Hi again!! Sorry for keeping you wait. I was working a lot with my
fanfic, poems (coming soon), school work, homework, and chores. Before you
read the fourth chapter of my fanfic, I want to ask one simple question:
DOES ANYBODY KNOWS WHERE THE CHARATHERS IN Yu-Gi-Oh! LIVES???? At first I
thought it was Kansas but I guess I was wrong. Then I put Domino City,
which I sort of guessed. I don't really think it's somewhere in Japan
because in one show, when Ishizu came over to host her Egyptian exhibit,
they said welcome to America. 'Till somebody tells me, I'm going to use
Domino. Ahem, okay, I hope you enjoy my fanfic!! ^_^
Shishu: Thank you so much for the reviews and reading my fanfic!! So far, you're my number one fan!! ^_^
moongoddes713: Thank you for the reviews!! I can't wait to read your fanfic so I can criticize your horrible work :-p. (Just kidding!!) Instead I'll be your number one fan, (not only because I'm your best friend and future reviewer and you're my best friend and other number one fan), but because I know your fanfic will be great, (with me on your side anyway). Anyway I have a show I mean fanfic to continue. 'Till then peace!! ^_~
*Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! All the characters belong to the great anime called Yu-Gi-Oh! Except for the characters I made up.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Love Edition
#1 Who will Joey pick? Mai or Hana?
*~ Chapter 4 ~*
Tears, Scrubs, and a whole lot Fun
"Whoa! My legs hurt from all of that walking. Now would have been a great time for a bus." Tea said with tired out legs as she continued walking down the sunlit alley of old, abandoned warehouses. Where she was now was a huge area with a whole bunch of warehouses that were left to be claim by anyone. Her and her friends were searching for the biggest warehouse which was in the middle of the area. The wide alley finally led the teens to the warehouse.
Tea quickly grabbed an overturned crate and sat down with a sigh of relief. Hana walked to the big, two entry doors and tried pulling them open but they wouldn't budge. "These doors are locked. Oh, no wonder. They are chain up and locked by a padlock. How are we going to get in?" Hana said, worrying she won't be able to have the warehouse as her practice place. "This is a job for a man." Joey said as he cracked his knuckles and begins pulling the chain really hard.
"Wow. These doors are really locked up. There's no way we could get in there." Joey said easily giving up, on trying to open the doors. "Then this is a job for a woman." Now it was Hana's turn to try again. "He-yaaaaaa!" came out a battle cry from Hana as she kicked the padlock. Nothing happened. "Looks like the power of a woman failed." Joey laughed.
"Oh really, Joey? Maybe you should look again." Hana said as she pointed to the padlock. Joey looked bewilderedly at the lock. Nothing happened. It just stayed still. Then, it shattered into tiny pieces. "Wha?" Now Joey was even more confused. "Looks like the power of a woman, is still stronger than the power of man. Huh, Joey." Hana walked in with her head up in pride. Even though she knew she shouldn't have so much pride in herself.
"Hey Tristan, how is she so good at kicking. She practically kicked the whole building down?" Joey whispered to his best buddy wanting to know the girl's secret. Tristan laughed and replied, walking in the building, "She's just really good at karate. That's all." "It's really dusty in here." Serenity coughed. She kept sneezing and coughing, that Joey got easily worried. "Serenity, you should get out of here. There's a whole lot of dust here." he said as he ran next to Serenity and informed her of how bad the dust can be for her health.
"She's not the only that can be harm from the dust, Joey." Yugi sneezed. "Let's get out of here." Duke said as he and the rest of the teens ran out of the dusty building. "Fresh air." Tea said as she sniffed the clean air, glad she isn't in the building anymore.
Hana sighed and said sadly, "Well I guess we have to practice in one of those puny warehouses. Tristan, who rapidly noticed the sadness in his cousin's voice, said, hoping to raise her spirits up, "Hey Hana, why don't I go pick up the other instruments and we can start practicing right away? I can also bring a couple of buckets and scrubs and we can get this place clean in no time. What do you say?"
Hana's spirits were quickly brought up as she answered, "Thank you so much. I will really appreciate if you do, if it's no problem at all." "No sweat. I will be back in a bit. C'mon Yugi, Duke. You guys are going to help me with the stuff. Joey, you're going to stay here and take care of the girls. Oh, and here Hana." Tristan then handed his cousin a Styrofoam cup and something wrapped in a napkin.
"You didn't finish your milkshake, so I got it in a Styrofoam cup for you to finish up and this is some extra anchovies for that idiotic cat of yours." "Oh thank you Tristan. For the treats, not calling my cat an idiot."
"Well, I'll be back in a couple of minutes." Tristan quickly whispered to Joey, "If anything and I mean anything, horrible happens to Hana, I'm going to kill you." "Don't worry Tristan. Don't forget, Serenity is one of the girls I have to take care of and I won't let any harm get to her or your cousin. You know you can trust me. Serenity, Hana, and Tea are safe with me." "Okay." Tristan's voice went back to its regular level as he said, "Better get going. See you all later." "Bye!" all the girls, except for Serenity who was still quiet, called out to the three boys that disappear behind an alley.
Everybody found an overturned crate and sat on it. "Mew-mew, you must be hungry, huh." Hana said as she opened up the small pet's cage. The small kitten slowly came out of its cage and jumped into its owner's lap. The cat purred softly as Hana rubbed its neck. "The cat seems so harmless. Why is Tristan so afraid of a fur ball?" Joey asked Hana, as he watched it played with Hana's charm bracelet.
"Tristan isn't afraid of cats actually. But he defiantly hates Mew- mew. When we were younger and Mew-mew was barely a kitten, Tristan and this little dust bunny were pure enemies. Mew-mew will always rip up Tristan's comic books, scratch him, chew up his toy soldiers; anything that will get Tristan angry. Tristan will step on Mew-mew's tail; a lot of times on purpose, hide her chew toys, spray her with freezing cold water; anything to get this bundle of fur mad. Mew-mew and Tristan grew up to hate each other even more; and I don't even think these two will ever get together."
