Two in a Million – CHAPTER 1:
A Yellow Dress and a Trip to Tokyo
Mai huffed as she stepped into the overcrowded café. Her day was already bad enough without having to deal with the bumbling idiots and giggling schoolgirls who were crowded on the streets of Domino. It was already mid afternoon, and the hot summer sun was making her sweat despite her skimpy attire.
"Out of my way," she declared loudly, shoving aside some poor schoolboy and making her way to the front of the line. She leaned against the counter and waved her arm at the waitress. "Hey! I want two iced coffees and a chocolate muffin to go!"
The waitress paused and stared. "I'm sorry Miss but you're going to have to wait at the end of the queue with everyone else."
Mai banged her fist on the counter. "Look kid, it's thirty-nine degrees, I'm busy and I'm parked in a five minute zone so hurry up and get my order or I'll charge you the cost of my parking fine!"
The girl at the front of the queue snickered, leaning her elbow across the counter and meeting Mai's gaze without hesitation. "In case you haven't noticed, it's thirty-nine degrees for everyone, we're all busy and you're going to have to move it before I kick your sorry arse to the end of the queue. I was here first."
Mai stared at her newfound enemy with disinterest, looking her up and down in disdain. "Hey, stay out of this kid. I don't have time to talk to you."
"Don't call me kid!" The girl retorted immediately, angrily balling her hands into fists. "Look, you can't just cut the line, especially not in front of me!"
Mai thought she heard the faintest hint of an accent and decided not to push it. The girl was probably just a foreigner.
She took a moment to inspect the girl's features – dark brown almond-shaped eyes and long black hair. Let the kid have her way since she wasn't going to see her ever again. "Fine," she shrugged, narrowing her eyes at the waitress again. "Hurry up, will you? Like I said, I don't have all day…"
The waitress irritably slammed two iced coffees onto the counter and glared. "Anything else with that?"
"You forgot my muffin," Mai pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "I always knew this job was a no-brainer but I didn't think you guys were that stupid."
The waitress' face flushed with humiliation and anger as she turned around to fetch a muffin from the container where they were being kept.
As her hand wavered in front of the double chocolate chip muffins, Mai spat out irritably, "I said chocolate, not double chocolate chip! What are you? Blind?"
Before she knew it, the waitress had turned around, hit her in the head with a muffin, had ripped off the lids of the iced coffees and had thrown their ice-cold contents straight at Mai's chest. "Out!"
It took Mai a moment to register what had happened. Her shirt was soaked right through with the milky brown substance and it was dripping down onto her legs and feet leaving trails of sticky sugary mess.
"I'll be sending you the bill," Mai huffed, turning around and stalking out of the café.
As she stepped out the door and dried her face and neck with a tissue, she heard the childish giggling of that girl again.
"Bitch…" Mai muttered under her breath, her plans now ruined for the day. Her outfit was going to need a wash straight away and it would take her hours to wash her hair and let it dry again. The sun was causing the remainder of the iced coffee to dry against her skin and she got into her car hurriedly, slamming the door shut so hard that the vehicle shook. "Bitch… bitch… bitch…" she said, increasingly louder as she pulled out into the traffic. She wished she could throw the stupid iced coffee over that brainless girl and see her stupid yellow dress ruined.
"It's all her fault," Mai scowled, slamming on her brakes to stop at a pedestrian crossing.
The blonde haired woman narrowed her eyes as she watched the gaggle of schoolgirls crossing the road in front of her car. Trailing behind them was the girl from the café, her hand now wrapped around what looked like a milkshake. She slurped it noisily and grinned at Mai, giggling.
Unluckily for Mai, and luckily for the girl in question, there was a policeman standing at the corner of the road. Otherwise Mai might have been tempted to run the girl over.
-(S)-
"Why?"
Mai licked her lips. Jounouchi's question was uttered to simply, so easily. The word fell from his lips as though it should have been the most obvious question and answer of all.
But she couldn't answer him.
"Look, you never know. I might be back, okay? I just… I can't tell you right now." She sighed, running a hand through her hair and uncharacteristically biting her lip.
"Why can't you tell me? Is it because you don't think I'll understand? Is it that?"
Mai smiled at him a little sadly. "Hey, don't take it so personally."
"But I am taking it personally! This is as personal as it gets! You can't just keep running away from everything."
"I'm not running away."
"You are! You always run away!" Jounouchi insisted, stepping forwards and yelling in her face. "Do you think I'm always going to be here waiting for you? Do you think I want to spend my life waiting and never knowing if you'll ever come back? And don't think that I'll follow you either! I have friends and I have Shizuka, and they're all here…"
"Am I not your friend anymore?" Mai looked into his eyes, knowing what the answer would be.
"Don't be so stupid… Of course we're friends. But-"
"No 'but's then," Mai insisted stubbornly. "And don't worry about it, you'll see me around. Trust me… We'll be on opposite sides of the arena and I'll be kicking your arse." She dropped her suitcase into the boot of her car and smirked.
Jounouchi sighed and looked away. "Call me, okay?"
Mai shrugged and slipped into the driver's seat of the car, adjusting the position of her rear view mirror. It was ironic, she mused as she drove away, that she was here, living the life she'd thought she wanted. She was free, and yet, she wasn't.
She was driving the car she'd always wanted and with the roof down and the sun shining, it should have been perfect.
The empty seat beside her told her all she needed to know.
"Don't forget!" Jounouchi's voice was lost as Mai pressed down on the accelerator. The first of the autumn winds swept through his hair and he realised that he hadn't needed to ask the question in the first place. It would always be the same answer.
