I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its characters.

Anna walked through my open front door carrying a box and slammed it on my desk. Thankfully, I'd cleared it completely of any mechanical debris leftover from my modding the helmet, which was off drying from a coat of gray primer in a nearby shed. Not nearly so lucky was the situation wherein I was taking a nap when she waltzed through. The slam was enough to wake me up.

"Are you finished resting your obviously overworked eyes yet, Willy?" Anna mocked.

I grunted, then said, "Just because I work for myself doesn't mean that I don't get worked as hard as you do."

"That's right, because you're obviously so busy that you have the audacity to ask me out just a few days after meeting me," she said. I was still a little groggy from the rude awakening, I didn't see her face, nor any of the expressions thereupon.

"My apologies, ma'am, if my finding you attractive is offensive. It was not my intention to cause you any pain." I said as I walked over to my desk and got out the duel disks in the box.

Anna wrapped her arms around me from behind and whispered in my ear, "That's alright, I suppose that I asked karma to slap me right back by making you pretend to be my boyfriend for an afternoon."

I smiled as best I could without turning around, making my best, albeit failing attempt, to focus on the work in front of me, "I'm not very good at pretending, ma'am. I only count two duel disks in this box."

Anna took her arms off of me and I could hear her sit down on my bed, "That's another thing. You're just too sweet, and your attempts at being smooth are hilarious."

I was sweating slightly as I said, "Ma'am, I only count two duel disks in here."

"And you always refer to me as though I'm your superior. I suppose that I can take a liking to that if I get spoiled too much more."

"Ma'am…"

"Goodness gracious, Willy. Here I am, lounging on your bed, and you haven't even turned around to look. Although, come to think of it, you only ever speak to my face and look in my eyes. You're not like the other boys who try to talk at my chest." she laughed, and there was a certain twinkling in it, like the smallest bells in the world.

"Ma'am, could you please explain why there are only two duel disks here?" I asked, forcing myself to stare intently at the desk and not turn around.

"Simple, I don't have one." she said.

"Could you please tell me which one belongs to the creep and which belongs to the one I can respect, at least?" I asked. I heard her get up and felt her arm around my shoulders as she took a place on my left side, pointing to the disks and telling me to about the owners and their specific orders. I took careful note of everything she said before she turned to leave. I was facing her in my chair as I watched her walk out when she turned around, adjusted her hair with her left hand, and said, "By the way, I get off work at five. You'd better have someplace for us to go when you pick me up." She left before I could say anything back in response, not that the suddenness stopped me from pumping my fist in the air and whooping a victory yell anyway.

About halfway through the day, when I was already done with the maintenance on the disks and had moved on to some of the custom improvements and decals, Itsuki walked in.

"Whatcha doing, Wil?" he asked.

"Doing a job. Earning money. What are you doing?" I said.

"Watching you earn money," he said. I reached out and ruffled his hair slightly.

"Nicely done, kid. You'll have the wit of an Enforcer someday." I smiled.

"Really? Will I be as strong as you guys too?" he asked with bright eyes.

"If you work at it and get your deck in order, maybe." I laughed. "Would you mind taking a message to Martha for me?"

"What do you want me to tell her?" he asked, eager to serve, apparently.

"Hold on to your cards, let me write it down. It's some pretty sensitive stuff and I'd rather that you don't go spreading it around the whole of Satellite, alright?" I said as I reached for some paper and a pen.

"Is it about your girlfriend? Everybody already knows all about that, Wil," he said.

"Quit it, kid. Just take the note to Martha, if you would please. Make sure that it gets to her safely. No distractions along the way, alright?" I said.

"No distractions. But when are we going to get me some new cards?" he tugged at my arm while I was trying to write.

"If all goes well, then I can take you tomorrow. If not, then it may be a little while longer." I replied. A stoic demeanor took over Itsuki as he understood the gravity of what I'd just said. I finished writing the note, folded it up, and handed it to Itsuki.

"See you soon!" he ran off as fast as he could.

X

At 1657 hours I walked into the bike shop with the same box Anna had brought me that morning. The creep had a smirk on his face but wiped it off as soon as he saw the box. The other brother just smiled.

"Here you are, gentlemen," I said. "I've done the requisite maintenance and the artwork asked for. I believe my debt to be settled with you?"

"How did you get the paint on already, wouldn't that normally take a couple days?" the creep asked.

"Depends on the paint. I usually grab some quick-drying acrylics and brushes for touch-ups and minor paneling before I paint them with a coat of matte finish." I said. "They should work like they were brand-new, but if you run into any issues with my work then I'll fix it again, free of charge."

The respectable one grinned like a schoolboy when he saw his disk, but the creep just frowned.

"Ah yes, by the way, I hope you don't mind my rewiring of the circuitry for you. I don't think that it's going to blow up in your face anymore. I'd hate for you to lose an arm or something." I said to the creep. He looked shocked and completely flabbergasted, almost as though he hadn't expected me to find the amateur sabotage job. He'd probably hoped that I would test the disks without having done the maintenance, poor fool.

