Fate: I ish addicted to this story, I am. Sorry about the huge delay in updates--I'm only just getting back on my writing feet, as it were. Or hands. Or whatever.
Disclaimer: We don't own anything. At all.
Max: So where's the evil laughter?
Disclaimer: Don't push it.
Max: Meh, on with the fic!
&
"Mai-san? Is that you?"
Mai blinked as her eyes adjusted to the gloom of the Kame Game Shop. "Um. Yes?"
"We haven't seen you in a while," said the voice, sounding astonished.
Mai squinted through the darkness and took a step closer to the counter. "We? There's only one of you," she said to the diminutive figure. "Mutou-san?"
"Hiya, Mai-san!" the figure replied cheerfully. "Yami, come out and say hi to her!"
The room grew briefly darker, leaving Mai blinking even more furiously as a shape coagulated next to the frantically waving Yuugi. "You've been absent for a long time, Mai-san," Yami said coolly.
Oh, right, it was that damn smug watch-me-state-the-fucking-obvious-and-bow-to-me attitude that always made me pissed off at him! How could I have been so stupid to forget that? Mai castigated herself after she spent a few angry seconds grinding her teeth without quite knowing why. She tossed her hair back, set her jaw, and matched the pharaoh stare for stare in the dark room. "I could say the same of you, since I am still an active duelist and yet have never come across you."
"Perhaps my contests aren't heard of that far down," Yami said softly.
Mai had one hand on the pepper spray in her purse and was thinking longingly of giving Yami a faceful when Yuugi punched his other on the arm and said, "Bite your tongue. You haven't been competing, and Kaiba-kun is practically at the end of his tether because of it. You do owe him a duel or two. And be nice to Mai-san, because we haven't seen her in ages and I want to talk to her."
Yami pouted in a most regal manner and subsided. Mai, however, kept her hand on the pepper spray. Nothing like revenge when it's unanticipated. "Thank you."
Yuugi grinned. "You're quite welcome, Mai-san. Anything you'd like?"
Yes, Seto Kaiba trussed up and attached to a lie detector machine. Mai ignored this truthful but most likely havoc-causing response and traded it for, "I wanted to do my normal biweekly upgrade and decided to come in here and say hello as well. It's been over a year and a half, you know, and besides, you might have something that most of the other larger chains just don't carry. Everything's mass-produced out there, and the small stores are getting harder to find," she lied casually.
"Makes sense," Yuugi said with another blinding smile. "We have lots of new stuff in, and some of it is definitely in your line," he added engagingly.
Damn, the boy's turning into quite the salesman, Mai noted. She did a quick mental budget, came to the conclusion that she had roughly three thousand yen to last her the summer, not counting food money, and said, "So what have you got?"
What's food in the larger and much more entertaining scheme of Duel Monsters, anyway?
"Here, take a look at this," Yuugi said, proffering a card to her in a plastic holder.
"Poison Darts?" she asked, raising one eyebrow as she looked it over.
"They're supposed to be for air-type monsters. It raises their attack points by five hundred but lowers their defense by three. You can do up to a thousand points of Direct Damage plus the normal attack for the first turn, but you pay for the Direct Damage with your bonus Attack Points. For every time you deliver one hundred or more points of Direct Damage, your bonus Attack goes down by fifty. When you've used up all thousand Direct Damage points, then you're back to normal, except for your Defense," Yuugi rattled off, barely looking at the card.
"Sold," Mai announced after a few seconds of thought. "Anything else?"
Yuugi reached under the counter, vanishing entirely from view. "Lemme have a look..."
Yami stepped over and peered down at his hikari. "No, that box is almost entirely dragon cards. Try the next one over, I don't know what's in there. Unless you want something for your Harpie's Pet Dragon?" he asked.
"Maybe," she replied. Anything to legitimately keep me here until Kaiba shows up...and anything that will get me into a conversation with him is even better, she thought.
