Right in a Bad Way

A/N: Once more, I would like to thank anyone and everyone who is hitting my story and giving it a shot. I would also like to specially thank my reviewers for taking the time to offer their feedback. It means a lot.

I received my first negative review, or, I guess “flame.” I’ve decided to leave it up. To be honest, I thought I would have received much more by now, what with this site being dominated by yaoi writers and fans, and with Mai and Jou being such an unpopular pairing. I didn’t write this to be a bitch, or to shake things up, or to start a crusade or anything. I wrote it because I have always felt that their relationship is legitimate but neglected. I love and enjoy yaoi--Jou and Kaiba are a great couple with many possibilities, and primarily, that’s what I read and seek. But I always have an eye out for the odd JouXMai fic, and have a hard time finding them. I only posted this because I thought there were probably other people who felt the same way. It’s my opinion that if something offends, don’t read it. My story is appropriately labeled and people know what they’re getting into when they click on it. However, if this person went through the effort of writing a review without reading the story—if it was that important to them—what the hell, I’ll indulge them. Besides, call me sentimental, but it’s my first mean review, and I’m just happy anyone’s writing me anything.


Chapter Five: A Few Phone Calls

When his sanity returned, she was stroking his sweaty back and brushing little kisses on his neck and ear. Oh no, oh damn it; things did not just happen the way they’d just happened. He had lost it—not only coming hard and fast, but having no regard for her pleasure at all.

He moved to raise himself, climb off her, but she tightened her arms around him and held him in place.

“Mai—” she kissed him, stifling his words.

“Don’t worry Jou. We’re not done yet,” she whispered against his lips. “It’s only six o’clock and we have plenty of time before your bedtime.”

Jounouchi blushed at her addressing him as a child, but those and all other thoughts were thrown from his head when she slipped her tongue in his mouth and her innermost muscles clamped down on the part of him still inside her. His hands clenched on the silk of the tiny nightdress bunched up at her hips, and he groaned into her mouth. Good God, was she trying to kill him? It was too soon; he body wasn’t ready yet. Nevertheless, he felt himself beginning to harden again, filling her up once more.

Her mouth left his and he felt her tongue trail to his ear, where she slipped it inside. He jerked his hips into hers. She made a noise somewhere between a throaty laugh and a groan, which compelled him to do it again. He began kissing her neck mindlessly while slowly moving in and out of her. Her throat and collarbone became a temporary obsession, and he couldn’t take his lips and tongue from them. He tasted salt and . . . well, skin. His head though, no longer functioning properly, made it into something more: he tasted Mai. And that was very special somehow, as though it was a flavor he would remember for the rest of his life, even if this was the last time he ever felt it on his tongue.

He loved this: her mouth all over the skin of his face and neck; her legs wrapped around his, holding them captive; her body beneath his, silk-clad breasts pressed into his chest; and the feeling of being joined with her in the most primal, simple way.

Jou moved his hands from her hips, lifting himself from her slightly, so that he could stroke her breasts. She arched into his palms, nipples hardening and pressing frantically against the soft silk which separated them from his hands.

He slipped his tongue underneath the strap of her nightgown and traced along the hot surface beneath it. He moved lower, panting on her skin which was wet from both his mouth and her sweat, to stop above her breasts.

Jounouchi hesitated, breathing on the silk. Mai’s breasts were one of the first things he had noticed about her—how could they not be, what with how large they were and how prominently she displayed them. Many a dirty fantasy had centered on them, but if he was honest, he never actually thought he would be in the position to do what he was about to do. Slowly, almost reverently, he lowered his head and, with the pad of his tongue caressed her nipple, soaking the sheer fabric wet.

Fiercely, she surged against him, a loud moan tearing from her throat. He continued, using one hand to fondle the other breast and his free hand to hold her hips still while he continued to slide in and out of her wet heat.

