Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, or Hello Kitty
Okay guys and gals, this here is a one-shot, that I just couldn't get out of my head. No real pairings, there is some slight Tea/Kaiba, and Tea/Yami Yugi and a small Tea/Yugi if you turn you head and squint a little but nothing major.
So here are the gangs ages
Yugi, Joey, Tea, Tristan, Seto-9
Mokuba-4
Serenity-7
except at the beginning of the fic Tea and Yugi are 18
IMPORTANT READ THIS FIRST
The present times will be written like this and flashbacks will be written normally since most of the story is a flashback. And everyone is still 18 at end of the fic as well, except Mokuba who is 13.
Tea sat down onto the plush green carpet and tucked her legs under her, holding onto a cheery, yellow cup filled with chocolate milk. Taking a sip she reached onto the small table that she was now sitting in front of and grabbed a cookie, greedily eating it up.
"I ant beweif we grachahting net weef." She said, Yugi arched an eyebrow as he came into the room, carrying a small box.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." Yugi said, plopping down across from her and setting the box onto the table. Scattered on the table was construction paper, glitter, and two pairs of scissors. Tea swallowed the cookie that she had been eating and wiped the crumbs from her mouth.
"Sorry, I think Joey must be rubbing off on me, I need more female friends." Tea said rubbing the back of her head and laughing. Yugi just laughed too, Joey did tend to have that affect on people. "I said I can't believe we're graduating next week." Tea said, looking inside the box and grabbing a handful of photos.
"I know it seems like only yesterday the Pharaoh was here and..." Yugi began, when he suddenly noticed her crestfallen face. He waved his hands into the air frantically. "Well, what I mean is its I can't believe its already been a year so much has happened and we had so much fun but now we're going to be..." Yugi said stammering and blushing. Tea just smiled.
"Its okay Yugi, I know what you mean." Tea said sifting through the photos some more. "So much has happened since we started high school its crazy! But, it was a lot of fun too, I know we've only known Joey and Tristan for a couple of years, but it seems like a lifetime, and now we're separating again. Its so scary, sometimes I think I'm more afraid of growing up and leaving for America than I am of soul sucking psychos.
"Yeah, but you know Tea no matter how far apart we all are, we'll always be together, because we're friends. And weren't you the one that said you look at the unknown as an adventure?" Yugi asked smiling, Tea beamed back up at her friend, when suddenly a picture caught her eye.
"Hey Yugi, when was this taken?" Tea asked, Yugi crawled over next to Tea, blushing a little at their close proximity to see what she was talking about. "Um, I don't remember, whats it say on the back?" Yugi asked. Tea turned the picture around and looked at the back.
"All it says is pickup soccer game, and the year." Tea said, Yugi frowned.
"I think we were about 9." Yugi said nodding, Tea nodded and turned the picture back around. "I don't remember this being taken..." Yugi said staring at it. It wouldn't be a big deal, if it wasn't for who was in the picture.
"Isn't that Joey?" Tea asked pointing toward a small looking kid, with messy blond hair and a goofy grin on his face. Yugi nodded.
"And that's his sister, and their's Tristan, and Kaiba and Mokuba?" Yugi said, pointing to the picture in confusion.
It was true, Kaiba was in the center of everyone, crouched down with the soccer ball in between his knees, he was wearing a yellow button down shirt and blue sweater vest and pair of blue shorts, and raggedy white sneakers. He had a big grin on his face, his blue eyes alive with life with his fingers in the air, in the shape of a v for victory, his chestnut locks falling into his face.. Next to him, on his left was a much smaller boy, standing nervously close to Kaiba, with wild, messy black hair. He wore a dirty, plain white T-shirt that was a little to big for him and jeans that were a little to small, and a pair of black, raggedy sneakers, a sheepish smile played across his young face, his storm gray eyes, slightly nervous but happy. On Kaiba's left was a small girl with short red hair that came down to about her shoulders, she had on pink sun dress with white stalkings, though there was a hole in the knee of one and shiny black dress shoes, she also had a darker pink bow tied into her hair. She had a soft smile on her face. Directly behind her was Joey, who was wearing a plain, but clean white tee and a pair of light blue jeans, he was crouched down a little bit, his hands on both knees, a big goofy grin on his face. Next to him was Tristan, who still had the same hair, and the same slightly less goofy, but big grin on his face. One arm was slung around Joey, the other around a pretty little girl next to him. She had short brown hair that stopped just short of touching her shoulders, and a blue T-shirt on. She was wearing a pair of pink jeans and a white top that had a big smiley on face on it. She was grinning from ear to ear, even if she did have a smudge of dirt on her face. She also wore a backwards baseball cap, and next to her was Yugi. His tricolored hair easy to spot a mile away, even at that young of an age. He too had shy smile on his face, as he stood directly behind the four year old Mokuba, his white shirt was covered in dirt and grass stains, and he had a hole in black jeans, but you could tell by the look in his eyes he couldn't of been happier. The evening sun was setting in the sky behind them.
