Author's note:

For those who do not know;

Miho is a character from the Yugioh season zero anime and in one of the episodes the writers had this character declare that she had bought special lingerie to impress somebody whom she was going on a trip with… which had latter been revealed to be her mother…

Tea's character was even less developed, and… well the character as a whole was pretty much more female degrading in the season zero series than in the DM series, but aside from that one glaring flaw, I still love season zero the best which is why I'm making references to it in my writings.

Although I will admit there were some things with season zero that were… incredibly strange…

So in this, little drabble I decided to try to be equally strange!

XXX

Broken coin

Tea's lips narrowed to a thin line quickly looking out the window, her guilt overwhelming to the point where she could not look her friend in the eye.

"Why is Miho being so cold?" Tristan pouted sulkily his head lying on their joined desks. "First time I see her since she transferred schools over the summer two years ago and she acts like we were never friends. Not even stopping long enough to explain why she hasn't kept in touch before walking away like I'm… like I wasn't anything."

Tea winced, her thoughts turning to a day long past, Miho's bedroom had been a little messy, had always been a little messy, compared to the rest of the often empty, immaculately clean apartment. Miho's silky long blue hair swayed gently in the warm breeze of the open window as she giggled about something that had caused Tea's heart to break.

"Miho is so happy she finally has a date with the head of the track team, he's sooo dreamy!" Miho had giggled as she had danced around in her underwear bottoms and held up a dress that was incredibly short in the skirt to her frame and admired herself in the mirror.

Tea froze in her attempts to both zip up her skirt and find where her socks had landed after they had been thrown off during the hazy frenzy of kisses and touches from earlier.

"What?" Tea croaked her voice small and hurt.

"He's got a friend… ah Miho forgot his name, but he's interested in you too!" Miho continued unhearing. "We can double date! Wouldn't that be fun? I heard them talking the other day about how they think that two girls doing this and that with each other was super hot!" The girl giggled some more oblivious that Tea was now clutching her chest and staring at her in horror. "We can all have fun if that really is true! Just like how we have fun when we aren't busy dating boys!"

Joey looked at Tristan flatly. "Maybe ya said somethin' dat made her mad." The blonde suggested.

"I don't think saying; "Hey Miho, how have you been?" is going to make her mad." Honda growled.

"I mean before yesterday, like back when she was still here." Joey continued unwavering. "I hate t' point this out t' ya man but you was pretty creepy when she was around."

"Hey!" Honda protested, highly offended.

"You did speak at length about how the two of you were going to get married and have a whole bunch of children." Tea grumbled her mood darkening. "I know that she… was the type that didn't mind talking about that stuff with her actual, very numerous, boyfriends… but still, very creepy, on both of your ends actually, especially since she was never serious with any of her… dates"

Immediately Joey and Yugi turned their worried gaze to Tea.

Oblivious Tristan seemed to be thinking his own dilemma over. "Was talking about that really that creepy?" Tristan asked nervously. "I mean you did say that is was common for her to talk about that kind of thing with her boy…friends? Wait, Miho had boyfriends and in plural, more than one?"

"And you keep tellin' me dat I'm de slow one." Joey muttered before turning his attention back to his female friend. "Do ya know somethin' 'bout dis Tea?" He asked.

"I have never dated boys!" Tea's hurt voice sounded like a death knell in the silence of the room. "I'm not even attracted to them!"

Miho turned to her, confusion evident. "But what about Yugi?"

"Yugi is like my brother!" Tea hissed violently. "And Joey and Tristan are my friends, as in just friends, I'm-not-interested-in-them-that-way friends!"

Miho blinked at the severity of the other's tone. "Your weird." The girl stated her nose scrunching up.

Tea let out a hurt breath. "Yeah well your weird too considering what we've been doing for the past hour!"

"That's not weird." Miho insisted sounding offended, her hands on her hips. "That was a good time! All girls are doing that now but it's nothing serious!"

Tea felt like she had just been kicked in the gut.

Miho snorted. "Maybe you should let me fix you up with a boyfriend, it'll help you not be so weird. You honestly didn't believe that we were serious did you?" She asked lightheartedly, as if she weren't twisting the metaphorical knife in deeper.

Silence hung in the room like a foreboding fog.

Miho froze as the silence stretched. "Tea? You… you didn't actually think that… this was anything did you? I mean a pretty girl like you has got to have had at least one boy to fool around with in the past… It wasn't like I was your first kiss or your… first… right?"

Tea looked up from the floor the combination of tears and the pure disgust and the hurt on her features making Miho step back.

"Don't tell me what to do." Tea's voice was small but it sounded loud in the quiet of the room. "I let people like you make me terrified of being who I am, I even tried forcing myself to like a boy, thank god he never took advantage of me like you did or else I would have been way more screwed up then before."

