Notes: This is the only note I will put up on any YGO fanfictions about this subject. For future reference, I apologize for using the American names... in America. (sorry I had to...) If you feel like it detracts from the story to have their Japanese names (and slightly, their Japanese personalities) removed then I apologize. To be honest I can speak and write in Japanese (only four years of study's worth, not fluently) but I choose not to include it in my fanfictions. And in the case of Yu-Gi-Oh, I don't exactly like what 4Kids did to it, but I do like their voice actors and personalities in the show. Hopefully it will be enjoyable no matter what their names are :)


Mai stretched and yawned. It had been a long and mostly uneventful day. She'd gone out early in the morning to run errands, which she hated to do, and just barely returned home. Since it was late, Mai got ready for bed quickly and dove into the mess of sheets.

"Ow! Hey watch it!"

Mai screamed and shot out of bed. She looked back to see Joey sitting up, rubbing his head.

"Joey? What are you doing here?" There was more than just a hint of irritation in Mai's voice. She turned red as she took a deep breath, trying to recover from the surprise.

"Yeah, sorry, you weren't here when I came so I just stayed. I mean... uh... I've stayed here the past four nights so I didn't think you'd mind. I just kind of assumed that-"

"Oh, so you just assumed, right? Sure. 'I wanna get some and poor helpless little Mai can't spend the night by herself any way,' right? Well... you're wrong! This is my apartment, you can't just come spend the night here whenever you want!"

"But you gave me a key..."

"Sh-shut up!" Mai yelled, her face a brighter red now, "put on your clothes and get out!"

"But Mai, that's not it, I-"

"Out!" She said, tossing his shirt at him.

"Ok, ok, ok," he said, pulling his shirt on as she forcefully guided him towards the door. He turned back to her once she'd finally gotten him in to the hallway.

"Look Mai, I'm sorry, but it's not like that. I just-"

"Hn," was her only reply as she slammed the door in his face. Really! How presumptuous! How dare he just come over and assume he was going to sleep with her tonight! It wasn't as if she'd asked him or they'd talked about it or anything. Wasn't everything moving a bit too fast? If he just assumed things like that... what kind of person did he think she was?

Mai wanted to sleep but was fully awake now. All of her neighbors had probably heard the argument, or at least her side of it, since she couldn't keep her voice down. Mai turned on the TV and settled down on the couch. Nothing on late at night was worth watching, but she wasn't concentrating on the TV any way.

What am I doing? Joey didn't do anything wrong. He just wanted to be with me...

Mai scrunched her face up a little as it occurred to her that she might have been wrong. In any case she really did care about Joey so it wasn't too hard to swallow her pride. Without bothering to get dressed again Mai threw her jacket on over her nightgown and grabbed her keys. Maybe she could still catch him. She had to apologize.

Mai opened the door quickly but before she could take another step Joey fell back on her feet. He had been sitting against the door waiting for her. Both of them froze there for a moment.

"Getting a good view there?" Mai asked.

"Uh-huh," Joey replied stupidly as he stared up her nightgown.

Mai shook her head and smiled.

"Get up," she said booting him lightly with her slipper.

Mai took Joey's hand and helped him up. When he was standing again he didn't let go of her hand but put it in between his instead.

"Mai, um, I'm sorry if I..."

Mai shook her head and put her other hand lightly over his mouth.

"No, Joey, I'm the one who should apologize. It's just been a long day and I wasn't expecting you. And... I'm kind of in a bad mood I guess. But when, um, when you were in my bed I wasn't mad, but... then I thought that if you think you can come and sleep with me at any time, then what kind of person do you think I am? I don't want you to think that... well, I just... I guess I was worried about how you thought of me or what you might think of me-"

Mai looked down, "I'm sorry. I just don't want you to think badly of me."

"Naw, Mai," Joey replied. He let go of her hand and put his arms around her.

"Honestly I didn't know if I should come or not, but it never really occurred to me that you might get offended. I was going to stay at home but then I thought... you've been having really bad nightmares lately. So I wanted to stay with you. I know I told you to call me when that stuff happens but you never do! So I wanted to be here so I could make sure that I could keep my promise and take care of you."

Mai closed her eyes as she put her arms around him too.

"I'm sorry. In that case... then... please stay with me."