I can´t believe it! I finished chapter six recently, so glad that I could finally update, and noticed that two finished chapters had gone unpublished so far! I´ll upload the three of them during the next few days, starting with this. If anyone still reads this story after all the time I´ve let you wait for it... I hope you enjoy it!
Sorry!
Slightly exhausted, mainly by her own nervous worries, but happy about the success of "her" first premiere, Anzu entered the dressing rooms after her blonde friend. Some girls were chatting, but most of them just started to change and head for the showers, it had been a long day. Anzu, too, grabbed her towel and undressed, before she treated herself to a long, warm shower.
When she returned, hair wrapped into a turban and only dressed in her towel, she opened her locker to take out the fresh clothes she wanted to wear. She stretched out her hand, but froze in mid air. Neatly placed on top of her underwear, a pale blue envelope waited for her. Beside it, a beautiful, fully bloomed flower spread it's perfume.
Someone had been at her locker, opened it.
That wasn't particularly difficult, she knew. But still. Who would want to try it? Her first thought was Seto, but the flower, she noticed when she finally dared to take it out of the darkness inside the closet, was a hibiscus blossom of silky-smooth, dark red. Seto, as a rule, always sent her orange roses. Besides, why would he want to place a letter inside her locker, when he had attended the performance himself and would meet her in a few minutes? Her fingers were trembling, Anzu noticed, when she reached for the envelope. Cursing herself for so much stupidity, she started to open it. There really wasn't any reason to be nervous! Probably just a joke.
Bravo, Mademoiselle!, she read. French again?
Your dancing is exquisite, I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing some more of it, unmingled with the uncoordinated movements of your moron companions.
Keep up your good work, I see a bright future ahead of you.
An Admirer
Anzu frowned. The whole thing seemed more like a clumsy joke than something a real admirer would send. Besides, didn't everyone around here know she was happily married? She examined the note once again to find a clue that would lead her to the real author. Maybe Yu and her gang had prepared that little prank? But she had had some time to study their sense of humor during the last months, and this wasn't quite what she'd have expected them to do. She wanted to put away the paper when her eyes fell on something previously hidden by her own fingers holding the note: Nestled into the lower right corner of the card were two more letters.
O.G.
--
"Now, Seto, look at you. Who'd ever have thought you would be married to a beautiful, accomplished dancer like that." His sister-in-law grinned in the way that still allowed you to get a glimpse behind the façade, at the ten-year-old child prodigy she had been when they first met, even though she was now pregnant and wearing a dazzling evening gown.
"Yeah." Mokuba slid his arm around his wife's waist and smirked at his brother as well. "It's not like you deserve her, Mister I'll-marry-when-you-can-trace-a-snowball-in-hell. I bet Satan is on skiing vacation right now." Seto wanted to frown, but looked amused despite his efforts. Mokuba had been mocking him ever since he and Anzu became a couple, and Rebecca had joined him soon after she'd become a frequent visitor at the family mansion. He was used to it by now.
"Considering that the two of you fell in love at our wedding reception, I suggest you better not complain.", he answered calmly. It had been a cliché come to life: one of Anzu's bridesmaids and Seto's best man. Rebecca had even caught the bouquet, to make things perfect. The rest of the evening, she had danced exclusively with Mokuba, surprising everyone who'd secretly expected her to take another chance at Yugi, now that her biggest rival was officially out of the way.
The slim figure of Anzu appearing in the doorway across the hall brought him back to reality. Even at this distance, she seemed tired. They met in the middle of the now empty entrance hall, where Rebecca immediately hugged her brunette friend and cried: "You were wonderful. It was hard to make out who you were, in that crowd, but I'm sure you were." Anzu smiled wearily and thanked her, but was instantly interrupted by Mokuba: "Let's go have a drink to celebrate your first performance after so many years, what do you say? We can still get back in time to pay the babysitter or whatever, she'll be there for another hour." They had left Kaito with the daughter of some employee at Seto's new headquarters, though the boy claimed he was too old to have a babysitter.
"No, please, can we do that some other time? I'm really, really tired, I just want to sleep." Anzu yawned, as if to underline her statement. "All right." Her brother-in-law sighed and hugged her good bye. "See you tomorrow, lunch at half past twelve?" Seto nodded, they had agreed to meet the next day before Mokuba and Rebecca had to catch their plane back to Domino. "See you."
--
Impatiently, he paced the semi-dark room that served him as a living room and study. What a pity that fake mirrors were not the fashion these days. He would have loved to see her reaction on discovering his note. But installing one in her locker? That would have been quite a challenge, even for him.
What had she thought, had she said anything? Had she been pleased, showed the letter to her friends, or maybe kept it secret as a special token of affection from someone she didn't know yet, but would like to meet? Or had she been frightened? No, surely not. She was not one of these childish ballet dancers who jumped at every chance to faint. And she had been through much worse.
What about her husband? A feeling of lightheaded nausea took over. Did it even matter what she did, or what she thought? He had calculated it all, she was bound to be trapped by his schemes. The more secure she felt at the moment, the better. And yet, and yet… He pulled the mask off his face and stared at his features in the looking glass. Could any modern girl be so romantic to fall in love with someone like him, even if he had mystery on his side? He wasn't exactly prince charming, and he'd spent most of his life in seclusion. Was he apt to lure a woman into loving him? A woman that, on the other hand, was already in love with Seto Kaiba, whom no one could call anything but perfect at everything? It seemed too much to hope for.
--
Contrary to what she had claimed in front of Mokuba and Rebecca, Anzu didn't go to bed right away. Instead, after they had greeted Kaito, paid the babysitter and sent the boy to bed, she sat down in the living room of their new apartment with Seto.
"What is it?", he asked, suspecting that she wasn't just normally exhausted. The brunette shrugged of his concerns. "Nothing, really. It's just what I said, I'm tired. Look what I found in my locker tonight." She took out the note and with a slight smile handed it to Seto, who read it. Her husband shot her a look of mock worry.
"Do I have to be jealous? Or does the guy know what I'd do to him if he tries to seduce my wife?" Anzu grinned. "And what would that be? Just in case he shows up on our doorstep while you are out, so I can tell him." Seto pretended to think about that seriously. "Well, what about a black eye, for starters? It depends, of course, on how far he dares to go." Yawning, the young woman placed her head in his lap and closed her eyes.
"I'll keep that in mind. Not that I plan to cheat on you. But you never know, maybe I'll have to scare off a not-so-secret admirer." She wasn't really in a mood to joke, but she didn't want to show that to Seto. After all, what reason did she have to be scared? A small signature. She couldn't even remember where she'd heard it before, but somehow the term O.G. had sobered her and made her doubt the "silly joke" theory. "
Would you really fight someone for my sake?", she asked into the quietude of the night, not really joking anymore. As an answer, she felt the reassuring weight of Setos Hand on her head.
"Of course."
