Title: Legally Blond

Pairings: Eventual Puppyshipping, past Snareshipping. Sideships: Persevereshipping, Ardentshipping, Puzzleshipping

Rating: T

Words (Chapter 15): 2,000

Author's Notes: Hey, guys, so I don't know what's up with this site but for some reason, I can't view any of my new reviews? I got 4 yesterday, according to my email (1 before I updated and 3 after) and none of them showed up when I go to look at my story or reply to them? So, if you reviewed, thank you so much, I'm doing my best to get back to you. This next chapter has some really cool Polar-bonding which was really fun to write (including Mai's alibi and girl talk over a certain blue-eyed lawyer).

Joey's POV:

Walking up to Magnum Manor was even more intimidating by myself than it had been with my boss and colleagues surrounding me. I hadn't exactly been invited this time around, but I knew the person I was going to see was going to be home. House arrest was basically made that a sure thing. I had to talk myself into and out of ringing the bell at least five times, finally closing my eyes tight as my hand lifted to get it over with.

Not even thirty seconds later, the door was pulled open. I opened my eyes at the sound, expecting to greet Sebastian the Butler, but instead found myself facing Mai herself.

"It's about time. Watching you awkwardly stand there was starting to get dreadfully boring."

I grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I know you weren't expecting me but…" But what? I wasn't even sure. I'd just missed her and felt bad that she was stuck here.

"It's fine. Come on in, Joey." She moved aside for me to enter, closing and locking the door when I did. "Does Pegasus have something he needs from me, or is this more of a social call? I already had Sebastian bring him the tapes from that day, all day just to be sure."

I'd actually momentarily forgotten I worked for her lawyer. "Social, actually. That's good, though. Did they prove you're innocent?"

She shrugged, walking towards a door. "I don't know. I didn't watch them, I just packed them up and sent him off." She turned toward me with a cock of her head. "You honestly believe I'm innocent, don't you?"

I nodded. "Of course."

She smiled, a real smile that I hadn't seen on her yet. "Thank you. I think you might be the only one on my legal team who does." She opened the door, gesturing for me to follow her into a beautiful sitting room. I sat down on the chair she motioned to and she sat in the one next to me.

"Don't worry about all of them. Duke's an idiot, Pegasus cares about the case most of all, Kaiba's a jerk. I think Téa believes you, too, though. She's pretty nice."

She nodded, picking up a tablet from the coffee table. I glanced at it and saw a view of the outside of the house and figured it must be the security camera she'd watched me on.

"What about the other two?"

I shrugged. "Rebecca's a bit of a snob. I don't know Mahad well, I couldn't even tell you he was in my class before we got these internships."

She shrugged and leaned back.

"We're going to win this, Mai. Pegasus is the best there is."

"He better be, for what I'm paying him." She looked over at me, eyes sparkling a little. "Enough about my depressing life, what's going on in yours? Hopefully it's not as depressing."

I bit my lip. In my eyes, my life had been pretty sucky lately, but how could I complain to a woman who lost her husband and was being accused of being the one to kill him?

"Hey, I don't care what's going on in your life. The good, the bad, the ugly. I want to hear everything. How's your sister? How'd you get here? What's going on in your love life?"

I don't know how long I ended up talking, but her encouragements kept me going. I caught her up on everything from when she left, how Tristan was planning to propose to Serenity, about Yugi, Atem, and Marik, and everything that had happened with Duke.

"Wow. You were right, he is an idiot. And Téa doesn't know what he said to you that night?"

I shook my head. "She's a good girl. I don't know how to tell her, or if I should. I mean, how easy would it seem for me to just come off as the jealous ex if I do tell her, you know?"

Mai leaned over to rub my arm soothingly, and for a moment, I felt like I had my big sister back.

"Mai, come on. You can't go to jail and the prosecution is going to try and make the jury see a terrible picture of you. You know how people see us, the gutter rats from Domino. Self-made success or not, you're going to be viewed as a gold digger…"

Mai huffed, crossing her arms. "I'm not and it'll just have to be up to Pegasus to make them realize that."

Pegasus was a genius, but I didn't think he was a miracle worker. You can't make people see through their prejudices, at least not easily, and a few hours a day for the duration of a trial wasn't enough time to know Mai.

"I don't want to push, but you have an alibi."

"I can't tell it."

"Why not? It'll save you."

"That's just it, Joey! It'll destroy me!" She stood up so fast, I didn't even see her move. She looked genuinely distressed, something I'd never seen from her before. Now I was concerned.

"Mai, I'm sorry I…I guess I just don't see what would be so bad when it would get you out of jail…"

She took a deep breath, collapsing back into her chair. "If I tell you, you can't tell anyone else. Not Pegasus, not anyone on the team. No one."

I looked at her for a minute before nodding. "I won't."

"I need you to promise."

"I promise."

"Swear on your life."

I swallowed before saying something I'd never said before. "I swear on my sister's life."

Her eyes widened for a second. Then she nodded and sighed. "Iwzgtngbtx." She mumbled it so quick I didn't hear her.

"Heh?"

She clenched her eyes shut and said a little louder, "I was getting Botox."

My eyes widened. "What?"

