Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters.

Author: Makarios

Title: In Between

Summary: Fate has a funny was of messing with Anzu's life. With a pair of distant and un-concerning parents, going away on a business trip, Anzu finds herself stuck with an older tyrannical cousin who wants nothing to do with her. On top of all of that, she's balancing school, work, and dance lessons when she slowly begins to realize that she's caught in between two, or should she say three? men. What's a girl to do?

A/N: Even though I'm using the name Anzu instead of Tea in this fanfic, I'm keeping everyone else with their English dubbed names. Why? One, Anzu just sounds better and two, I'm too lazy to type out all the Japanese names. XD

Enjoy.

--

School had just stared up again after the short month break. It didn't seem like a long time, a month, but friends now found themselves separated and drifting away from each other with the coming of their new assigned home rooms. New clicks, new clubs, new acquaintances lead everyone in different directions.

Not everything completely changed over the short resting period though. Every morning a group of four friends would be found congregated around one of the classroom desks. In this group you would find: Yugi the soft, yet strong leader, Joey the loud, but trustworthy sidekick, Tristan, the stubborn pillar of strength and Anzu the glue that held them all together. And like always, it was the same schedule every day for the four. Yugi, Joey and Tristan would head off to the Turtle Game Shop after school while Anzu balanced a job followed closely by dance lessons later in the evening.

No one really realized it though, that Fate had a funny way of playing around with this particular group of friends. As it was, Fate was getting ready to stir up trouble once more, and this time it would come crashing down on the world of the only female of the group.

You'd think that with all that she's gone through with friends that she would be used to it by now.

--

It was late Friday night when Anzu found herself walking home. The day was long and hard for her as a while ago she got off of her shift of work at the Domino Mall. Not being the one to waste the time, or the opportunity, Anzu rushed over to the local dance studio, which was conveniently located ten blocks away from the mall, to work on her dance routine. She was thankful for the generous instructors at the studio who understood her schedule and had allowed her to stay at much later hours to practice her moves.

After Anzu deemed that her routine was adequate for the night, she packed up her belongings and began to walk the long trek, which was another twenty blocks back the other direction, to home. She was sore, the least to say, the first night that she started this new regimen. The first couple of nights were the hardest, as she would be too weak and exhausted to walk up the stairs of her parent's home to her bedroom, so often she just collapsed on the living room couch. Come the next morning, she would silently curse herself and her aching body, as she raced to take a shower and then make it to school before she was late.

She was getting better though. Two weeks later she was able to actually get up the stairs to her bedroom and successfully set her alarm clock before she quickly passed out on her bed, still dressed in her full attire. Another week and she was finally able to come home, eat a quick snack before going up to her room, changing and then quietly falling into a peaceful slumber.

On the way home from the dance studio one night, Anzu was lost in her thought over her last dance rehearsal. There were still some small kinks that she needed to work out, and come tomorrow she decided that she was going to stay a little later to fix them. So while she was walking home through the business district of Domino, it never crossed her mind that she walked past the Kaiba Corp. building every night.

Passing in front of the main doors of the large building, Anzu was suddenly jostled out of her thoughts when she ran into a soft but sturdy form and proceeded to stumble back a few steps.

"Watch where you're walking Mazaki." sneered a deep voice.

Rubbing her now sore nose, Anzu looked up to see the one and only Seto Kaiba glaring down on her.

"Oh sorry Kaiba. I was thinking about something and didn't see you there." she said apologetically.

"You know Mazaki, they don't always mean that you have to think before you act." he said smirking at her before he proceeded to walk towards his awaiting limo.

'Why that lousy jerk!' Anzu huffed before turning away and continuing her walk home. 'Who the Hell does he think he is saying that to me? It wasn't completely my fault. He could have moved out of the way or something.'

It was the next night that Anzu found herself consciously aware of where she was when she walked home through the business district this time. The bright lights from the Kaiba Corp. building were all but on when Anzu approached the structure. Walking towards the complex, Anzu realized that the lobby lights were on and there was a figure walking out the main doors.

Realizing who it was, Anzu glared at Kaiba before standing up straighter and picking up her pace. They crossed their paths, not saying a word to the other and Anzu thought that for once Kaiba was going to keep his comments to himself.

"Should I take your silence as you keeping your mouth shut or you not being able to think of anything witty to say?" his words sliced through the air.

Anzu spun around was just about to reply, (she did have a witty remark, she was just waiting for him to say something first) but found that Kaiba was already in his limo and was driving away.

"Oh! I hate him!" Anzu yelled as she threw her bags on the ground huffing.

It went on like this constantly. Every night Anzu would walk by the Kaiba Corp. building where she would cross paths with Kaiba himself. They would exchange snide remarks, and then go there separate ways as if nothing ever happened.

