Finally! Another chapter! No, I hadn't forgotten about this story or you guys. In actuality, I was in Europe—seriously! My family and I went to Europe during May, and Utah and Colorado for most of June. So, yep, there's the explanation. This chapter DID NOT want to be written. The ideas, the scenes came just like that, but the actual writing was another story. So sorry for the long wait! I thought that this story was coming to a close soon, however it keeps telling me otherwise. Turns out a lot of things are going to happen…more than I had planned at least. Enough of my babbling, here's the chapter, and please review!
A horn honked outside his window and he jumped a mile high, his game cards flying in all directions. He sighed as they floated to the ground and shook his head while Yami laughed in the corner, leaning against the wall with his arms folded.
"Oh, shut up." Yugi muttered as he plucked his cards off the ground, his patience gone. He grabbed his backpack and looked at his Yami expectantly. "Come on, let's go!"
* * *
She sat in her red convertible, the breeze blowing the short hairs around her face. Her left hand was stretched out before her as she inspected the nail polish. She looked at the shop again, this time a short boy was emerging with one strap of a backpack slung over his shoulder.
"Yugi," She said in way of greeting as he tossed the backpack into the back seat and got into the car.
"Hi, Mai." He said, slightly out of breath. "Ready for the fair? Hey, I hear there'll even be rides there this year!" She raised a brow and the expression seemed to say, 'Really?'. "The northern fair has gotten really popular…they have the best selection anywhere—" He cut himself off, feeling like he was rambling.
Mai smiled, this was going to be an interesting drive…
* * *
"Yugi, go inside and grab something to drink and something to eat, ok?" Mai said as she flipped the gas switch and pulled the lever. "And can you grab me something too?" Yugi nodded as he got out of the car.
"Sure, what?" She bit her lip a moment and then released it.
"Some potato chips and…" She looked at him a moment and he raised a brow. "And, uh, a couple bottles of, um…chocolate yoohoo?" He nodded, a little surprised she had a thing for chocolate yoohoo, but wondering why she was embarrassed about liking yoohoo, and went inside, confused about the whole thing.
* * *
Several minutes later he emerged with his arms so full his face was hidden behind several chip bags. He waddled out to the car where he dumped his load, then plopped into the front seat.
"What took you so long?" She asked, raising a brow, yet not looking at him as she paid for the gas with her credit card.
"Oh, see, I got a hot dog and I was going to toast the bun and, well, the toaster—"
"Hey, it ate it!" She exclaimed, punching at the keypad with her fingers.
"Yeah, it did!"
"No, this thing won't give me back my credit card—" She said absentmindedly as she punched several keys with aggressive flair. They both looked at each other in silence before Yugi started to chuckle and Mai slowly let a smile slide into place.
Yugi got out of the car and walked over to Mai who gave him a strange look.
"Here," He fidgeted with it a moment before the machine spat out her card, then handed it to her and walked calmly back to the right side of the car where he got in. Mai plopped herself down in her own seat and cast Yugi a curious look.
"How'd you do that?" He shrugged as he put his seat belt on. Mai shook her head as she switched gears and got back on the road.
"Well, I just figured, if I was a credit card machine, and someone punched a bunch of different numbers at once, well, I'd get confused. So I just tried pushing one number at a time." He gave her a somewhat bashful smirk.
She smiled to herself—Really, Yugi was such a dork!
* * *
An hour later, Mai looked at Yugi, her hair lapping at her face with the convertible top down. The food was half gone, the wrappers and empty bags and bottles strewn about the back seat. Mai grabbed one of her chocolate yoohoo's out of the cup holder and took a drink before speaking.
"If you want some music," She began, tapping the compartment between the seats. "there's a case of CD's in there." Yugi gave a nod and opened the console. A hairbrush, several hair clips, a large green CD case, sunglasses, lotion, body spray, and a smaller purple CD case greeted him.
He grabbed the purple one and shut the console, then started flipping through the CD's. Mai reached to snatch the case from him suddenly, and he looked at her.
"That's the wrong one." She explained quickly in a nervous tone. "The bigger one." She pointed out.
"But there are CD's in here—"
"The other one." She said before grabbing it from him. She opened the compartment and slid it in, then pulled out the green case. "Here." She passed it to him and then he started looking through it.
