Work had started for her well before the sun was up. Thanks to a mixture of caffeine and power naps, she had made it through her day (and the staff meeting) without being even a little bit useless. Mai was used to being so tired that it sometimes hurt. Between consistently disturbing visions and consistently disturbing tragedies within their community, a good night's sleep had become rarer than it should have been. Despite the aid of potions, she was feeling it. Before stopping at home though, she wanted to visit with Adon.

He had been making steady progress lately. Some of his days were good, and some were bad. He was at a point now where people were comfortable leaving him alone. Despite that, his mother kept the refrigerator completely stocked with way more food than one person needed. It had proven to be a lifesaver after a hard day when she didn't have the energy to cook, and chose to focus that on checking in on Adon instead.

The first thing Mai noticed (after giving him a moderately-awkward hug), was that the place was in completely un-Adonlike chaos. His belongings were scattered all over the floor. Adon muttered excuses, kicking them to the side with his foot as if it'd actually hide the mess. Was he looking for something? Wait-- was he embarrassed about this?! She tried not to smile in case he thought she was making fun of him, but... It was better than an emotionless husk. Significantly better.

She raised her eyebrows, her expression more curious than concerned. "What are you looking for?"As soon as she said the words, she knew that wasn't quite the right thing to ask.  Maybe he was working on a project? "Can...." She stepped around a pile of ransacked...Whatever that was. "Can I help?"

Maiko looked tired and worn. He might not remember much, but he wasn't exactly an idiot. And even if he was sort of someone who came into being only a matter of days ago, he certainly wasn't born yesterday. It was never appropriate to point out a haggard appearance to a woman.

Not if one wanted to live.

Next item of business:

What are you looking for?

"Me," came his simple reply.  He looked at her, trying to gauge her reaction. Dreogan had been getting more and more frustrated with how short his responses could be.  He decided to elaborate: "Mostly."

He frowned, brows knitting, at her next question. This was less easily answered. Perhaps he would start by explaining the task, and she could volunteer what she could. Adon didn't know Maiko all that well, and therefore what she could or could not do to help.

He held up a notepad, "I've, uh..." there was a moment of doubt before he pressed on. "I've been cataloguing everything I could find... Looking for habits, trends, anything that could be of use..." He moved over to the now-empty bookshelf, with its contents piled on the floor.  "They were already categorized according to genre..." he said, "And some of them are pretty marked up. There aren't a lot of leisure books, but even those have been read to the end. So I'm guessing that, ah--" in his notes, he'd been referring to him as Adon, but that was probably a step too far in conversation. He tried again. "So I'm taking from that that...I'm pretty thorough..."

A fact that might have already been proven by taking on this project to begin with. Several of those books had been on profiling. He'd have to ask his colleagues if that was one of his areas of focus--without raising too much suspicion.

If he was ever going to get back to work, get back into the family, and into this life... he'd need to do it seamlessly enough not to raise suspicions.

He looked at her, a sort of tightness in his stomach--nerves--as he considered.  He leaned over the coffee table for his straight pen. Another note, there: he seemed to be the sort of person traditional enough for nibs and inkwells, but practical enough to have done away with the feathers. Adon also had an extensive pencil collection. He'd been toying around with those today as well. No ink to bleed, and easy enough to take on the go.

"So, maybe, if it'd be alright, I could ask you a few questions--just to see if what I've gathered seems consistent with your impression of, um..." his brows knit as he concluded: "me." He prepared his notepad. Good. An interview. This would be simple enough.

"Me. Mostly."

Now the clutter made sense. Her first instinct was to smile. Adon was slowly becoming more and more himself, but... He wasn't there yet. His exposure to the dementor (or dementors?) had left him with a severe case of amnesia. His intensity in figuring out who he was and what his life was like was promising. He was, naturally, an intense person. According to Kohaku, that intensity was sometimes overwhelming, though Mai disagreed. She hoped that the loud, obnoxious, absolutely hilarious, clever and compassionate aspects of his personality would come back soon. 

