Tea walked into the house with Yugi as she bit her lip nervously and kept
glancing around paranoid. Yugi looked over at her and grabbed her hand.
"Don't worry Tea. It's okay."
She glanced down at him and flashed a brief smile. "Eheh, I'm sorry. It's just."
He nodded. "Yeah, I know."
"Tea!" Mokuba came bounding up and hugged her legs with a big smile.
"Hi Mokuba."
Yugi looked around and then at the stairwell. "Is Joey still up there?"
"Yup, Joey and Tristan took him back up there after he passed out."
"Again?"
"Mm-hm."
Yugi then left Mokuba hugging Tea as he headed up the stairwell and down the hall to Kaiba's room. Opening the door he stared in at Kaiba laying on his bed face down, hands tied behind his back, legs tied together, gag in mouth, with Joey sitting on him as Tristan sat on the couch and they both were reading magazines.
"What are you doing?"
Joey looked up and smiled. "Hey Yug. We found a way to shut him up."
Walking over he took a better look at Kaiba who was staring death at Joey from where his head was lying sideways on the pillow.
"Eheh, is that such a good idea?"
The blonde shrugged and picked up his magazine again. "Beats me. This was the only way we could keep him still though."
Worry showed on Yugi's face, as he tried to hide a little smile at how funny Kaiba looked right then. "Did you try NOT sitting on him?"
He nodded. "Yup. Didn't work. He rolled off the bed and started kicking. He's a feisty one, aren't you Kaiba?" He patted his captive on the head and grinned.
Just then Tea nervously entered the room and she stared at Seto being sat on by Joey.
Seto's eyes found Tea and they spread wide as he tried to speak through the gag. "Mrea?"
Joey looked up then and saw Tea in the door. Jumping up he ran over and hugged her. "Tea! Hey what's up?!"
Tristan lifted his head and then ran over as well. He joined in hugging her as well. "Tea! Girl! We miss you!"
"Hi guys." Her reply was a little less than enthusiastic as her gaze never left the bound form on the bed who continued staring at her as well.
Joey stopped hugging her and stared at her stressed expression. "Hey Tea, you don't have to sound so thrilled."
Tristan smacked him upside the head. "Shut up Joey."
With a blank expression on her face Tea slowly advanced forward towards the bed until she was next to it. Kneeling down next to it she stared straight into Seto's eyes without a word.
Everything in the room went silent as she sat there staring at him as a tear began to hesitantly make its way down her face. "Seto?"
"Mrea. Aing oh forry. Pweafe froorguve ee."
Taking her hands she untied the gag from the back of his head and looked into his eyes again with the same pained expression on her face.
"Tea, please. I'm sorry. I just so sorry." He buried his head in the pillow. "I don't know why I did it, but please. You have to believe me when I say that I'd never do it again, Ever!"
She kept staring at him as he looked at her again.
"Please Tea. Don't look at me like that. You know I'd never want to hurt you. I-I. I was just so worried about you. I didn't want you to end up like me. I was scared Tea, I was scared."
Her eyes never left his, and her expression stayed the same. Blankly staring at him as the hurt grew in her eyes, focusing itself on Seto.
He looked back at her and the picture of her dead body flashed into his mind, followed by his own smiling face. "No. no, no, no." Rolling to the other side of the bed and off he propped himself up so that he was kneeling. He stared over at Tea and the picture flashed again. "Stop it!" He squeezed his eyes shut but the image came back to haunt him. "Oh, please stop it. I don't want to see that anymore." Opening his eyes again he gazed over at Tea with his jaw set and tears slowly trickling down his face. "I won't do that to you. I don't care what he says. I won't. I understand if you never want to see my face again Tea. I couldn't say that I'd blame you. After all that I've put you through. I've turned out just like him. Just like him." Wincing he looked away from her. "You shouldn't have to go through that. I don't want you to have to go through that."
Standing up, Tea walked over and kneeled down next to Kaiba where she continued staring at him without saying a word.
"No." He shook his head. "I won't do that to you." He let his head fall forward and lean against his bed. "Stop it. Don't make me do that to her!"
