Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or situations involved in this fanfic, and am not making any profit whatsoever off of it.
Story Title: Cold
Characters: Mazaki Anzu, Malik Ishtar
Romance: Malik x Anzu
Story Word Count: 2,317
Timeline: About ten years or so after the Ceremonial Duel.
Notes: Since Japan uses the celsius measurements, I used that for the temperature listing here. Twenty-three degrees celsius is about seventy degrees Fahrenheit.
Summary: Malik thinks his friends are crazy, wanting to go play basketball in the bitter cold. Anzu stays with him, though her cold fears are slightly different.

Normally, Malik appreciated weather of all kinds. Despite having lived aboveground for nearly ten years now, the fact he had spent the early part of his life without seeing or feeling sun or wind or rain was unforgettable. But it would take quite a bit longer for him to really learn to appreciate the bitter, biting cold that was Domino City in springtime. After all, he'd only lived there for a few months.

What confused him, just a little, was how no one else seemed to realize just how cold it was. They were going around in shirt-sleeves! All he could bring himself to do was stare in disbelief. He didn't want to ask if they were crazy. Coming from him, what could anyone say to that, anyway? He had been crazy, once upon a time. A split personality and everything.

But, he reassured himself, at least while his dark side had wanted to kill everyone and destroy everything in the world, he had at least known to keep the thermostat properly turned up. He had been crazy, but he liked to think that he had never been stupid.

"Hey, Malik!" Jounouchi called over to him, bringing him out of the near-reverie that he'd been in, staring out of the window of his apartment. Sure, it looked nice outside, but that was just a trick of the weather. "We're going to go out and play some basketball or something, since it's turned so nice. Want to come?"

Malik only stared. He could not have heard that. No one with the least amount of sense was going to be going outside in conditions like this, were they? "Are you all insane?" Asking that question of these people was somehow different than he had thought it would be. He wasn't sure of how. Just that it was. "It's got to be twenty-three degrees out there!" He glanced at the little thermometer he'd installed outside of his window and nodded; that was just about what it was.

Honda shook his head, staring at him a little. Though no one was actually laughing at him, which was definitely to the good. "It's great out there! Come on!"

"No, thanks." Malik shook his head stubbornly. They could go out and catch their death of cold all they wanted. He wasn't going to be that crazy. "You go have fun. I'm going to stay right here."

He tugged on the warm pale violet sweater that he wore, making sure that it covered him completely. It had been a gift from Isis on his last birthday, and he wore it whenever he could. She and Rishid were planning to come visit as soon as their respective jobs permitted them to. He admitted without hesitation that he missed them. Even with the cold weather in spring, he enjoyed living on his own here. But that didn't meant that he didn't think about them and want to see them whenever he could.

Everyone else started out, chattering happily about what they could play and where. The apartment complex was big enough to have several areas that they could do just about anything with. They didn't all live there, but Honda lived a couple of floors above him, and Anzu lived in another one of the buildings, which would give them all the access that they would need to do anything.

He considered trying to find a warm place that he could watch them from. There were places that they could have played basketball in that were indoors, roofed, and quite warm, but he didn't think they were going to go to one of those. That wasn't quite what his luck was like. They'd want to be outside, in the fresh, cold, air, and he was, on the whole, far more willing to listen to what they'd done later, and perhaps have some hot chocolate while he found something good to read.

"Uh." He turned at the sudden and unexpected voice. Anzu was still there, one hand twitching a bit nervously as she sat in her chair. She had been very quiet throughout most of the visit, though she had greeted him cheerfully enough when they'd all come over. Since the three of them, he, her, and Honda, lived so close, it had become almost a custom for them to gather at one apartment or the other, with Yuugi or Otogi turning up now and then, and Jounouchi finding his way over more than once. In some ways, he felt closer to her than almost any of the others. It wasn't that they talked more, because they didn't. There was just something that seemed to bind them a bit more tightly than any of the others.

She fidgeted again and smiled up at him, though he thought it looked a trifle forced. "You don't mind if I stay with you, do you? I don't think it's all that cold. I just think I could be catching cold." She didn't quite sniffle, but who was he to judge if a person was sick or not? About all he knew about colds was to give orange juice and tissues.

"I don't mind." It would have been rude to tell her to get out, after all. Malik had long since had enough of being rude to people, especially those he had hurt once upon a time. He tried to think of some way he could help her and the only thing that occurred was what he already knew that he knew. "Would you like some orange juice or something?"

She smiled a bit, startling him as much as it warmed him. He had never reacted like that to one of her smiles. Not that he could remember her smiling at him like that before…

He shook his head a touch and headed quickly into the kitchen to get her orange juice. Pouring a glass for each of them, he headed back to her, trying not to think too much about anything in particular. He'd thought he was comfortable enough hanging out with any of his friends. They were his friends, the first ones that he'd ever had, and the best. He'd hurt more than one of them, and in the end, they all had forgiven him to some degree or other. Jounouchi could still be irksome on occasion, but Malik had eventually figured out that was because of the blond's nature to hold grudges. Hearing a story about someone called 'Hirutani' had made him quite glad that Jounouchi had mellowed out a bit over the years. The thought of getting glass thrown in his eyes wasn't too appealing.