Hana quickly pulled away her bracelet and said to the kitten, "Stop it Mew-mew. The last time you were playing with my charm bracelet, you almost choked on one the charms." The kitten made a little crying noise, (almost whining), jumping to get the bracelet. Hana opened up the napkin and placed it on the ground. It wasn't at all attracted to the fishes but when Hana hung her bracelet over the treat, the kitten quickly jumped to the treat and lost its interest in the piece of jewelry.
"So Hana, what high school are you attending?" Tea asked as she fixed her shoe buckle. "Um, some school called Domino High." Tea and Joey were overcome by joy and Tea exclaimed happily, "Great Hana. We're all together at school too. Isn't that great?!" Hana nodded, smiling and saw Serenity still in silence.
Hana wanted to cheer her up so she said gladly, "Isn't it great that we are all together at school?" The girl in silence was startled and answered in a small, quiet voice, "I, um, don't-" but she was interrupted by Joey who decided to inform Hana instead.
"Serenity doesn't go to the same school as we do." "Why not? How come you both go to different schools? Is she too smart for Domino high?" Hana was now confused. Why would a brother and a sister go to separate schools?
Serenity looked even more depressed. "Our parents are separated." Serenity said it in such a quiet voice, it was barely a whisper. Hana was in shock. She didn't know before and was sorry she asked.
"Oh I'm so sorry Serenity. If I knew, I wouldn't have asked. I'm such a big mouth." "I'm the big mouth not you. You were just asking. It's my fault you were so mad at the pizza shop." Now Hana understands. "No Serenity. It wasn't your fault of what happened at the pizzeria. I was angry about my ex-boyfriend. I also got to stare in those wonderful eyes of your brother." Hana turned to Joey and smiled as Joey's face turned red. Serenity giggled seeing her older her older brother blushed.
"So what happened to your par-" but Joey cut her off by shouting out loud, "Hey Tea, I think I hear the ice cream truck. Why don't you buy ice cream for yourself and Serenity?" Tea looked around, confused. "I don't hear the ice cream truck." Joey looked angrily at Tea. "Well, if you wanted to be alone, you could have just said so." Tea shouted back at Joey. "C'mon Serenity, let's get some ice cream and then we can go shoe shopping." The two girls soon disappear into the alleys.
"Why did you did that for?! If you didn't want to talk about how your parents separated, you could have just told me!" Hana scolded Joey. "Serenity gets all teary-eye when we talk about that. I didn't want her to cry. I can't bear seeing her sad, it breaks my heart." Joey answered, silently forgiving her for scolding.
"Oh, sorry about that. So what happened?" Hana asked, knowing she should have been much nicer. "When we were kids, our parents never got along. They were always fighting. They both went to the point where they just can't stand living with each other and both went their own ways. I stayed with my dad and my mom bought a new house and of course, took Serenity. Since then, we haven't seen each other 'till now." The story was now heading in another direction.
"Serenity also had bad eyesight. I will bring her to the beach and other places all the time. The last place I brought her to be the beach; before our parents separated anyway. She thought it was the last time she will ever see the sunset and the last time she will ever be with me. I made her a promise that we will go together to the beach again and see the sunset and her eyesight will be back to normal. I kept that promise because at the end of the Battle City tournament finals, I brought her to the beach, we were together, and her eyesight was better than ever. You can ask Yugi about how I earned the money to pay for the operation. He can give you the details. Serenity is staying over at my house for a couple of weeks. She gets her homework assignments sent by e-mail 'cause she has all her notebooks and textbooks. She's a fast learner. But even when we are apart, we will always be together at heart and that's a promise I'll never break." Joey ended his story with a strong voice and determination in his voice.
His story brought determination and strong hope into Hana's life. Hana gently touched Joey's hand. "Huh?" Joey turned to find himself staring at the face of an angel. Hana was smiling and tears slid down her cheek. "Joey, ever since I saw you, ever since I stared into your eyes, I felt a strong connection. When you told me your story, you opened up hope inside of me. Hope to stay strong, hope to turn the tables around when something bad was happening, hope to do anything. You're not like all of the other boys I met before. You're special Joey and I'm glad you are."
The connection returned and it was stronger than ever. A feeling began brewing inside of Hana and Joey and both now understood what the connection was. It was. it was. "Ahem!" The mystical spell was broken and Joey and Hana were "back on planet earth." "We're back." The voice and disturbing cough belonged to Tristan who was holding a bucket full of sponges. Hana gasped when she saw her cousin.
"Oooohhh!!!!! Why did you have to ruin it Tristan?" Tea asked with Serenity behind her giggling. "How long have you been there?" Joey asked the two girls. "We just came back to ask if you wanted any ice cream." "The ice cream truck was there?" It was just a lie to get Serenity busy, that way she doesn't start crying. Looks like there actually was an ice cream truck.
"What do you mean? Didn't you guys say you heard it?" Serenity asked as she looked back at Tea and Joey, confused. "Of course, there was an ice cream, Joey." Tea said rather loudly. "Anyway, we came by to ask if you wanted any ice cream and then we heard you talking to Hana. So we decided to stay quiet and hang around and-" "Eavesdropping! You guys were eavesdropping!" Joey yelled as he stood up and pointed at the two girls. "Yeah, we were." Tea giggled. Serenity burst out laughing and she ran up to her big brother and gave him a hug.
"Aaaaaaaaaawwwwwwww! You're so sweet. I won't break the promise either." she said sweetly as Joey broke into a smile.