"Kaiba and Mokuba, are dressed so, weird..." Tea said staring at Kaiba's sweater vest and Mokuba's over sized T-shirt.
"Hm, this must've been taken when he was still in the orphanage then." Yugi said, trying his best to think. "Wait a minute I remember this!" Yugi said suddenly, Tea's eyes widened.
"You do!" Tea said, sitting up straighter and turning towards Yugi incredibly fast, forgetting how close he was. Yugi backed away, blushing as he pulled his face away from Tea's chest. Tea blushed for a second too.
"Err, Sorry." They both said at the same time. Tea waved her hands in the air dismissively and laughed.
"Anyway Yugi when was this taken."
"Think back." Yugi said, trying to get Tea to remember, Tea leaned her back against the old leather couch that was directly behind her, staring up at the ceiling lost in thought, before suddenly sitting up and snapping her fingers.
"Oh, I remember now!" Tea said with a big grin.
Domino City Japan, 9 years ago
It was a bright sunny day in Domino City, with not a cloud in sight. A 9 year old Tea skipped along the sidewalk as she jumped up and down with her jump rope. Stopping in front of a familiar street vendor, she gave him the biggest smile she could muster.
"Hi mister!" She said, stopping and waving. The old man turned towards her and smiled.
"Well, well if it isn't the prettiest little 9 year old girl in all of Domino city, what can I do for you today?" He said grinning down at his most frequent, and precocious customer.
"Two chocolate iced cream, please." She said, digging into her pockets, she stopped however as tears began to well in her eyes, as she frantically dug around in the pockets of her pink Hello Kitty jeans. She stopped and pulled her pant leg up and wiggled her fingers as she saw her hand through the hole in the pocket.
"Oh no, I lost my monies." She said pouted.
"Well I'll tell you what, since I can't stand to see such a pretty little girl cry, you can have these on the house." He said, handing her two fudgesicles, and ruffling her hair. Tea smoothed down her hair and put her pink baseball cap back on her head, turning it backwards.
"Thank you, Mr. Tanaka." She said, taking the two fudgesicles in either hand.
"No problem sweetie, now run along and play, and be safe okay?" He said, Tea nodded and he smiled, taking money out of his own pocket and putting it into the cash register as Tea ran off, completely forgetting about her jump rope. Out of breath, by the time she reached her destination, she huffed a little, before knocking on the door of the Turtle Game Shop. An older man with graying hair answered the door.
"Oh, hello Tea." He said looking down at her.
"Hi Grandpa Moto is Yugi here?" She asked. Yugi's grandfather nodded, calling out for Yugi as he looked at her chocolate coated hands.
"What you got there sweetie?" Tea looked down, and licked some of the ice cream off one of her hands before smiling up at Grandpa.
"Iced cream." She grinned. Grandpa smiled ushering the small girl inside, and taking the ice cream from her. She took off her sneakers and set them in the cubby next to the door.
"Lets get you cleaned up." He said, wetting a small towel and handing it to her, she washed her hands and face, and Grandpa handed her two new fudgesicles from out of the freezer, throwing away the ones that had melted. Yugi came down the stairs and grinned from ear to ear at the sight of his friend (his only friend, though when he was with Tea that didn't matter.)
"Hey Tea!" Yugi said running down the stairs, but jumping the last three, he came barreling into the kitchen, but slipped on the floor since he had forgotten to take off his socks. Grandpa caught a skidding Yugi and steadied him, not missing a beat, Yugi turned toward Tea.
