A/N: Next chapter is here! Phew. I struggled a lot with this chapter, but, I've done it…somehow. Thanks again guys for the regular reviews, they help me to continue writing this fic. A note to say that I'm moving to university this Saturday. That means my next chapter might not be up until the 7th of October. But, I might be changing the day I update, to either a Saturday or Sunday. So, the next chapter may be up on the 11th of October at the latest. Really sorry about this guys, but most likely I won't write much during my fresher's week. But, moving on from that, chapter 9 is here for you to read at least. So again guys, do enjoy the latest chapter and a review is always appreciated.
Chapter 9: Hold
"So, yeah, it was all just a misunderstanding." Anzu was currently explaining to the rest of the gang, at break time, that the reason that she ran out crying from the bowling centre was because she was feeling upset all day. She felt stressed, got angry at Yugi and just left. Known to us though, we know that's not the case.
"Was that really it?" Katsuya asks, still uncertain with Anzu's explanation.
"Yes," Anzu lies. She looks at Yugi, in order for him to back up her claim.
"Anzu's right. I just read the situation wrong and blamed myself for it," Yugi convinces them.
Honda smiles childishly. "At least that's settled. I was worried for a moment. Hey! We should celebrate."
"What would we be celebrating?" Ryuji asks.
"The fact that we've got our gang back to the way it was."
"Honda's right. We all haven't spent time together in a while," Bakura agrees.
"Okay then. Let's all head to burger world after school," Katsuya suggests.
The gang agrees. Anzu inwardly sighs to herself. Glad that the others weren't able to pick up on her false story. She was wondering to herself if she was going to be able to keep this secret. After all, she was beginning to act shyer around Yugi, especially today when they walked into school together. Though, it seems the others weren't able to pick up on her slight change in behaviour. Good.
"What's our next period?" Honda asks the others.
"Sports," Bakura states.
"Nice! I wonder what we're doing today," Katsuya ponders.
"I think its dodgeball."
Yugi awkwardly sweat drops. Dodgeball was not his favourite, since everyone on the opposing team would aim for him first, since he was the shortest boy in the year.
"What are you doing in your class Anzu?" Yugi asks her.
"Oh, I'm actually doing my dance lessons during sports now," she explains.
"How come?" Ryuji questions.
"Since it's what I want to do in the future, my teacher recommended me doing extra lessons during the time I had sports." On que, the bell sounded to signal next period.
Anzu heads off to the dance studio, but not before shouting to Yugi. "Yugi! I'll see you at lunch!" She waves to him and continues walking.
As the boys were heading to the locker room, Honda and Katsuya were eyeing down to Yugi. "What was that about?" Katsuya asks him in a funny voice.
Yugi flinches slightly. "Oh, we are working on our assignment at lunch. I forgot to mention it. So, I won't be joining you guys."
Honda holds up his hands. "Oh no. Please go ahead, don't worry about us," he begins sniggering. Yugi rolls his eyes.
They arrive at the locker room. The coach was awaiting their arrival, as usual. He was standing with his back straight, his head high and his arms crossed. If there was a person who would be perfect for the role of training camp officer, then he would be that person. "All right you slackers! Today we're doing dodgeball! My personal favourite! You know why?! Because it separates the pansies from the champs!" He looks at his watch. "You've got 4 minutes!" He then marches out of the locker room.
The boys go to their lockers and change into their kits. "Man, he really is insane." Katsuya points out.
"I bet he does terrible with women," Honda mocks.
"And you don't piggy?"
Honda slams his locker door shut. "I hope we get to be on opposite teams. So, then I can knock your lights out!"
"Oh really…? And just who's team won last time when we played, huh?"
Honda points his finger at him. "Shut up! I don't see you pulling any girls!"
"Seems Yugi might be the one to pull them more," Ryuji suddenly says, causing Yugi to flinch and the others to stop their row.
"Why? Because he's the king of games?" Bakura assumes.
"That, and it seems Yugi's been busy," he gestures to Yugi, to show the others what he means. Yugi was about to put on his sports top, he stops to see the others staring at him.
"W-what are you guys looking at?" He asks confused.
