Be Mai Valentine
Mai stooped to pick up the pile of letters from the floor beneath the mail slot in her front door. As she stood up, a red heart-shaped card caught her eye. She read the short message aloud to herself. "Will you be Mai Valentine?" Turning the card over, she found that it was left unsigned. "Well, that all depends on who you are, mister," she said with a small smile.
While she ate breakfast and went through the rest of her mail, Mai wondered who her secret admirer was. Not that this was the first time she'd received an anonymous valentine, and she doubted it would be the last, but who didn't like a good mystery for Valentine's Day?
Mai headed out to do some shopping, still curious. It wasn't long before she ran into some familiar faces.
"Hey, how about this? Do you think she'd like it?"
"Uh-uh, Tristan. No way are you buying her jewelry."
"Oh, come on, Joey," Tea put in. "Relax, it's just a bracelet. I think it's cute."
"Why don't we go in and see what else they have?" Yugi asked.
"Hey, guys!" Mai called, getting their attention and walking over to join the group before they went in the store.
"Hello, Mai," Tea greeted her cheerfully. "We were just helping Tristan pick out a Valentine's Day gift for Serenity."
Mai moved to stand right in front of Joey, holding up her valentine so he could see it. The rest of the gang crowded in on either side to read it over his shoulder. "Did you send me this, Joey?" Mai challenged him point-blank.
"Wha?" Joey yelled in surprise, falling over on his back in the middle of the sidewalk. In a moment, though, he was back on his feet. "No, Mai, I didn't send ya a valentine card."
"You didn't?" Mai turned the card over again to look at it. "I wonder who did."
"You've got a secret admirer! That's pretty cool," Tea said.
"Yeah," Yugi agreed. "Whoever he is, I wonder why he sent you such a short note."
"Hmmm." Mai shrugged, then looked in through the store window at the bracelet Tristan had pointed out earlier. "Tea's right, it is cute," she said, giving him a grin and a thumbs-up. "Go for it. See you around, guys." She gave the gang a wave before walking away.
That afternoon, Mai wasn't any closer to figuring out who had sent her the card. She was on her way home when a delivery boy on a bicycle stopped her.
"Excuse me, are you Miss Valentine?" he asked, somehow stopping without crashing, although he seemed to need practice doing that.
"That's me, kiddo."
"I have a letter for you," he said, handing her a white envelope, then speeding off again on his bike.
Mai looked at it. It had her name on it, but no return address. Inside was another card with a poem written on it.
Mai Valentine, my lady fair
Here is a poem to show you I care
Roses are red, violets are blue
Sugar is sweet and so are you
The lines are not my own, it's true
But I thought a classic would appeal to you
You do me wrong to cast me off so discourteously, my lovely Lady Greensleeves.
"Discourteously...?" Mai repeated thoughtfully to herself. Mai had turned down many would-be suitors, but had usually been pretty nice about it. Then she remembered the boat on her way to Duelist Kingdom. "It's Rex!" she exclaimed. Surprised, Mai put the valentine back in its envelope and continued to her house.
Later that evening, Mai looked up from a Valentine's Day special she'd been watching on the television when she heard a knock at her front door. "Hmm?" she said to herself, flicking the tv off with the remote and getting up from the sofa to answer the door. "Oh, hi, Rex!"
Rex Raptor stood on her porch, with a bouquet of roses in his hand and a heart-shaped box of chocolates tucked under his arm. "Happy Valentine's Day, Mai," he grinned, and handed her the flowers and candy.
"Thanks," Mai said, smiling in return. "You sent me those unsigned valentines, didn't you?"
Rex nodded. "So, how would you like to go out with me to dinner?"
"Sure, Rex, I'd love to."
The End
Author's Note: Thanks to Lysana, my RL sister, who wrote the poem for the second valentine! :)