In answer to the questions I asked in my author's note last chapter, I haven't the faintest idea, and you don't get to find out.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is not mine. I never would've been able to consistently draw Atem/Yugi's hair. Let alone anyone else's except maybe Kaiba, Serenity and Tea's.
"Four days?"
Tristan's voice as an alarm clock would not sell well. That is what Mai decided as she grouchily sat up in the plush, king-size bed that was Marik Ishtar's. It had his desert ruins scent which in certain cases would be utterly boring, but considering that he spent a lot of time around incenses for rituals as well, the sand and the burning incense came together to form a rather attractive scent that had put Mai right to sleep, silencing her worries about Tea. Ishizu had slept beside her that night, but being the cryptic and quiet person she was, she had likely gotten up two hours earlier at five in the morning instead of seven like Mai, which was still an insane time to be waking up.
One may have wondered why two girls were sleeping in Marik's bed and not Marik himself, but no one wanted to disturb Tea. Or rather, the boys wanted to check on her, but Mai and Ishizu refused to let anyone in that particular room, leaving Ishizu bedless, as she was supposed to bunk with Tea. Pulling the gentleman card, Marik offered up his own bed, and then he stole the couch before Joey could lay his hands on it. Duke had managed to grab the recliner, and this left Yugi, Tristan and Joey the floor.
Sleeping arrangements aside, Mai was ready to strangle the obnoxious soldier wannabe for waking her up at such an insane hour. Her beauty sleep was not complete, but it was too late now.
She quickly changed clothes into a rather simple dress Ishizu had set out for her (right out of her own wardrobe, so it was no surprise that it was tan and a little snug on Mai's more voluptuous figure) and exited, passing by Ishizu's room and seeing that not only was the dinner plate gone, but the door was open and the room was empty.
Entering the living room and kitchen combination, Mai found that Joey and Duke were still sleeping, but everyone else was awake. Yugi was attempting to eat a breakfast roll of sorts and some fruit, but it appeared he had no stomach for breakfast. Curious, Mai glanced over at the area that Yugi had slept in, seeing a messily folded blanket and… a damp pillow? It seemed things weren't as normal as Mai had come to believe. She had known Joey wouldn't be overly emotional, having already settled for Atem's spirit being in each of them, and Tristan would be more angry about losing his best friend, which might explain why he was stabbing at his roll with a fork before savagely biting into it as he waited for an answer to his outburst of 'four days'. Kaiba was never emotional to begin with, and Duke, Marik, Ishizu and Mai had only sort of known him, so it was more like a friend going to college than a best friend dying. Realizing this, Mai wondered why Yugi hadn't been crying more than he had when Atem had been just entering the Afterlife. It seemed he had cried himself to sleep, but why hadn't he been as obvious about it as Tea? Clearly no one would have judged him for it. But when Mai looked back at Yugi however, she saw the reason. He was attempting to converse with Tea, worry clear in his eyes, as she half-heartedly responded. Her smiles looked painful, but Mai said nothing about it. Tea wasn't sharing her pain either, even if she was being more obvious about it, so Yugi wasn't going to share his.
Still, this was not the concern just yet. "What about four days?" Mai asked, sauntering over and grabbing herself a bundle of grapes to daintily pick and pop into her mouth.
Marik, currently sitting on a simple wooden stool with a piece of paper covered in scribbles before him, looked in her direction. "I had to make the call yesterday to report the destruction of the temple. Naturally they have to investigate to see if anything can be salvaged and to make sure it was actually age that destroyed the temple and all that good stuff. They don't want us to leave until that's done, just in case they find something of ours or if we can help them with anything we may have noticed on our visit there. Besides, they need to make sure it was actually age and not a bunch of tourists wrecking precious Egyptian history."
Well, that settled the issue Ishizu and Mai had been having about how soon to leave Egypt for Tea's sake. Whether it would be good for her or not, they'd be there another four days. Mai briefly wondered if the authorities would want to track down Kaiba as well, who had fled the scene in his private jet. Now that would be amusing.
Tristan wasn't happy, however, letting himself clumsily fall onto a stool to violently rip his teeth into the roll instead of an eating utensil. "Man, it's like they want to…" Anything else Tristan may have said was lost as he attempted to chew the cinnamon roll.
"So what do we do? We can't continue to stay here…" Yugi began, only to be cut off by Ishizu.
"It is fine. There is plenty of room as long as you're willing to pay for how much Tristan and Joey eat. I'm sure we'll have enough for the rest of you," Ishizu assured the high school student, sitting down to eat some cantaloupe.
