Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Costume Jewelry ❯ a ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-gi-oh, Mai would end up not alone.

 

I think I really am getting better. Mai/Jou, my other OTP. Man… just like Forgiveness, the stuff I wrote in order to write *something* kind of threw off the plot. So I'll re-arrange the upcoming chappies… My knowledge of the Duelist Kingdom manga arc is sketchy, but this was at j-anime: after the tournament, Mai is stuck because all the boats have left like the rest of the cast. Kaiba flies them off, but Mai isn't there when they take off. Jou throws down a rope ladder for her.

 

Oh, and now that school has started, and with my energy level being …intermittent, I'm going to write things when I can, post them to my lj, and then post everything to ff.net/mediaminer/etc on Friday night/evening. So we can have some… semblance, of regular, convenient updates.

 

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“You goddamn jerk, pull me up!” She yelled, hanging on to the rope ladder for dear life and trying to grip the lower rungs with her feet as well, scrambling with high heeled shoes.

 

Jou laughed, half out of the copter himself. “What, I thought you said you liked hanging out, Mai!” he said loudly as well, the words hard to make out in the noise of the chopper.

 

“It was exciting for the first five minutes, now my arms are getting tired! Help me up, you jackass!” She wished she could take a hand off the rope to shake a fist at him, or better yet give the punk the finger.

 

“I'd love to, Mai, but there's no room in here either!”

 

Jou waved his arm at the inside of the chopper, prompting an, “Ow!” from someone inside.

 

“According to Kaiba, this chopper's only rated for four, and there's him, his little bro',” and Mai knew Jou's sister wasn't here, and he knew she knew, but kept on, “Yugi, Honda, Tea, Ryou, me, an' you! I'm stuck hangin' out `cause if it got any more crowded, Kaiba wouldn't be able to get at the controls safely!”

 

“…” Mai didn't remember a lot about helicopters, but she was damn glad suddenly that the kids were, well, kids. And glad that they were still over the sea. “How long until we land!?” she yelled back up.

 

Jou turned around. “How long `til we cn' get off, Kaiba?”

 

She couldn't make out the response, but Jou stiffened a little, the visable hand flexing around the helicopter door's edge like a fist wanting to clench. “Wel' ya… sue you, huh?”

 

“…..you, …Mutt.” More indistinct speech, and Mai thanked her lucky stars she'd run while she could, otherwise she might have ended up married to someone like this creep.

 

Jou snorted, fingers clenching, and turned back to her. “Hold on a sec!” One of his feet came into view, and he shifted his grip, lowering himself enough to put it on the rope ladder, which shifted at the sudden force acting on it, then started to swing back and forth, agitated by the gusts from the chopper's blades.

 

“What the fuck do you think you're doing, you stupid punk!” Mai yelled, trying to shift like on a swing to counteract the swaying.

 

“Getting out!” Jou yelled down, putting another foot on the other site of the rope ladder to balance it out, then shifting the first food down a rung, now sitting on the floor of the chopper.

 

“…” Mai knew he was nuts now. There wasn't even land in sight yet, and from this height on what had been a clear day that meant they had a long way left to go. And the sun was only about an hour from setting, she couldn't look at her watch like this, and being this high, with these winds, at night, in just a tee and jeans and a thin jacket… he'd freeze.

 

She ignored her own skimpy attire. It was the principle of the thing. “Oh no you're not!”

 

He laughed. “Already am, Mai!” He was all on the rope ladder now, on the other side of it from her. It wasn't swinging too badly now. “Cn' you move your hands so I don't step on them?”

 

“I am not some fainting lily, I'm almost a decade older than you and I am not letting some high school kid freeze out here! You get back inside!” He was close enough she wasn't yelling just to be heard now, she was yelling because she was pissed.

 

And the punk had the nerve to laugh at her again, climbing down, his abs in front of her, shirt pushed up while climbing, on the other side of the rope ladder from her. Fortunately he didn't seem to realize, as he kept climbing down so his feet and hands were on the same rungs as hers, on opposite sides.

 

He grinned at her, like the idiot he was, and nodded up. “Start climbin' Mai, I'll help you up.” His face was close enough to hers they didn't have to shout, even though the winds roared around them.

 

And she roared at him. “You male chauvinist pig! I bet you think you're being chivalrous! I don't need your help, I'm not climbing up there and taking the spot of someone a fraction of my age!” Well, that was exaggerating a bit, and he laughed at her again.

 

Punk.

 

She couldn't really call them losers any more, could she?

 

“Oh come on, Mai, you're not that old.” Still grinning.

 

She snorted. “You'd better not have thought I was.”

 

He shook his head emphatically, still grinning at her. “Well, I'm not taking it either, and the rich bastard's made his feelings clear on me stinkin' up the cockpit.” How could he smile at that? “So either you climb up or we both hang on here. Come on, you know you don't want to hand around with losers.”

 

The wind was howling around them, his threadbare jacket and her designer token one helpless against the chill, and he was making puns.

 

Punk. Grinning at her. Stubborn punk. He really wasn't going to climb up, they both knew.

 

It was the principle of the thing. She couldn't lose face… any more face then she already had. “I'm not going to take the place of a kid! I don't need to be coddled!”

 

Jou snorted. “Who said anythin' `bout coddling? Your clothes are hot,” an appraising glance that most certainly did not make her blush, she'd been appraised my much handsomer men, much nearer-her-age men, much richer men… well, he was a millionaire until he gave that check to his sister, “but not very warm.” He was grinning again. “An' we owe ya' for the food `n' everything, think about it that way.”

 

He had a point, but, “I'm not budging.” Her eyes narrowed.

 

He siiighed exaggeratedly, rolling his eyes.

 

And took a hand off the ladder and started to wriggle it out of the sleeve of his jacket. No. He was not going to offer his jacket to her. Even he wouldn't dare be that much of a… the free hand grabbed the now free sleeve and held it as it regained its grip on the rope, then Joey took his other hand off of the ladder and repeated the process.

 

Until his jacket was off and he was looking at her expectantly, grinning and saying while she stared, “I'm not going to put it back on.”

 

She let go with one hand and took it. And glared.

 

Yes, he understood that if he ever, ever, boasted to anyone about this he was dead meat.