed serious sins against frozen desserts everywhere.

Level four of the ministry of magic was going through hell and back. From the few letters she had received from Bertie, they were overworked, understaffed, and tensions were high. Adon confirmed what she already knew. He was hanging in there, and his answer covered enough to satisfy her for now. If he had wanted to go into detail about his case, then he would have. Mai also understood that sometimes it wasn't that people didn't want to share information about their work, but it was that they couldn't. Safety would be compromised, whatever was planned could be ruined by a stray tongue. The difference between life and death could depend on the quality of confidentiality.

"Back on the job and you're already making friends." And he probably hadn't alienated them. Go, Adon! She couldn't help but grin at that small bit of information. Good. He needed some good in his life. All the Eleors did.

"I can't promise I won't be jealous." She teased.

Her focus had successfully shifted to the task of cooking. "You can chop up the leek and mince the garlic. I'll chop the rest of the vegetables. When you're done, mix it with the chicken." As much as magic made cooking convenient, when she could, Mai preferred the muggle way of doing things-- with a knife and her hands. It made the cooking feel more personal. Delicious food deserved effort.

His kitchen knives were high quality. Good. If you could only afford one good tool in the kitchen, it would be a knife. A good knife could last years. In fact... Everything in his kitchen was nice. Nicer than the stuff she had at home. Mai gave the knife blocks a very visible nod of approval.

Suddenly, she felt like a contestant on one of the cooking shows she watched with Akiva. In a good way.

"I already made the...." Mai didn't know what to call them, green eyes squinting up at Adon as she tried to recall, "Skins...?" She said it, she'd roll with it. "Yes. Skins. So we don't need to worry about that until the filling is done."

Adon gave a little salute to acknowledge her orders, pulling out a cutting board from behind the knife block and two knives.  Deftly, he chopped the green from the leeks before making two long incisions on the outer layers of the leeks.  With a lopsided, distracted smile, he moved to the sink to rinse.

"You know, my mother and I--when I first moved to London--would watch Muggle cooking television together. Quite a lot." She'd noticed. He saw that approving glance at his knives.  He stood a bit taller.  Without meaning to, he was carrying out, step-by-step, the procedures he'd watched several years ago--with its deliberate showiness.  At least in cooking, Adon was quite good at following orders and replicating successes.  It centered on precision.  It yielded good results.  It made sense.  It was little wonder why Akiva, who spent so much time with Gabe these days, turned to cooking more and more regularly.  It wasn't just practical for feeding. It was necessary for clarity.  Particularly considering that children were basically sociopaths until they learned what human empathy was.

Pushing the leeks aside with the knife, he proceeded to mince, beginning to look around for the chicken.  He paused, however, at the word "skins."  Slowly turning to look at Maiko, his nose wrinkled in disgust.  "Skins?" he echoed, eyebrow raised.  "That sounds..." he searched for his own word. Morbid. Disgusting. "...Anatomical."

He'd minced like a champion at this point and was rifling unceremoniously through the brown grocer's bag again, pulling out several chicken breasts.  He looked at her expectantly, one held up in each hand. "I'm waiting for your chicken boob jokes, Mai."

Muggle cooking television! Her face lit up, just a bit. She and Akiva loved to watch muggle cooking shows.... Often while snacking and lounging on the couch. They were full of drama and intrigue. It was the only type of 'reality' television that Mai ever enjoyed. Every now and then, she liked to quote the most melodramatic moments. Usually to people who had never seen a television before, let alone watched a muggle cooking show.

Between the two of them, the vegetable prep was finished quickly. She appreciated Adon's unquestioning obedience and thorough chopping work. Gyoza was her territory. Now, if they were making hummus or falafel... Well, that'd be a totally different story. Kitchen dominance depended on three factors:

1. Cooking skill
2. Kitchen ownership
3. Experience with the specific item being cooked.

Mai suspected that Adon and her were well matched, though she had no evidence to support this thought. He owned the kitchen, but had never even heard of this dish.