"This one?" He quizzed, holding up a CD. She nodded and he slid it into the player.
* * *
"I'm so excited!" Mai, in a surprising outburst, exclaimed as they neared the entrance. She turned around and pressed the lock button on her keys, and her car gave a comforting 'beep!' in return.
"Where first?" Yugi asked, his hands in his pockets, his backpack slung over his right shoulder. "There are the rides, the stands, food…" Both of them looked at each other warily, remembering all the food they ate on the way.
"Maybe we should wait a while on food?" She suggested, and he nodded merrily. "Um, how about we trade some cards for now?" Through a cough he nodded, and they both headed towards the dealer stands.
* * *
"This one?" She asked, holding up a card. He shook his head in silence, then mentioned quietly that he was asking more than its worth, and that shop's back home would do her better for that card.
She sat it down quietly, then followed him out of the purple and white striped tent, her face holding a curious expression.
Yugi sure was different when it came to trading and buying cards. She would have expected him to be a pushover, but he turned into quite the opposite. He was very savvy when it came to these fairs, in a definite, almost masculine way. She found it very appealing, when a guy could take care of himself…and she was discovering more and more each day that Yugi wasn't the little-boyish, quiet, innocent guy she thought he was.
"Why are you trusting me?" He asked suddenly, and the question caught her off guard. He turned to look at her, waiting for an answer.
"What do you mean?" She parried, not knowing what he was talking about.
"I mean that you wouldn't have asked my opinion on, or even let me see, that card back there usually." She hated to admit it, but he was dead right.
"Well, I keep on discovering that you're definitely someone I can trust." She said quietly, and their eyes locked. A moment passed in silence, both not moving an inch or even blinking.
"Yugi!" Both turned to see Téá and the gang running towards them. Mai gave an inward groan. "Hey guys!" She said coming upon them. Joey, Tristan, Bakura, and Serenity jogged up behind her.
"Hey," Yugi greeted them all.
"Pretty cool fair, eh, Yug?" Joey said with a meaningful look at the rides just a short distance away.
"Um, yeah."
* * *
"Aw, man!" Joey punched the table ad tossed some more money down. "One more time!" The woman handed him three baseballs and he got ready to pitch them at the milk bottles.
"Joey, that's the three-millionth time you've said 'one more time'!" Téá fumed, folding her arms and waiting impatiently for him to finish.
"This time I've got it, though—I swear! I'll get it this time!" He pitched one that was too far left, stuck his tongue out in concentration, then pitched the second, which went too far right.
"Aw, f'get it." He tossed the third one towards the cans, not paying much attention. A clattering followed, and Joey looked, wide-eyed, to see he had knocked them down. "Hey, I did it!" Téa looked in disbelief as the lady handed Joey a large stuffed animal bulldog. "Bet you're eatin' your hat, eh?" He taunted. Seeing Yugi and the others he waved them over.
"Hey, Yug, I won it!" He held up his prize as the gang drew nearer, and Yugi gave him a congratulatory smile. "You want it, Serenity?" He passed the stuffed animal to his sister who had to reach both hands in front of herself and clasp them to hold the oversized thing.
"Where we off ta' now?" Joey questioned, looking around for something to amuse them. "How 'bout a ride?"
"Oh, let's go on the spinning strawberries!" Serenity exclaimed, most of her body hidden by the bulldog. Joey looked towards the "spinning strawberries" with distaste, but swallowed hard and agreed.
The gang started towards the ride, and Yugi and Mai made up the rear.
"Did you want to ride the strawberries?" Yugi asked her, and she shook her head.
"Not too much, but I don't mind." She replied. Yugi stopped walking and looked around. She followed suit, though looked at Yugi—and quite curiously too. "What are you—"
"Follow me," He said, grabbing her hand and ducking behind a row of tents. They both crouched low and watched the gang continue walking towards the ride, oblivious that two in the group had ditched them.
"What are you doing?" She asked again, and he gave a kind of bashful smile.
"Well, you didn't really want to go, and I didn't really want to go, so I thought maybe we could find something else to do." She smiled, and shook her head.
"You know, that sounds like a great plan to me."