Jerking upright he stood rigid as his expression went blank and his eyes stared at nothing. "I'm sorry sir. I'll fix them, I can get them right. It's only the eighth time I've tried. I can still try more. Can I please go outside and play?" He winced. "Sorry sir, won't happen again. I'll be quiet, I won't cry. Crying is for babies. Yes sir, I understand. I'll go fix those programs now." He paused in his train of thought. "Look at them down there. I think I know them. Are they in my class? Yes they are. They look like they're having fun. I wish I could play, but playing is for children. I can't be a child. Mokuba's counting on me." There was another long pause. "Sir? Could I please invite some guests over? . No, they're from my school. . I see sir. Yes sir. Won't happen again sir." He lifted his hands blindly in front of him and started acting like he was typing at the keyboard. "I'll be done soon. Then maybe I can go outside. I could go see if those other kids want to play with me. What were their names again? Yugi? He looked nice. He looked like he had nice friends." Turning his head blankly he stared at the door. "Oh, I'm sorry sir. I'll be done with these programs soon. Yes I was going to go see if they would play with me. No? I can't? Oh yes sir. I see sir. Are these good enough?" He pointed at the imaginary screen in front of him. "Yes sir. I though they were done. Do them again? Yes sir." He paused again and stared down at the ground. "Ninth time's the charm. I'll get it right. I-I can make them work, sir."
Shaking his head his pupils dilated again and he looked over at Tea. "I won't. I refuse! I won't let you end up like everyone else. I won't kill you. I won't let myself. I don't care what he says. I won't! . Joey dead, Yugi's dead, Tristan's dead, Mokuba's dead. I killed them all." He closed his eyes and shivered. "I saw it. I saw all of them. All of them, sitting there, lifeless on the ground. Bleeding, blood everywhere. And I was smiling. Through it all I was smiling. I wanted the blood, it tasted good, just like my own." Falling over onto the rug he buried his face in the carpet. "Please make them stop. I don't want to see them anymore. I don't want to be left alone. Not again. Not again. Not without Mokuba. STOP IT!" He screamed out in pain and shook violently as his pupils dilated and retracted and cold sweat began to run down his face. "No. No. Oh please no. I'm sorry. I'll do better next time. Ten times. I'll try ten times. I'll fix it. I'm sorry sir. I never meant to disappoint you. I just wanted to go outside and play. They looked like such nice people." He screamed again. "Oh please just make them stop!"
Curling up into a ball as best he could he sat there shivering as blood began to trickle slowly out of the side of his mouth as he began to mutter quietly, "Seven, eight, nine. Nobody cares about Seto Kaiba. Gozaburo was right. Nobody likes a whiner. Maybe I'll just go to sleep. A nice long sleep with no dreams for eternity. Then my body will go still, my heart will stop, I'll turn into ice and be rigid, the breath will halt, the blood won't flow. It will just slowly seep from my veins to the ground. I've seen it before. So why not again? It almost came true. And nobody cares about Seto Kaiba, he's lost everything now. Mokuba, Tea. Tea was taken from him, and it was his fault too. So he took himself away, hoping to find her. But he never did. Not even in death. Cold, still death. happiness." Closing his eyes he sighed and with one last shiver his body went limp.
******************
Tea stared down at him and then back at Yugi. "He's been doing that a lot. hasn't he?" He nodded and then she looked back down at Kaiba. Sighing slightly she untied the ropes that Joey and Tristan had put there. Pulling him back onto the bed she rested his head on the pillow and stared down at him. "I can't believe how lost he is."
Joey walked over and put his hand on Tea's shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it. He'll get better. We'll just take him to a psychiatrist and they'll help him."
Her eyes began to water as she stared at Seto. "I don't want to send him to somebody else. He needs my help."
The blonde cocked and eyebrow at her. "But are you sure he's not gonna attack you again?"
Shaking her head she continued gazing down at the figure on the bed. "I have to help him Joey. I partially caused him to be this way. If I hadn't been hurting myself in the first place he never would've been driven too." She sighed and sat down next to Seto and brushed a few strands of hair out of his face. "I'll be fine guys. I think it would be a good idea for you to leave though. Yugi?"
"Yes Tea?"