"Hi Tea!" Yugi grinned.
"Hi Yugi!" Tea beamed, "I brought you a fudge pop." She said handing the ice cream to Yugi. Yugi grinned happily, and took the fudgesicle from her. And the two kids tore into their treats.
"Hey Yugi, want to go play jump rope with me after we finish our iced cream?" Tea asked. Yugi nodded, but looked around confused.
"What are we going to jump rope with?" He asked, Tea looked around frantically, than begin to wail loudly.
"What's wrong?" Grandpa Moto asked, coming from the store front.
"I...Lost...my...jump...rope." Tea hiccuped, between sobs.
"Tea don't cry, here you can have my soccer ball." Yugi said, handing her a red and blue soccer ball that had little stickers all over it. Tea stopped crying and took the soccer ball, before hugging Yugi.
"Thanks Yugi, you're the bestest friend ever." She sniffed. Yugi smiled and the two threw on their shows and ran outside, sitting on the porch and finishing their ice cream as fast as they could. They kicked the ball back and forth for a while but soon grew bored.
"Lets find some more kids to play." Tea suggested. Yugi nodded.
"Okay, let me just go ask my Grandpa first." Yugi said running inside the Turtle Game Shop, after a little stomping and whining that Tea couldn't hear, Yugi came back out.
"He said we could, as long as we don't go past the school and come back before the street lights come on." Yugi said, now wearing a blue camera around his neck. Tea blinked a few times, before pointing towards Yugi's camera. Yugi smiled sheepishly.
"My Grandpa told me to take a picture of the license plate number if a stranger wants to talk to me, and to drop my ID bracelet on the ground if someone grabs me." Yugi said, pulling an ID bracelet from his pocket. Tea giggled, and grabbed Yugi's hand.
"Okay then c'mon." She said running toward the school. However the the pair didn't pay much attention to where they were going and soon collided into another kid.
"Ow, hey watch where your going!" Tea blinked and looked down at the boy who she was now sitting on, a kid with messed up blond hair glared right back at her.
"Oops, sorry." Tea said, blushing, and getting off him, and then sticking out her hand for him to grab. The boy took the hand, and she helped him get stand up.
"Oh man, you're heavy for a girl." The boy said, rubbing his back. Tea frowned.
"I'm not fat." Tea said sticking her tongue out at him. A boy with pointy brown hair walked up to the group with a smaller girl next to him.
"You drop your ball." The small cute little red head girl said. Tea smiled at the smaller girl and took the ball from her.
"Joey, please don't tell me you touched a girl!" The pointy haired kid said horrified. "Eww, You have cooties!" He said pointing.
"Oh no, your right!"Joey said looking for a stick, grabbing one, he poked himself with it a couple of times. "Circle, circle, dot, dot, now I've had my cootie shot!" Joey said, Tristan smiled and they both breathed a sigh of relief.
"Big brother, girls aren't gross, do you do that after you hang out with me." The little red headed girl sniffed.
"Nah, Serenity, you're not a girl, you're a sister, it doesn't count." Joey said waving dismissively. "Hey are you two going to play soccer?"
"Yeah, if we can get enough kids!" Tea said excitedly. Yugi nodded in agreement.
"Then can we play?" Tristan asked. Tea shook her head no, but Yugi nodded yes.
"Yeah, if you take back what you said about Tea, she's the coolest girl ever!" Yugi said, Tea beamed. "She's not pretty or girly like those other girls, she's just like us guys!" Yugi added, Tea smacked Yugi on the back of the head, and Joey and Tristan laughed.
"Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't know she was a tomboy!" Joey said, and Tristan and Joey fell onto each other laughing.
"Well I think she's pretty, I really like your jeans." Serenity offered. Tea sighed, great a little kid thought she was pretty, but no boys.
"Hey, I know a place where there's like a zoo, only it has little kids, and none of them have parents so they don't have to ask permission or anything." Joey exclaimed.
"Joey a place like that doesn't exist." Tea argued, "All kids have a mommy or a daddy or a grandpa or something."
"Bet you a whole 100 yen note that it's real." Joey argued back. Tea stuck out her hand, and they shook on it.
