:Oh my god this was so hard to write, but at the same time it wasn't because I was so excited for this chapter! By the way to old readers (And new if you want to read this part) I have an anniversary poll up now from when I first started writing fanfiction for yugioh. The poll will end when this story ends so it'll be up for a while. Well anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this because I enjoyed typing it!:
Yugi and Anzu walked side by side into the room, allowing themselves to be led into a completely secluded separate cooking lab by their instructor. The two of them had asked their teacher, Mr. Tsunami, if they could teach the royals how to cook due to their request and the man had said yes immediately. So, he was leading them to a different room where the four could have some privacy.
Anzu looked behind herself, raising an eyebrow in confusion when she watched the two royal siblings glare at each other. Atemu had a serious, menacing glare on his face, while Mana had a smug, cute narrowed eyed look on hers. Anzu could feel her face heat up, Mana looked good with that look on her. She shook her head for a moment, trying to rid herself of the blush. Get yourself together, girl!
"Hey, Yugi?" Anzu asked, breaking the strange air of silence around them. Yugi looked up at her, raising an eyebrow in question. She rose a hand and pointed to the siblings behind them.
"What's up with them?" She continued, watching as Yugi turned his head around to look behind himself and just grin at the sight. Good, he thought, the challenge was going to happen and it was going to be a lot of fun to watch. He couldn't wait to see what kind of tricks they would do in the kitchen, but he had to make sure they didn't burn the place down, he could do without that.
"Probably nothing, Anzu." Yugi replied, his grin turning into an innocent smile. "You know royals, they're odd."
"Yeah, but I've never seen those two look at each other like that."
"We don't know them that well, maybe they only act nice to each other in public."
"They are in public."
"Not really."
"Yugi, I think they're up to something."
"Maybe they are."
"Could they be planning something?"
"You mean like burn the kitchen down, I don't know."
"Not like-"
"Here you go!" Mr. Tsunami announced, smiling broadly as he placed a key into the door and slid it open, revealing a large room that was identical to the previous cooking lab. Huh, that's weird.
"Teaching these guys might take a while, so..." Yugi whispered to himself, darting his eyes to his teacher. "How long may we use this?"
"As long as you want!" His teacher replied, happy to finally have some royalty that was willing to cook. No royal had ever wanted to learn how to cook, so it had shocked him when Yugi had came up to him and told him that he was planning to teach them. He had doubts about Anzu wanting to teach the royals, but maybe she was just helping Yugi. He respected the girl, but she just wasn't as good at cooking as Yugi was.
"O-Oh..." Yugi uttered out, truly surprised at the reply. "T-Thank you." Mr. Tsunami nodded at his students, telling them quickly that before they leave they need to clean up and to make sure everything was back in place. He took a quick glance at the royalty that were standing behind his students, glaring at each other with such an intensity you would think there was lightning striking between them. He felt a shudder of warning go through his spine, he should probably get out of there. Mr. Tsunami put on another large grin and waved at his students before he made his exit.
"Okay..." Anzu whispered under her breath, wondering what her teacher's problem was. She turned around, letting out a slight groan as she saw that the royal's faces hadn't changed from what they were previously. Yugi turned around as well, trying not to laugh. God, what had he done? He cleared his throat, clapping his hands together.
"Okay, enough of the glaring you two." He spoke loudly, clapping his hands louder and smiling when his clapping worked and actually made both royals look at him. Atemu narrowed his eyes at his interest, he knew how to make Yugi blush, so he knew that he could use it to his advantage, but he didn't want to overdo it. He had just noticed Yugi being nicer to him, and even called him by his name! He didn't want his progress with Yugi to go back down the drain just because of some competition with his sister.
Mana nodded at Yugi, glancing at Anzu and feeling herself blush. Sure, today Anzu had shocked her and made her blush more then usual, but she could do the exact same thing. Mana was a girl, and she knew that girls blushed a lot more than guys, so she had a huge advantage. But she didn't want to go overboard, but didn't Anzu go overboard? She didn't know what the limit was, but she really didn't want to test the waters and screw this up.
