Disclaimer: Kazuki Takahashi owns Yugioh. I'm just using his characters for a while.

Pairings: Yuugi x Anzu, somewhat of Jonouchi x Anzu and past Jonouchi x Mai

A/N: This story takes place about 10 years after the series ends. If you haven't watched the whole series yet... go and do that.

Have you ever noticed that it is Jonouchi helping Anzu most of the time rather than the other way around? He is always real with her, even when she's scolding him. I wanted to write a story which brought both of their emotions into the foreground, even if they have changed with the passage of time.

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Ch.1 Best Friend

It was three in the afternoon. I was taking a nap. So it surprised me when the phone rang and I heard Yuugi's voice on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Sorry, Jonouchi-kun. You sound groggy. Did I wake you?" Yuugi still called everyone kun even though we were well into our twenties and far from boyish suffixes. Yuugi himself was taller these days and I wouldn't even have used the word kun with him, if I used those suffixes at all.

"No, don't worry about it. Why are you calling?" The last time he had called me was...I couldn't even remember when.

"Well..." Yuugi started. He seemed really excited, like it was his birthday or something. Was it? We hadn't spoken for so long.

"I just wanted to tell you that me and Anzu are getting married."

I fell out of bed. I mean, it really shouldn't have surprised me at all that him and Anzu were getting married, but for some reason my brain couldn't process the message or the feeling of more bed for me to roll on. So, I fell.

"Jonouchi-kun?" Yuugi was frantic after the moment of silence. "I'm sorry. I should have known this was a bad time for you. I'll call back later."

I grabbed the phone, which had fallen under the bed.

"No, Yuugi. Stop. Don't hang up."

"Okay, okay. Are you okay?" He said as I tried to recompose myself.

"Sure. So when's the wedding?"

He told me the dates, from the rehearsal 'til they got back from their honeymoon. I wrote everything down. I didn't want to miss my best friend's wedding. I was even going to be the best man.

"So how's your grandfather these days?" I said while writing.

We spoke for more than an hour about, well, everything. I had a lot of catching up to do if I was going to be his best man.

Just before I hung up, Yuugi asked me if I would like to go out for dinner at a fancy restaurant with him and Anzu. How could I refuse?

I dressed in my most formal (but not traditional) attire. I wanted to look my best for Yuugi after all.

When I got there, Yuugi greeted me.

"Hi Jonouchi-kun! Thank you for joining us."

I looked around. He had under-exagerated the restaurant. It was really, really fancy. It even had a dance floor. I took a seat at their table, where Yuugi's grandfather was also sitting and read the menu.

It was really, really expensive.

"Have whatever you like Jonouchi-kun." Yuugi said, taking a seat next to me, opposite of his grandfather. Anzu sat opposite of me.

"Yuugi, you can't seriously expect me to not pay for my own dinner."

"Shh Jonouchi-kun." He huddled in close to me. "Grandpa insisted that we eat here. I couldn't talk him out of it. He's paying for the whole thing."

"So order whatever you like Jonouchi!" Said Yuugi's grandpa cheerfully, apparently he had heard everything.

I looked around at the table. There were actually five seats.

"Whose the fifth seat for?" I questioned.

Everyone seemed embarrassed.

"Well, Jonouchi-kun. Anzu and I expected you to have a girlfriend." A girlfriend? I hadn't had one since- "But it's fine that you didn't come with one." Yuugi said, trying to be polite. "The whole point of you coming here is for us to catch up."

And so we did. We talked about all kinds of stuff. As new couples usually do though, Anzu and Yuugi would have their own conversations and ignore me, but that was fine. I was glad to see them happy.

Then Yuugi got up to dance with Anzu. It was really amazing watching them on the dance floor, because Yuugi was still a little shorter than Anzu. She was a great dancer though and it looked like she had taught a few things to Yuugi too. I guessed that the whole point of us coming here would have been to introduce each other to our girlfriends.

