A/N: Huge thanks to everyone who read the first chapter and kudos to those that left a review! :) It's always encouraging to see some familiar names from years ago when I was writing more often and I love to hear whether people are enjoying the writings. My state is currently shut down, so I'm stuck at home so I imagine my updates will be pretty regularly while this stuff is going on. Stay safe out there! And enjoy the next chapter!
Anzu leaned against the wall, her shoulder propped against it as she watched the tournament play out. She had not been planning to attend the tournament herself, but since her dance class had ended early, she had walked over to the center to catch the end of the preliminary finals. Sticky with sweat, her hair bunched up in a messy pony tail, and still dressed in her leotard with a sweater tied around her waist, she felt very out of place. A few guys had walked by and eyed her with a lecherous grin, but she had ignored them and continued to drink from her water bottle. Yuugi had not participated in this weekend's tournament, but Jounouchi had and had made it into the finals. She watched the viewing screen as he played his cards, thoughtfully wondering where her friends were in the stands. Given her state of undress, she thought it was best not to try to navigate the crowds to find them.
"Lurking in the dark, Mazaki?" Anzu jumped, startled out of her reverie by the familiar voice. Turning, Seto Kaiba smirked at her and then nodded to the screen. "Katsuya is certainly blowing his head out of proportion these days."
"Hi, Anzu!" Mokuba greeted, coming through the side door by which Anzu, and now Kaiba, had entered. He waved at her, smiling. "We were watching from upstairs, but have to present the medal." He gestured towards the case in his arms. His eyes lingered on her for a moment and then, clearing his throat, he looked away, asking, "Did you...come from a dance competition?"
"Dance class," Anzu answered wryly, reminded that Mokuba, at fourteen, was at the age where he would start to become more interested in the female body. Not for the first time, she regretted not bringing a change of clothes to the studio.
"I think I overheard you talking about that," Kaiba remarked, his eyes on the viewing screen. "Have you applied to Julliard yet?"
"No," she said with a note of surprise. "I thought it would be better to go to University of Domino first and then transfer as an exchange student. It's, um...a better idea financially."
"At least someone in your group knows what they're doing." There was a burst of noise from the stands as Jounouchi won the final duel, standing up and pumping his arm into the air in success. Kaiba's face twisted in disgust and he gestured towards Jounouchi. "And then you have that idiot."
Accustomed by now to Kaiba's penchant for insults, she told him, "Don't you have a medal to present?"
"No, Mokuba does," Kaiba replied, glancing at her, his face still distorted with distaste. "I sure as hell am not going to present any medal to either Yuugi or Jounouchi." With that said, he followed Mokuba towards the arena. Mokuba had bounded forward and was now speaking in the microphone, cheerfully announcing the winner and giving a perfunctory speech on the value of hard work and practice. Anzu could not help but smile at Kaiba's deadpan expression as he stood next to his brother, his arms folded.
After the stands began to empty, she threaded her way through the crowd towards the arena. It was clear Kaiba was saying something particularly inflammatory because Jounouchi was wildly waving his medal and Mokuba had to bound in between the two to separate them.
"Nice job, Jounouchi," Anzu said as she walked up. She saw the familiar hairstyle of Yuugi bobbing in the distance and caught Shizuka's bright face following close behind him. Jounouchi was briefly distracted at Anzu's congratulations. She nudged him with her elbow, teasing, "You've come a far way from me beating you at duel monsters in class."
"You never beat me!" Jounouchi bleated, glancing at a smirking Kaiba and then his younger brother. "I let you beat me."
She rolled her eyes. "You used to be awful. You never even had magic or trap cards in your deck."
"What? No! That wasn't me, that was Yuugi."
"It was not," Anzu protested, frowning, noticing him glance at Kaiba again. Is he lying to try to save face in front of Kaiba of all people?
"How the mighty have fallen, Mazaki," Kaiba drawled with his trademark smirk. "You could have been a Duel Monsters champion instead of Katsuya. You would probably be better liked, too."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jounouchi demanded as their group walked up. Yuugi's smile turned into a confused frown as he glanced between the three.