"Could you please tell my mom that I'm going to be out kind of late tonight. Tell her I'm staying at your place. She wouldn't let me stay here."
Yugi nodded and walked out of the room as he dragged Joey and Tristan out with him. "Okay. I'll do that. Good luck."
"Thanks Yugi." She watched them leave and then gazed back at Kaiba. "I hope you're okay Seto."
********************
Kaiba was sitting in the black void that he had come so accustomed to in his dreams.
"Hello?"
His voice echoed back at him and he stood up. Beginning to walk of into the distance he heard the feint sound of voices.
'Hey, don't worry about it. He'll get better. We'll just take him to a psychiatrist and they'll help him.'
"Joey?" He stared up at what would have been the sky.
'I don't want to send him to somebody else. He needs my help.'
"Tea? Tea, is that you?" He continued staring up and walking as there was a long silence and then. 'I hope you're okay Seto.'
Stopping in his tracks he blinked a couple of times. "Seto. Kaiba?" He looked at his hands. "Seto." He stared at his right. "Kaiba." He glanced at his left. "Seto?" Right hand. "Kaiba?" Left hand. "Seto Kaiba?" He placed one hand in the other and stared at them both. "Which is stronger. Seto. or Kaiba?"
He began walking again as he continued staring at his hands. "I didn't kill them. Did I? . No, I saw Tea. She wasn't dead. So is everyone okay? I think so. I saw Joey too, and Yugi. They weren't dead. I didn't kill them. They're all fine. Just fine." A smile began to trace itself on his lips. "Everything is fine. I'm not back there. He's not here anymore. Everything is just fine."
**********************
His eyes flickered open as he looked up at Tea who was sitting next to him. "T-Tea?"
She nodded.
"Are you. mad at me?"
She shook her head.
"Are you still scared?"
She shook her head.
"I'm sorry."
She smiled. "I know."
Sitting up he looked around the room. "Where did everyone else go?"
"I told them to go home."
"Oh." He nodded and felt a headache slowly growing in his temples. "What happened?"
She pushed him gently back down onto the pillow. "You passed out, a couple of times."
A few images flickered through his mind of what had happened all with a fuzzy haze around them. "Did I do something bad?" The pounding started to grow in his head.
"Other than a few sort of daydreams I don't think there was any harm done."
He grabbed at his head as the pressure grew on it. "What did I dream about?"
Tea cocked her head to the side slightly. "Don't you know?"
"Not really. no."
Getting up she went into the bathroom for a second and returned with a glass of water and a few pills in her hand. She handed them to Kaiba and then sat down again. "What was your adopted father like?"
His eyes narrowed and he glared down at the sheets. "I'd rather not talk about him." Dumping the pills into his mouth he drank the water and then handed them back to Tea.
"Do you miss him?"
Grinding his teeth together he clenched his fists. "May he rot in hell."
Tea glanced curiously at him. "Didn't you love him at all?"
"If you're asking me if I loved the hours in front of the computer writing those STUPID programs. then no. And if you're asking whether I loved being told I was a pathetic worm, no I don't really think I did." He dug his fingernails into his palms and then looked over at Tea. Seeing her look of concern he sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry."
She stared at the floor uncomfortably, "Was he really that bad?"
". It all depends. He wasn't bad to Mokuba. . . It was just me I guess."
She just nodded.
"Look, Tea, I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have even told you. It's not like you wanted to here about this. I didn't mean to get you involved in my problems. I should've just- AGH!" He clutched at his head as the picture of Tea's corpse appeared again. After a few moments he nervously lifted his head and looked at her again. "A-Are you okay?"
"Um, yeah. Why?"
Reaching his hand forward he touched the middle of her forehead. "It's not there." He tapped at it a couple more times and then ran his finger along her neck.
She winced a little just out of a nervous reaction. "What's not there?"
Seto sighed and leaned back on the bed. "Nothing. The other guys, Joey, Yugi, Tristan, are they okay?"
"Um. yeah."
He nodded and shook his head. "I'm sorry. I just. I keep seeing it, and I was starting to believe that I'd actually done it."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"No really, what?"
"It's nothing Tea."
"I know it's something."
"It's Nothing Okay?!"
