I'm not entirely sure how to go about this one, so I'm just going to give it a whack. XD

Summary: Dear (Stupid) Heart, I'd like to let you know that you're driving me crazy. Why him of all people? Why does it have to be him? Manipulashipping

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, people.

Insert Witty Banter Here

Dear (Stupid) Heart

Anzu Mazaki tapped her pencil against the surface of her desk, eyes half-lidded and barely focused on the note that she was supposed to be writing down. She always did so well in school. She would usually have been paying attention. She would do her work, and do it well. It was just how Anzu operated. She was a perfectionist, and it often got her pretty far in academics.

Yeah.

She frowned, stopping the tapping. What was with her brain, today? She just couldn't get that off of her mind.

"Mazaki?"

She glanced up at the teacher, whose bespectacled eyes were on her. He brandished the chalk in one hand, and had turned to address her personally. In front of the entire class.

"Yes, sir?"

"Are you taking the note, or simply reading the back of your eyelids?"

Anzu blushed, realizing her painfully obvious folly. Well, it wasn't her fault. She didn't do this often, so she was lacking in practice when it came to slacking off!

"No, sir." Anzu answered meekly, lowering her head in humiliation. She caught the snickers of a few of her classmates. All eyes were on her. "I'm taking the note."

Her teacher turned back to the board, not satisfied with her answer, but accepting that she wasn't going to elaborate any further.

At least he stopped interrogating her. Otherwise, she might've just died from the embarrassment.

She could still feel eyes on her, laughing at her silently.

Stop staring at me. She screamed in her mind, begging that they would just go back to their work, or knowing them, lack thereof. As long as the staring just stopped. She really couldn't handle it.

The lack of sleep was really starting to take a toll on her.

She turned her pencil around, lead down on the lined paper before her. I should start taking the note. She thought.

She began writing, but instead of taking down the note that was probably going to be on her next test, she started writing something entirely different.

Dear (Stupid) Heart… She began, glaring at the page even as she wrote.

I'd just like to let you know that you're driving me crazy.

That was an understatement.

I mean, of all the good-looking guys at our school, why'd you pick that one? Why him? Why, oh why, does it have to be him?

Not that she was saying he was good looking, because honestly, the guy really didn't need anything else inflating his ego. It was already impossibly huge, as far as she thought.

What, with the way he looked at her. With that cocky grin. With that look in his eyes, like he knew. He didn't know. He didn't know anything. Jerk.

This is getting beyond ridiculous. Did you know that thanks to you, I tripped up a routine at the studio? I mean, my teacher was so upset at me! It was parent night! Why couldn't you have done that to me during a rehearsal?

She growled at her page. Because that would've been far too easy, wouldn't it? She thought angrily, nearly snapping her pencil in half.

Anzu fervently clasped her free hand into a fist, imagining his head inside. She wished that he would just disappear. Then she wouldn't have to think about him. Then it wouldn't be a problem. He wouldn't always be there, at the forefront of her mind, mocking her with those eyes and grin of his.

I don't get it, She wrote, Why Domino High, anyways? He really should have just stayed in Egypt. It would have saved me so much trouble. He did on purpose. I know he did.

She discreetly turned her body, just enough so that she could look at him out of the corner of her eye. Brown met violet.

Damn it! She cried out in her mind. He was still staring at her! What gives? She hoped that he hadn't noticed that she'd met his eyes on purpose. She didn't want to make him any more sure of himself.

A cough, sounding suspiciously like a choked laugh, came from behind her. She just about turned around to whack him in the head, show him right. But she didn't.

Why didn't she…?

Because I'm in love with the bastard. She groaned in her head, her shoulders slumping visibly. Her friends didn't know it, but she knew it. He knew it, or so she thought.

He made her so frustrated that she'd resorted to cursing. That was quite a feat, considering Anzu prided herself on being very well-kept and proper.

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him…

She chanted those three words over and over in her head. Still, she couldn't bring herself to believe them. Her heart was just too set on a very different viewpoint.

Her hand brushed the paper, and she looked down at it.

…he did. The last words on the page.

She continued to write.

I guess it could be worse, though. Right? It could be Otogi, or Jonouchi, or Honda. She shivered at the thought. At least it's him. He's unpredictable and interesting…dangerous, even. Nothing like me, nothing like me at all. Maybe that's what's so attractive: that sense of not knowing that he always brings. Because I don't know. When I'm with him, I don't know what's going to happen.

