A/N: Second to last chapter, with convenient hints as to what happens in
the sequel. I am hoping to put the last chapter up on Tuesday.
Chapter Twelve: Sk8er Boi
~~Mai's POV~~
I wanted to go find Bakura right away. I didn't expect that he would come and find me.
I was halfway to his house when I saw him, walking towards me, head down. I ran the rest of the way and threw my arms around his neck. He stumbled in shock, then hugged me fiercely. And, if we hadn't been standing in the middle of the street, I would have held onto him like that forever.
As it was, a car drove past and blew his horn at us. We staggered to the sidewalk, refusing to let go.
"I can't decide whether or not to kill him," Bakura said at last. "I mean, he promised not to tell you what I felt."
"I don't care how you feel," I said. "I love you. And I think you love me."
He stared down at me, his eyes dark with despair. "That's just it. I don't - I mean - just what /is/ love, anyway?"
I smiled and kissed him gently. "This. All of this. Us. Together. That's all."
He kissed back, then pulled away, still keeping his arms around my waist. "It's too simple. What's the catch?"
"It doesn't always last forever."
He grinned. "Well, nothing lasts forever. Here and now, that's what matters."
**He was a boy, she was a girl
Can I make it any more obvious?
He was a punk, she did ballet
What more can I say?
He wanted her, she'd never tell
Secretly she wanted him as well
But all of her friends stuck up their nose
They had a problem with his baggy clothes**
Unfortunately, it is only in the comics that two people can hang onto each other without moving. It was, after all, a perfectly lovely day, and whatever Bakura might have thought, I wasn't mad at all. I was happier than I could ever remember being.
We walked back to his house, arms looped around each other, the sun bathing us in its warm light. "I don't think we should let Joey see us together," I told him. "It would only upset him."
Bakura shrugged. "I don't mind. I'll just stay away from our friends. It's easy - I've been doing it for ages."
I might have worried about that, if I'd known then what had happened the night before. As it is, I'm afraid I believed him - that he didn't care, that they /weren't/ his friends. How was I supposed to know? I can't read minds. I didn't know that he'd taken what Ryou said to heart, and was trying to think of them as friends - only, of course, if he never saw them again...
Things might have turned out /so/ differently. But that's another story, for another time. Here and now, that's what matters.
Here and now, we were alive and in love.
**He was a skater boy
She said, "See you later, boy"
He wasn't good enough for her
She had a pretty face
But her head was up in space
She needed to come back down to Earth**
I joined my friends at the coffee house, three days later. Joey wasn't there - he was out of town, visiting his aunt. Bakura might have joined us, except that Ryou's father was home until the end of September, and, in his slightly-exaggerated fear of his father finding out that he had an evil spirit hanging around, Ryou ordered Bakura to stay in the Ring No Matter What.
I wasn't happy about /that/.
"He can stay with me," I pleaded that day.
Ryou shook his head vehemently. "Absolutely not. One mere sighting of him would drive my father mad."
"I'm not so sure about that," Yugi noted. "After all, he did give you the Ring. I'm sure he knows a /little/ about it - enough that he won't be totally shocked."
Ryou took a sip of his coffee and leaned back in his chair. "Nevertheless, my Yami stays in his Spirit Room until my father leaves."
"Oh, come on," I moaned. "The first time I can see you all without Joey hanging around, my boyfriend can't join us?"
Ryou shuddered. "Please, please don't call him that. It frightens me."
Tea looked at me. "Er, Mai. You've very definitely given up on Joey, right?"
"I think it's safe to say that, yes."
"Oh, good." She smiled. "Then I can go after him?"
And she did, the moment he got home. He didn't even notice for months. Finally, around Christmas, Tea - who neither I nor Bakura called the "pathetic weakling" anymore - got tired of flirting and just asked him out.
They started dating. I was happy for them, really. And I was happy for me, too. I could see in Tea's eyes that she thought she'd gotten the better end of the bargain, and that I'd regret it eventually.
I knew I wouldn't.