She jerked backwards and hurt grew on her face as she looked at the ground. "I-I'm sorry."
Sighing again he let his head fall into his hands. "No. It's my fault. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell." Lifting his gaze he looked at her. "I keep seeing all of you dead. That's all. I guess it scares me. I don't know whether I would ever actually do that. I know that I'm completely capable of it. That's the main thing. Most people can say that they'd never actually be able to bring themselves to kill somebody. But I'm not sure if that's true for me."
Tea lifted her eyes at him again. "Do you really think you'd be able to do that?"
"I-I just don't know."
Moving back closer to him and she hugged him. "I don't think you could."
Pushing her away slightly he stared in her eyes. "Are you sure? I mean are you absolutely positive of that?"
"Yeah. I am." She had to admit that she was still slightly afraid of Kaiba, but after everything. it just didn't seem right to go and abandon him about a mistake that he really seemed to feel sorry about. He'd gotten so shaken up about it. How could she not help him? How could she just let him go away by himself? It would be very easy for him to loose ties with Yugi after she left. Yugi was the only thing that gave her a small amount of hope that Seto would be okay. And despite everything, Tea had stopped hurting herself. Despite what she may have thought at first, Kaiba's assault had helped her, in some sort of odd way.
"What is it?"
"Oh." She looked up and blinked a couple of times. "I was just thinking. You know I stopped cutting."
"Really?" Propping himself up he pushed up her sleeves and looked at her arms. They were still healing, but healing was a good thing, nothing new. Slowly, very slowly, a half smile came onto his face. "Thank you. Oh thank you." He grabbed her and hugged her. "Thank you Tea. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I did that to you."
With a small giggle she hugged him as well. "I shouldn't have put that stress on you either. It's okay. I guess we both sort of messed up."
Holding her away slightly he stared at her hopefully. "You mean you forgive me?"
A nod and a smile.
"I'm so glad. I was afraid I'd loose you. I couldn't stand to loose you Tea. I love you."
This caused her to giggle again and he lifted an eyebrow.
"What.?"
She smiled. "That's the first time you've really said you loved me."
Looking at the floor he shrugged. "Well I do."
Still smiling she lay down next to him and started twisting a small part of his bangs with her fingers. "I know Seto. I know."
"Don't worry Tea. It's okay."
She glanced down at him and flashed a brief smile. "Eheh, I'm sorry. It's just."
He nodded. "Yeah, I know."
"Tea!" Mokuba came bounding up and hugged her legs with a big smile.
"Hi Mokuba."
Yugi looked around and then at the stairwell. "Is Joey still up there?"
"Yup, Joey and Tristan took him back up there after he passed out."
"Again?"
"Mm-hm."
Yugi then left Mokuba hugging Tea as he headed up the stairwell and down the hall to Kaiba's room. Opening the door he stared in at Kaiba laying on his bed face down, hands tied behind his back, legs tied together, gag in mouth, with Joey sitting on him as Tristan sat on the couch and they both were reading magazines.
"What are you doing?"
Joey looked up and smiled. "Hey Yug. We found a way to shut him up."
Walking over he took a better look at Kaiba who was staring death at Joey from where his head was lying sideways on the pillow.
"Eheh, is that such a good idea?"
The blonde shrugged and picked up his magazine again. "Beats me. This was the only way we could keep him still though."
Worry showed on Yugi's face, as he tried to hide a little smile at how funny Kaiba looked right then. "Did you try NOT sitting on him?"
He nodded. "Yup. Didn't work. He rolled off the bed and started kicking. He's a feisty one, aren't you Kaiba?" He patted his captive on the head and grinned.
Just then Tea nervously entered the room and she stared at Seto being sat on by Joey.
Seto's eyes found Tea and they spread wide as he tried to speak through the gag. "Mrea?"
Joey looked up then and saw Tea in the door. Jumping up he ran over and hugged her. "Tea! Hey what's up?!"
Tristan lifted his head and then ran over as well. He joined in hugging her as well. "Tea! Girl! We miss you!"
"Hi guys." Her reply was a little less than enthusiastic as her gaze never left the bound form on the bed who continued staring at her as well.
