Chapter 44:

Nerves

It had been three days since school got out and Ana hadn't contacted him. The first two days he was buried in work he was behind on, but by the third day he started to get edgy. She hasn't messaged me about where she wants to go… She wasn't that upset about me refusing to go to the pool or karaoke, was she? Seto kept glancing at his phone every couple minutes. Annoyed, he took a break and organized his deck for the first time in a while. I'm experiencing duel withdraw. When was the last time I had a decent challenge? Seto glanced over at his phone, then looked at his blue-eye's dragon card. I wish understanding Ana was like duel monsters. It would be nice if there was a card that could tell me everything about her… An Ana card, hmmm.

His phone rang and he picked it up before the first ring finished. "Hello?"

"Uh, um, Nii-san, you sound kind of tense. Is everything alright?" Mokuba asked over the phone.

Seto let out a groan at how desperate he'd sounded. "I'm fine. What's up?"

"Well, now that it's summer, I wanted to discuss the summer duel monsters tournament with you that we hold at Kaiba land—"

"Did you get Yugi to participate?" Seto wanted a challenge.

"Well… No. He never willingly takes part in the tournaments. I have invited him, but he turned me down." His brother sounded defeated. "Does that mean you won't participate this year either?"

"There's really not anyone else that is even worth dueling. There's no way to get Yugi to willingly participate. It seems like he only participates in tournaments if one of his friends or family is abducted… Or the world's being threatened. No. I won't participate either."

Mokuba let out a sigh. "I really wish you would, though. Without any big names in the tournament, our views drop. Maybe if you changed it up and offered a duel with you as a reward for the tournament. Then we could still use your name."

"Look at you, taking advantage of others to make more money. I have raised you well."

"Nii-san, I'm making a face at you… We could threaten to get Yugi in the tournament, but if your girlfriend found out, then she might think less of you."

"Th-that's…"

"Hehe, Nii-san's a pushover for his girlfriend! I can't wait to tell—"

Seto hung up on his brother and frowned at his phone. Little mink… Would Ana-chan be mad if I manipulated Yugi into a tournament? It's not like she doesn't manipulate people, though it seems to be on the more passive and to protect herself side…. Ugh. People are hard. Seto decided to take a change of pace and walked to the local convenience store to buy something sweet. Half way there he groaned when he felt someone behind him. He turned and found Arata a few paces behind. Arata jumped when Seto turned.

"Get up here and stop being creepy." Seto growled at him.

Arata rolled his eyes, but sped up so that he was walking with him. "Does this make us friends?"

"It means I tolerate your presence as one of my girlfriend's friends." Seto rolled his eyes.

Arata grinned. "I can work with that. How is Sakurai-san? Have you two been having any saucy fun now that summer's started?"

Seto looked down at the young teen who was giving him a teasing grin. He's known Ana longer…. Maybe he'd know why she hasn't contacted me yet.

"If you didn't agree to do something for someone, would they not contact you after that?" Seto asked.

Arata made a choking noise and put his hands on his face. "Are you two fighting already? Really? After all the work I did to help make your relationship smoother?"

Seto lost his temper and slugged the redhead in the arm. "Since when did you ever do anything for my relationship?"

Arata rubbed his arm, grimacing from the pain. "I blackmailed people, so they'd leave you alone and you could be flirty without stalkers following you!"

He'd been about to slug Arata in the arm again if he said something stupid, but slowly lowered his fist. I guess he helped a little. Though I'm not going to admit that. I don't want to owe him anything. Arata seemed relieved, then turned thoughtful.

"Honestly, I have no idea if Sakurai-san would be mad at you for something like telling her no. I guess it would depend on how much she wanted it, but that seems a little petty. The best thing would to be to just ask her, wouldn't it?" Arata shrugged.

Seto ticked his tongue on his teeth. Arata made sense, and it bothered him. Just asking her instead of dwelling on it would be the smart thing to do. Seto noticed Arata was giving him puppy eyes and a goofy grin.

"You're annoying. Why are you smiling at me like that?" Seto was getting the urge to hit him again.

"You and Sakurai-san make a nice couple…," Frick' I can't hit him for that, "Have you kissed yet?"

Seto slugged him in the side this time, and Arata let out a loud umph.

"That's none of your business." Seto wanted to pound on him, but decided Ana might find out and resisted.

Arata sucked in air as he held his side. "I'll take that as a no then."

Seto's eye twitched. "I really dislike you."

"I'm like gum." Arata puffed up his chest proudly.

Seto stopped in his tracks and gave Arata his best "What the frick' came out of your mouth" look. Arata noticed and put his hands on his hips.

"I'm sweet, but an awkward texture for some people to get used to. Once you do, you'll always come back to me for the days you're having bad breath."

