Words from the Heart

AN: Thanks to: Suzieq2005, RavenluvsBB, Crystallynne, Gauri92, Cutehelenjames, Blue heartzs, Tefa, VeLvEt RoSe, Panmotto, Blackrosewitch, Shanichan11, Keikogurl, Blu, Angel, Abbu Jabbu, Mischiefmagnet and Luvinanimanga. original reviewers Sorry there is no individual replies, but thank you to all!

And I should have warned you earlier but I am a mostly action/adventure writer with a bit of a romantic side. This is my first try at this sort of writing so bear with me if I'm not exactly a great romantic writer.

Chapter Two: Old Friends, New Enemies

Anzu desperately wanted to slam the door in his face; to pick up the umbrella hung oh-so-conveniently on the coat rack, whack him on the head with it and then slam the door in his pained face. She wanted to punish him for the pain he had caused and the pain he was causing right now, just standing there, looking so serious and solemn.

For five seconds they looked at each other as if they were strangers, both speechless with incomplete thoughts running through their minds faster than a speeding bullet. "Hello Anzu." Seto finally managed to say, his voice as cold as ever.

"What are you doing here?" Anzu asked softly, all anger gone as she dropped her searching gaze, looking blankly at the collar of his trenchcoat instead of meeting his inquisitive glance.

Seto sighed; he hadn't expected this to be easy, he knew Anzu and he knew this would take a toll on both of them. "Look, Anzu, I think we need to talk…"

"Talk!" Anzu exclaimed, surprised at his request and angered with his lack of sensitivity. Her emotions, bottled up for five years flew back. "You want to talk, now? Five years ago, you could've 'talked' but not now! Not when everything's so perfect!" Anzu said angrily, seeing how a flash of hurt darted across Seto's face, and she relished in it.

Cruelly, she was not upset that he was hurt, like she had been. How could he come back? After all these years to "talk", when she had tried so hard to talk those cold years past?

"Can I just come in?" Seto asked, looking inside Anzu's apartment.

"No." Anzu said simply as she quickly closed the door and locked it. She didn't mean to be so rude but she still couldn't forgive him for what he had done, all the crude actions and harsh words. She sighed and leaned against the door, sliding slowly down to the ground. She could hear his feet shuffling outside and an exasperated sigh escape his lips but she made no motion to acknowledge that she heard.

She pulled up her knees close to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, bowing her head to the power of fate as she groaned softly. How could he have come back, expecting forgiveness after those terrible events that brought years of pain? And yet Anzu felt part of her wanted to forgive him, to be friends once more and possibly…

The phone began ringing and Anzu instantly hoisted herself up, surprised to find that her knees didn't give way as she walked slowly to the table.

"Hello?" She asked softly, her voice dead and limp, like a broken record playing because it was programmed to.

"Hey!" A cheery voice greeted and Anzu managed a weak smile with recognition. "It's your favorite Uncle."

"Hi." Anzu managed to say weakly. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to say that I'm just heading out, I'm sorry that I'm so late."

"Oh, actually…"

"What?"

"I'm sorry, but could I get a raincheck. I picked up this awful flu." And this unwanted man outside my door. Her mind mentally added.

"Poor thing. Are you sure you don't want my company? Have me come over?"

"No!" Anzu exclaimed, a little too quickly before she rephrased. "I mean, it's all right. I don't want you to catch it too. Besides, I can survive on my own."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, besides, turns out I might have visitors today."

"How interesting! Well, dear, I hope you really enjoy your night."

"Thanks Uncle. Good night!"

"Love you." Uncle Spencer hung up. With those two words that her uncle had uttered Anzu felt like bursting into tears. Love, what a complicated thing! Anzu sighed deeply as she collapsed back onto her couch.

She hated herself for still feeling 'things' for Seto Kaiba, five years of self-punishment and endless emotions had lead her right back to the beginning. She felt weak and desperate, things she hated to feel.