Yugi gestured for the three to follow him, leading them to the nearest mini kitchen. Anzu walked the other way to a nearby closet, confusing the royals as the siblings just stood there and waited to be told what to do. Mana knew how to make chocolate due to practice and reading, but she would rather wait and be told when to start rather then just begin on her own. And if she was going to do this competition with her brother, she had to be doing this alongside Anzu.
"Anzu and I will get the ingredients," Yugi began to explain, reaching out a hand as Anzu walked back with four long cloth pieces in her hands. "Why don't you two get the utensils?" Anzu placed a blue cloth in his hand, revealing it to a long apron. Atemu and Mana nodded obediently, looking around for a moment.
"Yugi, I don't think they know where the utensils are." Anzu whispered to her small friend as she placed down the other two aprons as she placed a pink apron around herself. Yugi rose an eyebrow before he noticed that the prince and princess were looking around the room like lost idiots. How fitting, well not fitting for the princess, but the prince fit the bill of an idiot quite well.
"The utensils are in cabinets and drawers," Yugi explained, messing with his apron as he tried to tighten it around himself. "They should be labeled." He grumbled as he pulled on the strings behind himself, he just couldn't get this thing to tighten around him! Yugi always had trouble with aprons, but after a while he could usually do it. Anzu would offer to help him, but he would say that he could get it. So, he just stood there making annoyed sounds as he tried to fix it.
Mana nodded at the explanation, walking off and searching for what they needed. She already knew what they needed, she just hadn't known where to get them. Atemu rose an eyebrow, refusing to follow his sister as he watched Yugi try to tie his apron behind his back without any help. He allowed a smile to form on his face, how cute of his prince.
Anzu turned around, making her way to the fridge to fetch some ingredients while Yugi messed around with his blue apron. He was about to kill this thing if it didn't hurry up and tighten around him! He let out a small gasp as he felt warm hands place themselves onto his own.
"Now, I have to say you look quite adorable while doing this, but..." Atemu whispered into his ear, making Yugi's face form into a bright shade of pink. "Allow me to help you." Yugi felt his mouth run dry and tried to gulp before he nodded slowly, the idiot didn't have to scare him like that! He removed his hands from Atemu's, waiting as the royal tightened the apron around him. Atemu made sure to catch a quick look at Yugi's face, noticing how it was pink. There's one, he noted with a smirk.
"Thanks..." Yugi grumbled, refusing to look toward the royal. "I guess..." Atemu smiled sweetly, narrowing his eyes as he observed the back of Yugi's head as he walked off in the same direction as Anzu. Being that cute should be a sin.
"Atemu!" Mana squealed, pouting as she glared in her brother's direction. He turned his head quickly, noticing how she was struggling with a bunch of pots in her hands. Didn't they only need two pots? Why did she have over five?
"Do we really need that many pots?" Atemu questioned, an amused expression on his face as he made his way to her and helped take the pots out of her hands. Mana let out a sigh of relief and glared at him.
"No, I was trying to get 2 pots but since I couldn't reach them," Mana flushed in embarrassment. "I made some of them fall with the pots, but you didn't hear me because you were too busy being distracted!" Atemu shrugged, placing the pots back in the cabinet she had attempted to retrieve them from. Could she blame him? She would have probably been staring at Anzu if he went to go get the pots.
"Speaking of that, I have one point." Atemu smirked and walked away with two pots held in his hands. Mana's mouth gaped open for a moment, already?! They had just got here! She grumbled and made her way over to a drawer that labeled itself; Dry Measuring Cups. She opened the drawer, narrowing her eyes as she browsed the selection of the utensils, what sizes did she need again?
"That was faster than usual." Anzu commented, looking behind herself to see Yugi walking up to her. Yugi narrowed his eyes at her in question as she opened the refrigerator and peered into it.
"What was faster than usual?" Yugi asked, looking under her arms and deciding that it would be better if he went to go get the dry ingredients. Luckily, the dry ingredients were always placed next to the fridge. Yugi went to the side, grabbing at the nearby pantry and opening it. Anzu darted her eyes to the side at him.
