Barrier

First Kiss

Hey everyone! Thanks again for the amazing amount of support I'm recieving on this story! I wanted to say that I am touched by all the beautiful reviews I have gotten :-). My next puzzleshipping story will be updating less frequently, as I will be working on some Christmas present fanfics (A second chapter to my story "Does this Count as a Love Triangle?" will be added,) and some Supernatural fanfiction, which some of you know me to write. By "Less frequently" I'm thinking in the realms of one chapter every month for a little while. It may end up speeding up and it may not, depending upon how things go. Hey, this update was on time, though! Anyways, on with the story!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 8:

First Kiss

The next day, of course, Mai approached.

Yami was awoken by a hand landing on his shoulder and shaking him, rousing him from his sleep. He shook his head as he slowly woke up, the vivid colours of his dreams starting to fade and be replaced by the dull confines of reality. He sat up abruptly, jerking away from the hands that rested so firmly on his shoulders.

His vision blurred as light flooded his vision, and he flinched away from it. Slowly the colours started to come into clarity, a mess of blonde and purple and white and skin tone swirling to take on the shape of Mai valentine. He set his arm down, not even realizing he had lifted it to shield himself from the light, and his eyes assessed the surroundings. Mai was holding her key (the one that worked for all the hospital rooms) dangling from her right hand, and her eyebrow was raised.

“What are you doing in my room at,” Yami glanced over at his alarm clock, “Seven o'clock in the morning? Don't you have something to be doing?” He complained. He didn't have to get up for at least another hour.

Instead of answering his question, Mai sat down on the edge of his bed, straightening up her skirt (breaking uniform again, mind you,) and choosing her words. Yami waited patiently for her explanation, trying not to rush her. Mai always talked when she was good and ready, and he had a feeling that he knew what she was going to be talking about. He remembered last night clear as day, and knew exactly where she would think he went wrong.

“Why didn't you go ahead and kiss him, Yami?” She asked. Yami lifted his hands to respond, but she held up a finger to tell him to stop. Yami shut his mouth, willing to hear her out. She gave a small pause before continuing, “You were right there and you were so close, I think he was really expected you to kiss him. Dear, I love you to pieces and you know that I do, but you could have just made him think that you don't really like him. I don't know if you thought he didn't want to, or you got nervous and weren't sure yourself if you wanted to kiss him, but...” Mai paused again and then shook her head, letting her sentence trail off.

Yami felt a small pang of guilt. She was right, he could have made Yuugi feel like he hadn't liked him in the first place. At such a crucial stage in their relationship, a small mess up like that could make all of the difference, especially with all the barriers in place. So, the only logical thing to do, the only way to make sure this was fixed...

Was to break the barrier.

“I wanted to kiss him Mai, I really did,” He admitted, sitting up a little straighter. Confidence and hope were colliding with anticipation to make an odd concoction of determination in his stomach. Later, he didn't quite know how yet, but he could work that out later, he was going to kiss Yuugi. “It wasn't the right time, though. I know it will be soon, but you just have to let me think through how to make it special. This is something that's important to me, Mai.” He said. Mai's eyes crinkled as her lips quirked up in a small smile.