Chapter eight:

Dejavu city


Saturday 8:30am

Tea was in a miserable state. Her nose was stuffy and her temperature was a little above average. She was curled up on the couch with a cup of herbal tea in her hand, flipping through the TV channels with no particular interest.

She knew that she would've caught a cold by the way she had gotten soaked yesterday but luckily it wasn't as bad as she expected. Hopefully with her mom's special herbal tea remedy she would be back on her feet by Sunday. She listened to the rain falling outside, trying her best to keep her thoughts clear.

As she was feeling a bit chilly she had put on her blue night robe over her regular clothes to keep in some warmth. She clinched the soft fabric around her as she took a sip of the sour tasting tea.

Just then there was a steady knock on her door. She almost spilled the contents of the cup as she looked up from the television. Her worst thoughts immediately took control. What if it was Yami? She definitely didn't want to deal with him in her current state. She stood up from the couch and reluctantly headed for the door. With a deep breath she peered into the peep whole. Her anxiety suddenly turned to relief which quickly turned to exasperation as she saw who was standing there.

She unlocked her door and swung it open, finding herself staring up at Kaiba.

"….What are you doing here?"

"Good morning to you too."

Tea only stared back at him with a confused look on her face. What on earth could he be doing at her apartment at this hour? She searched her memory for any trace of an explanation. Did she somehow mess up at work?

She felt a little uneasy looking up at him, he looked a little irritated and she noticed that his hair and coat were a little damp from the rain. Whatever it was it had to be important for him to come all this way.

"Are you gonna let me in or not?"

Tea sighed and stepped aside

"Fine."

Kaiba walked past her and waited for her to close the door behind her before speaking.

"Are you sick or something?"

"Yeah, just a cold."

She walked past him and gestured for him to follow.

He did so without hesitation as she led him to the living room.

She sat down in the same spot that she was sitting in before and continued flipping the channels as if he wasn't there.

"So why are you here again?"

"Well..."

He took a seat on the single couch opposite the one she was sitting on.

"I'm here because of the promise you made to my brother."

Tea immediately stopped flipping through the channels. She had completely forgotten about that.

Kaiba saw the look of unexpected surprise on her face and couldn't help feeling complacently satisfied at her reaction. He liked having the upper hand.

"What's the matter, don't tell me you forgot your promise already? Maybe you really are suffering from short term memory loss."

He made no attempt to hide his teasing demeanor.

Tea didn't exactly know what to say and had to take a few seconds to respond. When she finally spoke she was looking a bit anxious.

"So this is about me… actually... going with you guys on your vacation?"

"That was what you agreed to right?"

"…Yeah, but…"

"But, let me guess; now you want to go back on your word?"

"…Well… no… not exactly, it's just…. I didn't think that you would actually agree to let me come along…"

"Humph, don't get ahead of yourself, I only agreed for Mokuba."

He knew all too well that that wasn't exactly the case, but he couldn't afford to let her know his true motives. He had already revealed some of his concern for her once before and that was more than enough for him. At least for now.

Tea looked a bit nervous.

"Well if you have a problem with me going then…."

"Look it doesn't matter to me whether you go or not ok, I wouldn't even be going on this vacation if it wasn't for Mokuba so you'll be doing it for him, not for me Gardner."

"But I… I can't possibly… I mean it wouldn't be right..."

Kaiba knew it was the thought of spending a vacation with him that was making her nervous. Was that good or bad? He couldn't decide.

"Well you should've thought about all that before you made any promises to my brother; and seeing as I'm your boss, you really don't have a choice in the matter."

His brashness caught her off guard. She looked at him with an incredulous glare.

"Are you threatening me?"

"Not at all."

His slightly malicious smirk said other wise.

She gave him an 'I can't believe you' look as she reached for her cup of tea.

"….Well for your information, I am going to keep my promise to Mokuba, so you don't have to resort to petty threats Mr. Kaiba."

Kaiba made little to no attempt to hide his amusement. He had always found her to be especially cute when she was telling him off.

"Glad to hear you're finally using some of your brain cells for once."

Tea bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything as she felt her aggravation mounting. He was such a jerk, ugh, how could she have possibly thought he had changed?

She felt his eyes on her as she took a sip of her tea. And why the heck was he making her feel so on edge?

Damn this stupid cold.

She put the cup back onto the table feeling irritated.

"So… where exactly are we going?"

"Mokuba wanted to go to a beach resort so I made reservations for Monday at the Oceanview."