She quietly peeked through the eyehole, still seeing that familiar person standing outside, shifting his feet impatiently as he constantly glanced at his watch. Anzu knew him, and she knew that he would be stubborn.

He must really want to talk.

Anzu glanced at the mirror hanging in her hall and she was greeted with a haggard looking young woman of twenty-four with shoulder-length straight brown hair and sad cerulean eyes. Anzu had changed from the innocent and sweet young girl she had been in Domino city. She had seen the misery in life and learned to avoid it.

All because of that damned man standing stubbornly outside her apartment.

Anger sprouted in her mind as she thought of how bad she felt. It was so unfair that he could invoke such terrible emotions in her, and Anzu didn't like it one bit.

She bit her lip as she tried to quench her emotions. She shouldn't have to fight herself!

Standing up defiantly, Anzu suddenly walked confidently to the door. She didn't have to fight herself, she should be out there confronting him.

She flung open the door.

"Seto, really, I don't want to talk to you. Please leave." Anzu said coldly, unknowingly calling him by his first name, something she hadn't done since they were friends.

"No." Seto said simply, his dominating personality showing through. "We used to be friends, why can't we go back to that?" he asked, his sudden cold personality showing the faintest sliver of pleading.

"You broke the friendship off in the first place." Anzu accused as held on tightly to the door.

Seto sighed harshly, "can I at least come in for a moment? You're being really unnecessarily rude."

"Me, rude?" Anzu asked. "Do you remember what you said to me? Perhaps you should start thinking not about how pitiful your situation is and start thinking about why you actually deserve it."

Seto didn't move from his spot, he only stared at Anzu. Anzu looked away, but she saw something in his eyes, and it made her feel cold inside. He was suffering, and she could see it, no matter how she tried to ignore it. She felt like a monster for yelling at him.

She felt ridiculous for still caring so much, even after five years.

"Look, I'm sorry," she started softly, "I shouldn't talk like that, and I am being rude. Please, come in." she held the door open and hesitantly invited him into her home.

"So," Seto began awkwardly, a new experience for him, "how are you doing?"

"Good." Anzu lied. "I'm just busy with dance."

Seto sat stiffly on her couch and stared at her magazines on the table. "How's the city?"

"Good. Busy."

"That's good."

"Good."

Another awkward silence followed, before Seto finally looked up and at Anzu, who had slipped onto her hammock in the corner of the room.

"What I came here to say is, well, maybe I over-reacted after…" There was a long pause as Seto tried to think of a right word. Anzu almost laughed, she had just caused Seto Kaiba to become speechless, even though she too was embarrassed by what he was going to say.

Seto finally found a word. "Confession." He said softly, noticing how Anzu froze and quivered for a moment.

"Would you like some tea?" Anzu asked coldly, as she stood up and began walking to the kitchen. She wouldn't let him see her quiver and shake.

How could she still be so stupid, so vulnerable! Five years! Still, she couldn't even hold herself together.

"Earl Gray please." Seto said quietly from the living room as she disappeared into the kitchen. Anzu frowned, she normally only kept Earl Gray for expected visitors, like Edward who loved Earl Gray, but she never drank it herself, and it lay at the top of the cabinets, a bit beyond her reach.

She straightened up and reached with the tips of her fingers, she barely touched the case and accidentally pushed it further back against the wall.

"Darn." She muttered as she tried to hoist herself onto the counter but even then she wasn't brave enough to stand up on the slippery, thin countertop. When she was about to ask Seto for another preference another arm reached over the counter to grab the box easily. Anzu turned to face Seto, who was just standing there holding the box, looking so sincere.

He handed her the box with guilty kindness, and an awkwardness that was somehow comfortable.

"Thank you." She murmured quietly, dropping her gaze as she hopped off the table. She once again gave Seto the cold shoulder as she set about with her task. However, she suddenly ran into another sneezing fit.

"Are you all right?" Seto asked, "You look awful."