Joey stopped hugging her and stared at her stressed expression. "Hey Tea, you don't have to sound so thrilled."
Tristan smacked him upside the head. "Shut up Joey."
With a blank expression on her face Tea slowly advanced forward towards the bed until she was next to it. Kneeling down next to it she stared straight into Seto's eyes without a word.
Everything in the room went silent as she sat there staring at him as a tear began to hesitantly make its way down her face. "Seto?"
"Mrea. Aing oh forry. Pweafe froorguve ee."
Taking her hands she untied the gag from the back of his head and looked into his eyes again with the same pained expression on her face.
"Tea, please. I'm sorry. I just so sorry." He buried his head in the pillow. "I don't know why I did it, but please. You have to believe me when I say that I'd never do it again, Ever!"
She kept staring at him as he looked at her again.
"Please Tea. Don't look at me like that. You know I'd never want to hurt you. I-I. I was just so worried about you. I didn't want you to end up like me. I was scared Tea, I was scared."
Her eyes never left his, and her expression stayed the same. Blankly staring at him as the hurt grew in her eyes, focusing itself on Seto.
He looked back at her and the picture of her dead body flashed into his mind, followed by his own smiling face. "No. no, no, no." Rolling to the other side of the bed and off he propped himself up so that he was kneeling. He stared over at Tea and the picture flashed again. "Stop it!" He squeezed his eyes shut but the image came back to haunt him. "Oh, please stop it. I don't want to see that anymore." Opening his eyes again he gazed over at Tea with his jaw set and tears slowly trickling down his face. "I won't do that to you. I don't care what he says. I won't. I understand if you never want to see my face again Tea. I couldn't say that I'd blame you. After all that I've put you through. I've turned out just like him. Just like him." Wincing he looked away from her. "You shouldn't have to go through that. I don't want you to have to go through that."
Standing up, Tea walked over and kneeled down next to Kaiba where she continued staring at him without saying a word.
"No." He shook his head. "I won't do that to you." He let his head fall forward and lean against his bed. "Stop it. Don't make me do that to her!"
Jerking upright he stood rigid as his expression went blank and his eyes stared at nothing. "I'm sorry sir. I'll fix them, I can get them right. It's only the eighth time I've tried. I can still try more. Can I please go outside and play?" He winced. "Sorry sir, won't happen again. I'll be quiet, I won't cry. Crying is for babies. Yes sir, I understand. I'll go fix those programs now." He paused in his train of thought. "Look at them down there. I think I know them. Are they in my class? Yes they are. They look like they're having fun. I wish I could play, but playing is for children. I can't be a child. Mokuba's counting on me." There was another long pause. "Sir? Could I please invite some guests over? . No, they're from my school. . I see sir. Yes sir. Won't happen again sir." He lifted his hands blindly in front of him and started acting like he was typing at the keyboard. "I'll be done soon. Then maybe I can go outside. I could go see if those other kids want to play with me. What were their names again? Yugi? He looked nice. He looked like he had nice friends." Turning his head blankly he stared at the door. "Oh, I'm sorry sir. I'll be done with these programs soon. Yes I was going to go see if they would play with me. No? I can't? Oh yes sir. I see sir. Are these good enough?" He pointed at the imaginary screen in front of him. "Yes sir. I though they were done. Do them again? Yes sir." He paused again and stared down at the ground. "Ninth time's the charm. I'll get it right. I-I can make them work, sir."
Shaking his head his pupils dilated again and he looked over at Tea. "I won't. I refuse! I won't let you end up like everyone else. I won't kill you. I won't let myself. I don't care what he says. I won't! . Joey dead, Yugi's dead, Tristan's dead, Mokuba's dead. I killed them all." He closed his eyes and shivered. "I saw it. I saw all of them. All of them, sitting there, lifeless on the ground. Bleeding, blood everywhere. And I was smiling. Through it all I was smiling. I wanted the blood, it tasted good, just like my own." Falling over onto the rug he buried his face in the carpet. "Please make them stop. I don't want to see them anymore. I don't want to be left alone. Not again. Not again. Not without Mokuba. STOP IT!" He screamed out in pain and shook violently as his pupils dilated and retracted and cold sweat began to run down his face. "No. No. Oh please no. I'm sorry. I'll do better next time. Ten times. I'll try ten times. I'll fix it. I'm sorry sir. I never meant to disappoint you. I just wanted to go outside and play. They looked like such nice people." He screamed again. "Oh please just make them stop!"
