A Battle that Brought Us Together

Pairing: Mai x Athena

Genre: Friendship/Romance

Disclaimer: I do not own King of Fighters or any of its characters.

Author's Note: Hello, everyone! My name is Yuri! So, ummmm…kinda random to pair these two, but that's all I can think of in terms of yuri pairings other than what I usually do for Mai, which is Naotora Ii. Though, I don't know much about King of Fighters since it's been out for a VERY long time, I'm still familiar with Mai Shiranui and getting to know Athena little by little.

So, I kinda of wrote the first part of it with the help from Jojo-san. And…I sorta had it sitting for a while, but then I decided to share it with the world. Cause I'm the kind of person that would share anything with the world. Ehehe~!

P-please enjoy!

Mai and Athena take a walk downtown after shopping for some food. The purple haired girl stretches out her arms while letting out a happy moan.

"Mmmm! This feels nice!" she says. "Nice day outside, birds are chirping, pretty much the day just flew by~!"

Mai giggles. "Do I really need to carry this much food? We got plenty to go around, you know~"

Athena pouts. "Look, you know Kensou stuffs his face constantly. I had to buy enough for me AND him."

Mai giggles. "I'm surprised that bottomless pit hasn't bankrupted you by now."

"Yeah... and I appreciate you pitching in to buy some of this." Athena retorts, the sarcasm obvious in her voice as Mai hadn't paid a cent.

"Hey, you're the world-famous idol okay? I'm just a sexy kunoichi~" Mai sticks her tongue out.

"Ehehe! Fair enough~" Athena looks straight ahead with her arms behind her back. "Let's just get this food home so we can get organizing for dinner. I'm starving~"

"So be it~" Mai tries hard not to use her ninja speed toward home as Athena would be out of breath by then. Still, it's a nice day just to take a long walk, spend time with each other.

They turn a corner, failing to notice a few guys whistling and there are four other dudes following.

"Ohhhh, look at those hot ladies~" one of them says. "Say, aren't they from the tournament?"

"Mai Shiranui AND Athena? My day just got better~" another one says. "I'll take the purple haired one!"

"Excuse me? You'll 'take' me?" Athena immediately fires back. She doesn't even know where the voice came from at first, but just those brazen words set her spirit on fire.

"Who the hell are you creeps?" Mai finally eyeballs the gang, who are looking them up and down like a tasty meal.

"We're just a few guys out for a little fun of the best kind." one of them boasts. "We like being the brave men who sweep the little princesses off their feet."

"Hmph. You guys don't look like the chivalrous type." Athena's nose curls. "I think you're a bunch of punks!"

"Punks are we~?" the bigger one steps up. "Oh, we're far from that. Why don't you come with us, dearies? Hang out together, do something super fun~" The bigger one attempts to grab Mai's wrist, but gets slapped away.

"As if!" Mai scoffs. "You guys are not what we call fun!"

"Playing hard to get?" The gang gathers, making the group a bit bigger. "No ONE says no to either of us~"

"And we have the right to!" Athena shouts. "Now leave us alone!"

"You're going to have to make us!" another man says. "Bring it on. We're not afraid of little girls!"

There is fire in Mai's eyes. "Who says WE'RE little girls!?" She whips out her fan while tossing the bag aside. "Come on, Athena. Let's end this quickly!"

One of the men boldly tries to grab Mai's breast... but she snatches his wrist and twists his hand so hard, it literally goes 180, complete with a horrid cracking of bone.

"AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!" the thug cries out in pain.

Mai finishes him off with a sharp elbow thrust to the stomach, causing him to collapse to the ground with a pathetic whimper.

"Oh, you're gonna get it!" another man with a pipe tries to go for Mai.

The brunette's fast movements catch him off guard, punching and kicking him in the face and gut, then delivers a flip kick to the face. Athena finishes it off with a flying kick, sending that man toward a wall, knocking him unconscious.

"Alright~!" Mai cheers and high fives Athena.

"We're not done yet!" Another man charges for Athena.

The violet haired girl kicks his leg to get him off balance, then delivers a few more kicks, a round house kick and then a series of fast punches to the gut. Mai goes in to throw her fans at the man to knock him out.

Two more men foolishly try to rush Athena. For their troubles... she gives them a taste of Psycho Power.

"PSYCHO BAAAAAAAAALL!"

Athena thrusts her palms, sending two large crimson spheres of pure energy soaring towards them. They explode upon contact, dropping them like an empty bottle on the sidewalk.

One man comes at Mai with a knife. With a smirk, Mai whips out a fan from her breasts and parries the blade, sending it flying from his hands with a flick of her wrist. She then closes the fan, and jabs the blunt end directly into his nose, breaking it.

"AUGH! MY NOSE!" the thug cried. "MY NOSE! MY N-"

Mai shut him up with a backhanded smack of her closed fan.

They fight and fight until there is just one last man standing. A taller muscular one that seems to be the leader. Taller, stronger, but the girls do not fear him.

"Guess it's just you and us!" Mai says.