"It's breast reduction time." She said through a laugh, more due to his expectation of the joke rather than the joke itself.
"Dice it as finely as you can, we'll worry about the skins later." Mai decided to clarify, "The skins are made of flour..." She gave Adon a wry look, pausing for dramatic effect. "Which is made from the ground bones of my enemies." Mai washed her hands in the sink. "Which is why I no longer have enemies."

Her brand of humor wasn't always well received, but the Eleors were raised by a woman more twisted than she was. In the best way. They could handle it.

In a bowl, she poured a splash of soy sauce and oyster sauce, the garlic, some ginger, and the prepped vegetables. Then, because she simply felt like it, she put in some chili pepper and just a hint of miso paste. "I don't measure this." Mai admitted, "My dad never did. And I learned from him."

Skins made from flour... "Wait for it..." Adon said quietly.

"Which is made from the ground bones of my enemies."

"There it is!" Adon's tone was congratulatory as he began to dice, bemused smirk still on his face.  Maiko was moving swiftly through an array of ingredients.  It was starting to smell delicious--almost like dumplings.

"I don't measure this."

"Show off," he muttered again under his breath.  "So you're saying most people in your family can't follow directions."  He swung his hip out to jostle her slightly.  "Is this coming from a natural defiance of authority?"  The tone was light. But the pause after grew contemplative. Maiko didn't usually talk about her parents.  He wanted to open up this avenue of conversation, not shut it down.  "What was he like?"

Adon seemed to expect her twisted humor to show itself. Good. He was learning. The fact that he was comfortable with teasing her brought a grin to her face. Maybe she was a little bit of a show off.

Unexpectedly, he hip bumped her-- catching her in the side.

For a split second, an expression that was a mix between bewilderment and pleasant surprise crossed her features. The proper thing to do was reciprocate with twice the force-- so she did. He was sturdy; it wouldn't hurt him!  "Of course we're all defiant of authority!" Mai replied, humor to her tone.  From what she gathered from meeting with the Yukawas and the Ōoriyashimas in December, her father had married a muggle woman against his father's wishes. He'd always been a spirited, challenging child, though that was the last straw. All contact had been cut, and he sent his mother back his wand to live life as a muggle. That wand was in her home now, as well as a few letters to his family that had been saved.

Growing up, she had no clue. When she got her acceptance letter to Hogwarts, he had acted appropriately surprised.  Mai knew now, that there was no way it had been a surprise. Her grandmother had revealed to her that her dad, too, was a seer-- as well as one of her uncles, and her grandfather.  He didn't want to meet her yet, and that still stung.

"What was he like?"

The silence that followed was more pensive than tense. Her father had been so many things, and there was so much Mai still didn't know. So she said what first came to mind.

"He was passionate, fiercely loved my mother. And his kids. His favorite color was red, so my mom always wore red lipstick and skirts." Mai finally replied, "He was soft spoken, I don't recall him ever raising his voice at anyone." Talking about him was easier once she got started.

"He had a dry sense of humor. He once told me that oil spots on the road were children who got run over because they didn't hold an adult's hand while crossing the street." Mai glanced at the diced chicken-- the size was perfect.  "He... Didn't sleep well. Was easily irritated, but tried not to show it." She gave Adon a weak little smile, "He always made an effort to spend time with us, even when he was..." What was the word? "Feeling antisocial." He had been withdrawn-- especially after her mom died.

"We were close. I didn't know a lot about him, I still don't. But we were close."  Mai began to mix the chicken with the vegetables and spices,  "Kohaku and I recently found out he was a wizard. Met some of that family."