So after a particularly nasty run-in the two had had, Anzu got home half an hour later than usual. By the time she was dressed in her pajamas and was drifting quietly in bed, all thoughts of Kaiba that had plagued her mind earlier left and were replaced as she imagined how sweet it was going to be to savior sleeping in tomorrow on this, most definitely needed weekend.

--

Anzu groggily stepped down the stairs late the next morning to find clinking and clacking sounds coming from the kitchen. Rubbing the sleepies (A/N: Yes, I do call them sleepies) from her eyes, she was surprised to be greeted with the sight of her parents sitting comfortably in the kitchen. Her mother was over at the stove cooking, while her father was sitting silently at the table reading the morning paper while drinking a cup of coffee.

"Mom? Dad? What are you guys doing here? I thought you were on a business trip in America?" Anzu said as she came to sit across from her father.

"Why Anzu darling, there you are! We were wondering when you were going to come down." Her mother cheerfully said as she turned around to see her still half-asleep daughter. "We came home early from our last trip. We didn't tell you that we were coming home because we wanted it to be a surprise. But by the time we got in, it was already late and you were already in bed." her mother explained.

"Awww, you guys should have woken me up anyways." Anzu pouted.

"We tried to." her father said folding the paper so she could see his face. "But you were out cold, and by the looks of it, you weren't going to let anything wake up you."

"Here honey." Anzu's mother said as she set a plate of food down in front of her "Eat up."

"Thanks mom." Anzu said gratefully as she dug into her meal.

Something was up though, Anzu could just feel the anticipation hanging in the air. Her parents usually didn't act like this often. All warm and welcoming. It wasn't that her parents hated her, or she them, it's just they were always too buys to deal with Anzu and her life. Now that she was old enough, her parents saw this as a chance to branch out a bit more with their company. Most of the time, the two of them would be gone for a short month or maybe two at the longest while they left Anzu at home. But it was usually at time like these that Anzu realized that her parents were trying to suck up to her before they let her in on some big news or plans that they had coming up. And when this happened, Anzu often found that her aunt and uncle usually volunteered to come over and watch Anzu along with the house, for her parents would be gone for uncertain periods of time.

Not wanting to beat around the bush, Anzu put down her fork. "So how long and where are you guys going to this time?" she questioned.

Both of her parents abruptly stopped what they were both doing. Her father's cup of coffee was mid-air and her mother froze from what she was doing over at the stove.

"Anzu honey, it's not that we want to go..." her father began.

"I know dad. I just wish that you guys would just tell me what's happening with you instead of keeping me in the dark all of the time." Anzu picked up her fork and pushed the food around her plate.

"Well sweety," her mother said as she sat down beside Anzu, "we're going to be going back over to America for a while." she said getting straight to the point.

"So what's new with that? You guys just got back from America. If you're going to go back, then why didn't you just stay there longer?." Anzu went back to her eating her breakfast.

"It's big this time Anzu." her father said as he sat down his paper and began to eat his own food. "We were speaking with some contractors over in the States and they said that they wanted to try expand our company to overseas. They were very interested in our products and were wondering what we thought of the idea."

"Okay, so how long are you guys going to be gone?" Anzu pressed.

"Ahhh, that's why we wanted to come home for a little bit." her father continued "We don't know how long this is going to take, but we're estimating somewhere to be close to a full year."

"What?! A full year?!" Anzu shrieked.

"I know honey, it seems like it's a long time. But we really want to do this." her mother said putting an arm around Anzu's shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

Anzu sighed in disbelief. 'I can't believe this. Almost a full year?'

"So are aunt Rima and uncle Shiki coming over to stay for a full year then?"

"Ah, you see, your aunt and uncle can't make it this time. They called a week back and said that they were going on a cruise in the Bahamas." her mother stated.

Anzu was confused now. "Okay... so who is coming over then? Unless you guys are letting me stay alone for a whole year... Are you?"

"No, no, no." her father quickly stated. Her father quickly glanced at her before going back to his food. "Your older cousin Ruka is coming over to watch you."

Dear God help her. Her older cousin Ruka. Anzu shuddered at the thought of her cousin coming to live here, in her house, bossing her around for a full year. Anzu was positive that by now there was somebody upstairs who truly hated her and wanted to make her life a living Hell.

"Oh it won't be too bad." her mother gestured with a few waves of her hand. "You're cousin kindly offered to come over. She said she would be happy to."

'Happy my ass.' Anzu glared at her plate of food. 'She just jumped at the opportunity to live and sleep somewhere for free.'

"When are you guys leaving?" she asked her hands now clenched in her lap.

"Regrettably, we have to leave tonight." said her father.

Of course they did. This is what they did to her every time the left. Come home, stay for a day or two, and then leave again that very night. Sometimes Anzu wondered if her parents even liked coming home at all.

"I'm not hungry anymore." Anzu said suddenly standing up.

"Honey are you sure." her mother asked.

