Chapter 2 – Dilemma

The deal has been sealed but what do they do now? And poor Anzu, she's feeling just a wee bit depressed about the whole hallway incident. How is she going to cope since Yami is busy with Kaiba? This and more will be revealed in the following chapter.

Enjoy folks! And I know that I said that I would try writing it out first and then posting but what the hell? I'll just write and post as I finish the chapters. They're not taking me too long to write. Usually about three weeks. Or so… but…

I have to learn to drink less when I write… ;)


Meanwhile, in a bedroom not that far away…

The purple and white comforter Anzu had her face buried in muffled the sounds of her heart-wrenching sobbing. She'd done nothing but cry since arriving home almost a half-hour before. And berate herself for being a totally stupid idiot. The tears had come unbidden as she remembered telling Kaiba off – to his face no less. It was one thing to think that he was an arrogant, egotistical, self-obsessed, overconfident, overbearing cocky excuse for a man but it was a completely new ballgame when said to his face. The one question that kept flitting through her mind was why he'd had to pick today, of all days, to ask her out, when her emotions were out of whack and she was at their complete and utter mercy.

The cramps hadn't helped any, either.

A good workout, a nice strenuous dance routine, usually eased the pain to a more bearable level but today had been different. After her first five minutes dancing on the stage in the gym, she knew that it wasn't working so she'd switched to something more upbeat and difficult. Still no change to the level of pain she was enduring during every spasm across her insides. That was when she'd had enough and stepped outside of everything she'd been taught at her dance lessons. Stopping for a moment, she'd let the music flow around her, into her, bathing her in the booming base, and let her feet take her where they would. A smile had been on her lips as she felt the pain in her middle lessen and the knots everywhere else release as she worked the dance out of her soul.

She should have known that something so uplifting and energizing was going to be countered by something equally degrading.

Sniffling a little into her pillow, she remembered being surprised when she'd shut her locker door to find Seto Kaiba standing not three feet away from her, staring at her, and almost… devouring her with his eyes. A wild flutter had made its presence known in her stomach and she'd prayed that that's all it was. Not a cramp, although the way he'd made her feel, a cramp should have been welcome. It was almost like she'd felt when she'd had a, dare she say it, crush on the Spirit that lived within Yugi. It had been short-lived as she'd grown to accept Yami as more of a friend than anything else. Nothing could have happened between them anyways, since he still shared a body with Yugi. It just wouldn't have been right to ask Yugi to step aside so she could spend time with the Pharaoh. Maybe if he'd had his own body… no, dwelling on ifs and maybes never gave anything but heartache and misery.

Sighing in resignation that her life was ruined and over after the catastrophic hallway incident with him, she sniffed once or twice as she remembered what Kaiba had looked like as he stood by her locker. He'd looked so handsome. She'd never denied that he was attractive, at least to herself. She understood exactly why the girls at school acted as they did. Closing her eyes, she made herself look at her memory of him just that much more closely. His chestnut hair had glinted gold where the harsh fluorescent lights had kissed it. The pristine white, school-issued uniform shirt normally looked frumpy on any other male student. Not on him, though. It had defined rather than just covered and she'd taken a split second to admire the way it had stretched tautly across his chest when he'd moved closer to her.

It hadn't been enough that her visual senses were already overloaded with the sight of him, he'd had to take that single step and envelop her in whatever warm, earthy aftershave he wore. She'd been seconds away from swooning to the tiled floor like one of his many lovesick fan girls. The only thought that had kept her standing in the presence of his seemingly faultless physical perfection was avoiding the endless smart-ass remarks he would hurl at her until time ended. That had kept her feet firmly planted, her shoulders haughtily thrown back and her head out of the clouds.

Too bad his attitude sucked.

She'd looked up and met his steely blue eyes then. Cold, calm and… disgusted. It was as if he hadn't even wanted to be there, so close to her, as if he'd rather have been a million miles away dodging bullets or wrestling alligators barehanded. With her emotions playing havoc on her system, something in his eyes had lit her fuse. To which emotion she hadn't been sure, until he'd gone and opened his big, fat mouth and said what he'd said. Normally, she wasn't quick to anger, heavens knew she had to be patient with the friends she had, but the combination of the spark from his eyes and an unexpected cramp ripping through her system had decided his fate.

Madness had flooded her body and every fibre of her being had screamed at her to give vent to her anger and slap him into next week for just assuming that she would do whatever he wanted with no questions and no argument. No one talked to her that way. Even Joey, who usually teased and joked with her, backed off when she was in one of those moods. How dare Seto Kaiba take that tone of voice with her! Flopping onto her back on the bed, she stared at the ceiling for a moment, reliving the anger she'd felt and wondering if she'd just committed social suicide. Any girl in the school would have killed to have been in her position and yet, she'd almost flat out refused him on the spot. That was another thing. She hadn't actually said 'no' to him. Would he try again another time or was today a one time only offer? Would she say 'yes' the next time he asked? Did she want there to be a next time? Too much thinking…

God, she was so confused. Why did he have to pick today? Why couldn't it have been yesterday or tomorrow, when she was feeling a little more personable and human instead of a raving, emotional psychopath? A fresh burst of tears rose from her bright blue eyes but they were from rage this time. Well, he'd chosen to talk to her today, so he had suffered the consequences of her righteous wrath at being treated like an object with no feelings and supposedly no life. Sitting up in bed, she caught a glimpse of herself in the vanity mirror that sat atop her dresser and saw exactly what she looked like.

