Fate: Tra la! Livi has a cameo. This is the sort of thing that happens when you enter my halfassed contests.
Disclaimer: We don't own anything. Except maybe Lupita and Ruoko. You want them, ask first.
The next night, Mai was busily watching an infomercial on cat litter when the phone rang.
"Mai-chan? I...I need a favor," Jounouchi blurted before she could say hello.
She blinked. "What sort of favor?"
"I need a place to crash for the night," Jounouchi said hurriedly. "My dad's not in a good mood right now, and I'd rather not be wandering around at night."
"Where are you?" Mai inquired.
"I'm at one of the pay phones on the freeway," Jounouchi said, sounding miserable. "Yuugi-kun doesn't have a car and the bus doesn't run anywhere near his house, Honda's out of town, Anzu-chan can't have boys stay the night, and Bakura-kun isn't answering the phone."
"I'll come get you," Mai said, leaving the TV on and hurrying out the door. "I need some directions."
"You know the first rest stop after you leave Domino and head north? I'm there," Jounouchi said.
"Can you stay on the phone until I get there?" Mai inquired.
"I don't have any more change," Jounouchi replied.
"Call me back collect if you get kicked off," Mai ordered as she stomped on the gas and shot away down the street. It was ten minutes to the freeway, then five more to the rest stop. "Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be there," she promised. "How'd you get all the way out there?"
"I caught the bus, then got off at the first stop out of Domino," Jounouchi replied. "It wasn't actually a stop, but I figured I'd better get off before I wound up in Yodaiga."
"Good plan," Mai said wryly. "You didn't pay, did you?"
"Did it sound like I was actually in the bus? I wasn't," Jounouchi answered.
"Ah," Mai answered. "Once I pick you up, what do you want to do? Do you want to crash or do you want to go somewhere?"
"I'm not tired. I just need to get away from this rest stop. There's a biker eyeing me up," Jounouchi said apprehensively. "An eight-foot-tall behemoth of a biker."
"Thanks for the clarification," Mai answered.
"Well, there's another biker, but that one's the short, skinny, girly-looking one," Jounouchi replied.
"By the laws of nature, that's going to be the one to cause you more trouble," Mai deadpanned. "Let me ask you this. Have you been wearing a sign saying 'All men within a ten foot radius must be attracted to me!'?"
"No," Jounouchi said mournfully.
"Have you considered getting a haircut?"
"There's nothing wrong with my hair!" Jounouchi replied.
Mai thought about it. There really wasn't anything wrong with his hair. It suited him, even though it had gotten even longer since Battle City and was now curling over his shoulders haphazardly. "That's kind of my point," she finally said. "Being gorgeous isn't always an advantage, you know," she added.
She could practically hear Jounouchi thinking. "What do you mean?"
...the boy's got a point. Mai, m'girl, what are you thinking?
"Well, I'm gorgeous, and life isn't exactly roses," she said languidly. "I'll never get a traffic ticket, and I can always get my way, but having people falling for me wherever I go is something of an issue. If I wanted to wade through drool all the time, I'd buy wellies instead of stilettos," she divulged.
She glanced at herself in the rearview mirror, then looked away. Never lie, just tell part of the truth, and it won't show in your eyes...
Jounouchi snickered. "You said 'wellies'."
"Indeed I did. Let's not dwell on it," Mai shot back.
"Wellies."
"..."
"It's cute."
"..."
"I'm serious!"
"...can we move on now?"
"Oh, right," Jounouchi replied. "Wellies."
Mai laughed and stepped on the gas. It was only a few miles more to the freeway anyway, so it was like she was there already. Thus, the speed limits of the freeway were perfectly applicable. Right?
Cue the batting eyelashes.
"Crap, I'm out of time," Jounouchi said after a few seconds of mutual laughter. "I have to hang up."
"Ring me back collect," Mai ordered.
"Can you ring cell phones collect?" Jounouchi inquired.
Mai thought about it. "Damn. Is the number on that pay phone?"
"Been scratched off for a long time, from what I can see," Jounouchi replied. "Oh, come on, I'll be fine on my own. I'm a big boy now. Nineteen and everything."
"When'd you turn nineteen?" Mai asked, startled.
"In a week, actually. I have to – " Click.
"Oh, hell," Mai muttered, putting her phone down. "Nineteen? Christ. It's been that long since we met?"
She swung onto the freeway at last, still calculating.
I was nineteen when I got an invitation to the ultimate dueling tournament...nineteen when my world got screwed upside down and sideways. Damn, I'm old.
She smiled. Twenty-one and calling myself 'old'. Never thought that would happen.
She pressed down on the accelerator, willing the universe to not screw around with her life any more for the rest of the night.
As if the universe ever listens.
Jounouchi paced back and forth in front of the phone booth, hoping to every god he could remember from Yami's curses as well as a few of his own pantheon, such as the Giant Cheeseburger In The Sky, that Mai would outdo her previous speeding record and show up any second now. Despite his protestations, he wasn't too happy with his situation. The bigger biker was definitely eyeing him up by then, the cashier in the rest area was having a long and involved conversation with the driver of the lone car parked on the other end of the lot, and the other biker had retreated behind one of the gas pumps and seemed to be just sitting there for no good reason.
Hoping against hope that no serial killers were hiding in the shadows to bite his toes off, he pushed off from the phone booth and crossed the lot, tentatively heading towards the smaller biker.
Who, of course, glanced back at him briefly, then leapt astride his bike, kicked it into life, and took off well before Jounouchi could even get within speaking distance.
"Jounouchi-kun!"
Jounouchi whirled to behold a black Bug idling behind him, with a very welcome blonde sitting behind the wheel. "You want out of here or not?"