For now, she was optimistic. He'd already beaten the odds countless times. Mai hoped he'd beat these ones.

"You want to interview me." Mai stated, trying to get a read on his general mood and well being. He looked a little groggy and dazed, but clearly determined. She wondered if he was getting enough sleep.  Maiko gingerly moved a stack of books so that she could take a seat.

"Go ahead. Ask away."

"Yes--if I could." Maiko seemed generally obliging. She'd even smiled. From what he could tell of her, she was very agreeable. He had tried to give her every reason to be, but this couldn't be easy. She was handling it better than his mother was. Maybe even his brother, in ways.

He waited for her to settle before looking over his notes, trying to pick a good starting point. There was the books, specialties and areas of focus at work--which she might not know that much about, then there was his kitchen and the various questions he had there. (How many types of coffee did he need at a time?)  Oh! Which reminded him...

"Do you need coffee?" It was the evening, of course, so likely not.  "I'm brewing myself some, if you'd like." It was lucky the kitchen had a set for Turkish coffee. That was something he and Past Adon definitely had in common. He paused before adding, "That was not a part of the interview."

Frankly, she had no idea how long this interviewing would last. Coffee would be welcome. Hopefully it'd keep her awake long enough to answer Adon's questions coherently, and she doubted she'd have any trouble falling asleep once she got home, even if she injected caffeine straight into her veins.

Besides, an evening cup of black tea or coffee wasn't an anomaly for her by any means.

"Yes. Please." Mai gave him a grateful smile. A saint. Even though he was significantly more subdued and had less of a flair for the dramatic, he was still a complete saint. And he could probably still make delicious coffee. She hoped that this version of Adon didn't suddenly like heavily sweetened coffee, but even if he did... She probably wouldn't complain. The last thing Mai wanted to do right now was offend him!

He got up to go make the coffee, and she followed him into the kitchen, moving with care.

The kitchen was equally cluttered, things pulled out of cupboards and placed on the countertops for careful inspection. Clues.

"Make it the way you like it. I'm not picky." A lie as much to herself as it was to him. She was picky. Mai hadn't enjoyed most sweet beverages ever since she was a kid.[1] "So." They had time to spare while he prepared the coffee, "What's your first question?"

1.	Exception: Lychee bubble tea, but she says it doesn't count because you have to chew.

It was kind that Maiko was being accomodating. Adon knew of other ways to brew coffee, but he only had the materials for one way: Turkish coffee. Which must have been his favorite, because it was the only adequate option, in his mind. At least Past Adon and he could agree on one thing.

He glanced sidelong at Maiko as she followed after him. He suspected Past Adon and he could also agree: she was pretty fantastic, too. Came every day, didn't complain--even when he only wanted to sleep, and did just that... There was nothing in it for her, and she was still here.

Maiko was moving slowly, carefully, and gracefully, but it still had that sort of calculated gingerness of someone ... not quite limping. Avoiding limping. Avoiding pain.

He glanced down, at her hip, now resting against the counter and frowned.  He put down his coffee can, holding up a finger indicating she--and the questions--could wait, as he left the kitchen.

When he came back, he had a barstool in each hand, which he dropped down onto the kitchen tile with a bit of a clatter.  He then shrugged off the blanket from his back, dropping it onto her shoulders. Almost on cue, the hairs on his arms began to raise as his skin became like gooseflesh. He moved quickly to get past it.

They had to have been dating. There was no other reason she'd be here like this. Or why Akiva and Dreogan exchanged nervous glances whenever her name came up. But she wasn't living here. So it probably wasn't that serious. But she was still here every day.

Adon flicked on the faucet of the sink, letting it tumble loudly into the copper ibrik.

Why did she come every day?

Instead, he ticked off another question: "My favorite color."  Phrase that in the form of a question: "...is?" he added belatedly.

