Disclaimer: I don't own King of Fighters or related characters. Such is the property of SNK and Neo Geo. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

About Damn Time!

Chapter One:

The Pao Pao café was not the ideal place to spend New Years, in Mai's opinion at least. If she had had her way they would be celebrating back home at the Shiranui dojo, watching Kohaku Uta Gassen and eating osechi-ryori. But the Pao Pao café was where Andy was and so it was where she was.

Heaving a sigh of exasperation Mai leaned back from the bar and cast her eyes about the room, searching for her wayward lover. She spotted him at a small table in the far corner, sitting with Terry and Joe and chatting animatedly. He turned in her direction momentarily and their eyes met, she held his gaze in an attempt to remind him that she existed.

Andy nodded his understanding and turned back to the table. It looked like he asked a question because Terry shrugged his shoulders while Joe went fishing into his pockets. The Thai boxer withdrew his cell phone and, flipping it open, replied to Andy's inquiry.

'Checking the time, of course.' Mai thought to herself.

Andy never bothered to wear a watch, they always broke to easily for him. Instead he relied on whomever he was with to know the time and if no one around him had a watch then he just guessed (and usually guessed wrong). But he couldn't afford to do that tonight. If Andy failed to kiss her at midnight Mai would flay him alive!

New Years was a big deal for Mai. Not only was it an excuse to make out with her fiancée, but January first was also her birthday and the day she had first fallen in love with Andy. When Andy had first come to train at the Shiranui dojo Mai was uninterested in him and only thought of him as another callous man only interested in his training. It wasn't until he gave her a present on her birthday that she saw him in another light and fell head over heals in love. Every year on the first of January she celebrated not only the New Year and her birthday but also what she considered to be her 'anniversary' with Andy (not that he knew or even cared, the callous ass!).

She watched him push his chair back from the table and stand. He drained his glass of whatever he'd been drinking before walking over and joining her at the bar.

"Popper?" He offered, extending an innocent looking cone to her. Its trigger-string hung loosely from its point as if begging to be pulled.

"I'll pass." She said and turned her attention to the small TV that hung from the ceiling. A blond reported in a Santa hat (to spite the fact that Christmas was two and a half month gone) was talking about how exiting things were in Time Square at the moment before the camera panned over a crowd of rowdy New Yorkers all screaming and cheering at the camera. Hah! If the reporter though that that was exciting then she'd never been to South Town.

"Less than a minuet." Andy said, tilting his chin at the TV where a timer in the bottom corner of the screen was counting down the time left until midnight.

She nodded her acknowledgment just as everyone else in the room began to chant "10… 9…" Andy joined in and on the count on "…1!" he paused, forgoing the exclamation of 'Happy New Year!' and gazed at Mai, waiting for her kiss. It was always Mai that seemed to be the one kissing Andy, Andy never seemed to initiate a kiss with Mai. Sometimes she was so sure of his feelings for her but then again there were other times (like now) when she really wondered about him. She'd known Andy for over twenty years and been in love with him for just as long and yet their relationship was in a constant state of limbo.

"Mai…?" He prompted when she still hadn't made her move.

Obediently she leaned forward and placed a chase kiss on his lips. "Happy 2009." She said when she pulled away.

"Happy thirty-fifth birthday." He responded and went fishing into his pockets. "I got this for you."

He extended a small box to her, not the short stubby kind like a ring box (unfortunately), but rather the long skinny kind that they put bracelets or necklaces in. "You shouldn't have." She said, accepting the gift when what she really meant to say was 'If your gonna get me jewelry, get me a wedding ring you ripe bastard!'

Mai lifted the lid to reveal an elegantly crafted hairpin with twin tassels of red and white dangling from one end, tassels that were identical to the tails of her fighting costume that she used to launch her Ryu En Bu attack. This wasn't some mass produced piece of shine, this had to have been custom made and ordered weeks in advance, Andy must have put allot of thought into this. Maybe he was improving after all.

"Thank you." She said, removing it from its case and placing it in her hair at the base of her long ponytail.

"Its just a trinket." He shrugged, then looked at her quizzically. "You okay?"

'I'm thirty-five, un-married and in a relationship that's moving so slow I'm surprised we're not going backwards.' "I'm fine. Why do you ask?" She smiled sweetly.

"Its just, you seem a bit… never mind. You wanna go watch Hatsuhinode?"

"Andy, its still six hours until sunrise." She reminded him.

"Ah, right." He paused as if waiting for her to make a next move.

