A/N: My first story in a long, LONG time. The idea has been floating around my head for a while now, so figured it was time to get working on it.
Viewer discretion is advised. This story is rated M for a reason.

Also, constructive critiques are always welcome! I want this to be as realistic as possible, so please let me know what you guys are thinking!

Let It Out

Chapter One

There were only a handful of occasions in Anzu Mazaki's life that she felt truly speechless. Always quick with a witty remark or carefully thought of speech, she was the one who had something to add or an opinion to be heard, much to the annoyance of her peers growing up. Her mother, the strong willed woman she was, used to remark that she was too smart for her own good when Anzu would start off a sentence with, "Well I think..." or, "well actually, mom..."

"If I wanted your opinion, darling, I would have given it to you." The woman would reply before flicking her daughter's nose playfully.

Anzu could recall various occasions when she would overhear a classmate remarking on her being a "snobbish, know-it-all." The first time she heard someone say it, she was offended and quite honestly, a little hurt. Was she really being snobbish? A know-it-all? Surely she wasn't coming across that way, and she had better go and correct the girl.

She was about to march right up and confront her, but stopped when she noticed the nods of agreement from others around.

"That's why she's only friends with guys," another girl piped up. "They just block her out and stare at her tits. God knows she flaunts them enough." Anzu was speechless; frozen in shock at the hurtful words and watched helplessly as they walked away laughing; her courage lost. She glanced down at herself self consciously before hugging her jacket a little closer to her chest. At thirteen, it was a little more than embarrassing.

She remembered crying on the way home.

Though still hurt, she eventually learned to take those remarks with a grain of salt, having the help of her close friends in reassuring her that she was indeed a good person and not a snob; even if she was a little emotion-driven... and maybe just a little bit of a know-it-all. She just learned not to care. If people didn't like that she always had something to say, then it was just too bad. She spoke from her heart and that was what mattered to her.

As for the remark about flaunting herself, she knew that was just plain untrue. She may have developed a little earlier than most girls, but she certainly didn't try to shove it in other's faces. Nothing but a petty remark from a petty girl.

Staring at the letter in her hands, Anzu could not help but feel that this was one of those occasions when she truly did not know what to say. She bit at her lower lip nervously as she skimmed the short letter for the fourth time.

Anzu-

Thanks again for all the help moving last month! Sorry I haven't been in contact much since. Settling in has been a bitch. I'll give you a call when I get the chance.

By the way, I heard from Yugi the other day. He said he was coming back to Japan in a few weeks. (I'm sure he's already talked to you, though.) I think everyone was going to try and fly out for a few days and have a little reunion. It'll be just like old times! (Hopefully without all the near death experiences... haha!) Hopefully you'll be able to get off work and can see everyone, too. I know how busy you've been over there.

-Shizuka

Everyone was coming. Everyone was coming? She re-read the line again, perhaps thinking the more she did, the meaning might somehow change. Her fingers began to shake and she suddenly had the urge to sit down before her legs gave way.

She carefully set down the note on her cluttered desk and slumped down into her office chair.

They were all... coming back?

Now? After all this time..? The idea felt foreign. She glanced at the calendar sitting opposite her desk. Four years... It will have been four year next month.

My God... Had it really been that long?

Looking back at the letter, she couldn't help the small twinge of anger as she thought of Shizuka's words. I'm sure he's already talked to you, though.

No, he hadn't, she thought indignantly. In fact, none of them had. She hadn't spoken to hardly anyone from the old days in years. Not that she hadn't tried, of course. She tried everyday, in fact. But when phone calls stopped being returned, e-mails stopped appearing and the mailbox remained empty, she realized everyone was just.. moving on.

Eventually, she just stopped trying.

After finally being recognized as one of the top duelists in the world, Jonouchi had been offered a job in America to help design games. Anzu had initially been surprised that he was taking on a career, instead of learning a trade which he always assumed himself doing.

"Hey, if I'm being offered a job to basically play games, I'm taking it." He had told her.

She knew how excited he actually was at the prospect and really was happy for him. Anzu knew how badly he wanted people to acknowledge him as a capable adult and not the punk teenage he was associated with while growing up. She was truly proud of how he had grown. Anzu had grown increasingly close with Jou over the years. She cried when he announced the news. He hugged her and promised to call everyday.

Mai, dealing with the heartbreak of her own, had decided to move into the city. Though never very close with the blonde, Anzu would miss her familiar face around.

