AUTHOR'S NOTES: One-shot. Written for the Anzu's Angels fanfiction contest theme about Anzu's thoughts on or while dancing. But I thought it'd be fun to throw these two characters together since I've never written them together before. Oh, and the stuff about Cold Stone is true - just a neat little trivia fact.

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Feel the music.

It was a principle that any good dancer adhered to. Let the music flow through one's body, let the rhythm wash everything else away. Any worries, any troubles or woes - all else should be cast aside until the only thing left was the melding of body and music into a perfect form of harmonious unity, a seamless flow of movement as the body became part of the music. It was a state of mind, a state of being that any dancer worth her salt should find as easy to slip into as soon as the music was turned on.

Unfortunately for Anzu, it wasn't that easy. Try as she might, she just couldn't reach that place she called the dancer's Zen; she hadn't been able to for the past week. And she laid the blame solely at one person's feet.

Seto Kaiba.

The jerk.

"Grrr," Anzu growled for the dozenth time.

She couldn't believe it. There she was with the all the space she could want to practice, thanks to the part-time job as an assistant she'd gotten at the local dance studio in exchange for lessons and private time, and she couldn't even get in a proper practice! And, worse, horror of all unbelievable horrors - she didn't even feel like dancing!

Frustration was in every step as she stalked over to the CD-player and reset it to the track she wanted. Though she didn't know why she even bothered with the way her practice was not going. That perfect place of harmonization she could usually achieve, that point where even the world seemed to fall away and left only her and the music, that ultimate plane that was the goal of any true dancer was, for her, utterly and hopelessly unattainable these days.

It was her own fault.

Well, his too. Definitely.

It had taken two of them to get into this mess, though she thought that she was the one the worse for wear. She didn't think Mr. Ice Prince would ever lose that coolly controlled facade of his even if Kaiba Corp. were to go bankrupt! God knows, he hadn't lost it during that last rip-roaring fight of theirs, though she had been the one roaring while he sliced with icily cutting words.

What had ever possessed her to go along with such crazy idea? Moreover, what kind of insanity had made her come up with such an asinine idea in the first place?

And why the hell had Kaiba agreed to it?

Considering that they were no longer on speaking terms - not that they'd ever been entirely friendly in the first place - that was a question she might never know the answer to. Though with the close-mouthed Kaiba, what else was new? He kept his thoughts and emotions to himself like a paranoid miser hoarded his money. She should've been used to it by now with all the contact she'd had with that particular trait of his over the past few weeks.

With a huff, Anzu crossed her arms and leaned back into the wall. She ignored the strains of music filtering from the CD-player as frustration had her face twisting into a scowl. She stared off blindly across the room and felt the least desire she'd ever had in her entire life about dancing.

Definitely all Kaiba's fault.

To her, dancing was all about the freeing emotions and letting the music take over. She loved dancing but, with this unshakable upset her life seemed to have taken recently, she just wasn't able to let herself go and fly with the music's flow as she normally would have. She was grounded - and she didn't like it.

How had a simple challenge gotten so out of hand?

Anzu couldn't place a finger on quite when it had happened. Maybe it was when she'd blown up at him again for insulting her friends, accused him of having such a cold heart that nobody aside from Mokuba would want to hang around him unless they were being paid. Though she'd regretted it as soon as the words had left her lips, it hadn't fazed him at all. He'd been quick with a rejoinder that had enraged her so much that she couldn't quite remember exactly what either of them had said afterwards through the red haze that clouded her mind. She did vaguely recall saying something foolish in the heat of anger in response to one of his put-downs, something along the lines of how it was hard to take his word concerning his date-ability without personally trying it out for herself.

Thinking back on it, contrary to that icy calm exterior of his, whatever she'd said must have had some sort of weird temporary mental de-habilitating effect on him as well because she could also remember that he had practically dared her to take up the challenge. And when she'd made an attempt to back off from the crazy dare, he had been the one who egged on her temper by calling her a coward until she had agreed!

Even remembering how the impossible situation came about, sometimes it was still hard to believe that it actually had. How many times had she pinched herself over the past weeks only to find out that, yes, it did hurt and, no, it wasn't a dream that she was dating the infamous Seto Kaiba?

Okay, so she wasn't really dating Kaiba.

Though she sort of was.

Did dating count when it wasn't really dating?

So confusing.

