Disclaimer: Take a wild guess as to whether or not it's mine. Who's name is on the covers of all the manga? After all the anime episodes? In all the interviews? Tell me, is it spelled more like, "Kazuki Takahashi," or like, "BlackCharmgirl?" Takahashi? I thought so too.
"Ooh, there it is! I'll race you!" Anzu shouted, spotting the neon sign advertising their destination far up the street.
"Your legs are longer than mine! That's not fair!"
"But you're just as fast-"
"If you insist!" Atemu fled on ahead of his date, Anzu hot on his trail.
"Atemu Mutou, I will get you!"
"In your dreams!" He sped up even more, his lithe form swiftly dodging between passersby on the sidewalk. Panting, he reached the entrance to the arcade. Anzu came up seconds behind him. "You're too fast for your own good, do you know that?"
"Yes, but it's useful to be able to do when little Yugi needs to run to catch the bus. I can pull him along."
"Whatever."
They stood there for a minute, just panting and smiling. "Shall we go in, then?"
"Yeah!" They walked in together, and Atemu noticed how the lights of the arcade's many blinking games reflected in her eyes, creating the effect of her eyes being multicolored. They were large and round and glowing and fit perfectly with her broad smile.
"What are you staring at? Do I have something on my face?"
"Just the most beautiful eyes in the world," he whispered under his breath.
"You-You think so?"
He blushed deeply. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah... But yours are pretty nice too..." Their gazes met and they stood locked in a staring contest, each taking in the beauty of the other's face, until Atemu found something within himself tugging at him. He was the Game King, and here was a whole arcade of new games to ace, and what better time to kick someone's butt at a hard game than on a date with his longtime crush?
"Do... Do you want to play now?"
"Oh yeah! Let's go! Which first?"
"Good question... I know. Close your eyes."
"Why?"
"Because, I'm going for the whole 'Man of Mystery' persona."
"Okay then." She trusted him as he held his hands over her eyes from behind and led her through the swarms of people to the very back of the arcade, to the only game no one had the courage to show off their skills at. He stepped onto the raised dancing platform and removed his hands.
Anzu blinked as her eyes re-adjusted to the bright light of the arcade, then took in her surroundings. A smirk suddenly graced her features, a playful thing of wonder that unleashed chilling sensations and ordered them to fly up and down Atemu's spine, torturing him and teasing him that he had no control over them.
She pressed a few buttons on the pad. "You're on."
Many eyes watched them as the music started out, a slow, easy beat. They moved on their separate pads as one, smiles on each of their faces. As the music quickened its pace Atemu found himself totally giving into the wonder his heart felt, his feet moving automatically underneath him as he allowed his body to press into nonexistence, swallowed by glory and emotion, passion and thrill. He was dancing, in his favorite arcade, with a beautiful girl. And he hadn't messed up yet. He knew that Anzu would be the eventual winner, but he let himself just love the moment.
Meanwhile, Anzu wasn't so sure she was going to win. She had never actually seen Atemu dance; Yugi never did and Atemu had just gotten his own body and mastered using it, but he was good. She watched his form carefully as the two continued to fly through the song, feet tracing intricate patterns on their respective platforms. Now the beat had sped up to a nearly impossible tempo, each of the pair exerting themselves to the point of collapsing. Atemu caught Anzu up in his arms amidst shouts and whoops from the crowd as the dance battle ended and the word 'TIE' flashed across a screen in back of them.
"That... was... amazing..." Anzu panted, blushing furiously, both from the exhilaration of dancing and from the fact that Atemu hadn't set her down yet. He offered her a hand and led her back into the still-applauding crowd, finding two seats for them.
"Would you like a drink?"
"Sure."
He walked to the soda bar on the far side of the arcade, coming back with two orange sodas, each of their favorite.
"Thanks," she murmured, taking a sip of the cool liquid. She eyed him as he popped the tab on his own can and took a swig, coughing quietly as the cold liquid hit his throat.
"Are you all right?"
He cleared his ticklish throat. "Yes. I loved that."
Anzu nodded. "I never knew you were a dancer, you know that?"
"Neither did I."
She cracked a smile and laughed, and he just looked baffled.
"What? What is it?"
"Your face! You look like Jou after the English teacher uses a four-syllable word!" She snorted into her drink as he just looked more confused. Then his eyes softened.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Well, that depends on how you define 'bad.'"
He shook his head, taking another swig of his soda. Then he smiled devilishly, seeing an open seat for a racing game. "I'll be right back." He slid into the seat next to another teenager about his age and slipped a few yen into the slot.
"Yo kid, this game is for advanced players. I want to face a REAL opponent, not some midget."
"Maybe you'd reconsider after taking a closer look at me."
"HOLY ! ATEMU MUTOU! You're on, pal! I am gonna beat the Game King, and then your little girlfriend here's gonna see what an idiot you really are! Let's go!"