"Yuugi," Anzu said, rounding on him, "wasn't it you who taught Jounouchi to have magic and trap cards in his deck?"
"Er...," Yuugi looked around and then took a step back as two pairs of eyes bored holes into him. "It was a long time ago..."
"I had a great deck!" Jounouchi loudly said, pounding his chest proudly. "I had Time Wizard in my deck and then the Red Eyes Black Dragon! I always had a strong deck."
"Yeah, and you spammed Time Wizard all throughout Duelist Kingdom, too," Anzu retorted, now irritated that he would not simply admit he had lost to her when they had all been playing Duel Monsters together. Jounouchi gaped at her, flushing a bit in embarrassment. He recovered quickly, however, straightening his spine.
"Well, I don't see you winning any tournaments."
"At least she has a brain, unlike you," Kaiba remarked idly, deciding to add fuel to the fire between the two friends.
"You don't need a brain for Duel Monsters!" Jounouchi snapped irritably. "And girls don't – there aren't even any girl Duel Monsters champions, anyway!"
"Relying on sexism now, Katsuya?"
Cheeks burning, Jounouchi muttered something feeble under his breath, but Anzu rode over it, saying, "I'm pretty sure I could beat you at Duel Monsters if I wanted to, Jounouchi! I just have better things to do than play cards all the time. I didn't have to keep playing them because it wasn't my family that was getting kidnapped or threatened like you, Yuugi, and Kaiba! And excuse me for not getting possessed enough by a Sennen spirit, guess I was only useful to Malik to possess for trying to kill people instead!"
There was a brief, awkward silence while Yuugi toed the ground uncomfortably and Jounouchi gawked at her in affront.
Kaiba, it appeared, seemed to the only one amused and chuckled at Anzu's words. "Fair point, Mazaki. Why not make a wager on it?"
"What?" She turned to Kaiba, startled out of her mood. "What kind of wager?"
"Let's make a wager on that medal." He pointed to the medal Jounouchi was clasping in his hand. "I'll open the arena for personal use next weekend since there are no tournaments. If you win, you get the medal. If you lose, Jounouchi gets to keep it. Don't worry, Katsuya," he added with a sneer, "I won't let you get defaced by a woman."
"That's not – I didn't mean – that isn't what I meant!" Jounouchi sputtered.
"You had better not mean that," Shizuka piped up, frowning at him meaningfully. To Anzu, she said with a smile, "I think you should do it, Anzu! It would be fun to see a girl win against one of them and Honda always told me how you and him used to beat my brother in Duel Monsters all the time!"
"One condition," Kaiba added and pointed to Yuugi. "You stay out of it."
"Me?" Yuugi said weakly, pointing to himself.
"If I find out you helped either of them, I'm going to make your life a living hell during tournaments."
Yuugi grimaced and then gave an apologetic shrug towards his friends. "Alright...then that means Jounouchi will have to stay out of club for a week."
"She hasn't even played in years!" Jounouchi protested. Scowling, Anzu grabbed his ear and twisted it painfully. He emitted a high-pitched wail as he wriggled in her grasp. "I'm sorry! Okay, okay! I got it!"
"Good," Kaiba said with satisfaction. "I'll meet you all here next weekend." To Anzu he said, "Don't disappoint, Mazaki."
I wasn't aware that I was trying to impress anyone, Anzu silently answered. And I didn't even agree to this!
After the two Kaiba brothers had locked up the arena, the group made their way from the center, Jounouchi aggressively pouting and sending sidelong glances towards Anzu. "Oh, stop looking at me that way!" she said, exasperated. "If you had just admitted that I used to beat you and hadn't gotten all sexist, then Kaiba wouldn't have felt the need to stir things up!"
"I can't say something like that in front of Kaiba," Jounouchi whined. "He would never let me live it down..."
"That's not an excuse to insult your friend, brother!" Shizuka scolded severely.
