Lightning-Dono: I have this really strong urge to write an angsty (not a word...) fic (I love angsty one-shots. The ones I've read are absolutely tear-jerking and I want to get my writing up to that level.) Because...it's the first day of school and I'm already having doubts about the year already. No classes with my friends (I think I made one friends, but she's kind of a...show-off and complains an awful lot.). Anyway, I love the non-edit of Yuugiou. A lot. So I'm going to base another fanfic off that anime. You are all probably thinking, "When is she going to get over some dumb anime, anyway?" Well, my answer is when I get tired of it. That's how I work - I got tired of Yu-Gi-Oh for a few days and then I saw some more manga scanlations (I'm afraid to ask my dad to go to the book store to buy more manga. xD)

Anyway, enough about me, on with the fic! By the way, I have no clue what Anzu's past is, so don't flame me because I don't know. (I didn't read the first few volumes of the manga, but hush, no one needs to know that. But I've always heard that in the manga she kicks butt. ;))

Wait...You need to hear my biased opinions! I find it annoying when people complain that she's whiny and stuff. How come no one else complains when Yuugi or Jounouchi and the other members of the cast comment about their friendship? It's discrimination, I tell you! x.x

Anzu stood before the mirror, her shirt seeming a bit tight. She straightened her back and sucked in her stomach to survey herself as she stood in an un-slouched position. Her aunt had once again forgotten her shirt size and gotten a size too small.

She was living with her aunt temporarily until her mother recovered from a recently inflicted coma that threatened her life months before. It was a reckless driver that had caused it, and for that, Anzu had gained a strange dislike for vehicles of any kind. May it be a truck, a motorcycle, or bus, she loathed them with a passion.

"Anzu-chan, you should be getting to school!" Her aunt shouted up the narrow stairs that led up to Anzu's room. She took one last glance at the mirror, sighed, and stumbled down the stairs clumsily while pulling on her school uniform top.

"Coming!" She pulled her aunt into a quick hug and banged out the front door, much to her aunt's confusion.

She reached the bus stop in time, but then she remembered that it was a vehicle similar to that of a school bus that had hit her mother.

"Anzu!" Honda and Yuugi called from behind her. Jounouchi followed, out of breath with a pencil clenched tightly between his teeth.

"Your dad starved you?" She teased him after greeting the other two.

Jounouchi removed the pencil from his mouth before speaking. "Very funny. I thought I was going to be late so I popped this into my mouth and ran before my father could beat me up again, actually." He opened a pocket in his bag and shoved it on forcefully, as though he were attempting to break the pencil.

"So, Anzu, why do you look so hurried?" Yuugi asked in his innocent voice, his amethyst-colored eyes peering at Anzu's hair.

Her hand popped up immediately to her hair to flatten it - an annoying reflex that she had whenever started staring at her hair.

"Oh, I was worried that I'd be late," she lied, avoiding eye contact with Yuugi. Yuugi still sensed that something was wrong with his friend, but he decided that it was best to ignore it while he could.

"Look, the bus it here! We made it on time!" Honda exclaimed.

Out of all the other stupid things he could've done he had to point out that the bus was coming, Anzu thought.

"Well, what else is big and has a huge duel disk advertisement on it?" Jounouchi asked in annoyance. "Other than a billboard?" He added quickly. No one thought to differ because this was quite true.

Anzu had only one chance to her point, so she chose when they were all about to board the bus.

"I think I'll walk to school!" She burst, glancing at the shocked bus driver's face as he watched her run off in tears. Her friends stared at her back as she ran blindly and as fast as she could towards the school.

"What's up with her?" Honda questioned blankly as he took a seat behind Jounouchi and Yuugi. Watching the back of Jounouchi's head, he saw the blonde boy shrug, probably as puzzled as he was about this whole situation.

Anzu arrived at school after the bus did, out of breath and covered in water from pounding down the sidewalk that was littered with puddles due to the rainfall last night.

Leaning over, supporting herself by placing her hands on her knees, she took in a few deep breaths before continuing on into the building.

