Chapter 2

Three weeks later…

"Where the hell have you been?"

Anzu closed her eyes and grimaced. 'Oh god, she's here.' She thought with a mental groan. Opening her eyes, her fears were confirmed on the sofa of the living room, lit only by the light of the television. Strangely enough, of all the times her parents up and left suddenly, the one time they have someone stay with her was the one time she felt truly abandoned. Her dear aunt played a big part in that feeling.

Even in such dark lighting, she could see that her aunt had gained weight. Aunt Mako was probably around 275 pounds, last time she'd seen her. She had to have been over 300 now, and her short bob was doing nothing to flatter her squashed, rounded face. A tendency to wear clothes that were a little too small gave her the appearance of being constantly on the verge of splitting her seams.

Anzu always thought of her as having somewhat of a god-complex; years ago, she babysat a much smaller Anzu, and made her call her "Aunt Mako-dono". Since that incident, they rarely shared a civil word between them. In fact, they barely spoke at all; she was a distasteful person all around.

So what, in God's name, was a gentle man like Uncle Tohru thinking when he married her? (It was the opinion of many family members that he was on something. Anzu was prone to agree.)

"Well?" the woman snapped waspishly.

Ah, yes. Her oh-so-sunny disposition shows up.

"I have a job to get to after school. Then dance practice. I get home this late every night." She bit back a "Get used to it.", although it was tempting. Instead, she went into the kitchen and opened the fridge, nosing around for a quick supper.

"So when do you do your chores, young lady?"

Her head popped up from behind the fridge door. "Chores?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I said chores. Washing dishes, cleaning the house, things like that. Your house is filthy."

Anzu gritted her teeth, and shut the door to the fridge a little harder than necessary. "It was clean when I left this morning." She grabbed an apple from the counter instead, just wanting to get up to her room. Perhaps the obese woman couldn't fit up the stairwell? She could only hope. Pausing at the foot of the stairs, she continued. "Seeing how neither Mom, Dad, nor I are usually home, the house doesn't get messy. We like to clean up after ourselves-so no-one else has to." Hint, hint.

"Well, dear, we're going to have to have a little talk about responsibilities. A girl your age should have some household chores set up, so you earn your keep."

Anzu ran through several responses in her head, looking for one that could convey exactly what she was feeling, and, oh- exactly where her aunt could put her little "talk", and what about hypocrisy…but in the interest of getting to bed (and subsequently, away from the shrew) she bit her tongue and ran up to her room.

Slamming her door closed behind her, and kicking it for good measure, she gave a frustrated half-yell. "Five minutes, not even, and I want to kill her! No, no, got to think of Uncle Tohru…yeah, think of the favor I'd be doing for him-" She growled at herself. "Okay, breathe…" Things seemed pretty bad when she had to give herself a pep talk. Okay, it wasn't so much a pep talk as it was daydreaming, but still…

A low chuckle sounded from the furthest corner of her darkened room.

Oh, look at that, things just went from bad to worse.

Her hand crawled up the side of her wall, then quickly hit the light switch. She stared at the white haired figure the light revealed standing in her room. "What…the hell."

"Hello, Anzu."

Sometimes, you get to the point where it's better to just accept that "someone up there" really hates you. Anzu was pretty close to this point.

"Bakura-how-what-no, why are you in my room?"

A cocky smirk graced his features. "Well, Anzu, I thought about what you said a few weeks ago." He paced leisurely around her room as he spoke. Pausing at her dresser, he began to poke around. "And…I've decided to take your, ah, suggestion."

Anzu strode up to him, smacked his had away from her jewelry box (not that there was anything worth stealing, but still-) and slid between him and the rest of her knickknacks resting on the dresser top. "Somehow, I don't see how breaking and entering my home is taking my suggestion of staying out of trouble." She put her hands on his chest, trying unsuccessfully to push him back.

He, in turn, instead of moving back, brushed his hand against her left ear and revealed a delicate gold chain hanging from his fingers. Swinging it in front of her face, he responded "I don't take things too literally- I like to read between the lines."

Okay, Bakura just earned himself a place on her hit list. Only question was; did he come first, or did her aunt?

Maybe she was overreacting.

She angrily snatched her necklace from his grasp, knowing he let her; if he'd seriously wanted to keep it from her, he could've easily. "What are you talking about?" she snarled.

His smirk widened into a grin. "Ryou needs…practice."

Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. "Wha-what?" she choked out.

