Disclaimer: Nope, still on my Christmas list.
Atemu trudged home with Yugi, Ryo, Anzu, Jou, Shizuka, Honda, and Otogi the next Friday afternoon, shivering fiercely form the cold wind and the snow that had fallen continuously since late the night before. He sneezed as a flurry of snowflakes caught him in the face, in his opinion, seriously disrespecting his personal space.
"Are you all right 'Temu? You don't look too good," Yugi noticed, looking up into his yami's face.
"I'm fine," the ex-pharaoh snapped, hugging his thin uniform jacket closer to himself.
"You don't look fine," said Ryo, also turning to inspect his friend. "You've been coughing all day."
"I'm FINE!" he shouted. Ryo and Yugi looked stunned. "I'm just tired, that's all."
Honda, hearing this discourse, withdrew his hand from deep in his pocket and thrust it to Atemu's forehead. He snorted.
"Guy says he's fine when he's burning up," he commented dryly as Atemu pushed his hand away.
"I'm fine!"
"No, you're not," Anzu said, joining the group of arguing teens. "Do you remember what you did in cooking today?"
"I blew up another toaster that I'll have to pay for, which makes... I think fourteen... this term anyway... burnt some pizza, then tripped on it... spilled some of that expensive soy milk stuff, and made a few eggs hatch... which really doesn't make any scientific sense at all-"
"No! What else did you do? Specifically, whose gingerbread cookies did you ruin by suddenly deciding to sneeze all over them?"
"Oh... I told you I was sorry. It was an accident." He sounded hurt, and Anzu's face softened.
"Hey, that's all right. But the point is you're sick."
He sighed. "I'm not going to win this, am I?" he asked Yugi.
"Nope!" the shortest of them replied as Atemu sighed again.
"Hey, do all of you want to just come over to my house tonight?" Anzu asked. "We could like, watch tons and tons of movies, or play RPG's, and hey, we could make it a sleepover! There's no school tomorrow because of that voting thing!"
"I'll supply the food!" Jounouchi shouted.
"Not if I beat you to it!" Honda and Otogi countered at the same time. The three boys were soon engaged in an all-out fistfight. Atemu bet Yugi that Otogi would be the first to give in to logic, but Yugi bet on Honda. It turned out to be Jou. The two agreed that that was not logic.
"Okay guys, so can you all call me as soon as you get home with your answers?" Anzu asked as the group came to her house.
"Sure 'Anz!" Jou called. They continued on.
Five o'clock that Night:
"Hi Anzu!" Yugi exclaimed as he and Atemu arrived at her house, each carrying a sleeping bag, pillow, and a backpack in which they had pajamas and a change of clothes, and Atemu had a bottle of cold medicine that Sogoroku had insisted he take along to take some before he went to bed.
"Hi Yugi! Hey Atemu! Come on in, you're the last ones! Jou and Honda are in the kitchen, Otogi's... somewhere, Ryo's in the living room setting up that Monster World RPG he's got, so we can play it later- MINUS the spirit of the ring, don't worry, Shizuka's either with him or in the kitchen, and my parents were kinda traumatized by all the noise, so they're up in their room- No scratch that, here's Mom! We were just talking about you, Mom!"
Mrs. Mazaki smiled warmly. "Hello, you two. How are you doing?" she asked as the boys removed their shoes on the front mat.
"Good, thanks," Yugi replied, standing up. Atemu couldn't answer, coughing from the brisk walk they'd taken to get there. Then Yugi had insisted they run the rest of the way to the Mazaki residence, and he still felt a bit dizzy from running so far.
"Are you all right there, Atemu?" Anzu's mother asked worriedly, seeing that the boy's face was flushed a bit.
"Just a cold," he muttered, bowing respectfully. "Gomen nasai."
"Hey, that's all right. I'm just going to the store for some more flour, Anzu; Jou and Honda have practically gone through it all already. How can two boys your age eat so much?"
Anzu laughed. "That's for Jou and Honda to know, and the rest of the world to find out. Dad's upstairs, right?"
"Yes, and he'll most likely be staying up there. Bye!"
"Bye Mom!" Anzu called as Mrs. Mazaki left. "Let's go!" she shouted enthusiastically. The two boys grinned.
"So what's the plan tonight?" Yugi asked excitedly, dumping his bags down in the living room with everyone else's.
"Well, we're going to make these cookies, then pizza and hot cocoa, and that'll be our dinner, then we were thinking about a horror movie of some sort, a food break, and then we're gonna play Monster World, then a funny movie, then truth or dare," she rattled off. "Then after that, we can just talk until we fall asleep!"
Atemu's head was already spinning. "Whoa."
"Yup!" They entered the kitchen, where Jou and Honda were checking on some gingerbread men in the oven.
"They're not going to have cooked in the two seconds since you checked them last, Jou," Anzu reminded the blond, muttering to herself about what sounded like, 'men and kitchens...'
"And what exactly do you have against men and kitchens?" asked Jou, who had obviously heard the last comment.
"I don't have anything against either of them, it's just that I fear for my life when the two are together."
"She's got a fair point there," Atemu agreed.
"Hey, you're supposed to be on our side!" Honda exclaimed as Atemu chuckled.
"Would you seriously allow me near a toaster?" the ancient pharaoh asked.
"No, I guess not..." Atemu laughed at his friend's comically uncharacteristic, contemplative expression as Otogi, Shizuka and Ryo entered the kitchen from the living room.
"Hello you two," Ryo greeted the two. "I missed your entrance."