Hana looked up at her cousin and asked nervously, "How long have you been there?" "Long enough to hear the whole story. I had to interrupt your little love connection because you were wasting too much time. We have a lot of work to do. Unless if you two lovebirds will like to be alone for awhile." Tristan answered as Yugi and Duke exploded laughing.
"Love connection? Lovebirds?" Hana asked with more tense in her voice.
Everybody seems to be dying from laughter, except for Joey and Hana whose faces were covered with a scarlet scar. "There was no love connection and we are not lovebirds! We were just talking. Anyway, we have a lot of work to do." Hana tried to yell over the laughter but her voice was drained into the continued laughter.
"Attack Tristan Mew-mew!" she yelled at her sleepy cat. Mew-mew was fully awake and was surprise about its opportunity at attacking Tristan. The kitten immediately obeyed as it hiss fiercely and with one jumped and a wave of a paw, scratched Tristan's face.
"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" Tristan yelled from the stinging pain. "You don't need to tell that moronic cat of yours to attack me to make me stop pestering you!"
Hana got up too swiftly, her crate fell over. "Well you wouldn't shut up!"
The rest of the teens were quiet as a mouse that the only thing you could hear was their breathing. "Stop it guys!" Yugi shouted standing in between the two cousins. To their surprise, the once absurd cousins were now roaring with laughter.
"You should have seen your face when Mew-mew scratched you!" Hana cracked up. "You were so mad it looked like your eyes were going to bulged out of your head!" Tristan laughed. The rest of the teens were baffled.
"Oh, that's so sweet. You guys aren't arguing. I think." Tea said even more confused. "Okay, guys, we have a lot of work to do." Tristan stopped laughing and said, as he passed out the buckets and sponges. "Here are a couple of hoses. I already set them up. Here are also some masks. We might need them since there's a whole lot of dust in there." The teens busted into the building and in no time at all, they were cleaning up the warehouse.
~*~
"Whew! I'm tired." Hana said as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. "I think I need a drink." She then took out her strawberry milkshake and began taking long sips.
"Whoa! I think my hands are getting so wrinkly; I'm turning into an old man! Get it! Wrinkly! Old man! Hahahahahaha!" Joey joked laughing so hard his sides were splitting. A huge sweat drop formed on everybody's faces except for Hana who thought the joke was very hysterical.
Her laugh was so loud and wild that it startled Joey.
The pink, milky substance squirted out of Hana's nose and cherry gloss lips.
"Was it that funny?" Joey asked surprise at how this girl can start laughing so hard at a dumb joke.
Hana couldn't control her laughter but manage to give a small nod. Joey started laughing for, he to, thought his own joke was funny. Just then, a mischievous idea popped into Joey's head.
"Hey Hana." he said wearing a mischievous grin. "Huh?" Hana finally controlled her wild laughter and soon as she turn to see what Joey wanted, a spray of icy cold water damped her face and clothing.
Hana started blinking not believing what just happened and let out a cry. "Joey Wheeler! You're going to pay!" She then grabbed the old, weary, rubber green hose and squirted out water at Joey.
"Hey!" The two teens were now spraying each other with water and running around laughing their heads off.
Joey finally kept Hana in a corner. He smiled even more mischievously and he was ready to shoot water at the giggling girl.
There was so much water on the floor that Hana slipped across the floor, escaping Joey. But she ended up falling but tried to hold on to Joey. She grabbed Joey so firmly that he ended up falling too. Hana fell on her back and Joey, using his hands and knees to support himself up, was on top of Hana making his face only a few inches away from hers.
Hana and Joey kept laughing not realizing their position. The other teens, however, were staring at them trying to hold in their laughs. When they both finally realized their embarrassing position, their faces turned into a brick red color. The other teens couldn't help but laugh and point and laugh some more and point oh, did I mention laugh?
Joey quickly got up and regains his posture and offers his hand to help Hana up. As soon as their hands touch, Hana swiftly got up and her and Joey couldn't help but have their faces flush a crimson red.
Hana and Joey took a quick glance at each other and nodded naughtily both understanding their plan. And the plan was- "Aaaahhhh!" the other teens screamed as a blast of below zero degrees water spray them.
"Muuuuaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" Hana and Joey laughed evilly, (but of course playfully), as they shoot the icy cold water at their friends. Of course, the plan was to spray water at the rest of the teens.
Everybody laughed and a water blast battle began.
The battle soon became a "spray the one you have a crush on" battle.
Yugi couldn't help but chase Tea around the warehouse and watch her run and squeal delightfully. Tea found a hiding spot and Yugi had no clue where she was. She then popped out from behind the stack of wooden crates and with a shrill of laughter, sprays the dumbfounded Yugi.
Serenity was defenseless against Duke and Tristan who knew exactly where to find her. Serenity ran from Tristan as he tried to corner her but she slipped and fell into the arms of Duke. Tristan, who hated when those things happened between Serenity and Duke, grabbed Duke's arm and directly sprayed Duke in the face.
As for Hana and Joey, they were having the most fun time. Hana kept ducking from the blasts of water heading for her by Joey. She then noticed nobody attempting to chase her and wonder where Joey could be. She then felt muscular arms embraced her from behind. A shrill of giggles escaped her lips for she knew Joey was the one who was hugging her from behind. "Got you now!" Joey said laughing as he took out the hose, ready to spray her. "You won't spray pretty me now would you?" Hana giggled as she looks up at Joey and gave him a wink. Joey blushed seeing how she winked, made her even cuter.
Joey lost his grip on the hose and Hana, seeing how Joey wasn't trying to spray her anymore, fled from Joey and grabbed the hose. Now it was her turn to spray Joey. Joey seize Hana's arm, (of course, not trying to hurt her), and twirled her back in his arms letting Hana loose her tight grip on the hose and letting it fall on the floor. Hana was getting all giggly and bubbly, having such an exciting time with Joey.