"C'mon follow me!" Joey said, running past the school. Yugi stopped running for a bit.
"You guys I can't go past the school!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Oh c'mon Yugi I want to see the kid zoo, look after we bring some back here, then we can come back to the school, besides you can take pictures of any strangers that try to get us with you camera." Tea said, taking a picture of Yugi. Yugi frowned.
"I don't know..." Yugi began.
"Please Yugi, I'll be your best friend." Joey and Tristan added. Yugi looked up, friends? Yugi beamed and nodded and the kids followed Joey and he ran down the streets. Tea grabbed Yugi's hand as the further they went, the scarier things seemed. The buildings were all run down, and they were where what their parents called the bad part of Domino, though they weren't quite sure why it was bad, it was just that their were so many strangers.
Finally they stopped at building and Joey pointed to a sign. "See, read it and weep." Joey said. Tea arched an eyebrow, and squinted at it.
"Sunshine, sunshine..." She frowned and stomped her foot, she didn't know how to pronounce that character. Where was the furigana (1) when you needed it? She had never seen that character before and those weird lines she recognized as English was completely incomprehensible to her, why did English look like a bunch of scribbles. How come it couldn't be neat little pictures like Japanese. She motioned toward near the fence where a small boy with unruly black hair was sitting by himself. He was hugging his legs, and sniffing. He didn't even look like he was in school yet.
"Hey kid." Tea said, trying to get his attention through the chain link fence. The smaller boy turned toward them, and then backed away shyly. They pressed their faces against the chain link and looked around gripping the fence with small fat fingers. The smaller boy giggled at how funny their faces looked as they looked around at everything.
"What's your name?" The boy finally asked, after deciding he liked all of them.
"I'm Tea, and this is Yugi." Tea said.
"And I'm Joey." Joey said sticking his arm through one of the links. "That's Tristan and Serenity." Joey said motioning with his head. Mokuba stared at him funny, before bowing slightly.
"Nice to meet you Joey, I'm Mokuba, are you from here?" He asked. Joey shook his head.
"No, I'm from America, my sister is from here though." Joey said, use to people questioning him about his accent.
"Then how come you couldn't read that sign?" Tea said mischievously.
"Tea..." Yugi began, his friend was so bold sometimes, unlike him.
"Its okay Yugi, I don't mind. I'm not that good at school and stuff, but that's okay because I'm going to be an astronaut and you don't need to be smart to be an astronaut, just strong." Joey said pulling his arm away from the fence and flexing his non existent muscle.
"Thats so stupid, you do to have to be smart." Tea said, placing her hands on her hips.
"Nuh, uh, my mommy said I can be anything I want to be when I grow up." Joey said.
"No, No, you have to go to school first." Tea said shaking her head.
"Nuh uh."
"Uh huh."
"Nuh uh."
"Uh huh."
Mokuba giggled. "I like you, your funny." Joey and Tea turned toward the boy and rubbed the back of their heads.
""Hey kid, is it true you don't have a mommy or a daddy?" Tristan asked. Mokuba eye's widened for a second, before he nodded his head.
"Yeah, no one here at Sunshine Orphanage do." Mokuba whimpered.
"See I told you." Joey said sticking out his tongue as Tea put her hands on her hips.
"But don't you at least have a Grandpa, or an aunt, or something. Don't you have a real family." Tea said blinking, completely ignorant to how much they were hurting the smaller boy. It never dawned on the group that something could've happened to the aforementioned relatives, in fact they had never heard of such a thing.
"We did, but then they take all our money and leave us here." Mokuba said, sniffing. All of the kids blinked in confusion, a mommy or daddy couldn't do something like that.
"Why, did you do something bad?" Serenity questioned innocently. Mokuba shrugged his shoulders and began to cry, and Yugi hopped the fence and gave him a hug, as Joey, Tea began hopping the fence too. Tristan stayed behind with Serenity, who was too little to hop the fence. Just as Joey went to give Mokuba a hug, he was violently grabbed and thrown on the ground before being punched in the face.
"What did you do to my brother!" A taller boy asked, holding his fist in the air, his blues flashing with so much anger it scared him a little.
"Nothing, I swear, I didn't mean to make him cry!" Joey said, trying to push the taller boy off him, and finding it much easier than he thought it would be, he was so light.
