Zygotic Holiday
by Cryptographic DeLurk
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There is no wind at the water park.
Of course there isn't. That would be dumb.
But the kites had been folded, long forgotten, in her beach bag. And Mai is lounging in her chair by the poolside. She's wearing a floral bathing suit in bright magenta. (It was five years old and she was a little proud it still fit, even if it was a bit tight around the tush.) And she doesn't really want to go into the water, where hundreds and thousands of kids have probably peed.
It's not the ocean.
She doesn't want to go in the water, and so she sits at the poolside and unravels the multicolored trail of streamers floating off the tip of the kite, and at some point Yuugi is tired of running damage control, and sits next to her and watches as she untangles five years.
Jounouchi is in the water. It's obvious he's never had a proper swim lesson in his life, because he's flailing and dog paddling around, and often hugging a kick board like it might abandon him if he doesn't strangle it to death.
Seto-kun had made some snide comments about his lack of skill, when he swung back around from doing freestyle laps across the pool. (Never mind that the pool has a swing and slides and is full of plastic statues of Duel Monsters - and has neither lane lines nor even the slightest inclination to be used for exercise.) And ever since then Jounouchi has made it his challenge to drag Seto-kun under by his pasty pale ankles.
They're going to drown themselves, Mai thinks.
Yuugi doesn't seem very worried about this possibility. He seems intent on watching Mai work the strings and streamers of the kite.
He blushes when Mai hands it to him, and pulls another one from her duffel bag.
This one is less geometric. It's cut in the shape of a bird, with twirling tail feathers. Mai immediately sets to untangling these too.
"We should have gone somewhere we could fly them, maybe…" Yuugi says. "I didn't know you liked kites."
Don't you ever wish you could fly away from everything? Mai doesn't ask.
"Wasn't it hard enough to get Seto-kun to come here?" Mai asked. She set Yuugi with a teasing smile.
He doesn't react like she expects him to. And she realises that she knows this Yuugi best from Jounouchi's stories. It's the other one she's talked to more.
Yuugi laughs and blushes. "Yeah, I think the Duel Monster theme convinced him. He gave me this whole speech about how he only came to spy on the competition."
Seto-kun had spent the whole time comparing this place unfavourably to Kaiba Land.
"I came here once with Anzu. Before they set up all the Duel Monsters memorabilia… Don't tell Seto. He gets jealous~" Yuugi added with a giggle, like divulging a secret.
Mai found it charming.
"I used to vacation down in Okinawa," Mai says. "The sand was so pale. And the sky was so blue. And the shells…"
Mai lifts the bird kite up, and then lets it down again.
"Did you want to go again?" Yuugi asks.
Maybe sometime.
Mai doesn't answer.
"You know, we have kites on display in the game shop window in the summer," Yuugi says. "We can pick some out and go fly them. We could go to the mountains, instead of the beach."
Mai laughs. She leans forward, readjusting the kite on her lap, and ruffles Yuugi's hair - which seems oddly water resistant.
"You're so cute~" she babies. Which is as close to yes as she can come to saying.
It's okay. Jounouchi will want to go out again. And he'll invite her along for sure. She doesn't even need to accept.
There's a shout from the pool as Jounouchi gets thrown through the air and splashes into the water. He's gurgling. Seto-kun is coughing up water, crumpled over against the edge of the pool.
"This is the worst double date," Mai decides.
And Yuugi laughs. And Mai hopes he knows that means she's glad she came.
..
Fin.
