7- Negotiations von Gravitas ================================================================================ Kapitel 1: Mai -------------- “So.“   You lick the last of your chocolate cake from your fork and place it on the tiny plate, where it makes a strangely audible click, before leaning back into the booth and turning to Anzu.   “Tell me, what are you gonna do about this Kaiba thing?”   She can’t be totally surprised, after all, it’s not the first time that you brought up this topic. But she blushes anyway and suddenly seems extremely interested in the raindrops forming tiny, criss-crossing rivers on the window to her right.   “Nothing. I like the way things are. Not everything has to turn into a super serious ‘let’s move in together and plan our lives and have kids’ situation.”   Really? She could at least pretend to come up with a better derailing tactic. It’s not like you’re some sort of stuffy, matchmaking aunty.   “Come on, Anzu, you know me better than that. I don’t care how the two of you handle the details of your relationship. I just, you know, think you should admit that you have one. It’s obvious that you like each other, and you see each other all the time. It’s not like you can pretend like you’re just casual hookup friends forever. What are you going to do when one of you gets hurt? Quit your job and stop hanging out with your oldest friend? Because I don’t see Kaiba breaking off contact with his brother, and him and Yugi are kind of a package deal now.”   You know she knows you’re right, and she probably knows you know it. At least the way she plays with her necklace and sweeps her fringe away from nowhere near her eyes suggests that she’s out of good excuses.   “Fine. What do you want me to say? I may have a tiny crush on him. But you know how he is. He doesn’t do girlfriends. Besides, I can do without tabloids calling me a dirty gold digger.”   “Please. Like some of them don’t already do that. And like anyone actually cares that much anymore. It’s not like he’s constantly in the news like he was when he was an active duelist.”   You give a grateful nod to the waitress who picks up your empty plates, and absent-mindedly stir your cappuccino. It’s true that some tabloids have tried finding a story on Anzu and Kaiba in the past, when they obviously had more pages than news items. But being his only close female confidante will do that. Hell, they’ve also tried it with a few of the guys he works with, especially after Mokuba’s Coming Out. You’re not even sure if anyone actually knows Anzu is sleeping with him, they probably just assumed.   “I don’t even know how I’d bring it up”, she finally says into the silence that has fallen between you. “I mean, that would probably involve us talking about how exclusive we are and all of that… and I’m not sure I’m ready to have the ‘Hey, by the way, I’ve been casually sleeping with two of my best friends’ conversation with him.”   That really is hard to imagine. But it’s not like Kaiba’s overly concerned with outdated ideas of purity and propriety. He can probably deal with the knowledge that Anzu had other partners. Even if it was while she was sleeping with him. Unless…   “So, what, he can handle having a gay brother, but not a bi girlfriend?”   You wouldn’t have taken him for that kind of a person, but people can be irrational when it comes to their – potential – partners, you suppose. Anzu seems amused, though. For the first time since you brought up the topic, she actually looks you in the face, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.   “Please. I’m not even sure he’s… okay, well, that’s beside the point. Anyway, I don’t think you’re the problem. But… Jou might be.”   Well. You hadn’t really thought of that. Probably because, at 31, Kaiba is a fucking adult and could be expected to be over some stupid teen rivalry.    “Do you really think he’s still hung up on that? He seems to get along fine with Yugi. So Jou isn’t his favorite person in the world, who cares? And if he’s seriously still invested enough in disliking him to make a big deal out of it, you probably don’t want him in your life, anyway. Either way, better to find out now than later.”   She can’t really argue with that. But she still seems uneasy.   “I’m sure he could get over it, but… why would he? I mean, even if he kind of likes me, I doubt that’s enough to completely overturn his principles. Including, you know, how he feels about Jou.”   Sometimes it is really hard to believe that someone usually as observant as Anzu can be so completely oblivious of other people’s interest in her.   “Please. He more than kind of likes you. When guys like him kind of like someone, they go to a fancy restaurant and buy some gold earrings. They don’t suffer through weekly chaotic family dinners and go to your best friends’ kids’ theatre performance.”   She doesn’t really acknowledge that she believes you, but her ears turn a bright shade of pink.   “Okay, fine, I’ll think about it. Gee, you’ve become such a MOM.”   “Please. You just don’t like it that someone else is filling that role for a change.”  Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)