Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or the lovely cover art, all rights both go to the respectful owners.
Summary: a lonely night at the bar leads to some unexpected, but rather much needed company for Seto Kaiba.
The cocktail lounge piano played quietly from across the lobby and there sat a rather miserable looking Seto Kaiba sitting alone at the bar. He sighed taking another sip of the expensive red wine that he indulged on for the past hour. It was late, half past twelve to be exact, but he wasn't alone. Scattered around him were many other people, who unlike him seemed to be enjoying themselves. From couples having an expensive night out to friends reconnecting, it was all there in front of him, making him feel more lonely than ever.
Painfully taking the last sip of his wine, he regretfully ordered more. He never found himself to be a heavy drinker. In fact it was only around special occasions where he found himself to have at least one glass of anything alcoholic and those occasions were usually work related. However, tonight the young CEO found this time to be different.
It wasn't every night you would find the ruthless Seto Kaiba to be checking into one of the most exquisite hotels in Domino and drinking the night away all by himself. But here he was. Alone and more desperate than ever to get his hands on some more wine.
Eagerly awaiting for his drink, something - someone caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He turned his head just a little to see who it was. From the distance where she entered, it made out to be a woman dressed in a skin tight black dress just above her knees paired with black stilettos. Her hair flew freely just above her shoulders and her elegant makeup complimented her face. It wasn't until she made her way closer to him, he recognized her.
Taking the seat next to his, his head now faced straight away, not even bothering to make eye contact with her.
"I've always preferred white, but it shocks me to see that you're even a wine drinker," she said observing his drink that was served to him seconds ago.
"So now you judge me for what I drink, huh?" He chirped back at her, taking a sip of the drink.
She rolled her eyes. "Didn't expect to see you here," she commented as she raised her arm slowly to gesture to the bartender that she also wanted a glass herself.
"I have a feeling everyone else thinks the same when they see me in a place that isn't my office building," taking another sip, he now turned his body slightly to face hers. "It's crazy that once in a while I like to do normal things besides running a multi billion dollar company."
"You're far from normal, Seto," she emphasized.
"Is that so, Anzu?" He cockily raised a brow, revealing that pleasant smirk he hid from most.
Brushing her auburn locks behind her ear, she gently shook her head. "Tell me, what is the Seto Kaiba doing all alone at the finest hotel in the city on a Saturday night?"
"Could ask the same thing for you, you know," he remarked. "So Anzu, why don't you tell me?"
"If you wanna be stubborn and make me go first, so be it," she agreed. "Oh and you'll actually listen to the whole story instead of paying more attention to your wine, right?"
"Promise," he groaned. It was more than odd that he found himself about to endure listening to Anzu Mazaki tell him her troubles of the night as they both sat in fine dining, sipping expensive wine together.
"Alright so," she began, "you know how I professionally dance and whatnot?"
"Mhhhmmm," he hummed realizing what he had got himself into.
Although he could never do any of this with those dorks she makes out to be her friends, Seto had always been quite fond of Anzu herself. Sure, her friendship quotes and non stop babbling about being kind to one another got to him on most days, but it was her herself that he didn't mind. Especially the fact how over the years she had grown to be a more likeable person. Likeable in his sense anyways. However, he found her presence to be quite the miracle on this isolating night.
"Well, every year my dance team gets to attend these competitions and during one of our most recent competitions, I met this great guy from another team," she continued, "or well so I thought."
"Oh great," Seto thought to himself, "this was definitely going to be one of those long stories about some evil dude, who really isn't evil but probably said something to her that pissed her off, thus why he's evil."
"Hey!" she called out to grab his attention.
"Sorry, I'm listening." She smiled before going on to continue
"Anyways, we started seeing each other once in a while, like you know frequent things. It wasn't until this past week that he had asked me to stay with him at this hotel," she proceeded to tell.
Kaiba only cocked a brow at her, confused as to what she was going to say next. "And shouldn't you be with him?"
"This is the part that gets...well fucked up," she painfully warned him. If it wasn't for his ability to be serious all the time, Kaiba would've allowed himself to laugh at how ashamed she seemed to be with herself pouring out all of this detail to him.
"So, he tells me to meet him at his hotel room at a given time. I go into this thinking things will be great since we've had zero problems. As I knock on the door, some dancer from his team opens the door confused and proceeds to tell me that she's his girlfriend. By that time, I can hear him in the background wanting to speak to me, but I just left before things got worse."
"Hence, why you are now sitting in a bar with me," he noted.
Anzu sighed and pressed her face down into the palms of her hand as her other hand swirled her wine glass. She felt to be nothing more than stupid really.
"Pfft," Seto quietly laughed, bringing her attention to him.
"What?" She asked
"If anything, that guy should be the one down here all alone drinking by himself," he said. Anzu half smiled, before bringing her posture back to how it was before.
"You think so?" She questioned, already knowing his answer.
"Of course. He's a total fool to be wasting your time only for him to be with some other woman, whom I can almost guarantee isn't as good as you are."
Anzu blushed at Seto's choice of words.
"Well, now that I shared my painfully embarrassing story, what's your reason for drinking tonight," she curiously wondered.
"Do you really want to know?"
"I do."
"I'm drinking here tonight because I'm lonely," he blatantly admitted. Anzu found herself laughing, she knew he had to be joking.
"Yeah, okay sure," she argued with his answer.
"I'm serious," he said, sounding a bit more sad than before.
"No bad dates or stressful business meetings lead you to be here?"
"Nope," he insisted.
"Ha," she laughed again, "guess I'm more interesting than you for once." She smiled, winking at him only to receive his famous eye roll.
"Just for tonight, Mazaki, don't get too comfortable," he joked.
"I'd never thought I'd say this, but drinking with you isn't so bad."
He smirked at her. "Of course it isn't, you're with me," he humoured. She grinned at him.
A ding noise interrupted their bright moment and Anzu brought her attention towards her cellphone. Realizing what the notification was, she sighed.
"It seems I've got to go, my rides here," she confessed, pushing the chair out from the bar so that she could get out without causing much of a scene. Seto frowning as she did so. He wanted to tell her to stay, but at the same time she had her life to go back to and so did he, even if he didn't want to admit to it.
Reaching for her glass one last time, she raised it to Seto. "Cheers, Kaiba," she smiled as her farewell.
Grabbing his almost empty glass, he did the same. "Cheers, Mazaki," he followed.
"See you around," she said as her final goodbye. Seto only nodded his head while keeping a calm look on his face.
With her now gone, he turned to face the bar yet again, this time not feeling lonely but more satisfied.
"See you around, Anzu," he thought to himself as he came to terms with himself that the night was all in all much better than he had expected. He grinned and shook his head, taking his last sip of wine before exiting the bar as well. Maybe one day they'd be leaving together.