"Thanks." Anzu said dryly as she continued with boiling the water. She turned to blow her nose. "I just have a cold, is all."

"Oh."

The awkward silence continued in the kitchen. Anzu turned to fix some of the already perfectly placed silverware while Seto stared at the boring carvings in the cabinets. Finally, the tea-kettle began to whistle.

"Thank goodness." Anzu murmured under her breath as she set to preparing the tea.

Seto retreated away, "I'll just wait back there."

"Okay."

Anzu took awhile getting the tea ready, and when she finally walked back into the living room, Seto was not hiding his impatience very well.

"What took you so long?"

"Oh, I just got lost on my way back from the kitchen." Anzu said sarcastically as she set the cups on her table. She suddenly realized that Seto was holding something in his hand, a flyer for her show that was sitting innocently upon the table.

"Is this your big dance show?" he asked.

"Yes." She answered quietly. She picked up one of the cups and handed it to him, but fate worked against her and a sudden sneeze popped out of her throat. Normally, she had fair warning, and could prevent something from happening, but this time the cup tipped in her fingers and spilt over Seto's nice dress shirt.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Anzu gasped as she stood up. "Wait here, I'll be right back." She rushed out of the room.

Seto stood up slowly from the couch, watching in amazement as the hot liquid slid down his chest, staining his shirt. However, Anzu quickly arrived back with a few towels as she began to help him slowly sponge it off.

"I'm really sorry!"

Seto remained silenced, unsure of her sincerity. Was this some sort of rebuttal from her? Some physical, off-hand sign of her hatred? Something that he was supposed to understand?

"I'll get you another cup." Anzu offered as she began to head back to the kitchen

"Don't spill it again." Seto replied, resorting to his usual coldness. "Or I'll dump the entire teapot on your head." He began to feel that Anzu was losing her uneasiness that was so evident in the beginning and acting like her old self again.

"Like you would have the guts." Anzu accused, as she returned with another cup for Seto.

"Don't test me." Seto said as he sipped it slowly. Anzu merely sat down, trying to resist the urge of 'testing him.'

However, just as the old rhythm of their friendship began to beat, the old pain joined in and another uncomfortable silence draped over the two.

"So, how's Kaiba Corp?" Anzu asked, trying to feebly start a conversation.

"It's all right." Seto shrugged as he sat on the sofa. "Dancing?"

"I dance with the Manhattan Ballet Company." Anzu explained, as Seto continued to look at her show flyer. "My career is doing pretty good."

"Is it fun prancing around in a pink tutu?" Seto asked stereotypically, never have being a big fan of ballet before.

"Better than being a coffee-powered grumpy CEO." Anzu answered. She had never been afraid of Seto and she never let him forget it.

"I am not grumpy." Seto denied crabbily.

"Oh! Of course not." Anzu stressed. "You are the very image of docility and gentleness. I shall bask in your goodwill."

"Don't push it Anzu." Seto threatened as he looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Or what?" Anzu asked, sipping her tea calmly. "Your halo of goodness will diminish its glow?" she laughed slightly and pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. "God forbid that should ever happen."

Seto felt at ease with Anzu's taunting, it was a little game they always played. Both would have a battle of wits to sharpen their skills. Anzu hadn't purposely dived into the game but she was so used to it that it just naturally came back to her.

"Well then god forbid I 'accidentally' spill some tea on your sparkling white carpet." Seto smirked as Anzu glowered.

"What did you want to talk about?" Anzu said, snapping back to reality as she tried to get serious. Seto's smirk dropped and he stared at his tea. He was obviously uncomfortable.

"I just thought that we left on uncomfortable terms…" he began slowly.

"Uncomfortable?" Anzu laughed bitterly. "I thought your vocabulary was a bit bigger than that."

"All right, highly disagreeable terms," Seto admitted. "But maybe I was a bit hasty with my harsh words."

"Is Seto Kaiba apologizing to me?" Anzu teased, sincerely surprised though.

