Can't Hurt to Ask – Chapter 2 : Hate and Neglect
Disclaimer: I don't own YuGiOh or any deliberate/accidental references to anything else.
Note: So I'm not thrilled with the way I wrote Téa this chapter. Téa is portrayed as a bit more of an airhead than she really is – and she is not an airhead, despite what the jealous and obnoxious bashers write. (Sorry, I couldn't help it.) Anyway, I'm just trying to show the stupider side of crushes – those silly, illogical little ones that just melt away your brain cells and make you do crazy things. (Raise your hand if you've ever had one of those!) Thanks, everyone, for the interesting reviews!
"Téa, Téa, Téa," Melanie chanted quietly.
"Quiet. Quiet or I'll kill you," Téa threatened under her breath. She wiped her palms on her skirt nervously. It was times like these she was really grateful to have girl friends, because Yugi and Joey and Tristan and probably not even Ryou Bakura would understand her anxiety. Then again, it was times like these where she wanted to crawl under a rock and never have to deal with humanity again.
Especially not him.
She was well aware how typical this scene must look. Five girls, crammed down a side hallway, waiting with bated breath for his approach so they could push Téa out and she could not-so-discreetly start a conversation with him. She was just as bad as any fangirl. He wouldn't give her the time of day. He was probably fed up with all this stalkerish behavior.
But she wasn't a fangirl- and if she had to be, she would be Yugi's fan. That would either piss him off entirely or make her stand out.
"Oh my god, he's coming!" Miho squeaked, pulling her head back quickly. "We'll disappear, Téa, we promise- but you have to go!"
"Ssssh!" she hissed. Could they be any more obvious? He would hear them, whispering and giggling, from a mile away. And then when Téa just happened to emerge from the hallway… her face flamed red just thinking about it. This was absolutely pathetic.
"He's looking this way! Come on, girl! Now's the time!"
This was not the impression she intended to make. She chewed on her lip briefly, then made up her mind. She turned heel and dashed down the hallway- in the opposite direction.
Brief cries of alarm drifted after her, quickly cut short as Seto Kaiba drew close enough to see down the hallway- and Téa wheeled out of sight just in time. Melanie, Miho, Shelby, and Andrea slowly spun around and stared at Seto for a moment with deer-in-the-headlights expressions. Melanie forcibly lifted the corners of her mouth in a smile.
Miho spoke first. "Duke Devlin?" she offered, waving with her hand back down the hallway Téa had just charged. She thanked whatever gods existed that they'd all been looking the other way so Seto really had no proof they were stalking him and not Devlin. And Duke was a lot nicer about 'rabid fangirls', as Seto put it. He'd either laugh it off or try and flirt with one of them.
That wasn't really a punishment.
Seto snorted, shook his head, and continued down the halls as if nothing had happened. No one breathed until his footsteps were long gone.
Téa, meanwhile, hurried away, sending a silent apology to her friends for abandoning them. But it couldn't be helped, and they couldn't all have gotten out of their fast enough. Hopefully someone would come up with a fairly decent lie, even if Seto could see right through it.
She ran down a hallway parallel to the one Seto had been using, then took a shortcut through the gym and emerged triumphantly in front of him. She heard him approaching, his boots squeaking slightly on the floor. When he came into full view, and caught sight of her, Téa was bent over the fountain, calmly taking a drink. She lifted her head and patted at the corners of her mouth.
"Oh. Hi there, Kaiba," she said, smiling at him and casually shifting her backpack more firmly onto her shoulders. She hoped that her ponytail had stayed secure and that her appearance didn't betray her frantic dash, or for that matter her anxiety. "Having a good morning?"
"You're early," he stated. He continued walking, but slowed imperceptibly so that she could fall in step beside him. Her heart fluttered, and she would have swooned if she were safely out of sight and not in school.
This is the stupidest, most immature crush ever. EVER.
"I'm always early," she said, shrugging. "There's a brief dance practice before school. It's the most convenient time to hold it, when people aren't always rushing off to clubs or meetings or such."