Honda eventually followed suit and decided to move not long after Jou left. Never much into dueling himself, he decided to go to a university in California. He joked his way through the sadness of telling everyone the news and told them that until Shizuka realized she loved him, he would have to go after another dream. He didn't have a specific area of interest in mind, but said he had always wanted to live there. Honda had grown on her since they first met, and couldn't deny the emptiness that came and replaced his leaving. She would miss his jokes the most everyday.

One by one they were going.

She remembered sitting alone with Yugi at the game shop one afternoon, weeks later, both halfheartedly playing a game of cards. Neither one of them was in the greatest of spirits without Jonouchi and Honda there to liven things up. Anzu could sense a great deal of sadness in her best friend as he fingered the chain of the puzzle around his neck. She knew that the spirit of the puzzle was growing increasingly distant from Yugi and the others the more he tried to regain memories about his forgotten past. Anzu sympathized and often offered to help him as much as she could, but she knew there was really nothing she could offer besides support.

"He wants to go to Egypt," Yugi had said softly, breaking her out of the daze she had found herself in.

"What?"

"He knows there isn't anything more we can do here in Japan..."

"Wait, what do you... What do you mean?" She asked heavily.

"He wants to go back... he wants to leave."

She felt like someone had slapped her in the face.

"But... I thought he was... I mean what can really be-There has to be something else we can do here. We just haven't been trying hard enough. We have everything here. The museums, history books... Isis and Malik-"

"-Are going back." Yugi finished quietly.

"What?" she breathed.

"They're going back to Egypt. Yami wants to go with them. That's where all his answers are, Anzu. That's where he can maybe try to start feeling some peace."

"I know... I just... I thought maybe he was finally feeling at peace here... Ya know, since everything that's happened. I thought he had learned enough to move on..."

Yugi just started at her, scrutinizing her face. She kept her eyes downcast for fear of letting Yugi see the tears that were beginning to form in here eyes. He must have know how she felt... He must have know that she was in love with the spirit. He had to know she loved Atem... After everything that had happened, she couldn't bare to see him go. For all she knew, him leaving Japan could mean his spirit finally leaving this world altogether.

Finally Yugi spoke, softer than before. His own voice threatened to crack.

"He wants to go home, Anzu."

Before she could stop herself, the tears came. When he reached out to take her hand, she quickly wiped away the wetness from her eyes. "It's ok.." she said, forcing a wide smile. "Really, it's fine. I get it. It was selfish of me to want him to stay... It's fine. We'll just try to help out however we can. We can keep in touch with Isis and she can fill us in..." Pain filled his eyes as he gently lowered his hand onto hers.

"I'm... I'm going with him."

Somehow, she knew he was going to say that.

Anzu was sure she had finished all her crying four years ago, when the then 19 year old girl slowly began to watch her best friends move on with their lives, and was surprised when she felt an all too familiar jolt in the pit of her stomach that threatened to turn into tears.

She finally tore her eyes away from the paper and inhaled deeply, broken out of the paralysis she found herself in after the initial reading of the letter. Slowly she opened the bottom drawer of her desk and began rummaging through various papers. Documents, old reports, trash she didn't bother throwing away. She didn't care much about any of that. (Though she was sure her boss would have a fit if he found out she had them stuffed in a drawer.) What she really cared about was laying at the very bottom, shut away and forgotten where she wouldn't be hurt anymore by looking at it.

With shaking hands, she picked up the picture frame.

Her heart seemed to skip a beat when she looked down at the faces of four young teenagers, all wearing graduation caps. She ran a finger over the glass and a faint smile crossed her lips.

Honda and Jonouchi stood in the background, arms around each other's necks, wearing what Anzu thought to be the goofiest of smiles. She herself stood in front of them, smiling widely, her own arms wrapped around the smaller frame of the boy next to her. Yugi was grinning sweetly. There was a slight protrusion on his chest, where she knew the Millennium puzzle was hanging under his robes.

Everyone looked so happy...

She remembered the day so well. As soon as the graduation ceremony was finished, and the hats had come back down to the ground, they all found one another. It was like an unspoken force that immediately pulled them together through the crowds of people. The hugs and laughs they shared in that moment was something she knew she would never forget. After all they had gone through together, it was almost as if, in that moment, they all felt feeling infinite. She had quickly pulled out a camera from her purse and looked around.

"Ryou!" she called when she spotted the white haired boy standing alone a few feet away. She waved the camera at him when she saw his brown eyes turn to her. "Would you mind?"

He waved back and made his way over to the rest of them and smiled softly as he reached out and took the camera from her, his fingers brushing against hers lightly. They all assumed their position and within a moment, he was handing the camera back to her.

