Mai glared at her laptop screen. The different windows she had open had suddenly all closed down and she was left with a blank screen that wouldn't light up even when she tried to restart her computer.

She was so mad.

Here she was, shopping online for some shoes she was planning to wear for Tea's birthday party next week and one click on a shady site had sent her computer to virus world.

"Just when I was almost finished…" She said to herself angry. But as angry as she was, she knew things could have been worse. She could have given that shady shopping site her MasterCard info and then she would have had an even bigger problem.

And it was better to not have a working computer than no credit.

That could have been bad. She thought to herself, attempting to stay optimistic in spite of the frustrating and annoying situation.

"Well now, what am I going to do?" She said angrily. She was sitting on her living room sofa with her laptop sitting on the coffee table.

The only reason she had decided to do some online shopping was because her car was having engine problems and it was still at the shop. They needed a couple more days to fix everything up, or at least, that's what the mechanic told her when she had called in. The blonde groaned and sat back in the sofa.

"This is just not my week…" She mumbled exasperatingly.

Suddenly the doorbell rang, and the sound threw her out of her slump.

"Coming!" She screamed, as the impatient visitor continued to pummel the doorbell.

"Sheesh, didn't you hear me say I was coming?" Mai said as she swung the door open. In front of her was the one and only Joey Wheeler. He was wearing his white polo with the blue square in the middle, along with some blue skinny jeans and white Nike shoes.

"Hey, Joey, where are the others?" She had almost forgotten that she had invited Joey, Yugi, and Tea for lunch that day, in the midst of her computer crisis.

"Well, Hi to you too Mai." Joey replied with a huff, Mai realizing she must have offended him with her snappy attitude.

"Sorry Joey, something's bothering me so I'm not in the best mood. Please, come in." She moved out of the way so he could step in, just noticing he was carrying two boxes of pizza.

"Hey, I said I was going to make lunch for you guys, you didn't have to bring anything." She said, pointing at the white boxes in the teenager's hands.

"Oh well, I just thought it would be easier for you if I just brought something." He said with a toothy grin, heading for the kitchen to put down the food.

Mai smiled and began to blush. That had been really sweet of him. She opened her mouth to thank him when he cut her off.

"Oh Yugi and Tea' are on their way. They called me just before I left saying they were going to pick up some things." He explained. Mai sighed exasperatingly. Did they think she had nothing in her house? What kind of host would that make her?

Pushing that thought to the side, she headed back to her living room to check on her laptop. The screen was still pitch black, of course.

"Hey, what happened? I've never seen you looking so glum." Joey said, as he followed her into the room and took a seat next to her.

"My laptop got a virus, so now I'm stuck with this blank screen." She explained, resting her head in her hands and sighing loudly.

"You know what; I'm going to call a computer tech right now." She suddenly declared, jumping up from her seat and heading to the kitchen to grab the house phone.

As she was walking she suddenly felt a hand grab hers. She turned around to see Joey holding her hand, and standing up beside her.

"No way are you calling a tech, I can fix it!" He flashed his toothy grin, and she tried hard not to roll her eyes.

"I don't think so Joey, I need professional help and I really don't need you destroying my computer anymore than it already is." She didn't mean to sound so blunt, but she could tell that's how it came off. Joey's eyes looked down, and his smile instantly disappeared.

"You really don't trust me, huh Mai?" he asked in a defeated tone. Mai shook her head, and blushed in embarrassment.

"Of course, I trust you! It's just…"

"So I can fix your computer? Thanks Mai!" The teen's face was suddenly shining in a wide grin. He dropped her hand and headed over to the laptop to get to work. Mai opened her mouth to retort but instead decided to just sigh and shake her head.

"I'm totally going to regret this…" She muttered to herself.

xxx

"So what were you looking up to get this weirdo virus anyways?" Joey asked, looking over at Mai suspiciously.

Mai was about to answer when she realized what he was implying.

"Joseph, get your mind out of the gutter! I was looking over a shopping site so I could by shoes for Tea's birthday event!" She answered indignantly.

Joey rolled his eyes and went back to inspecting the laptop.

"Right, whatever you say Mai." He clearly didn't believe her. This only served to anger the blonde woman even more.

"Why you…" She growled, hitting him in the back of his head.

"H-hey, I'm trying to help you here!"

"Oh please, you could do that without all the side comments!"

"Fine, fine! Just don't hit me anymore, I get it!" Mai huffed in annoyance, and went back into the kitchen to get some pizza.