As soon as she had gotten semi-settled, Adon moved around again. It wasn't long before he was back with a couple of unfortunately familiar bar stools. A reminder of human idiocy when the urge to make out vetoed common sense and basic logic. "Thank you." She said gratefully, taking a seat.

Consideration for her (and probably others) was another sign that he was improving. The Adon that Mai knew was selfless, caring, hilarious, loud and stubborn. All it did was feed her hope. She didn't expect him to make a full recovery. If he appeared completely unchanged from a near-death experience, then she'd be more worried about what was really going on. What was being hidden, and what was being dealt with without any sort of support from others.

The weight of the blanket on her shoulders was comforting, warm with Adon's body heat. It smelled like him, too. Not that Mai would ever comment on that because it'd be weird and borderline creepy. Especially with how not-himself he was.

"My favorite color is...?"

Did Adon even like colors?

"You wear a lot of grey. And black." Mai hesitated, "And blue? But." She leaned forward slightly, "Your leather jacket is brown. I'm going to say brown." Or black? She thought about changing her answer, but instead nodded. Yes. Brown.

"Mmn," Adon gave a thoughtful hum in the back of his throat. Grey. "Knew it." He made a note in the notebook. "I seem a little old to have favorite colors though, don't I?" He paused, moving to heat up the ibrik on the stove. He shifted, back against the counter as he looked at her, arms folded. "I thought it could be black. Black cat, black bat, black hair. Goes with everything. Or white."  He sprinkled several pinches of sugar from a ceramic container into the ibrik.  "Or white." His sheets were white. His towels, his t-shirts, his work shirts...

"Something I can't figure out," he said. "Is he--" Adon cleared his throat uncomfortably, face flushing slightly.  He turned to watch the water boil, his back to her. "Am I a sort of black-and-white person?" He was an Auror. Seemed simple enough. He'd unearthed a sort of... rigidity in his examination of the flat. The carefully creased clothes. Labeled storage. Who the hell labeled boxes when living alone? Adon was not going to argue--it was helpful for today's exercise, but Past Adon couldn't have possibly been organizing things to the degree that Future Near-Obliviated Adon could slip right into feeling at home, knowing where everything was tucked away. Well, nearly everything. He had yet to find any journals, personal writings, correspondence except the trivial sort. "Or grey?" Grey people had secrets. Grey people hid things from others. Grey people had lies about why they could not come to work. Associated with necromancers--even if they were family. Even if they were helping him. Grey people accepted help from necromancers.

He didn't know what he was hiding, but he'd find it out. Somehow.

Mai shook her head vehemently at the very notion that someone could be too old to have a favorite color. "Absolutely not! We're just old enough that people don't think to ask us what our favorite colors are." She insisted, "Adults have favorite colors. I have favorite colors. I'm sure your brother has favorite colors. President Obama probably has a favorite color." She didn't realize just how passionate she was about the concept of grown witches and wizards having color preferences, and when she thought about it she felt just a little bit ridiculous. Her face flushed but she moved on, focusing on his next question.

Was he a black-and-white person?

Man, he was all about the heavy-hitters today.

Thankfully, this question was easy for her to answer. There was no hesitation whatsoever. "Well. There's no such thing as completely black-and-white--In my opinion. Buuut as far as people go, you're one of the most black-and-white people I've ever met. In a good way." She placed her elbows on the counter and propped her chin up on her hands. "You always have an opinion, and it's always a strong one. I don't have to worry about what you really think or what your agenda actually is. You'll tell me if you think it's worth me knowing."

She had... a lot of opinions... about colors. He held a free hand up, dumbfounded. For a moment, he seemed unable to proceed. What did one even say to that? What would Adon say to that?

"...Alright," he conceded, continuing his work on the coffee.  Two cups were pulled from the piles. He lined them up. Literally waited for water to boil.

