Disclaimer: No, Hell hasn't frozen over yet. Why do you ask?

Author's Note: Thanks to Bunny Meatball/Odango Usagi, Yami) White Rain, Kerrie-chan, PinkStarz, Choas Babe, Azurite, Mother Chow Goddess (see? I didn't forget the plate!), deoki tenchi, Lily of the Shadow, HieilovesBotan, goddesskali, DarkShadowFlame, GwenKeely, gamergal20, Geniusgirl; The Original, Chi Yagami, AkaVertigo, fOX-SPIRIT AKA Y.V, Tears, gladdecease, Deena70, Anime-AngelWings, Hikari, KeikoGurl, Suheil373, lavender skies, tea/anzufan, Tandy, Jellybob15, Cocoa1331, IcyDragontears, Goddess Hikari, devilishlytricky, and Banshee-Forest!

Chapter 10

One of Seto's feet touched the broken glass pieces near them and the soft, barely audible noise of the glass scraping against the hard floor reminded them where they were, and the kiss broke. As Anzu pulled away, breathless, Kaiba shoved her off and hurriedly scrambled to his feet, but bent over once again to pick up the pieces of the dish.

Anzu stood too, grinning widely and fanning herself with her right hand. Her face was flushed and, though he turned away to hide it, she noticed Kaiba's was too as he paused from picking up the dish pieces to awkwardly rub his arm.

Anzu cleared her throat, hoping to break the increasingly unpleasant silence. Despite the feelings of awkwardness hanging in the air, the brunette was pleased with herself. That was twice in one day the normally stoic CEO found himself hot and bothered.

And this time it was entirely because of her.

Kaiba slowly dropped the pieces into the sink before turning to face Anzu, trying to maintain as much of his dignity as possible. "We still have work to do," he said levelly. And then he added, as disdainfully as he could manage, "So get back to sweeping."

Anzu twitched and raised an eyebrow. Did he just talk to her like she was his personal servant? All right, so he tended to talk to everyone like they were his personal servant. But all the same, no overbearing male idiot was going to tell Anzu Mazaki to sweep up like a common servant.

"Excuse me?" she said.

"You heard me," Kaiba retorted. "Sweep."

"You are not going to tell me what to d-- !"

"You can leave now," the cook said, interrupting Anzu's sentence. He was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking grumpy and almost haggard.

"They said we could go?" Anzu was surprised. They weren't even halfway finished yet! "We can really go? The manager really said we could leave now?"

"Who cares about the manager?" the cook snapped. "I don't want you stupid kids messin' around in MY kitchen anymore. Now get out!" He gestured over his shoulder to the doorway. His voice was almost a growl -- either the cook got his kicks trying to scare teenagers or he REALLY cared about his kitchen. Probably both.

Anzu gently tugged on Kaiba's arm, hoping to guide him out the door without incident before the cook discovered they'd broken a plate.

Kaiba refused to budge. "I can't just walk back through there!" he said, sounding appalled that anyone would even suggest it.

Anzu smiled sympathetically. Gently she took one of Kaiba's hands in her own and patted it, before turning to the cook. "Sir, is there some kind of back exit we could use? My friend doesn't want to go out that way. He's all embarrassed about what happened so he's decided to act like a big baby."

That was enough to make Kaiba forcefully grip Anzu's hand and tug her right out of the kitchen -- though not before pausing to hiss in the cook's ear, "You'll never work in this town again, man!" -- right through the restaurant amid all the patrons and right into the street.

"Big baby indeed," he said once they were standing outside.

Anzu ignored him. "It's a beautiful night."

"It's a night like any other. I fail to recognize what's supposed to be so beautiful about it."

Anzu skipped down the sidewalk a little bit, but stopped when she realized the long dinner dress wasn't good for skipping. "Look at the sky. It's so clear. You can see the stars." She paused, blatantly staring at the heavens.

"If you're trying to distract me from what happened, it's not going to work."

Anzu sighed, bringing her gaze back down to him. "Fine. Be that way. Mope if you want to!"

Kaiba glowered at her. "Let's just call the limousine back and get out of here." There was a brief pause. "And I do not mope."

Anzu knew better than to argue with him. So she just smiled up at him -- she was tempted to lean against him but that might be like just asking to be left here without a ride -- and, catching sight of a bright building across the street, started softly, "Let's go dancing." Her eyes lit up as she spoke the last word, but Kaiba, turned away, didn't see it.

"Dancing?" He snorted as he reached for his pager.

"Yeah! It'll be fun. Come on, Kaiba, pleeease."

"No, thank you." The businessman was already in the process of paging the limo driver. "I've been humiliated enough for one night, Mazaki."

"Kaiba!"

"No. Now stop it and let me -- " He turned, irritably, to tell her off to her face and found a pair of adorably wide eyes peering up at him out of the murky blackness. Since when had Anzu been so good at mimicking Mokuba?

"Please, Kaiba?" she said. There was a slight whimper in her voice that made her all the more endearing.

He relented. "All right, all right!" He sighed and closed his eyes, putting his pager back in the pocket where it belonged. "No one is ever going to look at me the same way again anyhow, I suppose."

Anzu grinned widely, pleased with herself, and stood on her tiptoes to put an arm around his shoulder and say, in her best imitation of a man's voice, "Now is that really such a bad thing?" She didn't know if he'd be amused -- or if, for that matter, Kaiba was EVER amused -- but hey, it was worth a try, right?

Kaiba's face twitched and for a second he almost threatened to smile, in spite of himself. But then he looked away, apparently unwilling to drop his spoiled-little-kid bit.

Anzu laughed out loud as she pulled away, reaching around to give him a light pat on the ass before running off toward the dance club, leaving Kaiba to wonder just how he would ever get on with his life again after this.

And how he was going to convince Anzu that nobody went around giving Seto Kaiba an open-palm smack on the butt! (What was it with that girl and his rear end, anyhow?)