**Five years from now, she sits at home
Feeding the baby, she's all alone
She turns on TV, guess who she sees
Skater boy rockin' up MTV
She calls up her friends, they already know
And they've all got tickets to see his show
She tags along, stands in the crowd
Looks up at the man that she turned down**
It wasn't until New Year's Eve that Bakura and I dared show up together in front of Joey, at a party hosted by Kaiba. Joey grinned at us and shot a confetti gun at Tea.
"It's about time," Bakura said cryptically, and kissed me.
"Not until midnight," I reprimanded him, stepping back.
Bakura sighed, looked around, and frowned. "Remind me again why we all came to this? Correct me if I'm wrong, but we /hate/ Kaiba. Or has something changed?"
I shrugged. "He invited all the good Duelists, I guess. Maybe he's going to host another tournament. Why would /I/ know? Ask Yugi."
So we did. It took awhile to locate him, because apparently someone had already spiked the punch, and his Yami was trying to keep him in a corner where he couldn't hurt anyone.
"I bet it was Tristan," Yami exploded before either of us could say anything. "He did this last year, too."
Yugi smiled at us. "I'm a random duck."
Bakura blinked, then turned to Yami. "Just wondering - why did we come to this party? I mean, it's /Kaiba's/ party."
Yami shrugged. "I don't know. There aren't any other parties going on. Everyone we know is here."
**He was a skater boy
She said, "See you later, boy"
He wasn't good enough for her
Now he's a superstar
Slammin' on his guitar
Does your pretty face see what he's worth?**
We stayed in the corner for awhile, talking. I was privately amazed that Yami and Bakura carried on a civil conversation. Eventually, we fell silent and just watched the party.
Roughly half of the guests, Ryou and Tea included, had drunk the spiked punch. Joey and Tristan laughed together against one wall. Kaiba had yet to put in an appearance, though Mokuba was there, trying to stop people from drinking the punch until he could get a new bowl.
Bakura slipped an arm around my waist quite naturally, as if he'd forgotten he was doing it. "You know what would be fun? Let's wreak havoc on these mortals."
Yami glanced from Yugi, who was apparently trying to play Duel Monsters with himself, to the tomb robber. "What kind of havoc were you thinking?"
Bakura smirked. "I was thinking, we make Joey and Tristan regret that they ever spiked the punch."
"I like that plan."
Behold, the arch-enemies working together for the good of all. I should have stopped them, but I was having too much fun watching them.
I stayed with Yugi while they walked nonchalantly over to the punch bowl, and, chatting companionably, drank some before Mokuba could stop them. I have to hand it to them - they were very good at pretending to be drunk.
However, I stopped having fun when Bakura and Yami, both swaying dangerously, started hitting on Tea. I mean, it would have been all right if they were /actually/ drunk, but nothing gets to them but coffee.
**He was a skater boy
She said, "See you later, boy"
He wasn't good enough for her
Now he's a superstar
Slammin' on his guitar
Does your pretty face see what he's worth?**
As soon as Joey realized what was going on, he stalked over to them. "That's /my/ girlfriend," he snapped, grabbing Tea's arm and glaring at Bakura.
Tea gazed dreamily at him. "Am I? But these nice boys were saying /they/ were my boyfriends."
"You can only have one at a time!"
Yami blinked and nearly fell over, "accidentally" catching Tea's other arm. Joey immediately slapped him - not hard, he obviously believed that both spirits were drugged - and pulled Tea away.
Well, there was that possessiveness again.
And suddenly, I was wondering. What would it have been like if I /had/ gone with him? Like that? With him to protect me?
Judging by the enraptured look on Bakura's face, he wouldn't have noticed if the Winged Dragon of Ra swept down and carried me off to Egypt.
**Sorry, girl, but you missed out
Well, tough luck, that boy's mine now
We are more than just good friends
This is how the story ends
Too bad that you couldn't see
See the man that boy could be
There is more than meets the eye
I see the soul that is inside**
I spent nearly an hour getting more and more upset in the corner. To their credit, Yami and Bakura /did/ manage to make the boys regret spiking the punch. Occasionally returning to flirt with Tea, they /also/ hit on every girl in the room that they knew Tristan liked.