All of the teens were so absorbed in their activity that they didn't noticed the twenty-four year old woman with long blond hair and violets eyes standing by the doorway. She was wearing a white corset top, a short purple skirt, long black boots, a sleeveless vest, and long white fingerless gloves. She grew impatient of waiting so she coughed purposely and loudly, hoping to get their attention.
All the teens did hear the cough and was surprise about the person standing in the doorway.
"Mai! Uuuuummmm, what are you doing here?" Yugi asked as he looked up at the cross-arm woman.
The woman walked to Yugi and said smiling, "A simple hello would have been nice. Are you and your friends rejecting me from your little playtime activity? Well if you want to know why I'm here; I was here because I heard a bunch of laughing and screaming so I went to check out who it was. I know you guys are loud but I didn't know you can be this loud and noisy? I can hear you from across the street."
"Hey Mai! How are you?" Tea asked as she dropped the hose and greeted Mai with a smile.
"Hhhhhhhhmmmmmm. Tired. Couldn't sleep last night. Thank goodness today is Friday. I can finally relax." She found an overturned crate and with a heavy sigh, sat on it. "Anyways, where's Joey?" She scanned the warehouse with her violets eyes and was surprise to see what Joey was doing.
He had a giggling fifteen year old girl in his arms who was trying to squirm out of the tight, yet comfortable embrace. "Let go of me, Joey!" the girl laughed. "I shouldn't let you go before tickling you!" the blond hair boy laughed as he tickled the violet eye girl. "Hahahahaha! Joey!"
Jealousy quickly rose in Mai. "Humph! Well I guess you haven't notice that I am here, Joey Wheeler!" Mai fumed as she got up and begin walking away.
Joey finally noticed the angry woman and speedily released Hana.
"Oh hi Mai. Haven't seen you in awhile?" Joey said trying to act causal and brushes off the little activity he had with his best friend's cousin.
Mai turned around and took a quick glance at Joey and then, with her arms cross, waited for Joey to say something else before she makes up her mind and leave.
Hana soon saw Miss. Valentine and with a pleasing smile and a little wave, greeted Mai. "Oh hello. I'm Hana Taylor, Tristan's cousin and already a good friend of these guys. Glad to meet you, uuuuummmmmmm, Mai must be your name from what I hear these guys call you."
"Humph." Mai fumed whispery and turned her head in the other direction with her nose in the air. "I got to go. I don't want to stay here with a bunch of losers who I thought were my friends. Anyways, I don't want to be anywhere near blond hair monkeys who think of themselves worthy than me. Don't even persuade me to stay." In a fast motion, Mai was making her way out of the warehouse but a little comment made her stop in her tracks.
"C'mon Mai. Stop acting like we are not your friends. We ARE your friends and you know that. Back in "The Battle City Tournament" you thought that we weren't your friends and that's one reason why you ended up in the shadow realm. Now snap out of it and act like a friend to us for once. And don't be all acting all cruel to Hana when she's giving you a chance to be her friend because we all gave you a chance before and you're just blowing it. Now stop running away from us and actually BE a friend." It seems more of a speech Tea will say but this time it was Joey.
***************** Mai's P.O.V**********************
'Friend. A word I hate. A word I wish actually means something. I'll admit. It's very true what these dweebs say what a friend is. They are my friends. It's true. I got to stop acting like this. Anyways, as a friend I'll stay as to Joey Wheeler. It's the only way I can ever get closer to him. Hhhhhhhhhhmmmmmm. if only that twerp named Hana can get out of my way then I'll be one step closer in winning Joey's heart. I'm already starting to dislike her. I know. Maybe if I act like a friend to her and then.ugh, I don't know. All I know is this girl named Hana is just ruining my chance to get to Joey. Well right now I just have to act like a. hhhhmmmmmmm. friend.' **************************************************
"Earth to Mai. you there. You look like you daze out or something." Joey said slowly, waving his hand in front of Mai's face.
Mai shook her head for she was deep into thought. "Of course I'm here Joey. I'm not going anywhere and... You're right Joey. I should be more of a friend. Thanks for the lesson on friendship kiddo."
Mai turned her attention to Yugi and said causally, "So Yugi. What are you doing? This whole place is wet. Is Kaiba paying you money to clean up this place? Well if he is, you're doing me a favor because I was about to go buy this area from him and start my own mini mall. I'm a very posh woman but I'm going low on money ever since I quit that job on the cruises. Working at those stupid casino cruises never really got me anywhere but I'm only rich because I belong to a filthy rich family. Making this place to a mini mall will defiantly get me somewhere."
"What?! You can't turn this place to a mall. Well not this building because Hana is using it for her band practice." Tristan quickly said.
Mai turned and glared at Hana. Luckily for Mai, Hana didn't notice. But it was more than a simple glare. It was full of hatred and outrage. Mai did just more than dislike Hana. She hated her. well what she see of her as now anyways.
'How dare her.! Ugh, no I need this area. I can't let her get her way! Joey's watching me. Better cool down a bit.' Mai thought trying to cool down.
"Uuuuuum. never mind then. I heard Kaiba said he was just going to leave this place deserted. Heehee should have been here sooner." Mai said slowly trying to act cheerful.
"Oh yeah Mai, you asked us what are we doing. Well, we are just cleaning up this place for band practice. Hey Mai, maybe you should join the band, if that's okay with Hana." Yugi said happily.
"Yeah Mai. You can join the band. if you want to." Hana said cheerfully.
'I don't want to be in a band with Hana! I want to be with Joey!' The words almost left her lips but she quickly stopped herself.
"I got to go. I.uuuuuuummmmmmm.. Need to go visit a friend. See you all later." Mai said as she swiftly got up.
"Bye Mai!" everybody chorused joyfully.
