Notes – Done for ygodrabble. Set a while after Doma, probably post-series.

When Mai left Jounouchi didn't get any little message saying goodbye or telling him where she was going.

Not that he should had expected one really. It wasn't as if this was the first time that she had disappeared, leaving him with no idea if he'd ever see her again. She honestly had no obligation to tell him where she was going, and he knew that he shouldn't expect her to.

She wasn't his property.

But somehow the others seemed to feel that Mai should have told him something. They all seemed to think that there was a connection between them. It was almost as if the only two who didn't notice the connection were Jounouchi and Mai themselves.

Honda was probably the one who got the most annoyed about it. He'd made it clear in the past that he didn't care much for Mai, but at the same time he grudgingly accepted that his best friend had an attraction to her. He couldn't understand how Jounouchi could just go on without making any attempts to find Mai.

On the odd occasion that he brought this up, Jounouchi would tell him that Mai didn't want to be pursued. In that past it was his big mistake to leave her to dwell on her own problems, but this time he knew he was doing the right thing.

"But what if you never see her again?" Honda sighed, taking a swig from his can of soda and looking over at Jounouchi.

"I will see her again," he replied, firmly.

Frowning, Honda reminded, "She could equally go back to that Valon guy and not you."

"Then that's her choice," Jounouchi said, looking up, "She's had a heck of a lot of time to think about it. So she'll choose the right guy either way. But even if it's him she'll still come back sometime."

"You have a lot of faith in her," Honda said, still not able to understand it himself.

Jounouchi looked around for something to change the subject; he hated getting all deep and emotional like this.

He settled on, "You gonna see if Yuugi's ever getting back with those burgers?"

Grunting, Honda took his hint to leave and headed off to find out where the others had got to.

He'd been right about it though, and Jounouchi knew it. He believed in Mai.

In lack of anything else belief was all he had.