"Its true Big brother, they're my friends." Mokuba said, quickly drying his tears. Seto dusted himself off.
"Hi I'm Tea, what's your name?" Tea asked, taking it on herself to be the friendship captain of the group, a title that would stay with her all of her life though she didn't yet know it.
"Seto." Seto said bowing slightly, the group bowed back as Joey stuck out his hand. Seto stared at Joey's hand in confusion, and Joey grabbed Seto's hand and shook it, shaking Seto who didn't know what he was doing, along with it.
"What are you doing?" He asked confused. Joey grinned.
"That's how they say hi in America." Joey said. Seto stared down at his hand, then back up at Joey.
"Are you a half?" He asked, Joey nodded, and Seto smiled big.
"That's so cool, I was born in America too, but I'm not a half, my mom was just on vacation." Seto said, grabbing Joey's hand and shaking it.
"I thought you guys didn't have a mom?" Yugi said in confusion. Seto pointed to the sky.
"My mom traded with my brother, and now he's here and my Mom is in the sky and my dad died in a car crash." Seto explained. Yugi, Joey, Tea, Tristan, and Serenity looked up at the sky.
"Your mom is not up there." Joey said in disbelief. Seto stomped his foot.
"Yes she is stupid, my dad too." Seto argued.
"Where, I don't see him?" Joey asked.
"Do you mean she's in heaven?" Tea asked, looking at Seto. Seto nodded and Tea hugged him. "I'm sorry, I didn't know, is that what happened to everybody." Tea asked. Seto nodded, as Tea pulled away, a light blush staining both their young faces.
"Hey do you want to play soccer with us?" Yugi asked showing the soccer ball to them. Seto grinned big.
"YEAH, just let me go ask Ms. Matsuri." Seto said dashing off, the group waited, and then Seto came back with a huge smile on his face.
"She said yes, let's go." Seto said, having changed into a pair of white sneakers.
"Are you any good?" Asked Yugi, Seto nodded.
"Big Brother is the best!" Mokuba chimed in, toddling behind, before grabbing the back of Seto's shirt so he didn't lose him. The kids had to play in the soccer field near the orphanage though, as Seto and Mokuba weren't allowed to stray too far. Yugi was a little worried, but those two didn't have anybody to play with, or a mommy or daddy or grandpa to play with, and Yugi had all of those, so he could get in to a little trouble to make them happy, if only for a day. Joey, Tristan, and Tea felt the same way. Serenity sat next to Mokuba on the grass, where they were going to watch everyone play.
"Um, we don't have enough players." Seto stated, counting everyone. "Their's five people, and teams should be even."
"So." Joey asked.
"So, we need more players, otherwise one team will have three people and the other team will have two." Seto pointed out. Joey scratched his head.
"I know, why don't I be on Yugi's team." Joey said, slinging an arm around Yugi.
"I'm on Yugi's team too!" Tea said grabbing Yugi.
"I"m on Joey's team!" Tristan shouted. Seto smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand sometimes he hated kids his own age, they were so dumb.
"Fine, then Serenity and Mokuba will be on my team." Seto said.
"But isn't it still uneven?" Tea asked. Seto smirked.
"Its okay, I'm the best." Seto said, and it was true he had yet to be beaten.
"Then I'm on Seto's team, its not fair he only gets little kids." Yugi said.
"Then its still not fair, cause he gets a little shrimp like Yugi." Joey whispered to Tristan. Tea frowned but couldn't help but agree, Yugi's team was just going to lose, no one could beat Yugi at games, but sports was another story, he was notoriously bad, and his short legs made it hard for him to beat the other kids, he was still her best friend, but she did want to be on the winning team for once.
"Okay, lets start." Seto said as Serenity and Mokuba finally got to the field, Mokuba trailing behind Serenity, as he was so much younger than all the other kids. He couldn't believe Serenity was a whole three years older than him, he was such a baby. He couldn't wait to start school. Seto was true to his word, even though his team consisted of a four year old, a little girl in a dress, and Yugi who was much shorter than the other kids his age and was about the same height as Serenity, they were still winning, the other kids didn't even get to get the ball as Seto quickly snatched the ball. He was like a pro and could hit it with head, and bounce it up and down with his feet and knee. Mokuba ran up to the goal post and Seto passed the ball to him. Mokuba picked up the ball and threw it into the goal.
