Prompt: A street rat Joey Wheeler ends up in trouble with some gang thugs and gets some unexpected help from the fierce Mai Valentine; after they escape they share a moment with each other before they part ways. For MegaMovieMonday!
Pairing: Polarshipping
Joey could feel the sweat dripping, all warm and runny, from his hairline and down his nose. A look at his shirt front revealed that it was not sweat after all; it was blood, a fair bit of it.
Joey still felt nothing.
The rivulets of red began to leak from the narrow slit on his forehead rather quicker than they should have; Joey wiped his head with the sleeve of his uniform jacket, not exactly caring that he was ruining it.
"Looks like Blondie's gearing up for round two, huh?" The thugs standing over him shared a brutal chuckle as they circled him once more.
He hadn't meant to get into an alleyway fight like this again; it had been such a long time since he'd felt like this, like he was looking for a fight. This... angry, he supposed, but also... numb. Numb enough, feeling that throbbing, cold emptiness, that hollow in his chest that made him leave the apartment, tiptoeing past Serenity's room where she slept soundlessly-the sleep of the untroubled, the innocent...
"I still got more, ya pricks."
He'd began prowling the streets of his neighborhood at that indecent, god-early hour, yowling and screeching between puffs of a cigarette he'd found in a pocket.
Come and get me.
I ain't gonna run.
Come get me, ya fuckers.
"Well, we'll certainly oblige ya..."
Joey realized, almost flippantly, that they were just now breaking a few of his ribs.
He wasn't exactly sure why he was doing this, this childish business he'd been known for back in middle school. The gang brawls, the split lips and beer-bottle cuts on his arms and legs...
Nothing had felt quite right since the Pharaoh left, he supposed.
After he'd befriended Yugi and Téa way back at the beginning of high school, there hadn't been any need for getting into these pointless scrapes just for the hell of it. He'd been able to drown out those dark, angry feelings with those of genuine love and friendship.
After Serenity had been taken away, Joey hadn't been able to feel those kinds of things until Yugi had taken him under his tiny, fragile wing, a promise of gentleness, of eternity on his lips.
He'd felt anger and rage before, but never this.
And yet, with the Pharaoh gone, with Joey's once-extraordinary days turned rote and pointless, that the rage, the fury, the love and happiness were being swallowed up by this nothing, this nothing that took all of his feelings and replaced them with a void.
What was this eternity?
Why wasn't the gang enough? Why wasn't anything enough anymore?
At night he still saw the dark corners of that place Marik had sent him so long ago.
Joey coughed up a bit of phlegmy blood and crumpled to the ground, eyelids struggling to stay open under the piling weight of blood.
He closed his eyes and waited rather resignedly for the feeling of a sneaker on his skull.
Suddenly a pair of headlights cut through the darkness of the alleyway, accompanied by a zooming sound and a series of obnoxious honking sounds.
"Hey, what's going on..." one of the thugs called out in wonderment as the convertible knocked over several trashcans in its advance towards the men standing around Joey.
Joey heard the hasty application of brakes, then the sounds of a car door opening and slamming shut, the sound of heels on pavement...
The cocking of a gun.
"Shit." "Come on, lady, we don't mean any harm."
"Get the fuck away from him." A finger pulling a trigger. A shot firing into a nearby mailbox.
The sound of sneakers on the ground, growing quieter and quieter.
Long hair tickling his face.
A sweet smell of perfume...
Joey's eyes fluttered open at the feel of soft, long-fingered hands on his forehead.
"What are you doing, you big dummy?" came the petulant, scolding voice of one Mai Valentine, whose violet eyes shone with the twin emotions of concern and disappointment...
Concern for his current condition, disappointment in his being in said condition.
"M-Mai, I..." Joey's tongue grew thick, his neck warm, as he struggled to sit up.
Fuck.
I didn't want her to see me like this...
Mai put the safety on her pistol and replaced it in her garter-holster (of course, Joey managed to think), and helped him sit up.
A tear escaped from his eye and dripped off his chin. Joey wished it had been blood.
Finally, he felt the rewards of the blows he had suffered only minutes before.
"Fuck. Fuuuuuck..." His entire body shot through with acute pain.
"Well, what the fuck were you doing, Joey?" Mai's voice was soft, rounded with a sort of breathiness that sent shivers down Joey's spine.
Is she... really worried?
About me?
"No ifs, ands, or buts, Joey, I'm taking you to the hospital." The firmness and audible pout in her voice returned; she clearly relished being able to give orders and have him take them.
He could only nod as Mai helped him to his shaking feet.
He felt like vomiting teeth.
He nearly blacked out from the pain and Mai half-guided, half-carried him to the passenger seat of the convertible. Her hand lingered perhaps longer than it needed to on his shoulder before rising to his neck, but Joey certainly didn't mind.
Once they were on their way, Mai driving the car smoothly on the empty Domino Streets in the early morning light, she finally spoke up again.
"Joey, what were you doing over there?"
With some effort, Joey turned his head to wink at her. He almost sounded like himself as he teased, "aw Mai... I didn't know ya were worried about me..."
"I'm not in the mood for games, Joseph."
"Ah, ya wanna use my full name. Looks like ya wanna get serious. What, do ya suddenly care about me all of a sudden?" Joey rambled before he could stop himself.
Mai stopped the car abruptly at a red light, causing Joey nearly to be sick as the seatbelt strained and scraped against his bruised chest.
"Joey. What even..." Her voice was exasperated and resigned at his unnecessary callousness, coming out in a bit of a sigh at the end.
Joey looked at his hands and immediately wished he hadn't. The broken nails and bloodied knuckles made everything worse.
"Mai... nothing's been the same since..." Joey muttered, his words tasting sour on his tongue.
"...Since the Pharaoh left," Mai finished haltingly, looking up from the windshield to look at him quizzically.
Since there's no longer any reason for me to be here.
What happens to the hero after he fulfills his destiny?
They never write about that part in the books, do they?
"Joey, I'm not saying I believe in all that Pharaoh and destiny crap, but you can't let it..." Mai began, that familiar scolding tone coming back into her voice as she made a wide turn.
"No, Mai, I saw it. He left. He lost to Yugi in a duel and then he just left us. Gone. Kaputt. Nada!" Joey cut her off, feeling that familiar anguish twist his insides.
"So what, Joey?"
She still doesn't get it.
Joey struggled to keep the tears out of his voice as he muttered thickly, "well, what am I supposed to do now?"
I'm never going to help save the world again.
The line of destiny ended with the Pharaoh leaving.
What is left to do for me?
Why the fuck am I still alive?
"Why the fuck am I still alive...?" he whispered aloud without realizing it, feeling that emptiness replace all the physical pain that flooded his every vein.
Mai's eyes widened for a moment as she pulled over in front of the local hospital.
Her voice was almost sad as she responded, "well, Joey, can't you think of at least one reason...? One person who... who wouldn't mind it if you were around?"
Joey nearly swallowed his tongue in reply to the closest thing to a confession Mai had ever made.
What the fuck...?
Does this mean she...
And despite everything, despite the rain that roared wetly in his ears at his every breath, Joey felt a small smile curl on his lips.
An EMT noticed the car and approached, looking concerned at Joey's rather unpleasant condition.
"Now get out of my car and into the emergency room before I kick you out, Joseph Wheeler."