Fate: Huzzah, here it is, I'm going to go whimper and die now, for I am in pain. Actually, I'm going to do homework, then try and write an outline for Gift Unto Me A Soul. I feel like writing out some femmeslash.
Disclaimer: Not ours. Toss off.
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Mai sat at her vanity table, applying makeup mechanically as her mind raced.
I don't even know why I'm doing this anymore, she reflected. I want to help Jounouchi, but...I don't know anymore. I mean, I don't even understand why he came to me. Me of all people...
She tried to remember the last time she'd seen him before this latest development, and failed. It hadn't been a dramatic parting. It had just been an everyday occurrence, two friends spending time together. Nothing to be remembered. Nothing to be cherished. There was no drama in it.
Nothing out of the ordinary at all.
She made a face at herself in the mirror, her makeup half-on and slightly smudged. Forget it. Forget it forget it forget it. I'm going out to party tonight.
She sighed decisively and picked up her cell phone. "Ruri-chan? It's me." She smiled. "Of course I'm the only one who'd call this late. Look, I'm going out. Do you want to come? I'd like company." Pause. "Ohhh, you're going somewhere with Yonmu, are you?" A smile broke across her face. "Nothing special, eh? Just you and Yonmu...alone...not going out with your beautiful university friend instead..." Mai held the phone away from her ear as Ruri shrieked at her. "Go out and have fun with Yonmu-san then," Mai drawled. "And give me details when you get back. No fair leaving me in the dark like this. Yeah. Uh huh. Now go! Love you, babe." She clicked the phone off and slumped back in her chair. "Great. Ruri and Yonmu going out. Together. Without me. I feel so damn loved." She glared at her reflection. "Good for Ruri-chan though...but now who am I going to go with? I'm not going to that side of Domino by myself. I'm not stupid. Now who...?"
She stared at herself in the mirror again. "No way. He'll think I'm crazy. Then again, you never really know..."
She picked up her phone and dialed again, more hesitatingly this time. "Hello? Yes...it's me. I'm going out tonight. Do you...want to come?"
Halfway across town, Jounouchi quickly prised open a window and vaulted out in order to have a phone conversation in relative secrecy. "Go out where?"
"Club Ichigeki," Mai said. "I'm bored and I want out. You seem like you could use a stress reliever. Considered getting laid?"
Jounouchi turned a becoming shade of puce and just barely refrained from beating his head on the nearby wall. "Stress reliever. Right. I'll go. When? Where?"
Mai blinked. "I'll pick you up at the coffee shop in a bit. Sound good?"
Jounouchi looked back up at his window. He was pretty sure his party clothes were still there. "Sounds good. I'll be sneaking out and all, so give me a little time."
"I'll see you then," Mai told him and hung up. She then began reapplying makeup with renewed vigor.
Meanwhile, Jounouchi climbed back into his window and threw the phone onto his bed. He then began rooting around under the desk for his PVC clothes and glitter. He stuffed himself into his clothes as quietly as possible, then dumped gold glitter over his head, rubbing it into his hair and skin. He then climbed back out the window, throwing his shoes down ahead of him, and trotted off down the road, ducking under his father's window and praying he wouldn't get caught.
*
Mai sat at the counter next to Lupita and Ruoko as they regarded the cashier with some amazement.
"Does she ever wake up?" Mai finally asked.
"No," Lupita told her. "She never does. I sometimes wonder if she's alive."
"Are you going out on a date with someone tonight?" Lupita asked.
"I wish," Mai replied, poking her clothes. "I'm dragging Jounouchi-san out to relax. I wanted to go out with my friends, but they're going to be making sheep-eyes at each other, so I passed on that one."
"Isn't Jounouchi-san your friend too?" Lupita asked.
Mai blinked. "Yes...a very old one. But we kind of lost touch with each other until lately."
"I see," Lupita said.
"I don't," Ruoko complained.
Mai pulled her deck out and slapped it on the counter. "Does this help?"
"You're a duelist!" Ruoko said in some astonishment. "Then you're the Mai Kujaku?"
"And he's the Katsuya Jounouchi," Mai finished.
"This clarifies matters," Lupita said. "Such as how Kaiba-sama knows him."
"Apparently they were enrolled in the same high school," Mai told them. "But anyway, would you two like to come out with us?"
Lupita and Ruoko looked at each other. "We could get trashed," Lupita said thoughtfully.
"And get laid," Ruoko added.
"And do something other than drink cheap espresso all night," Lupita finished. "We'll meet you there. Where are you going?"
"Club Ichigeki," Mai told them smugly.
"Sounds good," Lupita said, pushing away from the counter. "We'll be off, then?"
"Sure," Mai said, sitting back. "Jounouchi-san should be here soon."
"Isn't that him?" Ruoko asked, swiveling around and staring at something outside the glass doors.
The door swung open, and a PVC-and-fishnet clad form dusted in glimmering gold wandered in. "Mai-san?"
Ruoko whistled. "D'you think he'd stop lusting after Kaiba-sempai if I—"
"Coming," Mai said, cutting him off and shooting him a warning glare. She couldn't quite figure out why. "I'll see you two there, then," she added over her shoulder.
"Bye!" Lupita said, following them out and then hooking a right towards her car. "Ruoko-kun, let's go!"
"Coming, coming," Ruoko grumbled, nudging past her and climbing into the car.
"Well, that was a spectacle and a half," Jounouchi muttered. "So do I look okay?"
"Yeah, sure," Mai said, glancing at him quickly before stuffing herself into the driver's side of her Bug. "You look great."
Jounouchi was quiet for most of the drive, aside from slight whimpering noises when she did a 360 in the middle of the freeway to avoid crashing into another car or ten.