Miho stepped forward. "Tea-"

"Don't tell me who I am!" Tea snarled her eyes a livid brilliant blue. "If nearly getting blown up on that blasted Ferris Wheel and feeling so depressed that I started to wonder if it was for the best if I did die… if all of that did not change who I am then nothing will! Because I'm not weird, I am me, Tea Gardener! And firebirds don't let others shame them for their true natures!"

Tea did not wait around for a reply, only having the presence of mind to grab her school bag and her shoes as she raced out the door, leaving behind a pair of socks and a jacket, which was an acceptable loss because she had plenty of socks and the jacket's pockets had been too small to put anything other than tissues and an embroidered handkerchief in anyway. Nothing worth doubling back to grab while Miho was quickly dressing, especially that handkerchief which had been a gift from Miho herself.

"Tea?" Tristan asked concerned, the girl was squinting at the window as if she was in pain or something.

"If I understood the complexity of the human female mind… well first off I'd have better luck making female friends, and secondly I'd probably be the richest person on the planet after I published a how-to manual on the subject." Tea stated bluntly still not looking Tristan in the eye. "Miho was an especially confusing individual and for the life of me I still cannot comprehend half the things she did."

"I had heard rumors…" Tristan mumbled sadly. "But I figured that it was just… guys being jerks…"

"You dodged a bullet." Tea said simply relaxing slightly when it became apparent that her friend was not going to yell at her for trashing Miho's non-existent honor. "Miho had me fooled for a while too with her sweet and innocent act… I don't know how much of those rumors are true but, with my thankfully little snippet of knowledge of her life, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a long trail of broken hearts left in her wake from the boys… and some girls…"

An embarrassed squeak broke Tea from her staring contest with the window, her three- well two, Joey didn't look as phased as the others- friends stared at her in shock.

Tea rolled her eyes thoroughly unimpressed. "Oh for the love of- we live in the freaking twenty-first century! That kind of thing is not weird or enough to warrant anybody getting stoned to death anymore, many places have made same-sex marriage legal, New York being one of them by the way."

Tristan shuddered opening his mouth in preparation to speak.

"And before you start I'd like to remind you that not only do I expect you to visit me in New York but I also train with many, not all mind you, of the same people who, in the privacy of their own damn lives, swing in the way that makes you all squirm so uncomfortably." Tea cut him off, her tone turning freezing cold. "Plus you can't really go on talking about how uncomfortable you are in front of me like some prudish Victorian lady without sounding like a hypocrite since I only pretended I didn't know what that tentacle pump girlz video was about when it fell out of your bag the other day. And the ugly truth is that the reason why I know about that particular video in the first place was because some actual, very nice and respectable lesbians that I train with, and who treat me with respect, have been laughing over the unrealistic inaccuracy and ridiculousness of this supposed "most popular" video for. Weeks. So please save those comments for when I'm out of the room."

Tea decided that Joey was her current favorite best friend of the day, for the boy was clapping her on the shoulder and trying so hard not to burst something while he suppressed his laughter at the expressions the other two were making.

Under her stern glare Yugi's eyes looked as though they were threatening to invade the rest of his glowing red face and his body seemed to shrink as if trying to hide.

Tristan looked like a frightened deer caught in the path of a hunter with a really big gun, his hands meekly held up in surrender as she continued to glare.

And then a thought seemed to strike him, because Tristan turned from nervous to contemplative, and that in turn made Tea nervous.

"Is it…?" He hesitated. "Is it alright if I ask how you know all of this exactly?"

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want." He added quickly when Tea's expression crumpled into depression.

She wanted… me to help her get guys… in a way that not only was I uncomfortable with but… I just… don't want to do those kind of things for some idiot boy's entertainment at my expense. I was falling for her, she used me, and I was the fool who fell for it. Tea thought bitterly as she gritted her teeth emotions feeling raw.

The girl looked away, her eyes flashing hot from residual anger. "She thought that I was like her for some reason, that… she could use me to get guys, she was dead wrong because I'm not like her at all!"

"I… didn't want you to know." She confessed after a heavy silence, she still could not look at her friend, the friend who she had betrayed by sleeping with his crush, the girl he thought he had a chance with, the girl she thought had wanted her just as much as she had wanted Miho. "It- the situation embarrassed me and when she didn't speak to any of us the rest of the summer and didn't return to school… I had just wanted to forget, and I didn't want you getting hurt with the truth… which was all for not seeing as you got hurt anyway."

She had hoped that his feelings for Miho had been… well less severe than her own, which was probably the case seeing as how at the time Tristan had been swooning over both Miho and Joey's little sister Serenity.

Tea recalled that Joey had been ticked off about that for months.

She still felt guilty, even though Tristan had not been as serious as she had been, it was one thing to date (although Tea supposed that those dates had all been one sided) one of your friend's former crushes to his face but behind his back? Sure Tea had been shaken up by nearly being killed off on a Ferris wheel of all places by some psycho with a flare for the dramatic, and had wanted desperately to embrace being alive… but it was still a cold thing to do.