* * *
The night echoed with Mai and Yugi's laughs as they walked down the aisle many hours later, Mai picking at the pink and blue cotton candy she was holding. Yugi would tear a piece off every now and then, but mostly stuck to sipping the soda in his hand.
"I can totally see that." She said, referring to the story Yugi had told about himself and Joey as younger kids. "Was he mad?" Yugi chuckled.
"I guess you can say that that's an understatement." He looked around, then at her. "Do you want to ride the ferris wheel?" She looked over at the wheel that glittered with neon light bulbs as it spun around slowly, stopping from time to time. She hated heights, but she wouldn't dare admit that now.
"Sure," She said tentatively, and they headed down the aisle towards it, getting in line. "I'm surprised we haven't bumped into them at all since we left." She pointed out, and Yugi looked around at those words.
"Well, it is a big place, and they probably headed home before we will." She nodded, picking off the last piece of cotton candy and tossing the cardboard spike that had previously held it into a trash can.
* * *
Téá had been in a bad mood for a while now. How could they just ditch them—her—like they had? It was most definitely Mai's idea, she was sure of that. She sulked as she stood in line for the spinning strawberries; Serenity had wanted to go one last time before they left, and Joey, who was driving, wanted to leave before the traffic got too bad. She sighed, her arms folded, and continued to sulk.
* * *
"There you go," Yugi had helped her into the devilish contraption, and now he followed her in and sat down. She hated the way it swung from side to side, she hated that it went so high, and, well, she just hated it. She didn't think she'd ever been on a ferris wheel so high, and her sentiment was confirmed as it climbed steadily higher, and her hands started shaking a bit. She looked over at Yugi who was smiling good-naturedly, looking over the side at all the sights so far below.
"You should see this!" He pointed over at the nearby pond that had a fountain in its center. Lights shone on it, ever changing, red, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and back to red. Mai leaned over and looked at it, but when she tried to say something her breath caught in her throat, and she croaked.
"Mai, are you ok?" Yugi asked with concern, grabbing her arm and looking at her intently. "Mai, what's wrong?" She was embarrassed beyond belief, but she was trembling, and feeling like her mind was a blank.
Yugi leaned down to his knees on the ground, grabbing the sides of Mai's face with his warm little hands and looking at her unblinkingly.
"Mai, it's ok, I'm here. We'll be back on the ground soon." It was a surprising thing for little Yugi to do, taking charge like that, though this he repeated, 'Mai, it's ok, I'm here.' until the ferris wheel came to a stop on the ground, and the man came and opened their door, Yugi's eyes never looking away from hers.
She stumbled out of the compartment, Yugi practically carrying—or dragging—her along until they came to a bench nearby, where she plopped down and started breathing raggedly.
"I—I'm…really sorry about…about that." She stuttered, and he shook his head, turning drastically more serious than usual, almost like a different person.
"It's fine, Mai. I'm sorry I took you on it, you should have told me you didn't like heights—"
"Oh, I don't mind—"
He looked at her and raised a brow, telling her not to waste her breath, that he knew. She shut up, quite quickly in fact.
"Should we head home?" He questioned after several moments of silence. Mai gave a nod and they both stood. Yugi grabbed Mai's hand and slid his fingers in between hers, and they started down the sidewalk, Mai too shocked at this turn of events to speak.
She did, however, not pass by the opportunity to get some of that delicious fair lemonade when they passed by the stall. She tugged on Yugi's hand, very softly to make sure he didn't release his hold, and nodded towards the stand.
"It'll only take a second," She said, and they trotted over and ordered two. And no matter how she tried—it truly was annoying—Mai couldn't stop grinning.
* * *
The car engine hummed quietly as they stopped at a traffic light. Mai, a hairclip in her mouth, twisted her hair into a quick bun and then secured it with the clip out of her mouth.
"I guess it is getting a bit late." She commented, eyeing the clock that read 9:34 in neon green numbers. "Will your grandpa hate me?" She asked, and Yugi shook his head, his nose wrinkled up a bit.
"How about a new CD?" She questioned, nodding towards the green case lying on the dashboard. Yugi nodded, but when he took the CD out of the player and slid it back into the case, he zipped up the case and shoved it into the middle console. He pulled the purple case out and looked at her as if to say, 'please?'.