"Anzu!" Honda shouted, leaping out from behind the lockers as she trudged by, nearly giving Anzu a heart attack.

"What do you think you're doing?" She yelled out of instinct. Honda's eyes widened.

"What's wrong? You never yell like th-,"

"Just go away!" She screamed at him. Even in the din of the daily chatter among students, most turned to witness this interesting yelling frenzy between the two friends.

"Huh?" Honda looked shocked, but then his aggressive side kicked in. "What do you mean 'Just go away'? What's your problem? Just too good for us now!?" He bellowed at Anzu, who continued to stand strong against the tall teen that was towering over her.

Yuugi and Jounouchi entered the scene after putting away the un-needed contents of their bags.

"Guys, what's going on?" Jounouchi asked as he stared at the scene that was playing before his eyes.

"She thinks she's better than us, that's what!" Honda thundered, threatening to step on Anzu's toes as he lifted his foot to move forward.

Anzu was shocked. What had ever possessed her to yell at her friend like that? "I never said that!" She told him in a voice full of rage directed towards herself.

"Yes you did-,"

"She never said that, Honda. Let's stop fighting before we get in trouble," Yuugi said helplessly.

"But she started it!" The chestnut-colored haired boy replied defiantly.

"Onegai?" Yuugi begged. Apparently, no one could stand the intense beseeching in that boy's eyes. They both parted; Anzu turning her back immediately and rushing to her locker before she could side-tracked. Honda turned unwillingly and left with Jounouchi for their first period.

As she leaned into her locker, placing her un-needed books inside and her bag inside, she glared at the mirror inside that depicted her as a feisty and annoying teenager with crazy hair and teary eyes. Closing her eyes, she clutched her head in hate and thought.

Why I am always the one left out? She asked herself silently, tears forming readily around her eyelids.

"Hey, space cadet!" One of the girls shrieked at her. "Your locker door is blocking mine!"

Anzu's eyes opened immediately as the locker door collided painfully with the back of her neck as the other girl slammed it onto her out of lack of patience. "Ow," she moaned softly as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"Well, don't just stand there with your locker door open!" The other girl shouted. "I'm tired of hearing you blame everyone for making you late!"

Anzu stormed off through the hall, forgetting to lock her locker before leaving.

After surviving her first few classes, she was relieved to depart the classrooms for lunch. After picking up her tray and lining up behind her tri-color haired friend, she said, "Konnichi wa, Yuugi!"

When the young boy refused to look at her, she added, "How were your classes?"

"Good," he replied, not even turning around to face her. She decided frantically in the back of her mind that he was pre-occupied by another thought, although she had instantly jumped to the conclusion that he now hated her.

When she set down her tray next to the pale young boy and slipped onto the bench, he seemed to be avoiding her very face. Instead of turning to chat with her as he usually did, he was eating more to the right and his body was turned towards Jounouchi, who was proudly ranting about how he had scraped math with a 68 percent for that quarter.

"...Yuugi?" Anzu whispered quietly, feeling the deep sinking feeling in her heart that she couldn't completely describe. She kept prodding him on the shoulder with her hand until he finally gave in.

"What?" He asked in an annoyed tone that she had never heard him use before. Anzu hadn't been expecting such a rude reply, but she continued.

"Why are you ignoring me? I mean, you never do that!" She accidentally nudged her tray right off the table and it fell with a clatter onto the ground; her meal splattering onto the cold floor. Freezing for a moment out of shock, she was aware of many people staring at the blush that was slowly creeping up her neck.

Yuugi shook his head. "I don't think I want to touch that." His eyes were about to avert back to the suddenly hesitant Jounouchi who was looking slightly pale when he saw the food spread out messily across the floor.

"Will you stop acting like that!?" She screamed, the pressure finally getting to her as she absorbed the disgusted looks everyone was giving her. "There's something going on whether you deny it or NOT!" The pain that took place in her chest rose up to her strained vocal cords. She was only slightly aware of the fact that the staff that were overseeing the lunch break were headed towards her.

"Anzu, there's nothing going on-,"

"Just get it over with, why don't you?" She spat bitterly.