"You putting on the apron." Anzu answered. "Usually it takes you five to ten minutes to put it on, or could it be..." She allowed herself to have a mischievous grin form onto her face. "That a certain someone helped you?" Yugi's gaze froze, his eyes no longer darting over ingredient labels. His face began to burn from embarrassment and he felt his heart pounding again, this was getting annoying.
"Yeah, and?" Yugi grumbled. "It's not my fault that he wanted to help." Anzu leaned on the fridge door, her grin still in place as her eyes narrowed at her small friend.
"But whenever I wanted to help you, you never let me." Anzu sung out mockingly. "So, why did you let him?" Yugi, for once in his lifetime, wanted to slap Anzu. It isn't that big of a deal! So he let the stupid prince help him put on the apron, so what? It wasn't like he let him kiss him or something. Well, there was that one time when you let him kiss your forehead after the lunch event. Yugi wanted to slap himself at the memory.
"Because he probably would've helped me even if I did tell him that I didn't want him to."
"But you still didn't tell him to stop."
"It would've been a waste of breath to ask."
"It would've been reasonable to at least tell him to stop to see if he would or not."
"Will you stop patronizing me about that idiot?! I'm not nagging at you about Mana!" Yugi snapped, his cheeks blazing red and his heart threatening to burst. Anzu blinked in confusion before she let the words sink in. She looked down, her grin fading as her face took the same form as Yugi's.
"W-Why would you be nagging at me about Mana?"
"Oh, don't you dare ask that." Yugi laughed, his tone now stealing Anzu's mocking one. "I saw you two holding hands, and don't you dare deny that you were." Anzu bit her lip, she had been planning to tell Yugi how she had been feeling about him and Mana, but since he already noticed maybe she didn't have to tell him.
"Okay, so we were holding hands. Is that a problem?"
"Other than the fact that you kept denying that you had a thing for her? No, not at all."
"I do no-" Anzu began to say before she stopped herself. She looked down, biting her lip. No, she couldn't say that anymore. Not after she had thought about this for a while, it would be stupid to lie. Mana was sweet, kind, pretty...She had helped Anzu when she was crying, she never had been too forceful and she acted like a normal girl despite being royalty.
Yugi rose an eyebrow, oh...Oh! His eyes widened when he saw Anzu begin to blush brighter, she began to bite her lip harder. She was about to deny that she liked the princess, but she had stopped herself. Oh, great. This was just great! Yugi was scared to lose his friends to royalty, but he knew out of all his friends he would've lost Anzu. He just didn't know he would lose her to another girl.
"Now we're getting somewhere." Yugi smirked as he grabbed at the dry ingredients they needed and walked off, closing the cabinet with his elbow. Anzu blushed brighter and grabbed milk and butter before she followed him. She loved her friend, but for Gods sake he better not tell Mana.
"Here's the pots, you two." Atemu spoke as he watched the two friends walk toward one of the cooking labs. Yugi and Anzu nodded at him in thanks as they set down the ingredients. Anzu narrowed her eyes as she looked down at what they had set out and rethought about what they needed. She knew what was required to make chocolate, she just didn't know how to make it that well.
Yugi looked toward Atemu, his arms crossed as he waited patiently for something to do. He was vaguely surprised at how patient he was, but at the same time wasn't. He had heard that royals were always treated like spoiled brats, but since Atemu and Mana didn't act like brats, for some reason, he assumed they had different upbringing. Atemu turned his head to Yugi, his eyes locking with the small's boys in an instant, causing the boy to blush on impact. Wow, that's twice now and he didn't even have to do anything. He rose an eyebrow, maybe he could get two in one?
"Is something the matter?" Atemu asked, his voice hiding his amused emotion. Yugi felt his cheeks grow hotter as he turned his head around, why were you staring at the damn guy you idiot?! He maneuvered his eyes to the tabletop, noticing how there were still two aprons untouched. He grabbed at the dark red apron and held it out in front of him, it looked like it would fit the prince.
"I was just..." Yugi began to speak, clearing his throat as he dusted off the apron. "Just checking to see how tall you were so I could see if we had an apron that would fit you." It seemed like a good excuse, despite the fact that the one who had brought the aprons out was Anzu! She had already determined their size and went to retrieve them before, why would he have to check again?