She grabbed a plate from her cupboard, and then grabbed another one. Joey was trying to help her out, even if he was implying something suggestive. And he had been nice enough to bring this pizza so she didn't have to cook.

She rolled her eyes as she placed two slices of pizza on each plate and headed back into the living room. The blonde teenager was still tinkering around with the laptop, and now the screen was flickering in black and white.

"Here you go thanks again." Mai said nonchalantly, handing him a plate.

"Thanks, I think I'm almost done by the way." He replied, not even turning in her direction. Her eyes widened in excitement.

"Really, that's awesome!" She said with a bright smile. Joey turned to her and smiled.

"Yeah, I think it's only going to take a couple more minutes, actually."

"Perfect, thanks so much Joey." She replied as she took a seat beside him.

"No problem, just glad I could help you out. You know I always have your back Mai." Mai just nodded at his response, her eyes suddenly darted for his lips, which were starting to get closer to hers by the second.

She closed her eyes and started drifting forward, expecting what she knew was about to happen.

She had always had some feelings for the reckless blonde but she had never imagined he reciprocated those feelings. To be honest she thought Joey was too dense to realize that she was starting to fall for him.

But here she was, leaning in to kiss a guy who she not only liked, but who had always treated her right.

Nothing could ruin this moment…

Well except the smell of smoke.

The two blondes jumped back and looked around to identify where the smell was coming from.

"Well, I didn't cook so it can't be the stove…" Mai thought aloud.

But that left only one other appliance that had been in use.

"My laptop!" Mai screamed as she turned to see smoke rising from the back of her laptop.

"What the heck?" Joey yelled as he jumped up on the sofa to get farther away from the smoking metal.

"Well, do something! Oh my gosh, I'm going to call the fire department!"

xxx

Tea' took a swift right turn as she drove through Mai's neighbourhood. Yugi Motou was sitting in the passenger seat staring out the window.

"Do you think Mai is going to be mad that we're late?" The spiky haired teen asked.

"I don't think so; I mean she has Joey to keep her company." The brunette replied. The two teens gave each other a 'knowing' look.

Everyone in their circle of friends knew that Mai and Joey liked each other, a bit more than friends. Mai went out of her way to flirt and tease Joey more than anyone else and Joey seemed so flustered and confused when Mai came around.

"I think you're right… Hey, what's that?" Yugi said as he pointed to a house at the end of the street. Tea turned to where he was looking and gasped.

There were two fire trucks sitting on the curb, and firefighters were rushing into the house. There was smoking coming out of the chimney, and neighbours were coming out of their homes to see what was going on.

"That's Mai's house!" Tea' said in disbelief, slamming down on the accelerator pedal. The car zoomed down the rest of the street with Yugi trying to get Tea' to slow down.

xxx

"Are you guys okay?" Tea yelled out as she saw Joey and Mai being taken out of the house with blankets around their shoulders. They both looked upset but Joey looked like he was beating himself up about it on the inside.

"Yeah, what happened?" A clearly shaken Yugi, who was recovering from Tea's speeding, asked.

"I was trying to fix Mai's computer and then it suddenly went up in smoke." Joey muttered angrily. He turned to Mai and a look of determination came across his face.

"Don't worry Mai; I'll buy you a new laptop. I'm so sorry." He said sadly. Mai turned to him and smiled.

"Joey, thank you but you don't have to do that…" She replied with a small smile.

"Mai, but I have to…" Just as he began to explain, Tea' and Yugi noticed Mai's small smile turn into a large smirk.

"But you can clean up the damages, buy me dinner, maybe take me out to a movie, pay for Tea' and I to get manicures, be my personal slave for a week, matter of fact make that two weeks…" The blonde continued to go on, and Tea' and Yugi could only sigh in exasperation, especially when they saw Joey with a shocked look on his face.

"H-hey wait a minute, it was an accident!" Joey replied indignantly.

"At least they can bond over this…" Yugi said quietly to Tea', who sighed in response.

"Let's hope so, but just in case, let's chaperone these two." The brunette replied.

They both silently agreed as they watched the blondes bicker.

xxx

Just a funny little story I made up the other day when my computer almost got a virus (thankfully I had virus protection!) I wondered what Joey would do if he found out Mai's computer had a virus, and I could just imagine him teasing her about how she got it. Hope you enjoyed this story. One-shot's are so much fun!

-GeminiMercedes-