"Huh! My men are all but failures," he says. "Time for me to take you girls in~"

"Mind if we do the same~?" Athena says.

The larger man rushes in, but Mai is too quick. She spins with her arm thrusted, sending fire trailing and reaching him, causing him to be on fire for only a few seconds. It makes him deteriorated for a moment before recovering and grabbing Mai by the throat.

"You will die!" he growls.

"Akh... guhk...haaakh..." Mai wheezes, her throat crushingly constricted in his firm

"Oh no you don't!" Athena curses. She dives at his leg, her foot extended, and smashes into the back of his knee. His stance is immediately broken, and he collapses to the ground. His hand instinctively opens, freeing Mai from his painful grasp.

The man gets back up. Mai kicks him in the crotch, and Athena takes him out from behind with an elbow drop. As the man falls back over on his knees, Mai grabs him by the shirt and stands him up.

"Okay, time to teach you a lesson! Ready, Athena?"

"READY!" Athena shouts.

"RYU ENBU!"

Mai whips the tail of her dress at him, bathed in a fiery aura that smacks him in the face with explosive force. As he stumbles backwards... Athena is waiting for him.

"PSYCHO SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD!"

Athena leaps up with a mighty uppercut, a trail of her Psycho Power following her fist and smashing into his chin with tremendous power.

"AUUUUUUUGHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." the man's yell carries until his limp body finally hits the ground.

Mai and Athena pause for a moment, looking at each and every man on the ground, beaten. Then, they turn toward each other and jump in the air with a high five.

"We did it~!" Athena cheers. "We did it!"

"Ehehehe! That'll teach those guys a lesson~" Mai says. "Now where did we put the food." Surprisingly, the food remained untouched the whole battle. Not a single thing is ruined.

"Hooray! The food is fine~!" Athena cheers.

"You seem awfully happy about that." Mai laughs.

"Yeah? Well you don't seem happy ENOUGH. Probably because I had to pay for it all! Hmph."

"Hey, like I said... I'm just a kunoichi with a nice pair. You want me to buy food, then let me get on stage and sing~"

"Your singing is terrible!" Athena teased.

"IS NOT!"

Athena giggles as she runs away from Mai, who is also laughing. She COULD have used her ninja speed to catch up... but they were just playing around anyway.

**Later**

After dinner, Athena goes outside of the Shiranui household where Mai invited her and left the group where Kensou and the gang were just chatting away at his own home. She looks up at the clear night sky with the light wind blowing, making her violet hair sway gracefully. Honestly, as much as she wanted to spend time with the guys, she feels that it's too crazy in there, especially if Mai is involved. Frankly, Athena felt a little awkward when given some booze. She refused and asked Mai to take her to the Shiranui household to relax.

She still stares up at the stars when she hears some footsteps coming toward her.

"What are you doing out so late?" Mai asks. "Shouldn't we go to bed soon?"

"Yeah, but I feel like staying up for a while," the idol says.

Both of the girls look up at the stars with their hair swaying gracefully with the wind.

"Such a beautiful night, isn't it?" Mai says.

Athena nods. "Sure is. A beautiful night for the two of us to watch."

Mai turns to the idol with a light chuckle. "The two of us, hm~?"

"Yeah, the two of us. Is that a problem?" Athena frowns.

"Nothing~" Mai says as she steps a bit closer to her. "It's just…when you say that…it feels like we're an actual couple~"

The violet haired girl chuckles. "Are we? I thought you and Andy—"

"We didn't," Mai cuts her off. "He's…he's too much of an oblivious fool to even realize my feelings for him."

"So…you're moving on? Who are you going to hook up with now?"

Mai smiles and takes Athena's hands in hers. "You."

"What!? Wait, why'd you become a lesbian all of a sudden? I thought you had a taste in guys."

"Not anymore," Mai says. She cups both hands to her cheeks. "I can love whoever I want. No need to tell me what to do…A~the~na~!"

The way Mai said her name makes the idol blush heavily. "M-Mai…"

The happy brunette leans in to lock lips with hers, catching her by surprise. But then, the idol closes her eyes to return the favor. The kiss…actually feels good. Mai's soft and moist lips pressing against hers. She wraps her arms around Mai's neck while still making out. Since when did Mai have feelings for Athena? Sure they interacted from time to time, but she thought it was just a friendship type of relationship. She herself didn't see that and thought that the Pride and Joy of Shiranui Ryu is only for Any Bogard.

Once they pull away, they gaze into each other's eyes with smiles on their faces, nuzzle each other's noses and press foreheads together. The wind blows once again, making their hair sway gracefully.

"Athena~" Mai whispers. "Earlier, during that battle against those creeps…" She opens her eyes. "I felt that our love for each other made us stronger. You and I working as a team beat them. And I can't thank you enough for saving me."

"Mai…" Athena whispers back. "I…I didn't realize you had feelings for me…"

"It's okay…" Mai caresses her cheek. "We're a couple now. That's all that matters."

The idol nods and both of the girls lean in to kiss again. The battle has truly brought them together in the end. Both Mai and Athena know it in their hearts.