Yugi didn't look pleased with having to intrude longer, and Mai was happy to see that he glanced worriedly at Tea, but he nodded with a small smile. "Okay, but then how do we spend our time?"
"There are many more ancient Egyptian structures to be found, or there are also markets with handmade goods," Odion provided.
Everyone began putting in their two cents worth on what activities should be done, and Joey finally got his say in when Tristan woke him up with the words 'Egyptian buffet'. It wasn't intentional, but they all should've known that the way to wake up Joey was to say 'buffet'. Duke woke up then as well, because Joey had made such a ruckus that the sleeping beauty awoke with a scowl. Tea, however, stood up and left the room after saying she was sure anything would be interesting.
Marik was trying to make a grocery list for the two bottomless pits that would be staying at the Ishtar household when Mai realized the development. She glanced over her shoulder to find the kitchen table lacking a certain brunette girl. Looking over at the front door, it seemed Tea's shoes were also gone.
"I'm going to go to the garden, see if I can find another flower for my hair today. Don't buy out the grocery stores, 'kay boys?" she warned them flirtatiously as always.
"Sure. Oh, and Mai, can you look for Tea? I thought she went to the bathroom but she's not back," Yugi commented, and it was clear that he was concerned, though it was also clear he was not concerned for the right reasons. He thought she had lost a friend, but Mai and Ishizu knew better. Everyone seemed to glance at the chair that Tea had recently occupied once attention was called to her absence, and everyone seemed to frown if only for a brief moment. Mai gave Yugi a small smile.
"Oh, she probably couldn't resist the garden either. Bet you she saw how beautiful I looked with that rose in my hair and wanted to go look at them. We'll come back eventually!" Mai replied before leaving out the back door to the garden. Once she closed the door behind her, however, Mai fled to the garden gate, making her way around the house to where she found Tea aimlessly walking away from the house into some unknown direction. She was farther than Mai had thought she'd be, and she almost missed the girl as she was wearing a tan dress no doubt given to her by Ishizu.
"Tea! Sweetheart, wait up!" Mai raised a hand in case Tea looked back, which she did despite all her mixed-up feelings. The girl came to a stop, looking torn as Mai jogged up to her. "It's too early for a walk, but if you're up to it I'll do my best."
Tea nodded, her expression hollow as she looked up at the clear blue sky.
For a while, there was silence, which was something Mai didn't normally appreciate. She'd have to remedy that. "So, four days in paradise, huh? Won't it be fun? We can ditch the idiot boys and party!" Tea didn't glance back, and Mai pretended to take it as a 'that's a stupid idea' response. "Hey, we're tourists. We're allowed to do that, you know."
Silence was all she got, and Mai huffed. The sound she made with the breath almost covered up Tea's next remark. "Four days in hell…" It was soft, barely audible, but Mai's perfectly capable ears caught those four words.
Most people might've pretended to have not heard what Tea said, but Mai was never considered one of 'most people'. "Hon, this wouldn't happen to have anything to do with an exceptionally older individual who looks your age and is oddly attractive in leather… would it?" Mai prided herself on the leather comment, but apparently it wasn't that impressive to the small peanut gallery.
Tea said nothing. Instead, she continued to watch her feet hit golden sand, occasionally with too much pressure, allowing her shoe to sink just a little as the sand adjusted to accommodate the foreign object.
"It's barely been a day and a half. It doesn't make sense to any of us, but hon, you're the only one trying to take it on by yourself."
"I know." The whisper was soft and full of shame. "Why?"
"The rest of us… well, let's just say we're different. We all lost a friend, but I think we're all able to realize deep down this was supposed to happen, but… then there's you."
Mai almost thought Tea wouldn't respond to that considering the long pause that followed. But the whisper came back, softer and broken. "I'm a terrible person."
Mai turned to face the girl in shock, but the younger girl kept going, head down. "Tea! What do you mean you're a terrible person? That's ridiculous!"
"Because… you said you guys realized it was supposed to happen. The Afterlife is what's best for him, so I should be happy… but I'm not… because I'm selfish. Stupid. Gullible. I'm a terrible friend. The worst. I should… I should be… h-happy!" Tears began to spill over, flowing over the curve of Tea's cheeks as she wrapped her arms around herself as if cold. But her body wasn't satisfied, and she instead buried her head in her hands, then tore her fingers through her chocolate hair, then fell to her knees, frustration and shame and sadness turning her into a complete mess.
Mai knelt, pressing a hand to the girl's shoulder as it inconsistently shook with sudden intakes of breath. "Tea… We're not okay with it. We'd be lying if we said we were. But letting ourselves be so sad we can't even be with our best friends… We know that's not right."
