Never the same

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Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh,

blah, blah, blah...

This is a one-shot on Tea's death from Yami's point of view.

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We never really liked her.

Everyone called her our cheerleader. She'd remind us we could get through it, that we were unbeatable. And she was always there for us. She did nothing but encourage us. She made us all feel loved.

But we never really liked her.

Sure, her speeches got a little annoying at times... but we didn't know what we'd do without her. She meant nothing but good. Yes, she was a little annoying, but Yami hasen't recovered since...

But we thought we never really liked her.

She was considerate. She never got a really big part when Marik was trying to take over the world, or when Pegasus wanted Kaiba Corp. Probably because she couldn't Duel. But she did all she could to help. I think she put in so many of her friendship speeches because she felt she didn't have any other way to help.

But we pretended we never really liked her.

I remember once we were camping... Yugi lost his flashlight, our food had been eaten by bears, and our tent was a mess. Everyone huddled around the dying campfire, freezing. She was the first to volenteer to go out and get help.

But we never really liked her.

While she was out getting help, we talked about her. We didn't seem to care at the time she was the one who was going out to get help while we sat here on our freezing butts. We were ungrateful. Our conversation was cut short when we heard her scream.

We found her with blood running down her leg from a deep gash. We took her back to the camp and Tristan went to get help instead. When she woke up all she said was "I'm sorry."

We told her we never really liked her.

How we wish we could take back what we said. One day I was duelling. It didn't look like it was going well. She was cheering me on. I don't know why, I just told her to shut up because she was putting more pressure on me. She stopped. After the Duel, she told me she was sorry. I said it was alright.

We didn't even realize what we were doing to her at first. We started saying rude things to her... Then we started calling her names to her face. Without even realizing it, we had started treating her like dirt. She never deserved it, though. I hadn't called Marik what I had called her...

She never spoke back, though. We completely ignored her when she said she was only trying to help.

I called her "bitch" one day and she was back the next. She still cheered me on. She said she would always be there for me, no matter what. And she was telling the truth.

No, we didn't think. One day we just out said she was a bitch and that she should stop whining about "friendship." She didn't say anything to us. We couldn't read her expression. She just walked out of there and we didn't see her since.

We didn't give it much thought until I lost the Duel. To a kid, no less. Joey said everyone has a bad day, and we dismissed it. But it something didn't feel right...

Ryou liked her.

Maybe because he could really use encouragement that he never thought there was anything wrong with her. She never bothered with him until then, then she started seeing him every day. He really liked her. His Yami had damaged his self-confidence and her "you can do it" attitude really helped him. And she liked him, too.

Maybe that's why she's gone now.

Ryou told us. It happened the day after she found out what his Yami did to him. She knew how stong Bakura was. She knew he didn't have a heart. She knew what he would do to her. But she didn't care.

And that's why she's gone now.

Bakura's dead and Ryou is free. I think she got sick of being nothing but a cheerleader and decided to do something. So she did.

We found her body lying across from Bakura's. Bakura's throat had been slit. She had a knife in her side and blood running from various places in her body.

Ryou was the first to crawl over to her and cry.

We thought we never really liked her,

but,

it's never been the same without her.

I didn't cry. Joey did. Mai did. The rest of them did. I pretended I never really liked her.

I never cried. Neither did Yugi. We went home that day, a sick feeling in our stomachs. This is how she died and that's the last thing we said to her.

It's never been the same without Tea.