"Coming, coming!" Gratefully fleeing to the passenger side, he was barely in the car before Mai stomped on the gas. "Yeep!"
"What were you doing?" Mai asked.
"That little biker kid was, like, hiding and staring at me," Jounouchi explained. "I wanted to go see who he was."
"That's not a very smart idea," Mai told him.
"I've been shot at, electrocuted, burned, beaten up, had my soul sucked out through my pores, drowned, turned into a Duel Monster, killed, resurrected, failed classes, and all sorts of other stuff," Jounouchi pointed out. "I'm not terribly worried."
Mai thought about it. "I understand completely."
Heh. Of course she gets it, Jounouchi reflected. "So where are we going?"
"Coffee?" Mai suggested devilishly.
"You're on."
Five minutes of painfully quick motion later, the two slid into a parking space. Jounouchi wobbled out, followed by Mai.
"How did you get your license?" Jounouchi asked incredulously.
"I know when to practice restraint," Mai said loftily. "Good God, are they back?"
"That's them," Jounouchi replied. "A couple other people are there too. Busy night."
Mai grinned as they pushed the door open.
"Hello!" Lupita called. "You're back!"
Jounouchi nodded, his eyes flicking first to the dark-haired newcomer swinging her feet idly under the bar, then to the cashier. Who, of course, was not awake.
"She's going to get fired if she keeps that up," Jounouchi remarked, staring at the sleeper.
"Are either of us going to welsh?" Ruoko asked, tossing back his sixth espresso. "Not me."
"Not it," Lupita added.
The two looked at the new girl. The new girl blinked, then looked up. "Am I supposed to pay her?"
"How many drinks you had?" Lupita asked.
The girl thought. "Three mochas."
"Give her a thousand or so and help yourself to your next round. Customer service here is...lacking," Lupita finally divulged.
The girl immediately reached over the counter and started pressing buttons eagerly.
"Back table?" Mai asked softly.
Jounouchi nodded. O Giant Cheeseburger, bless her and her kids and her grandkids and her pet cat and her air conditioner and...everything, he finished lamely, and quietly took off in that direction. Mai hung back for a minute, then joined him.
"Ruoko and Lupita refuse to leave the espresso for a minute, as though it might run away," Mai informed him. "I don't think you have to worry about privacy, to be honest."
Jounouchi pouted. "Let me pretend I have some secrets from the world," he said.
"Enough with the puppy dog eyes," Mai replied sternly. "Look, we need a new plan, and soon."
"I'm starting to feel like a project," Jounouchi muttered.
Mai looked up, confusion showing in her eyes. "...?"
"I mean, I know I asked for it, but everyone and their pet monkey is in on this thing," Jounouchi said dispiritedly.
"Not so," Mai said, raising one finger. "Your friends aren't, and that's the important thing."
"Bakura-kun – "
"A semi-hysterical phone call to a boy who you know is taken pleading him to hook up with your crush is not the same as having this conversation with them," Mai told him.
"Oh. Er. Yes," Jounouchi muttered.
"Look, your next move should be to talk to your friends," Mai said. "I haven't seen you in over a year. You're going to need some help from someone closer."
"You don't think you're close enough?" Jounouchi blinked at Mai. "Mai-chan...?"
Mai put one hand to her forehead. "You and your group...you brought me out of my own self-inflicted hell. You know that. You saved me," she added gently. "But then it faded. After I woke up from Battle City, everything was changed. And suddenly I wasn't seeing you anymore."
She's right, Jounouchi realized. After Battle City, Kaiba's other creepy sibling monopolized everything, and she wasn't there for that...and then all that weirdness with Bakura...she missed that too...she didn't wake up for a while. She missed a whole chunk of her life because of us – because of me – and then we just ditched her.
"I'm sorry."
"Eh?" Mai blinked.
"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I mean, you helped us out a lot, and then you got your soul yanked out your ears and eaten, and we...well, we weren't exactly helping you after that."
Mai smiled crookedly. "I'm a big girl, Jounouchi-kun. I'm twenty-one."
The door of the shop swung open with a jingle before Jounouchi could reply. Neither looked up, though.
The three at the counter all turned, however.
The dark-haired girl frowned slightly at the newcomer, then glanced at the pair in the corner with the same expression.
Lupita's eyes widened and she froze in the act of finger-combing out her hair.
Ruoko smirked behind his shot of espresso. "Omoshiroi, Lupita..."
The two girls looked at him. "Ee?" the dark-haired girl asked.
"You'll see," Lupita replied, her eyes softening into an almost predatory expression.
Back at the table, Jounouchi finally managed, "Well, what should we do? Find someone close to that...thing? Pay him off? I don't know! I'm out of ideas."
Mai seemed about to speak, then stopped, staring at Jounouchi.
"What?" Jounouchi asked.
"Turn around," Mai replied.
"Oh, no need to bother." There was the sound of squeaking vinyl, then a slender, dark-haired boy with large gray eyes walked around and put both palms on their table, leaning on it easily. "I suppose I'd better reintroduce myself, while we're renewing old acquaintances to save poor little Jounouchi from my scary, scary niisama. My name is Mokuba Kaiba."
Fluffy: Tee hee.
Sailor Epyon: I had fun writing it.
Kitten: Jounouchi's a creative person.
Psychopathic Sixth Grader: Sorry for the huge wait.
Inukko Metallium: Eeep. I updated!
Liviania: Torikorosu is in the works. Mwa ha ha ha ha.
TaleneIsMyYami: Hee, thanks. Who's Talene? blink
Duel: We got more than one review from some people. It made us happy. Make us MORE HAPPY, though. One more review for Yadonushi, and we hit 100. We only have two on Beautiful Oblivion. Go back and reread Hatsugoori, or the Jinmirai trio, even. They've ALL BEEN REVAMPED. Please?