"Bye Joey!!" Mai called out cheerfully at Joey with a little wink. She then ran off giggling. When she turned around to see Joey's expression, to her surprise he wasn't blushing like he usually do when she winks at him. Instead, he was talking to Hana, smiling.
'Ugh, that's it! I had enough! This Hana girl just got to go.' Mai stump her way out of the warehouse, angry about this new comer.
~*~
Shishu: Thank you so much for the reviews and reading my fanfic!! So far, you're my number one fan!! ^_^
moongoddes713: Thank you for the reviews!! I can't wait to read your fanfic so I can criticize your horrible work :-p. (Just kidding!!) Instead I'll be your number one fan, (not only because I'm your best friend and future reviewer and you're my best friend and other number one fan), but because I know your fanfic will be great, (with me on your side anyway). Anyway I have a show I mean fanfic to continue. 'Till then peace!! ^_~
*Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! All the characters belong to the great anime called Yu-Gi-Oh! Except for the characters I made up.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Love Edition
#1 Who will Joey pick? Mai or Hana?
*~ Chapter 4 ~*
Tears, Scrubs, and a whole lot Fun
"Whoa! My legs hurt from all of that walking. Now would have been a great time for a bus." Tea said with tired out legs as she continued walking down the sunlit alley of old, abandoned warehouses. Where she was now was a huge area with a whole bunch of warehouses that were left to be claim by anyone. Her and her friends were searching for the biggest warehouse which was in the middle of the area. The wide alley finally led the teens to the warehouse.
Tea quickly grabbed an overturned crate and sat down with a sigh of relief. Hana walked to the big, two entry doors and tried pulling them open but they wouldn't budge. "These doors are locked. Oh, no wonder. They are chain up and locked by a padlock. How are we going to get in?" Hana said, worrying she won't be able to have the warehouse as her practice place. "This is a job for a man." Joey said as he cracked his knuckles and begins pulling the chain really hard.
"Wow. These doors are really locked up. There's no way we could get in there." Joey said easily giving up, on trying to open the doors. "Then this is a job for a woman." Now it was Hana's turn to try again. "He-yaaaaaa!" came out a battle cry from Hana as she kicked the padlock. Nothing happened. "Looks like the power of a woman failed." Joey laughed.
"Oh really, Joey? Maybe you should look again." Hana said as she pointed to the padlock. Joey looked bewilderedly at the lock. Nothing happened. It just stayed still. Then, it shattered into tiny pieces. "Wha?" Now Joey was even more confused. "Looks like the power of a woman, is still stronger than the power of man. Huh, Joey." Hana walked in with her head up in pride. Even though she knew she shouldn't have so much pride in herself.
"Hey Tristan, how is she so good at kicking. She practically kicked the whole building down?" Joey whispered to his best buddy wanting to know the girl's secret. Tristan laughed and replied, walking in the building, "She's just really good at karate. That's all." "It's really dusty in here." Serenity coughed. She kept sneezing and coughing, that Joey got easily worried. "Serenity, you should get out of here. There's a whole lot of dust here." he said as he ran next to Serenity and informed her of how bad the dust can be for her health.
"She's not the only that can be harm from the dust, Joey." Yugi sneezed. "Let's get out of here." Duke said as he and the rest of the teens ran out of the dusty building. "Fresh air." Tea said as she sniffed the clean air, glad she isn't in the building anymore.
Hana sighed and said sadly, "Well I guess we have to practice in one of those puny warehouses. Tristan, who rapidly noticed the sadness in his cousin's voice, said, hoping to raise her spirits up, "Hey Hana, why don't I go pick up the other instruments and we can start practicing right away? I can also bring a couple of buckets and scrubs and we can get this place clean in no time. What do you say?"
Hana's spirits were quickly brought up as she answered, "Thank you so much. I will really appreciate if you do, if it's no problem at all." "No sweat. I will be back in a bit. C'mon Yugi, Duke. You guys are going to help me with the stuff. Joey, you're going to stay here and take care of the girls. Oh, and here Hana." Tristan then handed his cousin a Styrofoam cup and something wrapped in a napkin.
"You didn't finish your milkshake, so I got it in a Styrofoam cup for you to finish up and this is some extra anchovies for that idiotic cat of yours." "Oh thank you Tristan. For the treats, not calling my cat an idiot."
"Well, I'll be back in a couple of minutes." Tristan quickly whispered to Joey, "If anything and I mean anything, horrible happens to Hana, I'm going to kill you." "Don't worry Tristan. Don't forget, Serenity is one of the girls I have to take care of and I won't let any harm get to her or your cousin. You know you can trust me. Serenity, Hana, and Tea are safe with me." "Okay." Tristan's voice went back to its regular level as he said, "Better get going. See you all later." "Bye!" all the girls, except for Serenity who was still quiet, called out to the three boys that disappear behind an alley.
Everybody found an overturned crate and sat on it. "Mew-mew, you must be hungry, huh." Hana said as she opened up the small pet's cage. The small kitten slowly came out of its cage and jumped into its owner's lap. The cat purred softly as Hana rubbed its neck. "The cat seems so harmless. Why is Tristan so afraid of a fur ball?" Joey asked Hana, as he watched it played with Hana's charm bracelet.
"Tristan isn't afraid of cats actually. But he defiantly hates Mew- mew. When we were younger and Mew-mew was barely a kitten, Tristan and this little dust bunny were pure enemies. Mew-mew will always rip up Tristan's comic books, scratch him, chew up his toy soldiers; anything that will get Tristan angry. Tristan will step on Mew-mew's tail; a lot of times on purpose, hide her chew toys, spray her with freezing cold water; anything to get this bundle of fur mad. Mew-mew and Tristan grew up to hate each other even more; and I don't even think these two will ever get together."
