Okay guys; this is the sequel to the story 'Dreams', though you don't have to read it to understand this.
It's good to be writing a Mai/Joey fic again, hope you like it.
Disclaimer: If I owned YuGiOh, Joey and Mai would have become an actual couple before the end of the series.
It was something she had to do. She knew that. But it didn't make it any easier. Mai Valentine, Queen of Games and one of the top four duelists in the world walked quickly down the sidewalk with her shoulders hunched and her hands stuffed in her pockets.
It was late autumn and freezing. Mai supposed the rain that was pelting down was a fitting setting for when she reached her destination, after all, it symbolised the tears she had shed and had now bottled up again inside her.
Her tag-team partner Vivian Wong had offered to come for support, but Mai had wanted to face her ghosts alone; it was easier in some ways. So she waited until Vivian had gone home to China to visit her parents before she flew to San Francisco. She'd arrived two hours ago, and was planning to fly out later tonight. Where to, she had no idea. A part of her wanted to go to back Domino, but it was more likely she would fly back to Europe and have the week to herself touring around Italy or Greece.
Mai huddled further down into her purple jacket as she heard thunder clap in the distance. She hoped the rain would increase-anything to try and drown the ache in her heart. Last time she was here, she had taken the soul of the person who meant the most in the world to her, and lost her own soul trying to put things right.
The time she'd spent trapped in the belly of the leviathan didn't haunt her the way her time in the shadow realm had done-still did, but she could cope with it now. However, she still had trouble coping with what she did to the one person who had cared about her enough to sacrifice himself to save her.
Taking a deep breath, Mai rounded the last corner and stopped. She stared at the empty parking lot with haunted eyes. She felt something lodge in her throat, and her eyes started to blur. Whether that was the rain or tears, she wasn't sure. Swallowing painfully, she slowly stepped over to the concrete area.
Nothing had changed; it was exactly the same as she'd left it over a year ago. Which made it harder and easier at the same time. Mai quickly wiped her eyes and stepped over to the wire-mesh fence. She laid a cold hand on it, then stepped back to look where she had laid both Valon, then Joey.
Now she was sure it was tears clouding her vision-rain wasn't hot and salty. Mai brushed a hand over her eyes again, wondering if it would have been better to accept Vivian's offer of company; she needed a friendly shoulder to lean on right now. But then, she also needed to prove to herself that she was strong enough to face the past.
Slowly Mai turned and stepped up to the place she had stood when she faced Joey in a duel. Blinking back both kinds of water, Mai looked around her. There was no glowing seal surrounding her and there was no-one opposite her on the playing field. But there might as well have been; she could remember it so clearly-much more detailed than she wanted to.
There were so many memories; painful ones, yes, but in amongst them there were treasured ones. Just words that someone said that made Mai realise later on that they had cared for her, and gave her the hope that maybe, just maybe, they could care for her again when she went back. She was ready to face them. Had been ready to do so for months. However, she was not ready to face Joey. It wasn't the apology she would make that was the problem, it was how much she cared if he would forgive her or not. And, although she would be devastated, she could live with the gang turning away from her, but she was not sure if the woman she had struggled to rebuild over the months since she was last here wouldn't shatter if Joey turned his back on her. And that was why she was afraid to go back.
Mai bit her lip as she looked over to where her opponent would have stood again. He had saved her life more than once. Four times over in fact. And Mai had hated him for it. She saw him needing to rescue her as a weakness, but it took losing him to realise that he'd only been looking out for her because he thought of her as a friend, not because he thought she needed protection. Though, admittedly, she had needed it by that point in time.
She'd trusted him enough to let go from the bar she was hanging on to while two stories up in the air, and he had caught her. She supposed that was when she started to wonder if she was falling for him. He'd jumped up to protect her from Ra's attack, and she'd realised then, when he refused to leave her, that she wasn't falling for him, but had fallen, and fallen hard. It took him losing his soul to save hers to get Mai to admit to herself again after she came out of the shadow realm that she had fallen in love with him. As she knelt, cradling him and crying, she finally admitted that to herself. And she hadn't stopped loving him to this day, which was the main reason why she was afraid to go back.
He'd saved her one more time; stepping in-front of her while they were mirror knights to stop Kaiba's dragon from destroying her. She'd fought him for his soul and he'd lost, but he still saved her one more time. Was his friendship really that strong? Or had he felt something more for her? Even if he had, could was any love strong enough to withstand the damage he had done?
She'd seen him once more when everything was over; when all the souls were released from the leviathan, and before she had gone with Valon back to the beach house and their bodies, she'd hovered high over him, Yugi and Kaiba while Valon told her that she really had a great group of friends. Mai didn't need to be told-she already knew, always had; she just didn't want to admit it.
There had been one moment, when Joey was looking at all the souls-perhaps searching for her-that their eyes had met, and he'd smiled. It was the last time she'd seen him in person. She'd left the beach house before Valon woke up, leaving him one of her cards as a memoir; a kind of symbol to say that if they would meet again, she wouldn't hold anything against him-or would try not to. After that, she'd left to rebuild her life and become the person she wanted to be.
And, Mai thought now, she'd done a pretty good job of it. All she had to do now was face the gang, now that she had gone back to face this place. She thought perhaps she'd go through to have a look at the now destroyed Paradias headquarters, and see what was being done with it now. She'd heard a rumour it was being turned into a hospital and that Pegasus was a main force behind the start of that project. She actually might find a place to stay the night and hire a bike or car to drive out to Industrial Illusions to face that. Maybe, if Pegasus was free, she would apologise; she owed herself as well as him that much. Her eyes softened as she looked where the headquarters had once been. It was only fitting, she decided, that something good would come out of so much pain.
Mai turned back to look at the carpark and her heart froze. A figure slowly emerged from the darkness and stopped where her opponent would have been. Mai hesitated, then took two steps forward before stopping again. They looked so familiar...like... Mai swallowed and shook her head to clear the thoughts. It was just a person who was crazy enough to go out in this weather, and she'd do better to be wary of them. But...
Something tugged at her heart, and Mai found herself moving forward. She was halfway over to him when she recognised the shape of his body, his hair, even if she still couldn't see his face. She stopped again because her legs threatened to give.
'Mai...?' His voice was disbelieving as he came towards her. Mai waited for him to come, shaking. She wasn't sure if her legs would hold out even now she was standing still.
They were a meter apart and staring at eachother with wide eyes. Mai swallowed and finally found her voice. 'Hello Joey.'
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