Disclaimer: I in no way own Yugioh, therefore I write fanfics. Great thing, fanfics. Now if only you didn't have to explain them to people, who think that you're utterly insane.

The Bet

Distant Storm

x x x

Tea snuck stealthily through the bushes. This wasn't incredibly unlike her, though she kind of figured she would've been caught by now. Unless...

Unless he already knew and was waiting for her.

Her mind pushed away the thought, knowing that things happen, and that if she did get caught, it would get a rise out of Joey. Then of course, she could beat him senseless. Though...

If she got caught, she could easily maneuver her way out of it. She did know how to work people, and this one person especially. It had been a skill she had gotten good at. She knew he had a weak spot for her. Especially in...this, she thought. Quickly, she decided her best plan of action.

This was a win-win situation.

x x x

Flashback: This Past Afternoon, Motou Household

"Come on Tea," The blonde, Joey Wheeler pushed. "Truth or Dare?"

The brunette thought about it. The entire thing was rather trivial in her opinion. There was pretty much nothing Joey didn't know about her, and the things he didn't she'd rather keep to herself. "Dare," She said, looking him in the eye.

Meanwhile, the tri-color haired boy smirked deep in satisfaction. He had never heard her take a dare before. Especially from Joey's lips. His abiou's dares had never been that... maniacal, he decided. Perhaps all the adventures both he and his lighter side had led them into had hardened her up some.

"Alright!" Joey said, jumping. Both he and his brunette friend to his right, separating him from Tea, high fived. "This is going to be great."

Tea groaned. "You never said Tristan could help you," She said, annoyance present on her features. "Can't you think of a dare on your own?"

Her statement was ignored, as Tristan's eyes bulged widely. Most likely, she figured, as a result of Joey's suggestion.

"Yeah, yeah, say that," Tristan said, excitement flooding his features. The pharaoh laughed, attracting the attention of the group.

"I don't think Tea wants to disrupt the world," he said, in his careful reserved manor. Tea shrugged.

"I've been in worse situations. Hell, I've even worked at Burger World." She smirked, a competitive edge coming on. "Give me what you've got, Wheeler. And it better not be a duel."

"I want you to do either one of two things," Joey said, surprisingly thoughtful. "Either you have to kiss the Pharaoh, or you have to go pool hopping."

She looked over to the Pharaoh, whose face was tinted red. He met her glance, surprised that Joey would think of something that... out there. The Pharaoh then looked to his other half, who hovered in the area.

'Yugi.'

'Yes Pharaoh?'

'Did you and Tea ask Joey to meddle?'

'No.' Yami quirked an eyebrow, questioning him.

'Sure, Yugi, sure. Just like the last time she went somewhere alone, you pretty much abandoned me, and left me to go with her.'

'That was a long time-'

"I don't like her and I never will, why can't she just get that-eh...uhh..."Everyone in the room stared at Yami, who had made the fatal mistake of saying it aloud. Tea, if she was hurt, shrugged it off, and turned to Joey.

"Let's stick to choice number two." She paused. "But I'll raise you one better."

"You're doing it again," He said. Joey frowned, knowing that the Pharaoh's comment had probably stung, "but I'm listening."

The Pharaoh stared at her. She had suddenly changed her attitude, from a cheerful one to a dark and edgy one. It did have an effect on her, though she didn't let herself show it... not that much at least.

"I'll go pool hopping," She mused, carefully outlining her plan. "But at a specific location. And if I do it, I'll get something to prove it, and then..." She looked to Joey again to make sure he was paying attention. He was and she continued. "You, the loser of the bet, will have to wash my car. In one of my old cheerleading outfits.

'Does she always act like this when she's upset?' Yami asked suspiciously.

'Erm... yeah. You're just lucky she has a creative outlet. It sucks when she doesn't.'

'I think we should switch back, young one, the are doesn't seem too safe... for me,' he commented to his other half. Yugi shrugged from his hovering position.