"Hey he can't do that, feet only!" Joey protested.
"Uh oh, Big brother did I mess up?" Mokuba asked. Seto turned to the other kids worried. Tea, Yugi, and Tristan shook their heads no.
"Nah Mokuba, you did good." Yugi piped in. "You got your team a point."
"But he." Joey repeated, as Mokuba tuned them out dancing with Serenity.
"Aww let him have it Joey, he's only four, and he's so cute." Tea cooed. Joey rolled his eyes, girls. He turned towards Tristan.
"I agree with Tea, not the he's cute part I'm not gay, but he's only four Joey, we're not going to lose to a four year old." Tristan said dismissively.
Four hours later
"I can't believe we lost!" Tristan said, falling back into the grass.
"We got beat big time!" Joey agreed, already lying in the grass, where Mokuba and Serenity were already sleep having quit halfway through the game. Seto was running up and down the field doing back flips, happy he won, and showing off.
"Ah, I'm sure its just luck, I'm no good at games, you'll beat me next time." Yugi offered reassuringly. Not realizing that this was just the first in a 7 year winning streak, that would add three losses and then 70 more years of winning to his record. Joey and Tristan nodded, it was mainly Seto, who was in the field gloating, who won the match, how did he get so good?
"Hey how did you get so good?" Tea asked him, Seto looked up at her and shrugged, not really wanting to tell her that they only games he could really play was chess, soccer, and in the sandbox, or on the swing, the orphanage couldn't afford anything else, and most of the toys were broken. He was good because that was all there really was to do. He could also play chess better, build better sandcastles, and swing higher than most kids. Unfortunately when it came to everything else, he didn't really know, since he couldn't afford it, and most kids didn't like him and wouldn't even let him try.
"Just lucky I guess." Seto said, sitting in the grass. Tea set next to him.
"Well I think it was really nice of you to play with the littler kids." She said. She gave him a quick kiss, before running off horribly embarrassed she didn't know why she had done that, but he was so nice to little kids, and he was so cool. Kaiba touched and lips and smiled softly, this was the best day ever.
"Kaiba was your first kiss!" Yugi exclaimed. He hadn't known that part, Tea buried her face in her hands.
"Well he wasn't Kaiba back then you know, he was just a really cool kid who was really nice to little kids and he was cute, and you guys called me a boy!" Tea protested, but she sighed and mumbled darkly anyway. Kaiba wasn't supposed to be her first kiss, she should've waited and then kissed the pharaoh!
Tea got up quickly and ran off to the others. "Hey guys, you want to get something to eat?" She asked hopefully. They nodded and shook Mokuba and Serenity awake.
"Hey we're going to eat something." Joey said, Serenity stomach growled and she clapped her hands together excitedly.
"But I don't want to eat anymore garbage, can't we just wait for Miss to cook Seto?" Mokuba protested sleepily, rubbing his eyes. All eyes were suddenly on Seto.
"You eat out of the trash?" Joey asked. Seto's eyes widened and he flailed his arms around.
"Only the good stuff and not that often, j-just when Miss can't buy anything cause an emergency took all of are money for the week or when we're really hungry and can't wait for Miss, but we get a meal everyday!" Seto said quickly.
"One meal?" Joey asked again.
"TWO, breakfast and dinner." Seto yelled, his face red.
"But what about lunch?" Joey asked, how could someone not eat? So that's why Seto was so skinny...he was starving. His mom had told him some kids didn't get a lot to eat and they were starving and always hungry, but he hadn't believed there could be some here, he always thought they would be in faraway places like Africa, and Tokyo.
"Joey leave him alone, its okay Seto, I can buy you lunch, I'm rich!" Yugi said, not knowing that he was lying through his teeth and that all the games in the shop his Grandpa couldn't afford to keep.
"Someday I'm going to be rich, and I'm going to have a jet shaped like a blue eyes white dragon, and I'm going to have the blue eyes white dragon, and I'm going to be famous and own an amusement park." Seto said, nodding his head. "So I'll pay you back then, that way its just a loan, not charity."
