East of Eden
a YuGiOh fanfic by Milly
beta: Chicary

[AU, Het, Jou/Mai, UST]
Chapter Two

***

It was five after when she cut the engine. Five minutes was no big deal, after all.

Mai locked the doors of her convertible and walked leisurely away from the employee's parking lot towards the back door.

After a good dozen steps, the lack of weight on her arm warned her that she'd forgotten her purse in the car, and with it, her digital key. She came to a halt, considering for a moment the possibility of entering through the front door. No, they would see her. She knew people at HR closed their eyes on her being late, but she would leave them no choice if she made it too obvious. She had to go through the back door.

Soon enough, Mai declared that walking hurriedly was inelegant; reluctantly, she started jogging in her new kitty heals (not safe for work, but she didn't care; she saw no harm in it, and it was summer, after all). She found herself nervously wrestling with her car keys, irritated by the wet touch of her sweaty bangs sticking against her face from the heavy moisture of the late August days. Curse her having to run in this weather!

She hated sweating in her tailored uniform, but most of all, Mai hated rushing. Her favorite motto was 'always late, worth the wait'... and she meant it. After all, she was used to be sought after, to be expected, to be pampered. But this she'd recently gotten a new job, and along with it, a chance to start over.

It was different here; the patients needed her. If Mai didn't do her share of the work, the burden fell on her coworkers. They were all so sweet and compassionate and uncomplaining. For the first time in her life, Mai felt truly guilty. Although her late arrivals were still frequent, there was hope that they would lessen with tim; knowing is half the battle, right?

They say old habits die hard, especially when one is past twenty. But it is after twenty that the years seem to flip like the pages of a book, and Mai thought one doesn't mature as much from sixteen to twenty than twenty to twenty four (going on twenty five, but she's not looking forward to it). To say the least she didn't feel like she had grown into a woman too different than her twenty year old self.

***

The backdoor jerked open on its own as Mai was about to slide her key in the slot. A short black haired woman with vaguely Asian features greeted her, who let go of the breath she'd been holding absentmindedly before dashing into the air conditioned hallway.

"Gosh Vivian, you scared me. I thought for a second it was Doctor Hamadi. I'd feel so bad..."

"Especially since you've been late three times this week. Don't worry about it, he's a pretty forgiving man, I mean, you should know by now, dear."

One could tell Vivian was trying to lecture Mai, but she looked unnaturally happy to see her subordinate display such poor assiduity at work.

"I won't mark you as late, and I won't have you wear slippers over those stripper sandals of yours", she said, eyeing Mai's neatly pedicured feet with obvious envy, "if you take care of this little lady for me. There's been a change in the schedules and Mike is already overwhelmed."

Mai took a step back to avoid taking the envelope, feeling no shame in sporting a displeased look on her face. She knew what was in for her, and she didn't like it. Not at all.

"Oh Vivian... are you assigning me to a female patient again? You know I'd rather not... I can't stand them."

Her superior knew better than to give in to Mai's childish demands.

"Gold digger", Vivian shot back teasingly.

"Am not! It's not my fault if all the women can't be sweet and kind and docile like the men are. They are viciously rude, Vivian, I mean even you should know by now! " She swiftly wiped off a blond bang that was sticking on her cheek. "By the way, I have a theory about that."

Vivian seemed amused by Mai's triumphant look over what she considered a trivial matter. Moreover, she was not going to let the blonde rookie talk her way out of this, and they both knew it. She threw her a falsely intrigued look before walking away from Mai, motioning for her to come along.

Mai followed her into the employee room. "They're jealous! They're jealous of my youth because they're old and wrinkly and sour because of everything they haven't lived in their goddam sour life." Vivan's eyebrows raised on their own upon hearing such out-of-place remarks. "I work so much better with the men and you know it! Come on, even you said their mood changed for the better since I've started here."

The smaller, calmer woman came to a halt before a white table, turning around and leaning against it with her arms crossed. Still holding the envelope, it seemed that she was doing her best to remain silent as not to crush the so-called 'theory' of her boastful friend... who was visibly losing hope.

"Vivian... I don't actually need to work here, you know..."

She had sworn she would never use that excuse, but the heat had affected Mai's temper... and her few experiences bathing female seniors were just that bad.

"I don't even need to work. Like, at all. You realize that, do you?" She raised her eyebrows as if to say, 'know what I mean?'

"Mai, Mai, Mai... Weren't you a world - or regional - card game champion at some point? Dealing with constant pressure and still persevering? What've you become? A little hurdle comes your way and all your talk on 'personal growth' flies out the window. "

The hot-tempered recruit opened her mouth as to retort, but Vivian wouldn't let her.

"First of all - you cut me off before I could tell you more about her. It's fiiine if you don't want to listen, I'll let you read her file instead, okay? Gotta go now. See you at lunch!"

She handed Mai the envelope, and seeing her stubborn lack of reaction, she gently shoved it on her voluptuous chest, earning a priceless incredulous expression from Mai. Visibly savouring her victory, Vivian smirked, slightly shook her head in disbelief and let out an amused sigh before leaving for the cafeteria. "She came in yesterday night, make sure you give her some of your love!"

True, Mai's love worked quite well on half the Earth's population, but it miserably failed with the *other* half.

Defeated, she let her giant glossy, hot-pink, fashion-statement of a purse fall on the table where Vivian had leaned on, then slouched on a nearby plastic chair. Mai let out a sigh and glanced at the clock (an obvious freebie force fed to them by a pharmaceutical company), using the envelope as a fan.

The cool air felt immensely refreshing on her damp face and chest. Yes, chest. Being employed at an old people's homes - technically a palliative care establishment - was not going to make Mai surrender her habit of providing the lost male souls of this world with the blessed sight of her mind-blowing cleavage!

She finally brought herself to read the name handwritten on the brown paper.

KAWAI, Serenity.

Mai smiled sarcastically. Maybe this one would live up to her lovely first name. Mai had stopped counting the number of 'Grace', 'Consuelo' and 'Faith' who were everything but graceful, consoling and trusting.

Her eyes went on surveying the characters laid out before them, and something unusual caught their attention.

The date of birth. More specifically, the year.

Those digits were way too high. Mai made a quick mental calculation (this was one valuable life skill she had acquired playing Duel Monsters). She swallowed.

If she was correct, the 'little lady' had just turned 14.

***

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