'I think you should learn to deal with her. Besides, I know who she has a crush on, and let me say that it certainly is not you.' Yami just didn't understand that Yugi knew most of the ins and outs of Tea Gardner, and he didn't.

'As long as it isn't Kaiba, I'm satisfied. I may not like her... like that-' he made sure he was speaking in the mind link only '-but I'd rather her like me, not Kaiba.'

Yugi nodded, but his darker side had turned his attention back to the game.

"And whose house would you be pool hopping at?"

"I can't tell you," she said, with a strange stress on her words. "It would ruin the surprise."

Joey thought about it again, conferencing with Tristan. "Done." Tea smiled with a strange satisfaction.

"You better not get caught," Yami commented. Tea turned her attention.

"You better mind your thoughts," she snapped. His mouth hung open but he quickly shut it, thanks to some prodding by an invisible Yugi.

"Seriously," Tristan said. "Don't let Joey get you in trouble with the police."

"I won't," she said carefully. "Don't you think I'm pretty good at this by now? Do you not remember who went pool hopping with the entire dance team in our sophomore year? Now that was fun." Joey and Tristan thought of the girls who were on the team with her in tiny, wet bikinis. "Would you two stop drooling? It's kinda gross."

"Figures," Joey said. "Just because the Pharaoh ruined your fantasy-" The ancient ruler cringed at the thought of what Tea would do to him, and he wasn't meaning Joey- "Don't ruin ours."

Tea had her cell phone out, and was dialing a number. Joey paused. "You wouldn't," he said, beginning to sweat. "Please... please don't."

"Beg."

"Have you been hanging out with Kai-"

"Hey Mai, I just thought I'd-"

Joey got down on his hands and knees from his position on the front steps of the household and game shop and bowed before her. "Please, please Tea, don't tell Mai, please-"

Tea shut her cell phone, a pleasant smile clouding her features. "Much better." She paused, and leaned over to Tristan. "Should I tell him it was my voice mail?"

"No," Tristan whispered in reply. "Let him freak out for a while."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Joey said, his near death situation avoided. Mai would absolutely kill him-

If Tea didn't first.

x x x

Present Time

Tea laughed quietly at the thought of the previous afternoon. She set down her bag at the edge of the yard. Being in the backyard, she checked to see if anyone was around. Nope. A single light was on in the house, but it was simply the dull light of a computer screen. However...

There was no one in front of that computer screen. "Damn it," she whispered. She turned and gasped in surprise. Part of her knew he'd be there. He was always there.

"Well, well, well. A trespasser." Seto Kaiba smirked.

"Actually, I just got tired of using the front door," she mused sarcastically, though she knew it was true. She usually did use the front door.

"Really?" His black dress shirt was unbuttoned, and his white trench coat was strewn across a chair on the patio, where a lone light had turned on, and the pool resonated a warm glow.

"I thought we'd skip the pleasantries," she explained carefully.

"And now I have nothing to unwrap," he commented. She rolled her eyes.

"I took care of that, with me," she whispered. "But you-"

She was quickly silenced as a pair of lips were crushed against hers. She took that as a hint to make with the unwrapping and began to rid him of the shirt. A low moan was emitted from the back of his throat as she threw the shirt on the ground, and began fumbling with his belt buckle.

He bit her lower lip, and she growled, running her hands down his warm torso. It sent a shiver up his spine, a shiver that she knew he felt on a nightly basis. Her hands came up into his hair and he pinned her to the wall of the patio, his knee in-between her legs.

"How am I going to get rid of those," she murmured against his lips. He paused and took care of her final issue, leaving him in his boxers and her in a bikini. "Is Mokuba-"

"He knows not to come downstairs." She nodded, and took his hand, slipping out from under him. His voice was gruff and edgy, and she knew he was more than happy to see her. She took to the edge of the pool, descending down the steps that introduced her to the heated waters of the pool.

She sat on the bottom step for a moment, waiting for him to come in. When he did, she darted away from him, to the opposite end of the pool. He began to growl in frustration, but she came closer, and he snatched her, pulling the brunette girl onto his lap.

