He couldn't take this any longer, day in and day out; the same routine. The same job, the same co-workers, the same alone apartment waiting for him at the end of the day. And when night fell, there were the same nightmares to welcome him. It was too much…
Walking through the accounting floor of the company, the man with dark hair and shadowed face march towards the far wall with a determined stride. Cubicles every where he looked, each one with a hunched over business man or woman stressing over the same god damn things they always stressed over!
"Hey, Bill, I was looking over these reports-"
The man strolled past his colleague without acknowledging him, there was no need to really, the other merely mumbled to himself and walked away to figure it out himself.
"So predictable," Bill muttered. He stopped at the far wall, pulling open the door to the conference room. If anyone noticed the man walk into the dark and empty room they didn't speak up, later when asked a few would even deny they were present to witness it happen.
Bill walked over to the windows and laid a hand on the cool glass, this was it…this would break the chain.
Down below, crossing the street clutching her mother's hand was little Mai Kujaku, she stared in awe at the Duel Monster's card in her other hand. The game was just gaining popularity, and her mother had got her a booster pack, it wasn't much but it was a start. The harpy on the card was beautiful; she was strong, powerful, and mysterious, but the only thing that mattered to a young girl was the wings. The Harpy Lady card was like a pixie or fairy to young Mai, after all what was more magical than flying?
Someday she would be just like the harpy lady, her young imaginative mind believed it possible, someday she too would fly.
Shouts and screams brought her crashing back to reality, her mother was pulling her back the direction they came, pulling her awkwardly backwards while trying to cover the child's eyes. Mai struggled against the restraint, trying to get across that she needed to see where she was going least she tri and skin her knee or something.
Then Mai saw what had caused the commotion, someone had fallen through a window near the top floors of a skyscraper. He yelled as he got closer to the ground, everyone below him fled like her mother had, Mai wondered briefly why no one bothered to try and catch him. Before Bill could make contact with the asphalt, Mai's mother moved in front of her and blocked her view, but that didn't stop Mai from hearing the sickening splat the man's body made upon impact.
Her whole body tensed with realization; humans didn't fly, they only fall.
She crumbled the card in her hand and burst into distraught ridden sobs.
20 years later…
"A fear of heights is quite common, Ms. Kuja-"
"I'm not afraid of heights." She cut in, she was paying the guy good money, the least he could was diagnose her correctly.
He smiled, "Of course not, just of falling off them?"
She didn't see what was so funny about this situation, she'd lived with this phobia for years and in any other circumstance she wouldn't go this far to confront it, but…
It was an excellent job offer…to good to pass up, but it was abroad. That involved airplanes, she shuttered at the thought, why'd it have to be abroad?
"I'm gonna give you the number of a friend of mine, he gets me discounts when it comes to dealing with aerophobia patients."
When he handed her the business card he had taken from his pocket, she had thought surely he was joking, there was absolutely no way he was being serious!
Mai chewed on her bottom lip nervously as she looked at the sign outside the building that matched the address on the business card. Sky diving. Her physiotherapist wanted her to go sky diving?
She sighed and was ready to turn around and give up before she even tried, but a gentle hand on her shoulder stopped her. She looked over her shoulder and came face to face with Katsuya Jounouchi, deep brown eyes, dark gold locks, and a brilliant smile already melting through her resistance.
Oh dear god, why was she doing this?
"I changed my mind!"
Jounouchi barked out a laugh behind her, the movement vibrated against her back and she shift awkwardly.
"You go through all that training and you're gonna back out before the plane even leaves the ground?"
Mai pouted and would have retorted that thirty minutes of promotional video was not training, but the bottom of her stomach dropped as the plane finally parted for the skies. There was no turning back now…
Oh sweet merciful Zeus, please let me survive this!
She could feel herself shaking, how much oxygen was in this thing anyway, was she allowed to breathe? What if they have turbulence problems? Were there any clouds in the sky when we took off? The weather man said it would be clear!
Jounouchi, recognizing the symptoms of fear, hugged her tight from behind. If she wasn't so riddled with anxiety, she might have melted at his touch. The distant whisper of 'is love at first sight even possible?' drifted in and out of the mangled mess of worry that was her head at that moment.
"We're in this together," he whispered soothingly, lightly patting the shared parachute they had, "I won't let you fall."
"You're a free-fall instructor," she wailed, "letting people fall is your job!" she twisted around in their shared harness trying to turn enough to glare at him. She tilted her head back and saw that same delighted smile that had greeted her at the entrance...
Yup, love at first sight: totally possible.
Jounouchi opened the side door to the plane and Mai swirled to face the world below, her heart jumped into her throat at the sight, too HIGH!
Jounouchi leaned over her for some final words of encouragement, "I'm not a free-fall instructor, what I teach is the art of flying."
Mai hands were digging into his knees a bit painfully, she looked over her shoulder at him.
He smiled, "To fly, you merely need to throw yourself at the ground…and miss."
Mai had heard that quote before somewhere and the fact that he was repeating it to her with that cheesy James Bond accent was almost laughable. She managed a giggle and that seemed to satisfy him, he braced his hands against the side of the plane and stood (taking her along with him).
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad…Jounouchi seemed pretty confident and he'd done it tons of times before she came along for the ride. She dared to look down to her fate and before Jounouchi could push off from the plane, she took her own hesitant step.
Jounouchi would be her wings.
OWARI
A/N: WWBfAD? -What Would Bill from Accounting Do haha! xD