Flippantshipping (Kujaku Mai/Otogi Ryuji)
. . .
"You want to play me in blackjack?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right?"
"What, you don't think I can do it?" he said.
Mai leaned over the table, her back arching in a way just so that told him that she was used to doing that—probably a distraction trick for the more lewd customers at a casino. When Otogi had heard that she used to be a dealer, he almost couldn't see it, but now he could.
"It's not that I don't think you don't have the game for it," she said, flicking her hair back out of her face. "But honey, you have to know...I cheat. And I'm damn good at it."
Otogi had to grin.
"That's the best way to play blackjack, though."
Mai snorted, but she reached for the deck of cards that he had slid towards her when he had asked, and slipped them out of the box. She shuffled quickly, easily, her fingers almost a blur as she flickered the cards over each other. She dealt just as quickly, and Otogi couldn't deny at all that she had been a dealer. She worked with a grace that he had never seen before, in any casino he had ever been in.
"Want to have a look at your cards?" she said, raising an eyebrow at him.
"We're not going to make any bets?" he laughed.
She actually smirked at him.
"I'd have a look at how badly you're about to do before you think about betting against me."
He grinned, and flipped over his first two cards. It was a good hand, he was surprised to see. Ten of hearts, ten of spades. That was about as close to twenty one as he was going to get. On the other hand, her cards were a nine and an eight. Not too bad, but a sign to be a bit cautious about drawing.
"Hit or stand?" she said.
"Stand," he said.
She smirked at him, and then said, very deliberately, "I'll hit, then."
He blinked at her as she reached for the deck, flicking the card up off the top with a well practiced flourish and then—
She dropped the card on top of her cards. Four of spades. She had just gotten a perfect twenty-one.
Mai winked at him as he stared.
"Don't play games with the dealer," she said. "We know all the tricks."
She sent him one more wink, and then, very deliberately, flicked a card out of her sleeve. The unused ten, almost certainly the actual card she had drawn from the deck, fluttered on top of her cards. Then she turned with a fwip of her hair, and she sauntered away.
Otogi just looked at the cards, finding a smile grow over his face. He laughed, running a hand over his face.
"You weren't lying," he said. "Goddamn."
. . .
A/N: That was actually a fun one. Next is Flareshipping (Seto x Yami no Yugi x Yugi).
