Dance for Me ––––– By: LinkGirl
Chapter 3: Realization
Author's Note: Hah HA!! I found my way out of the amazingly deep ditch I got myself into (no more writer's block!)! Now read on, the finally updated chapter three!!!
(I'm so very sorry for the late update, for all those who have been waiting.)
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When Anzu opened her eyes she was staring up at a white ceiling she recognized as her own –how she recognized the plain white ceiling as her own is still a mystery.
She didn't move, slowly realizing that she was lying in her comfy bed, still fully dressed with the exception of her shoes. The room was dimly lit, and there was not a sound to be heard. By the time she heard someone at the door, a few minutes later, she had figured out that night had risen and that there was something clamped to her foot. She let her head drop to one side to see her mother enter carrying a tray of what she could only assume was dinner.
"Oh, you're finally awake," her mother smiled at her, placing the tray on her desk.
Anzu blinked, still slightly dazed from waking, making it hard to find words to pose the questions slowly accumulating in her head.
Fortunately for Anzu's groggy brain, her mother had the answers to her unasked questions, "You sprained your ankle, Anzu-dear," which explained the brace strapped to her foot, "And one of your friends from school brought you back here after your stop at the hospital."
Anzu's brain finally clicked on, and everything came rushing back, "Kaiba...!" she murmured.
"Yes, I'm so glad he was kind enough to bring you back here; and even carry you to your room. He told me you fell asleep on the ride to the hospital. I'm so glad you're all right," her mother gave a relieved sigh, patting Anzu's bed, "Of course you'll need to be walking around on crutches for a while..."
The rest of her mother's voice was blocked out by thought; Anzu had fallen asleep on the car ride? But she remembered arriving and... Then Anzu froze, her expression draining into horror. She had dreamt it! She had dreamt falling in love with Seto Kaiba!! And him falling in love with her!!
She played it in her mind, like watching a blurry movie; she quickly came to the realization that the entire car ride had indeed been a dream. It had seemed so real at the time, which is what to be expected from dreams, but even now, as it began to blur, she could still remember her quickened heartbeat. She could even hear –no, she could sense Kaiba's uneasiness. And with the uncanny abilities only found in dreams, she could hear him think, "Why am I acting this way? Is it that I...love—?"
Anzu squeaked in horror, pushing the memory as far back as possible.
"Anzu, are you all right?" Her mother was looking at her with the strangest of looks, but then again, what mother wouldn't have after hearing their daughter squeak as she buried her face in sheets?
Anzu quickly raised her head from her bed covers, "I'm...fine," she spoke still a bit shaken up, "I just need...food," she ended, for the lack of any other excuse. Finally she was left to eat her dinner in troubled peace.
— — —
That night she had a less realistic dream –a far less realistic dream, which in any other case would have been hilarious without the overall mental brain damage it caused. In the dream Kaiba was standing outside her house, serenading up at her window; that is until the neighbors woke up and started yelling at him for waking everyone but the dead. After waking, she concluded the stress of yesterday's events was temporarily affecting her judgment –at least she sincerely hoped this was the case.
— — —
"Anzu! What happened?!" was what she was greeted with the next day when she arrived for class on crutches. Yugi ran to her before she could even make it into the room, followed shortly by Jonouchi and Honda.
"I..." she glanced down at her braced foot, "I sprained my ankle."
"We figured that much, but how'd you get it like that?" Jonouchi was back to his normal self; Yugi and Honda had successfully cheered him up, though yesterday's events were far from forgotten.
Anzu smiled awkwardly, "I tripped down the stairs." There was no way she was going to tell the boys she had fallen on the DDR machine in a duel against Kaiba; she knew that that information would just upset Jonouchi again, and dramatically increase his ever growing hate for the CEO, especially since it had all been in his defense.
"You tripped down the stairs?" Honda asked, a bit skeptical.
"Yeah..." Anzu started to feel the lie lower its weight onto her shoulders; never before had she lied to her friends, it didn't feel right.
From behind Anzu came the sound of someone clearing their throat, "Do you mind?" Anzu was still in the doorway.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Anzu quickly hobbled out of the way, not even recognizing the speaker's voice.
"I didn't realize—" but as she turned to the man standing in the doorway, she felt her body go cold, as if someone had suddenly dumped a bucket of freezing water on her. It was Kaiba.
Jonouchi's expression turned to pure anger, his fists clenched and shook.
Kaiba glanced at Jonouchi's enraged expression, a smirk slithered up his face; "I see the mutt hasn't changed, as rabid as ever," then he threw a glance at the others, "Make sure he doesn't bite anyone, they might get infected." Then he laughed his cold infamous laugh and glided into his seat at the back of the class.
Jonouchi looked as if he were going to explode, "I'LL KILL HIM!!" he chocked through gritted teeth.
"No, Jonouchi! He's just a creep!" Yugi pleaded. Even though he knew Kaiba was acting like the biggest jerk in the world, he also knew a fist fight wouldn't lead to anything but more trouble.
"Yeah!" Honda added, "Anything that comes from a grade-A asshole isn't worth listening to!" and quietly added, "Though I don't think anyone would mind if we kicked him a few times..."
"Honda!" Anzu glared at him, with a look that clearly stated, "Not helping!"
Although Jonouchi's mood stayed in a rotten state for the rest of the day, Anzu couldn't help but be thankful Kaiba didn't say anything about their little adventure yesterday. Don't get her wrong, her hate level for Kaiba had risen to its peak, but still, a part of her couldn't shake the first dream she had had –even as much as it disgusted her.
— — —
Seto Kaiba gave a great sigh of relief when he finally arrived home that night; work was becoming increasingly stressful due to the new products they were testing, many of which still had entirely too many bugs to sort out.
Unfortunately, Mokuba wasn't especially helpful in changing his mood...
"Hey, big brother? Was Anzu all right today?" Kaiba had barely entered his home office before Mokuba nailed him with the question.
"Like I care."
"Seto..." Mokuba half-whined half-scolded.
"What? I could care less about the friendship brigade."
"Then why'd you help Anzu to begin with?"
"Because...I couldn't just leave her there."
The elder Kaiba was almost to his seat before, "But...you and Anzu looked so cute together," he missed the seat entirely, landing on the floor as the chair rolled away.
"Seto!" Mokuba quickly ran to his now floored brother, not expecting his words to have been so dangerous.
"What?!?" was Kaiba's second reaction after his chair miss.
"Well...you did, in a...weird type of way –but only slightly...slightly cute, I mean; but it's not like anyone else noticed," instinct quickly told Mokuba to drop the subject as Kaiba's face was becoming red with anger and his eyes of the type that could kill.
"Mokuba; I do not love Anzu!"
"I didn't say that."
"Well—I don't!! And we do not look cute together!! Don't ever say –think that again!!" and with that the furious Kaiba left, taking an early leave to his room, completely forgetting about any work left to be done, but more importantly the mail sitting on his desk, where a possible life-changing invitation sat waiting to be opened.
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Thank you reviewer Penny Lane00 for pointing out my small grammatical errors in chapters one and two, and thank you everyone who's given me constructive criticism so far.