Polarshipping (Jonouchi x Mai)
Things were...different in Domino City. Mai couldn't really tell a person why, but it was like the city was just on another plane of existence from everyone else. It was a big city, not as big as Tokyo, but pretty heavily populated like every other place in Japan. And yet, no matter what, you could always find a quiet spot where you couldn't hear the cars zooming or the people chattering. There were always places where there wasn't anyone else around, and you always seemed to find them just when you needed them. Mai usually needed a map to find her way around new places, but she never seemed to get lost in this city. And the seasons...you'd think in a city with so many people and so many cars letting off steam would be boiling in the summer. But Mai was standing in a quiet park, and she couldn't believe how perfect the temperature was.
It had been nearly a year since Battle City. Still, the time didn't seem to matter: it was like the city hadn't changed. She couldn't believe how much she felt at home in a place she had only been to once.
A familiar sound caught her attention: it was a loud, unrestrained laugh that seemed to bubble up all around her. It brought a faint smile to her lips. She turned on her heels to face the owner of the sound.
It was kind of satisfying to see his eyes widen and his mouth half fall open, his hand frozen on the cell phone at his ear. Mai sent Katsuya Jonouchi a two fingered wave and a half smile. That seemed to snap him out of it.
"Uh, Shizuka, can I get back to you? Yeah, yeah, I'll remember. Uh, no, nothing's wrong. Bye."
He clicked off the cell phone, and then, his shocked look was slowly replaced with a wide, goofy grin that she remembered so well. It made her own smile widen. It was shocking to realize just how much she had missed seeing his familiar face, how lonely she had really been.
"Mai?" he said. "When you'd get here?"
"About an hour ago," Mai said, smiling a little wider. "What's the matter, did you miss me?"
Jonouchi grinned.
"Of course I missed ya! I haven't heard from you in a while! How are you doing?"
Their idle chatter filled the quiet pocket in the middle of the city. A perfect breeze blew through the park trees with a soft rustle, an accompaniment to the birds that chirped among the branches.
"So where were you headed?" Mai asked.
"Over to Yugi's. A couple of us were gonna get together to play some games. Wanna come along?"
Mai blinked at him.
"Really?" she said.
Jonouchi snorted.
"Of course! D'you really have to be so shocked? Why'd ya come back to Domino if not to visit people, huh?"
Then he blinked, looking confused.
"Uh, why did you come to Domino?" he said, as though he had suddenly thought of it.
His confused puppy dog face made a laugh bubble in the back of Mai's throat. It was enough to dampen the darkness that had started at the question.
Every other city was a nightmare of smog and noise. Every tournament brought jerks, players, and downright nasty people with it. Every game of Duel Monsters only reminded her of her mistakes. Every sleepless night taunted her with the promise of dark memories of that psycho torturing her should she chance to fall asleep.
No place felt safe. No place felt like home.
She looked across at Jonouchi, considering his almond colored eyes, and wondering how someone like him could have come so far in just a few short years. She had seen so many kids like him, the kind that got into fights on the street. They were the kind that would be stuck on those streets, tangled in fight after fight until they had lost all chance of a life. But something had intervened, something had prevented him from going down that road.
Not only that, but he had come to her rescue. And, surprisingly, she didn't begrudge him that. In those nightmarish, trash covered city streets, she had longed for one hint of sunshine, a perfect coincidence to run into a familiar face, an opponent that she could smile at while facing.
Domino was a strange place. What, then, did that do to the people that lived there?
She thought, maybe, that the kindness and softness of this city perhaps wore off on them, and became a piece of their hearts. The people here were the luckiest in the world, maybe. And if Jonouchi could reject his past...
Maybe she could too.
Jonouchi was waiting for an answer. She grinned a little mischievously at him.
"I think I came to see you," she said.
A/N: I"M NOT DEAD! I PROMISE! :D I'll be honest, I really do like this pairing. And even if you don't like the romance aspect of it, you have to admit that whatever their relationship is, it has good character dynamic. Next is Poemshipping (Yugi x Miho).
