FicWad

Waiting and Watching

Mai inched forward in the queue trying not to shiver in the cold night air. She hadn't brought a jacket with her as the club was only a short walk from her apartment and she hadn't considered the possibility of having to wait in line. Mai didn't usually bother with queuing, instead relying on a mixture of looks and unwarranted confidence to blag her way into anywhere she wanted to be. This night however, with a group of people that included the young looking Serenity and Yugi, it was decided that it was best not to draw attention to themselves.

Serenity shifted her weight anxiously from foot to foot becoming more nervous the closer they got to the front of the line. Yugi was fiddling with his pyramid necklace, waiting for a surreptitious moment at which he could switch to the taller and older looking pharaoh.

'I'm so glad you could come tonight Mai,' Serenity said sweetly.

Mai just nodded her head giving her a small smile. It was at least the tenth time the girl had said this and Mai was running out of polite ways to acknowledge the comment.

They inched forward again.

A commotion broke out behind them as a tall, dark-haired man pushed his way through the line. He was carrying a huge hot dog; dripping with mustard and ketchup, and a chicken burger which he duly handed to Mai.

'Oh man, that looks so good!' Joey gasped looking at Tristan's hot dog and salivating openly. He positioned himself to stand right in front of his tall friend and actually let out a small dog-like whimper.

'Get out of it Joey! You said you ate before you came out!' Tristan growled pulling the food away from Joey's face.

'Aw, but that was just a snack!' he whined.

'A three course snack!' Tea chastised. 'And you finished my dessert!'

Mai smiled to herself, taking a large bite of her burger and realising at the same time just how hungry she was. It was dry and a bit tasteless but she allowed herself a tiny sigh of happiness anyway as she felt the warm food hit her empty stomach.

The line shifted forward.

Beside her there was a flash of golden light and she suddenly found herself standing next to the pharaoh. Her eyebrows furrowed imperceptibly at the sight. Although Yugi was her friend she still found that his use of a millennium item made her slightly uncomfortable following her experience with the millennium rod.

As she took her final bite of the burger she forced herself to relax. Using the ancient artefact in order to look old enough to get into a nightclub probably wasn't something she should really get worried about, she decided with a small smile.

'How many?' the gruff voice of the bouncer interrupted her musing.

'Six,' the pharaoh said in his deep and serious voice which seemed entirely out of context in this setting.

'ID?' the bouncer demanded looking straight at Serenity.

Mai stepped forward, surreptitiously wiping the last crumbs of her hastily eaten burger on the back of her tiny skirt.

'Hon,' she purred blasting him her most winning smile, 'you don't need to see her ID.'

'No?'

'No... she's with me,' Mai moved so that she was standing right in front of the bouncer and flicked he hair subtly pushing forward her chest as she did so.

The bouncer's gaze wondered down to her cleavage and back up to her suggestive expression. There was a long pause.

'And we're all here to see Mr Kaiba,' Tea chipped in, suddenly appearing at Mai's shoulder and breaking the man's concentration.

'Oh, right,' the bouncer said, blinking and clearing his throat nervously, 'yes, well, in that case you'd better go on in.'

He cast another glance at Mai who had already backed up a bit and who was now staring at Tea in surprise.

'K-Kaiba?' she stuttered, stunned.

But Tea had already turned to head into the club.

Mai paused for a second and then hurried after her friend.

The bouncer stared after her wistfully. Definitely a perk of the job, he thought to himself with a small sigh.

He suddenly snapped back to reality, as he saw Tristan who was still chomping his way through the giant hot dog, leaving a small trail of mustard and ketchup for every bite he took. The bouncer stepped into his path, barring his way.

'Hold up,' he demanded, his gruff voice returning to its full strength, 'you can't take food in there.'

'Why, you're absolutely right,' Joey intervened, nodding emphatically, 'Lemme fix that for ya.'

With a deft movement Joey grabbed Tristan's hot dog and shoved the whole thing into his mouth in one go. He grinned a ketchup grin and ducked under the bouncer's arm as an astonished Tristan stood gaping at his now empty hand.

'Hey!' he called angrily after Joey, he too manoeuvring around the bouncer and running after his friend.

Finally came the pharaoh who gave the bouncer a small bow. 'Thank you for allowing us passage,' he said formally.

'Yeah right,' the bouncer said watching, dazed as they all disappeared into the club, 'whatever.'

OooooO

Mai quickly caught up to Tea, her mind buzzing with the name her friend had uttered. She wanted to ask her if she'd heard right, if she had really said 'Kaiba' or if it had simply been Mai's mind playing tricks on her. She scowled to herself; she was at it again, thinking about him when she should be thinking about herself and having fun. She decided to forget the question and push Seto far to the back of her mind.

Instead she stopped and took a good look around her. As her eyes became accustomed to the gloom of the club she found, to her surprise, that she was impressed. Since Yugi and his friends didn't live in New York she had suspected that they would be ending up in some touristy dive, with naff music and full of the type of creeps that she came across everyday. Looking around though, Mai noticed the funky neon lighting, the spacious dance floor and the generally 'cool' vibe that pervaded the large room.

'Hey, Tea,' Mai shouted above the thumping base, 'where'd you guys hear about this place?'.

'Oh, Mokuba told us about it. It's one of his favourite places apparently.'

'Mokuba?'

'Yeah I know, I still think of him as a cute little kid too,' she laughed.

That hadn't been what Mai was thinking but she let it go.

'So is he here?' Mai asked the question, convincing herself as she did so, that it was only Mokuba that she was asking after.

'I hope so; he was saying something about some sort of VIP area that he uses here, which sounds nice.'