"So what prompted this?" Jounouchi finally asked as they purred into the parking lot and stopped with a violent screech.
"I was bored," Mai said simply, oozing out of the car and sashaying along the sidewalk. She cut the medium-sized line and walked up to the bouncer. "Now be a luv and let us in," she murmured, drawing one hand across the bouncer's collarbone.
"You little flirt," the bouncer replied, shrugging her hand off playfully. "Go on in, you know you can these days. Who's that?"
"Don't you have a line to attend to?" Mai asked, reaching out and taking hold of Jounouchi's fishnet-clad arm. "We'll be going now."
"Hey, it's not everyday your favorite blonde shows up dragging a hot boy covered in glitter," the bouncer complained as they swept past.
Jounouchi grimaced. "Seriously, how do I look? And actually look at me this time."
Mai actually looked this time.
Jounouchi was shifting nervously from side to side in clingy PVC pants, with combat boots strapped halfway up his calves and dusted in stray gold glitter. He wore a longish fishnet shirt with black hems, also well dotted with glitter. Of course, the most glitter had collected in his hair and eyelashes. He fit in with the rest of the club. He matched Mai, in her leather bustier and miniscule strip of cloth that could be generously termed a skirt, with long, fishnet-clad legs encased in high-heeled leather boots extending from it.
He was drop-dead gorgeous.
Mai smiled. "You'll pass."
Jounouchi smiled back. "Thanks, Mai-san."
"Mai-chan," she corrected him.
Jounouchi blinked.
"Well, we're friends still, right?" Mai asked.
Comprehension showed in Jounouchi's eyes. "Mai-chan, then. I'm going to go dance," he said, looking out at the mass of writhing bodies. "Coming?"
"Not yet," Mai told him. "You go have fun."
"All right," Jounouchi agreed, and took off.
Mai turned and headed around the edge of the dancing crowd, the beat pulsing through her shoes. She almost immediately ran into someone, as was the law of all clubs on the face of the earth.
"I'm sorry," she said, stepping back and looking at the person she'd run into.
He was small and wiry, with dark hair falling down around big gray eyes and hanging nearly to his waist. He looked her up and down slowly, then smiled at her. "Well," he said simply.
Mai raised one eyebrow. "Aren't you a little young to be here?" The boy couldn't have been more than fifteen.
"Yes," he said simply. "If you'll excuse me." With that, he brushed past her and vanished into the dancing crowd.
Mai stared after him. Where have I seen him before...?
*
Jounouchi danced, glimmering hair flying around his eyes as he moved.
I lust after him...but I don't love him. I...couldn't love him. His love is reserved for himself, and maybe that little brother of his. I couldn't...I couldn't stand to love someone who didn't love me. I couldn't stand to be his toy out of unrequited love. And that...that's why I can't do this.
Shizuka...you were right. I thought you were being silly, but you were right. I'm just a hopeless romantic at heart, he thought, tossing his head back in the desperate hopes that these thoughts would fly away. I come across all tough and wish that it was what I was, heart and soul, but I'm not and never will be. Dammit...
He kept moving, light reflecting off of PVC and glitter in dazzling flashes, trying to dance away his very thoughts.
I wouldn't worry about it if someone loved me.
Suddenly cold, he kept dancing, but it felt abruptly alien.
...of course I'd worry if someone loved me! I'd feel like I was betraying them, I'd feel like...like...
His eyes slid closed in resignation. I wouldn't feel like I had to cling to the first feelings of true desire I'd ever had, not just porn-induced teenage lust. I'm...I'm barely even a teenager now...
"Hey gorgeous," a voice breathed in his ear. Jounouchi's eyes snapped open and he looked around, startled.
Mai smiled at him. "Seemed like the only way to get your attention. Lupita and Ruoko are both here, but they're glued to the bar and each other. Want to dance some more, or do you want to go drown your troubles?"
Jounouchi thought about it. "What are you doing?"
"Dancing," Mai said. "I'm driving. I don't want to mar my perfect record. Oh, stop laughing," she added irritably.
"I'll stay out here then," Jounouchi said. "Why did we invite them along?"
"Because they need to get out more, just like you," Mai said.
"What is this, your charity night?"
"Something like that. It isn't every night I take out random strangers from coffee shops," Mai said dismissively.
"What about me? Am I a random stranger from a coffee shop?" Jounouchi found himself asking.
Mai looked at him, one eyebrow raised. "No. So are you going to dance, or are you going to ask more questions?"
As the DJ began mixing the track into another song, Jounouchi grinned at her. "I got a question. Hey gorgeous, wanna dance?"
Mai grinned back at him. "Now is that how you ask a lady to dance, Jounouchi-san?"
"Jounouchi-kun," he told her.
"Eh?"
"Jounouchi-kun," he repeated. "No need for 'san'. We're friends. And we're dancing," he added, grabbing her and pulling her deeper into the crush of bodies.
Mai laughed softly. I should take out old friends more often...because it seems that no one but them knows how to treat a girl right.
&
Fluffy: There ya go! See, we did it just like we promised!
kitten – *blushes* Aww. Thank you.
Psychopathic Sixth Grader – Thanks a bunch! Jounouchi and Mai are so neglected that they usually don't get fics of their own...just are given a token mention once or twice in other fics...and I'm guilty of this too. So...further the Jou and Mai love!
Schizothief – Ahahaha...calm...calm...ooh, trophy-maker? Would it be shiny?
Duel: Y'know, we had more people review this thing last time. WHAT THE DEUCE HAPPENED TO YOU LOT? GET BACK HERE!