He backed away from her, and, much to her dismay decided to sit on her bed. Anzu folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the dresser. Bakura gave a dark chuckle, and explained.

"My problem was simple enough." He leaned back, getting entirely too comfortable. "I'm sure you'd like an explanation?"

"What I want right now is for you to get out of my house." He laughed out loud at this, genuinely amused. She put a hand on her forehead. "I don't suppose you'd make this a whole lot easier and just tell me, whatever it is, in the morning?"

"I've been waiting for you for over three hours. The least you can do is indulge me." She was struck speechless. Three hours? What did he do for three hours in her room?

"You've been in my room for three hours." Her voice was flat.

"No." He said brightly. "I've been in your house for three hours."

Anzu's hands covered her mouth in horror. "You've been snooping around my house for three hours!" She began gesturing with her hands, clearly agitated. "My parents could've seen you! My aunt could've seen you! Do you know what she'd do if she did? You don't know how much of a…"

"Bitch?" He supplied helpfully.

She deflated somewhat. "She can be. Yeah, that's a word for her."

He snorted. "I don't see why you're worried. I could out run the woman on my worst day." He gave a predatory grin, and purred, leaning forward. "Were you worried for me?"

"No!" she snapped. He chuckled once more.

"By the way-" he held up an envelope. "I took the opportunity to liberate this from your dear auntie's purse." It was small, white, and had her name written across the front in black pen. She recognized it immediately. She'd seen the exact same type of envelope lying on the kitchen counter; as soon as she'd see it, she knew her parents were once again gone. Anzu always thought of it as their version of a goodbye note- although there was no writing on the inside, she knew (about) how long to expect them gone by the amount of money they left.

He waved it for emphasis. "Now… how nice are you going to be?" Bakura gave her a suggestive leer.

Anzu clenched her fists in anger. 'Time for another pep talk, Anzu. Note to self; if I kill Bakura, I'd be killing Ryou. And killing Ryou is bad. Because we're friends. And friends are important. Right?' She sighed, and massaged her temples with her fingers. "Bakura," she said aloud. "I'm not in the mood-"

He interrupted her with a laugh. "You considered it then? My, my, I never would've guessed you'd be so loose a woman, Anzu. Then again, with all your friends being male, I should've guessed it, eh?"

'It's not so bad losing one friend…I've got plenty others…' Clenching her teeth, she hissed out "I. Am. So. Not in the mood for your pointless games and insulting comments. Say what you came to say and get out, before I forget myself, and forget you're in my friend's body."

His grin never left as he huffed. "You're no fun." The envelope disappeared between his fingers. "I will give you a very…condensed version of what you made me realize that day, three weeks ago."

"Thousands of years ago, I was the greatest thief in all of Egypt. However, I was fortunate enough to have led a life that stretched the limitations of my body and mind." He sighed, somewhat dreamily, lost in memory. "Diving into heaps of dung to throw my pursuers, running along rooftops cracked and weathered with age-not knowing if my next step would pitch me down to the ground in a broken heap, but it was better than losing a hand, or my very life at the hands of the guards…"

Anzu stared at him. 'This is the condensed version?' Then she had another thought. 'He's proud of jumping into a pile of…?'

Bakura noticed the look Anzu was giving him, and he mentally shook himself from his memoirs. "You were right when you said this body does not have the dexterity of my own; how can it when your dear friend has lived but a fraction of the way I once did? This generation of yours is too comfortable- cars, planes, computers…makes you lazy, and weak. I'm going to change that for this body."

"Hey," Anzu protested. "Ryou is pretty fit."

Bakura snorted. "If by "pretty fit" you mean frail as a twig."

"You've managed to miss my point all together. If you get caught-"

"Relax. I'm taking very good care of our little friend. After all-what would I do without him?"

Anzu really had no reply to that, and just stood there wordlessly.

Bakura stood, and sauntered towards the window. "Until we meet again, Anzu." He gave one last, wolfish grin, before throwing himself into the night."

Anzu choked back a scream, and ran to the window- fully expecting Ryou's broken body to be lying on the ground outside. However, the ground was empty, and not even a shadow met her questing gaze.

'Oh, god, Ryou- please don't hate me."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Running into the guys that morning at school, it was obvious she wasn't quite herself.

She had gotten into a little "tiff" with her aunt that morning about the dishes not done in the sink ("I haven't even eaten here in the past two days!") and her late night chat with Bakura had her worried about Ryou. Add to that, the subsequent discovery of a missing pair of panties (the only pair, of course, she just had to splurge on (black and lacy-because every girl needs at least one pair of sexy panties)) and you could safely say she was a bit on edge. Just a bit.