Honda took over the argument without even thinking. "I know you think you're better than us," he informed in a smug voice.

"What?" She half shouted, her voice ending at a high note that rang throughout the whole cafeteria. Everyone had assumed their chatter once more.

"It's true!" Honda got up and started running up and down the aisle, waving his arms by his side in a girly way that Anzu found highly annoying. "I think I'll walk to school!" He mimicked, pretending to wipe tears from the corners of his eyes. "Oh, Anzu, that was classic. But just because you put on such an act doesn't mean you can cover up the truth."

"And what might that be?" She asked shrilly.

"Are you kidding? How many times do we have to make the point clear? We think that you think that you're too good for us." Having uttered all of this in one breath, he panted.

"I am not!" She cried, launching herself onto Honda, who happened to be across the table from her. Crashing into everything on the table, she managed to get herself on him.

"Rape!" One of the boys at the other tables crowed.

"STOP!" A teacher shrieked.

Ignoring the crowd, Anzu held onto Honda's collar tightly. "You bastard!" She whispered with rage, punching him in the nose. "You started all of this!"

Honda ended up with a heavily bleeding nose while Anzu got herself landed on a one-way trip home.

"Anzu-chan, what got into you...?" Her aunt asked in a shaky voice. She never had any children of her own and wasn't aware of how violent they could be. "Isn't Honda a friend of yours?"

"No he is NOT!" She fumed, her arms crossed and her eyes half-mast.

"But-,"

"I don't have any friends!" She screamed, letting out the one thing that she had always wanted to say. Then, she remembered. It was the one topic she had wanted to bring up conversationally with her mother because she had always felt that the gang mistreated her sometimes. Her aunt could never understand the pain of growing up with people who wanted to bully you at every corner. People who couldn't even respect you for who you were.

But her friends weren't the only ones to blame, as she soon discovered.

"It was my fault," she groaned. She had thrown herself onto her bed as soon as she stepped foot into the house and managed to survive living with herself on the way up the stairs. "If I had told them about my mom...If I-,"

She found herself sub-consciously picking up the phone and dialing Yuugi's number, willing his jii-chan to pick up.

"This is the Mutou residence," came the usual gruff voice.

"Anou...This is Anzu."

"Ah! Anzu!"

"Hai...I would like to speak to Yuugi if he's not busy?"

She could just picture the elderly man heading up the stairs to check on his grandson. "He has some friends over right now. Would you mind calling later?"

"No, not at all..."

"Good. See you soon, Anzu!" Sugoroku hung up.

Anzu made sure her hair was no longer static-looking and took off towards the game shop.

"It figures that he just happens to have some friends over. You'd think he'd invite me, too, if he actually cares." She snorted. "Of course, Anzu, of course he does." Laughing silently at her foolish thoughts, she threw open the door, the bell attached to the door ringing wildly.

"Konnichi wa!" Sugoroku called from the storage room. Anzu bowed in return.

"Is Yuugi up in his room?"

Sugoroku chuckled. "As always. Says they're up there doing homework, but it sounds a whole lot more conventional than just a bunch of kids doing work."

Anzu bowed once more before clambering up the stairs. She heard laughing as she walked up them. Perhaps they were actually just cracking a few jokes while doing homework?

The room when silent when she reached the door. She twisted the doorknob and walked into a cramped room with Jounouchi sucking a lemon drop sitting in the chair; Yuugi lying on the bed; and Honda sitting cross-legged on the floor as though meditating.

"Hiyah, Anzu," Honda said casually.

"Guys, I want to tell you something," Anzu said apologetically.

"What might that be?" Jounouchi asked curiously, biting into the lemon drop with a loud Crack!.

"You know this morning when I didn't want to get on the bus?" She started to feel the confidence flow into her.

"Yeah."

Jounouchi and Honda grunted in reply.

"Well, my mom-,"

"She doesn't want you to hang out with the likes of us. We understand." The three males smiled humorlessly at her.