"Are there lots of girls in the dance club?" Seto wanted to know. His sudden question seemed way out of character, but Téa was so hopelessly in love that she put little thought to it.
I am so stupid.
"About a dozen of us," she answered. "Exactly a dozen, actually. There are tryouts for twelve places at the beginning of the year."
"So would that explain why there are four screeching fans hiding in the hallway and spying on Duke Devlin?" he questioned with a deadpan face. Téa quickly put a hand to her mouth, hiding a smile.
"I suppose so," she snorted. Nice lie… we try our best not to inflate his ego any more!
He does have a swollen ego. I know this. Why do I like him?
I am so, incredibly stupid.
"We got out a few minutes earlier than usual today," Téa continued, choosing not to mention that it was an arrangement between her and Melanie, the co-captains, so they could be ready when Seto Kaiba arrived at school.
He shot a sidelong glance at her. "You don't look like you've been working out at all. Do you shower?"
It took her a few moments to respond.
That was a compliment. Wasn't it?
"Yes," she finally managed. "And blow-dry my hair so I don't drip all over my uniform." She smiled at him.
And Seto Kaiba smiled back
He DID smile. I know I'm not imagining it.
Okay, so his lips twitched. Relatively speaking, he might as well have been singing and dancing.
They were headed for the school's library, since both of them had first-period study. Téa saw the door looming close, and had never hated the library so much, and had never wished so badly that the hallways were longer. Her brain was moving slowly, searching desperately for an excuse to stall them a moment longer.
Her hand slipped, and her backpack slid down her shoulder. At the last moment, Téa regretted the decision. She was trying not to look like a hopeless fangirl. She was trying not to do anything too clichéd. 'Accidentally' dropping her papers everywhere was not going to make her look good- and Seto Kaiba probably would just leave her there anyway.
But it was too late to salvage the situation, and her sudden jerk only sent her backpack flying. It knocked into Seto's briefcase, and both items spilled open onto the floor, scattering notebooks and papers everywhere.
"I am so sorry!" she cried without thinking about it. Téa cringed, hoping Seto wouldn't kill her. Melanie and Miho and the other two girls would be the only ones to appreciate the true irony of it all.
To her shock, he didn't yell at her, or even go home that afternoon and quietly hack into her bank account. He rolled his eyes, blowing his bangs back impatiently, then squatted quickly and swept his pile into a neat handful, shoving them into his briefcase. Téa immediately dropped to her knees and gathered her things, clutching the whole messy pile to her chest. "S-sorry about that," she stuttered.
"It's okay. Mokuba's done worse." Although his face was impassive, and his voice now suddenly testy, Téa had a sudden clear moment of thinking.
I'll never catch him in a better mood than this.
So as Seto moved forward, and placed his hand on the door to the library, she blurted, "Will you go to the Spring Fling with me?"
Was that real shock on his face? She decided it was. Joey couldn't claim that he wasn't human anymore- Seto was showing actual emotion!
Bad emotion, it was true. At least he hadn't killed her yet. Again.
He turned to face her, studying her earnest blue eyes for a moment. Then he gave a short, decisive nod. Her heart briefly jumped, thinking he'd said yes, and she enjoyed a few seconds in blissful, perfect heaven, before his next words brought her crashing down to earth.
"I thought I saw you running down the hall. And I heard the other girls whispering your name."
And without further ado, he opened the door to the library and went in.
Melanie quickened her step: she was approaching the library and saw Téa Gardner standing outside the door, looking rather stunned and clutching a disorganized pile of papers and books to herself. "Oh boy," she said as she got within earshot. "This can't be good."
Melanie held the door for Téa, and the two girls slumped down in front of an empty table. "Talk," Melanie ordered, leaning forward.