She rolled her eyes. "See? This is why I can't give my alibi. I'll be ruined."

"I don't even…where?"

She pointed at her eyebrows and I looked closer. "Running a business is hard, Joey. It stresses a girl out. Add in a bratty stepdaughter and the press never leaving you and your new husband alone…Jean-Claude knew, he was the only one, and now you. No one else can. I make a living off products to make women look and feel younger so they don't have to get this stuff, and I'm a fraud."

She looked completely miserable having just divulged that. I reached over and squeezed her hand in my own. "Hey. I told you your secret was safe with me, didn't I?"

She gave me a grateful smile. "Thank you, Joey." She squeezed my hand back and sighed. "Now that that's out there, anything you want to admit to me?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

She raised one of her own. "I mean about any handsome men you've been working with?"

"We already talked about Duke, and trust me, I don't want to be with him anymore."

"Not who I meant. I already know he's a – what was your word?"

"Cuntbucket."

"Yes, that."

"Then who? Mahad? He's not bad, but I don't think –"

"Wrong again, Joey."

It took me a moment to remember I worked with people other than the interns from my class. "You mean Kaiba?" I asked, eyes widening.

Mai shrugged and smirked. "Don't tell me you've never thought about it."

"He's my boss and assistant professor and he's such a jerk!"

"So you don't think he's hot?"

"That doesn't even. I don't even. Why would you ask."

I knew I was losing the battle when I was flustered, unable to finish a sentence, and she just sat there smirking.

"Fine. He's hot. But that's about it."

"I don't know. He's also smart, driven, family oriented…"

"Rude, judgmental, condescending. How do you even know he's family oriented?"

"I do my research. Don't you?"

I briefly remembered what I'd looked up, after Kaiba told me to not speak ("out of my ass" if I recalled correctly) without doing my research. Clearly it was normal to research him, or maybe not, but I did. I found he had two little brothers, one by birth and one was a stepbrother from his adopted father. I'd found that they all seemed to go do their own thing and none seemed to live with or depend on their father, but that was about it. Though, I could see where it would cause Mai to draw that conclusion.

"Whatever. It doesn't matter."

She shrugged, looking at her nails. "Alright. It doesn't matter. So, how do you plan on getting your friend Yugi with his admirer?"

I opened my mouth to try and plan it out before my eyes narrowed. "Don't get any funny ideas, Mai."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't."

For the next few sessions at the internship, Pegasus gave us all the information he had on the people we were meant to be interviewing. Téa made a face on the size of the file for Vivian Wong, muttering under her breath that, "She's not even a good actress." Mahad actually smiled at the comment before getting back down to business.

Duke and Téa got a bunch of school information and articles about Magnum's daughter, a twenty-year-old socialite named Jasmine. "Jasmine Magnum. A little bit rhymey, isn't it?" Rebecca asked.

"She's kind of cute," Duke said, flipping through her file, which earned him a glare from Téa. "Just saying."

Kaiba and I received a dismally small one on the pool boy. "Almost nothing is known about this guy," I complained, reading through the details. He had come from Australia and had no known family. It seemed not even Pegasus could find school records or anything of substance. All that was known was that he worked as a pool boy for some rich folks, had a small apartment in the city, and owned a motorcycle.

"So, Valon's basically a ghost and yet no one thinks maybe he killed his boss? He could disappear without a trace and no one would be the wiser."

Kaiba didn't say anything in response, and it frustrated me more than it probably should have. Ever since the conversation with Mai, I'd been noticing little things about Kaiba…almost all in the realm of how attractive he is.

It's not that I hadn't seen it before, but he was always just such a jerk that I pushed it aside. Now, the thoughts didn't want to be pushed aside. They wanted to dance around front and center, singing along to Olivia Newton-John's "Physical."

It was very inconvenient.

"The daughter is coming in later today, so I expect you two to be ready," Pegasus told Duke and Rebecca, who nodded and began making some notes. "Vivian Wong is on a flight back from an award show in the United States, so she's agreed to have you come by the day after tomorrow." Téa and Mahad nodded as well, Téa looking even more uncomfortable to have to go to the woman's house.

Pegasus then turned to us and sighed. "Unfortunately, our ghost of a pool boy, as Joey boy has already observed, has yet to return my calls about a meeting. When I know details, I'll give them to you, Kaiba, and I expect you to get in touch with Joey and go."

He walked away and I glanced again at the file before Kaiba closed it. Right when I was trying to read it. "Jerk," I mumbled. No matter how attractive he was, he was still such a jerk.

"I'll be in touch." He stood up, grabbing the file.

"You're taking that?" I asked. He didn't answer, instead just giving me a look like, duh. "What if I wanted to read it again?"

"I'll let you look at it before our meeting. Whenever that is." He put the folder in his bag before snapping it shut and walking off.

I completely blamed Mai for the thoughts.

Author's Notes: Why is pulling an all-nighter for homework so hard, but doing it for fics is easy? It's 2 in the morning and I mostly just wanted to put this out because I feel so bad for not updating in a while and also not being able to thank my reviewers. THANK YOU. I really appreciate getting these emails to read them and I'm trying to figure out how to inform the website of the problem. Hopefully this weekend I finish the oneshot for Tristan's proposal!