No matter how angry she had been, she should have at least retained enough common sense to keep her from agreeing to go along with such a crazy plan. Aside from the difficulties that came with keeping their temporary arrangement secret when one-half of the pair was a prime target for media hounds, there was the difficulties that came when two such opposite people were thrown together for any duration of time. She wasn't sure what effect she had on him, but she knew that she felt chafed and abraded after every 'date' with him. It was only aggravated by her strong suspicion that every word he ever said to her was actually designed to get a rise out of her for his perverse amusement, which made her angry and was one of the causes behind her last major blow-up at him.

Damn.

She hadn't even been able to make it through the promised month.

With that last fight of theirs, she had effectively called it quits. Although the fact that she hadn't lasted for the allotted time merely favored her in that it was only proof that Kaiba really couldn't sustain any relationship besides business, her more honorable side felt as if she'd cheated him somehow by bailing out before the full month was up.

Besides, it hadn't all been bad.

Though she felt kind of crazy for even thinking it, that didn't make it untrue. True, they sniped at each other like cats and dogs as per usual whenever they were thrown together for whatever reason. But at least it had been over a variety of other things besides duel monsters and testosterone-driven fights that often broke out amongst the male members of the group she usually hung out with. While any extended length of time spent in his presence frequently had her filled with frustration and feeling like knocking her head against a brick wall, she could never say she was bored.

However, now things were different. She couldn't concentrate, she couldn't dance, she couldn't do much of anything anymore it seemed. Feeling all out of sorts, even her usually emotionally thickheaded friends had noticed something off with her, if their frequent asking of whether she was alright was any indication.

Of course, she had waylaid their concerns and reassured them that she was fine. She could only imagine how they'd question her sanity were they to find out the true source of her troubles. She supposed that she should be grateful for the agreement between her and Kaiba to keep their arrangement a secret, but it did leave her without anyone she could seek advice from about this weird situation she found herself in. After all, she could hardly ask Kaiba about himself, now could she? The very idea was laughable.

Unfortunately, Anzu wasn't laughing.

Biting back another sigh, she decided to call it quits for the night and just head on home when a strange scratching sound snagged her hearing. Turning, her attention was caught by a patch of white on the wooden floor by the door. That hadn't been there before and she was quick to walk over and pick it up, wondering who left it. Opening the studio door, she peered around but found no one else in sight. Whoever it was, he or she had apparently made a quick getaway.

A glance at what was left behind showed her name scrawled across the envelope in her hand. Feeling a bit uneasy over the cloak-and-dagger mysteriousness of it all, it was with some trepidation that she opened the envelope. Somewhat relieved to spy the Kaiba Corp. letterhead at the top of the stationary, she spared a moment of entertainment at the instant image her mind dredged up of the rigid Kaiba unbending enough to skulk around a dance studio just to slide a letter under the door. It was such an out-of-character picture that she couldn't stay the laugh that bubbled up and escaped.

Common sense prevailed, however. It was much more likely that Kaiba had someone else do the dirty work and she felt a moment of pity for whomever he had ordered to perform such a silly task. And it was definitely Kaiba. If his name signed at the bottom wasn't indication enough, it was the brusque one-liner that was a dead giveaway.

Cold Stone Creamery, Roppangi Hills, eight o'clock tonight.

Now what could he want to see her for?

Irked by the high-handedness of the letter, Anzu wrathfully thought that the High and Almighty CEO needn't have bothered informing her of the location. Anyone who paid attention to the local news or gossip among high school girls knew about the new ice cream shop, the first to be placed in Japan by the American Arizona franchise, which opened earlier this November in the high-end Tokyo suburb of Roppangi Hills.

Truthfully, Anzu was curious about it, too. While she hadn't tried it out for herself yet, she'd heard interesting things about it. After all, it was the first she'd heard of an ice cream shop that had it's employees sing throughout the day and actually mix the ice cream and extra ingredients right in front of its customers! Plus, she heard that they offered guava ice cream and she wanted to sample it for herself.

Telling herself that she was certainly not obeying Kaiba's command or being a slave to her curiosity over what he wanted from her, she put her desire to swing by the shop down to her sudden craving for guava-flavored ice cream. She did have a powerful sweet tooth, after all, and what did it matter that it was late in the year with the frostiness of winter just a few nips away?

It was never too cold for ice cream.

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So where the heck was he?

