Author's Note: A gift for Azurite's birthday! Thank you piper for your beta work and Karma for being a cheer reader! :)
The alarm blared at what felt like an ungodly hour even still.
Seto reached to turn it off. And threw off his end of the covers.
"You promised we'd spend the morning together." Anzu called out sleepily.
Seto chuckled. "I'll be right back."
Anzu turned to follow the lines of his back as he made his way towards the ensuite bathroom. He then left their shared bedroom and went somewhere she could not follow.
She just hoped whatever he'd gone to do didn't involve work. Sometimes the enigma of Seto still made her anxious though she'd come to unravel some of his ways
Like his insistence on waking at the same time every day. She flopped back on her side of the bed.
Soon she was stirred back to consciousness by approaching footsteps. Seto had come back and bore with him a small dark box.
As he situated himself back on his side of the bed, alarm bells went off in her head for an entirely different reason. It was too soon for such gestures!
With an unusually shy smile, Seto offered over the box.
"I thought it'd be nice if you wore it while you danced," Seto said.
Alarm decreasing, she took the box. It was not in fact a premature proposal. Though she wondered why she was also a bit disappointed. Putting her thoughts aside, she took the box offered, and sat up to examine its contents.
Inside she found a beautiful delicate, golden hairclip in the shape of a dragonfly.
"It's beautiful!" she managed in her surprise.
"I'm glad you like it," Seto replied. He then took the box from her hands and began to remove the hairclip from its backing.
"They symbolize self that comes with maturity, new beginnings and a number of other things you can imagine," Seto started, beginning to work the clip into her hair, "but the former stood out to me."
He paused then. Stopping in his ministrations.
"I'm glad you called that day Anzu. But more importantly, I'm glad I took the call." Seto said, quietly.
Anzu listened, rapt, as he continued fastening the clip into her hair.
"I'm not the same man I was since we started talking," he said, removing his hands now, "and I'm glad for it. After he… Atem, left, I felt defeated, purposeless."
Overwhelmed by the conflicting emotions of wanting to hear him continue and sooth any tension, she reached out a hand to brush across his right cheek, simply nodding.
"I just hope I can continue being there for you, as you have been me," Seto continued, "thank you."
Tears stung at Anzu's eyes, from gratitude. Not just the gift, but also the admission. Seto had changed. Softened in his war against friendship, and let her in, more than she'd dared hope.
And her call had been the one to drive the nail home.
"I'd been thinking about it lately," Seto said, "and I wanted some way to tell you. I thought now was as good a time as any," he finished with a shrug and a smile.
"Thank you, Seto," she said at last. "That's all I've ever hoped for. For you, for us," she said, running a hand along her new accessory.
"And you've definitely got good taste," she added with an appreciative giggle.
"I'm happy to see you wear it," he replied.
"Then I won't be taking it off just yet," she said, leaning forward to invite the other in for a kiss. And he met her call, capturing her lips with his.
Author's Note: I used Seto instead of Kaiba to denote the familiarity they've bred.