Bribeshipping (Kujaku Mai/Dinosar Ryuzaki)

. . .

"She stole your room, you nimrod," Haga said. "And you're gonna go and try to talk to her? She doesn't like you. I thought she was clear about that much—are you just stupid?"

"Maybe," Ryuzaki said. "But she's hot, dude."

It had started with a dare—or rather, a dare that Ryuzaki gave himself and pretended that Haga had given him. "Look, that's Kujaku Mai over there. Do you dare me to go talk to her?" "No, I don't, that's stupid and you're going to get punched." "I can't believe you're daring me to talk to her." "I hate you—why do I hang out with you?"

Ryuzaki just grinned cross eyed at Haga and slipped out of their booth at the cafe. Haga groaned, rolled his eyes, and went back to poking at his milkshake with his straw as though the milkshake had personally offended him.

Ryuzaki wove between a few people moving through the cafe. Mai herself was seated at the long counter on one of the stools. She was poking at what appeared to be an ice-cream sundae of some kind, looking a little glassy eyed as she stared at nothing. Perfect. She wasn't distracted by anything.

Ryuzaki hopped into the stool one away from her, and the sound of it squeaking as it spun slight made Mai startle, blinking and glancing around to see the sound.

"Hey," Ryuzaki said. "Remember me?"

Mai blinked again. She looked briefly at Ryuzaki, and then past him, as though to see if he were talking to someone else. Her eyes returned to him, and she squinted for a somewhat insultingly long moment. Ryuzaki almost snapped before her eyes lit with recognition.

"Ooh, yeah," she said. "Ryuzaki-kun, yeah? From Duelist Kingdom."

"That's me," he said, flipping his hair back over his shoulder. "I'm glad you remembered."

"Well, I mean—I remember most people I duel," she said. The way she said it made him feel like maybe she hadn't really remembered him much at all, and she was smiling a bit blandly. Hm. How could he turn this situation to his advantage?

"You're a really good duelist, I remember," he said. "You still dueling?"

"What else is there?" she said, scooping some ice cream over the top of the whipped cream without eating it. "Done a few rounds in the East Asia circuit. You?"

Maybe this had been a bad topic. Ryuzaki hadn't gotten himself into any big tournaments since Duelist Kingdom; just a bunch of small, sectional stuff.

"Uh, yeah, of course," he said. "Maybe I'll run into you one day and we can have a rematch."

"Sounds nice," she said. "Uh...hang on."

She patted at her pocket and tugged her cellphone free. A tiny phone charm dangled from the top—wasn't that a little chibi of Baby Dragon? Weird choice for her.

"Sorry, looks like I have to go," she said, grabbing her bag. "Friend thinks he left the stove on. Maybe I'll see you around sometime."

"Y-yeah," Ryuzaki said.

Mai flashed him another bland smile, and then she was gone, disappeared into the crowd and leaving her sundae behind.

Ryuzaki knew a blow off when he saw one. He sighed.

Haga had been right...that was pretty pointless.

. . .

A/N: I have no sympathy for him :'D. Next is Breathshipping (Shadi x Cyndia).