He looked at the water, thinking over her words. Always had an opinion. Adon didn't even know what he should have opinions on, much less what those might be. "I see," his tone distant. His hands hovered over the water, enjoying the heat. His feet were cold. He should have put on socks. Why hadn't he put on socks when he was upstairs? Where were his socks?

Did the Adon she knew have strong opinions about socks? About being cold?

"If it's worth knowing..." he repeated, quietly. "What sort of things would I have told you, that were worth knowing?" Anything about his work, perhaps. Who he was seeing, anything suspicious...

No, no. It was a Dementor attack. There was no need for him to be suspicious.  He craned his neck to look across the hallway and to the fortified front door. The one that had had seven locks installed in January.

Nothing to be suspicious about, at all.

Whoops. She was overwhelming him. It was time to dial it back a bit. Mai adjusted the blanket on her shoulders, wrapping it more completely around herself.  There was a silence, but it wasn't uncomfortable.

His next question was... Incredibly broad. What was worth knowing? If you were to ask her, she'd say that anything Adon was willing to share with you was something worth knowing. But that wasn't the answer he was looking for-- he wanted specifics. A broad answer to his broad question wouldn't be helpful, even if it involved a hefty compliment.

How much did he already know? She shifted in her seat, crossing one leg over the other. "You were lead on a few cases-- the mass poisoning at St. Mungo's. That one was hard on you. Personal. Jacoba--" Did he even remember her? Mai had met her a few times, Sasha's sister.  She had been a delightful, funny, clever young woman who cared deeply for her brother. "One of your exes, she was one of the victims." Maiko paused a moment.

"You also led the investigative part of Zel Trumble's abduction." What else? "It's been a long time since you've really mentioned work to me. You were busy and focused. And careful." She glanced in the direction of his front door-- the locks hadn't escaped her notice. Nobody who felt completely secure had seven locks on their door. Mai had never pressed about it, never questioned it aloud.

She'd trusted that if he was comfortable sharing it, he would. Eventually. Mai was patient. And she didn't necessarily think she was obligated to know every single thought process behind every single thing he did. "You put in the locks at the beginning of the year. Late January. I never asked why, but I assumed it had something to do with work. You stopped mentioning your cases after that." What else?

"You interviewed Zel and Raine in my office. Probably about the abduction." Zel had mentioned some things in their sessions, but not usually about how the case was progressing. He usually talked to her about his family. His guilt involving the muggle-Raine-doppleganger. Grief. That kid had been through so much, too much.

Coffee was almost ready. Adon smiled a bit to himself as he heaped a generous amount of the powdered coffee into the ibrik, stirred, and poured the steaming liquid into the mugs, much more ornamental and ornate than anything else he had in the flat. These felt distinctly Middle Eastern in their pattern. Really, the only other nod to the Middle East in the flat was the Persian rug upstairs.

"Raine Almasy?" The name seemed to come easily. Either remembered or read somewhere. He'd need to follow up on that. Zel Trumble--yes. The neighbor. His mother had mentioned something about 'that poor boy' being abducted. He'd seen something in his correspondence from Carstairs about it. Werewolf abduction, was it?

"Am I... allowed to talk about it?" It didn't seem as much. There was very little around his flat at all work-related except the odd piece of correspondence. He imagined it was almost all on Level 2, tucked away safe somewhere. But then there was the odd matter of the desk which was so clean of anything, so inoccuous, it quickly became a piece of interest. "Doesn't seem like there's much laying around." And if he went back to work before knowing what his case notes held...

Maybe JJ could be bribed to smuggle more than Chinese takeout.

At any rate, that was a conversation and though for another time.  It was not, evidently, something Maiko likely knew much about.

He reached for a spoon to stir the coffee, hand hovering a moment as his eyes caught sight of a stack of cans of cat food. Slowly, with a display of dawning horror, he looked at Maiko, to the cans, brows furrowing distinctly, making a show of frowning as he asked, "Wait. ... Do I have a cat?" Or some really guilty pleasures, Adon refrained from asking, though the smile slowly started to creep up. Keep a straight face, Adon Eleor. "...Like, should I be feeding it?"