After a time, the conversation quieted into one of normality, which Yuugi seemed relieved to join, though Anzu was still internally fuming at Jounouchi for the way he had handled the conversation at the arena. They invited her to get food, but she declined, saying she needed to shower and get some house chores done. Yuugi's eyes lingered on her, as if in apology, though neither of them broached the topic of next weekend's duel. It was clear that Yuugi did not want to become involved, even without Kaiba's warning.
After showering, Anzu tried to focus on her homework, but found herself with a nervous tic that would not settle. Sighing in exasperation, she pushed away from the desk and stared around her neat bedroom, frowning. It had been, as Jounouchi had said, years since she had last been involved in any duels. She had not touched her own deck since Battle City. She regretted taking a subtle dig at Yuugi in regards to spirit possession, though she did find it unfair that the only time she had been possessed by Sennen magic had been for Malik's own evil doings in regards to trying to kill his other half or his Battle City machinations. Yuugi had absolutely benefited from Atemu's presence in his mind and while she knew that Yuugi was a good duelist, she also knew that Atemu had transferred a lot of his advice, strategies and skills to him over the years.
Getting to her feet, she went to her closet and dug through the miniature cabinet until she found her deck. She flipped through the cards, cringing at the cute, bright-eyed characters. Yuugi had helped her make her deck when she was fourteen, almost four years ago, and she had not changed it much over the years. She knew, though, that she would have to adjust it before she faced Jounouchi next weekend. The benefit of having watched so many tournaments, however, was that she knew Jounouchi's deck almost as well as he did and she could build it to counter the monsters he had within it.
It's been so long...I don't even know the first thing about building a deck anymore. She briefly considered asking Kaiba, but he had withdrawn from the dueling community in the past year, preferring to moderate and set up tournaments. She also doubted he would help her. Yuugi was banned from helping her and Honda was as inexperienced as her, if not more so. Otogi, like Kaiba, had withdrawn from the community and simply ran his game shop and was better suited to puzzle games and things like Go where the strategy was more logic-minded than deck-building. That leaves...him.
Seated in the middle of her floor gazing at the cards spread out before her, she was glad that she was not standing otherwise she would have sank to the ground in embarrassment. The warmth in her face and neck made her briskly rub her cheeks in annoyance. Bakura was the most reasonable choice, but she did not particularly want to ask him for any favors. She had regretted letting him kiss her and then encouraging him with her brief bout of mindlessness. She had run through the moment in her head multiple times and still could not think of why she had been so seduced by the idea of Bakura's advancements.
It was usually at night when she was staring up at her ceiling that the obvious answers came to mind: Because he's attractive? Because he's appealing without the psychotic spirit possessing him? He's intelligent, witty, and has a personality unlike all the other men you've liked in the past?
She would almost always get angry at herself, turn over in bed, and close her pillow around her head, annoyed with herself. Bakura was all these things, yes, but he was also a five-thousand-year-old spirit, a tomb robber, and her friends would only see him as he was when Zorc Necrophades was possessing him.
You're not trying to date him, her mind would scold her whenever this thought popped up, and he's not trying to date you! There is nothing wrong with taking a page out of Mai's book and simply enjoying the company of a boy.
A boy.
Anzu groaned and rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand. Can you even call Bakura a boy? she wondered. He acts more like a man in his late twenties.
Abandoning her train of thought, she collected the cards, stacked them neatly and placed them in their case and into her schoolbag. For now, she would sleep on the issue. She had not spoken to Bakura since her encounter with him in the library a week prior, so maybe she would have no need to even broach the topic with him. It had only been Ryou in class with her. For now, she would tackle the problem on her own and do her best to build a good deck.
On Monday, Anzu was unsurprised to find herself cornered by Kaiba when she exited one of her classes. He had been quietly standing against the wall across from her classroom and the girls passing by sent him interested smiles as they walked by that were entirely ignored by the male in question. As soon as she had stepped out of the classroom, he called out, "Mazaki." Taking note of his unmistakable straight-spine posture, she grimaced and then reluctantly approached him. She saw the eyes turning towards them in the hallway and felt her shoulders hunch slightly. She had never been the topic of gossip before, but with Seto Kaiba waiting for her outside of her classroom, she expected to get quite a few hate letters from jealous girls in her shoe locker soon.