"Maybe you'd like a power booster?" Yami suggested, malice in his quiet suggestion.
Mai leaned over the counter and replied, just as softly, "You only won because I let you, that time. Your precious Anzu only got you the chips to go that far because I let you. Third time's the charm, pharaoh--will I be there to save your ass?"
Yami raised one eyebrow in a near-mirror of Mai's previous expression. "Wasn't it me who saved you last time?"
"Excellent job of saving people, yours...how many of your other's friends died in the process?" Mai hissed.
"Be quiet," Yami snapped.
"I'm not your servant, pharaoh, I'm a grown woman. I'll say what I like," Mai retorted.
"Isn't it good to know that at least one of your spineless acquaintances has some guts? Oh, wait, silly me--she's the one that got away, am I not correct?"
Yami straightened up and tried to look threatening. Mai smirked and slid away from the counter, turning to the side so she could see both Yami and Seto Kaiba. "Kaiba-sama," she said neutrally.
"Hiya, Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi chirped as he bounced to his feet, ignoring the Mexican standoff developing between his yami, Seto, and Mai. "Mai-san, here's some more," he added, pushing a handful across the counter to her. Mai half-turned and picked up the cards, thumbing through them and picking out the ones she liked. Most of them she'd seen before but hadn't been able to buy, but every so often a random one popped up that she couldn't figure out. "What--?"
"That won't be of much use unless you rely more heavily on dragons than I think you do," Seto said, glancing at the object of her scrutiny briefly. "Do you think those Harpie's Pet Dragons breed wantonly?" he added to Yuugi. "Honestly. I would have thought you'd know better."
Mai fought back the urge to burst out laughing at the slightly peeved look on Seto's face as he lectured Yuugi. "Then what does it do?" she challenged him.
"Hiryuu Kadode?" he asked, naming the card. She nodded, feeling oddly like a puppet. "Pay 500 life points to replace your entire hand with dragon cards, then shuffle the deck. Not the best card in the world, especially since you need something to sacrifice to get many kinds of dragon cards out there, but it has its uses." Seto shrugged. "I've used it once or twice." He sighed, still looking faintly aggrieved.
"Hm," Mai said noncommittally, and handed the card back to a slightly abashed Yuugi. "Have you spoken to Jounouchi lately?" she asked, purposely leaving the target of her conversation open-ended.
"I most emphatically have not! I don't even like the little mutt! Why do you ask?" Seto squeaked.
Mai's inner self was laughing much too hysterically to comment. She merely looked over at him disdainfully and said, "I was talking to Mutou-san. Why, are you hiding some sort of illicit relationship that we should know about?"
"Eh? Wha? N-no! Of-of course not? What gave you that idea?" Seto rejoined, struggling to get out of his falsetto range.
There was a loud thump as Yuugi finally gave up and collapsed to the floor, laughing almost as hysterically as Mai's inner voice. Yami seemed to be torn between gaping at Seto's rapid color changes and making a few provocative remarks himself.
Well, that's one thing checked for sure...we have two seemingly random unrequited crushes going on here. The suggestion of trickery raises its head once more, Mai mused. Neither of them wants it, but they damn well seem to have it...odd, that.
So which one started it? Once we get that down, things should start going much more smoothly. Pity we haven't got an inside agent for Kaiba.
Her mission was relatively accomplished, but there was still her own personal entertainment to be taken into account. She wasn't quite done needling Seto yet, nor was she done making her purchases.
"What gave me that idea? Oh, I don't know, just feminine intuition and the like. You know," Mai said, flashing one of her more engaging smiles and being thus rewarded with a serious glimmer of conflicting interests in the young CEO's eyes. This is so easy I almost feel sorry for him. Hormones volatile much?
"Er. Actually, I don't," Seto pointed out. "Last I checked, I was still male."
Yuugi pointed innocently off to a door to one side, having regained his footing. "There's the bathroom if you'd like to check again. It's unisex, so don't worry if you've made a mistake."