 She glanced at Adon from the corner of her eye, aware he was listening, watching his body language. "That was fucked up. Finding out I was halfblood, instead of muggleborn. He was a seer, too. Kohaku's still pissed off about it." She tried to put humor in her tone that she didn't feel it. Being a muggleborn while she grew up hadn't been safe. For many muggleborns, it still wasn't safe. Knowing this information growing up would have saved her and Kohaku a lot of pain.

"Oof!" Adon made a display of being winded at her brute force.  "Watch it, Maikito! I'm chopping, here!" he called out hotly.  "Could have cut my finger clean off. Remind me never to get entangled in a den of angry, defiant Biladeau-Yukawas! At best I'd come out as a duck! At worst? An amputee!" he shook his head. Best not to think of that.  Much better to pay attention to Maiko--who seemed to be opening up more than he could ever remember.

Adon smiled along to the description, able to see, in a lot of ways, glimpses of his own father.  Quiet, even-tempered, a bit of a dark humor... withdrawn...

Secretive.

Adon stopped chopping.  "He kept that from you?" he asked in quiet disbelief. The sheer amount of lies--routine, everyday lives--that would have to go into that, to feign ignorance on such a thing... Pretending you didn't know what the N.E.W.T.S. were.  Asking about homework assignments...It was unimaginable.

Adon felt oddly protective of Maiko for a bright moment; that burst of protective instinct seemed was propped up by a growing sense of indignation.

That sounded like their father, too.  Always getting ingrained in some sort of social experiment--chasing ideas as far as they could go--without so much as thinking about the consequences on his children. "That is fucked up," he repeated, trying to keep the edge from his voice. "But he sounds like he cared about you...I am sure that never changed."  Adon didn't want to tell her how she should feel about it.  She maybe didn't even know how she wanted to feel, or how she did feel, or how she should feel.  "Which I know can make it a whole new layer of complicated when all you want to do is be angry at them..."  Adon felt angry. That their father would do that; that they were finding out so long after he was gone, still pulling the pieces together; that he was only now finding out about this. 

"Wow...I can't..." he summed up, shaking his head and leaning against the counter, facing out to look at her.  It made his head spin, just thinking about it.  "Yeh, I thought you were Muggleborn..." he fretted.  "How did you end up finding out?" he asked, head tilted.  "From the family?"  Maybe the family was a help with all this.

"He did care about us." Mai reassured him. And herself. Once upon a time, she had believed his love for them didn't outweigh his need to escape this life. Now she knew that mental health was more complicated than that. "He kept that from me. Acted surprised when I got my acceptance letter to Hogwarts." She hesitated, "But, he seemed to warm to the idea fast. Helped my mother process it." She shook her head. Mai couldn't imagine lying to her partner about something that huge.

"He died before He-Who-Must--" She grimaced, correcting herself. Old habits were hard to break. "He died before Voldemort came into power. I was... Fourteen.  I think he would've told me before then." She hoped he would've told her then. Maybe he would have helped them leave the country. There were so many ways her life could've been different if he were still alive. Kohaku's, too. He never would have had to go live with his mother, only to be turned out. They never would have had to live with her mother's family.

There was no use in dwelling on the potential lives they could have had. What they had been through helped shape who they were, and Mai generally liked who they were. She couldn't imagine being anybody else.

"Last school year, in October-- there was a teacher from Durmstrang. Atash Hendurabi. He connected the name, Yukawa, to an auror in Japan, as well as a wandmaker. He told me that Japanese wizards tend to keep careful records, and that I should look into it." Mai bit caught her bottom lip between her teeth. "I talked to a coworker about it-- Aileen Reid. Turns out, her brother married a Yukawa.  We tested our blood, we were definitely related. I sent letters. It took months for my grandmother to respond."

Mai shook her head, sometimes she couldn't believe it. "And my grandmother was, definitely, the wandmaker that Atash mentioned. She told me there were more relatives in my area, from her side of the family.[1] The wizarding world is so fucking small sometimes." All the time. She pushed that thought away.