Hana quickly pulled away her bracelet and said to the kitten, "Stop it Mew-mew. The last time you were playing with my charm bracelet, you almost choked on one the charms." The kitten made a little crying noise, (almost whining), jumping to get the bracelet. Hana opened up the napkin and placed it on the ground. It wasn't at all attracted to the fishes but when Hana hung her bracelet over the treat, the kitten quickly jumped to the treat and lost its interest in the piece of jewelry.
"So Hana, what high school are you attending?" Tea asked as she fixed her shoe buckle. "Um, some school called Domino High." Tea and Joey were overcome by joy and Tea exclaimed happily, "Great Hana. We're all together at school too. Isn't that great?!" Hana nodded, smiling and saw Serenity still in silence.
Hana wanted to cheer her up so she said gladly, "Isn't it great that we are all together at school?" The girl in silence was startled and answered in a small, quiet voice, "I, um, don't-" but she was interrupted by Joey who decided to inform Hana instead.
"Serenity doesn't go to the same school as we do." "Why not? How come you both go to different schools? Is she too smart for Domino high?" Hana was now confused. Why would a brother and a sister go to separate schools?
Serenity looked even more depressed. "Our parents are separated." Serenity said it in such a quiet voice, it was barely a whisper. Hana was in shock. She didn't know before and was sorry she asked.
"Oh I'm so sorry Serenity. If I knew, I wouldn't have asked. I'm such a big mouth." "I'm the big mouth not you. You were just asking. It's my fault you were so mad at the pizza shop." Now Hana understands. "No Serenity. It wasn't your fault of what happened at the pizzeria. I was angry about my ex-boyfriend. I also got to stare in those wonderful eyes of your brother." Hana turned to Joey and smiled as Joey's face turned red. Serenity giggled seeing her older her older brother blushed.
"So what happened to your par-" but Joey cut her off by shouting out loud, "Hey Tea, I think I hear the ice cream truck. Why don't you buy ice cream for yourself and Serenity?" Tea looked around, confused. "I don't hear the ice cream truck." Joey looked angrily at Tea. "Well, if you wanted to be alone, you could have just said so." Tea shouted back at Joey. "C'mon Serenity, let's get some ice cream and then we can go shoe shopping." The two girls soon disappear into the alleys.
"Why did you did that for?! If you didn't want to talk about how your parents separated, you could have just told me!" Hana scolded Joey. "Serenity gets all teary-eye when we talk about that. I didn't want her to cry. I can't bear seeing her sad, it breaks my heart." Joey answered, silently forgiving her for scolding.
"Oh, sorry about that. So what happened?" Hana asked, knowing she should have been much nicer. "When we were kids, our parents never got along. They were always fighting. They both went to the point where they just can't stand living with each other and both went their own ways. I stayed with my dad and my mom bought a new house and of course, took Serenity. Since then, we haven't seen each other 'till now." The story was now heading in another direction.
"Serenity also had bad eyesight. I will bring her to the beach and other places all the time. The last place I brought her to be the beach; before our parents separated anyway. She thought it was the last time she will ever see the sunset and the last time she will ever be with me. I made her a promise that we will go together to the beach again and see the sunset and her eyesight will be back to normal. I kept that promise because at the end of the Battle City tournament finals, I brought her to the beach, we were together, and her eyesight was better than ever. You can ask Yugi about how I earned the money to pay for the operation. He can give you the details. Serenity is staying over at my house for a couple of weeks. She gets her homework assignments sent by e-mail 'cause she has all her notebooks and textbooks. She's a fast learner. But even when we are apart, we will always be together at heart and that's a promise I'll never break." Joey ended his story with a strong voice and determination in his voice.
His story brought determination and strong hope into Hana's life. Hana gently touched Joey's hand. "Huh?" Joey turned to find himself staring at the face of an angel. Hana was smiling and tears slid down her cheek. "Joey, ever since I saw you, ever since I stared into your eyes, I felt a strong connection. When you told me your story, you opened up hope inside of me. Hope to stay strong, hope to turn the tables around when something bad was happening, hope to do anything. You're not like all of the other boys I met before. You're special Joey and I'm glad you are."
The connection returned and it was stronger than ever. A feeling began brewing inside of Hana and Joey and both now understood what the connection was. It was. it was. "Ahem!" The mystical spell was broken and Joey and Hana were "back on planet earth." "We're back." The voice and disturbing cough belonged to Tristan who was holding a bucket full of sponges. Hana gasped when she saw her cousin.
"Oooohhh!!!!! Why did you have to ruin it Tristan?" Tea asked with Serenity behind her giggling. "How long have you been there?" Joey asked the two girls. "We just came back to ask if you wanted any ice cream." "The ice cream truck was there?" It was just a lie to get Serenity busy, that way she doesn't start crying. Looks like there actually was an ice cream truck.
"What do you mean? Didn't you guys say you heard it?" Serenity asked as she looked back at Tea and Joey, confused. "Of course, there was an ice cream, Joey." Tea said rather loudly. "Anyway, we came by to ask if you wanted any ice cream and then we heard you talking to Hana. So we decided to stay quiet and hang around and-" "Eavesdropping! You guys were eavesdropping!" Joey yelled as he stood up and pointed at the two girls. "Yeah, we were." Tea giggled. Serenity burst out laughing and she ran up to her big brother and gave him a hug.
"Aaaaaaaaaawwwwwwww! You're so sweet. I won't break the promise either." she said sweetly as Joey broke into a smile.
Hana looked up at her cousin and asked nervously, "How long have you been there?" "Long enough to hear the whole story. I had to interrupt your little love connection because you were wasting too much time. We have a lot of work to do. Unless if you two lovebirds will like to be alone for awhile." Tristan answered as Yugi and Duke exploded laughing.
"Love connection? Lovebirds?" Hana asked with more tense in her voice.
