Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ You, Revisited ❯ Want You To Remember ( Chapter 2 )

You, Revisited

Chapter 2: Want You To Remember

I want you to remember
A love so full it could send us all ways
I want you to surrender
All my feelings rose today…

…The chemicals between us
The walls that lie between us…

…The chemicals displaced
There is no lonelier state
Than lying in this bed…

From: Chemicals Between Us - Bush

"Excuse me."

Anzu smiled at Duke and Shizuka as she left. They nodded at her and continued their tête-à-tête. She had listened and commented infrequently but she had not been an integral part of the conversation and her loss would not greatly detract from it. She knew this. Anzu also knew that Shizuka and Duke had more to talk about together than with her. Those two - and Honda - had been a close trio, much like Yugi, Joey and herself.

She took a long drink of her wine, heading in the general direction of the Ladies' room. What she was going to do in there she had no idea, but it was as good a place to hide as any. And she knew she would have to find a secure hiding spot. For wherever Shizuka Katsuya was, Seto Kaiba was sure to be soon after. And he was not someone she wanted to run into.

Quite suddenly she bumped into a tall figure and was infinitely glad that her glass was empty. At all costs, she wanted to avoid a scene. She murmured a quick "sorry" and hurried on, not paying attention to who the recipient of her apology was. However, just before she passed him, she caught a whiff of his cologne. She paused in mid-stride before shaking her head and continuing on.

She remembered Safari all too well.

"Where were you hiding all night?"

Seto watched his fiancée's pink, diamond-crusted heels dangling from her fingers as she walked across the room. They had been a gift from him to her - one of many engagement presents. Of course, she had chosen them; they were pink. And he really, really, really hated that colour. Why couldn't she like some other, more bearable colour? Like blue?

Seto supposed he was nitpicking. He was born on the cusp of Virgo, after all. But he was very much a Leo in other respects. Tangent point. The fact of the matter was; he was trying to find fault with his fiancée.

He sat down on the edge of his bed, undid his cufflinks and then turned, handing them to her to put in their mutual jewellery box. It was an arrangement they had set up after realising that it benefited them both. Neither wanted to lose as much as they had on their first trip together.

"I wasn't hiding," he said, responding to her question that had been hanging unanswered.

"Well, you should have hung around at least for a little while before disappearing," she countered, "You missed something big."

Seto knew exactly what she was talking about. He was not, however, going to acknowledge that he did. He made a made a barb about, "What? The dancing red dragons? They were everywhere."

Shizuka shot him a reproachful look before saying, "No, bigger and much more important. I found someone - two `someones', in fact. Duke was there."

Devlin first? This was new. Seto raised an eyebrow but said nothing, waiting for her to continue. She did.

"And - now this is the icing on the cake - Anzu. I mean," she paused, fiddling with her earring, "when was the last time you saw Anzu Mazaki in person? The Anzu Mazaki."

Kaiba's eyebrow was getting a lot of exercise lately. "Since when did she become `the Anzu Mazaki'?"

The look that he received made him feel distinctly ignorant and renewed the irritation he had left with, which had never really subsided in the first place. Shizuka was going to drive him crazy. What had he missed?

"The Anzu Mazaki is only one of the most successful dancers in Japan. And, in case you didn't know, oh-beloved-fiancé, she is the Anzu Mazaki who was - and is - one of my brother's best friends."

"What a repertoire."

"Stop being so bloody sarcastic, Seto." She was practically yanking her hair out of its complicated style as an outlet to her fury. "I'm just happy to see her, okay? She's my friend and she's really done a lot with herself. You know; if maybe you just took one minute off of degrading them for being friends with each other and actually looked at them for who they were, you might actually like them! You might -"

"Go to bed, Shizuka."

"What?"

Seto sighed, his ears hurting. "Go to bed, Shizuka. You can rant in the morning."

Her face took on an incredulous expression that didn't astound Seto remotely. She shook her head as though trying to dispel some unwanted thought. Finally working up a voice out of her disbelief, she said, "Sometimes I wonder about you Seto Kaiba. Really I do."