"It's hard, to feel close to them. They're not family I grew up around." Kohaku got along very well with Liam Morrell, they were close in age. She got on better with Esther, though she had gotten along with Esther before they found out they were related. It wasn't the closeness one got with family. "It's overwhelming. Sometimes I'm glad I found out. Sometimes I wish I didn't." She hesitated. Only Kiv and Shona knew these bits about her, and Kiv more deeply than Shona.

Mai exhaled slowly and rolled her shoulders to relieve some of the tension that had been building up. "But even when I'm happy about it, I'm furious. And hurt. And mad at being mad." She gave Adon an apologetic look, "I'm not making sense. Sorry."

1.	Esther and Liam Morrell-- great-niece and nephew of Ayame Yukawa

It was a small world.  Atash Hendurabi and Aileen Reid.  He knew both.  It was further proof to the school of thought that Maiko could befriend almost anyone.  He said nothing.  Until he had to.  She looked tense. She looked overwhelmed and small and lost.

I'm not making sense. Sorry.

Adon hated that.  It was a thing he noticed often in women--immediately backing down from talk about their ideas before he got a chance to weigh in; as though they were afraid of what he might say. "It was just a thought..." they'd say.  Or "I'm sorry. I'm probably not making sense."or "I dunno. I'm just thinking out loud. Don't mind me." 

"You are," he said, firmly. She was talking about pain.  There were no adequate words for it, but the message was clear enough.  Hell, he could read it just from the way her shoulders hunched.  He came behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and giving it a light hug.  He was quiet as he considered what would even be acceptable to say.  "You make a lot of sense, really," he said, finally releasing her and stepping away, though his hand dropped and lingered in order to squeeze her hand a moment. 

He shuffled his way uncertainly back to the cutting board, picking up the knife.  "I feel the same sometimes, too," he said, looking down.  "The reason you're angry's always there--and the effects.  On some level, it doesn't matter what good you build from it after the fact--the fact is that it's still all stemming from a place of pain."  He shrugged, lightening the tone consciously and glancing back over his shoulder to her. 

"It could be worse, though.  Reconnecting with your family.  You could be stuck with an uncle you'd rather be estranged from..."  He shook his head.  "My mother's family still won't talk to us.  Except my uncle--her brother.  He won't leave us alone."  Under his breath, he muttered, "...fucking necronomist."

There had never come a time where she could resist or push her emotions to the side. They were always there, brimming under the surface. At her job, she had to learn how to focus the feelings-- and sometimes she had to hold them back. That was exhausting-- draining. There was also a sense of... Safety to letting your feelings go unvoiced. It can't be made worse if they didn't know it was there. Too many times, Mai had made the mistake of trusting the wrong things to the wrong people. Some of them were family by blood, though not in the ways that mattered.

In the case of Adon, she didn't make a mistake. He validated her anger and hurt-- not just through words, but through his actions. Mai had always found comfort in physical closeness and affection, and was thankful that he was able to read just what she needed in the moment. There was no judgement, no hesitation.

His words rang true in the way that only someone who actually got it could. They reminded her of something her mother had told her, before she could really grasp the meaning.  Anger is hurt turned bitter. She wasn't sure if she agreed completely, but anger and hurt springing from the same place felt right. It was strange, remembering things said long ago, by people who weren't around anymore.

Mai looked up at him before giving a playful nudge with her shoulder. "Thank you. You--" She felt heat rise to her face, though she doubted she was blushing. She didn't blush that noticeably. God, she hated the feeling of vulnerability that came with opening up. It didn't dampen her appreciation though. "Thank you."

Her eyes widened when she caught Adon mutter something under his breath.

A necrowhat?!

Mai let out a strange, half-strangled noise of shock.

She could've sworn she heard necrophiliac. Adon had said it so seriously too, to emphasize what an asshole his uncle was.

"He does what to bodies?!" Mai looked at him in disbelief. "Morals aside, isn't that illegal?!"