Taking a lick of her ice cream cone and savoring the flavor of guava, she gave an irritated look at the clock on Cold Stone Creamery's wall. Having lost track of just how often she'd done that in the span of mere seconds, not much had changed. The clock still read the same.

Eight-fifteen.

If Kaiba dared stand her up after practically ordering her to come in the first place, she was going to ignore her plan to avoid him and storm into his office during his busiest time and give him an earful! Honestly, the nerve of the man!

So engrossed was she in contemplating just how she would take her revenge on the tardy Kaiba that she didn't notice the sudden rise of excitement in the air, or the surge of whispers and chatter around her. She was oblivious to it all until a familiar voice rang out in the air.

"Anzu! Look, Seto, there's Anzu!"

The cry had her looking around but it was the vision of a wide grin topped with big sparkling eyes and a mop of black hair that made her smile. She didn't know about anyone else, but Mokuba always had that effect on her and it never ceased to amaze her how someone so sweet could be the little brother of Seto Kaiba. Speaking of which, there was no mistaking that tall figure towering over Mokuba's smaller form.

And he was scowling out her.

What? He'd rather she not show up after he asked her to come?

Adding it onto the pile growing Kaiba mysteries, she was scowling herself by the time the two made their way over to her with Mokuba leading the way. Looking Kaiba straight in the eye, for Mokuba's sake she kept her tone and words as restrained as she could make them.

"You're late, Kaiba. And here I thought punctuality was a prerequisite for being a CEO."

A dark brow winged upwards. "What are you talking about?"

"Forget already? My, those business meetings must be short-circuiting your brain cells." With one hand, she slid the letter from her purse and waved it under his nose. "You know, if you go through all the trouble of tracking me down to the dance studio and having it slipped under the door telling me to meet you in such impolite tones, the least you can do is show up on time."

"I didn't write that."

"Oh, please." Anzu rolled her eyes. "If that's your attempt at humor, you need to work on it. If it's signed by you and has the Kaiba Corp. letterhead stamped all over it, it's from you."

"I didn't write that," he repeated, more impatiently this time.

"Yeah, right. If you didn't write it, then who did?"

Exchanging glares, realization hit both at the same time. As one, they turned to the only other person who would dare court the potential wrath of Seto Kaiba by forging his name in such an asinine stunt.

"Mokuba?" they both questioned, Anzu with bewilderment and Kaiba with obvious irritation. But it was for naught.

Mokuba was gone.

In the spot by Kaiba's side where the small form of a boy had stood was empty air and the gleam of newly laid tile. It was as clear a sign of guilt as any. And the culprit known as Mokuba had, no doubt, made good his escape on the heels of his dastardly scheming, though Anzu thought he was just delaying the inevitable. She didn't know why Mokuba had pulled such a prank, but she was fairly certain that he'd eventually receive a put-down by Kaiba once he caught up to his little brother.

"Well," was all Anzu found to say, feeling foolish sitting there with her guava ice cream.

"Is that all you have to say?" Kaiba snapped. "Never thought I'd see the day when you were at a loss for words."

"What do you want me to say?" Anzu snapped back, irritation suddenly riding her at his tone. "It's obviously your little brother that brought us together in the first- Hey, wait a second. Why would he go through all this trouble anyway?" She blinked. "Does he know? I mean, about us?"

"There is no 'us.' I think you made that more than clear last time."

Anzu flushed. "You know what I mean."

"Mokuba's a smart boy," Kaiba said in clipped tones. "He figured it out on his own."

"Ah."

There was that awkward silence again that descended between them. Looking anywhere but at him, her gaze darted around and uneasily noted the speculative glances and whispers directed at them. Feeling even more self-conscious, she took a lick at her cone where it was starting to drip due to her inattentiveness.

"So," she finally started, mainly to break the heavy silence hanging between them. "Mokuba didn't tell you I was going to be here, huh?"

"Obviously. Or did you somehow think I frequent such establishments on my own?"

Muscle twitching at his snide tone, she desperately tried to hold back her temper. "I guess he's trying to set us back up again then."

"Of course. Have you not been paying attention?"

That was it. She could only take so much.

Grappling with the urge to let loose and scream at him, part of her conscious of the fact that making a public scene was something she would definitely come to regret, she slowly got to her feet. Ice cream cone in one hand and strangling the strap of her purse with the other, she stood toe-to-toe with him and glared up into his eyes.