"That'll be a really nice one." he had said with a smile. She was too caught in the moment to hear him as she took back the camera, laughing at something Jou had said instead. She didn't notice when he turned and walked away.

A strange feeling crept up as she thought about it.

Ryou...

She clutched the picture frame tighter as she thought about the white haired boy. How long had it been since she had thought about him? She bit her lip as a pang of guilt washed through her. The truth was, she had been so caught up in her own life, she hadn't given him much thought since highschool. In fact, she was sure she hadn't spoken to him once since.

Staring at the faces of her oldest friends, she remembered with guilt how she had basically thrust the camera at him to take their picture that day, not even bothering to invite him in a picture at all. She silently cursed her own insensitivity. She was sure he must have felt excluded in a way. Sure, they were never super close to him. But then again, nobody ever really tried to get to know him, either. And excluding people was not something that Anzu Mazaki did.

She set the photo on her desk and sat back in her chair, tearing her eyes away finally and letting them settle on the office window. Her view was nothing special, but it gave her something else to look at.

Truthfully, she had to admit that she felt bad for Ryou. She knew little about him, but what she did know wasn't a very happy story. She supposed having the spirit of a 3,000 year old thief possessing his body most had something to do with it. She couldn't hide the scowl that crossed her face as she thought about Bakura. He was the reason Ryou suffered so much. He was the one who put all of them through hell and back in his journey to collect all of the Millennium items.

The more she thought about it, the more she couldn't help but feel as though it had all been some sort of dream. The Millennium items, all she had been through... With everyone gone, it felt as though none of it had happened. To Anzu, it felt like everyone had forgotten what they had gone through together. Duelist Kingdom, Battle City... Everything. When everyone moved on to pursue their lives, it was like a book had closed and wasn't going to be opened again.

"You ok, Anzu?" said a voice, breaking her out of her thoughts. She looked up at the figure standing in the doorway.

"Oh, hey... Sorry, just got lost in thought for a second." She smiled at the man. "What's up?"

"Just checking in. You doing ok with the bigger workload?"

"I think so." She said, pretending to rearrange some papers on her desk.

"Good. You've been kind of quiet since you got transferred... If you need help with anything, you just let me know, ok?"

"Thanks, Hiro." Anzu said genuinely.

"Well it's starting to get bad out there." he said, motioning to the window. "You may want to head out soon."

She glanced back at the window. At some point in the day the snow had started coming down much harder.

"My favorite." Anzu said grinning at him. He was a nice enough guy and had been very helpful as she had just recently settled into the new job, often finding himself walking past her office and poking his head in. She stood up and picked the picture frame and letter off the desk and began to tuck them away in her purse.

"Cute picture" he remarked, gesturing to where the frame was. "Friends of yours?"

"From highschool." She said, suddenly finding interest in the invisible object she searched for in her bag. She turned her back quickly and grabbed her jacket and scarf off the coat rack and pulled them on over her shoulders.

"Well anyways, stay warm Mazaki. Oh, and don't forget Mr. Kaiba wants me to get those clients taken care of by Tuesday, so don't forget I need the run down not later than Monday morning."

"Right."

When Anzu arrived home, she walked in and heaved a sigh, pressing her back against the closed door. Damn, it was freezing out there. She shivered and brushed the snow from her hair and jacket. It was early in the year for snow, and it was coming down much harder than usual. Not even throwing a second glance around the room, Anzu found herself marching up the steps to her bedroom. The only thing she found herself wanting in that moment was her bed. Big, warm and coaxing her into it's satin sheets. She dropped her purse and jacket at the door and kicked off her shoes before crawling straight under the covers. The clock on her nightstand read 6:05 p.m. Still early. Too early.

She couldn't bring herself to care as she pulled the covers over her and stared at the ceiling. Her mind was somewhere else.

It was back in her office where she read the letter. It was back with Yugi at the game shop. Back at the airport as she watched Jou's plane take off and helping Honda pack his bags.

Back where she looked in Ryou's sad brown eyes last...

Her own eyes filled with tears as she watched her ceiling fan rotate slowly for the longest time. She wasn't sure why the thought of him upset her so much. It wasn't like any of it mattered anymore. She didn't even know what happened to him after graduation. There was nothing she could do for him anymore.

Right?

Eventually her eyes grew heavy and slowly began to flutter close.

It was best to just... forget it.

As least for tonight, anyways.

A/N: So maybe not the most exciting of first chapters, but I hope you all stick with me. Please leave a review! I can't write if I have nobody who will read!