FicWad

Another short chapter I'm afraid. I hope you like it anyway.

The Opinions of Others - Part Two

A repetitive buzzing noise woke Mai from her sleep. It was 7am, not a time of day Mai was all that familiar with. With a grunt she twisted round to grab at her phone whose vibrating alarm mode was causing it to judder slowly across her bedside table. Quickly deactivating it she slumped back onto the bed and held the phone aloft to study the small blue screen apprehensively.
It had seemed like such a good idea when she'd arrived home late last night. After a full afternoon and evening mulling over her 'situation' with Seto all she'd managed to accomplish on her own was to get more and more irritable, to the point where Joe had actually insisted she leave early for the safety of himself and everyone else around her. It was then that she had made the decision that she needed to speak to someone. She'd gone so far as to check out some details on the internet to work out the timings and find the number she wanted in an old archived e-mail. Then, at the last moment, as she'd just started to type the numbers into her phone, she'd had a change of heart. Far better, she had told herself, to wait until the morning. And with that vague logic she had quickly set the alarm and had divested herself temporarily of the responsibility.

Lying on her back staring up at the small phone, Mai felt a peculiar sense of resentment towards her previous-evening self for having put it off until now. Typical procrastination she grumbled whilst simultaneously harbouring the idea of leaving the whole thing until later in the day.

Mai cautiously probed her feelings about the previous day's events, hoping to find that a night's sleep had altered her opinion on the subject. She thought about how wonderfully nervous she had felt as Seto had leaned in close. She thought about the smell of his cologne and the way that his fingers had brushed against her face. She thought about the way that the heat from his body had seemed to warm every inch of her. And then - in her mind's eye she saw herself staring dumbly up at Seto just as he pulled away; the sensation of her legs moving awkwardly as she tried to walk away with a semblance of pride; the stares of Seto's PA and that security guy who always followed Seto around. Mai's whole body shuddered with the mortifying memory.

No, there was nothing else for it; she had to go through with the call. It might not be too bad, she tried to convince herself, after all hadn't she heard plenty of other people swearing by this type of thing? Okay, so she'd never done anything like it before herself and, yes, there may have been an element of derision in the way she'd viewed such things in the past but there was no denying her current predicament. She needed to talk to someone. To someone who would see things from her point of view. She, Mai Valentine, independent, sassy, the antithesis of a giggly, needy, pathetic girl, needed to have a 'girly chat'.

Before she could change her mind again, Mai sat up in bed, crossing her long legs underneath her and leaning back against the threadbare headboard. She took a deep breath, pressed the green dial button on her phone and listened to the series of small clicks that meant the call was being connected. As the ring tone began she quickly looked again at the digital time display on the phone, hoping that she'd got her maths right. It was 7am in New York which, if the internet and her calculations were correct, meant it was 8pm in Domino.

'Hello?'

Mai forced herself to sound upbeat. 'Hey, Téa, it's Mai.'

'Mai?!'

'Yeah - I, um, I need your advice on something.'

'My advice?'

'Yeah.'

There was a long pause, 'really?!'

'Yes... really,' Mai's smile was quickly becoming strained. 'So... can you help?'

'Well, yes, sure, I mean I'll try. What's up?'

Mai took another deep breath; time to bite the bullet. 'Okay, well, there's this guy -'

'Are we talking about Kaiba here?'

'Err, maybe. Does it matter?'

'Well, not really I guess only - well, it's so sweet, the two of you hooking up. Well, maybe 'sweet' isn't exactly the right word. Actually, 'scary' is probably more like it,' Téa laughed to herself as, on the other end of the line, Mai's hand gripped the phone a little harder.

'Right.'

'I would never have put the two of you together.'

'Okay.'

'Not in a million years.'

'Uh huh.'

'I mean, you two are the most stubborn, hot-headed people I know.'

'That's nice.'

'And now you're together... It's so... umm, unexpected.'

'Did I mention this is an international call?'

'Right, yes, sorry,' Téa's voice sounded suitably contrite. 'So, what'd Kaiba do?'

'Alright,' Mai shook off the impending wave of irritation. No matter how completely alien this experience was to her, she knew she had to go through with it. 'So... I went to his office yesterday, right? Just to, you know, have a chat and stuff and it was all going well and we'd only had this little argument and I was just about to say goodbye when...'

'Yes?'

'Well, I was saying goodbye and he...'

'Yes?!'

'He umm, well he kind of blocked the door and he leant towards me, like really close and everything.'

'Yes?!!'

'And I was sure he was going to kiss me.'

From the other end of the line came the strange squeaking sound of someone too excited to actually form words.

'But then he didn't.'

The silence stretched across the line. Eventually Téa said sympathetically, 'oh.'