Seto turned an odd shade of greenish-puce, Yami flung himself dramatically to the floor and began laughing madly, and Mai was thanking her lucky stars that she'd been clever enough to record this conversation for blackmail purposes --er, rather, for Jounouchi's benefit. Blackmail hadn't been in her mind at all. Really.
"I, uh, think I'll, uh, come back later," Seto said, looking more than slightly disoriented by this turn of events. With that, he turned and sped out the door, his cheekbones flushing an odd magenta counterpoint to his grayish-green pallor.
"I love my job," Yuugi announced as the black limo screamed away down the street.
Mine's not that bad either, Mai noted, though she didn't dare say it out loud. "Well then...can you ring these up for me?" she asked, pushing her four choices across the counter.
"Sure," Yuugi said. "That'd be two thousand," he added after a pause.
Mai sighed and fished the money out of her purse, finally relinquishing her hold on the pepper spray. She tucked her purchases into her purse, meaning to sort them into her deck later, and turned to walk out. Then she whirled back and looked studiously at the pair. "You haven't heard from Jounouchi, have you?" she inquired.
Yuugi shook his head slowly. Yami just stared at her blankly. "No. Not for a long time now," Yuugi said, sounding slightly worried. "At least two or three weeks. Usually he's in here every day, except today of course, when Kaiba-kun comes in, but he's been avoiding us lately."
"I see," Mai said honestly. "Thank you." She then left the shop with a backwards wave and slid into her car, nearly ramming the vehicle parallel parked in front of her and screeching out into traffic.
Her cell phone rang almost as soon as she hit the freeway. "Moshi moshi," she said breathlessly, maneuvering through the lanes at her usual speed of 140 kilometres an hour.
"Mai-san?" Jounouchi said hesitantly. "Did you--?"
"See Kaiba? Yes, I did, and it was absolutely hilarious. I have a conversation that you absolutely must hear," Mai said, a smile gracing her perfect features in remembrance.
"Ugh. Do I want to?" Jounouchi asked, sounding faintly disgusted.
Mai smirked. "Yes, if you like hearing Kaiba-sama humiliated publicly."
"Bring it, I want to hear it," Jounouchi replied instantly.
"I thought so," Mai answered. "By the way, Mutou-san is worried about you," she pointed out, remembering their final conversation.
"Why?" Jounouchi asked blankly.
"What, you're not friends anymore?" Mai retorted. "According to them, you used to be in that game shop all the time. Now you're not. I mean, I know that the pharaoh is an insufferable prat and he seems to be worse than usual, but really...they're wondering about you."
"You have a point," Jounouchi said wonderingly.
"Of course I do," Mai answered smugly. "Go talk to your friends. You need them and they need you, and frankly I'm no replacement for them. You don't have to explain everything if you don't trust them to keep their mouths shut, but I think you're underestimating them. Well, maybe not that pharaoh or the brown-haired idiot--"
"Hey! That is my friend you're insulting--" Jounouchi squawked.
"Then act like it," Mai told him. "Go talk to them. I can give you advice, but I don't know you as well as they do. They're the ones who are going to get you to take my wonderful advice that you never listen to."
"I listen," Jounouchi said woefully.
"Then listen to this: go talk to them," Mai enunciated.
"All right, all right, I'll go tomorrow morning," Jounouchi said. "Yuugi-kun and Yami-kun are going to be going at it like rabbits if I come back after closing time, and I don't think I could make it before then."
"Good," Mai said. "When can I find you and give you this recording, anyway?"
"Um...how late can you stay up?" Jounouchi enquired. "I have to wait for my father to fall asleep and then sneak out. The place is also emptier later on."
"One in the morning good for you?" Mai asked.
"I'll try and make it, but no guarantees that I'll be there before two," Jounouchi said decisively. "Bring something to entertain yourself for an hour or so."
"I have some deck compilation to do," Mai answered. "I can do that there."
"Okay," Jounouchi said cheerily. "I'll see you then, Mai-san."