I was pretty much zoning out during the whole time about that. I felt almost hypocritical not having a girlfriend to introduce to Yuugi, although I was sure he was fine with me just the way I was.

After about five songs Yuugi came up to me with Anzu.

"Would you like to dance with her, Jonouchi-kun?" He offered me her hand.

"Sure I said. It would be an honor." Yuugi obviously had no qualms with a bachelor dancing with his future wife. I took her hand, making sure I didn't hold her as tight as Yuugi had.

Besides, Anzu looked kind of pretty in her dress. I led her to the dance floor, looking at her in the most platonic way possible. Her lips were had lip gloss on them. It was kind of pinkish and it looked better than lipstick would have looked on someone like her. She was smiling at me. I didn't look at her eyes, but they were probably smiling too.

But I wondered if I looked lonely to Yuugi.

I led Anzu to the dance floor and we started to dance. I knew she was a good dancer, what I didn't know was that she was a great dancer. I must have stepped on her feet so many times, but she kept on dancing. He body felt lithe under my touch. I hadn't been this close to a women in months and it hit me that I was kind of a lonely guy.

But nevermind that. I was starting to fall into Anzu's rhythm. I felt her hair brush up against my face sometimes. It felt really good. Yuugi was a very lucky guy.

Though that meant someone had to be unlucky and that someone was me.

"Jonouchi?" Anzu started. "The real way to hold a dancer is this way." She said, leading my hands to touch her waist. Darn it! I wasn't touching her there on purpose but she had to be such a proper dancer.

I only lightly touched her there, but then I gradually held her tighter as the rhythm of the song increased. I wondered if I was holding her too hard.

I only survived for about three songs before she slapped me.

"Just hold me Jonouchi, don't pinch my ass!" I was touching her there? Since when?

She started to move back into the rhythm like nothing had happened but I stopped her.

"Alright Anzu. I can't stop stepping on your shoes and I know they're expensive."

"Okay. We can stop now." She laughed. Her laughter sounded like it had come from another world. "But you're wrong. They're not expensive."

I led her back to our table. I was almost hesitant to let her go though. I hadn't held someone as soft as her for a long time.

But I let go of her anyway. "She's all yours Yuugi."

The rest of the dinner I spent talking to Yuugi's grandpa. I was young and he was old but we still talked together like dirty old men. Still, my thoughts weren't on the conversation I was having with him. I was too busy watching Yuugi and Anzu dance.

I really shouldn't have felt that way, but after the dinner I just couldn't stop thinking about her. I took a long shower (not hot or cold) because I couldn't get the thought of her out of my head. My imagination plays tricks on me sometimes. At times, I imagine things to be better than they really were. But her pressed up against me, the music playing in the background, it had all been so perfect, so surreal. I almost felt like taking dance courses.

I almost felt like dancing with her again, her hands in my mine as the music played.

I almost felt like just holding her.

Did I like Anzu?

No that wasn't possible. I hadn't had even the slightest attraction to her since I had known her. But I did look up her skirt one time...

I went to bed feeling sick with myself.

Every night I went to bed feeling so lonely. I missed curling up with someone beside me. I even missed they way my dad would turn the TV up so loud it was hard to focus on sleep. I was living a very solitary life at this moment in time. Maybe these feelings were just natural.

I focused on the shadows on the ceiling. They seemed to throb and grow with my own desire until they were enveloping me in total darkness. My own hell.

I didn't want to like my best friend's girlfriend, but I did.

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Culture Notes: Japanese use the suffixes -sama, -san, -kun, -chan (ect.) as honorifics. -Kun is an honorific to indicate a boy. Also, if anyone is concerned, I cannot (for the life of me) see Yuugi having a traditional Japanese wedding. So he's having a Western one, but I guess this detail isn't really important to the story.

I also must thank my beta reader for suggesting something vital to the story. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for reading and reviewing as well.