The Oceanview? That was one of the most expensive and most luxurious hotels around. It was practically impossible to get reservations there at such short notice

Tea looked a bit baffled

"…Monday?... as in… this Monday? "

"Yea, the sooner the better."

Wow, Kaiba definitely knew how to pull strings.

"So I'll expect you to be ready by 7:00 am sharp on Monday morning, we'll be traveling by jet."

"…you mean… in one of your private jets?"

"Obviously Gardner"

Tea felt awkward again. Why was this so hard to swallow? She just couldn't come to terms with the fact that she was actually going on a vacation with the Kaiba brothers. She picked up the remote and started flipping through the channels again.

"…And how long are we going to be staying there?"

"Two weeks."

Two weeks? That was like a lifetime.

Her head was starting to hurt. Great leave it up to Kaiba to make her feel worse.

Kaiba kept his eyes on her mainly because he couldn't seem to keep them off. She looked so cute sitting there with that worried look on her face. Was he really that unpleasant to be around? He thought about it for a second Oh yea, he was.

Tea sighed as she put her hand to her head; she was starting to feel a bit queasy. She slowly stood up from the couch.

"Ok, don't mean to be rude or anything but you really have to go now."

Kaiba stood up as well and stared at her, trying hard to hide his worry. He noticed that she was looking exhausted.

"Kicking me out already?"

Tea started walking out of the living room meaning for him to follow.

"Sorry, but I really don't feel well."

Tea felt her energy draining. She needed to rest if she had any hopes of getting better by Monday.

Kaiba didn't say anything as he followed close behind her. For some reason he was bit apprehensive about leaving her alone.

Seconds later they were at the door.

"Are you gonna be ok?"

Damn it why did he have to be so soft around her.

Tea turned to face him, surprised by his question

"…Yeah, I'll be fine."

She stared up at him feeling uneasy and wondering why he was suddenly so concerned about her well being.

Kaiba's thoughts took a turn down the compassionate path again as he looked down at her, much to his dismay. Why did she have so much power over his feelings?

Tea pulled her eyes away from his spellbinding ocean blues and turned to open the door. She felt her headache worsen as Kaiba walked past her and out into the hallway.

"Ok Gardner, just remember, 7:00am sharp on Monday, I'll send a limo over to pick you up."

Tea nodded, feeling like a kid at school.

As she watched him leave she couldn't help feeling a little worse than before. She sighed hopelessly as she shut the door. What had she gotten herself into?


Kaiba walked out into the light drizzle, looking up at the grey sky; by the looks of it they were in for a stormy night. He walked briskly toward his car, running his fingers through his wet hair as he got in.

When he was seated he glanced up at Tea's apartment building as he turned the engine on. As he drove off, his thoughts wandered back to her, he hoped that she was alright and that she would be ok for Monday. His original intentions were to keep her as far away from Yami as possible, but now there was something more, the need to keep her closer to himself. He sighed as he drove through the rain. When did he lose himself? How on earth did he get so damn soft?


Sunday 10:30am

Tea stepped into the air-conditioned drug store. She was feeling much better than yesterday but she decided it best to get some more medicine just in case her illness started acting up later on; Lord knows she needed all of her strength on Monday in order to put up with Kaiba's ego. She was glad that the weather had cleared up a bit that morning. It was nice to have the warmth of the sun again.

She found that her mind was starting to drift. She was still rather confused as to why Kaiba had been so nice to her back at her apartment but she couldn't help the blush creeping up to her cheeks at the thought. Could he really have some ounce of feelings for her? No that's crazy. She tried her best to push her thoughts away with little success. She felt a profound knot forming at the pit of her stomach as she thought of the vacation. Will she be able to survive that long with him? Will he drive her insane before the two weeks were up? It was hard enough being around him for eight hours at work everyday, how will she survive this? Not only that, but she was starting to feel more attracted to him. She sighed inwardly at her girlish absurdity as she bought what she needed at the counter. Why the heck did he have to be so gorgeous anyway? She felt even sillier as she paid the cashier for the medicine. She definitely needed to stop thinking so much, if she continued this way she would give herself a headache for sure. She smiled politely at the old cashier and was just about to turn around when she heard someone speak behind her. She recognized the voice straight away.

"Hello Tea."

She was more than a little reluctant to turn around but nevertheless did. She felt her heart rate speeding up as she found herself staring back at Yami who was standing right behind her, a pleasing smile on his face.

"…Yami?..."

" Hi, surprised to see me?"

Tea clenched her fingers around the strap of her purse.

"I… I don't… I mean, what are you doing here?"

"I told you I'd be back didn't I?"

"Well, yea …..But I wasn't expecting you to…."

