'How do I get mixed up in these situations?' she asked herself as she stared up at the large house before her. When the teacher came back in the classroom, she partnered everyone up and gave them roughly two months to learn as much as they could about the other person. Much to Anzu's shock, she was paired up with Kaiba. To say Joey wasn't thrilled would be an understatement. His anger nearly went through the roof when she told them she would be going over to Kaiba's house after school.

>Flashback-

"By yourself! Are you nuts!" Joey yelled.

"Joey chill out. Nothing's going to happen. I can take care of myself." She said. 'Liar.' Her conscience threw in.

"I just don't trust him." Joey mumbled flatly.

"I know you don't but you trust me don't you? You know I wouldn't put myself in any position if I felt threatened." She told him.

He nodded stiffly. "I know. Are you sure you'll be fine? I could always tag along ya know." He offered.

Anzu gave a short laugh. "No it's all right, I'll be fine." She assured him.

>End Flashback-

"Mazaki snap out of it. It's not like you've never seen this house before." Kaiba snapped as he shut the car door.
She blinked and shook her head, following him in the house. Once they got inside, Anzu's phone began ringing and she stopped in the front hall to answer it while Kaiba continued to the kitchen.

"Hello?" She greeted.

"Hello my dear." A familiar voice said. Her blood froze, her breath almost shallow. 'How did he get my number?' She panicked.

"Hi." She responded meekly.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm at a friend's house; we're doing a project for school." She replied.

"For how long?" he asked.

"A few hours at the most." She said.

"All right, expect me at your house when you get there. I'll be waiting." He said, practically singing the last line and then he hung up. She hung up as well and slipped her phone in her purse, breathing a sigh of relief. 'He bought it. Well I didn't completely lie to him. He never asked which friend's house and I can't exactly call Kaiba a friend.' She thought. Her face felt cold and her hands clammy. Once she felt composed enough, she walked into the living room and sat on the couch to wait for Kaiba. He entered the living room a few moments later with a maid trotting behind, a tray in her hands. The maid set the tray on the coffee table and left. They sat in silence for a few moments before Anzu spoke up.

"So how do you want to start this?" She asked.

"Well we each pretty much know the basics. You probably know more about me than I do you so we'll have to work on that." He said.

Anzu nodded. "Well you can go ahead and ask." She told him.

He nodded as he pulled out a small notepad.

"When's your birthday?"

"April 25, 1987."

"So you're seventeen?"

"Yes I skipped a grade in elementary. I'm actually younger than everybody else."

"Well with the way you act I thought you were older."

She smiled slightly. "Well that's what I get for hanging around a bunch of guys."

She shifted, trying to get more comfortable. She set her legs in an odd position and it triggered a little pain but she showed no expression on her face so he wouldn't say anything. They worked for about half an hour without any interruptions until they heard the front door slam and the cheerful, hyper voice of Mokuba calling out to his brother.

"I'm in the living room." He answered. Mokuba came skipping into the room, spotting Anzu immediately and jumped on her. She gasped slightly as he bounced into her lap. She wasn't able to mask her pain and it became very visible. Mokuba heard her gasp and saw her look of pain.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Yes my legs just hurt is all. I had a major workout in my ballet class the other day." She explained.

"Oh I'm sorry." He apologized.

"It's okay sweetie." She said and wrapped her arms around his waist to hoist him onto one leg.

Kaiba sat there and watched them while trying to seem like he wasn't paying attention. It really amazed him how much Mokuba took a liking to Anzu. He was generally timid around people he didn't know very well but with Anzu, Mokuba acted like he'd known her for years. Kaiba was usually hostile with anybody who interacted with Mokuba because he didn't want to risk anything happening to him. But for some unknown reason, he felt that he could trust Anzu, as if she were part of the family. He knew Mokuba looked to her as the big sister he never had and it didn't bother him. Mokuba needed some kind of female influence and he rather it be Anzu than anybody else.

"Seto?" a voice called. A hand waved in front of his face, making him come back to Earth. He blinked, his eyes automatically focusing on Anzu. Her cherry cheeks made him realize he'd been staring at her the whole time. He cleared his throat as he sat up straight.

"Sorry I was thinking about something at work." He mumbled.

Mokuba gave him a strange look while Anzu tried to calm her nerves and racing her heart.

"Is there anything wrong?" Anzu asked. He shook his head.

"Ok if you're sure." She said, giving him a weary look. "We can do this another time if you'd like. I'm free Saturday afternoon." Anzu offered.

"That might be best because I don't think I'll be able to concentrate on this anymore today." He agreed.

"Ok um….is noon okay?" She asked. He nodded.

"Okay well I guess I'll see you then." She said as she stood up.

"Do you need a ride?" Mokuba asked as he followed her to the door.

"Thanks but no thanks, I'll be fine. The walk'll be good for my legs." She replied.

"Ok bye." He exclaimed as he hugged her. She returned the hug and, ruffling his hair a bit, left the house.