"Then… why?" Tea croaked, speaking of her own pathetic situation.
"You're different, and I think you know that."
Tea turned to look at Mai through red eyes and a curtain of straggly bangs damp from sweat due to the heat and from her tears. "Then doesn't that mean I'm even worse than normal. I... I'm in love with him, and this…" Tea fell back onto the sand, ignoring the heat of the sand as she smothered her face with her hands. "I know there's no way I could love anyone… like this. It would've been easier to love Yugi, but it's never going to happen. I love Atem. And it sucks. Sucks so… so much. And he's it. He's the one. And I can't have him, dammit!" She curled off the sand once more, her position ever changing as she formed a rocking ball of tears. Mai should've expected this much, though she swore she'd never heard the brunette curse. "Everyone will be compared to Atem. Everything. I'll want him all the time here. Yugi… any guy. It won't work. And I want to be happy for him because then it wouldn't hurt. I know this is love, but if it is… why can't I be happy knowing he's happy and getting what he deserved for all those times… all those times he's saved us…"
"Something tells me you don't believe that."
"That he deserves paradise? Of course I do! He deserves everything he wants."
"You know it's not bad to be selfish, Tea," Mai pointed out.
"He deserves better than me."
"Tea, you can be selfish. What if he wants you? Any guy who wants you would have to be a hero, otherwise they don't deserve you. And look, he's a hero, and an extremely handsome one." Tea let that point drop. It didn't matter. He wasn't here.
Tea stretched out her legs, breaking the ball she had curled into. "I don't understand. I'm in love with him, so how come I'm acting like a terrible person? In romance novels they always say 'they're happy, so I'll be happy no matter what'."
"Because that's bull shit. Someone's got issues if they think a person that much in love could possibly be okay with that. It's going to hurt you more than it could ever hurt us. It was a close friend for us, maybe even a brother to others. But you? You want him here, and not having him is worse than anything. Everything hurts when it reminds you of him, because it taunts you with what you don't have, throwing all those happy memories in your face. I get that, Tea," Mai admitted, sitting back beside the distraught girl.
Tea looked over at the blonde woman, confusion in her eyes. "You do?" She didn't mean to sound disbelieving, but Mai didn't seem bothered.
"Five years ago. But it's not so bad anymore. But that's because he came back and made a jackass of himself, and I knew I could move on, because what we had wasn't real," she said.
Tea pondered over why Mai felt the need to say that. Had she said it because she thought what Tea felt for Atem was real, meaning she was basically screwed for life? Because if so that definitely wasn't helping. "Have you found someone else, Mai?" Tea suddenly asked, trying to allow her curiousness to overpower her pain. She had her suspicions about who she thought Mai liked, and she also had her suspicions about it being mutual, but she thought she might as well ask.
Mai smiled sadly. "I think so. But there will be time for him later. For now, there's still you. What are you going to do, hon?"
Tea's heart clenched. No distraction. Great. She looked down at the sand beneath her, picking up a fistful of it and letting it fall through her fingertips. "I…" She let her hand fall. "I don't know."
"Well I do."
Mai stood up, grabbing Tea's arm and yanking her up as well. "I'm going to give you the cheesiest piece of advice ever, but the great thing about cheesy and cliché lines is that they're true. Truth is underrated, but it works. A lot," Mai began as she started marching back to the house. Tea wanted to say something about how she couldn't go back and face everyone while her eyes were red and puffy, but Mai was way ahead of that train of thought. "We're going to pick up Ishizu, and then we're going sight-seeing! You got it?"
Tea was lost, absolutely lost, and her undignified 'huh' made that very clear. "What does this have to do with cheesiness?"
"Cheesy piece of advice number one. Everything is going to remind you of him and depress you because it reminds you of how you don't have him with you. But instead, use everything that reminds you as a connection to him."
"How?"
"This is where Ishizu comes in."
"Mai, what exactly are we going to do?"
"I told you. Sight-seeing." Sight-seeing in itself was never a bad idea, but when you were with Mai, it could be very dangerous business.
"Now?"
"It's totally understandable that you're sad, hon, but let's be honest. I can't be the only one who misses the encouraging, strong and determined Tea. Am I right or am I right?"
"…Maybe."
"Then yes. Now."
I'm planning on rewriting Mai's conversation with Tea. The main concept of it will be the same, but I feel it was all put together rather awkwardly and was way too wordy. I'll put it in my author's note when I edit the conversation.
Ezzy