Curling up into a ball as best he could he sat there shivering as blood began to trickle slowly out of the side of his mouth as he began to mutter quietly, "Seven, eight, nine. Nobody cares about Seto Kaiba. Gozaburo was right. Nobody likes a whiner. Maybe I'll just go to sleep. A nice long sleep with no dreams for eternity. Then my body will go still, my heart will stop, I'll turn into ice and be rigid, the breath will halt, the blood won't flow. It will just slowly seep from my veins to the ground. I've seen it before. So why not again? It almost came true. And nobody cares about Seto Kaiba, he's lost everything now. Mokuba, Tea. Tea was taken from him, and it was his fault too. So he took himself away, hoping to find her. But he never did. Not even in death. Cold, still death. happiness." Closing his eyes he sighed and with one last shiver his body went limp.
******************
Tea stared down at him and then back at Yugi. "He's been doing that a lot. hasn't he?" He nodded and then she looked back down at Kaiba. Sighing slightly she untied the ropes that Joey and Tristan had put there. Pulling him back onto the bed she rested his head on the pillow and stared down at him. "I can't believe how lost he is."
Joey walked over and put his hand on Tea's shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it. He'll get better. We'll just take him to a psychiatrist and they'll help him."
Her eyes began to water as she stared at Seto. "I don't want to send him to somebody else. He needs my help."
The blonde cocked and eyebrow at her. "But are you sure he's not gonna attack you again?"
Shaking her head she continued gazing down at the figure on the bed. "I have to help him Joey. I partially caused him to be this way. If I hadn't been hurting myself in the first place he never would've been driven too." She sighed and sat down next to Seto and brushed a few strands of hair out of his face. "I'll be fine guys. I think it would be a good idea for you to leave though. Yugi?"
"Yes Tea?"
"Could you please tell my mom that I'm going to be out kind of late tonight. Tell her I'm staying at your place. She wouldn't let me stay here."
Yugi nodded and walked out of the room as he dragged Joey and Tristan out with him. "Okay. I'll do that. Good luck."
"Thanks Yugi." She watched them leave and then gazed back at Kaiba. "I hope you're okay Seto."
********************
Kaiba was sitting in the black void that he had come so accustomed to in his dreams.
"Hello?"
His voice echoed back at him and he stood up. Beginning to walk of into the distance he heard the feint sound of voices.
'Hey, don't worry about it. He'll get better. We'll just take him to a psychiatrist and they'll help him.'
"Joey?" He stared up at what would have been the sky.
'I don't want to send him to somebody else. He needs my help.'
"Tea? Tea, is that you?" He continued staring up and walking as there was a long silence and then. 'I hope you're okay Seto.'
Stopping in his tracks he blinked a couple of times. "Seto. Kaiba?" He looked at his hands. "Seto." He stared at his right. "Kaiba." He glanced at his left. "Seto?" Right hand. "Kaiba?" Left hand. "Seto Kaiba?" He placed one hand in the other and stared at them both. "Which is stronger. Seto. or Kaiba?"
He began walking again as he continued staring at his hands. "I didn't kill them. Did I? . No, I saw Tea. She wasn't dead. So is everyone okay? I think so. I saw Joey too, and Yugi. They weren't dead. I didn't kill them. They're all fine. Just fine." A smile began to trace itself on his lips. "Everything is fine. I'm not back there. He's not here anymore. Everything is just fine."
**********************
His eyes flickered open as he looked up at Tea who was sitting next to him. "T-Tea?"
She nodded.
"Are you. mad at me?"
She shook her head.
"Are you still scared?"
She shook her head.
"I'm sorry."
She smiled. "I know."
Sitting up he looked around the room. "Where did everyone else go?"
"I told them to go home."
"Oh." He nodded and felt a headache slowly growing in his temples. "What happened?"
She pushed him gently back down onto the pillow. "You passed out, a couple of times."