"I see." Atemu chuckled, watching as Yugi turned back around and held out the apron to him. He had to ask Mana if making their partner blush more in color counted in their little contest. If it did count, he would already have three points! Yugi took a deep breath before he placed the apron into only one of his hands, gesturing with the other one for the royal to turn around. Atemu rose an eyebrow in question.
"I'm going to help you put this on..." Yugi explained. Atemu chuckled, confusing Yugi for a moment.
"The apron goes over my head, and then ties together, Yugi." Atemu told him, explaining why turning around would be a bad idea. Yugi narrowed his eyes at the royal, how did he know how to put on an apron? Well, maybe he watched you put yours on, after all he did help tighten the thing around you. Yugi cursed at himself at his ignorance and sighed, nodding in agreement.
"Fine." Yugi sighed, stepping close to the royal. He held out the apron in front of him. "Come on, kneel your head down." Atemu blinked in surprise, he was going to put it on him? He thought he was only going to help tighten it around him. He knelt his head down slightly, allowing Yugi to place the cloth over his neck, his chest caressing Atemu's spiked hair. His mouth ran dry, they had been closer before, but it was still kind of...he couldn't think of the words as he waited for Yugi to back up, indicating for him to stand up straight.
"Alright..." Yugi said, making a gesture with his hand. "Now turn around." Atemu did as he was told, turning around quickly and smiling as he felt Yugi grab the strings of his apron to tie them around his waist.
"Tell me when it gets too tight, okay?" Yugi told him. Atemu nodded in response as he felt him begin to tighten the strings more. Honestly, before now Yugi would have been glad to make it too tight for him, to just hurt him. But for some reason, the thought of hurting the royal right now was unappealing and he felt no urge to do it. He blamed the fact that they had some enjoyable moments together, as in being normal and not flirting. Atemu had only seemed to flirt with him once today, but that was it. Maybe he wouldn't be too flirty today, but honestly Yugi doubted that.
"Guys, we're missing the measuring cups." Anzu spoke up, her eyes narrowed as she glanced over everything they had one more time. They were missing both the dry measuring cups and the liquid measuring cups. Atemu gestured for Yugi to stop tightening the strings, Yugi nodded at him and stopped.
"I believe Mana was supposed to be getting those." Atemu told Anzu, smiling at Yugi. Anzu pouted, looking around the room for the princess.
"Does she even know what they look like?"
"Measuring cups? Yeah, she practiced making chocolate before."
"Okay, bu-" Anzu felt her eyes narrow as she looked at the girl she was looking for. Half of the girl's body was inside a large cabinet and behind her was a large variety of cups. Great, now they would have to put all of those back in the correct place. Despite that thought, Anzu smiled and giggled at the actions of the princess, heading over to the girl to help her find the needed utensils, leaving the two boys alone for a moment.
"Yugi." Atemu whispered, making his voice soft so it could only be heard by the small boy. Yugi looked up at him in question. "Thank you." The boy's eyes widened, his face turning another shade of pink before he looked away.
"It was nothing, don't worry about it." Yugi grumbled, hating how it was so easy to become flustered now. Why the hell was he getting so flustered over this guy? This...completely...stupid...He turned his head, noticing how Atemu was staring at him, smiling at him...Yugi bit his lip, grabbing at his own head and shaking it.
"Yugi?" Atemu asked, his eyes widening at the sudden odd action being done by the boy. Was he okay? How many times had he made him blush now? Four? Maybe he should stop, it might be driving his little prince insane...
"What?" Yugi snapped, lowering his hands and narrowing his eyes at the royal. Atemu blinked at him, unknowing of what was wrong with him. Yugi felt bad, wait why the hell did he feel bad?! Well, you kind of just snapped at him!
"Relax, Yugi." Atemu whispered, reaching forward and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. He felt Yugi tense under his touch for a moment, his face refusing to go back to it's normal peach color. Was he really affecting Yugi this much? Atemu felt his heart swell, that was an excellent sign! He watched as Yugi took a deep breath and released it, relaxing and looking up at him.
