A/N: No, you're not hallucinating. You haven't missed anything. "Chapter 7 - When Worlds Collide" was way too long, and I finally figured out how to cut it into two. Most of that chapter was changed to "Chapter 7 - Everybody Loves Countin'," and the conversation between Mai and Seto in the Hong Kong office is now the entirety of "Chapter 8 - When Our Worlds Collide." And some small edits to substance have been made, but nothing drastic changed. So now this is all out of 9 chapters total. One more to go! Enjoy!

- Chapter 8 -

When Our Worlds Collide

playlist on YouTube at EttuCh8

That evening, at Kaiba Corporation's Hong Kong Headquarters, Mai adjusted her short violet Cheongsam. A long gray dragon with violet eyes swirled around her torso in reflectively shimmery woven silk. She knocked meekly on Seto's office door.

"Jìn," Seto's voice carried through the door, with a Chinese accent but brusque as ever.

She pushed through the door as discreetly as possible, quietly side-stepping into the room.

"Shénme-" He finally looked up. "Oh." Seto froze, wide-eyed and suddenly white as a ghost.

Mai stood perfectly straight, hands clasped in front of her, with worry plastered across her face. She was shaking.

"Mai?" He blinked in surprise at her state. He had lost the flashy red suit jacket and tie, keeping only the black dress shirt still tucked in, with forearm braces, and the red dress pants. "What are you doing here? What's wrong?"

"I… I need to talk to you."

Seto gulped and felt his spirit leave from those few small words. "About… what…"

Mai stayed frozen for a while, only licking her dry lips.

"Mai," he said graciously and carefully, "What... did you need to fly over to China to talk to me about… In person?" He braced. But, so much effort to come see ME this instant?

She finally gulped and bit the bullet. "It's about Joey."

Seto looked away, but only briefly. The moment he thought of it in terms of losing a competition, he laser focused back on her, stern and serious. His voice turned confrontational. "What about Joey. What did he say to you yesterday?"

She deflated further. "He only said he wanted to be friends again."

"Just friends?" he snapped.

She winced. He stared at her helplessly. She wiped at an eye and sighed. "And then last night he told me that you knew he'd called me."

He looked away. "All night, and-"

"But yes, just friends." I can do this. I can be 'just friends' with him. Picturing him would prove otherwise, if she were to be honest with herself.

He paused, then began again. "All night, and you didn't say anything? You knew you were keeping this from me- you did know I already knew and you still didn't say anything?" He felt a mental kick in the head for the hypocrisy.

She rolled her eyes and hand around, but her pleading tone remained. "He's an old friend. You've known that. But you've always been respectful of my own life, my own, 'friends.' Why is Joey Wheeler a problem now?" Other than the fact that you're right...

He closed his eyes. Because I also know he does love you. "Because-..." He looked away as he bit his lip. "He's not just someone from work. He's not just an acquaintance." He finally locked eyes with her. "I know I never wanted to hang around them, but... I've always known that."

This time Mai pursed her lips and looked away. She sighed, then walked up to his desk, and laid her right hand out over a stack of papers. Barely audible, she breathed, "You're right."

Seto blanched again; eyes wide, blood running cold, sweat forming on his brow. She ADMITS it?! But it did not feel like winning.

Mai felt tears coming on as she choked out her confession. "The other day, I texted him for the first time since before Paradisa. We met up for coffee. That's why I got home late. The next day- yesterday- he called me during my meeting. He said he…" She fell to a whisper. "That he loved me."

Seto leaned forward onto his desk, taking in all that she was saying while staring intensely into the wood.

"I didn't say anything," she was quick to speak up and clarify. "But last night I was texting with him, and then seeing him this morning…" She shook her head, hoping her plea would make sense. "I love you, Seto, but now I don't wanna deny and hide this anymore."

Seto could not tell whether he felt like screaming or if he would collapse, or both. Both seemed a likelihood, given how his other most catastrophic losses had gone in the past.

Despite the worst possibilities hanging in the air, the couple locked eyes.

"That... sniveling, little loser?!" Seto yelled and slapped the desk. "You just told me again that it wasn't true, but it was?! And now you STILL have FEELINGS for him?!"