"They don't know, do they?" He asked her quietly. She figured it was because she didn't use the front door.

"Not yet, though I am ready to punch that damned Pharaoh." He chuckled, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Although, I think I'll hurt him more when we come out about all this."

"You say the word," he said carefully. "Let them think what they want." She nodded and tilted her head up to capture his lips, but he quickly dodged and went straight for her neck, licking and biting his way down. She bit his ear.

"Vampire," she whispered heatedly into his ear, referring to the love bite she would have to hide. He said nothing, and continued down to her collarbone, both hands on her hips, hugging her curves. She went for his sensitive spot, a location on his neck only she could touch, leaving a trail of quick, searing kisses down. His grip tightened on her and she stopped, catching her breath.

However, she knew it was pretty much a waste of time, and pressed hard on his lips. He wrapped his arms around her and they moved out into the deeper waters, and she wrapped her legs around him, leaving his hands free to roam.

It had started a little less than a year ago, when everything had ended, and things had died down. She had been walking home from school, and he had been walking to work, and an argument followed. Needless to say, neither of them were on-time reaching their destinations. Sometimes, she had been lucky to make it home with her skirt on the right way.

Now, though, with school over, they had the privilege of being together when it was no longer light outside. Tea was leaving for New York in two months, and unknown to her, Kaiba wasn't planning on letting her do it alone. Both he and Mokuba had decided to go live in New York as well, to open a chain of Kaiba Land Amusement parks in the United States.

"Are you coming in?" He asked, sometime later. Her lips were bruised, as were his, and his ear had a trace of a bite mark, nothing like the mark on her neck. She looked up at him and licked her lips, causing him to try to resist the urge to push her back into the water and start all over.

"I was thinking that you might like to come back to my house," she whispered, looking u up to the second floor of the house. "No one's there, so it would be just you and me..." she let her proposition hang, and pushed herself out of the water, grabbing two towels and handing him the other. After all, she was supposed to bring back proof, and she knew what kind of proof she'd enjoy, especially with Joey, Yugi, and Tristan.

Kaiba looked up and saw a light go off in Mokuba's bedroom.

"Your house. Now." She caught the look in his eyes. She knew what she was in for, and she couldn't wait.

"Maybe next time, we should just skip to that," she whispered, taking his lips quickly. He pulled her against him, removing her towel.

"You've thought about it too?" They both chuckled. Tea grabbed her bag and walked into his house, still slightly wet, but thanks to the body heat she now put out, it wasn't much of a problem. He came in with his clothes, handing all but the trench coat to a maid who nearly passed out from shock. This had been occurring far too often, in her eyes.

"Mokuba," Tea called, waiting for the mop of black hair to appear at the stairs. "We're leaving."

"Goodbye. Don't make him work too hard, Tea," Mokuba called. Seto stared up the stairs in shock.

"I won't," she yelled. The elder of the two brothers looked surprised, but she pulled a hand from behind her back, uncrossing her fingers. "There are some things," she whispered, "That you just can't say to that kid. Though I would suggest checking underneath his bed for any magazines..."

"I do," he said. "Daily."

"Good boy." She smiled and opened the door, sneaking a quick glance at the night's transportation. A red corvette, with the top down. He was getting better and better, she noted, seeing the blue bag in the backseat. "Leave it to you to be prepared."

"We all know that things happen," Kaiba said, a hand on her thigh. "I've come to expect them."

x x x

The next morning, Joey, Yugi, and Tristan appeared at Tea's door at about eleven. They rang the door bell three times, signaling that it was them. Five moments later, a rather peppy Tea appeared at the door, her eyes crystalline with excitement.

"Did you do it?" Tristan asked. "Whose house did you pool hop at?"

"I doubt you did," Joey said. "I don't see anything that you brought back." He took a step inside, and the other two followed, taking a seat in her living room. Joey though, went to the kitchen, and stopped at the refrigerator, looking at the counter.

"Hey Tea?"

"Yes, Joey?"