Yami noticed the cashier staring at them. He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice.

"Look Tea, let's just go somewhere and talk ok."

Tea felt slightly nauseated, she wasn't prepared for this. She didn't want this, not now; but what could she possibly do?

She didn't know how to respond. As he stared down at her she felt her will power slipping. How could he still have so much power over her?

He lowered his voice even more as he came closer and put his hand on her waist, gently nudging her with him.

"Come on lets go ok."

Tea felt herself resisting but her words were frozen. For some reason she couldn't say no to him and she couldn't pull away.

She walked with him out of the drug store feeling hesitant and upset.

When they were finally outside, Yami turned to face her.

"Tea, I really need to talk to you…"

"Yami what … could we possibly have to talk about?"

Yami noticed right away just how distraught she looked. He had hoped that she would be willing to at least hear him out when he returned but apparently he was wrong.

"Tea, don't be like this…."

"How do you expect me to be? I told you before…you can't expect me to just…"

"Look, I just need to talk to you ok; I have some things I'd like to explain."

Tea stared at him with hurt, weary eyes. She couldn't allow this happen, he was going to try to ease his way back into her life.

"Yami I…"

"Please Tea, just give me a few minutes of your time, that's all I'm asking."

Tea stared at him as a cold gust of wind blew past them. The sun was just starting to disappear behind a thin layer of clouds lining the sky, how typical.

They both looked up at the darkening sky.

"Come on, it's gonna rain soon, lets go somewhere and talk ok."

Tea didn't say anything, she just watched him with a worried expression. She didn't know what to do.

She sighed as she reluctantly walked with him to his car, which was parked across the street.


11:15 am (Coffee shop)

Kaiba checked his watch as he entered the coffee house. He was in one of his bad moods again; he had gone to Kaiba corp. to tie up some last minute business deals before having to leave on Monday. The whole vacation deal was giving him a major headache, but for Mokuba he was willing to endure it. He was glad that the café was practically empty as he walked over to the counter to get himself a cup of coffee. He still had a few things to take care of back at the office and he wasn't too happy about it. He needed to finish his workload before he left tomorrow, of course he could easily take his work with him to the beach but knowing Mokuba there would be nothing of the sort. As he waited at the counter his eyes wandered to one of the tables at the far corner of the room.

What the hell.

He frowned as he stared at the two persons sitting at the table. He looked closer to confirm what he thought he saw.

Is that Tea…..and…..Yami?

Kaiba felt a dangerous swell of anger welling up inside him as he turned to take the cup of coffee from the flustered young woman at the counter. He stood with the coffee in his hands not knowing what he should do or if he should do anything at all. It was none of his business after all right. But none of his reasons seemed plausible enough to keep his anger at bay. All he wanted to do at that moment was to go over there and punch Yami square in the face. He looked over at them, paying close attention to Tea's expression. She was looking a bit nervous and her frustration was more than apparent. His irritation increased as he stared at her. He wasn't exactly sure what he should do. Should he really go over there? He kept reminding himself that it wasn't his business to get involved, but then again, maybe he should make it his business.

Besides, how could he pass up an opportunity to disrupt one of his most hated rivals?


Tea took a sip of her smoothie as she tried to gather herself. She glanced out the window, looking at the light drizzle; a million and one thoughts swimming through her mind. Yami was staring at her from across the opposite end of the table and she couldn't help feeling extremely uncomfortable.

She put her cup back on the table and reluctantly met his gaze.

"…Ok, now can you tell me what this is all about."

"Tea, Look….. I know I've hurt you before..."

Tea fiddled with her purse resting on her lap as she listened to him speak.

"..But I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

Tea was trying hard to keep her emotions under control. Every word that came out of Yami's mouth seemed to pierce her heart.

"…I, I can forgive you Yami …but I… can't forget what you did."

Yami looked intently at her. She was looking almost too hurt to talk about it.

"Look, I didn't mean for any of that to happen, I don't know what I was thinking Tea."

"…I really don't see the point in us talking about the past Yami."

Tea noticed that Yami's expression changed slightly. He looked a bit mad that she had said that.

"All I wanted to do was apologize Tea, I didn't get a chance before you came to the city…."

"..And after I accept your apology, then what?"

"Well I thought that you…"

But before Yami could say anything further he was interrupted by a voice he knew all too well.

"Well, well, what a surprise?"

Both Tea and Yami looked up to see Kaiba looming over them, a smirk on his face and a dangerous glint in his eyes.

Tea looked up at him surprised. She felt her uneasiness increasing considerably. This was definitely not good.