Mai blinked rapidly as tears filled her eyes. Stupid, she thought, wiping them away quickly. Why can't I even give him an answer? I at least owe him that, if nothing else.
Why?
-(S)-
The airport was crowded as Mai wheeled a trolley across to the check in counter. Luckily she was travelling first class so she could happily skip all the queues and woes of the economy class passengers.
She dropped her ID onto the counter and kicked her suitcases onto the scales with a grunt. "Kujaku Mai."
"Would you like a window seat Miss?"
Mai gave a slight nod of her head.
"Okay then. That will be seat 4A on the right hand side as you enter the plane."
Mai took her ticket and ID and watched as the woman tagged her baggage. "Hey! Watch where you're sticking those tags. That's Louis Vuitton so make sure you don't leave any sticky residue on the leather."
The attendant stared, twitching as she leant over and reattached the tags. "Have a nice day Ma'am."
Mai gave a curt nod and walked off. Flying was all the same – just one boring, repetitive routine. Check in, get on the plane, get off the plane and go somewhere else. That's all there was to it.
-(S)-
The waiting lounge was packed like a tin of sardines and Mai settled herself on a seat in between an oversized American tourist and his wife and a small child with a large sticker on her chest that read 'Child under 12'.
The tarmac looked hot and Mai could see the heat coming off it in waves. She listened as the air stewardesses began calling for economy class passengers to board, and slowly the lounge began to empty of people.
"Calling rows twenty to thirty-nine. You may now board. Japan Airlines reminds First class passengers that you may board at any time within the next fifteen minutes. Calling rows twenty to thirty-nine of economy class!"
Mai sank down into her seat, watching the queue file past in front of her. And then she saw it – that horrible, bright, gaudy yellow dress.
The girl was disappearing down the first-class tube as Mai caught up to her. "What are you doing on my flight?"
"Your flight?" She laughed, amused. "I'm going to Tokyo, isn't it obvious?"
"What for?" Mai rolled her eyes.
"What does it matter to you?"
That's right, Mai reminded herself. What does it matter to me?
They stepped onto the airplane and Mai headed for seat 4A.
"You must have the wrong seat number," the girl said, leaning against the isle seat. Mai watched the way the fabric of her dress stretched across one hip, wrinkling across the other.
"I believe my ticket says seat 4 A: the window seat. What does yours say? Perhaps it says cargo?"
The girl stomped her foot childishly. "My ticket says 4A so you're in my seat."
"Mine also says 4A," Mai sneered, sitting down in the seat and pulling out the magazines from the pocket in front of her.
"Ladies, may I help you?" A flight attendant put his hand out, signalling for the girl to give him her ticket.
He glanced at it, and then looked across at Mai. "Ah…" he started uncomfortably. "Miss, I'm afraid you're in another passenger's seat."
Mai coolly passed him her ticket, and he stared at it, looking back and forth between the two ticket stubs. "It appears there's been a mistake… Just one moment while I sort this out," he excused himself, hurrying up to the front of the plane.
The girl looked at Mai, watching her flip through the magazines quickly. "So how were your iced coffees?"
Mai ignored the comment.
"How about the muffin? Taste nice?"
"Do you want to lose your head?" Mai snapped back, losing her cool.
The girl smiled. "No more than you already have… I thought that since we're going to be sitting next to each other for the next few hours, we should probably get to know each other a little better…"
Mai picked up another magazine, watching the movement of the yellow dress out of the corner of her eye. "No thank you. I already know enough about you to convince me that I'll never need to know any more."
The girl shrugged and lazily sat down on the armrest, leaning over and pointing her finger at the magazine Mai was flicking through.
"Have you ever been there?"
Mai looked at the page; a feature article on America. She shrugged nonchalantly, not wishing to bring back unpleasant memories. "What's there to see?"
The girl tapped her finger on the page. "Turn it over. The article is all about Kaiba Corp's new theme park there."
Other passengers were crowding around them now, pushing past the girl to get to their own seats and a large man stopped next to the girl and stared at Mai. "Excuse me Miss. I think you're in my seat."
The girl narrowed her eyes at the man and stood up straight. "No, she's not in your seat, she's in my seat. Let me see your ticket."
"Sir? Can I help you?" The same flight attendant was back, smiling his smile and waving two ticket stubs in his right hand. He looked almost ready to cry when the man announced that Mai was in his seat.
"Sir, I'm very sorry. There appears to have been a mix up with the tickets. I'll put you in 4D for the moment… Kujaku-san, you may stay in that seat, and Miss Wong, I hope you don't mind sitting in 4B."
Mai glanced up at the girl. Miss Wong?
Satisfied, she shut her magazine and dropped it onto the seat next to her.
"Hey!" the girl, now named Miss Wong, protested.
"What?"
"Pick it up."
Mai shrugged and picked up the magazine, pushing it back into the seat pocket. She eyed her companion cautiously and Miss Wong returned the look.
"So you're Miss Wong, huh?"
"And you're Miss Kujaku."
"What's in Tokyo for you?" Mai demanded, crossing her arms.
"Business. You?"
"Business."
"Funny, you don't look like the business type," the girl commented offhandedly.
Mai smirked. "I could say the same thing about you."
Her companion let the comment slip, crossing her legs and closing her eyes.
Mai turned to look out of the window. What an annoying girl. The only thing worse than the girl was that annoying yellow dress.
- MM -
Author Notes: Vivian is really comic relief during the Grand Prix arc, so I gave her a real personality, rather than turning her into a caricature. I think she could be a lot more interesting as a character than she appears to be in the anime. Also, I'm writing this mostly as an exercise so I guess you could say that it's not my usual style!