"What's charity?" Tristan asked. Seto sighed, the other kids were so stupid.
"Okay." Yugi agreed, Seto had said he was going to be rich, so he probably was, he didn't believe Joey would be an astronaut but their was something about the way Seto said that he was going to be rich, that made him believe him. He didn't quite understand what the boy had said about charity, but that was okay if the money wasn't that since Seto obviously didn't like the idea of it. They kids started to walk off to get something to eat when Yugi's grandfather came running onto the field, along with his mother and father. Tea's mom was hot on their tail, as was Joey and Serenity's mom and dad, and Tristan's mom.
"Yugi, where have you been!" Yugi's dad shouted first. "I missed my flight because of you."
"Dad?" Yugi said dumbfounded. Then Yugi looked up and saw the street lights were on, and the sun was setting, it had started to get dark. "Oops."
"Oops, that's all you can say is Oops, I told you not to go past the school." Yugi's grandfather chided. Yugi mother's nodded in agreement.
Soon all the kids were being scolded by their respective parents, each one snatching up their kids. Seto and Mokuba stared down at the grass, before Seto stepped forward.
"Sorry ma'am, sir, this was all my fault, Miss said I couldn't go to far past the orphanage. And Tea's group didn't want to make Miss mad." Seto said.
"Orphanage?" Tristan's mom said, looking at Seto and Mokuba. "That's what you were doing?"
"Yeah, Seto and Mokuba don't have no friends, or a mommy or a daddy, and they're dirty, and they eat out of the garbage." Serenity added, "And we didn't want them to be sad, so we played with them."
"I'm not dirty..." Seto grumbled kicking some dirt. Mokuba giggled, he certainly was he had grass stains all on his clothes where he had tripped several times, since he was really too small to playing with such big kids.
"Serenity..." Serenity's mom, said choking back a sob of pride. Serenity never really said anything, but when she did it was always the truth, which meant that really was what they had been up to all day.
"Grandpa, I know were in trouble, but can we take a picture?" Yugi asked, holding up his camera. "I want to remember my new friends." Yugi's grandfather nodded, the kids were still in trouble, and they're wouldn't be any ice cream for awhile, but they had been doing a good thing. Everyone had truly raised their kids well.
The kids got all excited about taking the picture, they wanted to be remember this day because it was the first time they all met. They wanted to be best friends forever. Seto squatted down and sat in the middle with the ball since he was the tallest, Mokuba and Serenity his fellow team members stood on either side of them, with Joey behind his sister, Yugi behind Mokuba and Tea next to Yugi, and Tristan in the middle behind Seto.
"Everyone Say cheese." Grandpa said, they all got into their poses and smiled widely, Seto holding up a V for Victory so everyone knew who won the game.
"Cheese." They all called out, and the camera flashed, with the promise of an eternity of tomorrows.
Present Day Domino
"Hard to believe just a year later, our lives changed so much. The Kaiba brothers got adopted by that snake, Joey joined a gang and got his parents got divorced, Tristan became a bully, and we never really saw each other again until high school." Tea said staring at the picture. They had broken their promise and had not seen each other after that day, but sill had found a way back to each other.
"I have an idea." Yugi said, putting the scrapbook items away. Instead he grabbed his coat and ran out the door putting on his shoes on the way out the door, hopping up and down and, clutching the picture they had been looking at and one more. Tea followed close behind though she had no idea what was going on. Yugi ordered several copies of both pictures and asked for them to be framed in gold frames that opened like a book, on the outside some characters were engraved onto the metal frames. Though Tea didn't get a chance to see what it said. When they were finally done, Tea understood as Tea looked at the other photograph.
Domino Japan, 2 years ago, Battle City Finals Trophy Ceremony
Tea smiled as Yugi walked up to her holding a trophy, while Joey grumbled following close behind mad that he not only didn't get a trophy, but didn't even get to stand on the stage. Why on earth had he challenged Kaiba for third place? Now he was honorable mention, and Kaiba took home the bronze trophy.
"Time for the photo-op!" Yugi said grabbing her, Tristan, and Serenity from the sidelines. "Where's Duke?"
"Romeo is flirting with that reporter." Tea said, thumbing towards a sexy, leggy, blond reporter, who was laughing uproariously at something Duke had said.