"Sorry." Yugi told him, smiling shyly. "I'm just thinking about stuff..." It wasn't a lie, it was far from a lie. He saw the prince as a friend now, and it was nothing more than that. But he really wished that his heart and face would stop freaking out around the damn guy! Atemu nodded in understanding, not wanting to push any questions on his little prince. He loved teasing him, but right now it didn't seem like it would be a good idea to keep teasing him.
Mana narrowed her eyes as she searched deep within the cabinet, her vision slightly dark because of being so far back in it. She puffed out her cheeks, smelling wood inside the cabinet. Honestly, she had all of her dry measuring cups, she just needed the liquid ones, but she couldn't find them for anything! She searched around more, grabbing at cups and looking at them before shaking her head and placing it out behind her.
Anzu felt her eyebrow twitch as she observed this from behind, her arms crossed as she found herself staring at the uniformed butt of a certain royal princess. When she had first seen her, she had been digging in a drawer earlier and was only pulling out pairs of cups, mostly because they would be working in pairs. But she didn't know why she was digging in the cups cabinet! She closed her eyes, trying to think of a reason. They needed liquid measuring cups, so maybe she thought she would find them in the cup cabinet? She shook her head, opening her eyes and finding that Mana's behind was higher up in the air, as if she was crawling deeper into the wooden thing. Anzu felt her face heat up, now was not the time to be looking at someone's butt!
"Mana!" Anzu squealed, knowing her voice cracked as she did this. "What're you doing in there?!" Mana let out a squeak, jumping and smacking her head on top of the cabinet. She groaned, rubbing the top of her head and sighed, dragging herself out and standing straight up. Anzu stood there, her arms crossed and her face bright red. Mana rose an eyebrow, well she didn't know what happened, but that was one point.
"I was looking for the measuring cups." Mana told her honestly, raising a hand to her head and rubbing the pain away gently. Anzu uncrossed her arms, letting out a sigh. The silly princess...She smiled sweetly, reaching to Mana's head with her own hand and placing it on top of her's. Mana's eyes widened slightly, her face turning red at the slight contact.
"Are you okay?" Anzu whispered, concerned for how the girl's head felt. The hit to her head sounded like it hurt...Mana narrowed her eyes, lifting the hand on top of her head to remove Anzu's hand before she grabbed it and held it close to her, bringing her closer to her. She stared down into Anzu's eyes, smiling.
"I am now." Mana replied, her voice soft as she observed Anzu's cheeks return to a bright pink color. That's two, she commented in her head as she rose Anzu's hand to her lips and gave a soft kiss to it. Anzu let out a slight gasp at this, gulping and knowing her face was getting brighter. She was flirting with her too, but this was...
"T-That's good...um..." Anzu uttered out, not knowing what to say as she darted her eyes away. Mana waited patiently, their hands intertwined. Anzu gulped, trying to think of why she had come over to where the princess was.
"Oh! Um..." She gasped out, removing her hand from Mana's gently. "I wanted to tell you the measuring cups are in the dry and liquid measuring cup drawers, they should be right next to each other." Mana blinked in confusion, they were right next to each other? She darted her eyes to where she had set out the pairs of dry measuring cups, just to see the label of Liquid Measuring Cups in the drawer right next to the Dry Measuring Cups drawer. She wanted to kill herself, how did she miss that?!
"Oops, my bad." Mana giggled, smiling at Anzu in apology. She turned her eyes to the cups she had brought out of the cabinet. "Here, I'll put them up." She reached for all of the cups she had set out, only to find Anzu reaching over as well.
"It's faster with two people." Anzu told her, grabbing at a cup and placing it in the open cabinet. "So, I'll help." Mana smiled and felt her cheeks form a slight blush, she's so cute. She reached over to the cups, grabbing at them and placing them all in the cabinet with Anzu's help. She reached for the final cup, stopping when she felt another hand touch hers. She rose her eyes to Anzu, watching as the girl blushed by the slight contact once more and darted her eyes to Mana.
Mana had to wonder how many points Atemu had so far, because right now she had three so, ha! She smiled sweetly at Anzu, taking hold of the cup, gently moving the other girl's hand away.