Then she slammed the adjoining door between them and Seto swore he heard the lock click. Not that it mattered; he was thankful that she had done it for him. A slow, rueful smile crept onto his face as his thoughts ventured quickly from his pissed fiancée.

"She really is the icing on the cake, isn't she?"

Anzu Mazaki walked slowly into her flat, draped her purse over the sofa and continued into her bedroom, flicking on lights as she went. She was still frazzled from the whole experience the night had turned out to be. She had seen him just before she had stepped into her limo with Duke. He was waiting for Shizuka to get into theirs.

Taking off her jewellery piece by piece, she moved back out into the living room and switched on the television. Sure enough, there she was. She shook her head at the assumptions being made about her relationship with Devlin wondering why friendship was such an impossible, unbelievable thing in the world of the rich and famous. Anzu peeled herself out of her forest green gown and slipped into an oversized, yellow t-shirt. She knew she wasn't going to sleep. Not with him still on her mind. So she settled onto the couch and paid sporadic attention to what was being said on the television.

Then it happened. Shizuka hadn't mentioned anything about it but there it was on national television.

Scowling viciously Anzu glared at the television. It was a nasty habit she had picked up a few years ago - around the time she had been with him. Now the television spoke of him and his fiancée who, by chance, just happened to be one of her old best friends. Not exactly what she had pictured for her and her first love when they had started out. This was NOT her love story. It couldn't be.

At twenty-three years old, Anzu was far beyond where she though she would be professionally. She made it through the Tokyo Dance Institution as one of the top dancers in their graduating class and had also come out as one of their best Literature students. Currently, she was dancing a lead in TDT - the Tokyo Dance Theatre.

To most, she was happy. She was rich, famous, and (some seemed to think) beautiful. What more could she want in life? What a laugh.

She couldn't be happy without - she wasn't supposed to be - she was supposed to be - Damn it! She was supposed to be Shizuka! It was meant to be her at his side, her face behind his eyelids, her everything in his heart, her body in his arms, in his bed… Oh how she missed his arms…

God, she could not be doing this to herself! It robbed her of her sleep, which robbed her of her health, and her career depended on her health. And her career mattered. One thing that she had done was: make it on her own. But with him being in Tokyo now, especially with Shizuka, she knew they were bound to run into each other. Shizuka would be sure to make the effort, the slut.

No…she could not think that way. She had no right to blame the spilt on anyone but the two of them. She was mature enough to realise that she was as much at fault as he was. But Shizuka knew. Anzu had all but bloody well told her once. And yet, that little whore still had the gall to … to sleep with (understatement of the decade) her boyfriend! Some friend.

Stop Anzu. This was exactly what she had sworn not to think.

The memories were starting to haunt her. Her obsession with this already-over relationship was becoming unnatural. Painfully, she recalled when she'd found out about the little tryst…

"Wake up, sleepyhead." Wrapped only in a white cotton sheet, Anzu perched precariously on the edge of his bed and blew in his ear. He groaned and rolled onto his stomach, pulling the covers taut across his lean legs. She smiled wickedly, this was what she had aimed to do last night: wear him out completely. Apparently, she'd succeeded.

"Darling," she said, stressing the word for it was one she was averse to actually using, "Breakfast is ready."

"Is it worth it?" he drawled. Anzu could hear the mischief in his voice even when he wasn't fully awake. She admired the toned upper body that was fully exposed to her hungry eyes then bent over, making sure that her chest was pressed against him and whispered:

"Maybe…" She could feel him smile.

"Does that come with a side-dish of Shizuka?" Total cessation. Complete shut down. Ice cold.

"Excuse me?"

Swallowing thickly, Anzu got up, grabbed a Frappacino, and made her way out onto her terrace. She uncorked quickly and downed about half of the low-fat beverage in one gulp. Then she stared at the bottle and scowled. Another of his bad habits she'd picked up…this caffeine addiction.

Unable help the tear that escaped her, Anzu finished off her drink much more slowly. The constant buzz of the television that was still going back inside her apartment continued to speculate about their wedding plans, which were to finally be discussed…after two and a half years. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Anzu couldn't help hoping that maybe he'd put the wedding off because he hoped for reconciliation between them. Promptly, she brushed it aside as illogical.