As previously stated, it was always Mai leading this little dance of theirs. Andy seemed incapable of making any moves without her prompting them first. He just couldn't be aggressive when it came to their relationship, on the contrary, he was to damn submissive for his own good. At first Mai had thought that it was because he was just shy, but over the years she'd slowly come to realize that he wasn't shy he was clueless. He needed to be lead in a relationship and Mai was getting just a bit tired of being the one to hold his hand. She wanted him to hold her hand every once in a while.

"You wanna get out of here and go some place quite?" She asked.

He nodded and stood. He had probably mistaken her statement of 'some place quite' for 'some place private' because there was just a bit of a spring in his step as she led him outside. Honestly, if he wanted sex he could have just as easily been the one to suggest they leave; he didn't have to keep putting every decision in their relationship up to her. Maybe if he took the initiative every once in a while he wouldn't be up for the disappointment of not getting any tonight.

"You wanna go for a walk?" She asked once they were outside. The night air was chilly at best and dirty brown and black snow was piled up in the gutters along the curb, not the most romantic way to spend New Years. But she knew they'd just end-up sleeping together if they went anywhere specific and tonight she wanted to talk.

Andy's disappointment was evident on his face. But he nodded all the same and fell into step beside her. Mai chose an arbitrary direction and they started walking.

"So, what are your plans for this new year?" She asked.

Andy just shrugged. "Same thing I do every year, I guess."

"You mean, train an insane amount of the time, ignore me almost all of the time, refuse to take part in the next KOF and send Hokutomaru in your place and, oh yeah, eat lots and lots of natto over spaghetti." She looked at him sideways. "Did I forget anything?"

"Well, I… that's not all I do!"

"Of course, how silly of me." Mai replied sarcastically. "You'll also skate a few times around the Short Track."

"Did I do something to upset you recently? Because you've been acting weird all night."

"Actually, yes I am upset, Andy." She stopped walking so as to look him directly in the eyes. "But it has nothing to do with something you did. I'm upset over something you haven't done."

"That again." He waved off her statement. Of course this was all over the fact that he still hadn't proposed. He knew that that was what she wanted, that nothing would make her happier than to finally get married to her 'Prince Charming'. Andy just didn't think he was ready for marriage, not yet anyway. He was still to focused on improving his skills. He wanted to eventually beat Terry and prove that he was the superior fighter.

Andy didn't think that he was yet capable of balancing his martial arts training with the duties of being a husband. Hell! He was only just barely managing to manage his duties as a boyfriend, how could he ever hope to be a good husband to Mai is he couldn't even be a half-way decent boyfriend?

"I'm thirty-five, Andy." She continued. "I'm thirty-five and you're going to be turning thirty-seven this year. We're neither of us getting any younger. When are you going to be ready? Ever? Never?"

"Well…" He began, not quite sure how to continue. "Well, what difference would it make if you got married at thirty-five or fifty-five, as long as we're together you'll be happy, right?"

She gave a snort of derision. "Andy, there are some things I want that I just can't have at fifty-five."

"Like what?" He pressed. There was nothing that Andy could think of that he wanted now that he couldn't have twenty years from now.

"Like children." Mai said, her voice deadpan. "I'm already thirty-five, Andy, in another five years it won't be healthy for me to have kids anymore and another ten I won't be able to have them. I know you may not care, but I do."

"I…" Andy began but then realized that he really didn't have anything to say. Visions of Mai presenting him with illusions of babies at the King of Fighters tournaments danced through his head as his mind searched for the right words to say.

Of course, he'd always know that Mai wanted children. But he'd never really given the idea much thought himself, the idea always seemed to produce copious levels of anxiety for him and so he tried no to think about it. If he didn't think he was responsible enough to be a husband then he really wasn't responsible enough to be a father.

"I don't think that's something I can give you." He said at last. "I can't be the kind of person you'd need me to be. I'm not…" He trailed off.

"Look, I know you have issues with commitment. But you've been with me for the past thirteen years, surely you can see that if you can commit to a relationship for that long you can commit to a marriage."

"I'm…"

"Look, you don't have to decide anything tonight." She tilted her head up and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "I know how bad you are at snap decisions. Just know that I'm getting impatient and if you don't make a decision by the time the next KOF is announced then I'll make the decision for you."

Andy swallowed a lump that suddenly formed in his throat. "Deal." He said.

"So then, what are ya gonna do?"

It wasn't until Terry and Joe's New Years hangovers had worn off that Andy was able to recount his conversation with Mai to them. They were now gathered in the living room of Terry's South Town apartment (Rock was no where to be found but for some reason this didn't seem to surprise Terry).