Everybody seems to be dying from laughter, except for Joey and Hana whose faces were covered with a scarlet scar. "There was no love connection and we are not lovebirds! We were just talking. Anyway, we have a lot of work to do." Hana tried to yell over the laughter but her voice was drained into the continued laughter.
"Attack Tristan Mew-mew!" she yelled at her sleepy cat. Mew-mew was fully awake and was surprise about its opportunity at attacking Tristan. The kitten immediately obeyed as it hiss fiercely and with one jumped and a wave of a paw, scratched Tristan's face.
"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" Tristan yelled from the stinging pain. "You don't need to tell that moronic cat of yours to attack me to make me stop pestering you!"
Hana got up too swiftly, her crate fell over. "Well you wouldn't shut up!"
The rest of the teens were quiet as a mouse that the only thing you could hear was their breathing. "Stop it guys!" Yugi shouted standing in between the two cousins. To their surprise, the once absurd cousins were now roaring with laughter.
"You should have seen your face when Mew-mew scratched you!" Hana cracked up. "You were so mad it looked like your eyes were going to bulged out of your head!" Tristan laughed. The rest of the teens were baffled.
"Oh, that's so sweet. You guys aren't arguing. I think." Tea said even more confused. "Okay, guys, we have a lot of work to do." Tristan stopped laughing and said, as he passed out the buckets and sponges. "Here are a couple of hoses. I already set them up. Here are also some masks. We might need them since there's a whole lot of dust in there." The teens busted into the building and in no time at all, they were cleaning up the warehouse.
~*~
"Whew! I'm tired." Hana said as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. "I think I need a drink." She then took out her strawberry milkshake and began taking long sips.
"Whoa! I think my hands are getting so wrinkly; I'm turning into an old man! Get it! Wrinkly! Old man! Hahahahahaha!" Joey joked laughing so hard his sides were splitting. A huge sweat drop formed on everybody's faces except for Hana who thought the joke was very hysterical.
Her laugh was so loud and wild that it startled Joey.
The pink, milky substance squirted out of Hana's nose and cherry gloss lips.
"Was it that funny?" Joey asked surprise at how this girl can start laughing so hard at a dumb joke.
Hana couldn't control her laughter but manage to give a small nod. Joey started laughing for, he to, thought his own joke was funny. Just then, a mischievous idea popped into Joey's head.
"Hey Hana." he said wearing a mischievous grin. "Huh?" Hana finally controlled her wild laughter and soon as she turn to see what Joey wanted, a spray of icy cold water damped her face and clothing.
Hana started blinking not believing what just happened and let out a cry. "Joey Wheeler! You're going to pay!" She then grabbed the old, weary, rubber green hose and squirted out water at Joey.
"Hey!" The two teens were now spraying each other with water and running around laughing their heads off.
Joey finally kept Hana in a corner. He smiled even more mischievously and he was ready to shoot water at the giggling girl.
There was so much water on the floor that Hana slipped across the floor, escaping Joey. But she ended up falling but tried to hold on to Joey. She grabbed Joey so firmly that he ended up falling too. Hana fell on her back and Joey, using his hands and knees to support himself up, was on top of Hana making his face only a few inches away from hers.
Hana and Joey kept laughing not realizing their position. The other teens, however, were staring at them trying to hold in their laughs. When they both finally realized their embarrassing position, their faces turned into a brick red color. The other teens couldn't help but laugh and point and laugh some more and point oh, did I mention laugh?
Joey quickly got up and regains his posture and offers his hand to help Hana up. As soon as their hands touch, Hana swiftly got up and her and Joey couldn't help but have their faces flush a crimson red.
Hana and Joey took a quick glance at each other and nodded naughtily both understanding their plan. And the plan was- "Aaaahhhh!" the other teens screamed as a blast of below zero degrees water spray them.
"Muuuuaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" Hana and Joey laughed evilly, (but of course playfully), as they shoot the icy cold water at their friends. Of course, the plan was to spray water at the rest of the teens.
Everybody laughed and a water blast battle began.
The battle soon became a "spray the one you have a crush on" battle.
Yugi couldn't help but chase Tea around the warehouse and watch her run and squeal delightfully. Tea found a hiding spot and Yugi had no clue where she was. She then popped out from behind the stack of wooden crates and with a shrill of laughter, sprays the dumbfounded Yugi.
Serenity was defenseless against Duke and Tristan who knew exactly where to find her. Serenity ran from Tristan as he tried to corner her but she slipped and fell into the arms of Duke. Tristan, who hated when those things happened between Serenity and Duke, grabbed Duke's arm and directly sprayed Duke in the face.
As for Hana and Joey, they were having the most fun time. Hana kept ducking from the blasts of water heading for her by Joey. She then noticed nobody attempting to chase her and wonder where Joey could be. She then felt muscular arms embraced her from behind. A shrill of giggles escaped her lips for she knew Joey was the one who was hugging her from behind. "Got you now!" Joey said laughing as he took out the hose, ready to spray her. "You won't spray pretty me now would you?" Hana giggled as she looks up at Joey and gave him a wink. Joey blushed seeing how she winked, made her even cuter.
Joey lost his grip on the hose and Hana, seeing how Joey wasn't trying to spray her anymore, fled from Joey and grabbed the hose. Now it was her turn to spray Joey. Joey seize Hana's arm, (of course, not trying to hurt her), and twirled her back in his arms letting Hana loose her tight grip on the hose and letting it fall on the floor. Hana was getting all giggly and bubbly, having such an exciting time with Joey.
All of the teens were so absorbed in their activity that they didn't noticed the twenty-four year old woman with long blond hair and violets eyes standing by the doorway. She was wearing a white corset top, a short purple skirt, long black boots, a sleeveless vest, and long white fingerless gloves. She grew impatient of waiting so she coughed purposely and loudly, hoping to get their attention.