"My halo gets brighter by the day." Seto muttered. "But this isn't an apology, it's just a bit of back-thought of regretful actions."

"It's an apology and you know it." Anzu answered. "I can almost see the pigs flying overhead."

"Haha, you're really funny, but that's what I came here to say." Seto said coldly.

Anzu sighed. "You've said it, now go." She said monotonously, without expression as she returned to the kitchen, to leave Seto staring flabbergasted at the spot where she sat a moment ago.

"That's it? No, 'I'll be friends with you, Seto' or 'It'll be nice having you around?'" Seto asked bitterly, not believing his ears and his pride not letting him to just go without a decent answer.

"Seto, things that happened in the past still haunt my future, I can't do this, I'm afraid our friendship is over…forever." Anzu walked back into the room, sad at her announcement but knowing it would be better in the long run.

"How can you do this?" Seto asked bitterly and coldly. "We were once friends, good friends until you decided to stupidly…confess!"

"So it's my fault that I can't help what I felt!" Anzu asked angrily. "We could've still have been friends afterwards but you avoided me like the plague and you were the one who shouted and had a fit!"

"I apologized just now didn't I?"

"No! You had a bit of 'back-thought on regretful actions'." Anzu repeated his previous words. "And don't you try to blame me for how our friendship broke down."

"I know why you're doing this." Seto accused angrily as he stood up, slamming his teacup on the coffee table. He was furious beyond belief. He had had a mission, to become friends with Anzu once more; he had missed the odd relationship they had developed years ago. And maybe something more…

"And why, o wise one?" Anzu asked, copying his tone of voice and not backing down. She had her own thoughts of why Seto was back and none of them agreed with her.

"You still love me and you're afraid that if you spend time with me your emotions will run out of control!" Seto indicted as Anzu gasped. He had been dead right and she felt a rush of blood to the head. She closed her eyes tight and got her emotions in check. Seto, meanwhile turned white at his accusation, he had openly expressed his hope. Such an outburst like that was odd for a CEO with his control.

"You know what? You're right, my emotions will run out of control if I spend time with you!" Anzu said indignantly as she clenched her fists tightly. "I'll probably end up killing you!"

Seto was speechless, he had wanted Anzu to agree with his accusation and for awhile it seemed like she would, but this new take on her answer hurt him. But his pride would definitely not let his hurt show.

"But I came to visit you, I traveled this far, and I worked up my courage to, to-!" Seto said furiously.

Anzu grimaced. "I never asked you to do that, so now, you've had your answer so please leave. You're being very bothersome."

"Do I really bother you that much?" Seto asked, calm and hiding his anger and hurt well.

"Would you like me to prove it to you?" Anzu threatened furiously, her rage still incomplete. "You drive me nuts! You're rude, stubborn, mean-spirited and overall a big jerk!" she yelled, letting her anger at Seto for what he had done spill into that one statement. Her eyes blurred for a moment and she took a sharp intake of air, realizing the words she had said and the potential for destruction they had.

"Then why do you think I came back to apologize?" Seto asked logically, trying to salvage what he could of a calm civilized conversation.

"Because you want to torment me, to bring back those memories that were shattered by your own pride." Anzu answered simply, calming down as she gripped the neck of her tall lamp, taking deep ragged breaths.

"Why would I do that?" Seto asked coldly, a steel edge evident in his voice.

Anzu said hotly, "Because you hate me!" she felt a breakdown coming up and quickly sat down, gripping the sides of her chair until her hand grew numb. "Please go." She suddenly requested, her voice soft and lifeless, as if another word would kill her.

"All right." Seto answered frostily. "And for all it is to your cold heart, I don't hate you." With that, he stalked out the door and slammed it closed.

-

AN: It's an angry chapter, eh? And more familiar characters will be entering soon.

NOTE: I edited some of the cheesiness. But I still barely changed this chapter. Expect more changes, when I get around to editing more. It still feels like an odd fusion of my old writing and my new chapter.

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Till Next Chapter! Mintt