"Ja ne," Mai said airily and clicked the phone off. She caught the briefest flash of police lights as they began to crest the hill behind her, and neatly swung off onto the nearest exit. The cruiser sailed past her and on down the road as she handed over the toll and stomped on the accelerator, sending her careening down the exit ramp.
*
Seto Kaiba stared moodily at the tinted limo window, completely oblivious to the fact that the vehicle had stopped.
"Erm...Kaiba-sama..."
Nothing.
"Kaiba-sama?"
Still no response.
"Kaiba-sama!"
Seto's eyelid twitched slightly, but other than that there was no response.
The driver scuttled off, then returned with the Ultimate Weapon.
"OI! NII-SAMA!"
"Yes?" Seto replied, jumping and whirling as well as he could in a car to face a very nervous chaffeur, an equally nervous car attendant, and a very exasperated younger brother.
"The limo has been stopped for twenty minutes," Mokuba said, unnatural patience in his voice. "You can get out now and stop daydreaming. And maybe take a cold shower," he added as Seto began to climb out of the car.
Seto instead made a strange noise that was a cross between a murderous growl and a terrified whimper. "Shut up!" he said, sounding very undignified.
Mokuba rolled his eyes and waved the two staff members away. "Nii-sama."
"Yes?"
"You are going to sit down with me, tell me who he or she is and why you're doing all this creepy pining after them, and then you are going to go answer all those phone calls that I've been fielding for the past half hour, not necessarily in that order," Mokuba said, sounding aggrieved.
"What? What phone calls? Why wasn't I informed?"
"You turned your phone off," Mokuba said, looking harassed. "You will find at least three messages on it from me and probably five more from the people who reached me. God knows what happened from the people at work."
"What happened?!"
"Go to your study and I will get you coffee and answers," Mokuba said, the dangerously patient edge back in his voice. As Seto recognized this as a definite warning sign and fled to his precious computer room, Mokuba howled after him, "AND TURN YOUR DAMNED CELL PHONE BACK ON!"
Seto was already dialing frantically on it as he hit the door running.
Mokuba slumped back against the limo briefly, sighed, and then straightened and pulled out his own cell phone.
"Kaiba Mokuba. I want everything forwarded to my brother on his private channel, and get that bloody rep down here in style. Give us at least an hour to pull things together, and get that rep out by five in the afternoon. You understand? Do it now." Mokuba hung up with an angry click, muttering, "Of all the damned bad timing...at least it'll cheer him up, yelling at people." He shook his head, then sprinted to the house and flung the door open. "Oi! I need coffee, I need the place cleaned up, I need all the normal phones shut down, and did I mention the COFFEE?!"
Perhaps Mokuba should switch to decaf in the afternoons.
%
Fate: *snerk* I am evil.
Seto: *whimpering in a corner and being horribly OOC*
Mokuba: WAHAHAHAHA!!
molten-amber--
Duel: PH34R!! Woohoo!
Fate: Meh....I'm being slow...will try to be quicker!
Dragna Vey--
Fate: Hmm...messing with emotions...such a satisfying process...*grin*
Serene Goddess--
Fate: Yep, that pairing appeals to me too...both of them do, actually, so I will be hard-pressed to decide....argh, ne?
Wing-chan--
Fluffy: Sorry about the long wait. Fate is trying to catch up on her work, etc etc.
summer psycho--
Fate: Again, gomennasai for my slowness. *bows down and grovels*
Liviana--
Fate: I noticed...so here she is! *grin*
SweetMisery--
Seto: You heard my side! Now feel sorry for me or I'll pay Duel to come and eat your soul!
Duel: Wahahahaha!
The White Ferret: *hits Seto upside the head with the Review Stick of Doom* Bad CEO! No biscuit!
Duel: *grins maniacally*
TWAWKI: *runs screaming and typing reviews frantically*
Duel: Yay! I feel so good about myself. ^_^