It would have been funny, but...
Bakura is /my/ boyfriend, and he shouldn't cheat on me, even for pretend.
Eventually, leaving Yami to say nice things to Tea, Bakura wandered back over to me. "Hello, love," he said cheerfully.
"Having fun?"
"Oh, yes, tremendous fun."
It was then that I noticed something. The dark circles under his eyes, the slight shaking, the tremor in his voice.
I grabbed his hand. "You're like ice. Are you /really/ drugged?"
"I don't /think/ so..."
**He's just a boy and I'm just a girl
Can I make it anymore obvious?
We are in love, haven't you heard
How we rock each other's world
I'm with the skater boy
I said see you later, boy
I'll be backstage after the show
I'll be at our studio
Singing the song we wrote
About the girl you used to know**
Bakura shivered and leaned against the wall. Yugi looked up from his cards.
"You don't look so good," he noted.
I glanced around desperately for Ryou, or Yami. Unfortunately, both were on the other side of the room, involved in their own pursuits. "Yugi, please, please go get your yami? And Ryou?"
I think the seriousness in my voice was enough to temporarily shock him out of his drugged state. "Okay." He walked off rapidly, moving easily through the crowds of people.
I turned my attention back to Bakura. "Are you sick?"
"I don't think so," he repeated. "I think.../ow/..."
He slid to the ground, hands pressed to his temples, eyes closed.
It didn't take long for Yami to reach us, trailing Tristan, Joey, and Tea. He knelt beside Bakura. "Do we know what's wrong?"
"No," I replied. I vaguely felt Joey slip his hand into mine, but I wouldn't remember it until later.
Bakura's eyes suddenly snapped open, wide and almost glowing with something frightening. "Pharaoh," he whispered. "I think...something's /happening/...get Ryou..."
And then he fainted.
**I'm with the skater boy
I said see you later, boy
I'll be backstage after the show
I'll be at our studio
Singing the song we wrote
About the girl you used to know**
We wouldn't find out until much, much later, but at that moment, thousands of miles away, Isis Ishtar awoke from a dream she couldn't remember with the Millennium Necklace burning her throat.
Chapter Twelve: Sk8er Boi
~~Mai's POV~~
I wanted to go find Bakura right away. I didn't expect that he would come and find me.
I was halfway to his house when I saw him, walking towards me, head down. I ran the rest of the way and threw my arms around his neck. He stumbled in shock, then hugged me fiercely. And, if we hadn't been standing in the middle of the street, I would have held onto him like that forever.
As it was, a car drove past and blew his horn at us. We staggered to the sidewalk, refusing to let go.
"I can't decide whether or not to kill him," Bakura said at last. "I mean, he promised not to tell you what I felt."
"I don't care how you feel," I said. "I love you. And I think you love me."
He stared down at me, his eyes dark with despair. "That's just it. I don't - I mean - just what /is/ love, anyway?"
I smiled and kissed him gently. "This. All of this. Us. Together. That's all."
He kissed back, then pulled away, still keeping his arms around my waist. "It's too simple. What's the catch?"
"It doesn't always last forever."
He grinned. "Well, nothing lasts forever. Here and now, that's what matters."
**He was a boy, she was a girl
Can I make it any more obvious?
He was a punk, she did ballet
What more can I say?
He wanted her, she'd never tell
Secretly she wanted him as well
But all of her friends stuck up their nose
They had a problem with his baggy clothes**
Unfortunately, it is only in the comics that two people can hang onto each other without moving. It was, after all, a perfectly lovely day, and whatever Bakura might have thought, I wasn't mad at all. I was happier than I could ever remember being.
We walked back to his house, arms looped around each other, the sun bathing us in its warm light. "I don't think we should let Joey see us together," I told him. "It would only upset him."
Bakura shrugged. "I don't mind. I'll just stay away from our friends. It's easy - I've been doing it for ages."
I might have worried about that, if I'd known then what had happened the night before. As it is, I'm afraid I believed him - that he didn't care, that they /weren't/ his friends. How was I supposed to know? I can't read minds. I didn't know that he'd taken what Ryou said to heart, and was trying to think of them as friends - only, of course, if he never saw them again...
