Hey guys, this is something I started to write randomly cause the idea popped into my head, and I felt like it. I'm gonna try to update every couple of days and I should keep to that.

The rating may change as I get more into the story, keep an eye out for that.


She knew she was crazy; she didn't need Vivian to tell her that. Mai leaned on the slanting picket fence and looked over the house she had just bought. Okay, so it was run-down and the three acres around it needed some work, and yes, she didn't have a clue how to renovate a house, let alone keep it, and no, she'd never worked any land before. Actually, that wasn't true, a few months spent with her aunt on their cattle station had filled her in on the basics. And she only really needed the basics. Yes, she didn't need all of the five rooms the house provided, and no, she wouldn't be around enough to use the plot of land out the front for a vege garden. She also wouldn't be around enough to have her own few sheep or cows graze the land or have a dog to keep out intruders, or a cat to catch the mice in the small shed out back.

But she did have the one thing she needed, and that was a base; a place to come back to rest between travelling for tournaments: a home. No, she didn't know anything about keeping a house or and little about everyday life in France; the country her home was now situated-but she would learn.

Mai pushed open the gate and walked over to her new door, telling herself there was no reason for her hands to be shaking; she'd been inside before-but then it hadn't been hers. Mentally, she made a list of everything that needed to be done. She needed a ride-on lawnmower, that much was a certainty, and there was enough space in the shed to store it; she'd already checked. Money wasn't an issue, unlike it had been as a small child. When she went to live with her uncle, that had changed, but she still hadn't had any warmth and affection from her family.

What was an issue, was how she wanted the house renovated, and who she should go to for a contract to get it done. Mai had already decided to help with all the restorations, even though it would mean a couple of months off the duelling circuit. That didn't really matter; it was the off-season for tournaments, but she didn't want the press to get wind of what she had done; she wanted her privacy here. She wanted to believe she could build a life here; know the people in the small village, make friends among them...and what? Fall in love, marry and live happily ever after with ten kids? Haven't you already learnt that fairytales don't come true...Mai frowned at her train of thought. No, fairytales don't always come true, but one did for me; when I least expected it. And I've got the first base down; it's the marriage and kids I'll never have. I ruined my happy ending myself.

Shaking her head to stop her disturbing series of thoughts, Mai took a breath and slipped her keys into her door, opened it slowly and stepped inside her first home.

Elation filled her without warning, and because of it, Mai danced an Irish jig she had learned-while living there for a brief period with her mother, and never forgot-through the entrance way and into the living room. She would make this work, Mai decided firmly. No matter what it took and despite her own doubts and Vivian's-expressed in disbelief over the phone from her holiday home in China-she would make this work. And live her life as best as she could, despite her lonely childhood, despite Battle City, despite the Oricalcoes, and despite her feelings for the blond knucklehead that could be called her white knight.


What do you think? Joey's coming into it soon. Review!!!