But their love had been full, happy, wholesome and…absolutely perfect. At least, they had started that way…

"Seto Kaiba! Stop being such a stiff," she ordered, smiling. "You put the `right' in Rightist."

It was the one of those times of the month they saw each other for the people they truly were and not as people on opposing sides.

It had started as a coincidence; they'd both turned up at the docks at the same time. She was there because it was the anniversary of the day he'd saved her from almost certain death. He was simply there. She'd suddenly thanked him after three months of silence and one thing had led to another and suddenly, every month, for one day, they were friends.

Recently, however, their clandestine meetings were becoming more and more frequent. They called each other more frequently. Her parents knew, of course, that she had a friend named Seto who they assumed to be just like Yugi or Joey or Honda. And, for those six months, Anzu had thought so too.

When, though, when they were meeting at least once a week, calling each other almost everyday if only for ten minutes, when she dreaded the end of her evenings with him and awaited the next with bated breath, when she felt like she was going to pieces each time they walked away from each other and wanted only to wrap her arms around him to keep him there a moment longer, when she thought that what they had was beginning to sound a lot like a relationship, she finally began to think that maybe - just maybe - she had feelings other than friendship for the CEO…

"And you put the `beauty' in Beautiful." That was a compliment if she'd ever heard one from him. With him practically whispering it in her ear, she couldn't help but blush. She waved him off, taking a drink of water. This was extremely odd behaviour, especially for him.

"You're simply trying to worm your way out of this one," she retorted when she had liquid in her dry mouth. She smiled and glanced at the door behind her as it opened. "Or you're drunk. Either way, it won't work."

She blinked when she turned back and his face was less than an inch from hers.

"Won't it?" His voice was quieter, deeper, and almost husky. It was most definitely sexy. She shook her head, eyes closed. That was, until she was summarily stopped by his lips on hers. For someone as reticent as he was supposed to be, he was an extremely skilled man. His kiss was slow and coaxing at first but soon became hungrier, more intense, and much more delightful.

It had been evident all of that night: the electricity, the tension. That kiss was a slow chain explosion of each little movement and look that had left its own mine of desire. When they broke apart, Anzu was hard pressed to remember how to breathe.

She opened her mouth to ask what he had meant by that but she was preceded.

"I don't know," he admitted, his midnight eyes dark and voice ragged like his breathing, "but I'm willing to give it a try."

"So am I."

He'd smiled, kissed her again and she didn't think there was anything better in the world.

Remembering that it was exactly three years to the date of their split, Anzu decided to distribute some goodwill. She smiled bitterly thinking, it was an anniversary present. Attempting to be the good person so many believed her to be, Anzu tried her best to make her whispered wish sincere…

"Be happy, Seto."

Too bad it wasn't.

Author's Note: I'll admit it: I'm a cheater. This chapter is only out so quickly because…it was mostly stolen from something I'd already written and never posted. But I hope it's worth it.

On a side note, I have nothing against the Chinese; I just thought a little Seto Sarcasm would be funny.

Also, my beta, Meena, the Meaner, said she really hated the way Anzu found out about Seto's infidelity but then we thought, hey, it's gives them a real reason to break up. But I will explain why that happened and why Seto was unfaithful in the first place.

Again, don't sweat it! If anyone knows me, they'll know the final outcome of the pairings from now. I'm kind of a diehard.

Disclaimer (for series): I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh and make no profit off this piece of fiction.

Disclaimer (for song): I do not own the song Chemicals Between Us by Bush. The lyrics are reprinted without permission and, once again, I make no profit off their use. But I highly recommend this song. Even thought the CD, The Science of Things was, IMHO, a complete flop; this song was its saving grace.

LEAVE A REVIEW PLEASE! ANYTHING IS GREATLY APPRECIATED. HOWEVER, CONSTRUCIVE CRITISM WILL BE TAKEN IN BETTER STRIDE THAN FLAMES.