With a deep breath, Mai raised her chin and puffed her chest out. His response to her mood had in turn prompted her own response to swing that mood. She slipped into resting bitch face, ready to attack or defend, to negate or redirect. "I've played my hand, and you bought my bluff. But I did nothing against you. I just wanted to talk to you about it."

Seto took a step back and crossed his arms, offended that she had purposefully and successfully tricked him. "Well? TALK."

"I am JUST trying to be honest with you and not HIDE how I feel! So what if Joey Wheeler's in love with me?" Saying it somehow made it more real, and drove her frantic. "Since when do you care what guys are attracted to me?! Newsflash," she leaned forward cheekily, "A lot of them are."

His shoulders fell and he lifted his head high. "Since I thought I could trust you," he said quietly. "You understand the isolation, and the fronts I have to put up. I hoped you would be someone I could open up to, without harsh judgment, without worrying you'd try to ruin me or my image, and without any crazy voodoo involved. Not clinging to me, but not one to betray me."

Hands on her hips, she cocked her stance. "I'm not your therapist. I'm supposed to be your wife."

"Same thing!" he slammed his fist on his desk. "I'm doing the same for you!"

"And I haven't betrayed you. But, so you wanted me because you thought I was cold, but now you're complaining 'cause you think I'm being cold to you?" She crossed her arms and cocked her hips in the opposite direction. "Well, at least we have that in common."

"So it seems." Seto turned away and ran his eyes over his desk. "What is it about him?" he mused out loud.

"Joey?" Mai's eyes finally softened. "He's sweet. He's caring. And he's not afraid to show it. He'd do, anything for a fr-iend."

Seto's chest hitched at what she was referring to. He pushed off the desk and wandered over to the windows. Leaning on one arm against the glass, his other hand on his hip, he stared out, up to the night sky with a matching melancholy. "I know all that," he said slowly, licking his lips. "But do you know? What it feels like?"

"To lose your soul?" She hmphed. "Look at the crowd we were with. Been there, done that." She flipped some of her hair away from her face like it was no big deal; just a huge inconvenience.

"No, not to 'lose' your soul. To sacrifice it."

She picked her head up, startled as she thought on there existing a difference.

"You have to be beyond sure of yourself, to know exactly what you want, but then admit that you can't do it as you are, and be willing to give up your very existence in the name of what you want. Or have someone you can trust to carry on. There's no guarantee you'll make it back." He clutched his locket and closed his eyes a moment, then turned to face her once more. "Joey knows all of that, too. All too well."

Mai reflected on his little speech, but was confused as to why he suddenly seemed to be praising Joey.

"One time was even for you, as you've said."

Mai gasped at her memory of cradling him, lying in her arms, for her, but also because of her. "Yes..." Before that, it was him shielding her from Marik's attack with the Winged Dragon of Ra. "More than once, actually." They said he fought Marik for me, but lost. And even in Duelist Kingdom, they still fought for me and could have lost their chances for their own wishes...

"More than you even know." He looked away again and took a deep breath. "Dartz used avatars of you when Yugi and I dueled him. I attacked yours, but," he groaned with annoyance, "Completely out of the rules of the game! Joey's took the hit."

She looked away, embarrassed how she and Joey had ended up there, but wondering again about her last dream.

Seto walked up to her, stone-faced. "You don't know what it's like." In his mind, though, confusion raged, different parts of himself smashing together, that he still did not know how to connect.

Mai leaned away, still defensive. "So are you still mad at me about him? We didn't do anything, you know. You've got this whole city rigged anyway – check your cameras! Unless you really count coffee as cheating."

"I am not 'checking cameras' on you," he sneered with assertion, yet again offended at the idea. "But nah, that's not cheating," he shrugged with a snide smile. "Just, very interesting..." He began pacing.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What that means, depends on if you still want to be my wife."

She was taken aback, scoffing right off the bat. "I said I-"

But Seto interrupted her from answering for another moment. "Forget the prenup," he waved his arm away. "You'll get half of everything that's mine. That's a quarter of everything." He froze for a moment, unable to even fathom what that would mean for himself. He gulped. "Do you still want to stay."

She sighed, rubbed her temples, and plopped down on one of the two couches facing each other in front of his desk. She crossed her arms and legs, closing her body language off. "Of course I do."

"But why? I'm nothing like him, who you speak so fondly of."