Téa let her head fall onto the pile of papers. "This is so ridiculous," she said, her voice muffled. "I'm acting like a little girl with a crush. I am a little girl with a crush. The stupidest crush on the face of the earth." She raised her head mournfully. "I can't believe how I just acted in front of him. That's not me at all. It's just… I turn into a blathering idiot whenever I'm around him. I hide in hallways and drop stuff on purpose and idiotic things just fall from my mouth… I hate this. I hate being me when I do this."
Melanie was staring at her, eyes open, silently shaking her head.
"Yes, I do though," Téa said in frustration. "It's not that I hate myself. Because I love myself. I just turn into someone completely different around Seto Kaiba and I hate the giggling freak that I become!" She slammed a fist down on the table. "If liking him this much means this much agony and stupidity, I wish I didn't like him! Except that I can't imagine a stupid life without liking him! Mel, what do I do?"
Melanie was still shaking her head. Her black-rimmed eyes were still wide open. But, Téa suddenly realized, she wasn't staring at her at all.
She slowly turned around in her seat. And because she had prepared herself so well for the worst, she didn't even let out a shriek of surprise when she came face-to-face with Seto. Or rather, with the KC logo on his belt. She tilted her head way back in order to see his face. He was peering down at her, looking more curious and less homicidal than she'd feared.
"I grabbed your notebook by mistake," he said shortly, tossing it on top of the rest of her junk and sending a few papers blowing off the side. He didn't seem to care. "Nice doodles."
Téa risked a glance at the notebook. Biology. She sat next to Miho in that class. Miho would spend most of her time leaning over Téa's shoulder and drawing on the pages. She carefully flipped it open to the first page: Mrs. Téa Kaiba, it read in cursive, flowing letters.
She groaned, realizing once and for all that her life was over. "I didn't even write that!" she shouted brazenly after Seto, but he was already marching away, back to a table at the other end of the library and behind a corner.
"I think," Téa said calmly to Melanie, "I would like to be insane."
"I think you already are," Melanie responded, trying to inject some humor into the situation. To her immense relief, Téa began to laugh.
"I've reverted to age five, is all," she said, shaking her head and leaning back in her chair. Briskly, she began to gather up the remnants from her backpack, sorting them quickly into their proper folders. "Really. Ever since I decided I had a 'crush' on Kaiba, I turned into a crazy little kid. I think I'm done with that, though. Now that there's truly no chance for me, maybe I can regain some semblance of normality." Melanie frowned slightly, but didn't say anything.
Téa changed the subject then, chatting amicably about the next dance practice and which exercises seemed to work best. Slightly guiltily, Melanie tuned her out, turning Téa's odd behavior over and over in her mind. She must really like him, she realized. I guess that makes you go crazy, to a degree. She sighed, then was pulled from her musings by the arrival of three of Téa's friends: Yugi Moto, Joey Wheeler, and Tristan Taylor.
"Hiya. What's shaking?" Tristan greeted, hooking his leg over a chair and plopping down.
Téa looked directly at him, wearing the bright smile of someone about to jump off a cliff, and laugh all the way down. "I just asked Seto Kaiba to the Spring Fling."
Joey's rear had no sooner touched the seat when it was up again, the blonde jumping around like the wood was made of coals. "You what?" he screeched. "Are you insane?"
"Pretty much," Téa admitted cheerfully. Then, as if realizing what she'd just done, her face fell again. She looked at Yugi, either for reassurance or because she was afraid of his reaction.
He simply shrugged. "Yami asked Serenity to the Spring Fling," he said, putting in his own contribution. "I guess a lot of new couples are popping up?"
"He what?" That was Tristan. Joey patted him on the arm reassuringly, a huge grin on his face, Téa's confession quickly forgotten.
Yugi and Téa ignored the other two. "I guess." She propped her head up on her arms. "Kaiba and I aren't exactly a couple, though. You can guess what his answer was."
"Oh." Yugi paused a moment. "Was that who you were talking about yesterday?"
She shrugged, then nodded.
"Oh." There was a moment of silence, and Téa stared blankly at the ceiling, counting tiles. Then Tristan stared piteously at Yugi, until the short duelist grew annoyed. "Geez, what is it?"