"Hi, Kaiba," she greeted warily as she stood in front of him, crossing her ankle behind her as she tapped the toe of her shoe against the vinyl flooring. "What's up?"
"How is your preparation for next weekend going?"
"It's Monday," she told him exasperatedly. "It's only been a day."
He frowned at her disapprovingly. "That's a loser's mentality."
Here we go..., she thought, sensing a Kaiba-sized rant about winning and champions, with the inevitable mention of money slipped in at some point. "I have to rebuild my deck, for one thing," she said in the hopes of cutting off his monologue. "I'm going after school to buy some new cards." When he stared at her expectantly, she sighed, continuing, "Look, I know Jounouchi's deck inside and out. He's always used the same type of cards and same type of strategies. He's predictable. It's just getting the right luck for the right cards and finding the ones I need to combat it."
"I shouldn't be surprised that you actually have a decent plan," Kaiba remarked, "but you would think other people would be smart enough to do something similar with him and Yuugi to actually kick them out of their winning streak." His bitter glare made it clear that he, at least, knew his own weakness was due to his own loyalty towards his Blue Eyes White Dragon and beloved strategy that relied on using his favorite card. Tactfully, Anzu chose not to point this out. "Well, don't disappoint me. It's not every day I give a nobody a chance and endorse them."
"You do know I hadn't even agreed to his before you decided, right?" Anzu reminded him with a spark of petulance in her voice.
He raised an eyebrow. "Yes, but what I say goes. Get to work, Mazaki." With those words, he turned and made his way to his next class, cutting through the swarms of students. Anzu watched him for a moment, wordless for a moment at his arrogance, and then had to remind herself that she had been talking to Seto Kaiba and should not have set her expectations so high as to think he would apologize for any presumptuous actions on his part.
"Anything wrong?" a voice asked at her shoulder. She glanced behind her and sighed.
"No, it's just Kaiba," she answered and then paused, eyeing Ryou's face and finding another expression looking back at her. The heat began to flood up to her cheeks, but she doggedly continued on, "Are you stalking me now?"
"Ryou does go to school here," Bakura reminded her with a smirk that widened as her cheeks became warmer. His hands in his pockets, he leaned forward slightly, saying in a lowered voice, "Looks like you're not too unhappy to see me."
"Actually," she told him in an attempt to ignore the implications behind his words, "I did need to talk to you."
His eyebrows rose slightly in interest. "Oh?"
"I need a favor."
"It depends on what I'm getting out of this favor of yours, girl."
Blushing, aware that people seemed even more interested in her interaction with Bakura than with Kaiba given how close he was leaning towards her, she mumbled, "What, um...what exactly do you want?"
"I'll think of something," he replied, his eyes drifting down the length of her frame. Straightening, he stretched his arms above his head and then leaned one elbow against the window ledge, crossing his ankle over the other. "So? What is it? Need me to rob someone? Seems the only thing you would need to come to me for." He grinned, but it was more of a baring of his teeth and there was an edge of self-deprecation to his words that unsettled her.
"No, it has nothing to do with stealing." His grin faded as he regarded her with some puzzlement, though more curiosity. "I kind of got wrapped up into this bet of Kaiba's. Jounouchi was being an ass on Saturday after he won the tournament and wouldn't admit that he learned everything from Yuugi and so I got mad, told him I could probably beat him at a duel and now Kaiba started this bet so I have to duel Jounouchi next weekend for the medal he won. But it's been so long and I need to buy new cards. And I don't remember the first thing about building a deck, so I was hoping..." She trailed off after her rush of words, looking up at him uncertainly. His face was kept perfectly blank, though she noted an amused upward quirk of his mouth.
"This isn't quite what I was expecting when you asked me to teach you, Mazaki," he told her frankly.