"I don't know." Andy admitted. "That's why I'm talking to you two. Tell me what I should do."

"I think you've been stringing her along long enough and you should finally man-up and marry her." Terry admitted, a bit callously but then again he'd just recovered from a hangover and wasn't exactly the most empathetic guy in the world right now.

"I think you should finally dump her and find someone younger and hotter." Joe declared. "Someone who's not as pushy or mouthy either."

"There is no one on Earth hotter than Mai." Andy said, his voice overflowing with conviction. "But she and I want different things from life and I don't think I can give her what she wants."

"You mean you can't be what she wants you to be." Terry translated. "Being a parent's not that hard, Andy. If I can raise the son of my enemy into a half-way decent person that manages to earn strait Cs on all his school work I'm sure you're more than capable of raising a kid of your own."

Joe looked at Andy thoughtfully for a moment. "No. I just don't see it. He'd be much better-off just finding a new squeeze."

"Mai is not my 'squeeze'!" Andy snarled at his friend. He knew that Joe and Mai had never liked each other but it would still be nice if he could at least pretend to be telling Andy to get over her for Andy's sake and not just because he wanted to be rid of her.

"Okay, Andy, let me put it to you like this: You have to decide which is more important to you, Mai or your freedom." Terry said in all seriousness. "If Mai's most important to you then you bite the bullet and become the man she needs you to be. If not, then you step back, let go of her so that she can find the kind of man she needs in someone else. Can you do that?"

"Yeah." Andy said and then lapsed into silence. He really did care about Mai, allot, he might even go as far as to say that he was in love with her (though he'd never say it out loud). Mai's actions perplexed him allot of the time but that was one of the things that made her so fun to be around and he was willing to do anything to protect her. Not just to protect her body but protect her happiness as well. But if him becoming a husband and father was what would make her happy… he didn't think he could successfully accomplish that, not the way she wanted him to and especially not in the time-frame she needed.

"I want Mai to be happy." He said. "So I guess I should do the honorable thing and bow out so she can find what she needs."

They met up at the Pao Pao café to talk. Mai was actually quite surprised he was able to come to a decision so quickly. She sat impassively as Andy told her what he'd decided and his reasons behind it.

"Okay." She said when he'd finished.

"'Okay'?" Andy echoed. "You mean you're not mad?"

"No, its fine."

Something was wrong; she was taking this way, way to well. She should be throwing a fit right now, screaming, calling him names, throwing chairs. Either that or she should be catatonic. But she just sat there calmly as if appraising him.

"I've been doing some thinking." She explained after a prolonged pause. "I'm perfectly stable financially right now and have been living alone for a while, I don't really need a husband. So I'm going to let you leave with no big fuss, in return I want something from you."

"Like what?"

"I want a baby, Andy." She reminded him. "And I'm tired of waiting for you to get your act together." She took a tin of TicTacs out o her purse and popped one into her mouth. "So, where do you want to go to get this done? Oh, do you want a mint, by the way?"

"What? No! I mean… what!?" He felt his face turning a bright beet red. Was Mai saying what he thought she was saying? She had given up and him, was fine with him leaving but before he did she wanted him to get her pregnant. He did hear that correctly, right? She didn't want him anymore, she just wanted his seed!

"Oh, jeez, Andy." She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Its not like we've never had sex before, and I'm not going to make you do anything more than that. Its not like I'm making you sign up to have and to hold. You should be relived."

He sputtered helplessly for a few moments longer.

"I don't see why you're so flustered."

No words came to mind. Andy was completely and totally dumbfounded. Mai's actions often perplexed him but they had always been a bit more… mellow compared to this. Mai had never been this… extreme in her demands before. This was so far out of his experience that he had no idea what to do or say.

"Well, fine." Mai finally said, breaking the silence between them, and stood. "Since you seem so flustered I guess I'll give you a little more time to think about it. Our plain back to Japan leaves tomorrow, you have until it touches down at Tokyo International to get used to the idea or marry me."

"But…"

"These are your only options." She declared adamantly and left.

"But…"

(A/N: According to the SNK Wiki Mai was born in 1974, which would make her 35 years old by now. Andy was 1973, so he's 36 (and will turn 37 this August –that's right, I'm a complete fantard!). Hasn't SNK kept them from finally tying the knot long enough? I had heard that they did finally get together at the end of one of the games but I haven't been able to find and play it, neither have I found videos of it on YouTube. So, I've decided that that was just rumor after all. If someone does know which game it was, please, don't hesitate to tell me, either in a review or by PM.)

Next chapter up soon!