"You've betrayed me," Tristan said mournfully. Yugi huffed.
"I did nothing of the sort," he started to pout, but Tristan couldn't keep a straight face any longer and began laughing. Joey joined in on the teasing, and Melanie poked fun at all three boys, and eventually Téa joined the mini-spat until the librarian stalked up and hushed them all.
If nothing else, she loved her friends.
"Hey, Yugi?" Joey asked later that day, as they wandered out of Algebra. "What did you mean, 'Yami' asked Serenity to the dance?"
Yugi looked up in surprise, then remembered his statement in the library. "Oh, uh… well, you know I'm not the best dancer. So Yami agreed to take care of her for the most part. You know…"
"Hmm."
'Nice save,' Yami commented.
'Hardly,' Yugi snorted. 'Even Joey is too smart for that.'
Joey was eyeing him speculatively. "Can I talk to him?" he asked suddenly.
Yugi winced. "Talk to who?" he asked innocently. A little too innocently.
Joey just waited. Flushing a little, Yugi relinquished control, and allowed Yami to move in. "Afternoon," he greeted Joey.
"Hey, pal," the blonde replied, clapping him on the back. "Hey, I just wanted to know… Yugi said you were gonna be spending most of the time with Serenity. Is that right?"
"In all likelihood," Yami responded, his tone somewhat guarded.
"And I can trust you not to do anything funny?" Joey asked sharply.
Yami looked him directly in the eye. "You can trust me not to do anything 'funny', or anything that could in any possible way bring harm to Serenity," he vowed. "But, Joey. She is growing up, and you can't keep her alone forever."
Brief silence, except in Yami's head. 'YAMI! I have NO desire to be killed by my best friend! Did you HAVE to say that?' The former Pharaoh remained quiet.
"All right," Joey finally said, cracking his knuckles and rubbing them. He cleared his throat. "Then I guess there's only one thing to do." Yami waited apprehensively.
"I have to give you The Talk."
Téa looked up in surprise. She and Miho were settled in for Biology, and most of the other students were filtering into the room, waiting for the bell to ring in a few seconds. Yugi and Joey's seats were vacant for the moment, but she heard a shouting voice in the hall outside that sounded suspiciously like one of the missing boys.
"-and if you hurt her, I'll kill you!"
Their teacher, a young, rather anxious woman, wrung her hands together. "Those two are always up to something," she muttered, before heading out into the hall, presumably to yank them inside.
"-if I ever spot her crying or otherwise distressed, I'll be forced to assume it's your fault and come over to the Game Shop and personally kick your ass and- ow! Okay, okay, sorry Miss Raymond."
"I want you two to apologize to each other," she was saying furiously.
"Oh, it's okay, Miss Raymond," Yugi hastily explained. "We weren't actually argu-"
"I don't care what you were or weren't doing," she interrupted briskly. "Say you're sorry and come on in. Class is starting."
Téa, and all the rest of her classmates, had turned around in their seats to stare at the door. Miho snickered, and people were whispering and giggling to each other. She started to face the front again, but her eyes got snagged by Seto. He was sitting, deliberately isolated from even his lab partner, and paying no attention to the conversation going on outside. His gaze was downward, likely reading from his notes or preparing for the day's lesson. Téa kept watching him, and after a moment he sensed her eyes upon him and tilted his head slightly to face her. Caught, she didn't immediately blush and turn away; she gave him a half-smile and lifted her head before turning to face the front of the room.
She gave into temptation and snuck a peek at Seto again, but he'd already turned back to his notebook. He wasn't smiling, of course; the illusion earlier had just been to lure her into his trap, and extract the information he wanted from her. Embarrassing. He was such a creep.
But such a smart, thoughtful, careful, good-looking creep.
She slumped back in her chair. It took more energy to hate someone than to neglect them. She supposed she should be grateful Seto paid her that much attention, at least.
She made up her mind. Based on past experience, she also could conclude that it took more energy to love someone than it did to hate him.