"Why did this have to be in America!" Joey complained. "Now Bakura ain't going to be in the picture." He was kind of tweaked that Kaiba had flown off in his little jet and now Mai and Bakura weren't there, because they weren't one of the four finalist, just semi finalist. Marik had declined to come, because Kaiba had said that Ishizu and Odion weren't going to be allowed to set foot on the premises, mainly because he didn't trust Marik and didn't want him anywhere near him, and his newly developing Kaiba Corp USA.
"Because Kaiba invited the finalist here, and offered to put me and Tristan and your sister up in rooms too, so quit complaining!" Tea swatted Joey on the back of the head.
"DUKE, PHOTO-OP!" Joey shouted, Duke looked up and waved them off, turning his attention back on the blond.
"Guess its just us then." Joey shrugged, and Kaiba walked over to them.
"Let's make this quick, I'm a very busy man." Kaiba snorted, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Yeah, yeah money bags we don't want to spend anymore time with you then we have to either." Joey grumbled.
"Good, then its settled." Kaiba said leading them into a back room. Kaiba stood in the back of the shot, with Tea on one side of him and Tristan on the other, directly in front of them was Joey and Yugi kneeling down on the ground and sitting down on the floor in front of them was Mokuba and Serenity, everyone had a big smile on their face. Except for Kaiba, who wore a smirk, his arms folded across his chest.
"Everyone say cheese." The photographer said smiling.
"Oh just take the picture already." Kaiba growled.
"Erm, yes sir Mr. Kaiba, right away Mr. Kaiba." The photographer said, the camera capturing the oh so loving moment on film for all eternity.
Present Day Domino-Last Day of Classes Before Graduation
Kaiba stared down at the picture frame in front of him, on the inside were two pictures side by side, one of a soccer game with Yugi's group and him and Mokuba that he didn't remember, and on the other side was a picture of the Battle City Finals Trophy Ceremony. He furrowed his brows in confusion, trying to remember the day. Suddenly his eyes widened, how could he have forgotten the day, he stared up at Tea realization dawning at him. Tea placed a finger over her mouth to shush him, considering Joey and Tristan were staring at the picture as well, they had each gotten a gift, but Kaiba was the only one who got the gold frame. Joey and Tristan had the same two pictures on the front of their scrapbooks, which were in big gold binders, but theirs also contained several other memories and photographs as well.
Kaiba stared back down at the picture, before clicking it shut. "Thank You." Kaiba said in a clipped tone, as if it was more obligatory as a gentlemen to thank them, then a sincere statement. The bell rang and Kaiba got inside his limo, and went home to his office placing the frame on his desk. Mokuba came in the room, and smiled but frowned when he saw his brother staring at something, his index and middle fingers touching his lips.
"Hey big bro, what you looking that." Mokuba asked.
"Maybe there is some truth to this destiny stuff after all." Kaiba mumbled, getting up stretching, he needed coffee. Mokuba arched an eyebrow and picked up the frame, running his fingers over the engravings.
"Best friends forever." Mokuba read aloud, he opened the frame and his eyes widened as he stared at a picture of a pickup soccer game from long ago.
Well how did you guys like it? you know what to do, hit that little blue button that says review. Hm, this is a one shot right now, but I could be persuaded to make it a double shot with graduation and all. Don't know what the paring would be if there would be any pairing, I guess that's up to you, wink, wink. I'm not sure though, I kind of like it the way it is.
(1) Furigana is the little tiny pronunciation guides written above the Chinese characters (called Kanji) in hiragana (one of three alphabets, and the simplest ones) so that grade schoolers are able to read characters they haven't learned yet. Somehow I doubt they would know the characters for orphanage.
Also a hundred yen note is about one US dollar. Obviously this places takes place a year before the defining moments of their childhood (except for Kaiba who is already an orphan but not yet adopted by Gozaboro which was more defining than his parents dying, for him), and the reference to Yugi's dad comes from an interview with Kazuki Takahashi when they (shonen jump or one of the readers i forget) asked where was Yugi's dad and he said that Yugi's dad was on business, so I just figured his dad is probably one of those types that is always away on business. Also they completely cut out Yugi's mom in the American version, but she does appear.