I probably never will. And I think that I enjoy that, that sense of not having to be perfect. That sense that I'm letting go and taking a fall.

Yeah. Nice way to put it. Taking a fall. I'm falling. Falling for him.

Jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk…

She dropped her pencil. Okay. Enough of that. She really needed to get to that note.

Her eyes fell to the little note again. It wasn't complete. Not yet. Just one sentence wouldn't hurt, would it?

Congratulations, Anzu. You're in love with him.

She rolled the words around in her head. I'm in love with him.

"I'm in love with him…" She whispered, so quietly that no one could have heard her. No one acknowledged her. Good. The words were for her ears only.

And maybe his. Someday.

Anzu pulled out a fresh piece of paper. It was definitely time to start writing down that note.

This time, with more amusement than before, she wrote the words at the corner of the page nestled underneath her new paper. She just had to do it. Get the last two words off of her shoulders. A name. Just a name. The name of he who held her heart.

Why was she so corny?

She sighed, shook her head, and got to work on the hefty note up on the board.

Malik Ishtar tapped his pencil against his knee, eyes half-lidded and completely unfocused on the note that he was supposed to be writing down. He found school useless. He never paid attention. He left his work unfinished, and never did well. It was just how he operated. Malik didn't care. School just wasn't his forte.

Yeah.

He stopped tapping, and at just about the same time, the brown-haired girl in front of him stopped rapping her pencil against her desk.

Maybe he should ask Ryou to come over and play video games after school.

"Mazaki?"

He looked up at the teacher, at the same time that her head shot up. What a nice teacher, singling students out in class whenever the opportunity knocked.

"Yes, sir?" She all but whispered. He could feel the shame coming off of her in waves. How embarrassing.

"Are you taking the note, or simply reading the back of your eyelids?"

From the part of her face that he could see, she was blushing. Quite profusely, actually. It must have been one of her first times getting called out for not paying attention in class.

Amateur. He mused silently.

"No, sir." She said, and Malik heard some of the kids around them snicker. Oh yes, the good student getting in trouble was just so funny. Malik rolled his eyes. They were so stupid, sometimes. "I'm taking the note."

"Good." The teacher went back to writing.

Malik's eyes moved down to the note-less paper on his desk. Yeah, like he was going to actually bother writing all that stuff down. He'd just borrow it from Ryou later, and do it if he felt like it. He was tired today, and didn't feel like making the effort.

He wanted to do something more interesting. Perhaps this was the thrill of all his prior misadventures speaking, but school life was dreadfully dull.

This was Japan, wasn't it? Couldn't Godzilla attack, or something?

Anzu began to write, and Malik perked up a bit. Was she actually taking the note? It wasn't anything important, as far as he knew. Usually she just memorized useless crap like this. She was such a nerd.

A pretty hot nerd. A treacherous little part of his mind said.

He grimaced, and shook the thought off. He didn't even want to go there. Not again.

She seemed to tense, as if she could tell that his eyes were on her. He gave a Cheshire cat grin. She was so amusing to bug sometimes.

Malik had always assumed that Anzu was the cheerleading, preppy, I-love-puppies kind of idiot of Yugi's gang. After beginning to attend Domino High, Malik had realized that she was quite the contrary. Anzu was popular, but intelligent. She was also aggressive, friendly, funny, loyal, and unique. She was a dancer, but wasn't the snobby stereotype that was often enforced by the stupidity of high school cliques. She made friends with a variety of people, ranging from jock and joker types, to popular types, to meek and nerdy types. She just liked people, he guessed.

She's quite a girl. He reflected, and his expression turned to one of careful contemplation.

He'd never quite met anyone like Anzu, the friendship-obsessed, well-meaning young woman who had a tendency to make more of an impression than someone like her should.

Anzu shifted, and Malik blinked, realizing that he'd been staring at her. She turned, in what she must've thought to be a discreet movement, and looked at him. She caught his eyes, and jumped a bit in her seat, turning back around sharply.

Very smooth, Anzu.

He chuckled, but hid it behind a cough. He didn't want to embarrass her any further than she already was, what with the teacher and all.

Dear God, Malik thought gravely, I think I'm in love with her.

No part of his mind spoke up on those words' behalf. Oh well. He'd known for a while. It was a long time coming, he supposed.

The remainder of the class passed with little incident. The teacher was definitely having the time of his life sniping at students who weren't paying attention, because it happened six more times to other kids during the period.