"Your counters look kinda dirty," he commented. "There's hand prints everywhere." He paused. "Some of them don't look like yours. Did someone come over?" Tea shrugged and entered the room.

"I entertain a lot, remember? You three are always over here. Since when are you so observant?" She opened the fridge and pulled out a pitcher with lemonade. "Want some?" She asked him.

"Please and thank ya," he said, opening the cupboard and pulling out a glass. That was when he heard a sound coming from the bedroom. "Uhh, Tea, is someone here?"

"Why would you think that?"

"It sounded like something was in your bedroom. The door moved or something." Tristan and Yugi both popped their heads into the kitchen, then looked down the hallway. Yugi, knowing that Yami was always thinking that evil was out to get them at every turn, let his other self take over, and Tea to roll her eyes. After yesterday, the last thing she wanted to deal with was that arrogant Pharaoh, who thought she was madly in love with him. That was a very, very long time ago.

"The wind, probably." She wished Yugi was around. She had told Yugi that she had a crush on his arch rival, and he was okay with it. However, she hadn't said that she was with him, and had been for quite some time. Though they never referred as each other's boyfriend of girlfriend, the last magazine interview he had been blessed(or rather, cursed) with, he had said he was taken, and that was all the information Tea had needed to know.

Tea grabbed a wet cloth and wiped down the counter, shuddering at the thought of his large hands against her counter, pinning her there... she shook her head, knowing that she had to play this cool, and pray he didn't decide to leave her bedroom.

"Tea, are you alright? Ever since yesterday, you've been acting differently. Are you angry at us?" She looked to Yami as if to say 'you really have the balls to say that?'

"Well, Yami, I guess everything isn't okay, with me and you. I've been meaning to tell you-"

"Tea I know, I'm sorry I thought that you liked me."

"That wasn't it, but okay, yeah, whatever. That was a waaay long time ago."

"Oh. Well I'm sorry anyway."

"Don't jump to conclusions, man," Joey said. Tristan nodded in agreement.

"Next time, ask, and don't listen to those two. They'll try to tell you that the moon is made out of cheese."

"You mean it isn't?" Joey's head fell. Tristan patted him on the back, but he jumped up and put the kid in a headlock. "I can't believe I believed you!"

Yami and Tea laughed, and the door screeched again. Tea turned around. "I'll be right back. Make sure they don't kill each other." He nodded, though he knew he'd just sit there and watch them until one of them would pass out.

Tea ran to her bedroom, opening and shutting the door very quickly. She looked to her bed, where a very wet Seto Kaiba laid, laptop on his stomach.

"Run from the shower to the bedroom, huh?" He nodded, and she opened her closet and pulled out a pair of tight fitting jeans. The brunette boy looked up and watched as she slid the skirt off of her slender body, revealing a practically naked backside, with the exception of the thong.

He reached out a hand, but she quickly turned and he pulled away, causing her to lift her left eyebrow in a question. "You have a guilty conscious, don't you?"

"And a dirty mind to match," he said back quietly. She batted his arm playfully. "Either get rid of them, or I'm coming out, and I don't care," He commented, after a moment. She nodded, and locked eyes with him, which was probably like her own freaking suicide, according to her mind. She pressed a kiss to his lips, causing his entire mind to go blank and him to throw the computer to the side.

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day that you decided to choose someone other than your brother over your company. Should I feel special?"

"You don't feel special already?" She smiled sincerely and allowed him to hold her in his arms for a moment more, when she heard Joey and Tristan yelling for her to hurry up or they were coming in.

"Oh I do," she said. "I blame you for that." He graced her with a smile, and she walked to the door. She turned the doorknob and stopped. "I need your trench coat."

"What? I might as well just come out and say that I was with you last night." She quirked an eyebrow and retold him the story about Joey and the dare. He nodded, remembering. It was strange, he thought. Ever since she had come into the picture, he thought about her and Mokuba the most, and everything else wasn't as important.

"Where did you put it?"

"It's over here," he said, picking it up from off her chair and throwing it at her. She caught it and turned the knob, blowing him a kiss on the way out.

