Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters presented here and am not making any profit off of this whatsoever.
Title: Encounter At The Museum
Word Count: 1,938
Rated: PG-13
Romance: Honda x Miho
Notes: This is set in the manga chapter "The Man From Egypt, Part One". Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.
Summary: You never know who or what you could meet when you're at a museum, and one of the exhibits is the Millennium Puzzle.

Once the picture had been taken, the little group broke up again to explore the rest of the museum. They'd already exhausted the possibilities of the Egypt Unearthed exhibit, and all of them wanted to see something different. Honda wasn't surprised to see Yuugi a little reluctant to leave that area, though. His Millennium Puzzle was still on display, and the kid had always been a bit weird about that thing.

Not that Honda was going to say anything to him about it. It was his, and if he wanted to be weird about it, then he could be. Besides, there was also something sort of freaky about it that he'd noticed. He wasn't sure just how to describe it, but it was just weird.

After almost an hour, Honda found himself back in the Egyptian exhibit, this time by himself. He wondered where everyone else had wandered off to. I think I saw Jounouchi going for the vending machines. He wouldn't be surprised by that at all. The blond ate his own weight in food at least once a day.

He glanced at some of the displays that he'd already seen with the rest of them, his gaze lingering a little more this time now that he was by himself. It really was fascinating. It wasn't quite his thing, but he could easily see how people could spend their lives hunting down artifacts and old ruins.

"Hey, what's that over there?" A female voice broke slightly into his thoughts. He thought it sounded a little familiar, and he looked up to see who it was. His eyes widened in reorganization, and he could feel himself blushing all over before he ducked his head down quickly so no one would notice. It was just as well that none of his friends were there at the moment. Jounouchi had teased him badly enough the first time around!

But he just couldn't help how he reacted around Nosaka Miho, even though she'd turned him down all those months earlier. How long ago had that been? Six months? Yeah, that sounded about right. Just before he and Yuugi had really become friends. In fact, that was how it had happened. He'd helped Honda with that puzzle, and then all that weird stuff with Ms. Chono had happened.

She still wore her yellow ribbon. He wondered just where she'd gotten it from. He'd never asked, but it still looked so pretty in her hair. Just like the rest of her still looked so perfect. He hadn't been by the school library in all those months, just so he would avoid having to look at her and know that she'd turned him down. But here she was, and here he was.

"I've seen that before." Honda looked over again to see her and a girl he didn't recognize standing in front of the display case for the Millennium Puzzle. "I think someone in my class has something like it."

Honda took a deep breath, gathered his courage in both hands, and started over there. "Yeah, that's Yuugi's Millennium Puzzle," he said, breaking into their murmured conversation. So he could be a little rude.

Ribbon turned as soon as he spoke, and smiled, turning his insides to jelly without even realizing it. "Oh, hello, Honda. It's nice to see you."

He managed a coherent sentence in reply. "Hi, Ribbon." That was about all he could handle with her smiling at him like that.

"This is my cousin, Narita Michiko," Ribbon told him, motioning to the other girl, who looked to be possibly a few years older than he and Ribbon were. She was kind of pretty, he guessed. Not nearly as much so as Ribbon, of course. No one was that good looking. "She and her friend are down here for a few days checking out colleges." She glanced around and frowned before looking back at her cousin. "Where is Kohaku, anyway?"

Michiko looked about herself and shrugged. "Who knows? She'll turn up, though. She's a big girl." She looked back at Honda and bowed just a little for courtesy's sake. "You said you know the person who owns this?"

"Yeah. My friend Yuugi." Honda waved a hand at it some. "He's just letting it be shown here cause he's a good kid. He's going to take it back when the museum closes. So if you want to get a picture or something, better do it fast."

Michiko nodded, then turned her attention back to the Puzzle itself, leaning in more closely. He didn't pay that much attention; he was too busy trying to think of a way to ask Ribbon if she were interested in a date just yet. There had to be a way; she couldn't avoid him forever, could she?

"Hey, uh, Ribbon…" Honda shifted his weight from one foot to another. "I was wondering, I know you said…"

"Honda…" Ribbon all but sighed. "You're a very nice person, but I'm just not interested in dating right now." She didn't exactly sound exasperated, but more as if it actually hurt her to turn him down. It was a small strip of hope, but he seized onto it with both mental and metaphorical hands.

"So, when are you are interested in dating," he asked quickly, wanting the words out before he lost his nerve, "could we go out then?"

She looked at him, and laughed, a merry sound that rang softly around the quiet room and brought a few people to turn stern glares upon them. Honda didn't care at all. "All right. When I am interested, you'll be the first person to know, and we can go out then."