Anzu felt the tension and frustration come back into her mind, but she fought to keep her voice calm. "I didn't want to ride it because my mom fell into a coma after being hit by another car in a car accident." She hadn't meant to be so blunt about it. Not to mention that it didn't have the affect that she had been hoping for.

"So? Doesn't mean you have to completely ditch us," Honda replied, tossing the toothpick he had been playing with in his mouth into the trash can.

Jounouchi, however, approached her carefully. "I'm sorry to hear that," he told her sympathetically. Anzu checked to see if his voice was carrying the tone of mistrust, but could find none.

"What do you know about what I'm experiencing?" She fumed, pulling away from him.

Jounouchi paused for a second, pondering upon whether this was a good time to say this or not. "I hardly have any family left, Anzu," he said quietly, his eyes staring fixedly at his sneakers, "of course I know how it feels to not have any family to turn to."

"I have my aunt," Anzu replied defensively, realizing all to late that this was probably the last thing her friends wanted to hear. If she could even call them friends any more.

".. Fine." He shrugged and drew back good-naturedly.

"Why can't you guys understand? I hate them...Th-They could've killed my mother!" She yearned to shout this, but she didn't feel like straining her vocal cords for something quite so idiotic. Especially not for people who couldn't display a speck of affection for a person who was emotionally in pain.

Jounouchi, once again, was the first to rise and argue his point. "I tried to show that I understood!" He said, and for the first time she had ever seen him, quivering. "If you would just accept this then we wouldn't be fighting over something so...stupid!"

Anzu's voice dropped a bit when she replied to this. "Gomen nasai," she whispered simply.

"Whatever." He retreated to the chair once again, his hands stuffed defiantly in his pockets; his worn-out jacket drooping depressingly from his shoulders down.

There was an awkward silence. Honda plucked a loosening string from his pants intently; Jounouchi kept moving around on the wooden chair, which creaked unpleasantly beneath him; Yuugi sitting on the bed prying off one of his socks with great difficulty.

"I'm sorry for being such a jerk," she finished, wanting to leave her audience. Already this wasn't turning out as successful as she had been imagining in her head. She had been expecting some "It's okay"'s and a few apologies before they all launched into a deep conversation about how silly they had been.

Yuugi got up on his feet and bounced up and down on his heels. "Well, now that we're all on good terms now, who wants some hot chocolate?" He asked, ignoring all of the confused looks that the occupants of the room were giving him.

"It's not that cold, Yuugi. Besides, I don't think your jii-chan would like us wasting his cocoa powder," Honda said darkly.

"-and then he'll probably throw a fit and never let us come and do our homework again," Jounouchi concluded heartily.

By the end of the stories about Sugoroku getting mad over a packet of hot cocoa, the four teenagers were suffering fits of laughter.

"I think I'll be leaving now," Anzu laughed, waving at them through a stream of hot tears caused by her hard laughter. As she placed her hand on the door handle, ready to leave, she felt something grip onto her waist. She looked down to make sure that it wasn't an insect that had decided to land there out of all places. Instead, she saw a prickly head of spiked hair and friendly eyes.

Yuugi's grin sparkled. "I'm sorry for being so rude to you today."

"Oh, it's okay," she said, embarrassed.

He wouldn't take that for an answer. "Anzu, tell me what you would say to someone who has been mistreating you."

"It's fine!" She insisted, trying to escape his grasp and turning a deeper shade of pink on the cheeks.

"Anzu, I'm not kidding!"

She sighed and desperately searched her mind for a decent reply. "I would say that everything was okay...Because they're my friend again." Leaning down to hug the boy, she left, waving to the three that remained at the Game Shop.

When she arrived home, the sun was setting. Flecks of gold and orange filled the sky to form a two-color rainbow as the darkness consumed the light to form night itself.

"Good news, Anzu-chan!" Her aunt puffed as soon as she stepped in through the door.

"Nani?"

"The doctors have called me to confirm your mother's condition." The aging lady looked out of breath. Anzu couldn't tell if she was upset or ecstatic.

"Yes...?"

"She's just recovered from the coma and is doing fine! She'll be discharged in a couple of days."

For the first time in several months, Anzu truly smiled.