The group of us walked into the cave, barely illuminated by the glow of our lanterns.
"So, what makes you think that it's here?" I turned and asked Yugi. He looked straight through me into the cave's darkness, and then walked right past me as if I wasn't there.
"Hey, I'm talking here!" I called out.
"Cool it, Mai." Joey said. I turned towards him, and found myself smiling despite the fact that I didn't want to. He always seemed to mellow me out, and I was glad he was here, although I'd never admit it.
"I mean, it's a cave, what could be in here? There's no sun for plants, and animals wouldn't be able to eat much unless they ate rocks." I said, walking forward. Yugi had gone ahead, still acting like either of us weren't there. So Joey and I walked together. We hadn't gotten very far in the cave until Joey, like a perfect klutz, tripped and twisted his ankle. Varon, the other person completing our party of four, laughed hysterically. I knew that both men were in competition over me, I didn't care, I thought it was actually pretty funny. Varon wasn't talking much.
"God, you're an idiot." I said with a laugh. He laughed at his own misfortune like me, so I figured I wasn't going to embarrass him anymore, so I helped him up. We started moving again, but he was moving so slowly and with a limp that I eventually started supporting him. This cave had a really freaky vibe to it, and I didn't want to be alone. Although I could have asked Varon to do it, I don't think he would have liked it, so he led the way.
But still, even though I told Varon to slow down, he was still moving faster then I would have liked. I kept shouting at him to slow down, and he would, but then he'd just speed up again.
"Why don't we just let him go?" Joey said. "Yugi went off alone and we hadn't stumbled upon a corpse of his yet."
"I don't like it when people go off alone like that." I responded. Varon was still moving extremely fast.
"Will you slow down, asshole!" I told him; maybe me being serious would fix the problem." He stopped.
"That's it, I'm sick of asking you to slow the fuck down. You help Joey, I'll go ahead." I ordered, taking the lantern. Varon stared at me a little like the way a deer stares at an oncoming bus, but he went and supported Joey as I took the lead. Although I was sure that if I went too far, that one of them would end up dead, I still moved quickly. They both liked me, and as such, they both hated each other, and so, I wanted them to get along. Then maybe, I could decide something about them.
JoeyWhen Varon started supporting me, I was initially very nervous. I knew he liked Mai, and he knew I liked Mai. The man who said hell hath no fury like a woman scorned hasn't seen one of Mai's lovers.
"There…is something I don't understand." I said. "Why…why do you follow her?" I asked Varon, who didn't look like he had an answer.
"I…I follow Mai because I enjoy her company." Varon said. At least we were being honest with each other, that was something of an accomplishment.
"What about you?" He asked.
"I…I don't know. There is something…something I've never been able to understand. Ever since I've met her, I've been unable to forget about her." I responded.
"That doesn't answer the question." Varon responded.
"Yeah, probably not." I said. "I guess…I guess I follow her because…well, as I said, I don't really know. All I know is that I miss her when she's not around."
"Hmph, that's it." Varon noted. He wanted to have more bragging rights, so when Mai had to choose between us, he'd have some leverage.
"When you look at Mai, what do you see?" I asked him.
"I…is that a trick question?" he asked, his tone dropping. "When you look at Mai, you see Mai." He was even more of a dimwit then me.
"That's it…huh? I see…a woman who is lost, yet there is such strength and fierceness within that she could live on in her loss and not lose her own soul." God, I was talking really weird, but I hoped that someday I would have the courage to express this to Mai. "But…she doesn't want to live alone with her loss, because loss is something that's heavy and burdensome, and if someone shares the grief then they take a part of her into themselves."
"You make very little sense, Wheeler, but I get it. Sorta." Varon said with a smile. Was he actually being nice to me? Even if it was just for Mai's sake. I saw her lantern ahead in the distance, but she probably wasn't paying attention to us, she probably thought it was just guy talk. It was, but it wasn't guy talk about cars, guns, and sports or anything.
"There…there is something I have to understand. Why can't I forget about her?" I said aloud, but it was hypothetical, I didn't expect Varon to answer. So we walked in silence, Mai was moving faster then the both of us, her lantern getting dimmer. I was holding one, so we weren't going to run out of light.
"I guess…I guess I can't forget about her because I owe her so much." I said.
"That could be true. She helped you save your sister's eyes." Varon said. So he heard about that.
"She…talked a lot about you." He admitted as if it was painful to say. "She said that there was a lot that you two had in common."
"Hey, you got a lot in common with her. I at least figured that much out." I said. I don't know why, but if he was acting depressed it didn't make me feel good. Maybe because Mai cared about him too?
The cave opened up into a natural cavern of some kind. It creeped me out a little, because of the large building that dominated it. There was sunlight coming from an opening at the top.
"I think I understand now." Varon said. Both of us were looking at Mai, who was waiting for us at the entrance to the large building. Its architecture was Greek, with large columns that appeared to be made of marble.
"Understand?"
"Why you can't forget her." He continued. He looked really sad, was he going to say something he would regret.
"You can't…you can't forget her because there is something missing when she is not around." I admitted that this was true.
"It's more then just history, you have the present shared. I had originally taken to her because we shared something, you two shared something too, but you got her too do something I could never do."
"Really, and what's that?" Was this guy trying to trick me or something?
"You bridged the gap…to her heart." He said. I was unsure of what he was talking about. Did I really do that? How did I do that? I wanted to know how to do that, and if I already did it, that would be really weird.
"How'd I do that?" I asked. If he was so smart, then he should be able to tell me.
"Because she sacrificed herself for you." He said. When did she do that? Did something happen after she beat me when the Atlantis weird guy was doing crap? Something she didn't tell me. Must be, and she must not have wanted me to worry about her when that happened.
"I think…I think you can walk by yourself now." Varon said. I nodded, and I walked towards Mai. She looked towards me with a look of understanding, and I came up to her. My muscles were quaking with anticipation, my knees were growing weak. I looked at her, and she almost appeared smaller in the faint light. I shut my eyes and moved towards her, her lips tasted like honey against mine.
I thought I heard Varon scampering away, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He loved her too, but I loved her more. When I opened my eyes, I looked above at the building. It appeared to be some kind of temple, and so, we walked inside. I turned around just once to see if Varon had come back, but all I saw was the stone walls of the cavern, and Yugi, sitting across the way on a stone rock. He'd watched the entire moment, and even he looked unsure of what just happened.
I looked into the temple, and saw reliefs and pictures. Although each of the people in the reliefs were different, they all depicted the same scene.
Two people, who loved each other immensely, getting married at the door.