"Have you guys seen Ryou? I know he gets to school early. Do you know where he usually goes?" Yugi, Tristan and Joey turned puzzled faces toward their friend. "Ryou?" Yugi asked. "I think he's in the music room. Why?"

She was halfway down the hall, a quick "Thanks Yug!" trailing behind her before the boy could finish his sentence.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Approching the music room, she could just hear the strains of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (not that she knew what it was) floating through the door. She slid silently into the room, stood for a moment in front of the doorway, until sh spotted a mop of distinctive white hair in the far corner of the room.

The piano stood on the left hand side, near the window which faced the empty field on the side of the school. Moving quickly through the three rows of varied music stands and chairs, she then crossed the empty stretch of floor to stand silently behind Ryou, waiting for him to finish playing.

The last note hung in the air as he turned around and greeted her with a smile. "Hello Anzu."

"Hello Ryou." She looked down at her hands clasped in front of her, gathered a bit of courage, and looked back at him. "Ryou, I am so sorry-" she began.

"Sorry?" He seemed surprised. "Sorry for what?"

"I tried to convince Bakura to stop causing you so much trouble, and all I've done is just made things worse. I'm so sorry, I should've just minded my own business."

Ryou reached out and took one of Anzu's hands. "Anzu, Anzu, there's no need to apologize. When you confronted him, it really made me feel like someone was concerned about me. Not many people want to be around me anymore, and I feel sometimes I'm invisible. Anyways, there have been some benefits to the exercise regime he's created-" he let go of her hand and pretended to flex his arm. "I've definitely gained some definition." He put his arm back down and smiled at her, which she returned.

"You don't know how relieved I feel-I was so worried you'd be angry at me."

He laughed a bit. "Bakura is going to do what he wants; now, I've just got a better chance at staying out of jail."

"I never thought of it that way-it's still not very comforting though."

"Anyways," he continued, a bit subdued now. "If anyone should be angry, it's you Anzu. I-well, Bakura and I, we've come to an agreement some time ago. And while ours isn't the healthiest of relationships, I do have some control and, well-"

Anzu was a little puzzled. "Okay, but what does that have to do with me? Why would I be angry at you?"

Ryou flushed bright red. "I, ah, I saw what he, um, took from you. From your drawer."

Anzu's face immediately flushed in response. "Yeah, Thanks for reminding me. I need to have another little talk with Bakura, if you don't mind…"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yugi, Tristan, and Joey were standing at Tristan's locker when a classmate, who knew their little group in passing, stopped by.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here? Didn't you know your friends' in a fight?"

"Huh?" Joey looked as confused at the other two. "I'm right here, and I'm not fighting with anyone."

It's a testament to Joey's character, that he assumes any violence in their close-knit group of friends will automatically include him.

"Our friend?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah, that Mazaki girl. She's beating the shit outta some guy in the music room."

A stunned silence met that remark for all of a second.

"WHAT?" all three voices chorused. As one, they sped towards the far end of the school.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The three boys pushed their way through the crowd of people, who were inevitably drawn to the prospect of a fight. Reaching the inner circle, they stopped dead in shock.

Kind hearted, sweet, little Anzu was straddling Ryou (who, at some point, been knocked to the ground) with her hands around his neck, trying to repeatedly bash his head into the floor. And, from the sounds of it, she had just gotten a second wind.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, YOU PERVERT! I-YOU-ERRG!" she growled out of frustration. "I AM SO PISSED OFF AT YOU-" At this point, she stopped bashing his head into the floor and appeared to be attempting to shake his head off his neck. "IF OU DON'T GIVE THEM BACK I'LL WRING YOUR SCRAWNY NECK YOU BASTARD!"

At this point, the guys snapped out of their stupor and went to retrieve their crazed friend. Joey managed to wrap his arms around Anzu's waist, but when he went to pull her off the poor boy, her hands remained wrapped firmly around his neck. "Tristan! Gimme a hand, will ya?" Tristan managed, one by one, to pull her fingers off Ryou's throat, and stood in front of her so she couldn't take another lunge at the other boy. Yugi bent down to check on their white haired friend-who, strangely enough, was chuckling the entire time. Only now that he had more air was it audible.

"Ryou?" he asked, concerned.

Dark eyes, in a face that was all sharp planes turned towards the short boy. Yugi gasped.

"Bakura!"

