I don't own Yugioh. Never have, never will. I own Maria, Schala owns Mau, Valon, and herself.
Maria's POV
I sighed as the taxi finally pulled up to the theater house. 'The ride was too long for my liking,' I thought as I paid the driver and started up the steps. My face lit up as I saw my best friend, Mau, waiting for me like she promised. Going up the steps, I dropped my bag and gave Mau a hug.
"Mau, it's so good to finally see a familiar face after a somewhat long travel," I said, "How are you?"
Mau smiled. "I'm doing quite well," she replied.
"Do you know if auditions are still going on?" I asked, curious about the reason I had come here.
"How would I know? I've been out here all morning. No one has come out yet, so I'm guessing that they are still going on. Come on, It looks like it's going to rain. Let's go in," said Mau going to the doors.
Smiling at the fact that Mau hasn't changed a bit since I last saw her, I picked up my bag and followed her into the theater. When we got into the foyer (the carpeted part that leads into the auditorium), we noticed that everyone was standing around looking scared.
"I wonder why everyone looks so panicked?" asked Mau looking around as we stopped in the center of the foyer.
Looking around also, I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we can ask someone," I said, "Isn't that the owner?"
Mau followed my gaze. "I think so," she replied.
"He looks rich enough to be," I said thoughtfully.
Mau rolled her eyes. "Am I the only one who pays attention?" she asked. Seeing me nod, she sighed. "Yes that's him. His name's Seto Kaiba."
"Can I help it if you hang around here often?" I asked.
Mau didn't reply. Going up to Seto, she asked him, "Excuse me Mr. Kaiba, are the auditions still being held?"
Seto shook his head. "I'm continuing them later. The Phantom spooked all of the auditioners so much, that they refuse to sing right now," he said.
"So that's why," said Mau as I joined the conversation.
I just raised an eyebrow. "A phantom? Come on, there's no such thing," I said with a look of disbelief.
Mau just blushed. She's very superstitious, and probably feels uncomfortable when I voice my disagreement. That's probably why she changed the topic. "When will the auditions start up again?" she asked, her cheeks still a bit pink.
Seto glanced at his watch. "Let's see. Since its eleven now, how about I restart them at one in the first practice room down the hall. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a headache, and wish to take some aspirin," said Seto bowing curtly.
"Before you go, do you mind if we look around for a while?" asked Mau.
Seto looked over his shoulder at the girls. "I don't care," he said walking off, "but don't go lower than the first basement level."
Mau looked at me as Seto walked away. "You should relax, you're the one auditioning, not me," said Mau.
"I still don't see why you refuse to audition," I said sitting on my bag, "you have a beautiful voice, Mau."
Mau turned an interesting shade of red and sat next to me. "You know I can't read music that well...and it would take forever to learn all of the songs by ear," she protested. As an afterthought, Mau added, "Besides, your voice is far better then mine."
I had to roll my eyes at that. "You know," I said, "if you trained yourself, maybe you'd be just as good as me, if not better."
Mau smiled, still blushing a bit. "I doubt that," she muttered.
Resting my hand on her shoulder, I smiled. "I don't doubt it, You're just being modest," I teased.
Mau sighed. "You're more cut out for this than me," she said with another sigh, "Haven't we gone over this before?"
"And you know I'm too stubborn for my own good," I replied, "Besides, I think you would still be excellent, but if you refuse, you can always try out to be a dancer. That comes naturally for you, I can't dance for two beans glued together."
That got a laugh out of Mau. "All right, I may try out for that, but we still have two hours to kill. How about we explore some? We could look at the dressing rooms and costume rooms…" started Mau.
"…And maybe try some of the costumes on," I finished with a grin. Pulling her up and grabbing my bag, we set off. In the front hall, we spotted an odd looking Egyptian statue.
Looking at it curiously, Mau asked with a giggle, "Maria, does that stand out, or what?"
Stopping in front of it, I had to laugh. "It does look odd being here all alone… want to see if there's a hidden switch that leads to a hidden door or something?" I asked getting another of my hair-brained schemes.
"Why not? It may even be made out of real gold," said Mau walking to the statue.
"Why? So you can make it into jewelry or something?" I teased as I pulled on an arm, "That's definitely not a switch."
Mau, ignoring my first comment, pulled the other arm. "That's not it," she laughed as she tugged on it, "Hmm, I wonder if it'll be anything protruding."
"Let's see, the whole statue is dusty, except where we were pulling on the arms and the snake on the headdress, so methinks we have to pull that," I said looking the statue over.
Mau reached up and pulled on the snake, which shifted down and came back up. "Nothing's happening," said Mau with a shrug. I was about to reply, when a very quiet grinding sound caught my attention.