"You sound too polite when you say that, Ryo. Loosten up a little," said Honda.
"And what exactly is wrong with my pattern of speech?" the white-haired boy asked defensively.
"Well... there's nothing wrong with it-"
"Good. That's settled then."
Anzu laughed. "Come on guys, let's start on the pizza. Atemu..."
The ex-pharaoh laughed. "I'll stay away from all electric appliances, don't worry... I could help knead the dough, though," he offered.
Anzu flashed an appreciative grin as she got out the pizza dough she'd whipped up previously. "Okay, you know what to do, right? You sort of fold it like this, and work in your fingers this way..." she said as she placed the dough on a plate on the counter, gently kneading it with her hands. Atemu washed his hands in the kitchen sink, then carefully approached the dough. You can do this, Atemu. It's just flour and water and eggs... Don't make yourself look stupid...
"Can you show me one more time?" he asked tentatively.
"Sure. Here." Anzu showed him how to hold it, and how to make it equal out into a circle. He copied her, their sides brushing slightly as he stood more directly before the counter. He missed Anzu's deep blush.
"Is this right?"
"Yup, that's it! So just keep doing it like that until it's nice and round, and then we'll top it. I'll have Ryo and Shizuka each do one too... Are you all right? You're sure you can handle it...?"
"Yes."
"Okay then-" She turned to leave.
"Anzu?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks."
She smiled warmly as she turned back to face him, her deep cocoa tresses whispering to her eyes in time with the movement of her slender form. The glimmer from the holiday lights strung in the room reflected in her shining cerulean orbs, whose mere glance could flip Atemu's stomach as with a spatula and cause dizzying sensations to sprint through his head, making him feel lightheaded.
Anzu didn't understand it. She turned and smiled, and all she could see was a ruby-hued sea of passion and hope, and found herself lost in his eyes. She felt bubbles of anxiety rise in her chest as their contact didn't break. Hey... his eyes are red and mine are blue... so together they would make purple... Isn't purple the color of royalty?
"Anzu?" Anzu jerked around as Yugi entered the room. She missed the warm flush that invaded Atemu's cheeks when Yugi came in.
"Yeah Yugi?"
"Do you know where Jou went?"
"No, I thought he was in here..." Anzu looked around the kitchen. Atemu, Ryo and Shizuka were busy kneading the dough for three big pizzas, Otogi was peeking in on the gingerbread men in the oven, and Honda was picking a fight with his dice-boy companion.
"That's okay. He's gotta be around here somewhere, right?" Yugi moved on to another room, when- BOOM!
"Ah!" Somehow, the toaster had exploded. All heads turned to Atemu.
"What did you do?" Otogi asked.
"I just walked past it!" the targeted ex-pharaoh defended himself, throwing his arms in the air.
"And it just randomly decided to explode? Come on man, you musta done SOMETHING to it," came Jou's voice as he and Yugi came into the room.
BOOM!
No one knew why it happened, no one knew how it happened, but the next second Atemu was covered from head to toe in the chocolate powder that Jou was getting out to begin making his famous hot cocoa.
"Atemu!"
"I didn't do it! I'm just standing here- Achoo!" he sneezed, and coughed weakly. Suddenly he looked very pale.
"Whoa, 'Temu!" Jou exclaimed as the boy continued to cough.
"Here, come on," said Anzu. She gently led him into the bathroom and wet a facecloth, wiping his face off. He still coughed.
"Anzu... I have no idea what happened back there. The stuff just blew up, I didn't mean for it to-"
"That's all right," she soothed, seeing the panicked expression on his face. "Don't worry 'Temu, it's all right... Geez, you really don't look good. You're all pale," she noted as she finished wiping his face free of the cocoa powder. There was till a little around his lips, and she leaned forward and kissed them, removing the last of the chocolate.
"Anzu...?"
"Oh my gosh, did I just- I mean... I didn't mean to do that-"
"It's all right Anzu. We all do things on impulse that we don't mean to. You're a girl, you see chocolate on a boy's lips... and you've been craving chocolate all day, haven't you?"
"How did you know?" she asked, embarrassed and stunned.
"I can... I can tell things like that about people. It scares little Yugi very much."
She laughed. "So... you're not offended? That was a mistake, I swear-"
"Anzu."
"Mmh?"
"I would never take offense in anything you say."
He would be haunted for weeks by the kiss that was never meant to be.
Ooh, he's in LURVE, eh? He didn't mind that there kiss, y'all know that? Lil sneak... and to think I made him that way... oh well. That tells y'all somethin' 'bout me then, doesn't it!
I'm flattered CommomKnowledge. And it'll get more interesting with the Anzu interaction later. That kiss was on impulse, but later on... all I'm saying. But stay tuned, more to come!
Glad you like it AREZAL, and Kami is the Japanese word for God.
Queen Insanity, obviously he needs to learn a bit MORE control now, eh? After that little accident with the chocolate, he's gonna need a lot more than deep breaths to keep him calm! I didn't actually mean for that chapter to be funny, but I'm glad you thought so! Whatever works, ne?
Thanks, Black-Caracal!
Ninqe, Atemu and his swarming masses of shadow magic it is! And more to come! Angst and fluff all the way! I want to hug him too, but he'd probably get mad at me for all I've done to him... which I do NOT want... cuz he's just gonna get more and more mad after that accidental kiss... And thanks for dubbing me worthy-bows- I live to make my readers happy! Your wish is my command! (To a certain extent. If you ask me to do drugs, don't be surprised if you suddenly get a few tons of blackmail... ;))