Notes about this chapter: Mai and Anzu began dating after Duelist Kingdom, but they mostly have a distance-relationship, as Mai is still free as the wind and can't stay in the same place for a long time.

Warnings: Danceshipping, homophobic parents, some girl-on-girl sexual stuff (nothing too graphic, though).

Now I know some of you might not like Danceshipping, but this is my story and I'll do what I want with it. Sorry ^^;.

Facing my in-laws: Mai


In the awkward silence, Mai slowly put her fork into her mouth and kept it there as long as she just could without it looking suspicious, because it felt like a crime to break this silence with the sounds her knife made when she'd cut her stake.

Across the table from her sat her girlfriend's parents, Mazaki Osamu and Noriko.

Mazaki Osamu was a tall and built man in his yearly forties, with short black hair and thin azure eyes – the exact same colour as her Anzu's. He was wearing a black suit with a tie that matched his eyes. All in all, his complete appearance said: 'You better not mess with me'. A part of lawyer's job description, Mai supposed.

Mazaki Noriko was a thin but tall enough woman in her mid-thirties. Her small bird-hips and rather flat chest made Mai think about two things – where had Anzu inherited her beautiful curves from if not from her mother, and that this had to be why Anzu was an only child. She couldn't imagine the pain of giving birth with those hips.

Aside from her body, Anzu was the splitting image of her mother. They had the same brown hair, though the mother had it longer and pulled into a thick bun, the same face- and eye-shape, though Mrs Mazaki's eyes were brown and not blue like her daughter's. And Mai certainly couldn't imagine such a sharp look aimed at her in her girlfriend's eyes either. She'd seen Anzu annoyed and even angry, sure, but never glaring so coldly like that. Noriko wore a deep blue dress with no sleeves. All Mai really knew about the woman was that she was a doctor in a big hospital and hated her guts. And so did Anzu's father.

She would've liked to think it was the fact she was so much older than Anzu that they didn't like about their relationship, or that she was nearly always away, making Anzu grieve due her absence, but she knew better than that – though surely those things didn't make them like it more either. It was because she and Anzu were both girls that they didn't like it. They were so old-fashioned. Mai had dated girls since she had been younger than Anzu was now, though some guys as well. But then again, what did she knew? She had never had a chance to introduce her girlfriends to her parents, because they had died when she'd been really young.

She heard Anzu sigh a bit beside her, and turned to see her staring miserably at her food, not having eaten almost anything. Her stomach probably couldn't handle all this intensity. Anzu wore a sleeveless dark green turtleneck dress among with the pendant made out of blue crystal hanging from a white ribbon that Mai had sent her for her last birthday. In her ears (though you couldn't see through her thick brown hair), she wore matching earrings; also a gift from Mai. Her lips were for once slightly reddened with light touch of lipstick and her eyelashes thickened and darkened by mascara and lined with ice blue eyeshadow.

In short, she looked even more stunning than usually. Though Mai had to wonder if the Mazaki family always ate so dressed-up during the family dinners or was this a special occasion of some sort?

She herself wore her mascara, purple eyeshadow and red lipstick with pride and as naturally as always, but she'd left her corset-like white shirts and dark purple leather out this time. Instead she had on a dark purple long-sleeved shirt with a V-shaped collar and long white skirt. They were the only clothes she had that didn't show off too much skin, and were clean and entire. She wanted to make a good impression to her girlfriend's parents here, not the appearance that she had escaped from a strip-club.

"Anzu dear, why don't you go get and serve the dessert if you're finished?" Noriko suddenly spoke up.

Anzu perked up, obviously happy to get an excuse to leave the room for a while. "Yes, mother!" she said almost a bit too enthusiastically.

"I'll help you." Mai said, starting to stand up, willing to use this excuse as an advantage herself.

Mai followed Anzu to the Mazaki kitchen and watched as the younger girl took out the apple pie from the fridge, starting to cut it into pieces and putting them on plates.

"Your parents are pretty strict, huh sweetie?" Mai asked, leaning towards the cooking table.

"When your father's a lawyer, it tends to be that way." Anzu chuckled. But then her face turned back into a frown. "I'm sorry I made you do this…I should've known this would happen."

"Hey," Mai said softly, comfortingly as she hugged Anzu from behind. "it's okay. Anything for you, my princess."

Anzu blushed. Mai had the tendency to call her that, telling she was as innocent and cute as the fairytale princesses like Cinderella and the Sleeping Beauty. But she would also playfully say that if there was any knights coming to save her from the evil witch that was her, she'd kick their asses to the next fairytale. That always made the brunette girl laugh.

Mai buried her nose in Anzu's hair, sniffing the soft scent of her strawberry-flavoured shampoo. It had been her idea that Anzu would start using a shampoo of such scent, saying that Anzu was like the strawberries: cute and delicious. She mentally laughed as she remembered the look on Anzu's face when she'd said that; the younger girl had blushed like there was no tomorrow. But she'd taken the suggestion to her heart anyway.