"Really, there's nothing interesting in there," She began. "All the good things are in the green case." Yugi, feeling defeated once again when it came to the mysterious CD case, put it back and retrieved the larger case.
* * *
It was when they had stopped at a gas station so that Mai could get a soda that Yugi attempted to reveal the secret the purple CD case held. After she walked into the store, Yugi opened the compartment and snatched the mysterious case from it.
He unzipped the small, semi-circle shaped case, and discovered several CD's in a genre he would not expect Mai to like. On the first page, a copy of "The Phantom of the Opera" greeted his view, and he turned the pages to only find one other title: "Sarah Brightman's Greatest Hits".
It was while he was searching through these titles in amazement that the car door opened, and Mai appeared, looking, well…disheartened.
"Why'd you look at it?" She asked simply, not in an angered tone, but one that really asked the question. Yugi, defeated, had nothing to say for himself really.
"I'm sorry, Mai, my curiosity got the better of me." He said quietly, putting the case back in the compartment, not looking up. She gave a soft sigh and got in the car, putting her soda in the cup holder and hooking her seat belt.
"It's ok," She said as she put the car into drive. "Really, it's fine." She looked at him and cocked a brow, and Yugi slowly looked up. She gave him a quick smirk of reassurance, which lightened his weight a lot.
After several minutes of silence, Yugi dared to ask a question that he had been wondering ever since he opened the case.
"Why didn't you want me to see those CD's?" He wondered aloud. She bit her lip for a moment, then released it.
"I, well…it was just a bit embarrassing." His brows shot up, then he dropped one in an expression of contemplation.
"You mean, like you thought I'd make fun of you or something?" He sounded truly amazed. "Like I'd tease you about them?" She bit her lip again, and, reluctantly, she nodded. "Well, that's dumb." He said simply, and she looked at him. "Why'd I do that?"
"I—"
"I actually thought it was pretty neat, that you're into opera and all that." He nodded his head once for emphasis.
"You do?" He nodded vigorously. "Well, then I guess you know one of my secrets." She said. "But, it's unfair this way. Now you've got to tell me one of yours."
"One of mine?" She nodded matter-of-factly. "But, I don't have any." In truth, he could think of one big one, but he certainly couldn't tell her that. Especially if the only exchange was finding out she liked opera.
"Oh, I'm sure you have one or two, you mysterious Mr. Motou." She gave a little giggle that was infectious. "Come on, I know you must have something!" She poked him in the side and he squirmed. She eyed him expectantly.
"Um, well, I…I like watching Sumo wrestling." She hitched up a brow quite high. He laughed. "So now you know a dark secret." She smiled.
"Sumo wrestling? Seriously?" He nodded, still chuckling.
"See, now that's embarrassing." She shook her head and he tilted his own to the side, watching her.
"No, I actually think that's quite cool." It was his turn to hitch up a brow. "Um, do you mind if I join you sometime?" He hitched it up even higher. "Because I've always wanted to watch it…just never gotten the chance."
"You're making fun of me!"
"No, I'm not!" He looked at her in pleasant disbelief.
"You seriously want to?" He looked at if he was waiting for her to pass the test, which, with just a hint of reluctance, she did.
"Yes, the next time it comes on let me know." She said with confidence. "Please?" She added with a cheesy grin.
* * *
"Well, we're here." She announced as they pulled up to the game shop. Yugi gathered his stuff and put it all in his backpack, leaning between the seats into the back seat. He zipped up his backpack and slid back into the front seat.
He caught Mai's eyes and was stuck in a limbo. Kiss her, or just say goodbye. He was having such trouble deciding that he didn't say anything and sat there for a moment, eyes locked with her.
"Um, good—goodbye, Mai." He stuttered, getting out of the car quickly. "I'll see you later." He added, sounding more like himself, feeling stupid that he even thought of kissing her.
"Bye, Yugi." She said simply, and he thought he heard a bit of disappointment. But no, why would Mai be disappointed? No, it must be relief he heard, which confirmed that he had made the right decision not to kiss her. He could already see the embarrassing seen that would have been had he tried.
She nodded towards him before putting her car in reverse and backing out. He stood there for a moment, watching the car drive off, until all was black and silent. He kicked at a stray rock on the ground before going inside.