"Let me do it." Mana whispered. "Do you mind getting the liquid measuring cups?" She made sure her eyes never left Anzu's, making sure she was paying attention to her and only her. Anzu gulped, shaking her head and standing up slowly, the blush getting worse as she made her way to the Liquid Measuring Cup drawer.
"I see you and her are getting cozy." Anzu let out a slight gasp as she looked to the side, noticing Atemu looking at her from the side of his eyes. Yugi stood next to him, trying to estimate if they had enough ingredients for both pairs. Anzu bit her lip, looking at Yugi and then behind herself to Mana.
"I could say the same about you and Yugi." Anzu replied, allowing a small smile slip onto her face. "I thought you were shy." Atemu chuckled, causing Yugi to look at him in question for a moment. He smiled at him, forcing the boy to blush a light, barely noticeable shade of pink. Atemu took note of it immediately.
Anzu giggled, shaking her head at the moment between the two boys. Yugi said that he didn't like Atemu, but she somewhat doubted that. She was surprised how she didn't feel jealous at all, but at the same time wasn't. She turned her eyes to Mana, how would she feel if Mana was into someone else? She felt her heart tighten and begin to hurt at the thought, nope. She wouldn't like that, not one bit.
She took a deep breath, looking down at the drawer she was in front of. Anzu grabbed the knob, pulling it open slowly and reaching in to grab two of the liquid cups. She let out a soft gasp as she felt someone wrap their arms around her waist, pulling her against their chest and place their chin on her shoulder.
"You got them?" Mana whispered in her ear, smiling and rocking them back and forth gently. Anzu blushed brighter, her heart jumping into her throat and her face nodding quickly in response. The princess smiled brighter, adding the blush to her tally. She released the girl, grabbing for the dry measuring cups that were on the counter. Mana winked at Anzu and gestured for her to follow her to the station that the boys were settled at.
"About time..." Yugi whispered under his breath, causing Atemu to chuckle as the girls approached them with the cups. The pair placed the utensils down, moving next to each other by instinct and stood in front of a close by cooking lab.
"We have everything?" Anzu questioned, wanting to double check to make sure there were no mistakes. Yugi nodded in her direction.
"Yeah." He responded. " All we have to do is measure and begin to make it." He turned his eyes to Atemu, silently asking if he was ready. Atemu smiled at him, his crimson meeting the boy's amethyst as he nodded. Yugi strained his face not to turn red at their eyes met, and for once, was successful at it. He turned his eyes to the two girls.
"You two think you can handle yourselves?" Yugi questioned, teasing them with his tone. Anzu and Mana let out a giggle at the question, smiling brightly as they turned and looked at each other.
"I think we can." Mana responded, her voice laced with giggles. Anzu nodded in agreement, her face beginning to hurt from smiling, but she was having fun and they hadn't even started cooking yet! Yugi let out his own chuckle as he directed his eyes to his royal partner, causing the prince to look back at him. He gestured his eyes to the ingredients that were laid out between the two pairs. He reached for the measuring cups, making sure each group had their own set of the needed materials. Yugi doubled checked for a moment and narrowed his eyes as they fell onto a dark green apron, okay who wasn't wearing one?
"Who isn't wearing an apron?" Yugi asked, grabbing at the dark fabric. Mana flushed in embarrassment, she had forgotten about those. She rose her hand gently, making Yugi look in her direction and toss it to her. She caught it successfully, smiling in thanks as she placed it over herself and tied it behind her back. Anzu watched her with impressed eyes, how did a royal know how to put on an apron? Well, she had said she had practiced cooking before, so she might have had to wear one at the time...
"Alright then." Yugi clapped his hands together, letting out a large breath of air as he grabbed at a pot and turned on the sink.
"Let's try not to burn the building down."
:Haha! You thought I was going to make the chocolate cooking thing into a whole chapter didn't you?! Hahahah! Okay, I'm joking you probably knew I was going to do this because I'm mean XD. For anyone who wants to know the score of Atemu and Mana, right now it is; Atemu has 5 points and Mana has 4 points. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review!: