She didn't care about it for herself anymore.  What love there was had waned years ago, when he decided to live away and had moved her in with his father.  He hadn't even been there when his son was born - his father had named the boy.  And that son needed more of a male rolemodel than the old man.

Half the time she didn't know why she put up with it, but her own family was all dead, and what would she do with a divorce?  She got along with his father, but would the rest of the family really want her to stay there if there was a divorce?

Realizing she was almost crushing the call phone in her hand, Kyoko set it down on one of the boxes.  Ah, the boxes.  Yet another convention.  She had been to more of them than she could count in the past eighteen years, helping her father-in-law.  She was happy to do whatever she could to help out, but where the old man and her son drew in the energy of those around them, she just got tired of the noise and the crowds.

The box began to tip, the precarious stack overbalanced by the slight weight of the cell phone and the force she had put it down with.  She cried out, trying desperately - and without success - to keep everything upright.  As people passed, weaving around the contents of the emptied boxes, Kyoko sat on the floor, the dispair she had tried to put behind her rising in her throat and bringing tears to her eyes.  So stupid!  It was all so stupid!

"Allow me to help you," said a strong tenor in strangely sing-song Japanese.

Kyoko looked up to see a pale haired American in a dark suit crouched next to her and holding out her phone with a sympathetic expression.  Before she knew it, she was sobbing quietly, covering her face with her hands.  Slim arms wrapped around her and pulled her close.

"It's all right," the man said in the same sing-song voice.  "We'll get everything picked up."

She laughed bitterly, pulling away despite the warmth of the embrace.  "I'm sorry," she said, not looking at the man due to her embarrassment.  "It's not just the boxes.  It's-- a lot of things."

"Tell me about it," he requested, righting one of the boxes.

And despite the fact that the man was a stranger, Kyoko found herself telling him of her childhood dreams for a big, happy family and a career.  About how she had given up her career when she fell in love, got pregnant, and got married.  About the reality of the absent husband she didn't love anymore and her single child, whom she loved dearly.  About her life with her father-in-law, who was more a husband to her than the man she had married.  She spoke proudly about her son's accomplishments and friendships, and despairingly of her husband's lack of interest, gratefully of her father-in-law's involvment in her son's life, and sorrowfully about her own lack of close friends when people thought that she had somehow driven Akira out of the country.  She spoke of her husband's wandering attention, and how she thought she had heard another woman's voice on the other end of the phone before he had hung up on her.

The man listened quietly, tidying the boxes and then setting up the table for her as she remained on the floor.  Finally, he sat on the floor next to her and took her hand, looking her in the eye in the open brazenness that typified many Americans.  Kyoko blushed and looked down, her voice petering out.

"It's not that I'm unhappy," she said after a moment of quiet.  "I'm not.  My son and my father-in-law fill my life, and I do have friends and time to myself and everything I could need."

"Not so," the man said quietly.  "You live a life without love."  He stroked one cheek lightly, brushing away tears.  "If you had everything you need, you wouldn't be crying."

Kyoko laughed.  "Only to a romantic," she said with a smile and a slight blush at his touch, more intimate than anything she had felt in years.

The man smiled back.  "I am a romantic.  Come, have dinner with me."

"I have to stay with the table until dad gets here."

"I have a friend who can watch it for you."

Kyoko looked up and saw another man in a suit standing behind the two of them, expression impossible to identify behind his sunglasses.  "I don't even know your name," she protested.

"You can call me..."  There was a brief pause.  "Jay," he decided.  "And this is Mr Croquet.  And I don't know your name either."

"Mutou Kyoko."  She smiled.  "Jei-san, I believe I will take you up on your generous offer of dinner."

By the time the meal was finished an hour later, they had agreed to meet for breakfast the next morning before the con opened.  She had almost forgotten that she had to meet her father-in-law, and Jei-san had reminded her.  As she approached their table she was smiling so widely that she thought her face would split.  It was hard to remember when she'd last been so happy.

"There you are, Kyoko!  I was worried when a stranger was here and you weren't."

She smiled and kissed her father-in-law on the top of the head.  "A nice man asked me out to dinner, dad.  His friend was watching things for me."

The old man looked at her in surprise.  "A nice man?"

"An American, I think.  He's coming to the con for business as well.  I think he's promoting a product.  He owns his own company."

"Does this American have a name?" he asked, crossing his arms.  "And does he know that you're married?"

The woman's eyes widened as her strange happiness disappeared with the man's words.  She reached out, supporting herself briefly on the table as she felt her way to one of the chairs.  She sat heavily, eyes lowering.

"Akira can't come home this year," she said softly into the charged silence.  "He's too busy.  He said maybe in two years he'll be able to get away."

She could feel her father-in-law's sympathy.  "I shouldn't have brought it up," he said quickly.  "I'm sorry."

She waved his concern off, sighing deeply and looking up with a cynical smile.  "His last two vacations were more trouble than enjoyment, and even before that, he never liked coming home.  I really don't care, dad.  And Jei-san and I... we were just talking.  He was married, but she died, so he understands how I feel.  That was all."

Sugoroku continued to look worried.  "I set up the last of it," he said finally.  "Why don't we go home."  He took her hand.  "We should get all the sleep we can.  It's going to be a long weekend.  Pegasus Crawford, the inventer of Duel Monsters, is here."

"Then we should make a good profit."  Kyoko rose.  "I promise, dad, I'll be fine."

They started toward the exit.  "I'm meeting Jei-san for breakfast before the con opens," she remembered.  "So I'll head out before you and Yuugi come in."

Sugoroku frowned slightly, but didn't voice any objections.
 

The subway seemed to be going slower than usual to the mind of an impatient Kyoko the next morning, yet when it stopped she was more nervous than she had been when first meeting Akira's father seventeen years ago when she had first become pregnant.  What if he wasn't there?  Jei-san owned his own company.  There must be so much he should be doing.  Surely having breakfast with a stranger was the last thing on his mind.

The pale haired man waved to her energetically from in front of the hotel.  "Hallo!" he called.  "I told my associate to expect me late for our first meeting, so we can take as long as we want!"  He jogged up to her, grabbing both her hands and shaking them energetically.

Kyoko laughed.  "I don't want to make you late for anything.  A quick breakfast will do, Jei-san."

"I'm always late," he declared, walking down the street with he hand in his, swinging his arms widely as he spoke.  "Mr. Croquet is used to it by now.  I get so caught up in what I'm doing that I completely forget what I'm supposed to be doing.  Reading, playing games, my mind is highly focussed!" he declared.  "Oh!  Here we are!"  He pushed open the door of a small cafe that specialized in foreign food.  He pulled out a seat for Kyoko and pushed the chair in gently as she sat, then grabbed a pair of menus.  "Order whatever you want."

In the end, she ordered miso soup and toast while he got a bagel with cream cheese.  She watched him over the rim of her bowl as he spread the cream cheese with gusto.  He kept up a running commentary on anything that came into his mind, from the fact that it was impossible to get a good bagel outside of the eastern United Stated to how much fun he was having bringing his nephew to the con with him.

Before they got back to the building, Jei paused and turned to Kyoko, holding her hands in his.  "Come to dinner with me tonight?" he requested.  "I really couldn't have a better eating companion."

"What about your nephew?"

"We'll have lunch together and he'll have to go home before dinnertime.  Say yes."

Kyoko smiled, blushing slightly at the man's daring.  "Yes," she answered softly.