I'm borrowing my mom's computer at the moment, since my new laptop doesn't have Microsoft Word on it yet (a problem I'm hoping to rectify by January). I lost the original file for this letter and I don't remember what I had for it since I was playing with my bunnies, but they seemed to like the letter 'T' and came up with this for me.
This one is set post-series, following the timeline of every other post-series shot. Leave reviews on the way out!
The skin on Jounouchi's hands is dry and somewhat abrasive, she thinks vaguely as she trembles in his embrace. It's funny, because she never really noticed that, even though he's taken her hand so many times; it's not like she's ever really paid especial attention to his hands before, though.
Then again, she's an absolute emotional wreck at the moment and she's trying desperately hard to forget the vividity of the nightmare she's just come out of, so focusing on his hands—one cradling the back of her head and the other on her upper arm—is a good distraction.
She knows with half-remembered detail that they had been watching some nameless movie in her apartment; she must have dozed off, she thinks to herself. The movie must have also triggered a buried memory somewhere along the line, one that's linked to her nightmares. She realizes that she's fallen off the sofa because she can feel the carpet beneath her; that's happened before as well, though this time she doesn't seem to have hit anything on her way down.
She can't remember what this nightmare was about and that is a blessing. Normally she remembers all the details of those horrifying images with dreaded clarity and it remains that way for sometimes hours afterward; she's had nightmares before whose images had not faded for a week. She's always known and feared those images with every fiber of her being.
But this time, she cannot summon those images no matter how hard she tries.
Perhaps it's because Jounouchi has his arms wrapped around her in a protective embrace, with his voice murmuring soothing and comforting words into her hair; it's hard to focus on the horrors of the dream when she finds herself listening to the incessant stream of tranquilizing words coming from him. Her head is resting against what she suspects his chest and the sound of his heartbeat is oddly calming.
The raw emotions incurred by the nightmare are not prone to fade away just yet, and she simply can't comprehend whatever Jounouchi is saying; she's more comforted by the sound of his voice than by what he's telling her. But the fact that he's there, holding onto her and not releasing her for anything, is an anchor and she can already feel a semblance of composure returning to her.
Mai finds it oddly believable that, despite his rough and callused hands, Jounouchi has the gentlest touch of anyone she's ever met.