Fortunately, the rest of the spectators began to mill out of the classroom, their interest waning at the same time as the prospect for further violence did. Anzu had stopped struggling, so Joey released his arms from her waist, although Tristan remained between her and Bakura.

The thief in question chose then to stand, smiling, though no longer laughing. "Why, Anzu; I thought you'd be proud. I wasn't caught this time." The smug look on his face pushed her once more over the edge.

"Why you-!" Joey was unprepared for Anzu's sudden lunge but Tristan managed to catch her about her waist once more, and lifted her off the ground. "Calm down, Anzu!" Tristan said, ducking to avoid her flailing limbs. "What did he do to get you so pissed?"

She froze, her face coloring in embarrassment; none of her guy friends were supposed to know what kind of underwear she had! And she certainly didn't want to talk about the circumstance that led to Bakura having them!

Anzu glowered at the smirking thief. "He stole something of mine, and I'm trying to get it back."

"What did he take?" Joey asked.

She turned her glare to Joey. "Something private, okay?"

Yugi watched the exchange in silence, though it was obvious both he and the Pharaoh were paying close attention to the situation at hand.

"Huh? Private? Like your diary or something? Cause if that's the case, then ya don't have to worry about anyone seein it or anything, it's not like ya put anything interesting in it…"

Tristan glared at Joey. "Hey, maybe you should shut your mouth, man…you're not helping."

Anzu's glare, if possible, intensified. "Joey-" she hissed. His eyes widened. "Uh, it's, uh, not like I'd know or anything-"

"Shut. Up."

Joey shut up.

"Bakura" came Yami's voice. "Stop this childishness and give her back whatever it is you stole from her."

Bakura gave a sly smile. "If you insist…" he made as if to pull the offending item from his pocket.

"Don't you dare!" Anzu shrieked, face suddenly pale.

"You see? She doesn't want it."

She clenched her hands, and growled. "You know what? Forget it. Just forget it. Go ahead, keep them-see if I care." She turned her head, addressing her captor. "Put me down."

Tristan looked at the other guys, to see if they thought it would be safe. When he didn't immediately respond, however, she swung a leg back and kicked him in the shin.

"OW!"

He promptly let her go.

Anzu brushed down her skirt, avoiding everyone's eyes. "We're going to be late for class." With that last statement, she turned and walked towards the door.

Yami leveled a glare at the white haired boy. "Leave her alone."

Bakura snorted. "She started it."

A brunette head peeked back in the doorway from the hall. "I did not!" She then strode back down the hall towards her class.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Nice of you to finally make it to class." Sensei said, as Anzu, Yugi, Tristan, Joey and Ryou (Bakura got bored) filtered into class. After they sat down, the teacher continued, eyeing her delinquent students. "Rumor has it you five were involved in a fight today before classes." The rest of the students were staring at them. If it hadn't gotten around school yet, it certainly would now. Some of the best students in the building being involved in a fight was pretty juicy gossip.

"Normally, to be caught fighting in school is an automatic three day suspension. However-as none of us teachers actually saw what happened, and, given your history of good behavior in the past (except you, Joseph) ("Hey!) we're going to let it slide." They breathed a sigh of relief. "I am very disappointed in you five; and I sincerely hope I don't have to stop class again for a talk of this nature." Leveling a final glare over the guilty parties, she turned to the rest of the class.

"Now that that's been settled, we were talking about…"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Work flew by for Anzu, and practice went by even faster. However, she did manage to work out the last of her frustrations during dance, which left her a little more tired than normal and running a bit behind.

So, it was a bit of a shock when passing by the KC building, she saw a familiar brunette figure leaning against the wall, one foot braced against the building behind him. Was he…waiting for her? No…

But as she passed by he pushed himself from the building and began walking next to her. She bit her lip to keep from saying anything; this nightly ritual was comforting for her, and she didn't want to jeopardize it by scaring him off.

Neither one spoke, and it seemed like things were falling in to place once more. When they approached Kaiba's street, however, she got the last surprise of the day.

She hadn't taken but five steps past the road he turned down when she heard him call out.

"Mazaki."

Startled, she turned towards him, looking at him puzzled. She could see his smirk even in the dim light of the street lamp.

"Rough day at school, little hellcat?"

Her face brightened in embarrassment, and she turned stiffly from him and continued home. His laughter followed behind.

End Chapter Two.

I'm so happy! I got reviews!

These past two chapters contained a lot of Ryou and Bakura, but not a lot of Kaiba. It's his turn next:D

Thanks for reading!

Aspen XIII