He pulled his laptop back onto his shirtless stomach and began to type again, first running a hand through his chestnut colored hair. In five minutes, he'd come out there and give them what for.

x x x

"Never mind her car," Tristan said, staring at the white trench coat, "clean every single speck of her yard, then her house, garage, and finally the car. This is priceless."

"How'd ya get it off him?" Joey asked, speechless. He thought she'd go steal a thermometer, or a floatie, something like that. Not the trench coat of Seto Kaiba. "The guy never takes it off."

"He does," she argued. "The Kaibas do have a pool, which they happen to use."

"See, and I thought he worked all the time," Tristan said, surprised as well. The best look of all, was the one from the Pharaoh, who was in complete shock, staring at the white, beyond expensive coat that now hung over the couch in the living room.

"I still don't know how you'd even get it. Kaiba has security for his security detail," Yami said. Yugi hovered in the corner, seemingly pleasant. He had an idea, and he knew it probably had to do with Tea and the wet bikini hanging in her bathroom. That wasn't just any bikini, he should know. He found it two months ago hanging in one of Kaiba's oversized bathrooms when he went to visit Mokuba. She was hiding something, and Mokuba, and probably Seto knew about it.

"It wasn't that hard," Tea said. "In the privacy of his own home, Seto Kaiba is pretty damn lax. He probably just left it out there. I was going to steal something with a logo, but this works much better."

"Oh really?" Three of the four occupants of the room froze, and the other stepped into the hallway.

"Was it just me, or did someone just hear Kaiba talking?" Tristan mused, confusion present in his features.

"Well," Tea said slyly, "I did bring another piece of evidence home with me last night."

"Excuse me?"

All three stared at her in absolute shock. Tea smiled and disappeared in the hallway for a moment and opened the door to her bedroom, and a different person emerged, not the petite dancer.

"You- you're here?" Joey jumped up. "What the hell did you do to Tea?" His fists were clenched tight, and his knees were bent in a fighting stance.

"It's more like what she did to me," Kaiba said, smirk present on his face. Tea rolled her eyes. He was going to be about six feet under in a moment.

"I didn't bite you that hard," Tea said, coming up from behind with his trench coat in hand. "Besides," she whispered into his ear, standing up on the tips of her feet, "You know I love you."

"What? Can't tell someone you love them in front of your friends?" Tea just about floored it at that moment. She was going to kill him. Kill him!

"Excuse me?"

"I love you too, if that's what you were expecting." She smiled. At least he said it-

In front of my friends!

"Would someone inform us over here? I have no idea what the hell is going on!"

"Wheeler, you never do." Yugi took control of his body back from Yami and smiled widely.

"See, and I knew that."

"You would," Tea said. "Since when?"

Seto took a moment to wrap an arm around her. "Since I was with Mokuba and saw the same bikini in your bathroom that is hanging in hers today," Yugi said. Inside his mind, Yami was screaming at him, because he knew, and because Seto Kaiba had just emerged from Tea's bedroom, of all places, and outright admitted that he loved her. He- wait.

"You just said you loved her!" Joey said, jumping up all of a sudden.

"Thank you captain obvious, I say that to her just about every day."

Seto pressed a quick kiss to her lips and took his trench coat from her. "Someone's got to run my company. I'll call you later, so you three better not harass her too long." He smirked.

Was that Seto Kaiba's form of being nice? They weren't too sure.

"Just how long have you two been together?"

"Longer than you would like to know." He turned from the three of them to Tea and smiled. Which floored her friends even more. "I'll see you-" He kissed her forehead- "later."

"You need to explain."

"Yeah."

"We want all the-" Tristan thought about it for a moment. "No, Never mind. We don't." He looked at Joey, who finally got it.

"Oh hell no!"

"Good answer." Tea laughed. "Very, very good answer."

"One question," Yugi said, in a rather good mood, which pissed the Pharaoh off to no end. "Who won the bet?"

x x x

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x3Distant Storm