Edited: 15/09/2014
Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh or any of the characters.
Valon's discovery
Raphael had been right when he said Master Dartz would not have been impressed with Valon's actions. Not only had his master been angry, so had Mai. Valon had suffered with a broken arm and Alister, well Alister was pissed off for a number of reasons. Foremost, for not capturing Kaiba's soul and taking revenge, but also because Mai had kept her soul. So, none of the bikers were very happy about the events of the day.
Mai, who was in an especially bad mood, was contemplating her duel, trying to figure out just where it went wrong. She could remember the whole duel, but for some reason, she kept coming back to Téa's little monologue.
"Mai you don't know what abandoned is like, so how can you stand there pitying yourself. We gave you our numbers why didn't you ever call us, I'll tell you why, because you wanted us to call you: you wanted us to spend every waking minute thinking of you. Well your th' one tha' ran off wi out a care in th' world abart us, stop pityin' your sen and grow up some people's lives are far worse than yours,"
She hadn't liked Téa when they first met (as the annoying cheerleader that blew her top at the slightest honest advice, it was hard to like her) but as the group accepted her more through Battle City she had bonded with the only girl. They hadn't had a lot in common, but what they had was enough. Still, she couldn't shake the accent when she was screaming at her; the start of her friendship speech was her typical high pitched schoolgirl voice but as she continued and got more worked up her accent began to change. She hadn't pronounce her words like she normally did, she sounded somewhat Australian.
But how could she be from Australia? It was silly; she didn't have the tanned skin that they have. Of course, her eyes drifted towards Valon, she realized that he also didn't have the skin colour they had.
"Valon?" Her questioning tone had paused the three male's conversation. All were surprised that she hadn't snapped or made a scene.
"Ye' Mai?" Mai frowned; his accent was similar to Tea's that day.
"Why is your skin pale even though you lived in Australia?" The trio of males glanced at one another each thinking the same thing. Puzzled on how to explain what the woman in front of him, he thought about the best way to explain without being insulting.
"Y'u see Mai us Aussies 'ave th' same colour as th' rest of y'u fo'ks but th' sun changes' th' colour of are skin. I've lived away from the hot sun of Australia for quite some time so mi skin has lightened leaving mi a faint glo'."
Mai nodded her head and thought about what he said. Could Téa really be from Australia? She looked at Valon, once more staring at him hard, which didn't go unnoticed by the three males who were staring at her rather peculiarly. His hair was the exact same colour as Téa's, but that doesn't mean a thing. Lots of people have dark brown hair. His eyes were the exact same shade as Téa's, she had looked down at the girl often enough to know the colour of her eyes, a deep rich blue, the colour of the ocean. Their noses were different but their mouths were similar, the same shape, though his were thicker.
"Mai, wha' ya lookin' at?" he asked her nervously.
His voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she tilted her head and looked at him. "You wouldn't believe me if I tell you this, but you look remarkably like Gardner."
"Who?"
"She's the female cheerleader isn't she?" Raphael boomed out. He himself looked closely at his Aussie companion and could see where Mai had got the idea from.
Valon snorted and stormed away from the table without any explanation but stood outside the door listening to what the other three were saying.
"You see Mai, Valon's past isn't overly cheerful. She may look a little like him but he doesn't want to think that because he once had a sister. He can't remember her name or anything. He finally admitted to me this morning he'd been having dreams of his past and his sister was there, early this morning he had awoke from a dream and in front of his bed was Mother Mary," Alister's head swivelled around to face Raphael at lightning speed staring at him hard. Mai looked at him shocked, she had heard of Mother Mary once after asking Valon when she first joined how he ended up here. He had talked about a woman called Mother Mary, a nun and the only person who cared about him. After asking about his parents, his personality switched quickly and told her never to mention them again. She hadn't and to this day she didn't dare. The news of Valon having a sister was startling but inside of her the feeling in her stomach wouldn't settle.
"Mother Mary told him she was still out there but he doesn't know who the she is, and I think he's afraid to find out." From the outside the kitchen Valon scoffed he wasn't scared to find out he just didn't want to find out after searching the 'she' was his bitch of a mother.
"Did you hear her voice when she lectured me about pitying myself when I was duelling Wheeler?" Raphael frowned. He had been too high up to hear her accent but he heard the words and what the girl said seemed to make sense. Mai had seemed to expect them to give everything up for her and when they didn't she felt betrayed.
"Her accent changed, it was like listening to Valon talk, hard to understand as her words mixed, she had an Australian accent!" Alister and Raphael looked at one another not quite believing the words coming out of the blonde's mouth.
"Look Valentine, I'm pretty sure Gardner is not Australian nor does she have any connection with Valon. If she did he would have known, or at least he would have said she looked familiar and he hasn't, now give it a rest." Alister's words were harsh, but they had stopped Valon's heart cold. All he could think about was how many times during the duel he had thought she looked familiar but it was impossible. He needed a lie down.
Raphael and Alister left Mai to her thoughts in the kitchen. She was sure what she had heard was Australian, and thinking back she realized that whenever Tea was tired or upset her pronunciation was slightly off. But Téa hated Australia. She had told Mai herself one night on Kaiba's blimp…
"And this photo is when I travelled to Bombay," Tea looked at the picture that Mai had handed her; it was beautiful and the young blonde was obviously enjoying her time by the look on her face. "The one place I've always wanted to visit however," Téa looked at her questioningly waiting for her to continue. "Is Australia."
"No you don't, Mai. It's an awful place that I despise!" Téa's voice was harsh and her eyes were slits. Mai had never seen her like this and was shocked at the brunette's fiery reply.
