If I Ain't Got You

Some People Live For The Fortune

Some people think that the physical things

Define what's within

And I've been there before

Anzu Mazaki finished her performance with an extravagant twirl and the splits. She bowed her head and the lights went low on the stage. Quietly, she slipped off stage and waited for a few seconds, to head back on stage to take a bow with the other dancers in the play.

Anzu was the last person to walk across the stage with her male counterpart and they received the most applause. She had a broad smile on her face and caught the flowers that were tossed to her.

Six months after Battle City Yami and Yuugi had officially announced they were a couple, and her dreams of true love had gone down the drain. After eating tons of chocolate and watching clichéd soap operas for about a week, a letter had come in the mail telling her that she had been accepted into the New York School of Dance.

So Anzu had packed her bags and left for the U.S. without so much as a word to her friends.

She worked hard, and didn't let any man distract her, so she was at the top of the class in no time. She graduated four years later as valedictorian.

It had been three years since then and there had been no letters, no phone calls, or no visits from her friends. Anzu realized that she left without telling them and never wrote, called, or visited herself, but it still would have been nice to know that her friends remembered her.

Recently, she had landed the part of Grizabella in Broadway's production of Cats. It was their opening night, so the seats were completely sold out and they would be for the next week or so.

Anzu hadn't had much to live for after she had left Domino City. She suffered from a broken heart. First she stayed in New York because of her love for dance. But the stress of heartache topped with long training hours and homework got to her and it almost got to the point where she couldn't take it any more. However, she refused to quit and continued on during the long training hours.

After her first major performance, Anzu found a good reason to stay alive and in New York. Anzu never realized how well Broadway performers were paid. So she remained for the money.

She had never had a lot of money in Japan. Her parents didn't have high-paying jobs and their divorce didn't help. They could barely pay for her to go to the dance school even with the scholarship. The money she earned dancing was a blessing. She sent money home to her parents and had more than enough money for herself.

Slowly, the applause broke up and the people began to leave. The performers exited the stage and headed to their dressing rooms to head for home. Anzu stopped in front of her door and looked at the nameplate for a second. It read: 'Tea Gardener GRIZABELLA'.

It was the stage name Anzu had picked for herself five years ago. It sounded more 'American' and it would be easier to remember. But it wasn't her name and that depressed her. Maybe it was why her friends hadn't been able to find her all these years. She had been going by Tea for sometime.

She entered to see a typical dressing room. A counter with make-up and an illuminated mirror was off to one side while a rack of costumes was across the room from it. Anzu headed towards her counter and picked up the various flowers that were strewn across it. Each had a note attached to it, one from Timothy Smith, the man who played Old Deuteronomy, one from Jonathan Vogel, the director and a few others from different people.

Anzu had just set the greenery down when a knock came from the door.

"Come in," she yelled nonchalantly.

"You were beautiful out there tonight," a familiar masculine voice said as the door swung open.

Anzu's eyes widened at the sound. "Jou!" she nearly shrieked as she spun around to face the blonde.

He had gotten slightly taller now bordering 6 feet. He still had the lanky, thin look going on but he wasn't wearing his laid back style of clothing. He had dressed up in a suit for Anzu's performance tonight. His hair still fell in front of his brown eyes. He wasn't grinning at the moment and his eyes had a sad look to them.

"Oh my gosh, it's been so long. How have you been? How's the gang?" Anzu paused for a second to clear her mind and said, "Why are you here?"

Jounouchi looked at the ceiling and started to answer. "The gang's been doing fine since you left. We all took it really hard for the first year or so, but when we didn't get any letters or calls or nothin' most of us got over it. Since then a lot has happened. Shizuka owns a big time company now, Ryou and Bakura got together a couple years back and they're doing well, I think Bakura said something about proposing. Marik is back after Malik begged Bakura to bring him back. Yuugi and Yami are married and they've adopted a little girl name McKenzie."

The blonde paused for a second. "Yuug' was really depressed after you left. He thought he'd driven you away because he knew you were in love with Yami. It took forever to get him to be partially happy. He hated himself because he thought he isolated a friend." Jou shot the performer a look. "You shouldn't have left," he said.

Anzu looked back guiltily. "I know. But I couldn't have stayed. It was too much for me to take. I couldn't sit in the room and watched Yugi and Yami be all cutesy together. Have you ever had to feel the pain of knowing that the person you love doesn't love you?"

Jou's eyes looked straight into hers. "Yes actually I have." He paused. "Before you left, I was in love with a girl who had brown hair, blue eyes, and loved to dance. And every day I'd see her and pretend that my world didn't revolve around her. And everyday I had to live with the fact that she was in love with a spirit and pretend that it didn't bother me."

Tears were running down Anzu's face in a steady flow smearing the stage make-up that she hadn't had time to remove. "Jou, I—"

"Let me finish," he said in a gentle voice. "When you left my heart was shattered and there was no one to pick up the pieces. And no one could know about my pain. I had to be strong for everyone else. It finally took me three years to finally try and find you, but by then no one outside of Domino knew whom you were, everyone referred to you as Tea Gardener. It took me so long to find you again. And now I have."

Anzu had sunk to her knees and was crying hard. Joey got down on her knees in front of her and raised her head. She noticed that tears were running down his face as well. " And you're a beautiful woman. You have an amazing singing voice and you are an amazing dancer. I'm still in love with Anzu Mazaki. I'll always be in love with the Anzu. But you're not her. You are Tea Gardener, performer extraordinaire."

Slowly, Jou brought his lips down to cover Anzu's. It was a soft and short kiss, but filled with love.

"I'll always wait for Anzu Mazaki," he whispered. Then he got up and left the room, not caring that his face was tearstained and his clothes were a bit rumpled.

Anzu watched him leave and knew that if she ever wanted to see him again, she would have to leave and find him. But the money was here, and she wasn't sure if she could leave the money.

Well, there it is. My first attempt at YGO fanfiction. I hope I didn't screw it up too bad. Constructive criticism is always welcome, just don't flame! There will be three more parts to this story (and if you've ever heard the song, I bet you can guess what their titles will be.)

Thanks Dymond

Disclaimer: I do not own any Yu-gi-oh characters, the musical Cats, or Alicia Keys song 'If I Ain't Got You'.