When he switched breasts, and therefore hands, she seized her opportunity. With a cry, she broke free of his hold and rolled him onto his back.

The action surprised Jounouchi and he awoke from a kind of haze; he hadn’t realized how desperate she had become. His eyes nearly rolled back into his head when she began to ride him with speed and vigor that shocked his system, his surprised and gratified grunt drowned out by her screams.

Jou felt himself climbing higher and higher, until the only sound he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears, and the only thing he could feel was the sharp wrenching between his legs. Then his vision went as well, black wiping across his eyes. He felt his tension burst, and himself erupt into the woman above him.

Vaguely, he felt her collapse atop him, and, almost reflexively, his arms went around her shaking, winded form.

“Mai,” he whispered a few moments later.

“Yes?” she answered, still a bit breathless.

“Wow.”

He wasn’t sure, but he thought he felt her smile against his chest.

They lay like that for nearly fifteen minutes, neither of them talking, until Mai broke the silence. “Have you eaten?” she asked.

“No.”

She rose up and, giving him a kiss, climbed off him, saying, “I’ll order take-out.”

Jounouchi was relieved. He hadn’t wanted to say so, but, over the last few minutes, she had gotten rather heavy. And he was hungry—always hungry.

As he watched her walk to the bathroom first, he caught himself in a moment of awe. He had just had sex with Kujaku Mai—twice. She was a beautiful, well-to-do, sophisticated woman, and she had just lowered herself to take his, a boy in high school with two part-time jobs and hardly a coin to his name’s, virginity. The last two years of being smitten with her had paid off in a way he hadn’t actually thought possible. Oh yeah, he must be some kind of guy.

He was still basking in his elation when she emerged from the bathroom. She crossed to kiss him again before going out to the living room to use the phone.

Jounouchi figured he’d probably better clean up a bit, too. He picked up his underwear and pants, noticing in a sudden moment of shame that he had left his socks on during his life-changing moment.

When he walked into the living room a few minutes later, Mai was sitting on the couch, her robe retrieved and covering her sexy nightie. The orchids he had picked were rescued from the floor and in a tiny vase on her coffee table. He was mildly surprised to see her holding one of his shoes.

She smiled at him. “Food’s on the way. You know, you’ve had these shoes as long as I’ve known you.”

“Yeah,” he said sitting next to her. “I should probably get new ones, but I’m kind of attached to these.”

“Jounouchi,” she said alarmed, “there’s a huge hole that goes all the way through this shoe.”

Sure enough, there was, and it wasn’t a wear and tear hole either, but one that had clearly been made by a stabbing knife.

“Well there’s a story for that. See, when I turned sixteen, I decided to buy myself a new pair of shoes. I had heard about this cool place and dragged Yuugi and Honda there one day after school. The owner was this creepy guy who had this pet scorpion. I saw these shoes and had to have them, but the owner said that they were his best and he wouldn’t sell them to me unless I proved I had guts.” It was nice telling Mai this story and she had settled back, leaning her head on his shoulder. “He put the scorpion in one of the shoes and said I wouldn’t be worthy unless I had the balls to put the shoe on with the scorpion still in it. Well, Honda told me I couldn’t and Yuugi told me that I shouldn’t, but that just made me do it. Turns out, the guy hadn’t actually put the scorpion in at all. Well, then he agreed to sell them to me for 100,000 yen, which was my whole savings, but I didn’t mind. Before we left he told us to watch out, that there was a gang around that would mug people for their expensive sneakers. We didn’t really take him seriously, but we should have. We hadn’t walked a block before we were hit; we were taken completely off guard, because they attacked from behind. Well, we tracked those bastards down to an arcade and kicked the shit out of them until they told us that the shop owner had hired them and sold those shoes six or seven times a week for profit and cut them a small share. When Honda and I were finished interrogating we noticed that Yuugi was gone. We assumed that he had gone home, not wanting to watch Honda and I get that violent, but when we showed up at the shop to get the owner, there was an ambulance and some police cars. The shop owner was being taken to the hospital for a scorpion sting, and Yuugi was sitting on the curb holding my sneakers. He was a bit dazed and told us that he didn’t remember what happened, but when he woke up, the sneakers had been stabbed through with a knife, and the shop owner had been stung. This was before we knew about the spirit in the puzzle, so it was pretty confusing, but later we figured Atem must have challenged the owner to a shadow game.”