As she kept smelling Anzu's hair, Mai found her head leaning downwards without any real meaning for her to put it there. Before she knew it, her lips were on Anzu's neck and she was kissing, licking and sucking on that soft and sensitive skin.

"M-Mai!" Anzu gasped out. "Not now! My parents…!" But her thoughts were interrupted and they went off into the Mai-la-la-land when the blonde woman brought her hand on her round breast, and stroked it. Mai sure knew how to shut a girl up. Her hands were so skilled and gentle and…

"Hands off of my daughter now, you bitch!" Came a masculine voice from the kitchen door, where a raged-looking Mazaki Osamu stood. He had apparently come and see what was taking the dessert so long. Mazaki Noriko soon followed after hearing her husband's scream. After seeing the two girls in such an intimate position, she smacked her both hands on her mouth…and fainted right there.

-

The first thing Anzu's mother had said when she woke up was: "Out of this house, you whore!" at Mai. Though Anzu had yelled back at her for calling the blonde woman in such names, for some reason Mai had agreed to leave. She was packing her things in the guest bedroom where she was staying right now.

"You don't have to go, Mai." Anzu spoke with sadness lacing her voice as she grimly watched Mai pack her clothes into the sack she always took with her to her trips.

"Yes I do. If I stay any longer you will be in trouble too. At least this way your parents will stay in the belief I tried to molest you against your own will. It's better this way, believe me." The blonde answered as she packed the last of her shirts and threw the sack over her shoulder.

"But where are you going to go?" Anzu asked, desperate look in her eyes as she stood herself between Mai and the room's door. "The hotels are pretty full this time of the year."

Mai smiled for the first time this evening. "Don't you already know me better than that?" She asked gently. "I suspected this would happen, so I made a reservation at a hotel nearby. That way I can still be near you through the Christmas season, even if we don't live under the same roof."

"I'll come with you." Anzu half-pleaded.

"No." Mai said shortly as she walked past the brunette and out of the door.

"Why not?!" Anzu shrieked, sounding hurt.

"Don't get me wrong, sweetie. I would love it if you came but in order to make the atmosphere here at your home normal again, you need to stay here at least a few days before you can come. Don't worry, we can still meet. I'll come pick you up everyday at your school. How does that sound?"

"Good, but I'd still rather be with you all the time…"

Mai stopped and turned around to face Anzu with a soft expression on her face. "Me too, Anzu." Now her face turned more serious. "But you must understand this. You're still so young, you still need your parents. Even if it means pretending that I'm a real witch towards you, you mustn't allow them leave you. The world is cruel and harsh to face without your family, Anzu. I know."

Anzu's eyes hit the floor. "Yes." She whispered very quietly.

They reached the front door. Mai took her long black coat and white scarf and put them on.

"Well, bye then, my sweet." Mai whispered softly at Anzu. Anzu looked up again and Mai could see tears rolling down on her cheeks. Even like this, with her eyes swollen and red, and her eye make up all smudged up from the tears, Anzu still looked so lovely and beautiful. That moment, Mai wished nothing more than that she could hug the younger girl and tell her how much she really meant to her; that she really did love her and was considering of buying an apartment here at Domino so they could be together…

But Mai knew she couldn't. For one, Anzu's parents might see them. And second, she had sworn to herself when she and Anzu had begun their relationship that she'd never tell Anzu her true feelings. She had always trusted solely on herself, but that wasn't all. She was so much older than Anzu, who wasn't even out of High School yet. And she was so free in a spirit, she wasn't sure she could focus only on one girl at a time. After all, she hadn't been able to before. There were so many forces drawing them apart, and Mai believed eventually something would do just that. When that would happen, she needed to spare Anzu from as much pain as possible. If she thought Mai never really cared for her, the pain of the separation might not be so great.

So, she merely gave Anzu one last glance and stepped out of the Mazaki household front door.

-

Mai had been in her hotel room only for a few hours when someone knocked on its door. She closed off the TV she'd been watching to pass some time, thinking it was the food she'd ordered from the room service.

When she opened the door, the last thing she expected was to see Anzu standing there with an apparently pretty heavy sports bag in her hands. Yet that was exactly what had happened. Anzu was now dressed in her dark red thick coat, some blue jeans and the make up was washed off of her face.

Mai stared at her with her mouth open. For a few minutes, neither one of the girls said anything.

"What are you doing here?" Mai finally asked. "And how did you find out I was here?"

Anzu smiled a bit playfully. "I come all the way up here and that's all you say to me? Aren't you even going to ask me to come inside?"

Mai moved from the doorway, allowing the younger girl to walk past her and to the room. As Mai closed the door, Anzu put her bag down on the floor and took off her coat underneath which she wore a long-sleeved, turtle-necked pink shirt.