Things might have turned out /so/ differently. But that's another story, for another time. Here and now, that's what matters.
Here and now, we were alive and in love.
**He was a skater boy
She said, "See you later, boy"
He wasn't good enough for her
She had a pretty face
But her head was up in space
She needed to come back down to Earth**
I joined my friends at the coffee house, three days later. Joey wasn't there - he was out of town, visiting his aunt. Bakura might have joined us, except that Ryou's father was home until the end of September, and, in his slightly-exaggerated fear of his father finding out that he had an evil spirit hanging around, Ryou ordered Bakura to stay in the Ring No Matter What.
I wasn't happy about /that/.
"He can stay with me," I pleaded that day.
Ryou shook his head vehemently. "Absolutely not. One mere sighting of him would drive my father mad."
"I'm not so sure about that," Yugi noted. "After all, he did give you the Ring. I'm sure he knows a /little/ about it - enough that he won't be totally shocked."
Ryou took a sip of his coffee and leaned back in his chair. "Nevertheless, my Yami stays in his Spirit Room until my father leaves."
"Oh, come on," I moaned. "The first time I can see you all without Joey hanging around, my boyfriend can't join us?"
Ryou shuddered. "Please, please don't call him that. It frightens me."
Tea looked at me. "Er, Mai. You've very definitely given up on Joey, right?"
"I think it's safe to say that, yes."
"Oh, good." She smiled. "Then I can go after him?"
And she did, the moment he got home. He didn't even notice for months. Finally, around Christmas, Tea - who neither I nor Bakura called the "pathetic weakling" anymore - got tired of flirting and just asked him out.
They started dating. I was happy for them, really. And I was happy for me, too. I could see in Tea's eyes that she thought she'd gotten the better end of the bargain, and that I'd regret it eventually.
I knew I wouldn't.
**Five years from now, she sits at home
Feeding the baby, she's all alone
She turns on TV, guess who she sees
Skater boy rockin' up MTV
She calls up her friends, they already know
And they've all got tickets to see his show
She tags along, stands in the crowd
Looks up at the man that she turned down**
It wasn't until New Year's Eve that Bakura and I dared show up together in front of Joey, at a party hosted by Kaiba. Joey grinned at us and shot a confetti gun at Tea.
"It's about time," Bakura said cryptically, and kissed me.
"Not until midnight," I reprimanded him, stepping back.
Bakura sighed, looked around, and frowned. "Remind me again why we all came to this? Correct me if I'm wrong, but we /hate/ Kaiba. Or has something changed?"
I shrugged. "He invited all the good Duelists, I guess. Maybe he's going to host another tournament. Why would /I/ know? Ask Yugi."
So we did. It took awhile to locate him, because apparently someone had already spiked the punch, and his Yami was trying to keep him in a corner where he couldn't hurt anyone.
"I bet it was Tristan," Yami exploded before either of us could say anything. "He did this last year, too."
Yugi smiled at us. "I'm a random duck."
Bakura blinked, then turned to Yami. "Just wondering - why did we come to this party? I mean, it's /Kaiba's/ party."
Yami shrugged. "I don't know. There aren't any other parties going on. Everyone we know is here."
**He was a skater boy
She said, "See you later, boy"
He wasn't good enough for her
Now he's a superstar
Slammin' on his guitar
Does your pretty face see what he's worth?**
We stayed in the corner for awhile, talking. I was privately amazed that Yami and Bakura carried on a civil conversation. Eventually, we fell silent and just watched the party.
Roughly half of the guests, Ryou and Tea included, had drunk the spiked punch. Joey and Tristan laughed together against one wall. Kaiba had yet to put in an appearance, though Mokuba was there, trying to stop people from drinking the punch until he could get a new bowl.
Bakura slipped an arm around my waist quite naturally, as if he'd forgotten he was doing it. "You know what would be fun? Let's wreak havoc on these mortals."
Yami glanced from Yugi, who was apparently trying to play Duel Monsters with himself, to the tomb robber. "What kind of havoc were you thinking?"