All the teens did hear the cough and was surprise about the person standing in the doorway.
"Mai! Uuuuummmm, what are you doing here?" Yugi asked as he looked up at the cross-arm woman.
The woman walked to Yugi and said smiling, "A simple hello would have been nice. Are you and your friends rejecting me from your little playtime activity? Well if you want to know why I'm here; I was here because I heard a bunch of laughing and screaming so I went to check out who it was. I know you guys are loud but I didn't know you can be this loud and noisy? I can hear you from across the street."
"Hey Mai! How are you?" Tea asked as she dropped the hose and greeted Mai with a smile.
"Hhhhhhhhmmmmmm. Tired. Couldn't sleep last night. Thank goodness today is Friday. I can finally relax." She found an overturned crate and with a heavy sigh, sat on it. "Anyways, where's Joey?" She scanned the warehouse with her violets eyes and was surprise to see what Joey was doing.
He had a giggling fifteen year old girl in his arms who was trying to squirm out of the tight, yet comfortable embrace. "Let go of me, Joey!" the girl laughed. "I shouldn't let you go before tickling you!" the blond hair boy laughed as he tickled the violet eye girl. "Hahahahaha! Joey!"
Jealousy quickly rose in Mai. "Humph! Well I guess you haven't notice that I am here, Joey Wheeler!" Mai fumed as she got up and begin walking away.
Joey finally noticed the angry woman and speedily released Hana.
"Oh hi Mai. Haven't seen you in awhile?" Joey said trying to act causal and brushes off the little activity he had with his best friend's cousin.
Mai turned around and took a quick glance at Joey and then, with her arms cross, waited for Joey to say something else before she makes up her mind and leave.
Hana soon saw Miss. Valentine and with a pleasing smile and a little wave, greeted Mai. "Oh hello. I'm Hana Taylor, Tristan's cousin and already a good friend of these guys. Glad to meet you, uuuuummmmmmm, Mai must be your name from what I hear these guys call you."
"Humph." Mai fumed whispery and turned her head in the other direction with her nose in the air. "I got to go. I don't want to stay here with a bunch of losers who I thought were my friends. Anyways, I don't want to be anywhere near blond hair monkeys who think of themselves worthy than me. Don't even persuade me to stay." In a fast motion, Mai was making her way out of the warehouse but a little comment made her stop in her tracks.
"C'mon Mai. Stop acting like we are not your friends. We ARE your friends and you know that. Back in "The Battle City Tournament" you thought that we weren't your friends and that's one reason why you ended up in the shadow realm. Now snap out of it and act like a friend to us for once. And don't be all acting all cruel to Hana when she's giving you a chance to be her friend because we all gave you a chance before and you're just blowing it. Now stop running away from us and actually BE a friend." It seems more of a speech Tea will say but this time it was Joey.
***************** Mai's P.O.V**********************
'Friend. A word I hate. A word I wish actually means something. I'll admit. It's very true what these dweebs say what a friend is. They are my friends. It's true. I got to stop acting like this. Anyways, as a friend I'll stay as to Joey Wheeler. It's the only way I can ever get closer to him. Hhhhhhhhhhmmmmmm. if only that twerp named Hana can get out of my way then I'll be one step closer in winning Joey's heart. I'm already starting to dislike her. I know. Maybe if I act like a friend to her and then.ugh, I don't know. All I know is this girl named Hana is just ruining my chance to get to Joey. Well right now I just have to act like a. hhhhmmmmmmm. friend.' **************************************************
"Earth to Mai. you there. You look like you daze out or something." Joey said slowly, waving his hand in front of Mai's face.
Mai shook her head for she was deep into thought. "Of course I'm here Joey. I'm not going anywhere and... You're right Joey. I should be more of a friend. Thanks for the lesson on friendship kiddo."
Mai turned her attention to Yugi and said causally, "So Yugi. What are you doing? This whole place is wet. Is Kaiba paying you money to clean up this place? Well if he is, you're doing me a favor because I was about to go buy this area from him and start my own mini mall. I'm a very posh woman but I'm going low on money ever since I quit that job on the cruises. Working at those stupid casino cruises never really got me anywhere but I'm only rich because I belong to a filthy rich family. Making this place to a mini mall will defiantly get me somewhere."
"What?! You can't turn this place to a mall. Well not this building because Hana is using it for her band practice." Tristan quickly said.
Mai turned and glared at Hana. Luckily for Mai, Hana didn't notice. But it was more than a simple glare. It was full of hatred and outrage. Mai did just more than dislike Hana. She hated her. well what she see of her as now anyways.
'How dare her.! Ugh, no I need this area. I can't let her get her way! Joey's watching me. Better cool down a bit.' Mai thought trying to cool down.
"Uuuuuum. never mind then. I heard Kaiba said he was just going to leave this place deserted. Heehee should have been here sooner." Mai said slowly trying to act cheerful.
"Oh yeah Mai, you asked us what are we doing. Well, we are just cleaning up this place for band practice. Hey Mai, maybe you should join the band, if that's okay with Hana." Yugi said happily.
"Yeah Mai. You can join the band. if you want to." Hana said cheerfully.
'I don't want to be in a band with Hana! I want to be with Joey!' The words almost left her lips but she quickly stopped herself.
"I got to go. I.uuuuuuummmmmmm.. Need to go visit a friend. See you all later." Mai said as she swiftly got up.
"Bye Mai!" everybody chorused joyfully.
"Bye Joey!!" Mai called out cheerfully at Joey with a little wink. She then ran off giggling. When she turned around to see Joey's expression, to her surprise he wasn't blushing like he usually do when she winks at him. Instead, he was talking to Hana, smiling.
'Ugh, that's it! I had enough! This Hana girl just got to go.' Mai stump her way out of the warehouse, angry about this new comer.
~*~