That and she was pretty sure not even one of her friends was suspecting that their lone female friend was… well understood exactly what they were talking about when a cute woman walked past.

"Don't ya worry 'bout da drama queen ovah here." Joey frowned, squinting his eyes warningly at Tristan. "'Specially since he'd been eyein' my sistah an' every other girl with a pulse at the time… still is by da way. So's don't stay quiet for his sorry sake if ya was hurt… were ya hurt?"

Tea shrugged nervously. "Well I was… disappointed she turned out to be the kind of person I didn't want to be around." She answered looking shifty.

"Dat wasn't what I was talkin' 'bout an' you know it." Joey stated flatly his accent getting thicker.

"What other kind of hurt could she have done to Tea other than not being a good friend?" Yugi asked timidly making Tea blush bright red and glare at the ceiling.

"I'm over it!" Tea declared her patience snapped. "And it's still too embarrassing for me to talk about so just rest assured that I have moved on!"

"So you was hurt in another way!" Joey zeroed in being unusually insistent on the issue.

Tea prayed for a distraction.

"Who's Hurt?" A stern baritone voice asked, making Tea mouth a silent "thank you" to whomever was in in the higher power department.

Yami Yugi looked around the joined desks worriedly. "I had fallen asleep, did something happen while I was out?"

"Tristan's acting all heartbroken because Miho is pretending that she had never met him." Tea jumped in still grinning at the ceiling.

The spirit furrowed his brow as he searched his memory. "Mi-ho? That odd old friend of yours who bought fancy undergarments to impress her mother when they went away on a trip together? What happened to her by the way? She hasn't been around as much-?"

The spirit blinked at the wide-eyed stares directed his way. "What?" He asked.

"This explains so much." Tea spoke in awe, suddenly feeling much better. "I thought that it was weird that Miho liked to wear her mother's dresses while she was away on business…" Tea's good mood fell a little when she remembered something.

"…I guess she was lying when she said that she felt more comfortable in a size too big…" Tea realized with growing horror that the "fancy garments" that Miho used to wear to bed, that had made the other girl squeal in delight when they had found out that they had fit Tea almost like a glove… weren't Miho's lingerie…

"Oh. My. God…" Tea stated weakly.

"Why would she want to impress her mother with those kind of clothes?" Tristan asked his brain working to find an innocent explanation.

"FOR SICK AND WRONG REASONS THAT'S WHY!" Tea roared, jumping up out of her seat, and shaking her finger in the boy's face.

"You dodged a bullet I tell you! A bullet filled with crazy Oedipus complexes and excessive talking in the third person! And if I ever hear you sulk about for such a person like that ever again I'll smack your face off and let you eyeballs roll all over the dirty floor and feed your lips to my cat! No one should feel bad for someone that is nearly fully grown who likes to get herself and her friends to walk around in her mother's clothes and underwear-" The girl convulsed clamping her hands to her mouth.

"I think I'm gonna hurl." Was the only warning Tea gave them before racing out of the room, nearly bowling over a very surprised Ryou and Seto Kiaba as she ran past.

Yami Yugi turned his bewildered gaze to the other three wide-eyed males surrounding the table. "I get the feeling that I'm missing the more important aspects of this conversation aren't I?" He asked.

"What is the matter with your friendship worshiper Yugi?" Kiaba demanded as he stalked towards the group. "Has she finally cracked?"

"Lay off money bags! She just found out that someone she used 't know tried 't turn 'er into der ma 't feed their Oedipus complex." Joey growled looking in the direction of the girl's departure with worry.

"… I don't know what's more disturbing; that sentence, or the fact that the mutt said something intelligent." The CEO eyed the blonde worriedly.

"I can be smart when it suits me." The blonde sniffed turning his nose up at the taller male.

"What's an Oedipus complex?" Yami Yugi asked Tristan.

"Some sort of literary referenc… I think… I don't know man, literature class puts me to sleep." Tristan replied with a mystified shrug.

XXX

After school and after a lengthy explanation of the Greek tragedy involving the character Oedipus and of the topic of the previous conversation (which had caused Kiaba to skitter quietly away in a manner that was suspiciously like a spooked cat) Ryou proposed that they all bring cookies and cake to comfort their friend with.

They had arrived at Tea's house just in time before the girl had started her sixth shower, and just in time to soothe over the worried, nervous nerves of Tea's mother who had come home from shopping to find her daughter taking scalding hot showers and mumbling to herself that she needed to bleach her brain.

Tea would later admit that the cake helped, even though the silence had been awkward and the weird TV show that her mother had prescribed (the second season of something called Twin Peaks), to attempt to bleach their brains, caused the spirit of the puzzle to drive himself nearly crazy just trying to figure out what the heck was going on (Ryou however seemed quite taken with the show… strangely enough).