Author note: If any of you love polar shipping, then you are going to love this chapter! Here we find out why Kaiba was able to get Joey so fired up. What happened really after Duelist Kingdom? Read to find out more ;)

Chapter 25 - Oh Mai

~Two months after Duelist Kingdom~

'She's more than twenty minutes late, so that means she's not coming right?'

Joey chewed his thumb nail nervously, this had to be one of his worst ideas yet. At this rate, they were going to miss their reservation. All he wanted to do was thank her and she had the audacity to be late? Who the hell did she think she was! He would never show up to a date this late, even though it wasn't exactly a date...

From the corner of his eye, he saw the silhouette of a woman.

"Joey?"

"Mai..."

The blonde duelist was a stunner just as he had remembered her. Her long hair flowed down behind her, revealing a pair of silver hoop earrings. A red bustier outlined her ample bust, while short leather mini skirt clung to her shapely thighs. She was wearing her signature knee high boots and to top it off she smelt divine.

"I know that perfume," Joey said, causing her eyes to widen in slight amusement. "It's Harpie Lady right?"

"You're right," Mai chuckled gently. "You're never going to let that go are you?"

"Not a chance," Joey replied with a cheeky grin. "Psychic my ass!"

They both laughed in unison a second time.

"So what exactly was the plan again?" she questioned carelessly twirling a lock of hair around one finger. "Were we having dinner?"

"Yeah," Joey nodded stiffly. "I wanted to take you out as a way to thank you for everything you did back at Duelist Kingdom. If you hadn't given me that Glory of the Kings Hand card, I would have never have had the money for Serenity's eye operation."

"What can I say, I love a bad soap opera," she replied with a humbled smile. "What are we eating Joey?"

"Is pizza alright?"

Mai blinked a few times in surprise, this was definitely different to what she was used to. Had this been any other guy she would sent him packing, but something about Joey was different...

"Sure,"

"Awesome!" Joey exclaimed in excitement. "I know of a really good place."

The two walked down the streets of Domino together, Mai noticed that Joey's expression seemed more serious than usual. The teenager still seemed like himself, but something about his presence felt more mature. Maybe she was imagining things. No way could she be into him!

Mai cleared her throat. "Have you decided what you're going to do with the rest of the prize money?"

Joey gave her a vacant stare as if the word seemed foreign to him. "Prize money?"

The twenty-two year old was so shocked she could've choked on the air itself. "Hun, I'm talking about the three million yen you won from Pegasus!"

"Oh..." Joey exclaimed slowly upon the sudden realisation. "Yeah it's all gone,"

Mai could only imagine all the different things a teenager could've spent that kind of money on. Maybe a new car, new phone, new watch...

"What on earth did you spend it on Joey?" she questioned with widened eyes. "Certainly not on a new clothes!"

Joey sighed heavily. "You're right. Most of the money did go towards my little sister's operation, but ever since my parent's divorce my mom has always struggled with money. I haven't seen her in like seven years, but I know she's been doing it tough on a single salary. I helped her pay of her house mortgage with the rest of it."

The blonde woman was speechless, she had never seen such an exact of selflessness in her life. No one had ever done anything like that for her before.

"Don't worry, I can still pay for dinner," he assured giving a faint smile. "Look, we're already here."

Mai tried her best to conceal the cloudiness in her eyes, focusing on the quaint building before her. She wasn't usually the sentimental type, but something about his story really tugged at her heart strings. She even began to even feel disgusted with herself, thinking about all the superficial things she thought of buying if she had won the tournament. Joey had showed her there were real people with real problems.

The two entered the restaurant and were shown to a table by a young waiter. Joey was surprised to see that Mai had quite the healthy appetite and nearly matched the number of pizza's that he had eaten. After they had eaten they sat there are talked for hours. The conversation between them was great and Mai could feel herself getting butterflies when Joey talked about his passion for duelling. She tried to shake away the feeling, he was only a kid after all...

Once they had left the restaurant, they decided to walk along Domino pier.

"I'm tellin you, you won't get the best view from the Empire State Building," Joey said.

"The Rockerfeller?"

The teen shook his head again cheekily. "Nope!"

Mai's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Who made you such an expert on New York city?"

"Well who knows New York better than an original New Yorker himself?" Joey grinned with confidence. "If you're ever in the city, I would love to show you around."

"I'd like that," she smiled, hoping the darkness of the night would hide the reddening of her cheeks.

