Disclaimer: If I owned this, what I wrote would be the actual plot of Yu-Gi-Oh. As far as I know, Atemu isn't a singer in a band in the actual Yu-Gi-Oh. Correct me if I am mistaken, please.
"Achoo!" Atemu sneezed, lying down on the couch in the Mutou living room. Sogoroku, arguing over TV channels with Yugi, watched Atemu blow his nose miserably. He clicked his tongue, shaking his head.
"You shouldn't have gone to that concert. Look what's happened."
Atemu coughed, readjusting his position on the couch with weak arms. He replied in a scratchy voice, "I'm sorry Jii-chan. I just... I couldn't let the rest of the band down, not after everything we've been through to get in this competition. And I won't be able to sing anyway, with my voice like this." He coughed again and shivered, pulling his blanket tighter around him. "Achoo!"
Yugi and Sogoroku finally settled on a channel they both liked as Atemu grabbed for another tissue, only to find the box empty. The elderly man chuckled as he watched Atemu continue to sneeze and fall back on the couch, thoroughly exhausted. He walked to the bathroom for another box and brought it back to the living room, nudging the once-pharaoh with it. Atemu's eyes pried themselves open and he offered his grandfather a weak smile in thanks, hastily taking one and blowing his nose quietly. He leaned back into his pillow and closed his eyes.
Ding, Dong!
"I'll get it," stated Sogoroku, getting up from his seat. He walked to the front door and opened it. "Hello?"
"Hi Mr. Mutou."
"Anzu! I haven't seen you in... two days! Come in!"
"Thanks," she said, respectfully removing her shoes at the door. "Can I say hi to Atemu and Yugi?"
"Sure. They're in here." He lead her into the back room, where Yugi sat watching the music channel they had settled on and Atemu rested with his eyes closed.
"Who was it Jii-chan? Oh, hey Anzu!" Yugi said, turning from the TV. "How's it going? Did you like the concert?"
"Oh yeah, it was awesome!" She cast a glance in Atemu's direction. He had curled up slightly and his breathing was slow and rhythmic. She softened her voice. "Is he all right?"
"Oh yes, just a nasty bug. He should have stayed home, as I advised him," Sogoroku answered the lanky brunette.
Suddnely Atemu's eyes jerked open and he shot out of bed, raced in the direction of the bathroom and closed the door sharply behing him. Yugi winced as gagging sounds came from behind the closed door.
"He's been throwing up every half-hour."
"Oh, poor guy."
Yugi nodded, turning his attention back to his music station on TV. A few minutes later Atemu shuffled back into the room and laid back down on the couch, shivering and pulling his blanket closer around him. It was all twisted up from his leaping around a few minutes previously. Anzu reached a hand forward, her eyes glistening with worry.
"Here, let me help you." Atemu looked up quickly at her voice.
"Oh, hello Anzu." He blushed. "I didn't see you before."
"Yeah... Would you like some help with untwisting that?"
"Um... okay."
Yugi, seeing that both teens were extremely red in the face, smirked. "Jii-chan, will you help me with my homework?"
"Sure, just bring it down-"
"How about we go upstairs?" Yugi asked pointedly, nodding his head ever-so-slightly to where Anzu had helped Atemu untangle his blanket and was perched on the end of the couch. Sogoroku followed Yugi's eye line and looked confused for a second. Then his lips formed themselves as if to say, "Oh," and a playful smile crossed his lips.
"Okay, let's go then." A bit louder, he said, "Atemu, I'll be helping Yugi with his homework upstairs if anything happens, if you get really sick or something... bye." Yugi and Sogoroku hurried out of the room.
"So... how are you feeling?" Anzu asked tentatively.
"Um... well, I'm existent and alive, so I guess I can't really complain, can I?"
"No, I guess not..." She leaned back a little on her end of the couch near Atemu's feet. "Um... do you need anything?"
He shook his head, his eyelids drooping. He coughed and shivered. "No thanks. I'm just tired."
Anzu smiled. "I know the feeling. Do you want me to get you another blanket?"
"If it's not any trouble... they're in the space under the TV."
"Not at all." She dropped to her knees in front of the television, opening up the drawer under it, and pulled out a fuzzy brown blanket that looked warm. Standing up again, she draped it over Atemu's shivering body. He weakly tried to help, and each blushed furiously as their hands touched.
Atemu looked up to see Anzu's blush. "Oh, I'm sorry..."
"No, that's all right..."
Atemu chuckled, and ended up coughing. "I'm not much of a good host, am I?"
"That's all right. Don't beat yourself up about it. I wanted to come to see you."
"You... did?" He coughed again, turning his head away from the girl in front of him until the rough coughs stopped coming.
"You okay?"