Seto felt his mind go numb and simply walked away. Arata raced after him. He tried to ignore him, but Arata chatted the entire way to the convenience store and on the way back. When Seto got to his turn, he let out a sigh of relief as loudly as he could and gave Arata a disgusted look.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to the texture of me soon." The redhead literally skipped away, leaving Seto standing on the sidewalk, baffled.

Seto went back to his apartment and decided begrudgingly to take Arata's advice. He called Ana. She picked up on the third ring and sounded out of breath.

"Hey, Amin-chan… What's up?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you were ignoring me because I turned you down to go to the pool?" Seto asked, flat out.

"Huh? What? Ignoring… If I ignored you, would that get you to go to the pool with me?"

He could just see her cocky smile in his head. "No."

"Ha! No, I haven't been ignoring you. I've been busy with summer training. Now that school's out, grandpa wanted to catch me up on some things. The regiment will take about two weeks. When that's over with, I'll be back on normal training and then I'll have more time. Oh, sorry break's over got to go."

"What? Wait!"

She hung up, and Seto glared at his phone. Huh? Two weeks? No. No frickin' way is that ok. Seto looked over at the time. It was near eight p.m. He grumbled and went back to work typing furiously. This didn't really distract him well. He worked until late into the night and then tried to sleep, but to no avail. At the crack of dawn, he got dress, and headed straight to Ana's house. When he got there, he buzzed the intercom incessantly until a disgruntled Hikari answered.

"Who's being so rude in the mor—"

"Where's Ana?" Seto barked into the speaker.

"What? She's in the dojo—"

He didn't wait for Hikari to finish. Instead, he walked around the house, up to the dojo, and slammed open the sliding door. Ana was standing in the middle of the dojo in a white Gi. If he hadn't been so pissed off, he probably would have observed how she looked in it. Ana looked shocked to see him, but he turned his attention to Dai, who was standing across from Ana. He too looked surprised.

"Hey, old man. Quit hogging my girlfriend and let me take her on a date." Seto fumed as he pointed at Ana.

Ana's face turned pink, and she looked at her grandpa nervously. She spun back to Seto. Her eyes narrowed as she opened her mouth, he assumed to tell him off, but she didn't get the chance.

"Alright. Ana, you're dismissed from training for the day," Dai replied calmly. "Go have fun."

Both Ana and Seto looked at him dumbfounded.

"Seriously?" Seto was a little shock that such a demand had worked.

Dai shrugged. "This is the first time Ana's ever had a significant other to go on dates with. I forgot that. I'll keep that in mind from now on. So, go have fun."

The old man walked to the door and Seto let him pass. He stood there wondering how that worked. Ana walked over to him her hands trembling. Before he could say anything, she pinched him hard.

"Owe! What was that for?" Seto pulled his arm away.

"What if I didn't want to go on a date today? What if I wanted to train instead?" Ana hissed.

Seto frowned and looked around nervously. "You don't?"

"Of course, I do! That's not the point!" She stomped her bare foot on the wood floor. "Don't just come into my home and demand things from my family! You don't have the right to do that. Especially, without asking my permission in the first place. What if I walked into your house and demanded that your little brother drop whatever he was doing and entertain me? How would that make you feel?"

"Ah… Pissed that you ordered him around… Sorry." Seto frowned and clenched his fist. "I won't do that again, but were you really going to have me wait two weeks before we could spend time together again? I want to spend time with you other than just studying."

Ana paused and looked conflicted. "I didn't want to wait two weeks. It's just…"

"You're too afraid to speak up to your grandpa?" Seto crossed an arm over his chest and pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand.

Ana sighed. "I'll… try to balance it better… Especially, now that it seems he's fine with me missing training for dates."

She bit her lip then pinched him again and grumbled, "Let me go get changed. I obviously can't go in my Gi."

Seto finally looked at her and her outfit. He smiled teasingly. "Why not? You're cute."

Ana blushed, then a mischievous look flashed through her eyes. "Oh? That so?"

She placed her hands gently on his sides before wrapping her arms around him and pressing up against him. Wha-wha-what? Why! His face was on fire as he looked down at her teasing grin. He felt his legs being slipped out from under him. She held onto him and directed his momentum so that he fell flat on his back. She ended up on top of him, straddling him, and smiled down at him triumphantly.

"Still cute?"

The air was knocked out of him, but he still coughed out a response, "Yes."

Ana blushed and looked away from him for a second. When she turned back to him, she brushed her stray hair out of her face, then bent down and lightly placed her lips on his forehead. It was only for a split second. She practically jumped off him and flew out the door. Seto lay on the dojo floor, dazed.

He placed his hand on his chest. I think my heart stopped.

"Friiiiick."