Mai felt a rush of relief. She'd worried that, in telling the story, the whole thing would just sound trivial or worse, funny. If Téa had laughed then Mai had been fully prepared to finish the call there and then but, she reminded herself, hadn't that been exactly why she'd chosen Téa in the first place? Sure the two of them had very little in common but, in this case at least, that very fact would probably work to her advantage. She couldn't help feeling that, had the roles been reversed, then her own levels of sympathy and understanding would have been very limited.

'Yeah.'

'Oh dear. God, that's awful. What did you do?'

'Nothing, I just left.'

'Do you think that he thought that you thought...?'

'I think so.' Mai allowed herself a small ironic smile as she registered the direction the conversation had taken. How many times had she sneered as she overheard girls gossiping, finishing each other's sentences, talking in great detail about 'boys'? And now here she was...

'Hmm,' Téa's voice cut across her thoughts, 'that's not good.'

'Tell me about it. I feel like a complete idiot.'

'You know there's a good chance he was just messing with your head. This is Kaiba we're talking about here after all. He's all about the game playing isn't he?'

'Yeah, maybe with the cards and the chess and that type of thing but, well, to be honest I didn't think he had all that much experience with women. Let's face it, up to that point I completely had him on the ropes.'

'How do you mean? What have you been doing to him?' Téa's tone became suspicious. 'Mai? What were you doing at his office?'

'Nothing,' Mai said innocently. 'Just stopping by.'

Téa clearly wasn't buying it. 'Mai?'

'I got him a cat,' Mai relented sheepishly.

'Sorry?'

'A cat. I got him a cat.'

'Why?'

'It's a long story. Stray critter, needed a home, that type of thing.'

'And he accepted that?'

'Yep.'

'Didn't he ask why you weren't looking after it yourself?'

'He did, yes.'

'And?'

'I told him my lease wouldn't allow it.'

'Is that true?'

'Not strictly.'

'Mai!'

'What? I wanted an excuse to go see him and it's not like he doesn't have the space and the money to spare for a small charity case.'

There was a moment's silence. 'Wow,' Téa sounded like she was mentally shaking herself, 'that's weird.'

'What is?'

'I just got this twinge of sympathy for Kaiba.'

'Very funny.'

'Seriously though, if he took a cat off your hands, well, I think he must really like you.'

'You think?' Mai cringed slightly at the sound of hope that infused her own voice at the thought. 'What about the whole near kiss thing?'

'Well, I'm not saying that he won't also be finding you quite... hard work. He is only human after all. Still, it seems to me that you got off lightly.'

'Hmm,' Mai gave the idea some thought.

'Well?' Téa said brightly after a moment. 'Have I helped? Do you feel better?'

'Well, I'm not sure about being described as 'hard work' but, yeah, I do feel better,' Mai was surprised to find that she actually meant it. 'Thanks Téa.'

'So when are you next seeing him?'

'I don't know, when he finds me I guess.'

Téa laughed incredulously. 'You really make men jump through hoops for you, don't you?'

'It's the only way in my experience. It stops them becoming complacent.'

'That's what I've always admired about you, Mai. That type of thing really would work for you,' something in Téa's tone made Mai wince slightly. Here she was spouting off about her life and it hadn't even crossed her mind to ask Téa about what was going on with her.

There was a moment's uncomfortable silence.

'Hey,' Mai started awkwardly, 'so, umm how's it going with... umm,' she'd been about to say 'Yugi' but then remembered that it wasn't really Yugi that Téa liked so much as that sprity-pharaoh thing inside the pyramid. She'd never quite got how the girl could make the clear distinction and wasn't entirely convinced that Tea had actually made a distinction between them herself - not really.

'Oh, okay. You know, same old story... let's just say it's complicated.'

'Hmm...' Mai nodded sympathetically whilst thinking that 'complicated' really was a huge understatement in this case. 'You know,' she went on slightly self consciously, 'if you ever want to umm, you know talk or stuff...'

'Thanks Mai. I might just do that, especially now I actually have your number.'

'Yeah,' Mai said uncertainly, guiltily aware that she had placed a number block on the call before dialling, 'err, maybe e-mail would be cheaper - I'll text you my address.'

'I think I have it somewhere.'

'No, you don't,' Mai felt another twinge of guilt over the blatantly false e-mail address she'd given to her friends at the night club. Sometimes her efforts to remain independent just seemed rather mean spirited in retrospect. 'I'll send it though.'

'Okay, that'd be cool and I hope things work out for you and Kaiba. You will let me know what happens won't you?'

'Okay,'

'Promise?'

'Promise. You've been great Téa,' Mai said with genuine warmth. 'Oh, and Téa...'

'Yeah?'

'You won't tell the others about all of this will you?'

'Of course not!' Téa sounded shocked at the very thought.

Mai's eyes narrowed, 'you're going to tell them aren't you?' she asked in a deadpan voice, already knowing the answer.

'Just waiting for you to clear the line,' Téa confirmed happily.

Mai just laughed.