He nodded weakly, falling back onto his pillow.
"...Anzu?"
"Yes?"
"Uh... Don't be offended please, but... I can't keep my eyes open. I'm still listening to you though." I'd always listen to what she has to say.
"Hey, you don't have to apologise to me. We're all sick at some point or another. Just rest so you can get better, okay?"
"Mm." He nodded and settled into a more comfortable position. "So, what did you think of the concert?"
"Oh, you guys were awsome! Who wrote that song? It was really beautiful, you know."
He smiled softly, that kind, enchantingly drifting smile that caused moths to flutter in Anzu's stomach and never failed to pull up the corners of her mouth to match his. "It was mostly Bakura and Isis for that one. They're amazing working together on music."
Anzu nodded her agreement, then remembered that he couldn't see her. "Yeah. And you were awesome with that singing. I loved it..." She watched his cheeks tinge bright pink, and he pulled the blankets farther up over his face.
"Hey, do you think maybe we should check your temperature? You're really flushed..."
"Oh- No, I'm fine- I mean- It's not that- Um... Jii-chan already took my temperature! Yes, um- Yes, it was one hundred and two point seven right before you came, and I-I doubt it's changed much," he offered hurriedly, sounding nearly panicked.
"Okay... Hey, will you be able to sing in the next round of this thing?"
His teeth bit his lower lip. "N-No. Not at this rate. I'd need to get better by next Sunday... and Jii-chan doesn't think that will happen. And if I do get better before then, my voice would still be too hoarse to sing well, and if I performed with it like that it would only get worse. They're going to do one with mainly high voices singing all the lyrics with Rishid taking my place in the underlying ostinato we have going, and hopefully my absence won't show. But in a competition like this..." He suddenly looked weak. "I just don't know." His lip was now far beyond quivering, and Anzu felt his whole body rattle violently. "It's not fair that this has to happen! We've worked so hard for this!" He shouted huskily, and began to sniffle quietly.
"Hey... It's going to be all right..." Then she did something that surprised them both, leaning over and giving him a tight hug. "Isis told me all about it, and it'll be okay."
"Just 'okay' though, Anzu; we don't have a choice anyway. This band... for the six of us, it was life for a while. Right after Battle City, when Bakura and I got our own bodies, and Isis's boyfriend died, and Mai was depressed, and Malik didn't know who he was anymore... we were just all so... scared. You've never woken up one morning on the floor to find yourself separate from your light half... It's scary..." Tears slipped down his tanned cheeks and landed on the blanket as soft sobs escaped his throat. "I'm sorry... What a great friend I am, falling apart on you like this..."
"Don't think that. Don't think anything like that. I'm your friend, and I'll always be there for you. How many times have I cried in front of you?"
"Yes, but that's-"
"No. Don't beat yourself up. You're sick and tired and the world hasn't been fair to you. You have plenty of reasons to cry. It's okay."
"Th-Thanks Anzu..." He choked on his words and began to sob. Anzu kneeled before the couch and took him into a comforting hug. After a few minutes his cries subsided and he pulled away slowly.
"Thanks, I-"
"Don't say anything. Just rest now, okay? I want you to get better. And I know you don't have the strength to argue with me, so just lean back and relax." She took a tissue from the box on the coffee table and wiped at his eyes, drying the tears.
"Anzu... you don't know how much that meant to me..."
He drifted off into a peaceful sleep and Anzu smiled. She got up to leave, as it was getting late anyway, but something stopped her, something felt... incomplete. She leaned forward and kissed his flaming forehead softly, whispering, barely audibly,
"Wanna bet?"
So? Y'all like fluff? I hope so.
Electric Fire, yes, it is a cold world, but the arms of our bishies will always remain warm! To our bishies! Hope you didn't mind that pointless fluff-filled chappie... I was in the mood for fluff today. Yeah, math is evil, and technology that won't work isn't very technological, now is it? Or useful, either. The Atemu-grunt, yeah. You know how in Cry of the Black Magician he uses The Glare a lot? Well I got a review and they said that usually whenever he uses that Glare in the anime, he grunts afterwards... do there we go! Instant humor!
:uses Atemu-Glare and Grunt:
Black-Caracal, I'm glad you think it's great! I checked out your bio, and you REALLY, REALLY love music, don't you? So do I! Weakling of the Night actually has real tune and all that, but it's pretty horrible. Do you play an instrument? I play trumpet and recorder, mainly trumpet but recorder when the spirit moves me, ne? And I think this chapter answered your AnzuAtemu question, eh? Hope it wasn't a disappointment, I'm pretty bad at romance...
THANK YOU MY WONDERFUL, BELOVED REVIEWERS! I LOVE Y'ALL!