She knew by how warm the corridor had gotten that she was burning red. "I-I don't really think...That is, about that – "
Ignoring her stutters, he pushed off from the ledge and said, "Meet me after Ryou's cram school today. He complains if I miss nights because his father and the instructor get on him – or me, depending who has to listen to it. We'll fix it then."
"But – " She glanced around, thankful that the corridor had emptied for the most part. "If I'm seen meeting you there and with how much Ryou and I walk home together..." She trailed off meaningfully.
He grinned at her. "Let them wonder. It's more fun that way." Abruptly, he leaned down and shocked her with a kiss on her mouth. "That should give them something else to talk about." He laughed at her expression as he walked away. She saw two girls walking in the corridor that had stared at them and upon seeing Anzu's gaze catch theirs, they swiftly turned around and hastened away towards the stairs.
Anzu stood outside the cram school, dressed in her street clothes of high-waisted shorts, a yellow crop top, dark jacket, and was clasping her purse a bit too tightly as she waited for the class to be released. She did not usually worry about people seeing her with anyone in her group, as it was fairly common for her to be seen with any of the guys. She had learned a lot time ago to ignore implications of her friendship with any of the guys that she hung out with. Now, however, she felt the familiar discomfort in her belly when she had been in primary school and the girls would tease her for having a boy as a best friend. This, however, was an entirely different situation. Bakura, while posing in Ryou's body, might be in his group, but she knew that his sneaky kiss would start a rumor that would get back to one of her friends and one that she could not easily explain, much less when Ryou was present outside of Bakura.
That creep..., she thought presently, her grip tightening around her purse. He better not make these last months of high school a mess for me.
She heard the door open and stirred from her thoughts, noticing the stream of students coming out. She recognized the white mane of Bakura's and a moment later, she saw a few girls following after behind him, giggling and asking him if he wanted to join for karaoke that night. Spotting her, Bakura loudly said in Ryou's apologetic voice, "Oh, that sounds a lot of fun, but I'm meeting my girlfriend."
Anzu scowled at him behind the girl's cries of dismay. Damn it, Bakura. Sighing in recognition of his reasons for wanting her to meet him at cram school, she stepped away from the wall that she had been standing next to and called out, "Ryou! I'm over here!" She waved, plastering a huge smile on her face. The girls whirled around, eyed her, and their faces fell when they caught sight of her athletic dancer's body. One eyed Ryou, looked to Anzu, and then seemed to resign herself to defeat as she slunk away with a pout, pulling her friend with her. Anzu smiled in greeting at the girls and then stepped up to Bakura, who had an amused glint in his eyes.
"Sorry, class got out late," he explained and then to the girls, "See you tomorrow, everyone!" He smiled his Ryou-like smile, waved, and then took Anzu's hand, venturing away from the swarm of females. After they gone a few blocks and were out of eyesight, Bakura told her in his own voice, "If I had to deal with their idiotic ramblings, I was prepared to kill each of them in their sleep."
Ignoring his threat, she frowned up at him. "This means we're even, you know. I did you a favor there. You didn't even tell me that was what you were wanting help with!"
"Seems you caught on well enough," he told her insouciantly as they paused at a stoplight.
"You're being really aggravating today. First that...thing at the school, now this. What am I going to tell my friends if all of this gets back to them?"
"Tell them that you've developed a taste for thieves," he replied with a snicker. "That takes care of your problem with Yuugi, doesn't it?"
"Oh, stop it," she muttered, flushing. "I am not going to tell them that."
There was a brief silence in which Anzu became aware that her hand was still clasped in Bakura's. She glanced down at their hands, his fingers laced with hers, and then up at him. He was dressed casually in a light blue collared shirt and jeans and did not look too much different from Ryou outside of his rugged facial features. Her eyes slid back down to their hands, but found she did not much want him to release her hand. She had never held hands with anyone romantically before, reminding her of her woeful lack of romantic life in high school.
It doesn't help you were pining over Atemu for the majority of high school, she reminded herself dryly.