In reality, Anzu feared going back home, so she wanted to draw it out for as long as possible and that was why she turned down Mokuba's offer to get her a ride home. It was starting to get dark when she finally got to the house. She walked in, locking the door behind her and sat down on the couch, taking her bag off. She flopped back against the couch cushions, resting a bit but her relaxation didn't last long. "Annnzuu……"

Kaiba thought it would be good if they met at the park and continued their project there by basing it on their interactions. Anzu agreed and said she'd be there. When she woke up that morning she was happy to see that Marik was gone. She almost slept through her alarm because he kept her up most of the night. To her surprise, he was gentle with her and it scared her. She didn't expect him to do that so it made her worry. However, when he began to touch her, her body reacted positively and all thought flew out of her mind. She couldn't figure out what disgusted her more: the fact that he was even doing this or that she actually enjoyed it. Shaking her head, she rubbed her eyes as she tried to push it from her mind. When she arrived at the park, she let her gaze wander over everything in search of Kaiba. She finally spotted him beneath a shady tree, sitting on the ground leaning against it. She walked through the small crowds towards him. As she approached him, she took notice of his closed eyes.

"Kaiba?" She called softly. He didn't seem to hear her as he didn't acknowledge her. She knelt down beside him and tapped his shoulder; he still didn't respond. Then she shook his shoulder. His eyes snapped open, startling her in the process and she fell back. 'I guess he really was asleep.' She thought. He blinked tiredly at her slightly annoyed that he'd been woken up.

"What took you so long?" He asked as he rubbed his eyes.

"I was delayed for a few minutes. So what are we going to do?" she asked.

"What do you want to do?" he asked. That took her by surprise for a second cause she wasn't expecting it. She figured he already had the day planned out.

"Um…we could go over by the lake and sit for awhile…maybe talk." She suggested. He considered it for a moment before nodding his head and standing up. Anzu stood up as well, brushing dirt and what not from her shorts, and followed him. She had to jog a bit so she could walk beside him.They reached the lake and sat down a few feet from shore. He sat with his arms behind him, his hands propping him up with his legs stretched out in front of him. Anzu laid out on her stomach beside him, propped up on her elbows. He snuck a glance at her while she was looking down at the ground, playing with the small blades of grass.

"So how are you?" She asked suddenly, lifting her head to look at him.

"I'm fine." He replied as he quickly looked away so she wouldn't catch him staring again.

"Are you really?" she asked, obviously skeptical. He sighed, glaring at her half-heartedly.

"No…I'm about to wring the neck of every employee I have." He said.

She smiled at him. "Why?"

"I gave them the simple task of putting together a prototype of a new item. I gave them everything they needed in short simple instructions and they still managed to fuck it up." He exclaimed.

"Well that would explain why you've been snappy…er than usual." She said. He glared at her and she giggled.

"Why don't you just do it yourself? It'll go faster." She said.

"I would but I don't exactly have the time to sit down and play with electronics. I do enough of that at home." He said.

"Yeah…so I heard." She laughed. He gave her a 'what-do-you-mean?' look.

"I do talk to Mokuba on a regular basis because," then she dropped her voice, making it kid-like. "He has nobody to rant to when everything's getting on his nerves." Kaiba looked at her strangely for a moment before smiling a bit at her imitation of Mokuba.

"My time with him keeps getting shorter and shorter, and…" He paused, not sure if he wanted to continue but the look on her face said 'continue-or-I'll-bug-you-forever'. "I'm afraid of missing out on a lot of stuff with him. He's already developed an interest in girls and I've yet to have 'the talk' with him and his school just upgraded him to the seventh grade." He finished.

"I think I remember him telling me about that. He said he was really mad cuz all of his friends were in his other class." Anzu added.

"So what's new with you?" He asked.

"Hmm not much. My ballet class is getting a little harder. I have an extra hour and double the work now. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so good but…what can you do? At least I'm not having a problem with school cuz then I'd lose it.Of course Joey's not being a big help. He called this morning to see if I was "still alive" as he put it." She added.

"That mutt needs to learn some self-control." He said.

"Yeah we're working on that. He can't help it though when it comes to me. You two are a lot more alike than you think." She said.

"What makes you think that?" He asked.

"Because like you being protective of Mokuba, he's very protective of me. He's the big brother I never had. He just wants to protect me from the world much like you do with Mokuba. Only difference is you've been protecting Mokuba his whole life so he knows nor trusts any other. Joey's the same way with me just fewer years." She said.

Kaiba nodded. "I know he's a good guy. I just like yanking his chain a lot cuz it's so easy to piss him off." He said.

Anzu rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?" She muttered as he laughed.

-

Koki: Hopefully the formatting is to your liking. I went back and fixed all of them. It'll take some time to get used to doing that cuz I never did before. Well until next chapter!

For those of you who haven't read my AN on my lastest chapter of 'I Saved Your Life Now You Save Mine', don't expect updates to be as fast as they have been as I am in the process of writing this one. But so far I haven't really had a problem writing,I just write a little bit at a time.