Mai rolled her eyes. "Oh, you're more like him than you know. And need I remind you, you were just speaking oh so fondly of him as well."

Seto snapped his eyes to her as his mind threw out an assumption. She wants both of us. His expression relaxed in revelation at the next thought after that: So… what about both of us? He smirked, mysteriously, then sauntered over, and slid onto the couch beside her, his arm behind her shoulders. His mouth dove to her ear. "What about... both of us?"

Mai laughed and jerked her head away to look at him. "Ah-pwha- What?!" she guffawed.

"If you could have both Joey and I, would you want that? Or just one of us?" He used his neutral matter-of-fact face again.

She fell serious. "What are you asking here?" She blinked fast and her cheeks reddened, as a single gasping moment of her sandwiched between them flashed across her mind. She pulled away, trying to compose herself.

"Tch," he smirked. "I think your face says it all."

But Mai's face quickly turned to worry and confusion. "What are you gonna do to him? I don't wanna hurt him again."

"I won't hurt him," Seto rumbled in a soft voice, as he brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. He leaned into her side.

Mai pushed him away a little, leaving her hand on his chest. "Stop being weird. Is this a trap?"

Seto snorted at her blatantly asking if something was a trap. "No, it'd be a three-way. Or tag team, whichever. Whatever you want." Not that I have that much energy there, but then I wouldn't have to be as involved… His imagination trailed off, none of it disappointing but instead looking promising. If he can stop her nightmares, but I don't lose her, and maybe even… Things were suddenly snapping into place and finally connecting. He raised a hand to his chest, and clutched at the tie his fingers found over his heart.

She gawked at him, unwilling to entertain any ill-fated fantasy. Yet she found herself more and more shocked that he just might mean what he was saying.

"What?" he asked, ready to take it all back and say it was indeed a trick.

"You..." She hesitated, trying to recall any interactions she had ever witnessed between the two, which she could hardly. At the Domino Pier, he helped in the overall rescue, but then during the finals, he let Joey nearly die simply because of duel regulations. I know Joey hates him, and has hated him for as long as I've known him, and even back then I could reason and guess as to why. Why would he be so interested in Joey? She decided to turn coy and take charge. She twisted in her seat and with a masterful grin, seductively stared him down. "Why the sudden interest in this? I mean- you? Want to have a- a- ménage à trois? With Joey Wheeler?"

Seto immediately turned away, frowning and biting his lip. He fidgeted a bit, rubbing the lap of his dress pants, then jolted up to pace again. He only stopped when the placement of the coffee table and opposite couch between them felt natural. He stood behind the other couch, arms crossed, his stance that of waiting for a duel to begin. "Mai." His voice was quiet, but confident, and as softly straining, but affirming, as when he spoke to Mokuba. "As my wife, you're my family now. As part of my family, that means I will take care of you. Not because of any megalomaniac or patriarchal bullshit, but because it's my name to the company." He uncrossed his arms and leaned down on the back of the couch. "And taking care of you means meeting your needs. Continuing competing, stability, finding you your own place in the company so you're helping earn it, too. Your marketing and merchandise lines have done fantastic. Those are all great things. That all sound right to you?" He held his hand out, awaiting her response as if he had just played the simplest spell card, expecting to be shot down immediately.

She nodded, listening openly and intently.

"Then, what I need from you is to be able to trust you. I want to trust you. But-"

"Seto it was just coffee!" Her arms flailed in frustrated defense.

"That's- not what I mean. You're not untrustworthy. You say, 'Nothing happened,' I believe you. But it's..." His breaths came fast and sharp and shallow. He had to look down. "Me. It's– hard for me. To trust people."

She looked down as well. "I know, and I can definitely understand that."

His voice fell soft. There was no room for malice in the truth. "Do you really want to stay?"

Mai's eyes snapped to his, her jaw dropped. "Seto, I-"

"Forget Joey for the moment. If he was a nonissue, if maybe he had actually died in any of his close-calls, if not for him, could you be happy with me? Are you happy with me?"

She felt her heart hurt at the thought of Joey not making it out of those incidents alive. But still, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I made this decision despite Joey being alive and well anyway." She opened her eyes, but fixed them away from him. "I knew how closed off you were, too. But we connected so well… You've opened up to me, and I've opened up to you, and," she found his eyes again. "We've been great. And I was too terrified to ever face him again, after what I did. So I-"

"But now you have faced him, and you still have feelings for him." Again, matter of factly, then waiting for a response.

