Very sorry for not updating last week! Here's two chapters to make up for it.

I want to thank everyone who sent in reviews, I know I kind of guilt-tripped some of you into reviewing, but I really enjoyed them! So, read and enjoy this one!

'I'm sorry,' Mai muttered into his chest.

'You need to stop apologising,' Joey told her. 'And what are you sorry for? Letting out the fear you've carried inside you these past couple of days, letting me see it, or letting yourself cry on me?'

Mai winced. 'When you put it like that, it makes me being ashamed of crying feel silly.'

'You need that pretence of not needing to cry as a way to see yourself as strong.'

'Oh?' Mai pulled back from him with flashing eyes. 'My strength is built on a pretence is it?'

'In a way, yes.'

Mai almost slapped him, but Joey caught her hand as it came around. 'I wasn't finished.' He felt her arm relax slightly, and was relieved; he was sure Mai would hit. And he had a sense he would be in very much pain no if she hadn't been slower because she was angry, and if he hadn't been expecting some negative reaction or the other to his words. 'Being strong is important to you, and you think that not crying is a way to be strong. But it doesn't matter. Tears don't equal weakness. They're an outlet for pain. Keeping them inside's almost a weakness because you're so scared to appear weak. You don't need to pretend Mai.'

'Easy for you to say,' Mai snapped. 'You're not a good-looking girl trying to compete with a horde of guys that often see you as a weaker opponent.'

'And you always prove them wrong. And I'd say good-looking is an understatement. You're gorgeous Mai.'

Mai felt her pulse leap irrationally and her heart lurch.

'And you play it like an asset, but sometimes I wonder if you use it too much.'

'I-'

'Let me finish,' Joey moved the hand that wasn't holding her wrist to cover her mouth. 'I sometimes wonder whether you would rather not have it. You use it as a facade, but you don't take any real joy in using it.'

Mai tensed.

'Hit the spot did I?'

'And if you did?' Mai's voice was muffled behind Joey's hand, he took it away.

Joey shrugged. 'Just means I know you that bit more.'

'You're the only guy who ever wanted to.' Joey blinked and Mai gritted her teeth. 'Never mind,' she muttered.

'Mai, what I'm trying to get around to is you don't need any pretence. You are strong, even if you cry, or lean on others, you're still strong. Look at Yugi, he needs us more than anything, and he's one of the strongest guys I know, I've seen him cry too. I don't know if you could call me strong, but I do need my friends and you've seen me cry. Mai, I'm telling you it doesn't matter. You're one of the strongest people I know, I mean it,' he told her when she looked at him in shock. 'You pulled yourself through, despite everything, you're here. You're alive and you're well. I don't know what that cost you, but I can begin to imagine it cost to start with, something like it cost me to take a look at myself after Yugi defended me and Tristan after we'd bullied him, perhaps it cost something like it cost me to get on with life after my mother left with Serenity. Something like it cost Yugi to learn to live without the Pharaoh, something like it cost Tea to see the Pharaoh go, and having to sort through her feelings for him and Yugi and decide what to do when only Yugi was still there. Something like it cost all of us to see our friends fall over the years.'

Mai backed away, squeezed her eyes shut and turned away. 'Well, you twisted that so I'm not angry at you anymore, just...'

'Sore?'

'Yeah,' Mai breathed.

'I dredged up painful memories didn't I? Sorry about that.'

'No Joey,' Mai opened her eyes and turned back to him. 'If I have to stop apologising to you then you have to do the same for me. Because you do, even though you've got no reason to.'

'Sure I do, I-'

'Joey, please.'

'Alright, alright,' he gave her a sheepish grin. 'I guess I can try, but-'

'No buts,' Mai gave him a wane smile and turned away again. 'After the police called to tell me about Vivian, I could feel the darkness again. I feel it still from time to time, but never as bad as I was consumed by it after Battle City. I felt like I was standing over a endless hole and any if I moved I would fall and keep falling, and this time there would be no way out. That's why I was silent all the way here, I didn't feel I could speak without losing my grip on myself and falling. But you...talking about everyone and anything...you pulled me away from that chasm...you were the light in the dark that I could follow out...you always have been.'

Joey turned her around to face him. 'Thank you Mai.' He felt humbled.

She managed a half-smile, 'You're welcome.' Then she shook her head and smiled ruefully. 'You always kept fighting for me, no matter what; you never gave up on me.' She suddenly looked at him with a mixture of curiosity, apprehension and fear in her eyes. 'Why? Why did you keep fighting for me and not give me up as a lost cause?'

'We're friends.'

'But what I did...if anything lets you off the hook of friendship, what I did to you in that first duel in the Orichalcoes definitely qualifies.'

'I...I cared about you Mai,' Joey could feel his cheeks heating up. 'I didn't want to lose you.'

Cared. Did he still care for her that way? Mai wondered. She moved closer to him, and Joey froze as her face came close to his. Mai kissed his cheek. 'Thank you.'

Joey went a fiery red. 'No problem.'

Mai studied his face. 'C'mon Wheeler, you've been kissed before, I'm sure.'

'Yeah, but not by you,' he muttered.

'What?' Mai wasn't sure she had heard right.

'Nothing. Shall we get some grub? I'm starved.'

'You always are,' Mai told him, and too embarrassed to discuss her actions, fell into step beside him as he headed for the shops just around the corner. As they walked she couldn't help wondering what would have happened if she had kissed him on the mouth rather than the cheek.