Mai suddenly sat up and looked at him. “Wait, it’s true, isn’t it?”

Jou didn’t know whether to be offended or not. “You thought I was making it up?”

“Well, yeah—or at the very least, that you were embellishing quite a bit, but when you brought up the pharaoh and a shadow game . . . . I’m sorry Jou, and I say this as a person who loves shoes, owns forty-seven pairs, and enjoys shopping for them more than anything else, but that seems like a lot of effort and violence over a pair of sneakers.”

Jounouchi shrugged. “Well, I wanted them.”

She smiled. “That’s it? You wanted them?”

Didn’t she get it? “It’s a lot, isn’t it?”

She thought for a moment, looking at the shoe in her hand. “Yes, I suppose it is.”

There was a knock at the door and Mai rose, grabbing her purse so that she could pay for their food. But when she opened the door there wasn’t a delivery boy standing on the other side, but Yuugi.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Mai,” he said, not seeing Jounouchi right away, “but I need to talk to you.”

A little confused, Mai stepped back to let Yuugi in, and that’s when the small boy saw his friend. A hot blush spread over his face and Jounouchi was glad he had put on his pants; Yuugi didn’t look like he could take much more of a shock. “I-I’m sorry I interrupted.”

“Nonsense,” Mai reassured, “we were taking a break to eat anyway.”

This just made Yuugi’s blush fiercer. He sat, however, withdrew a small stack of cards from his pocket, and forced himself to speak. “When I opened the package . . .” he trailed off, staring helplessly at the cards in his hands. Then he found his voice again. “I knew cards, but I never thought these cards.” Slowly Yuugi fanned them out and set them on the table.

They were all Guardian cards: Airtos, Baou, Grarl, Elma, Kay’est, Shiriuu, and Toraisu. This seemed to shake Mai as badly as it did Yuugi, and while Jounouchi didn’t know enough to be sure of why, he could guess. Jou had never even spoken to Raphael before, really, but he had heard stories of the large, silent man’s relationship with his cards—how it was near spiritual, and how the cards had come to represent the family who had been taken from him at a young age.

Tentatively, Mai reached out and picked up Guardian Airtos. “Never,” she said. “He would never part with these.”

“Unless he didn’t think he needed them anymore,” Yuugi said quietly. “Do you have a way to contact him?”

Mai shook her head. “We were never close; in fact, he sort of didn’t like me. But I know someone who does.”

Jou watched as she picked up her phone and dialed a number from memory. Then she set it back in the cradle and switched on the speaker phone.

After nearly six rings, it was answered by someone who was very annoyed. “What?”

“Varon, I need a favor,” Mai said, and Jou saw that she was smiling at Varon’s reaction.

“Mai, do you have any idea what time it is here?”

“I don’t care. I obviously didn’t wake you.”

“That doesn’t make this a good time. I’m busy.”

Mai rolled her eyes. “I bet. I just need the number to Raphael’s flat in Nice.”

Varon made an odd sort of groan. “It’s in my address book, but that’s on the other side of the house, and I, ah, can’t move.”

“Just hurry and get it. You can pick right back up where you left off.”

Jounouchi was a little confused, but wasn’t much longer.

“No, you can just call back la—ter—shit ow, ow, ow! Holy shit; when I said ‘eat your heart out’ I didn’t mean bite it. What the hell is your problem?” There was a female voice in the background now. “Oh, look, I’m sorry Angela.” The female voice again. “Alison, right, Alison. Of course, I knew that.” A door slamming. Varon sighed. “Thanks a lot, bitch,” he addressed Mai.