Both of them picked their virtual cars for the computerized race, then concentrated hard on the screen as a bang issued from the game. Atemu narrowed his eyes in the poor light as his opponent plowed by, using a... thing... that closely resembled a construction (or demolition) vehicle of sorts. Atemu had chosen a racecar-type car, small and vulnerable to getting bashed by his opponent, but quick as a wink, much like Atemu's dueling techniques. Make one wrong move, and-
"I win," he declared smugly as his virtual car passed the finish line mere inches ahead of the other one.
"Man, they don't call him the King of Games for nothing," gaped a girl watching from the side, leaning on her boyfriend. To Anzu she said, "You're one lucky girl," which seemed to upset her boyfriend a great deal. "Don't worry Gus Gus, I still love you." He smiled as Atemu typed KOG onto the first spot on the high score list of the game. He always signed the games he won 'KOG,' King of Games. Anzu giggled.
"That score's gonna be there for a while."
He nodded. "Which one now?"
"I don't know, there are so many... geez, someone could stay here for days! Oh, that one!" She stood in front of a pinball machine. "You play it on that one, and then we'll compare our scores."
They each raced to keep the metal balls within the bounds of their flipper-things, and Anzu's last one soon fell through, leaving her with a relatively high score. She stood in back of her date and watched him battle on. His eyes snapped back and forth, analyzing every movement the ball made, and sent a message to his hands to punch the side buttons of the machine to make the ball head in whichever direction he desired. The muscles in his arms flexed as he jabbed at the left one, catapulting the ball onto a top ledge, as he racked up major points on the screen. He knew instinctively the exact moment to shake the machine, and his feet moved with his body as he prevented the ball from breaking into his territory.
"He's only on his first ball!" a member of the crowd shouted in amazement.
"And he's already topped the high score!"
But neither Anzu or Atemu heard them. Butterflies swarmed in each of their stomachs, and Atemu felt as if his was on fire. This was the best night of his five thousand years of remembered life.
An hour later, Atemu's last ball finally slid through the hole in the bottom. His score, signed KOG, took up two, nearly three lines on the high scores screen, and the crowd was stunned as Anzu and Atemu walked out of the arcade hand in hand, each beaming.
"That was amazing! How do you do it?"
He shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure..." They stepped over the threshold of the restaurant next to the arcade, and a waitor greeted the young couple.
"Follow me." He lead them to a corner booth for two, and handed them each a menu as they slid in on either side of the booth.
"Can I take any orders for drinks?"
Anzu passed, but Atemu suddenly said, "One root beer float, please."
"I didn't have you down as a root beer float person," she mused as the waiter walked away.
"Really?"
"No."
"Well, I'm actually not a root beer person, but once Yugi had one and forced me to try it, and it's addictive." He smiled. "Especially when it's shared."
Anzu looked confused, but then she got it, and a smirk played around the corners of her mouth. "All right, I get it. Just as long as backwash isn't an ingredient."
He smiled. "It's not. Just root beer and vanilla ice cream. Why ever do you ask?" he asked innocently.
"I'm onto you, Atemu Mutou. You may be the King of Games, but you certainly aren't the King of Tact."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, really." Anzu blushed as the waiter came back and placed said root beer float between them, and stuck two straws into it.
"Can I take your orders now, sir and miss?"
"Yes. I'll have the grilled cheese with fries," Anzu answered him.
"And you, sir?"
"I'll have the garden salad, Italian dressing," Atemu said.
When the waiter left Anzu turned to Atemu, a quizzical expression on her face. "Salad?"
"You've never had this place's salad, have you?"
"No, but salad?"
"Believe me, it's like nothing you've ever tasted. Kinda of like... their root beer floats."
"Fine, I'll try it already! But your plan won't work."
"What plan?" he inquired, the corners of his mouth twitching decidedly upwards.
"You're going to make me thirsty by drinking it and making a face like, 'This-is-the-most-heavenly-thing-in-the-world', so then I'll take a drink and you'll use that as an excuse to kiss me," she said, leaning forward involuntarily and sipping from her straw.
"Hmm... I hadn't thought of that, more like... this-" He said, also leaning forward and drinking from his straw. Their foreheads brushed together, causing each to blush furiously, and sending a familiar chill down the ancient pharaoh's spine. Anzu pulled back, cheeks tinged pink.
Well, two can play at that game. She inched her hand forward slowly on the table, never breaking his eye contact until his right hand was trapped under her left and his cheeks had flushed a bloody crimson color. But he didn't draw back. Actually, he was smiling, just gazing into the deep azure depths of her eyes, and she his crimson ones. She gasped as he took her right hand in his... I can feel his heart beating in his wrist...
They stayed still, frozen in time as the minutes slowly dragged by, each floating atop their own worlds of wonder and hope. Atemu was experiencing a falling feeling in his stomach that he'd never felt before.
But it really isn't that bad... I like it in fact... It's like being on a roller coaster...
But only too late did he realize that his new feelings were effecting his still-frail stomach in actuality. He felt a sudden jerk in his abdomen, and he pried himself away from Anzu and ran to the men's room, barely making it to a toilet before proceeding to throw up violently.
Back at the table, Anzu stared after his retreating figure in shock. "What just happened?"
Suddenly a different waiter appeared in front of her. He was humongous, nearly as big as the Panic guy they had met in Duelist Kingdom. "Was that yer friend that just went by?"
