Author Notes: I've discovered I can write Anzu. She's just like Honda, with breasts. For Rice Kracker, who may or may not have seen this coming. And if she didn't see it coming, then I'm sure she's running for the hills now.

Resolution

Anzu wondered why Kaiba was always staring at her; always with that same look on his face. It was annoying and distracting and it made her want to turn around and yell at him and tell him to keep his damn stare to himself.

He did it during chemistry.

He did it during English.

He did it during maths.

He did it during biology.

And – worst of all – he did it during PE. He stared straight at her through the metal wires separating the girls' class on one set of tennis courts and the boys' class on the other courts. And he stared at her as though he was staring straight through her shirt.

So she'd taken to wearing three shirts to PE, but he hadn't stopped staring.

So now she was wearing three shirts and the longest pair of track pants she could find, and she was sweating because it was spring and it was nearly twenty-five degrees, but she was damned if she was going to take off her only layers of defence against Kaiba Seto's stare.

It was like he couldn't help himself, and it was driving her to the brink of insanity.

So when Sensei had suggested that he help her with managing their classes' activities for the school's annual 'Culture Day', she'd argued that she could manage everything on her own and that she didn't need his help because he would probably turn out to be a tyrannical dictator and the entire class would end up performing Kaiba's infamous glare for the duration of their allocated ten minutes on stage. In all likeliness, he was going to end up hijacking her project and turning it into a miserable mess while she ranted and stamped her feet (not both at the same time) and ordered him to hand back over the director's chair.

In all likeliness, one or the other was not going to last five minutes in the same room as the other.

So it was with slight trepidation that Anzu entered their classroom later that day. She'd managed to calm her frame of mind and had decided that if they were going to argue about anything, they'd better get it over with in the first five minutes so they could get on with planning the performance. That, and she was wearing three layers of shirts, just in case Kaiba was going to stare at close-range.

She walked into the room quickly, briskly almost, clutching her books almost protectively to her chest. She stopped for a moment in the doorway, noticing immediately that Kaiba looked at her. His blue eyes met hers for a moment; his stare just as intense as always.

Self-consciously, she touched one of her hands to her head and then rushed to catch her books as they slipped to one side.

Kaiba continued to watch her as she struggled to regain her composure and start walking again.

The few metres she had to walk to the other side of the room seemed to take minutes, when perhaps it only really took her thirty seconds.

The rubber soles of her shoes made odd noises against the linoleum floor, partially because she'd just been walking through the puddles of water outside and partially because she was so anxious that she was almost falling over her own feet. She knew it wasn't in her to be this nervous about something so trivial. It wasn't even as though anything had changed between her and Kaiba lately, right? So she could do this.

All she had to do was be her normal self. Be assertive. Be confident.

So she raised her eyes to meet Kaiba's, and –

God, that stare. Again.

Anzu felt her heartbeat racing again, and she tried to dodge his scrutiny as she sat down.

"O-Okay… Kaiba…" she began hesitantly, opening up her folder and taking out a piece of paper. "So do you mind if we start with the casting? I mean, I was thinking about it and I think Yuugi would be-"

Kaiba was still staring.

Anzu tried resolutely to ignore to ignore the boy, but it was hard. She felt as though his eyes were staring holes through her head, and her train of thought had already been broken.

She could feel her cheeks turning pink again although she tried desperately to focus on anything else to stop him from seeing how much he was disturbing her. She didn't want him to know his stare was turning her into a bumbling mess.

If anything, she didn't think this sort of behaviour should be encouraged.

"You were saying?" Kaiba said coolly, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms. His legs were already crossed and Anzu secretly wondered how many other joints he could cross.

She swallowed and peeled off her uniform jacket, hanging it on the back of the chair. "Um… I was saying?" she said quickly, eager to get this over with now that the boy had expressed some interest.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow and reached across the table to snatch her folder.

Anzu's eyes widened at the sudden motion, and immediately that feeling of trepidation was gone. That was the last straw. "Give it back," she demanded loudly, standing and placing her hands on her hips.

Kaiba ignored her, staring at the folder with disdain. "You should be a doctor, Mazaki," he said suddenly, looking up at her.

The unexpected compliment caught Anzu off guard. "I… huh? Why?"

"Well, for a start, I can't read your writing," Kaiba pointed out with a roll of his eyes.

Anzu scowled. "You're not supposed to be reading my writing," she said as she leaned down and snatched back her property, feeling embarrassed.

"Well you're obviously having trouble, so why should I waste my time here while you get over yourself?"

Anzu glared. "What do you mean, get over myself?"

Kaiba hardly blinked. "Well it's obvious you're trying to impede the advancement of this project in the hope that I'll forfeit the leadership to you."

Anzu stared. "What do you mean leadership? Who gave you the right to order me around? And how am I trying to impede the advancement of this project?"

Kaiba closed his eyes, not even bothering to answer properly. "What time is it Mazaki?"

Anzu looked at the clock, suddenly flustered again. They'd already been in here half an hour.

"Okay, then we'll start again, okay? So about the casting. I want Yuugi to play the role of the Samurai, and you Kaiba, well, you can-"

"I personally have never seen a sword wielding starfish before," Kaiba interrupted.

Anzu glared. "I don't need your commentary Kaiba. I'm telling you what we're doing and then we're going to do it."

Kaiba sat back. "So what am I here for then?"

"Staring probably," Anzu shot back, gasping as soon as she'd heard her own words.

Kaiba blinked as Anzu's fingers scrunched the bottom of her skirt. "Okay… So you don't agree on the casting. Well, do you want to be the samurai then?"

Kaiba wasn't as susceptible to the change of subject as Anzu had thought.

"Am I staring at you now?" he challenged, looking her in the eyes.

"Well what else am I supposed to think?" she shot back, as her cheeks flushed crimson.

"Maybe I'm staring because your three shirts make you look like a turtle," Kaiba shot back.

Anzu blinked. "Well if you wouldn't stare then I wouldn't have to wear three t-shirts!" And then Kaiba's words registered properly in her head and she could feel herself blushing all the way to her hairline. "And what right do you have to count my shirts?"

Was it her imagination or did Kaiba look vaguely pink?

She sat back down and stared at her feet, feeling horribly stupid.

"And besides, I think you're breaking the uniform code," Kaiba volunteered.

Anzu looked up and met his gaze. "Um… so why do you stare at me all the time then?"

Kaiba dragged her folder across and picked up the pen, scribbling out a few names on Anzu's casting sheet.

She looked down at the page and blinked. So Kaiba would play the samurai, and Anzu would play the mistress.

"Kaiba?"

"Hn?" He answered quickly, his cheeks a little pinker than normal. For a moment he didn't meet Anzu's eyes and concentrated his gaze on her shirt again.

"Will you please stop staring now?"

fin