After they had walked for a few minutes to the familiar game shop of Otogi Ryuuji's, Bakura released her hand and then paused outside the game shop, holding his hand out. "Let me see your deck."
Grimacing slightly, she removed it from her bag and waited while he flipped through the card. His expression did not change and he made no comment on the cards. When the silence lingered and he began to flip through them a second time, pulling some out and putting them in the case, she said, "Yuugi helped build me build this deck when I was fourteen. It's not very good, is it?"
"It's not horrible," was his neutral answer. After he had gone through them, he handed her the case and then the remaining cards. "These all need to be replaced. I've never played against Jounouchi, but I've watched him. He took most of his tricks from Yuugi and the pharaoh when they weren't telling him what to do. He relies on a handful of his favorite cards and revolves his entire strategy on that. If we can build your deck to tackle that kind of strategy, you would even be able to beat the King of Games himself."
"Yuugi?" She laughed, waving a hand. "I doubt that." She hesitated a beat before asking, "Why didn't you build your deck that way, then?"
"I built the occult deck, but when it came to finalist duels, Zorc Necrophades used his own strategies during that. I refuse to take responsibility for his idiotic way of dueling the pharaoh. If he had less transparent in his plans, he might have won. I preferred tabletop games for my shadow duels and if not for him and Ryou's meddling, I would have won the ones I did do. Leave it to everyone to cheat during a tabletop game." He tucked his hands in his pockets, surveying her. "Which begs the question of why you asked me for help out of anyone else. I dueled very rarely and never won any championships."
She gave a half-hearted shrug. "Yuugi isn't allowed to help me and, to be honest, I think he would have been more likely to help Jounouchi than me."
"No loyalty among lovers?"
"He is not my lover," she snapped, "and I'd appreciate you to stop with your little jabs about him and me."
Bakura laughed and then tapped her chin with one of his knuckles, saying, "Alright, girl. I forgot that you decided to choose me as your lover over him." She opened her mouth to deny that, but realized she had no proper defense. He smirked at her over his shoulder as he turned towards the entrance. "Come on. I don't have all night."
Anzu wavered on the threshold, her eyes following the line of lights to the Black Clown shop logo. Otogi had taken over the majority of the operations at the game shop since his father had retired shortly after Otogi's defeat in the Dungeon Dice Monsters duel. Like Kaiba, he had been devoting more time to his family business than performing in tournaments. It was later in the day, so she unsure of how likely it was that she would find him at the shop, but she would have preferred not to run into him while with Bakura. She had seen him infrequently since his interest in Shizuka had waned and Jounouchi had warned him off.
"Mazaki," Bakura barked at her from the entrance. "Are you coming or not?"
Anzu released a tiny sigh. It's not as if anything can cause more rumors than the rest of this day, she thought as she moved to meet Bakura. "We could have gone to a different shop, you know," she complained.
"I don't know any other game shops aside from little Yuugi's," he dismissed. He frowned down at her and grabbed her hand, tugging her reluctant self from the doorway. "Stop acting like a recalcitrant child and let's go."
Anzu glowered at the back of his head, though she said nothing in response and tightened her grip around his hand to avoid being separated in the busy shop. They made their way past the arcade centers to the card center where two shop keepers were standing behind the counter, one ringing up customers and the other talking to two customers that looked to be around Bakura's age. Bakura had drifted to one counter, his hand tucked in his pocket in his usual, languid gesture and the other planted on the glass as he inspected the cards. Anzu tucked her hair behind her ear and followed him, glancing down at the case. The price tags weren't so substantial that it would break her bank, but she did wish she had not gone along with the bet.
As Bakura perused cards, Anzu lingered near him. Occasionally he would explain why he was choosing certain cards and other times he would ask her which she would rather have in her deck. He was, she thought, being surprisingly helpful. Peering up into his face, she did not see any of the familiar madness that she attributed to him and Zorc Necrophades. In his face, she could see the subtle remnants of the tomb robber she had seen in Atemu's memories. It was in the sardonic twist of his mouth when he would make a remark on an effect on a monster card and the calculative way he spoke in regards to possible strategies. She had seen him look this way once before when she and her friends had been turned into characters in the tabletop RPG up until he dissolved into a psychotic rage towards the end. She wondered, with a shudder, whether his temper was still as intense when ignited.
