Notes – Done for ygodrabble. Set post-canon.
It would have been harsh to compare them to a coven of witches, but there were three of them and they did meet at arranged times. These meetings were never particularly cheerful affairs.
They hadn't started meeting each other for a long while after the incident was over, somehow it was awkward talking to the people you'd spent a big part of your life being brainwashed alongside, but eventually it had just seemed right for them to come together.
Raphael couldn't remember who had started the meetings, it might have even been him, but they always went on in the same way – they met at a roadside café, they spoke about what was going on in the world, they attempted to kill the tension by bringing up whoever was winning whatever dueling tournament, and whatever they did they did not mention Dartz.
In the end it hadn't exactly been that man's fault about what had happened, but that didn't make them any less bitter.
Another person they didn't mention, despite her appearance in numerous tournaments, was Mai.
It hurt one of them too much, Raphael could tell that.
When Varon had joined them he'd been an arrogant, confident young man, full of the sort of swagger you can only get my spending your life fighting and winning most those fights. He was probably using it to mask something more tragic that had happened in his life, but he made it so that was easy to overlook.
Mai had changed him. She'd affected him in someway that drove him to do anything to prove his devotion to her and when she'd left part of Varon left with her. He was a lot more solemn than he had been before, and less talkative to say the least.
He would sit at the edge of the table, looking at the TV screen and listening to what the other two were saying while contributing little himself. This made things difficult as in the past Raphael and Amelda, being quiet people, had always relied on him to fill the blanks in the conversations.
As Mai would appear on TV Varon's face would harden, and Raphael could tell he was wondering why she'd not come back yet. Maybe she never would. He could tell from her broadcasted actions that she was trying hard to show she was enjoying the new spark in her career alongside that Vivian woman.
But Raphael knew that was a mask too.
All of the former Orichalcos warriors wore masks to hide what they had lost during that time.
There was no guarantee that even if Mai did come back that she'd go to Varon. Though his knowledge of the subject was limited Raphael was aware of the other boy, Jounouchi, who had pursued Mai to free her from them. There was a chance that Mai would go back to him.
Varon couldn't even pretend to himself that it would be an equal chance, only that it was him she had given the card to.
As another dull meeting drew to an end, the three of them got up to leave, silently getting on their motorcycles, because old habits die hard, and driving away with only nods of goodbye.
Raphael had never cared for Mai, but for the sake of returning that part of Varon that had some lively spark to it he wished she would come find them.