"Look, Kaiba. Aside from being anally retentive, I don't know what your problem is. I just came here because I thought - Well, never mind what I thought. Since being here together is obviously not our idea of a good time, it's probably best if we just leave and forget this little run-in ever happened."

She turned on her heel, prepared to storm out and do just that, when something in her had her turning almost immediately right back. Knowing she'd regret it if she didn't do it - hadn't it been bothering all along, after all? - she gave him a slight, albeit stiff, apologetic bow.

"I'm sorry I bailed out on you before the month was up. And for those harsh things I said last time, I don't expect you to forgive me, but I'm sorry for that too."

Apology given, she left him behind and didn't look back. In fact, she had just cleared the doors to the shop amidst stares and whispers when she felt a sudden ominous prickling at the back of her neck. Before she even thought to look back and pinpoint the source, it announced itself in biting tones.

"Guava ice cream? Really, Mazaki. I thought you had better taste."

Great. Her problems were still following her.

"On second thought, I take that back. Plebian tastes are what they are, after all."

"Is there a reason why you're shadowing me, Kaiba? Or are you just trying to inflict more torture upon me with the displeasure of your presence? I thought we said all there was to say."

"I don't know how you reached such an egotistical conclusion."

"Egotistical?" she spluttered and stopped dead in her tracks, eyes narrowing at a smirking Kaiba. "What?"

"I'm just amazed at your inflated sense of self-worth. If I recall correctly, you were the only one who had your say. So where you got the idea that this was over, it's with extreme pleasure that I get to inform you otherwise."

"What are you talking about?"

"That guava slowing down your thought processes? I'm talking about our contract. Don't think you'll worm out of it so easily."

"What contract? I never signed anything."

"Come now. You're not that stupid."

"What!"

"Surely you realize a verbal contract is just as binding as a written one."

"Well, yes. But-"

"And our original arrangement was set for a month's worth of time, correct?"

"Yeah, but-"

"And you agreed to seeing out the full time of said arrangement, right?"

"Actually, that's not quite-"

"Yes or no. No quibbling the in-betweens."

"Yes," she finally bit out. "And I'll have you know that it's quite rude to interrupt someone who's talking!"

"Don't change the subject."

"I'm not!"

"Diversionary tactics are useless."

There was that head-against-brick-wall feeling again. Giving up, she heaved an exasperated sigh. With Seto Kaiba as the opponent, a wise person should pick and choose the battles he or she wanted to win with care. Otherwise, an ulcer or migraine was imminent in the not-so-far future.

"Fine. Just say what you want to say, Kaiba. I need to be getting home."

"It won't take long. I'm just letting you know that I fully expect you to uphold your end of the bargain."

"It beats me why you would. One would think you'd be sick of me already."

"Oh, I am. You're perkiness is annoying and highly overrated."

"Great," Anzu practically snarled. "Then why the big stink over keeping me around?"

"A contract is a contract. And it saves me the trouble of breaking-in a replacement tool."

"Tool!"

"Constantly sifting through the barrels of gold-diggers for a date when I won't want her around beyond the next charity function is a trial I'd rather not have to put up with. At least you're trainable."

Trainable? Her?

Ready to rip into him with her outrage, the slight twitching of his lips into an even more annoying smirk halted her just her before she tumbled headlong into his trap. Damn the man - he was deliberately baiting her! Well, she wasn't going down without a fight!

"Really?" Anzu mused slyly. "Are you sure it isn't the other way around?"

He slid her a suspicious glance.

"Maybe that's just what I want you to think, Kaiba. So wouldn't that mean the one being trained is...you?"

"In your dreams, Mazaki. Constant contact with the dweebs is giving you delusions of grandeur."

Ignoring the snide reference to her friends - she'd never stop fighting with him if she didn't - she gave him a bland smile. "If that's what you want to think, Kaiba. I'm willing to humor you."

"Enough with your paltry attempts at humor." Irritation was rife in his expression. "Just know that I fully expect you to comply to the terms of our arrangement."

She spent some time thinking about it but, in the end, shrugged it off. She could concede; she'd felt bad about being the one to cut it short in the first place. And, maybe, if she saw it through until the end, she could finally go back to dancing with a free heart. Not that she'd ever tell him that; his ego was overblown enough as it was. She shuddered to think what it would be like if he knew that he'd had enough of an influence on her to make her stop doing what she loved to do most in the world. Silence on the subject was definitely the best way to go.

"Okay, Kaiba. Have it your way."

"You agree? Without a fight?"