Mai clammed up, her neck straining and face contorting, carefully looking out to the windows. A single finger dabbed at each eye to not mess up her makeup. But, she nodded sadly, sucking her lips in to bite down on. "I'm sorry," she choked out. "I love you, but, I'm sorry…"

"So, that is another one of your needs."

"What?" she coughed, not understanding.

"You're content here-"

"I have been able to thrive here!" she countered.

"EXCEPT for not being able to express your feelings for Wheeler." They stayed locked in a stare as they resolved their words. Mai could not defend against his final statement, and they both knew it. "You love him, too."

Mai's wet voice merely added, "Still."

With her confirmation of what he already knew, Seto continued, "I know you're right that we are similar in a lot of ways, but we are also vastly different. If there's something he can give you that I- let's be honest- could never, then why should I deny you that?"

She thought a moment about how he explained it. "Do you mean, an 'open marriage?'"

Again, he turned away and crossed his arms, but this time had nothing else to elaborate on. He had opened up a can of worms, uncharted territory: single print cards, new summoning methods. And all as if they were written in an unknown language. Neither knew the rules here. All they could do was see how things played out.

Mai shook her head. "The media would go crazy. It'd look awful. Seto, thank you, for- for wanting to care for me so much, but I really don't think that's exactly a good idea. And Darling, I-..." She jumped to her feet and rushed over to embrace him, around his folded arms. "I don't want you to ever think you're not enough for me." Compromise...

His arms opened up to return the embrace and clutch her closer, as his face hid in her shoulder. But I'm not enough… After a moment, he took a deep shuddering breath. "Alright." He picked his head up and searched her sweet expression, as they still held each other. "Final card's on the table."

"Hm, and what's that?" she mused.

He glanced away and licked his lips, then looked hard into her eyes. Flatly, he stated, "I want him, too."

Mai blinked at him, in utter shock, her mouth hanging open again, speechless for what seemed like an eternity. I… Her mind was suddenly empty. I must have not heard him correctly, because it sounded like-

"Say something," he hissed in a low voice through gritted teeth.

"Did you just say you want him, too?" she asked, confused.

He sealed his lips again, but nodded.

"Like-?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed with agitation, more terrified every millisecond than the last and rued to repeat it.

"I- uhh... I had no idea- I never would have-" She glanced all around, but landed back on his ice blue eyes. "You never told me," she said gently. He was always so guarded, and sometimes she still found him hard to read deeper into. She was certain there were no signs she would have picked up on. "You really did mean the three of us. Together."

His expression drained, for this secret rare moment of feeling loved and accepted. He nodded.

Her face wrinkled into confusion and worry. "Does he like..." She trailed off, not sure how to ask. "I mean, I thought he hated you. And Joey–" Her eyes quirked as she paused abruptly and thought about it. "Do you know if Joey even likes guys?"

"Men and women, yes. He still hates me, though; I guess with good reason. But lately... I wish he didn't." Seto looked away and brushed his hand through the side of his hair in uncertainty.

Mai tilted her head and quirked her brow. "And girls?"

"That's always seemed apparent," Seto shrugged towards her. "Obviously."

"Well," she smirked gently at him. "Wouldn't be the first surprise like that around here."

Seto gulped, and struggled to continue on. "I... met with him, too, actually. Recently."

"Oh?" Mai was suddenly extremely intrigued. "He didn't say anything about that…"

"It was… about more than the modeling." Seto backed up from her, ready for his final judgment, for his heart and actions to be weighed. "I kissed him."

Mai's mouth fell open, but she quickly put two and two together. "You weren't mad about me having feelings for him – you're mad about you having feelings for him!" Yet, she was laughing; albeit, harshly. "YOU cheated, not me!"

He took the laughter as mockery, as her victory over him. He sighed deeply and dropped his head in a one way nod, admitting defeat towards an empty dark corner of the room. Am I still doing it? Narcissistic and projecting? He hiccupped on his breathing. Once his face cracked, he lost it. "Mai..." His voice was haggard as if he were crying; though, no tears were coming. "I didn't know what to do about…" my feelings… "It all, either."