Bakura smirked. "I was thinking, we make Joey and Tristan regret that they ever spiked the punch."
"I like that plan."
Behold, the arch-enemies working together for the good of all. I should have stopped them, but I was having too much fun watching them.
I stayed with Yugi while they walked nonchalantly over to the punch bowl, and, chatting companionably, drank some before Mokuba could stop them. I have to hand it to them - they were very good at pretending to be drunk.
However, I stopped having fun when Bakura and Yami, both swaying dangerously, started hitting on Tea. I mean, it would have been all right if they were /actually/ drunk, but nothing gets to them but coffee.
**He was a skater boy
She said, "See you later, boy"
He wasn't good enough for her
Now he's a superstar
Slammin' on his guitar
Does your pretty face see what he's worth?**
As soon as Joey realized what was going on, he stalked over to them. "That's /my/ girlfriend," he snapped, grabbing Tea's arm and glaring at Bakura.
Tea gazed dreamily at him. "Am I? But these nice boys were saying /they/ were my boyfriends."
"You can only have one at a time!"
Yami blinked and nearly fell over, "accidentally" catching Tea's other arm. Joey immediately slapped him - not hard, he obviously believed that both spirits were drugged - and pulled Tea away.
Well, there was that possessiveness again.
And suddenly, I was wondering. What would it have been like if I /had/ gone with him? Like that? With him to protect me?
Judging by the enraptured look on Bakura's face, he wouldn't have noticed if the Winged Dragon of Ra swept down and carried me off to Egypt.
**Sorry, girl, but you missed out
Well, tough luck, that boy's mine now
We are more than just good friends
This is how the story ends
Too bad that you couldn't see
See the man that boy could be
There is more than meets the eye
I see the soul that is inside**
I spent nearly an hour getting more and more upset in the corner. To their credit, Yami and Bakura /did/ manage to make the boys regret spiking the punch. Occasionally returning to flirt with Tea, they /also/ hit on every girl in the room that they knew Tristan liked.
It would have been funny, but...
Bakura is /my/ boyfriend, and he shouldn't cheat on me, even for pretend.
Eventually, leaving Yami to say nice things to Tea, Bakura wandered back over to me. "Hello, love," he said cheerfully.
"Having fun?"
"Oh, yes, tremendous fun."
It was then that I noticed something. The dark circles under his eyes, the slight shaking, the tremor in his voice.
I grabbed his hand. "You're like ice. Are you /really/ drugged?"
"I don't /think/ so..."
**He's just a boy and I'm just a girl
Can I make it anymore obvious?
We are in love, haven't you heard
How we rock each other's world
I'm with the skater boy
I said see you later, boy
I'll be backstage after the show
I'll be at our studio
Singing the song we wrote
About the girl you used to know**
Bakura shivered and leaned against the wall. Yugi looked up from his cards.
"You don't look so good," he noted.
I glanced around desperately for Ryou, or Yami. Unfortunately, both were on the other side of the room, involved in their own pursuits. "Yugi, please, please go get your yami? And Ryou?"
I think the seriousness in my voice was enough to temporarily shock him out of his drugged state. "Okay." He walked off rapidly, moving easily through the crowds of people.
I turned my attention back to Bakura. "Are you sick?"
"I don't think so," he repeated. "I think.../ow/..."
He slid to the ground, hands pressed to his temples, eyes closed.
It didn't take long for Yami to reach us, trailing Tristan, Joey, and Tea. He knelt beside Bakura. "Do we know what's wrong?"
"No," I replied. I vaguely felt Joey slip his hand into mine, but I wouldn't remember it until later.
Bakura's eyes suddenly snapped open, wide and almost glowing with something frightening. "Pharaoh," he whispered. "I think...something's /happening/...get Ryou..."
And then he fainted.
**I'm with the skater boy
I said see you later, boy
I'll be backstage after the show
I'll be at our studio
Singing the song we wrote
About the girl you used to know**
We wouldn't find out until much, much later, but at that moment, thousands of miles away, Isis Ishtar awoke from a dream she couldn't remember with the Millennium Necklace burning her throat.