"Great!" Honda was just about ready to walk on air! He had a date with Ribbon! Of course, he didn't exactly know when it would be, or even if it would be, but still…he had a date with Ribbon! Was there anything better in the world? He had no idea, and he wasn't interested in it if there was! Him! Date! Ribbon! That was the best!

A low groan broke into his celebratory thoughts, and Ribbon gasped softly. He looked to see what was bothering her, and found her bent over her cousin, one arm around her. "Michiko? What is it?"

"It hurts…" The other girl had one hand on the glass casing around the Millennium Puzzle, and had turned the most horrible shade of green possible. He hadn't ever seen someone looking that bad. "Blood…death…vile!" He wondered if she were about to throw up, and if there was something that he could catch it in if she did.

"Michiko, I think we need to get you out of here." Ribbon glanced up, first looking at Honda, then around the room. "Where's Kohaku?"

Honda almost expected Michiko to protest that she was fine. Instead, she dropped her hand from the case and nodded, leaning back some. "I need to lie down. And throw up."

"I hope not in that order," Honda muttered, looking at her. "What's wrong? Need a doctor?"

"No." She shook her head some and shot a look back at the encased Puzzle, turning an even darker shade of green, and pressed her hand to her stomach. "I need to have not been so close to that."

Honda did not believe he'd heard that correctly. "Say what?"

"That thing is revolting!" Michiko all but spat the words out, and he hoped that was all that came out of her mouth. He took a careful step back, not wanting anything else to get on him if it happened by accident. "I can't see how someone could wear it! I can't even see why someone would want to own it!"

Honda blinked a few times, not entirely certain of what he could say. Then he frowned, fury boiling up. "Hey, the Millennium Puzzle is very important to Yuugi, even if you're allergic to it or whatever!" He was going to say something else when another young woman of about Michiko's age hurried up, wrapping an arm around her as soon as she got there.

"Michiko!" She didn't even bother looking at the Puzzle or Honda, just turned to Ribbon. "Come on, let's get out of here." She started to help Michiko away, and Honda just stood out of their way, baffled as he seldom was. It was just the Millennium Puzzle. Sure, it was kind of weird, he'd already figured that one out, but it wasn't something that had ever caused that kind of reaction before.

Ribbon turned to him as her friends moved away in the direction of the clearly marked restrooms. "I'm sorry about that," she apologized with a low bow. "Michiko…she's kind of sensitive sometimes. I don't know what got into her this time, though. I'm really very sorry." She hesitated for a moment. "Perhaps I could make it up to you with a cup of coffee after I see them home?"

Honda opened his mouth to say something. He never quite knew what he had meant to say, because something else made it out first. "Sure, that'd be great!" It wasn't a date, it was just a cup of coffee, and it was only more of a pity thing, but…time with Miho! Maybe this would get her to be ready to date a little faster? The thought sent chills of pleasure all through him.

"All right. I can call you when I've gotten them home safely. If you don't mind giving me your number, that is." Ribbon smiled sweetly at him, and every other thought in Honda's mind vanished besides one: she needed his number. He scrambled in his pocket for a pen and a scrap of paper and wrote the numbers down as neatly as he could, not wanting it to be misunderstood. He would wait as long as necessary for that phone call.

"I'm free for the rest of the day," he told her as he handed it over. "So, whenever…" He wanted to suggest they did something else after the coffee, like a walk on the beach or going to see a movie. But he'd wait. Maybe it would be better to ask that after they'd actually had it. No need to pile on too many things at once on her. He wanted her to think the best of him, after all.

Ribbon nodded and put the scrap of paper in her purse. "I'm really sorry about this, Honda. I just don't know what came over her."

Honda shrugged. "Eh, don't worry about it." He glanced in the direction the two other girls had went and saw them coming back. Michiko looked a little paler, he thought, though she was a bit too far for him to be certain, and the other girl looked more than a little irked in general. "Hey, there they are."

Ribbon turned and nodded to show she'd seen them. "I suppose I'd better be going then. I'll call you in a little while." She waved briefly, then hurried over to them. Honda couldn't hear what they were talking about, but a light laugh that could only be Ribbon drifted towards him. He grinned, hardly able to believe that this was really happening. He was going out with her. At long last.

He caught sight of Yuugi, Anzu, Yuugi's grandfather, and Jounouchi coming back into the room, and started over to them. The image of Ribbon danced in his mind, complete and happy, and he paid no more attention to the Millennium Puzzle. That was Yuugi's treasure. Let him guard it and protect it and whatever secrets it held. He held a treasure that meant every bit as much to him, and was as mysterious in a way all it's own: the treasure of being a teenage boy with an undeclared date with the girl of his dreams.

The End