The bell rang, and everyone stood up to gather their stuff. Malik didn't get up right away. He had a free period next, so he wasn't in any real hurry. As students bustled out the door and into the crammed hallways, Malik stood up leisurely. He picked up his books, making sure that he didn't forget anything.

Anzu finished getting all of her stuff, and tore out of the classroom with impressive speed. A piece of paper fell to the floor beside her desk.

How cliché, Malik snickered in his head, she dropped something. Well, I ought to follow along and deliver this to her personally after school.

Like hell he would. He'd give it to Yugi after school, whose locker was only a few away from his own, and have him deliver whatever it was back to her.

He knelt down to pick it up. It wasn't folded or anything, just laying open in all of its innocence.

Malik grimaced slightly. I really shouldn't read it, He told himself, I really, really shouldn't.

Ah, screw Anzu's privacy. His curiosity was way more important.

I'm such an asshole, He thought in amusement.

"See you teach," He murmured, walking out with the paper in his hand. He didn't look at the older man, just continued into the hallway and through the crowd. He'd go to the library, or something. Read some manga, maybe.

"Dear stupid heart..." He read aloud to himself, quietly enough that he wouldn't be eavesdropped on accidentally, just in case Anzu's words were incriminating in any fashion.

He didn't read the rest of it aloud, and his eyebrows shot up as he scanned the rest of the would-be letter to her heart.

The last two words, after her spiel about the person that she was apparently in love with, were scrawled messily in the bottom corner of the page.

He grinned. Well, how nice of her.

Tucking the paper into his pocket, he sauntered down the corridor, making his way to the stairs leading to the library.

He wouldn't be giving the note to Yugi.

Anzu dropped her books onto the table that she always sat at for her free period. She'd luckily gotten that note all written up. At least the teacher hadn't decided to talk to her after school, or anything.

She moved her textbook out of the pile, and her eyes found a small pile of blank papers.

Oh no.

The letter…the letter that she'd written to her heart about him. It was gone. Had she thrown it out?

No. She would have remembered doing that. She'd stuck it on top of the blank papers. She knew she'd done it.

She'd dropped it. Somewhere between the classroom and the library, Anzu had dropped one of the most convicting pieces of paper she'd ever written.

And anyone could have picked it up.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps. Malik Ishtar was walking into the library, looking relaxed as usual. Unlike usual, however, there was a very goofy grin on his face. Not his typical mocking smile. This was different. He was pleased about something.

He caught her eye, and stopped his walk. He turned towards Anzu, and began to approach her table.

Crap.

The look on her face was priceless, Malik figured. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Well, she had reason for it. But he was still going to enjoy the moment.

"Hey, Anzu." He greeted casually, stopping across from her, the table forming a barrier between them.

She gulped. "M-Malik."

Her hands were in mid-spreading of papers. Ah, so she knew that she'd lost it, then.

He almost felt bad for her. Almost.

"What's up? Did you lose something? You look a little worried." He forced down the bubbling laughter. Oh, she was so fun to mess with.

"Just some…er…homework. Can't find it." She replied quietly, unsurely, as if she were suddenly having trouble speaking to him.

Well, yeah. She figured that the note she'd written had fallen into the hands of evil. Truth be told, she was right.

"Oh." He said, "Well, I think I've got it, actually. You dropped it in the classroom."

Anzu's eyes went wide, horrified. "You didn't…read it, did you?"

"What's the problem?" Malik queried innocently, cocking his head to the side. "It's just homework, right?"

Anzu went bright red. She looked about to pass out, actually.

Malik was almost mortified with himself. Almost.

He reached into his pocket, taking out the letter that he'd folded for himself. "Take a breath, Anzu," He told the girl, grinning at her, "Don't worry."

"About…about what?"

"It's fine. The feeling's mutual." He winked at her, "Call me whenever." He turned to leave, and from what he could see of her, she looked about to die of embarrassment. He glanced back over his shoulder, "See you tomorrow."

He decided to put her out of her misery and not say anything further, and briskly walked from the library. He felt quite chuff with himself, actually.

Oh yeah, He thought with a grin. The confession letter hadn't been enough; he'd had to make sure.

She totally digs me.

END

Choppy, corny, and probably a little weird. All in all, I'd say it's a success. (Rolls eyes) Thanks for reading. Feel free to review!

Because I like reviews.

And they make me happy.

So please, review. XD