Anzu plastered a fake smile on her face. "Don't worry mom. I've just got a lot of homework to get done today. I want to get it finished so I can be free Sunday."

"Well okay..." her mother's voice trailed off.

'This is unfair.' Anzu thought as she quickly jogged up the stairs to her room before shutting the door behind her quietly.

--

It was Monday morning when Anzu found herself riding the city bus to school. Still feeling a bit emotionally drained from her weekend, she closed her eyes and thought about what had happened over the past few days.

Later that Saturday night, Anzu emerged from her room after spending all day upstairs. She wasn't lying when she said she had homework to do. She had several different assignments from different classes that demanded her full attention. So when she came down the stairs, she realized that it was already in the later afternoon. There were traces of oranges hues everywhere from the setting sun that filled up the quiet house as Anzu made her way towards the kitchen.

Not surprised to see that her parents weren't around, and their car gone from the front driveway, Anzu guided herself over to the fridge to grab a bite to eat. It was only then when she turned around that she noticed the sterile white envelop sitting on the kitchen counter with a small note beside it. Picking up the envelope, Anzu opened it and let out a quite gasp of surprise upon seeing the large stack of bills upon bills of money safely tucked away inside. She quickly rifled through the stack of money and was even more surprised to find several more credit cards in the back, all with her name on them.

Setting the envelop down, Anzu picked up and read the note.

Anzu,

Sorry we left without a word of goodbye, we got a call earlier that our flight had been changed and we had to leave as soon as possible. If you have, or haven't, noticed already, we left you some funds incase of emergency or anything that you may need. No need to worry about the house bills, those are already taken care of.

With much love,

Mom & Dad

P.S: you cousin will be moving in on Monday while you're at school.

Anzu came back to her present thoughts when she noticed that the bus had come to her stop only a block away from her school. Getting off she grimaced at the thought of her cousin moving into her house with her not there. It was a good thing that she decided to hide all that money too.

"Hello there Anzu." a voice to her right suddenly said.

"Oh Ryou!" Anzu said as she put a hand on her chest. "You scared me."

"My apologies. So how was you weekend?" Ryou asked kindly.

"Oh, it could have been better." Anzu said as she was assaulted with thoughts of her cousin again. "How was yours?" she asked, quickly trying to change the subject.

"I could say the same as you." he replied coughing and looking away.

"Ryou? Are you okay?" Anzu asked putting a hand on his arm.

When he quickly flinched away, Anzu's eyes narrowed and she grabbed Ryou's other uninjured arm before pulling him into a nearby alley between two shops before stopping and turning to face him.

"Tell me what happened." she demanded looking him straight in the eyes.

"It's nothing really." Ryou said trying to walk away.

"Oh no you don't." she said grabbing him and pulling him back into the alley. It didn't go unnoticed either that he flinched at her touch again. "I'm not stupid Ryou." her eyes softened while looking at him. "Please tell me what happened. You're my friend. I want to help you."

Looking at her Ryou sighed and set down his school case. 'I'll never be able to escape her now.' he thought. 'Not that I'd ever want to...'

Pulling back the sleeve of his uniform, Ryou showed Anzu the angry bruise that marred most of his arm.

"Oh my God, Ryou... how did this happen?" Anzu said as she gently grabbed his arm to inspect the mark.

"Well, it wasn't exactly my doing." Ryou said slowly.

Anzu's eyes quickly snapped over to him. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." Ryou trailed off.

Anzu's eyes suddenly widened in surprise. "Bakura did this?" she asked. "How? And why?"

Ryou shifted his eyes out towards the busy street to see several of their schoolmates walking by. "Well you see ah... he went on a little outing this weekend and he, uh... almost got caught."

A sudden anger filled Anzu. "Let me talk to him."

Ryou's head whipped back to hers. "Beg pardon?"

"You heard what I said. Let me talk to Bakura." Anzu said looking directly at him.

Anzu noticed two things simultaneously happen at once. One, the features on Ryou's face suddenly became more angular and sharper and his eyes became more slanted. Two, Ryou's free hand grabbed Anzu's hand that was holding up his injured arm, and seized it into a painful grasp.

"And what does the Pharaoh's whore want with me?"

Neither of them realized what had happened when Anzu's free hand came up and slapped Bakura clean across the side of his face. Bakura staggered back before grabbing both of Anzu's hands and spinning her around with her back pressed firmly again his chest and him successfully pinning her arms to her sides with one hand wrapped around her waist, while the other securely wrapped itself around her throat.

--

A/N: Annnnnnd that's all that I have for this first chapter. Boy this one took me along time to type up. Oh! And a cookie goes out to whomever knows which anime/manga that I bit that aunt, uncles, and cousin's name from. Haha, I wonder who will get it first? Well, I hope that I'll be able to update this story as much as I can before my muse takes off on me again. TT

Until next time!

Makarios