"Quitting time, boys. I have places to be that aren't here." Anna walked in from the garage and wrapped her arms around mine. I looked at the clock on the wall, and surely enough it read 1700 hours.

"How true, ma'am. Let's get rolling." I said. I made sure to speak loud enough for both of the boys behind the counter to hear, "I'm thinking of a short walk to where we're going tonight. It isn't too cold out."

Anna played along, "That sounds wonderful, Wilhelm, let's go."

The moment that we were outside Anna said, "So where are we really going tonight?"

"The best kitchen in Satellite. I've made arrangements for us to have the place to ourselves without interruption from the usual residents, and I'll be making dinner." I said.

"Sounds like a real treat, Willy, and it better be. I don't give chances lightly." she teased.

"So we're back to using that name now? I knew that using my real name was a trick!" I said.

"Please, that was just me respecting you enough so as not to give that creep ammunition against you." she said.

"As opposed to giving all of my friends ammunition?" I asked, feigning a wound.

"They're fair game, Willy. That way you never forget about me, even when you're with all of your friends," she said as I guided her to the door of Martha's orphanage, just a few blocks away from the shop.

"And here we are," I said. "Hopefully, my arrangements have stuck. My apologies for it being such a place, but I didn't have much notice or much time for better plans."

"Is this where you did most of your growing up?" Anna asked.

"Yes," I said as I opened the door. What I saw was not at all what I expected to see. I saw the dining room table seats filled with the rest of the Enforcers and Martha sitting at the head of the table across from us with a full three-course meal laid out on the table.

"Do come in, Wilhelm, the food just came out and we wouldn't want it to get cold, would we? And do be a dear and pull out a chair for this lady-friend of yours." Martha said.

Gaping, I made sure that Anna, who was barely restraining a fit of giggles at the sight of so many smug, grinning Enforcers, sat down and was comfortable before I too sat down. Then the whole room exploded in a fit of laughter. I was the only one who wasn't laughing and even I could barely suppress an uneasy smile.

"Wil, you really should learn to have better couriers," Crow said.

"I bribed Itsuki to give me the note with a pack of cards," Jack snorted.

"And the rest of us came up with the plan." Kalin laughed. Only Yusei didn't say a word. He was laughing too much.

"I appreciate all of you and your attempt to ruin my date," I said through my gritted teeth.

"Don't be so hard on them, Willy, I'm sure that they're trying to improve the situation rather than destroy it." Anna put her hand on my arm to calm me down. Martha's jaw dropped.

"Mr. Jernigan, I don't believe I've met the young woman who has the courage to call you 'Willy' as of yet." she said.

"My name is Anna, Ms. Martha. Willy mentioned how you practically raised him." Anna introduced herself.

"Practically, Wilhelm? You belittle the amount of work that I put into making at least one of these ruffians have manners." Martha stared at me. I hoped that she was only joking. By Obelisk, I hoped that she was only joking and that I wouldn't regret something that I didn't even say later on.

X

The rest of dinner carried on in a similar fashion. I was almost never permitted to speak amidst all the humiliating stories that my friends and Martha were telling Anna. It was not how I intended the night to go. I had been hoping for a small, quiet, candle-lit dinner before walking her home. What I got was almost everything but that.

Eventually, however, I did get around to walking Anna home, without any intervention from the Enforcers. We got to her door and I said, "Any chance I get to try again with the whole dinner thing?"

"No need, I had a wonderful time, Willy," she said. I was smiling sheepishly as she added, "I'm almost thankful it wasn't some all-out affair with candles and chocolate."

"Well…"

She held a finger to my lips to shush me, "Better to deal with situations like tonight early on in the relationship before we give them too much ammunition. If you had done as you no doubt intended I would've run away as fast as I could and you would never get a second chance. Your friends just saved you, and never think otherwise." I sighed.

Then I realized, "Hey, wait! Early on in the relationship? What the Ra does that - " I was silenced this time by her lips crashing into mine. They stayed there for a couple seconds before she pulled away softly.

"Does that answer your question?" she asked. I nodded dumbly. "Good," she said. "I expect you to be at or just outside the shop every day when I get off of work. If that can't happen please try to let me know ahead of time, and if you can't do that then you'd better have a good reason to tell me as soon as humanly possible. Every Tuesday is Girl's Night, and when I tell you to go home I expect no further contact from you unless I send for you until the next day when I get off of work. Am I understood?"

Again, I nodded with a dumb look strewn across my face.

"Good. Now answer me this one question before you leave, just so that I can make sure that you can still talk. Is this anything like the fairytales that you used to read?" she said, pulling me in closer by my shirt.

"No," was all I was able to say.

"Good, because I'm no princess in need of rescuing by some knight in untested armor." she said.

"But a princess all the same." was my meek reply. Anna just smiled and kissed me again.

"Now go home, Willy. We both have work to do tomorrow." she pushed me away as she walked into her home and closed the door. I must have looked like the biggest idiot on the street as I hop-skipped home, whistling a tune of my own invention.