"Here you go," he said, setting the glass down before her and settling into another chair with his own. When the whole group had been there, he hadn't felt too completely obliged to talk to anyone in particular, but now that it was just the two of them, he wasn't going to just let her sit there and stare at the walls. Besides, talking to her was interesting in and of itself. "I'm sorry I couldn't make it to your last performance." His job had demanded a few extra hours from him, and he had needed the money just enough to go in.

She shrugged and smiled a bit as she sipped at her juice. "It's all right. There are other shows." He wasn't sure if she were just being polite or if she meant it. But he would take what she said at face value for right now.

"Was there some other reason you didn't want to go out there?" he asked after a quiet, nervous moment or two. He wasn't sure just what he meant by that, but it made for a topic of conversation, at least.

She smiled briefly before she set the glass back down. "It's kind of an old joke. A long time ago, when we were in high school, we'd play basketball during recess. Since the school uniforms had skirts for girls, the guys…would be guys, and whenever they passed the ball to the girls, they were just doing it so they could get a chance to look at their underwear. It kind of put me off doing anything like that." She smoothed the leg of her casual slacks some. "Even though I'm not wearing a school uniform anymore, it just kind of got to be a habit. Especially if Jounouchi and Honda are around. Those two are never going to grow up."

Malik could not quite wrap his head around treating anyone like that, even as a joke. Yes, he'd been a cruel, hateful bastard, and he would have been the first to admit it. But living with Isis as the only female he had known for the early part of his life, and having to live with his mother having died to bring him into the world, had instilled a deep respect for females in him. He shifted about uncomfortably. He had no idea of what he could say about that. He decided on a quick change of subject instead.

"Have you read that new novel of Bakura's yet?" Both of them shared a taste for their old friend's literary works, and they had exchanged copies more than once. He wasn't entirely certain if half of the ones currently on his shelves had been bought by her or him at the moment.

She brightened up at that, and nodded quickly, leading into a deep discussion of the plot and the characters. Not that there was a great deal of either; most of Bakura's novels were cheesy romances, but many times he managed to insert something that made them stand out, given his flair for the supernatural. He liked the dark side of them, she liked the sweet love that all but flowed off the pages.

Talking about Bakura's works could only take them so long, though. Malik was vaguely aware that there were things being said that weren't being said vocally. He wasn't sure what was meant by any of that, either. But he could not deny that it interested and somewhat excited him. As silence fell between them, he tried to think of something else they could do together. Just talking wasn't going to stay amusing forever.

Going out, at least to stay out there, was out of the question. Too cold for him, and she wasn't feeling well. But maybe they could go somewhere else?

"Anzu…would you like to go see a movie with me?" It was the first thing that really came to mind. Even as he said the words, he thought about how cold those theaters tended to be. That wouldn't be good for her or him, would it?

But she was already answering before he had a chance to take the question back. "That sounds good. There's a couple of new ones out I haven't had a chance to see yet. Did you want to see something in particular?"

Malik shook his head; any movies were good for him. His DVD collection was probably one of the most extensive of all their circle of friends, rivaled only by his book collection. "We can decide when we get there? Um…did you want to go tonight?" Since everyone else was busy freezing their rear ends off, he figured it was as good a time as any, if she really wanted to go.

Anzu glanced over at the clock, then back towards him. "Sure. That orange juice helped, I'm feeling a lot better. Thanks." Then she hesitated briefly. "But what about you? You know that theaters are cold."

"I was thinking the same thing…" Maybe they could just stay home and put something in the DVD player? That wouldn't be such a bad idea. But the idea of going out with Anzu had taken root in his brain.

Exactly what else going out could mean, however, sneakily kept avoiding being spied by the spotlight of his intellect. He was, perhaps, happier that way.

"Well…you could wear another sweater, if it's that bad? Or take a jacket. I've worn jackets into theaters before." Anzu suggested. He considered; that would probably work out well enough. And if it didn't…

The thought that might have led to deftly avoided being thought about as well. But the brief mental image of his arm around Anzu certainly was pleasant to admire for a moment, even though he wasn't quite certain of why. If he wanted to stay warm, shouldn't hers have been around him? Not that that image was unpleasant either.

But he still decided to take his favorite jacket along. The closest theater had a shopping area near it, so even if they were early for a showing, they'd have something to keep them occupied. And his stomach was rumbling a little; eating before the movie might be a good idea. "What do you think of getting a little food first?" He started to fire up his laptop to check the times so they'd know just how to work this out.

"I was just in the mood for some ramen, now that you mention it." Anzu smiled, and once again, everything seemed to warm inside of him at that smile.

Malik eyed the times listed on the website, then decided they had enough time to eat no matter what they were going to go see. Plenty of time, in fact, and they could do a little shopping as well. It was almost a perfect set up for…

Again, his mind easily swerved from the thought, so smoothly that he didn't even notice it had been there in the first place. He told Anzu his estimations and she nodded a little, an eager gleam in her eye. "I like the sound of that. Let's get going!"

Malik shut down his laptop and smiled a bit. The afternoon was quite looking up.

And that was just the beginning.

The End