"Since when did you work out?" Katsuya asks. Yugi looks down at his torso, and then looks at his arms. They'd become more prominent.
Yugi begins stuttering. "O-oh, I suppose sports has been helping." He quickly puts his top on. Katsuya raises his eyebrow in curiosity, but decides to brush it off for time being.
Bakura looks at his watch. "We might want to hurry guys. Coach will be mad at us again."
End of class. The boys were walking away from the sports centre and back to the main building. They were all aching. "Seriously! What the hell is that guy's problem?" Honda moans. The coach decided to, before the end of class, play dodgeball by himself, and he had managed to knock over all of the students.
"Well, it his favourite," Yugi notes, "That's probably why he takes it so seriously."
"Tsk! I'd like to knock him out just once."
"Though…" Ryuji starts, "You took it quite seriously today Yugi. You've seemed to have improved."
Yugi blinked a couple of times. "I have?" Trying to sound oblivious.
"Yeah, you were great," Bakura praises him, "The coach even noticed it. Didn't he pull you to the side to talk to you?"
Yugi scratches the back of his head. "Oh…yeah, I forgot about that."
"Wow, the coach applauses students. Never knew that," Honda says.
"A-anyway guys!" Yugi suddenly bursts out. "I need to go and see Anzu. I'll catch you guys later." And he quickly runs off, leaving the other four a bit confused.
"Umm…did I say something wrong?" Honda asks.
"You always say something wrong, piggy," Katsuya jokes.
Honda cracks his knuckles. "I could do with a fist fight right about now, Jonouchi."
"Bring it on then!"
Bakura sweat drops. "There they go again…"
Yugi arrives at the computer room. He opens it and sees Anzu already at one of the desktops. She turns, to see who had opened the door. She smiles at Yugi and ushers him over. He complies and joins her in the seat next to her. "How was dance class?" He asks her.
"Fun and tiring. How was dodgeball?"
"Hard work…the coach knocked out everyone at the end…" he explains bashfully.
"I feel sorry for you guys. Your coach is one piece of work."
"Yeah…"
"Anyway, let's get on with this."
The two of them decide to work for about 30 minutes, since they didn't have much research left to do. Once they had finished, Anzu said that she wants to eat on the roof. Yugi agrees and they go and eat their lunch.
Anzu had made her own bento box. It consisted of rice balls, tamagoyaki and karaage. "You made that yourself Anzu?"
"Yep."
"It looks so good."
"I can teach you some recipes…if-if y-you want," she says bashfully.
"Yes please. I'm really bad a cooking."
"Do want to try one of my rice balls?" She offers him.
"Sure." He then begins blushing, as she picks up the rice ball, with her chopsticks, and feeds it to him. He chews it slowly, so that he can grasp its taste.
"Well…?"
Yugi swallows it and smiles. "It's good." Anzu blushes slightly at his praise.
She then leans closer towards him, causing him to blush. "W-what is it?"
"You're wearing that cologne again," she simply points out then moves away from him, "I just like the smell."
They both continue to eat their lunch, exchanging words here and there. Once they were both finished, Yugi asks her, whilst stuttering, "A-are you f-free this Saturday?"
She turns to look at him. "I don't have plans, so yes. Why?"
"I-I thought we c-could spend the day together. You know, our first official d-date."
"O-okay," she replies, "That sounds good."
The end of the school hours came around, and the gang were currently walking towards burger world, Honda's favourite place of all time. Well, favourite in terms of food at least. Honda was walking with his hands behind his head, thinking to himself. Well, more like talking to himself. "I wonder what to get this time…hmmm…"
"How about a pork bun. It fits your name," Katsuya mocks him.
"Nah, already had that not long ago." Once they were at the front entrance, the manger himself was there personally. Honda greeted him. "I'm back again."
"Nice to see you again Honda. You've bought more guests this time," the manager responds.
Anzu and Yugi stood their dumb folded, whilst Ryuji and Katsuya sighed. "What's that about?" Yugi asks Katsuya.
"He comes here so much that he's made friends with the manager."
"I see…"
The gang follow Honda to 'his' table. The manager offers their drinks on the house. The manager takes their drinks order and leaves them to look through the menu. "Wow Honda. That's the first time he's offered us free drinks," Bakura notes.