They both stopped and looked at the gentle waves ahead before gazing at each other. It was the part of the night where the two of them would part ways and say goodnight. If things had been different, Joey might've even considered asking Mai on a real date. In reality, he knew she was way out of his league and she probably only saw him as some dumb kid.

"Oh shoot!" Joey blurted out, quickly breaking his eye contact.

"What?" Mai asked, frowning in slight concern.

"It's pretty late," he observed, checking the time on his cell phone. "I guess I should start heading back."

"Yeah, me too," she added quickly, when in reality she didn't want the night to end.

"Let me call you a cab," Joey offered, removing the last remaining bill from his wallet before handing it to her. "Here, this should cover it."

Mai blinked a few times in astonishment. "You'd do that for me?"

"Sure," Joey shrugged lightly. "I mean is it really that weird that I want you to get home safe?"

Hearing those words, Mai knew she had Joey all wrong. He wasn't just some stupid kid, there was absolutely no way he was. Only a boy would spend his money buying nice things for himself, but only a man would sacrifice it to help the two most important woman in his life. He was far more mature than he lead on. This meant she wasn't going to feel bad about what she was going to do next.

"We'll stay in touch hun,"

"Uh, take care Mai..."

Without any hesitation, she leant forward and pressed her lips on his. Joey could've sworn he dreaming at that very moment, because what just happened couldn't have been real...

"Goodnight Joey," Mai whispered, before turning her back and walking into the distance.

Rebecca spent another day lying to her friends. It's not like wanted to, but how could she confess her feelings towards him when she already knew theirs. They despised Kaiba and that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

"I hate that guy." Joey's loud voice resounded in her head. "You remember what he did to your gramps, Yug?"

"I remember," she recalled Yugi's voice repeat back.

"I'll never forgive him, no matter what," Téa said bitterly. "He won't change, he never will."

Her grip tightened on her pencil as she stared at her blank page. She was supposed to be doing maths homework, but concentrating seemed impossible. How much longer till her own friends realised things didn't add up? Rebecca shut her textbook at pushed it aside, maybe she needed some brainfood. Joey did say food always made him feel better.

Walking into the kitchen, she grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl. She was just about to take a bite when when she saw her father. He had a deep blue bruise on the side of his face and he was holding a pack of frozen peas to his jaw.

"Oh my god, Dad!" she gasped, rushing to her father's side. "What the hell happened, were you mugged?"

"Just leave it, Rebecca," her father dismissed irritably as his grip tightened on the frozen peas.

"No, you don't get to do that," the teenager responded stubbornly, not willing to accept his brief answer. "Tell me what happened."

He took a deep breath, before a short pause. "Your friend has quite the uppercut," he said with a pained expression on his face.

"Kaiba?" Rebecca clutched the kitchen bench, she was beginning to feel weak at the knees.

"No, I'm talking about Joey,"

At that moment, she could've sworn that her jaw hit the floor. In what messed up world was Joey throwing punches at her dad?

"He hit you!?"

"Not intentionally,"

"I swear I'm going to kill him!" Rebecca roared angrily, fully consumed with rage. "When I see him tomorrow I'm going to..."

"You're going to do nothing," a voice finished, as they both look up to see her mother. "Look, you shouldn't have gotten involved Andrew. Last time I checked you weren't hired as one of Mr Kaiba's security guards."

Her father sighed. "They're teenage boys, Sophia. What was I mean't to do, let them tear each other apart?"

There was a brief pause in the room. It was only expected that her dad wanted to do the right thing, it was who he was.

"I just don't understand what Joey was doing there in the first place."

"I heard them arguing over some girl." her father explained. "The whole thing seemed pretty intense."

Rebecca's eyes widened instantaneously. "Oh shit!"

No surprise her parents deemed her sudden outburst as suspicious.

"Do you know anything about this" her mother asked her youngest daughter with a raised brow.

"I think I know exactly who you're talking about," Rebecca said absently, realising that her worst nightmares were becoming reality. "I uh have to go, there's heaps of assignments I have to finish."

Before her parents could say anything else, she raced upstairs and shut her bedroom door behind her. She knew the more she stayed around and answered questions the closer they would get to finding out the truth.

Rebecca opened her door slightly in the hope of hearing their hushed tones downstairs. It seemed that their recent conversation was still up for discussion. Who was this mystery girl? She knew her parents wouldn't let this go that easy.

"I bet it's Téa," she heard her father exclaim to which her mother chuckled in response.

It seemed that her secret was safe for now...