Pleased at the wary way he regarded her, she nodded. "Yep. One more week, wasn't it?"

"Two."

"Oh?" she inquired innocently. "Two weeks would make it more than the agreed upon month, wouldn't it?"

"Nice try, Mazaki. But that week of hiatus doesn't count. I'm adding it on to your sentence."

Sentence. Like she'd be doing time in jail. Well, she'd had enough experience being in his company to know that's exactly how it would feel at times. Amused by it, she just chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing."

"You were never good at lying."

She just shrugged. "Shouldn't you be getting back to your limo?"

"Mokuba confiscated it during his getaway."

"Ah. How sad. You're reduced to the plebian mode of transportation."

"Just eat your ice cream and walk."

"No hardship there. It's actually pretty good. Want a taste?" She waved what was left of her ice cream and grinned at the pleasure of seeing him grimace.

"That's unhygienic."

"Come on. Live dangerously," she mocked. "Or are you scared of a little lick?"

His eyes narrowed.

"Hmm, or maybe it's the guava? Is it? Does the great Seto Kaiba have a guava-phobia?"

"Give me that."

Feeling oddly victorious when he snatched the cone from her hand and gave it a cautious lick, she wondered again what his childhood had been like. If his present rigidness was anything to go by, it must have been rough despite the rich fancy trappings and it wasn't the first time that she thought he needed to relive pieces of the childhood that she suspected he never had.

"So?" asked when he handed the cone back. "What do you think?"

"It's tolerable."

She just smiled at his typical response. "How far do you intend on walking with me anyway?"

"Until you're home."

"Woah. You know that's still a long way off - there's no way I'm walking that far!"

"It's getting late and I'm not leaving a lone woman walking around at this time of the night. How did you get here if you didn't walk?"

"Bus. And I really can't picture you riding on one with me."

"That's because I'm not."

"Then what was with that bit about not leaving a woman alone?" she asked, but she might as well have been talking to thin air. Kaiba was already at the side of the street and flagging down a taxicab.

Figures.

In contrast to their brief walk, the cab ride was made in silence. Kaiba sat with arms crossed and eyes staring fixedly ahead, concealing whatever thoughts he might be thinking with his usual aplomb. It was, however, an oddly comfortable silence made uncomfortable for Anzu only by her self-consciousness over the sounds that came with polishing off the rest of her ice cream cone within the otherwise quiet cab, the muffled outside street noise excluded.

Happy to be home once the taxi pulled up in front of her house, she got out and turned to the still seated Kaiba. She managed a friendly smile in the face of his fathomless expression.

"Thanks for the ride. And...I guess I'll see you later." Starting to feel fidgety again, she added, "Good night."

She turned around, ready to make her way those last few feet home. But she'd barely taken a step when his authoritative voice had her freezing her in her tracks.

"Friday night, semi-formal. Seven o'clock."

The cab door slammed shut and the vehicle rolling down the road before she could even form a reply. Shaking her head as she gazed after the disappearing taillights, she gave an exasperated huff at his usual brusque high-handedness.

"Same old, same old," she whispered beneath her breath.

Odd how the thought made her smile. Even weirder - she was actually looking forward to it!

She shook her head again, this time over herself and her strange behavior. Hopefully, things would go back to being normal for them. Though it was hard to say because nothing about their situation could really be called completely normal. It had her wondering just what it all meant and where things would wind up in the long run.

Or two weeks.

Who knew what would happen then?

It was impossible to predict how everything would eventually turn out. While the carefree part of her looked forward to the adventure, her more studious side worried over what nameless problems that would indelibly crop up. One only had to look at the turn of events so far, which just had her puzzling once again at what had originally made her agree to go along with this crazy agreement and determined to stick to it.

Or what had made Seto Kaiba agree to it, too.

It wasn't love.

At least, she didn't think it was, was positive that it wasn't. In fact, she didn't think it could turn out to be that even later down the road. The idea was insane, after all, and she was certain any number of people would just bust a gut laughing at the mere thought of two such unlikely people paired up together romantically.

Though there was the niggling thought that she'd been wrong before - it definitely wouldn't be the first time - in the end, it didn't really matter. None of it did. For better or worse, all felt right with the world as if something out of balance had finally been shifted into its proper place. Heart feeling lighter than it had for what seemed a very long time, she thought of the coming days and started to hum happily the rest of the way home.

She finally felt like dancing again.