Mai nodded, not sure whether she felt disappointed or grateful that the Kaiba previously referred to obviously wasn't the one that she'd been hopelessly pining over for the past week.

'Hey, there he is!' Tea's eyes were locked on something over Mai's left shoulder. She turned to see Mokuba waving frantically from a mezzanine level.

Serenity was already running up the stairs towards Mokuba and the rest, Joey and Tristan still squabbling, followed on.

The seating area itself was sleek and sophisticated with low level cushion seats and tables set with small, candle-lit lanterns which threw tiny splinters of coloured light across the cosy space. A continuous curving glass banister separated them from the dance floor. It meant that they could watch everyone below them and absorb the atmosphere whilst, at the same time, the barrier cut down much of the music noise so talking was relatively easy.

Mai held back as the others all greeted Mokuba; Serenity launching into the same excited round up of events that she had given Mai over the phone. Once or twice she caught Mokuba looking at her in a slightly strange way as if he wanted to ask her something important although, when it finally came to Mai's turn to greet him, all he asked was how her arm was doing.

'It's fine thanks hon,' she said, absent-mindedly stroking the strip of black material that she had wound around her arm to cover the large plaster.

There was a slightly awkward pause as Mai and Mokuba looked at each other.

Serenity was suddenly between them practically bouncing up and down in excitement.

'Oh, I love this song!' she squealed happily, 'come and dance Mai - please!?'

She tugged on Mai's bad arm making her wince and quickly grab hold of Serenity's hand. She turned to face her, at the same time picking up on the song that was playing.

'Ah, hon, I don't think this is my kind of music to be honest,' she said apologetically noting the tinny beat of a recent pop song. Seeing Serenity's expression sadden she quickly added, 'If the music gets a bit ... harder, I promise I'll dance later - okay? In the mean time, I bet Tea will go dance with you,' she nodded her head towards Tea who was tapping her foot and swaying in time to the music as she looked across the dance floor.

Serenity nodded and started to move towards Tea, as an afterthought she turned to Mai once more. 'Later - promise?'

Mai smiled 'Promise,' she turned back to Mokuba, 'the music gets better, right?'

He grinned and nodded before his expression returned to being thoughtful and slightly anxious. 'Look, Mai, I just wanted to say -' he began but was cut off mid sentence by Tristan.

'Hey, is that Kaiba?!'

Mokuba and Mai both turned immediately to where Tristan was pointing down towards the entrance of the club. Sure enough there was Seto, large as life, looking coldly around him as the crowds of people milled about him on either side.

Mai felt her heart lurch painfully at the sight of him. He stood, his long legs together, standing straight and still like a pillar. He was wearing his usual outfit of black with a dark purple overcoat that reached down to his booted feet. His arms were folded across his chest and he wore the expression of someone not entirely at ease with his surroundings but trying to fake it.

A movement nearby brought Mai to her senses and she turned to see Yugi, back to his normal self, make his way down the stairs to greet the CEO. Looking back around she caught sight of Mokuba looking at her again, this time with a small smile on his lips.

'Did you know - ?' she asked him, trailing off lamely.

Mokuba shook his head and shrugged to show that he was as surprised as her. They both turned back to watch as Yugi bounded up to Seto, beaming happily in what was clearly a friendly welcome.

On the mezzanine level the onlookers all saw Seto's eyes narrow at Yugi's approach just as his scowl deepened. They couldn't hear what Yugi was saying but could see by the enthusiastic gestures and nodding head that Yugi was talking excitedly. Seto didn't crack a smile, if anything his posture became even more guarded and hostile. At one point he turned his head slightly and flicked a glance at the exit, clearly calculating how quickly he could get away. And then Yugi must have said something which caught Seto's attention as his expression suddenly changed. He raised his head slightly and the scowl all but vanished. He raised and enquiring eyebrow and, for what appeared to be the first time during the conversation, he asked Yugi a question.

In response Yugi half turned and, with a sweeping gesture, he pointed up towards where Joey, Tristan, Mokuba and Mai were standing, goggle-eyed, watching the whole exchange with undisguised amazement.

Seto's eyes alighted on each of them in turn, the slightest of twitches in his right eye indicating his displeasure at seeing Joey and Tristan, a faint smile appearing when he saw Mokuba and when he saw Mai...

The gaze lingered long enough for Mai's spine to tingle. It lingered so long in fact that the others, Yugi included, all found themselves following his gaze, unsure of what they were all supposed to be looking at, other than the rare event of seeing Mai blush.

And then the look was gone, Seto was back listening to Yugi who was now indicating towards the staircase.

Mai took a sudden breath, only now aware that, for a short while at least, she had been holding it in. She looked around and saw the looks of confusion on the faces of her two friends whilst Mokuba was now grinning openly at her. She looked round at the staircase where she could see Yugi and Seto beginning to climb.

She felt herself growing hot and flustered as a thousand thoughts ran through her head at once.

Looking down at the floor she gritted her teeth and made herself think rationally. This guy's left me hanging all week and now - now he thinks he can just turn up here and click his fingers? I don't think so! She fixed her expression to one of calm self assurance and looked up just as Seto reached the top of the stairs.

'Excuse me,' she said smoothly, 'I promised Serenity I would join her on the dance floor.'

She gave a polite smile to the group and lithely manoeuvred herself around Seto. As she sauntered down the stairs she took a deep breath and allowed herself a quick grin as she recalled Seto's look of surprise and confusion. Yep, after the terrible week she'd had she decided that it was time she regained the upper hand. She strode out onto the dance floor determined that Seto Kaiba would regret ever keeping her hanging.