"Aurors tend to keep their cases as confidential as possible. Especially if the stakes are higher." Mai gave Adon an apologetic look. " You never left anything about your cases out in the open, I don't even know if you ever brought it home. Your partner was JJ. He might know more." The name was faintly familiar when she had first heard it. Bassir. She could have sworn that he was a first year in her seventh year at Hogwarts... Muggleborns banded close at that time. The older ones had been protective of the younger ones. Some days it felt like yesterday, but enough time had passed that some details had been lost to her memory.

There were plenty of new details about JJ though. Apparently, he had an incorrigible sandwich problem. He sounded like a genuinely fun person to be around.

Her gaze followed his-- cat food?

Mai's brow furrowed in confusion.

"...Like, should I be feeding it?"

She felt a brief moment of panic. How did he not know he had a cat? Did she forget to tell him he needed a cat? Did he forget that cats needed food?! Mai nearly jumped out of her seat to remedy the situation when something else dawned upon her-- cats were needy creatures. They demanded food even when they had plenty left in their bowl. If Bear-Cat had gone hungry, he would have let them know a long time ago.

Adon was fucking with her.

"You," Mai struggled to hold back a laugh. And failed. "Are the worst."  If there had been a decorative pillow nearby, she would've thrown it at him.

Adon gave a shy, pleased-with-himself smile. He could hardly have made a joke about forgetting who they were. It was too true. And too soon. This was much safer, as far as jokes went.

Besides, he'd been making the rounds with this one. You could tell a lot about a person by how they responded to the Cat Test. Dree of course, had, in a startled tone, asked if Bear-Cat had gotten out again, and when he'd last been seen. Always concerned about the welfare of a creature in need. Always looking for a creature in need, as a matter of fact. And his mother? She'd asked if the cat was getting difficult to care for--if she should try to find it another home. And that was Ima. Trying to find a way to accommodate peoples' needs and preferences--including her own.

So what was Maiko, at her core? Momentary concern. Instant humor. She was sharp--it hadn't taken her long to question it. She should be an Auror. I mean, sure, he'd only mentioned the cat a few moments ago. But still. Most people were so damned worried about him they didn't really listen to anything he'd been saying, anyhow.

"You are the worst."

Adon gave a slight shrug. "Dree thought I'd lost it. Ima only hoped I had," he recapped. "And you make me feel bad." As he slid her mug across the counter to her, he glanced over, trying to read her expression.

He was grave as he pronounced, "But I am. The worst. You ought to throw me in Azkaban."

Dree would worry that Adon had lost the cat. And Hestia's response didn't surprise her either.

"You'll survive, somehow." She gave him a wry smile as she reached for the coffee. Mai hadn't realized that her hands were cold until the mug started to warm them up. It was a pretty thing-- blue and white, with intricate patterns. Tasteful. The coffee itself was frothy on top. She knew that she should wait for the grounds to settle, but it smelled so good. That, combined with how completely exhausted she was made waiting a challenge.

At least Adon's sense of humor provided a distraction.

She thought about making some sort of ill-advised joke about muggleborns being thrown in Azkaban due to their blood status (like, 'if I throw you in, they'll throw me in with you!), but decided against it. After all, she wasn't really a muggleborn anymore. Mai still wasn't used to that, that identity shift didn't feel real to her yet. "I'm feeling merciful today." She returned his deadpan look with one of her own. It wasn't nearly as good. "You'll get away with being the worst this time."

She tried to maintain eye contact and a stoic look as she took a sip of the coffee. Once again, she was an utter failure and her composure completely disapparated.  "It's not terrible!" Mai exclaimed, clearly delighted. "I mean-- fuck." Okay, it was time to rewind. Mai covered her face with her right hand, cheeks flushing. "It's perfect. Not too sweet. You're definitely not going to prison now."