A/N Supposed to take place after Mai's post-Orichalchos chat with Jounouchi which in my head goes "I'm sorry." "I forgive you." *awkward silence* And then they're friends for a bit. I had no idea how to weave that into the narrative, it kept messing up the flow and the mood and grrr. So have an author's note instead.

It was supposed to be for Mai's birthday but it's late because I kept editing.

It was good to be back in Paris.

She hadn't been on a shopping spree for a while. And Paris has everything shopping wise- huge stores housing the greats- Chanel, Vuitton, Dior- and flea markets housing the old and forgotten.

To Mai, shopping is a sport. It's about getting the speed of the shopper's saunter exactly right -not overkeen, but not disinterested. It's the way you can get things cheaper if you smile at the right person. It's knowing your body so well you don't really need to fit things on anymore, and the way you can glance at something and tell if it would look good on you.

Many things look good on Mai Kujaku.

She ends up with one, two, three, four, five bags. And a dent in her bank account the size of Texas. She unceremoniously dumps everything on the huge bed in the luxurious five star hotel and considers how to spend the evening. She orders wine from room service, the most expensive one because she's stopped caring about money- she's got a tournament coming up soon, and hopefully she'll win. No, it's more than hope, it's a feeling she hasn't had for a while. She knows she'll win.

The wine arrives and she takes a sip. It's perfect.

And then her phone rings.

She picks up, already knowing who it is without checking the caller ID.

"It's your birthday!" accuses the voice on the other end of the phone.

She sighs.

"Hello, Jounouchi."

"It's your birthday and you never told us!"

"How do you know then?"

"Anzu."

"Right. So I told someone. And how much is this costing you anyway?"

"I would've done something if I'd have known it was your birthday," he grumbled.

"Oh? Really?"

"Yeah. I could've made you a cake or something..."

Mai imagined Jounouchi making cake, and the idea was so preposterous she laughed out loud.

"Hey! Are you laughing at me?"

"Yeah. And how did you plan on getting this hypothetical cake to Paris?"

"Why'd you have to go to Paris anyway?" he asks, skilfully dodging the question.

"New clothes and fine wine. What more could a girl want?"

"Birthday cake?"

"You don't know much about girls, do you hon? We don't eat cake or we get fat."

"When are you back?" he asks, ignoring the jibe.

"I don't know. Why, you miss me or something?" she asked flippantly.

There was a brief pause.

"Um. Kind of, yeah," he responded eventually, rather sincerely. It took her by surprise, she'd been expecting his usual comeback of "Miss you? No way, I just want to know when I have to start hiding!" While she kept banter up with ease, sincerity always caught her off guard.

"I have to be in Vienna for a tournament. Then, I don't know. So you might be seeing me in a couple of weeks. Or you might not."

"...OK. I have to go now because this phone is running out of battery."

Mai mentally substitutes the words "running out of credit."

"See you hon."

"Happy birthday. And I hope you're back soon."

And then he's gone. It's only then she realises it is currently 2 o clock in the morning Japan time.

You like me, Jounouchi, she thought, for she knows you don't call just anyone at 2 o clock in the morning, even if it is their birthday. You like like me.

What now?

Some other notes:

-I wasn't completely sure about the dialogue because in the anime it's mostly like this...

MAI: I'm angry with you for some reason!

JOU: ?

-Tokyo is 8 hours ahead of Paris.

-From what I looked at on the net, they have birthday cake in Japan.