Hello again! Thanx for the Reviews! I got a lot of questions too, so I'm going to answer them....

To: Skurria It's supposed to be funny how Bakura teased him, glad u liked it! And Hendericksberg probably does exist somewhere in the world, but there's not one near me. Lol

To: Pocky no miko I heard from a lot of resources that Yami's (Marik and Bakura) liked blood a lot. I even heard that in one of the eppies that Bakura stabbed himself in the arm, and licked the blood, (of course, edited out) I even found a pic of it! It scared me! Lol So that's why I put that thing with Marik in.

To: Ladyofthedarkoneofthedead You won a trip!? SWEET! That's so cool! (whats cool is that its already paid for) and that the reason I can probably never in my life go...too much money!

To: Eye-of-misery I'm glad I have your attention! Infact, I'm glad I have this many people's attention. Thanx!

To: DojomistressAmbyChan Um... I don't know what flavor anzu would be? lol

Ok, the story!

Chapter 10
Old Friend...Hay Fight!

Tea reluctantly waved goodbye...to Ryou.

She had not been able to convince him to stay. He had a reputation, she understood, but she still had this terrible feeling inside.

The wanted poster...it stayed in her mind...

Kidnapping? He was surely framed.

What mostly stayed with her was the handwriting on the bottom of the poster.

Not only was she startled by what it said, but it was the handwriting style.

It was familiar.

It was Yami's.

Yami was a good shooter...too good...which worried her.

Well, Ryou had shot him in the leg, but Yami was unarmed then. If he did have his gun, Yami would've killed Ryou on the spot...and he never misses...

Tea didn't tell Ryou about Yami, especially when trying to convince him to stay. One mention of Yami and Ryou would've taken off like a shot.

But, in the end...he was going anyway.

The sun was setting now, asshe watched them ride off into nothingness.

Ryou wanted someone to stay with her, but she told him that she was strong, she could manage on her own.

She turned to go in the house, for a long and lonely night, keeping them in her prayers.

((((((((

Morning came for Tea rather early. She had not slept well. She rose out of sleep peacefully, but never had the gun too far out of reach.

In fact, she was now carrying it wherever she went.

After she ate breakfast, she went out to the barn to feed the horses.

In the barn, she realized she needed more hay, so she went up into the loft to get it.

Reaching the top of the ladder, she came upon a...body?

'Yami! He's back!' She thought frantically, dropping everything, grabbing her gun and aiming.

A boy, or a man, who looked about her age, was lying there in the hay, sleeping. Relief flowed over her when she realized it wasn't Yami, but there was still a stranger in her barn!

Still holding the gun, Tea stepped closer, to the blond haired man. She kicked one of his legs, with just enough force to wake him up.

He awoke with a start! Sitting up, only to see the barrel of a gun in his face, he frantically tried to back away helplessly in the hay.

"Who are you?" Tea demanded.

"Please miss...there was nowhere else..."

"Why are you here?"

"Miss...please..." he was pleading with her. She was not going to fall for the innocent beggar act. 'Yami probably sent him to kill me!'

She wasn't taking any chances.

She clicked the safety, ready, but the stranger caught on, and was quicker.

He quickly kicked the gun out of her hands, and knocked her down as well. She landed with a thud in the hay, but reacted by grabbing the nearest thing...a pitchfork.

The man had grabbed something also, a stick, intending to hit her. She blocked it with the pole of the pitchfork, but the force was great, and he landed on top of her, their sticks making an X where she had blocked him.

They stared at each other, breathing heavily. He suddenly stopped,...silence...

"Tea?..."

Her eyes widened. How did he know her name?

"Tea? Is that you? I almost didn't recognize you..."

She stopped. She suddenly remembered...long ago...

"Joseph?"

He nodded, smiling. "It's me."

She said nothing, only pushed him off of her, sitting up in the hay, and staring at him. His face, she recognized his face.

Tea smiled, "Joseph! It's really you!" Throwing her arms around his neck, causing him to blush.

Of all the strngers who could have been in her barn, it was her old childhood friend.

When he was 17, He went traveling, looking for his dream job. Now Tea wondered how he ended up in her barn!

))))))))

"What happened to you?" she asked him, as she was making him coffee in her kitchen. "How'd the 'job hunt' go?"

"It actually went pretty good." He took a drink of his coffee. "I was working for a wealthy man, Kaiba, I think his name was. I was doing well with money, so I decided to travel back to the hometown to visit you. Kaiba didn't want to let me leave, so I quit!"

He folded his arms over his chest. "No one rules my life but me!"

Tea smiled to herself. He hadn't changed much.

He went on, "Besides, I had enough money to manage , that is...until..."

He paused, leaving an awkward silence.

"Go on..." Tea urged. "What happened?"

Joseph looked down, a defeated look on his face.

"Until I lost everything." He muttered. "I was robed on my way home."

"How awful! How did you ever survive!?" Everyone knew that thieves always killed their victims, or left them for dead.

"Well, they were abut to kill me, but I was lucky I had fighting skills. I got away with only a scar..." He revealed a long ugly scar on his right arm. Looked like it was done with a knife.

Tea cringed just looking at it. She was happy that her friend was alive, but then, suddenly, a throught stuck her like lightning.

"What...did they look like?" She took a drink of her coffee to calm her nerves and to act causal, telling herself, 'It couldn't have been them!'

"Well" Joseph thought. "There was three of them...

Tea became relaxed hearing that.

"...and the one who nearly killed me had bushy white hair..."

Tea nearly spit coffee everywhere, but choked on it instead. 'Impossible!' she thought.

"Are you ok?"

"I (cough)...I'm (cough) ...I'm fine...(clears throat)...really..."

Joseph gave her a suspicious look. "Something tells me you know something..."

"No! No!" she reassured him. "It's just..."

'Well, he had to know sooner or later...or only half of it anyway...'

"I was robbed not too long ago, by f...three men, and one of them had bushy white hair also..."

"Really!?"

Tea could tell that Joseph was mad now. She didn't mention 4 men, because she wanted to leave Ryou out of it. Joseph knew Ryou, but since there was only 3 men, She guessed that Ryou wasn't there at the time.

Joseph continued, "How dare they pick on a gal!"

"Because I was a gal that I wasn't killed...." She put in quietly.

"I understand that, but still!"

He slumped back in the chair, taking another drink, and looking around.

"You seem to be doing well," He told her, noticing the nice house. "Are you lonely living here by yourself? Or do you have a husband?"

Silence.

"Wait! What about that guy? Ryou, was it? What became of him?"

Silence.

Too many questions at once.

Tea thought to herself. "um..." she didn't know what to say.

"...well..." she gathered her words quickly. "I have no husband, but I did have a fiancé, but it wasn't Ryou, and I don't live alone...much. I'm here alone because...well, everyone's gone..."

"Who's everyone?"

"Ryou, he was here for a couple of days, and his 'friends' too. He will return..." 'hopefully'

She wasn't ready to tell Joseph about the gang thing just yet. He would have to find out on his own.

But, being the hotheaded person he was, She hoped he would understand, but she was pretty sure he wouldn't.

The questions continued, "So what happened to your fiancé?"

She took a big drink of coffee, just to talk about it....

TBC

Ok, yea!

Next chap, there's gonna be a...well, ok, I call them 'shoot em up westerns' Hehe!

Anyway, see ya soon. R&R!