“Once again, I’m not sorry. You need to learn sometime not to answer the phone during sex,” Mai shot back. “I just need Raph’s number.”

“Why? It won’t do you any good. He’s not home.”

“Where is he?”

“I’m not sure. He asked for my motorcycle and I gave it to him; he didn’t tell me where he was going.”

“He asked for your motorcycle? The one you told me was stolen?”

Jounouchi was really confused now.

Varon sounded amused and triumphant, as though he had just scored a point. “Would you have come to get me if I’d told you the truth?”

“So he never left Japan?” Mai asked, her teeth clenched a bit.

“I didn’t say that. He seemed to be heading somewhere.”

“Would Ameluda perhaps know?”

“Probably. Raph's always told him everything.”

Mai sighed. “Alright, I’ll call him.”

“Good luck. He’s not home either.”

Mai looked outright angry now. “Don’t tell me, he’s in Japan.”

As Mai got more and more annoyed, Varon’s mood seemed to improve more and more. “Kaiba Corporation is throwing some sort of fancy party and Ameluda was invited. He’s going to try to smooze rich idiots for his new relief charity.”

“Would you happen to know which hotel he was staying in?”

“Sure babe, Le Manor Kaiba. Mokuba offered.”

“Thank you. Good night, Varon.”

“Goodnight, my blowjob princess.”

“What?” Jounouchi demanded aloud, initially more jarred than angry, but every time he remembered those words afterwards, it made him want to hit Varon.

“Hello?” Varon said, “Who am I talking to now?”

“You’re on speaker phone, Varon. That was Jounouchi,” Mai answered.

Varon seemed to think that was pretty funny. “Well, finally. Have fun you two kids; remember to use a condom.” And then he hung up.

Jounouchi froze. A condom? He had completely forgotten about birth control.

Mai, however, either didn’t hear him or wasn’t concerned because she had dug an address book out of the lamp-table drawer. “Now, Kaiba Manor, that number I have. Unfortunately.”

“Why?” Yuugi asked.

As she dialed, Mai answered, “Varon used to stay here a lot, and when he got drunk, he was into crank calls. I’m amazed Kaiba hasn’t had me arrested.” Mai looked up, “Maybe you’d better do the talking, Yuugi. Kaiba likes you--or at least as much as he likes anybody.”

Yuugi nodded and took the receiver from her. “Hello,” he seemed to need to answer as soon as he put the phone to his ear.

Jou grabbed Mai’s hands and led her into the bedroom. “Mai,” he said, “we didn’t use protection.”

She put her arms around him, and kissed him. “It’s okay. I’m on the pill.” Then she looked concerned, “Did it bother you? What he said,” she stopped for a moment, “when you spoke out?”

Jounouchi shrugged and tried to act casual. “I knew you two dated for a while. Was that a nickname he had for you or something?”

“God no,” Mai laughed. “That was just him trying to get a rise out of me.”

“Guys,” they heard Yuugi call from the next room, “I think your food’s here.”

Mai paid the delivery boy just as Yuugi finished his phone conversation.

“So what did Kaiba say?” Jounouchi asked.

“That wasn’t Kaiba, it was Mokuba. Apparently Kaiba, Ameluda, and some of their business associates are out of town until tomorrow evening touring sites for a new Kaiba Corp. office. Mokuba did say we’re free to come to the party tomorrow night, though.”

“We?” Jounouchi was skeptical.

“Yeah. It’ll be our last chance; Ameluda is leaving first thing the following morning.”

The phone rang and Mai moved to answer it. “Hello?” She handed the phone to Jounouchi. “It’s for you.”

“Hello?” Jou said surprised.

It was Honda. “I thought you might be there. Listen, your dad has been arrested for public drunkenness, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. You might want to get down here.”