Pairing: AnzuxYugi

Note: For SamCyberCat, who gave me the mood prompt contemplative. Uses dub dialogue and Japanese names at the start, but it gave the fic a good spring-board start.

Smudge

"Isn't he cute when he's thinking?"

That was what Honda had once said as he proceeded to grind his knuckles in Jounouchi's head. And Anzu found herself thinking the same thing as she sat, resting her chin in one cupped palm, and watched Yugi as he worked his mind hard to solve the last maths problem in front of him. As he concentrated, his eyebrows dipped down, making his skin crease ever so slightly around his nose. The light from the lamp near him amplified those tiny wrinkles. Yugi rested his chin in one hand, just like Anzu was. In his other hand he clutched the blue biro pen he had been using throughout the mental arithmetic homework. What Anzu found particularly adorable was the way he chewed lightly on the end of the cheap plastic.

It was odd, she thought to herself. It was a habit that she found annoying when she saw other people doing it in class. But the difference was that most of those people were bored. Perhaps it was combined with the fact that Yugi was thinking so hard that made it rather cute.

And the final maths problem was hard. Anzu knew that as she had just finished her own moments ago. She had tried to give Yugi a hand. That was part of the point of them deciding to study together after all. But he had politely refused.

Anzu wondered how many of her classmates might give up and use a calculator. How many of them would get caught out somehow by the teacher?

Yugi's eyebrows suddenly shot up.

"I've got it!"

With a burst of enthusiasm, Yugi leaned forward and began scribbling on his paper. As he jotted down the sums that would lead to the final answer, he leaned closer and closer into his homework until his nose was almost brushing the page.

He wrote down the final answer, replaced the pen lid and set it down with an immense feeling of accomplishment.

"Done!"

Anzu, looking at the homework now that Yugi's hair was no longer in the way, smiled. "It's the same answer I got. Well do-"

Looking up, her sentence was effectively cut off when she saw a large streak of blue ink running down from Yugi's lower lip.

"Yugi! Look what you did when you chewed your pen."

"What?" Yugi blinked and ran his thumb all around his mouth. Glancing down at it, he saw a smudge of blue and smiled somewhat nervously. "Oops."

"We'd better get that cleaned up," said Anzu as she got up. As she passed Yugi, she took hold of his wrist and gave it a gentle tug. He got the message and obediently followed her to the bathroom. It was quite a small room, but still managed to assist in the hygiene of a young boy and his grandfather.

Turning on the cold tap of the sink, Anzu took Yugi's flannel and held it under the flowing water. She knew which one it was as she very much doubted that Sugoroku had a flannel with a cartoon dog on it when there was also a plain dark blue one as well.

Yugi perched obediently on the edge of the bathtub and watched as Anzu turned off the tap and began to wring the flannel between her hands. It was typical Anzu really, he thought with a smile. Always the one who carried a small plaster in her bag should anyone trip and scrape their knee, or know how to stitch up a tear, or would encourage him, somehow knowing that he was about to give up on a homework question. It was behaviour that many would call motherly. But Yugi had never really thought of it like that. It was ... well, it was Anzu.

He was taken out of those thoughts when Anzu began to rub the damp flannel down his chin, frowning ever so slightly in her concentration as she worked on removing the stain. It didn't take very long, something that he assumed was because they had got to it right away.

"There," Anzu smiled, holding the flannel away from his face. "Much better." She ran an outstretched finger over the ever-so-slightly red skin. That was replaced by her lips. A slightly tilt of his head was all that was needed for Yugi to meet her kiss.

"Yugi!" came a sudden cry from downstairs, surprising them both to the extent of making their bodies jolt. "I'm back from Arthur's! Oh! Is Anzu here too?"

"Yes, grandpa," Yugi called. As slightly annoyed as he felt, he was glad to see that Anzu seemed amused. At least he was fairly sure that the hand across her mouth was concealing a smile. All the same, he said to her: "I'll have a word with him about his timing."

END