Fanfic / Dancing With The Moon

Dancing With The Moon is a Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic written by sitabethel, set several years after the Ceremonial Duel.

As per the description, "Marik drags Ishizu to the club to get her out of the house." Well, what happens next is...not the comical hijinks you'd expect.

Instead, Ishizu Ishtar finds herself in the midst of the club drinking and then dancing with a blond woman she recognizes as Mai Kujaku, one of her fellow finalists from Battle City. While the very sheltered Ishizu is a bit discomfited at first, she finds herself drawn in by Mai's greater worldly wisdom, and Mai in turn decides she wants to help Ishizu come out of her shell. From there, a friendship blossoms...and develops over time...

Oh, and Marik and Bakura get featured as well, and get up to noisy antics.

Although it's rated M on the site, the story is in fact quite well-written while focusing on the gradual development of Mai/Ishizu, a pairing atypical for the franchise. Marik/Bakura is there as well, but it doesn't get as much focus as the aforementioned pairing.

The story is complete at 10 chapters.

Provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Ishizu remembers all too well how her and Marik's father treated them when they were still living underground.
• Bad Liar: Bakura and Mai, in separate conversations, voice the view that Marik and Ishizu (respectively) are terrible at lying.
  Mai: Do you want to talk about it?
  Ishizu: About what?
  Mai: About what you're thinking.
  Ishizu: I'm not thinking about much of anything.
  Mai: Ishtars are fucking liars.
  Ishizu: You sound like Bakura.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: It doesn't take much to get Bakura hammered. Marik, Ishizu and Rishid take full advantage of it during a drinking game.
• Deadpan Snarker: Bakura, with the Ishtars as his usual target. For instance, after coming back from a shopping trip with Ishizu...
  Marik: How long does it take to buy a dress, Bakura?
  Bakura: For an Ishtar? I'm lucky we didn't starve during the trip.
• Double Meaning: Ishizu suspects that a lot of the conversations Marik and Bakura have in front of her are laced with this, but she's long since given up trying to interpret the things they say to each other.
  Marik: Oh, I'm sorry, am I hurting your feelings, Bakura? Maybe I should be...more gentle with you. If you're so delicate.
• Drinking Game: Bakura, Mai and the Ishtars play "never have I ever" with tequila. Bakura winds up losing every round that's on someone else's turn.
  Rishid: Never have I ever worn a maid outfit to bed.
  Bakura: (flips off Rishid and takes a drink)
• Fish out of Water: Ishizu certainly feels this way when Marik and Bakura drag her to the club in the first chapter. Mai quickly helps her lose some of her awkwardness.
• Footsie Under the Table: During one of their tabletop Duel Monsters games, Mai pulls this on Ishizu, both to flirt with her and to distract her enough so as to lose the game. Ishizu, who's not used to such sensations, struggles with the urge to give Mai, uh, higher access; Mai, for her part, doesn't go any higher than Ishizu's knee.
• The Ghost: Yugi and his friends are mentioned frequently throughout the story, as part of Ishizu's and/or Mai's recollections of Battle City, but none of them make an appearance here.
• Going Commando: By her own admission, Ishizu's never been in the habit of wearing underwear, due to her family only wearing shifts^note loose-fitting dress-like garments while they were living underground.
• Hidden Depths: Mai's good at doing hair and make-up makeovers and did quite well as a beautician-in-training, it's just that hustling cards paid more money. Likewise, Bakura's pretty knowledgeable about how to prepare drink-mixes, alcoholic and virgin alike.
• I'm Standing Right Here: During the above-mentioned Drinking Game, Rishid declares that it won't be long before the drunken Bakura starts hugging people...even though Bakura can hear him perfectly well.
  Bakura: I can hear you, assholes! I'm drunk, not deaf!
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Ishizu can't help but smile during one moment in Chapter 3 when she thinks of Ryou wearing mismatched suits with gaudy ties, which Bakura says is worse than the makeup Ishizu's experimenting with at that point.
  Bakura: Those fossils at the museum can't be that strict with the dress code. Have you seen what Ryou wears?
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bakura is as rude as you'd expect him to be, but he does take part in helping Ishizu be more social and gives her pointers in how to improve her relationship with Mai. Plus he really does care about Marik's feelings.
• Last-Name Basis / Only One Name: Bakura is referred to by that name to differentiate him from Ryou (they're not sharing the same body in this story).
• My Greatest Failure: Ishizu places a lot of blame for Marik's past Split Personality issues on herself, as she feels that if she hadn't broken their family's rules by taking Marik out to see the surface world when he'd wanted to go exploring, all the tragedies their family experienced and Marik's role as the Big Bad of Battle City wouldn't have happened.
• Mysterious Past: The only details Mai gives about her past is that she "left home sort of young." Ishizu doesn't pry.^note In the original anime, during the Battle City arc, a flashback reveals that Mai's parents died when she was young, and sometime after that she started working on the cruise ship.
• Odd Friendship: Ishizu is a former tomb-keeper with limited experience with the outside world even after her time as a museum curator, and is as plain as plain can get. Mai is a former globe-trotting world-famous duelist who's well-versed in the art of seduction. The two develop a close friendship after initially meeting at a club.
• Purity Personified: Mai sees Ishizu this way.
  Mai: You are too pure for this world, Ishizu Ishtar, never let that change.
• "Romantic" Two-Girl Friendship: Ishizu's friendship with Mai blossoms into this over time.
• Shipper on Deck: Marik is quite supportive of Ishizu becoming more than just friends with Mai. So's Bakura, only he's a bit more of a Deadpan Snarker about it.
• Shrinking Violet: The fic portrays Ishizu as a downplayed example, as she's pretty uncomfortable getting into new situations that test the boundaries of her family traditions; the outing at the club in the first chapter is only the first displayed example.
• Supreme Chef: Ishizu is excellent in the kitchen, and in her words, "I've been cooking since I was small enough to need a stool."
• That Came Out Wrong: Mai has a moment of this in Chapter 3, while sleeping over at Ishizu's place.
  Ishizu: I wouldn't mind, but I feel bad for keeping you here so long.
  Mai: You don't exactly have me tied to the bed. (beat) I mean, you know, that sounded bad out loud.
• Title Drop: The story's name comes from the similarly-named song by Balkan Beat Box, to which Mai and Ishizu dance at one point.
  As night slowly approaching, the sun is set for love, and when I see you smiling, I'm dancing with the moon.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: While they're both clearly feminine in their mannerisms, Mai's much more outgoing and less inclined to adhere to female stereotypes, whereas Ishizu's more entrenched in the gender roles that have defined her family for years.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Marik favors kushari, an Egyptian dish consisting of rice, macaroni, and lentils mixed together, topped with a spiced tomato sauce and served with chickpeas.
  • Bakura likes his steak. Conversely, he hates kushari.
  • Ishizu also recounts how Yugi loves hamburgers and once persuaded her to try one; however, she couldn't abide its greasy sensation.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Bakura and the biological Ishtar siblings have this relationship, though he can at least get along well enough with Rishid.