"Hey, Bakura," she spoke up as she was paying for the cards, "do you mind I ask you something?" She smiled quickly at the cashier after they had handed her the bag of cards she had purchased. When he said nothing, she turned to find him gazing at her with an expectant air.
"Well?" he prompted.
"Er...right, sorry." She paused at the exit of the card center, clearing her throat. "Do you still...you know...get as angry as you used to?" He stared at her, unblinking. "I mean...Well, it's just that when Malik was back to normal, you never would think he could get angry. He was really well-adjusted."
At last, he blinked and seemed to be considering over her question. "No," he said after a moment. "I have less reason to. I was only ever angry about one thing and Atemu paid for that in his life in an attempt to redeem his family." He shrugged. "There are few other reasons to be angry."
"What are the other things, then?"
"Mind your business," he said not unkindly, slanting a look to her. "You'll know when you piss me off."
" 'When'?" she repeated, frowning. "Don't you mean 'if'?"
"No." A lazy smile crossed his lips, but he did not elaborate. "When was the last time you dueled, girl?"
Thrown off by the sudden change in subject, Anzu struggled at first to abandon the original topic, wanting to press him for answers. He was being deliberately evasive, though not dissuading her from asking him personal questions. Blowing out a sigh that made her bangs fan up from her forehead, she said in exasperation, "When do you think? I haven't had any reason to pick up a deck. As far as I remember, it was back in Battle City."
"So, are you planning to simply walk into this duel with your deck and wing it?"
"Well..." She paused and the laughed in spite of her companion. "I see your point. I could go to Yuugi's duel club at school, but I think that qualifies as him helping and he's not allowed to – it's part of the bet."
"Then it looks like I should be expecting you at Ryou's home tomorrow."
Anzu blushed, stuttering, "Wh-what? I can't do that and you know that!"
"I believe you asked me for a favor," he said airily, looking up at the ceiling, a large leer spread over his face. "And I believe you asked me to teach you in regards to something other than dueling."
"Yes, well, about that...," Anzu muttered, leaning in to him and lowering her voice. He turned to her, leaning down slightly in order to hear her. "Could we just forget about me saying that? It's just – well, I have a lot of, um, other things to focus on without adding that to the mixture. And so, you know, maybe we could just agree that was a, um, one time thing?"
Bakura arched an eyebrow at her and then leaned closer, his shoulder against hers as he moved his lips to her ear. "I don't think you wanted that to be a one time thing, Mazaki," he murmured in a low, rough voice. A delicate shiver travelled up her spine and gooseflesh popped out on her skin at the feel of his breath on her ear accompanied by his hand on the small of her back, pressing her a tad closer to the heat of his body.
We're in public, she reminded herself, her cheeks burning as she pulled her face back slightly to meet him, setting her features into that of a defiant expression. And I'll die before I admit to him that I've been thinking about him every night this last week!
"Anzu?" The questioning voice made her jump and whip around to face the owner. Otogi was standing a few feet away with a leather notebook tucked under his arm and holding a briefcase. His eyes travelled from her to Bakura and his puzzled smile widened to that of humor and his eyes sparkled with sudden understanding. "Hi, Ryou! It's good to see you two." His too-knowing grin set Anzu on edge as she slowly turned to stare up at Bakura in horror. He glanced down at her smugly.
Oh, no...
TBC
A/N: I had an idea to see Anzu duel Jounouchi when I wrote Table Games, but thought it fit better in this story, hence the reason I ended up writing a separate vexshipping story outside of that one shot. Let me know if you think I am staying true to Bakura's character! Without Zorc Necrophades's influence, I find it's harder to balance his character, so I'm hoping I'm doing a fair portrayal. See you in the next chapter!