Not daring to ask the reasons behind her feelings. She looked back down to her picture.
"Have you ever been?" She was uncertain whether or not she wanted to know the answer.
"When I was young," her reply was to the point but Mai could tell there was something deeper something that was bothering the girl.
"You want to talk about it? You know girl to girl?" She was trying to be daring, but she could see the emotional battle the younger girl was fighting and she wished she had never said she wanted to visit Australia.
"Look Mai when I was young I was in Australia and something happened and I don't want to talk about it I just want to forget. I've never told anyone and I don't intend to start now," Mai knew that the lads had no idea either why Téa hated Australia so going to them for answers was out of the question.
"Ok but Téa if you ever need someone then you can come to me," Téa smiled up at her gratefully and the two girls changed conversation.
"Oh Mai, why didn't you pressure her into getting the information, maybe this would all make more sense," she mumbled under her breath. Both Valon and Téa had the same type of personality: loud and defensive but playful. She just couldn't shake the idea that Valon and Téa could be related. She distinctly remembered Raphael saying that Valon couldn't remember his sister's name. So dragging it out of him wouldn't help because it wasn't even in him. It frustrated her that there was nothing she could do about her theory.
Upstairs, Valon lay in his bed listening to the music; he couldn't shake off all the things Mai had said. He had recognised the girl but he didn't know how. Her eyes, they reminded him of his precious little sister as well as his mother. But lots of girls have blue eyes, they're not an uncommon colour by any means. He was over thinking this he just knew it. His sister was somewhere, somewhere in Australia she had to be!
He flopped on to his stomach, screaming into his pillow though his screams soon changed to sobs – sobs that racked through his body. He hated not knowing, he wishes he knew her name, he could at least have something to go on. He had nothing that could remind him of it. The memories had become the only source of knowledge he had. The last memory he had, she was three he had to admit she was cute at that age.
The sobs subsided replaced by fear and anger. If she was cute when she was three, what on Earth would she look like now that she was – 16. The image of his sister, or how he had imagined her to look like, was being felt up in his head. Growling he punched his pillow. His baby sister was out there and there'd be men showing an interest in her and he couldn't defend her.
"I'd know 'er name if someone said it." He rested his head against the wall and sighed. There was no harm in asking Mai Gardner's first name, he thought but wasn't sure. If she was his sister he couldn't just run up to her and tell her, what would Master Dartz say if he found out? If she was, his life would become so much more complicated, she'd hate him. The realisation hit him. Hit him hard. His sister would hate him if he knew what he had been doing. Playing with the green ring on his finger he for the first time looked at the gem in disgust. What was he doing?
Forcing himself off the bed, he walked to the door. There was no harm in asking Mai really? What was the worst thing that could happen? He headed down the stairs and walked into the room and sat on the sofa. All three had looked up when he had walked in but no one said a word. The room was silent and not a nice silent were you can relax. More like an uncomfortable, fidgety who's-gonna-explode-first silence.
"Mai?" he ventured quietly.
"Valon?"
"What is- what's Gardner's first name?" Mai's eyes widened in shock, she couldn't really be hearing what she thought she heard. She looked at the two men who were also shocked, but their eyes showed apprehension.
"Her first name is Téa. Why?" she nearly slapped herself when she heard her say "why". But Valon was having a different feeling, he felt dizzy it was all coming back to him, the years in the playground, the screams of pain from his sister, all the nicknames, T and Val, it all just clicked.
"Why were you called Valon, Val?" she asked him, sweetly looking up from her doll.
"I don't know. I guess it was the first thing they thought of," he told her shrugging his shoulders, "Why was you called Téa?"
"I know that! I once asked her why and she said it was cause she didn't like tea (said like the drink) and she didn't want a child, she said she pronounced it differently because when she was forced to tell people what her name was she couldn't say Valon and Tea" her expression saddened a little. Seeing this he stood up and wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. She giggled and wrapped her arms around him.
"I wish we could get rid of them, Val," she whispered silently.
"So do I, but you know I'll always be there for you Téa and no matter where I am, I'll be here," he pointed to where her heart was and smiled.
"Valon? Valon can you hear us?"
Opening his eyes, he saw Alister, Raphael, and Mai staring down on him. Looking around, he groaned. "Wha' wha' 'appened?" Attempting to sit up, he saw the worried faces continue to stare at him.
"You see Valon, when Mai said Gardner's name you just stood there for a while and then passed out," Raphael was sure from his reaction that Téa Gardner was his sister. "Valon is – is she –you know…" he couldn't finish his sentence he didn't want to upset or anger the youngest biker.
"Ye chum," he felt sick probably from fainting but the look of shock on the other three's face was enough to say he wasn't the only one surprised.
"Are you sure?" Alister finally asked.
"Definitely, as soon as Mai said 'er name it all came rushin' back; th' past. Then I 'ad this memory and it wa me and 'er, she asked mi why I wa' called Valon, and I asked 'er why she wa' called Téa," he looked down at the ring and wanted to cry but grown men don't cry. He had allowed himself upstairs but in public, no chance. Raphael followed his eye direction and sighed placing a comforting hand on his shoulders he spoke. "Now what?" He was at a lost not knowing what to do.
"I dunno," Valon finally mumbled.
Gasp so Valon now knows everything. Téa is his sister but she doesn't know her big brother is the soul capturing villain. I'll like plenty of reviews pleaseee. Keep an eye out for the next chapter.
If Valon and Téa are your favourite couple; try reading two of my other stories that share this pairing. Secret Love and Star Crossed Lovers.
But if Tea and Kaiba is your fav; then you should definitely give 3 Year Old Seto read.