Honda smiles weirdly. "It's the best part of being a regular."
The manager returns and takes their orders. Honda, being Honda, ordered a triple deluxe beef burger with extra onions and hot sauce. Whilst the others ordered the standard sized burgers. "I deserve it you know. After that coach made us work our butts off!"
Katsuya eyed him. "You do realise you had lunch after, right?"
"Yeah, so what? It only filled a hole for a little while."
Anzu got up suddenly, and stepped out from the table. "Where are you going?" Ryuji questions her.
"The bathroom, clearly." She then walks off. The guys wait until she's out of sight. Then, of course, Honda and Katsuya continue their teasing.
"Did you get most of your work done?" Katsuya asks Yugi.
He nods. "Yep. We're almost done."
"That was quick," Honda says innocently.
"Yeah it was…" he stops to see that Katsuya and Honda were both sniggering, as if Yugi had missed the joke. "Guys! It's not like that."
Ryuji narrows his eyes. "Do you two have to make everything sound dirty?"
"Yes!" Honda exclaims confidently.
"I don't get it," Bakura says, causing the others to sweat drop.
After a few minutes, Anzu returns from the bathroom and heads back to her friends. But before she could do so, two boys had blocked her path. "Hey babe, want to hang out with us?" One of the guys asks her, creepily.
Oh great… She politely replies. "No thank you. I'm with my friends right now." She begins walking past them, but the other boy grabs her arm, roughly.
"Come on…don't be like that. We can show you a better time."
Yugi catches site of Anzu at the other end of the restaurant. He sees that two boys are harassing her. He becomes very irritated. He follows his instincts and immediately goes to them.
"I told you no. Now let me go!" The boy's grip on her tightens.
"Hey!" Yugi shouts to them. "Leave her alone!" He then pulls Anzu towards him, causing the guy to let go of her arm.
"Tsk! Let's go man," the two boys then leave the restaurant.
Anzu looks at Yugi, who was still holding her. "T-thank you."
"Does your arm hurt?" He asks concerned.
She shakes her head. "No it's fine." She begins blushing. "Y-you can let go now."
"Huh?" He then realises that he was holding her other arm. He quickly lets go. "L-let's go join the others." She nods and the two of them return to the others, who had been watching what was going on.
"Are you two okay?" Bakura asks.
"Yeah we're fine. Just some jerks annoying me," Anzu explains. She notices, as she was sitting down, that Katsuya and Honda were eyeing to Yugi. She catches on to what they were hinting at and says, "At least Yugi came to help me. You idiots were just sitting here." That caused Honda and Katsuya to animatedly fall. Yugi inwardly smiles at that.
When the gang finished their food, they left and headed home. Yugi and Anzu waited until the others went their separate routs, so that they could walk home together, without looking suspicious to the others. Yugi says that he'll walk her home today. She complies and they slowly make their way to Anzu's house.
As they were walking, Yugi would occasionally glance at Anzu's hand. Should I hold her hand? He carefully reaches for her hand. Anzu looks down to see what he was doing. She helps him out by moving her hand into his.
"Thank you Yugi," she says softly.
"What for?" He asks confused.
"For keeping this a secret. You must be finding it hard."
"That's okay. It's not too difficult."
They, unfortunately, arrive at Anzu's too quickly. He walks her up to her door. "Thank you for walking me home."
"No problem. I wanted to…" he admits.
She smiles and begins fidgeting. "Y-you like holding me today, huh?"
He was a bit confused by her choice of her words, but realised that she was telling him that he was still holding her hand. "O-oh sorry." He gently lets go of her hand.
"You don't need to apologise," she giggles slightly, "I was just messing with you. I-I like it when you do that." She then plays with her hair and looks at him. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah. See you, Anzu." She then embraces him, causing Yugi to stiffen a bit. He then relaxes, except for his heartbeat, and puts his arms around her waist. That caused her to blush a bit. She's so soft… They remain like that for a few seconds, just enjoying each other's warmth.
Anzu breaks the hug, causing Yugi to frown playfully. She laughs a little at his reaction. She then heads inside. "Bye-bye," she says before closing the door.