Her heart was with him, but, while she could easily get over the action, she would not stand for half-assed excuses about lying. She turned a stern look on him. "I was just trying to repair a friendship! What did you think you were going to do?! If you- and him- if you two..." She trailed off, suddenly aching with confusion herself.

"I-... don't know..." He looked to her, biting his lip as his face grew too warm. "But what is it to you? What does it matter to you?" She tried to start to answer but he continued, suddenly bursting with a gasp. "What does it matter, if you don't even want ME?!" He could not say it to her face, mostly because he crumpled down to one knee. He doesn't, and now if she-!

Shocked, Mai's body jolted to run to him, but she stayed frozen, not sure what to do. "I never said I don't-"

"IF I was enough, you wouldn't need anything else in the first place." His hands completely covered his face, hidden deeper as he curled in on himself. "That's why I said," he strained. "Take half. Just go. Just- DO IT!" He took in a trembling breath for the last cry, "And go…"

Inside, a spell broke, and unleashed his oldest demon. His face and body contorted wretchedly, almost trying to force himself to cry, but still unable to do so. This world fell away, and he was 10 again; his wealth confiscated, and him abandoned. He knelt beside a bed, crying over a ransacked shoebox. He thought he had them this time; he had watched their aunt carefully, then swiped her card, figured out how to get there, and how an ATM worked. He knew what was supposed to his. He felt so proud- until that moment when he realized he had been found out. They had promised them everything, but still they left them with nothing, only waiting to be sent away again.

Mai watched him, unsure of what she was seeing. He never cries. Is he going to now? And- he's pushing me away? Finally, she could not let him go on like this a moment longer. With a scoff, she boldly approached him and stood tall with arms crossed. She sighed, then commanded, "Get up. I'm not taking your money- I was never here to steal your money. Or shares or stocks or bonds or whatever. I said, 'Get up!'" She tried bending down to him, grabbing an arm and pulling it away from him.

Seto recoiled.

She continued, "Do you really think I'd do that?!"

He dry-sobbed in his panic again, yelling, "I don't know!"

"Well then whatever is going on in your head right now is not true. I'm not leaving you. Seto!"

He at last picked his head up. "Why not?"

Mai's voice softened for him. "Because I love you," she asserted. "All of you. Even whatever's got you freaking out right now. I know you're messed up. So am I. What kind of sense would it make if I left you in your panics, over kissing a guy I wanna kiss too?"

Seto stared at her in disbelief. She's… okay with all this?

She sympathetically grinned ear to ear, softening up herself. "No one can be absolutely everything another person needs. Don't you see? You are enough. And you don't see me lamenting I can't give you what Joey can." She smirked.

He thought deeply on what she had said, then finally stood up again.

"Your life isn't over, not even just because you cheated one time," she soothed with a one-note chuckle. She held his arms and smiled. "If this is what would make you happiest, then who am I to deny you that?"

He jerked his full attention back to her face, shocked, but felt some kind of goodness washing over him. He calmed down, and shyly allowed the corner of his mouth to turn upwards. "Thank you."

"Well, I'm your wife, aren't I?" she smirked. "That makes you my family."

"And Joey?" he asked cautiously.

She cooed. "And Joey." Her fingers moved to trace his jaw. "If he wants," she chuckled.

He finally sighed in full relief. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you, too," she whispered back, right before their lips met for a lingering kiss. When she pulled away, she put on a mock-thoughtful face to crack a joke. "Although, they do sell things I could wear to help you with that."

Seto's brow jumped in a scandalized and pitiful laugh, but one that brought him out of the tension. She joined him in chuckling breezily. With a sigh, he leaned his forehead to hers and held her hands. "Let's head back to the airport."

A/N:Eh, hope that last ⅓ was understandable… and flowed decently? That last scene was among the first I wrote over 2 years ago. I then rewrote it entirely, and edited them together nearly beyond recognition from the originals. But originally Mai was going to be a lot harsher at first, really angry, and overall her and Seto were going to have a colder relationship that only seemed all daisies on the surface. Til I fell in love with Arrogant too, so, deep love it was. Luckily he's still insecure, and I employed some save-my-ass writing tricks to keep everything I wanted.

However, PLEASE! Constructive critique always welcome! Mark me up like the teacher just made us trade papers in English Class.

Come find me at kaiba-fangirl on tumblr! .com