She nodded mutely.
"I just saw him in that there bathroom. He's throwin' up somethin' awful. Some date, eh little misses? But... maybe I can make it better..." He inched closer to her.
"Stay away from me, you freak!" He had pushed her up against the back of the booth.
"No one's lookin', so why should I? Just give me all the money in your purse, and I'll go away, and no one will ever have to know, especially that no-good boyfriend of yers."
"He is NOT no good! And keep away!"
"No..." He reached a hand for her pocketbook, which she swung at him. It hit him in the face.
"Oh, so you wanna play rough, girly?"
" I don't think so," a rough voice snarled from behind the man. He whirled around to see Atemu, weakly supporting himself, arms leaning heavily on the table.
"Atemu!" He was deathly pale, and one hand gripped his stomach. His anger-flicked eyes were blurred with tears, and his fists flexed dangerously.
"Stay away from her," he growled in a deep, horrifying tone.
"Or what, you'll kill me with some Duel of Doom? I don't duel, kid, so you can't do that. So... I guess the only other option is a good clean fist fight." He clenched both his hands into fists and lunged at the weak boy without warning, tackling him to the ground. Atemu gasped for air under the burly man's weight. He grunted as his lungs emptied themselves... along with his stomach. In a few seconds the bigger man was completely bathed in the vomit the impact of their fight had pushed from Atemu's stomach.
"AGH! GERMS! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! YOU JUST PUKED ON ME! AH!"
With that he ran out of the restaurant, screaming bloody murder for anyone who dared ever puke on him again. Anzu looked after him in shock and confusion, then realized that Atemu was not next to her. Her eyes quickly grazed over the area, and she saw him lying on the floor at the foot of their booth. A restaurant staff member rushed over.
"What happened?" the young female waitress asked.
"T-That waiter... He tried to steal my purse, and then he attacked my friend!"
"Who, Harvey?"
"Yeah, the huge man!"
"That's Harvey all right... OHMYGOSH, what HAPPENED to him?" She stared in shock at Atemu, who was attempting to get up from the floor, shivering violently at crazy intervals as blood trickled from his nose and a gash on his head. Anzu knelt down beside him.
"Atemu! Atemu, can you hear me?"
"I-Anzu, I'm so sorry... I looked at you... and you were looking at me... and I felt something so... different... and then my stomach just... gave way... I'm so sorry for ruining this for you Anzu..."
"Stop worrying about me, you're as pale as a piece of paper!" She wiped some blood off his face with a tissue from her purse, and turned to the waitress. "Can you call an ambulance? He's very sick and I can't carry him home or anything..."
"Oh yes, right away miss!" The girl hurried off to make said phone call as Anzu took Atemu's jacket from on the booth seat and helped him shrug into it. When he continued to shiver she draped her own over him. "Calm down..." she whispered as Atemu's breaths came in ragged gasps from being tackled by the enormous man. She held him as he shuddered uncontrollably in her arms, and rubbed his back.
"I'm so sorry Anzu... I don't know what happened..."
"It's okay. Don't worry. An ambulance is coming, and you'll be fine. Don't worry." His body suddenly became limp, like jell-o in her grasp, and she lifted him up to sit on the seat of the booth. She remembered her cell phone, and whipped it out and called the Mutou residence. Yugi answered the phone.
"Hello, Mutou residence. Yugi Mutou speaking."
"Yugi! It's Anzu!"
"Anzu? I thought you and Atemu were on a date?"
"Well, we were- We are, but then he got sick, and this HUGE guy like, attacked him and he's bleeding like mad and we're going to the hospital- I've got to go, the ambulance is here!" She hung up, leaving Yugi dazed.
"Who was it, Yugi?"
"It was Anzu... Atemu got attacked and sick or something, and... something about the hospital and an ambulance... and blood..."
Sogoroku's eyes widened. "Oh no. Get your coat Yugi, we're going to the hospital. He turned to Isis, who was still over. She and Yugi had been merrily chatting in the living room as they watched the snow fall outside, grazing over any random topics that came to mind. "Isis, would you like me to take you home, or would you prefer to come?" He watched her hand pass over her heart and her lips whisper a few words as her eyes laid closed for a moment.
"I will come with you."
"What do you feel, Isis?" Yugi asked. Even without the Sennen Tauk, Isis still possessed the uncanny ability to be able to feel things about a situation, presences...
"I-I don't know. It's so strange..."
"Will he be all right?"
"Oh yes, but... Something caused him to fall ill so suddenly like that other than his illness as of late, I know it."
"We'll have to ask him if anything happened. Come on then, you two. Let's go." The three rushed out into the car and to the hospital.
Yeah, Ninqe, it's pretty obvious who Ryo's going to fall for... plus it's in the summary... that kinda gives it away too, but if y'all don't wanna ruin the 'surprise' for yourself, don't read the summary I guess! Ahem. I can't wait to see him onstage either, and I'm WRITING it! I LOVE Ryo! Yeah, it IS kinda hard to be sarcastic when you're a little blue fluffy bunny with a light English accent, ne? I'm glad you liked it!