"Mau, look!" I exclaimed as a portion of the wall slid open to reveal a passageway.
Mau looked over and her eyes widened. "Oh my gosh!" she said, "I didn't think that there was an actual door."
"I want to go see where it leads," I said walking forwards. As I headed towards the opening, I looked back at Mau who hadn't moved. "Coming?" I asked.
"I don't know… I have a bad feeling about this," Mau said hesitantly.
"Well, come if you want, I'm going regardless," I said heading into the darkness of the passage, knowing Mau would follow. Sure enough, a few seconds later I heard Mau's quick footsteps and her saying, "Maria, wait up! I'm coming too!"
Looking around the dark passage, Mau gulped. "I'm coming, as long as we don't go too far.
I sighed. "Oh come on, what could possibly happen? Let's just not go down any stairs, since we're most likely on the first basement level. I bet there's tons of cool things down here," I said.
Mau still looked a bit reluctant. Looking around, I spotted a flashlight. "Hey Mau, if it makes you feel better, we'll use this," I said as I held up the flashlight.
"I guess that's fine," said Mau taking a more confident step forward.
Meanwhile, Ryou had returned from visiting Bakura and heard the girls' voices. Curiosity getting the better of him, he went to investigate.
Swinging the flashlight around while walking, I saw something interesting and stopped.
"What is it?" asked Mau.
Grinning, I pointed. "Look," I said, "costumes! Let's try some on."
Mau giggled. "I wonder why those were put here," she said with a confused look spreading over her face, "I thought they stored unneeded stuff in the attic."
I laughed. "Old time opera houses didn't have attics, just multi level basements to store props and such easier... lets try some on," I said going to the costumes.
Mau walked over and started searching through them. "I hope there's one that is short enough to fit me," she said.
Digging through another rack, I spotted one that may be small enough. "Here," I said handing it to her. Smiling, Mau put it on over her clothes.
"It's perfect! How do I look?" she asked.
I had to laugh. "You look like a princess who ran away to have an adventure," I said still laughing.
Mau also laughed. Taking it off, she looked around. "Find anything yet?" she asked.
Digging around, I found a cat outfit and put it on. "Meow!" I said giggling, "I'm an Egyptian Mau!"
"That wasn't funny," said Mau smiling.
Suddenly, we both stopped laughing as we heard a quiet "hello" come from behind Mau. Spinning around, Mau looked into the shadows with frightened eyes. "W-who's there?" she asked.
"There's no need to be frightened, my name is Ryou. I live down here and I heard you, so I thought I'd say hello. I'm sorry I frightened you," said the person coming out of the shadows. The person was a boy about our age with long, snowy-white hair and warm, chocolate brown eyes.
Mau blushed sheepishly. "Oh," she said.
"Hello then," I said as I suddenly felt stupid and took off the costume.
"I hope...we're not bothering you...since you live here and all..." said Mau quietly.
Ryou smiled warmly. "It's no bother," he said, "It's nice to have company other than my brother sometimes."
Mau relaxed and smiled a little. "Oh...your brother? I can't help asking this and I do hope you forgive me, but do you see a lot of the phantom?" she asked.
"The phantom?" asked Ryou, "I see him every so often, why what did he do this time?"
"Umm…" said Mau trailing off and looking to me for help.
"This supposed phantom scared away all of the people auditioning I think… We just got here as they were running out the auditorium door," I said. As I finished saying that, I could have sworn that Ryou muttered "typical."
"Well...I'm not afraid of a phantom...at least, I fear them less then humans," said Mau fidgeting a little.
"He's done this before, only when he's bored or annoyed at the singers," explained Ryou.
"I see...I'm afraid Maria doesn't think that there are phantoms," said Mau looking at Ryou, "...Oh! I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Mau and my friend is Maria. She's the one that came to audition."
I grinned and curtsied a little. "I don't believe in a phantom now, but I definitely will change my mind if I see one," I said to Ryou and Mau laughing.
Once the laughter stopped, Ryou said, "Would you like me to show you around the basements?"
I looked at Mau. "Didn't Seto tell us not to go lower?" I asked uncertainly.
Mau looked at me and nodded. "Erm...the manager had told us to not go beyond the first basement level so..." she said looking at Ryou.
Ryou just laughed. "Don't worry, it's just so you don't get lost. I bet Seto didn't expect you to meet me," he said.
I took a bit to decide. "All right, I guess we can. What do you think Mau?" I said.
Mau looked uncomfortable. Finally she sighed and said, "If...it's only for a little while. We have to be back up at one though."
"Follow me then," said Ryou walking off into the shadows.
Yay! I got enough to make a decent length chapter. Many thanks to Schala for Rping this with me.