"Now, mind answering me?" Mai asked.

"Well, about two minutes after you left, something hit me over the head and I went up to my room to pack up my stuff. That took me about an hour, after which I told my parents that I was going to spend the night at Yuugi's house." The brunette replied as she sat down on the hotel room's king-sized bed. Mai was a friend of luxury and had enough money to stay in fancy places like this one.

"And they were okay with that? After what happened, I thought they'd ground you or something."

Anzu smirked slightly, in a way Mai had never thought it would be possible for such a sweet girl to smirk. "I said that I was still feeling pretty traumatised, and really needed a friend's support that moment. They were very understanding about that fact, as they're too dense to get it inside their heads that I might actually like it when you molest me. And I called Yuugi too, and he promised he'd confirm I was there with him if my parents would happen to call there. And make up some reason why I can't come to the phone at the moment if they ask for it."

Mai cocked her head to her side a bit. "I thought Yuugi wouldn't be able lie to save his life."

"Don't let his sweet appearance to mislead you. Yuugi can be a very convincing liar when he wants to be; growing up with someone like Yami does that. Not that he lies very often. It's that which usually makes people falsely think he even can't lie."

There was a moment's silence.

"But how did you know this was where I was?" Mai asked, seating herself next to Anzu, on her right.

The brunette shrugged. "It wasn't that hard. I know you have an expensive taste and there aren't many too fancy hotels near my school, so I only had to check a few before I found out where you were."

"But how come they let you in? And how did you know in which room I was in?"

"I told the people at the reception a little lie that I was here to give you some 'special service'. They seemed to believe me."

Mai could do nothing but stare again for a moment. She'd never thought Anzu could make up such a lie. "But why did you come? I thought I told you to stay at home."

Anzu looked straight at her and…tackled her right there. The power of the tackle was so strong that Mai fell on her back on the bed, and felt her head hit the pillow. Anzu hovered over her, her face and eyes dead serious.

"Mai," She spoke. "Listen to me now. The way my parents treated you was completely unfair when you did nothing but date their daughter. And I've told them that I was the one to take the first step in this relationship by asking you out. I came here because I wanted to be with you. And to tell you that…Mai - even though I hope it'll never have to come to that - if my parents want to make us stop dating permanently, I want you to know that it'll be you I'll still stand by on. Even if they threaten to kick me out or something if we don't stop dating."

Shock filled Mai's eyes. Anzu's words just…they stuck in so deep and touched her. And for the probably first time Mai realised how serious Anzu had been when she'd said those three little yet so significant words to her after Battle City.

Her eyes warm and soft, Mai leaned her head upwards to peck Anzu's lips. The next thing either one of the girls knew was that Mai was now on top of Anzu, and that their lips were in a tight kiss and their hands undressing each other.

-

Much later that night, Mai watched as her lover slept contentedly right besides her as naked as she herself was under the covers. She softly played with the brown locks of hair, being careful not to wake the younger girl up. Anzu looked enchanting in the darkness, the moonlight coming from between the window curtains making her skin look pearly and her hair shining. Mai sighed peacefully.

Her sigh hit Anzu in the face, and the brunette softly stirred and opened her eyes a bit. "Mai?"

"Shh…go back to sleep, love."

Anzu snuggled closer to Mai, and the blonde wrapped her into her arms.

"I love you, Mai." Anzu murmured sleepily.

And that moment, Mai couldn't stop herself. "I love you too, Anzu." Although she wasn't that sure whether the girl had been awake to hear it.

A bit long, but…sweet, sweet yuri love -^^-.

I made up the names for Anzu's parents. Osamu means "discipline, study" in Japanese and Noriko comes from Japanese words (nori) which means "law, rule", combined with (ko); "child". Both are pretty traditional Japanese names, but at the same time speak for themselves. I wanted to give Anzu's parents names that say: 'you better obey, or else!'.

The description of Anzu's father makes me think of an older Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist XD.

Ironically enough, I based the appearance of Anzu's mom slightly on my own, although they are nothing alike. My mom is really sweet and nice and all that, though she worries about me a bit too much (but then again, I'm her only child. Sure she worries). But like Anzu's mother, my mom has a very curve-less body and she's rather thin (not unhealthily so, though).

Mai and Anzu's relationship is pretty much my analysis on Polarshipping. There are more forces drawing them apart than pulling them together, even though they both love each other, and therefore their relationship is very complicated in a way. I express those analyses in Mai and Anzu's relationship because I don't really like Polarshipping (no offence to any fans of that pairing. But you were probably able to tell it anyway from by Puppyshippiness).

For some reason I get the feeling I'm better at expressing all the other pairings of Yu-Gi-Oh! better than my OTP of Puzzleshipping XD.

Next is Charities, which I hope will be a bit shorter.