'Anzu, thy name is raving, emotional psychopath,' she thought as she noticed her red-rimmed eyes and cherry red nose – a little brighter than they had been during her lunchtime breakdown.

Wait, why did she even care about Kaiba's unbelievably bad timing in asking her out? It wasn't as if he'd ever asked her for anything before. Sure, she said 'Hi' to him in the hallways and heard a non-committal grunt in response but that didn't mean they were friends. She was nice to everyone she knew, some more than others and she figured that saying hello to Kaiba couldn't really hurt anything that wasn't really there. He'd never 'hung out' with them other than during duelling tournaments. He was always so busy with his company and… other stuff that he didn't have time to do the things that normal teenagers did.

But what if… she allowed herself to pursue this line of thought… what if he were trying to come out of his glacial shell. Maybe he'd been nervous about asking her out. Probably hadn't meant for it to come out as a command. He needed a 'date' to some function for his company and she'd gone and let him have it in the middle of the hallway. At least no one had been around to witness her self-humiliation. No one, except him. Why had he asked her anyways? Why not one of his many fan girls? What was so special about her? Heavens knew she was the only one that didn't have a personal 'nickname' from him. Yugi was 'shrimp', Jou was 'mutt' and Honda was 'freak'. Anzu had nothing like that, not that he'd ever said it in her presence at least. She shook her head to rid herself of the chaos swirling through her mind. Too many questions and not enough answers. This time of the month always brought her strange thoughts and ideas. There was no way that Kaiba, of all people, could have feelings for her. Just no way at all, it was not like him. Where the hell had that thought come from? Kaiba? Feelings? Forget psychopath – psycho was good enough!

A soft knock on the door pulled a gasp of surprise from her throat. No one was supposed to be home. Her father was at a conference in Tokyo until Saturday and her mother wasn't expected back until later tonight… unless…

"Anzu honey? Are you okay?" her mother's tentative voice called from the other side of the door. She must have come home early.

"I'm fine, Mom, just had a rough day," Anzu replied, trying to keep her voice steady and confident. Obviously, her mother heard through her voice since she opened the door and poked her head in.

"I didn't mean to startle you. I got a strange feeling that you needed me, so I caught an earlier flight home." Stepping in further and leaning against the doorframe, she regarded her daughter with startlingly similar blue eyes that exuded warmth and concern. Her short brown hair was stylishly coiffed and perfectly matched the fashionable business suit, in eggplant purple, that she was wearing. In fact, she was the opposite of her offspring. Anzu was more tomboyish than she liked, preferring to wear blue jeans and t-shirts instead of more 'becoming' clothes for a young woman of her age, and had all male friends. Not that she was dating any of them. Anzu was, literally, one of the 'boys' when it came to Yugi, Jou and Honda. Dismissing her thoughts on those matters, she re-focussed on the daughter sitting on her bed, her eyes red and puffy. "So, why did you have a rough day?"

Watching her mother with her eyes still tearing up, Anzu decided it was better to tell the truth than hide it behind a lie. Her mother had a way of finding out information that confused her to no end. "It's one of those days, Mom."

"C'mon, that can't be all of it. Your eyes wouldn't be that red. Something else must have happened to set you off." Stepping in further, she sat down next to Anzu and placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. Moral support was crucial right now and anything she could do to make her daughter feel better, "You know you can tell me anything. Is it 'boy' troubles? Is Jou giving you a hard time again?"

"No, it has nothing to do with Jou. It's not about Yugi or Honda either. It's… someone else." The words came slowly and haltingly. Anzu wasn't sure she was ready to go into the full detail about the whole incident until she looked into her mom's eyes. So much love and understanding was written there that she took her mom's invitation to spill to heart.

"… and when he commanded me to go out with him next Friday to this stupid corporate ball, I just lost it and yelled at him. I told Kaiba exactly what I thought of him. Mom, what am I going to do? I can't face him again tomorrow after what I said to him today! He's in my first class! I sit right beside him in English! I'm ruined!" The waterworks started all over again as Anzu's emotions took control once more. With a comforting pat on her shoulder, she reached over for a Kleenex from the nightstand and shook her head at her daughter's typical teenager, hormonal, over-dramatized tale. Everything became the end of the world if it didn't end happily. She was surprised that Anzu hadn't mentioned committing social suicide by saying what she'd said to Kaiba Seto. Oh, she knew who he was. His name was not uncommon in their household, although she doubted that her daughter would appreciate hearing that she talked about him in her sleep. That would be a secret she took with her to her grave. This would probably be very soon if the dramatics in Anzu's life kept going at full steam like this. Smiling softly, she hugged Anzu closer as the tears wet the front of her stylish white blouse. This reminded her so much of her own high school and college years. In fact…

"Sweetie, I'm going to tell you a story about your father and me before we were married. In retrospect, it's pretty close to your story. Once it's done, you'll know what you have to do to keep from being ruined."


And there is Anzu's side of the story. Hope that it was confusing enough for you. After all, she's not quite emotionally stable at the moment. Hormones – what a way to ruin your social life.

Sorry this has taken so long and that it's so short but it's crucial to see things from Anzu's POV and to have her mom come in and talk to her. Very crucial for the next chapter. Which I hope to have up in the next three weeks or so… ;)… as long as I remember to drink less…

Thanks for reading and/or reviewing,

Aphrael21;)