A few images flickered through his mind of what had happened all with a fuzzy haze around them. "Did I do something bad?" The pounding started to grow in his head.
"Other than a few sort of daydreams I don't think there was any harm done."
He grabbed at his head as the pressure grew on it. "What did I dream about?"
Tea cocked her head to the side slightly. "Don't you know?"
"Not really. no."
Getting up she went into the bathroom for a second and returned with a glass of water and a few pills in her hand. She handed them to Kaiba and then sat down again. "What was your adopted father like?"
His eyes narrowed and he glared down at the sheets. "I'd rather not talk about him." Dumping the pills into his mouth he drank the water and then handed them back to Tea.
"Do you miss him?"
Grinding his teeth together he clenched his fists. "May he rot in hell."
Tea glanced curiously at him. "Didn't you love him at all?"
"If you're asking me if I loved the hours in front of the computer writing those STUPID programs. then no. And if you're asking whether I loved being told I was a pathetic worm, no I don't really think I did." He dug his fingernails into his palms and then looked over at Tea. Seeing her look of concern he sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry."
She stared at the floor uncomfortably, "Was he really that bad?"
". It all depends. He wasn't bad to Mokuba. . . It was just me I guess."
She just nodded.
"Look, Tea, I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have even told you. It's not like you wanted to here about this. I didn't mean to get you involved in my problems. I should've just- AGH!" He clutched at his head as the picture of Tea's corpse appeared again. After a few moments he nervously lifted his head and looked at her again. "A-Are you okay?"
"Um, yeah. Why?"
Reaching his hand forward he touched the middle of her forehead. "It's not there." He tapped at it a couple more times and then ran his finger along her neck.
She winced a little just out of a nervous reaction. "What's not there?"
Seto sighed and leaned back on the bed. "Nothing. The other guys, Joey, Yugi, Tristan, are they okay?"
"Um. yeah."
He nodded and shook his head. "I'm sorry. I just. I keep seeing it, and I was starting to believe that I'd actually done it."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"No really, what?"
"It's nothing Tea."
"I know it's something."
"It's Nothing Okay?!"
She jerked backwards and hurt grew on her face as she looked at the ground. "I-I'm sorry."
Sighing again he let his head fall into his hands. "No. It's my fault. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell." Lifting his gaze he looked at her. "I keep seeing all of you dead. That's all. I guess it scares me. I don't know whether I would ever actually do that. I know that I'm completely capable of it. That's the main thing. Most people can say that they'd never actually be able to bring themselves to kill somebody. But I'm not sure if that's true for me."
Tea lifted her eyes at him again. "Do you really think you'd be able to do that?"
"I-I just don't know."
Moving back closer to him and she hugged him. "I don't think you could."
Pushing her away slightly he stared in her eyes. "Are you sure? I mean are you absolutely positive of that?"
"Yeah. I am." She had to admit that she was still slightly afraid of Kaiba, but after everything. it just didn't seem right to go and abandon him about a mistake that he really seemed to feel sorry about. He'd gotten so shaken up about it. How could she not help him? How could she just let him go away by himself? It would be very easy for him to loose ties with Yugi after she left. Yugi was the only thing that gave her a small amount of hope that Seto would be okay. And despite everything, Tea had stopped hurting herself. Despite what she may have thought at first, Kaiba's assault had helped her, in some sort of odd way.
"What is it?"
"Oh." She looked up and blinked a couple of times. "I was just thinking. You know I stopped cutting."
"Really?" Propping himself up he pushed up her sleeves and looked at her arms. They were still healing, but healing was a good thing, nothing new. Slowly, very slowly, a half smile came onto his face. "Thank you. Oh thank you." He grabbed her and hugged her. "Thank you Tea. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I did that to you."
With a small giggle she hugged him as well. "I shouldn't have put that stress on you either. It's okay. I guess we both sort of messed up."
Holding her away slightly he stared at her hopefully. "You mean you forgive me?"
A nod and a smile.
"I'm so glad. I was afraid I'd loose you. I couldn't stand to loose you Tea. I love you."
This caused her to giggle again and he lifted an eyebrow.
"What.?"
She smiled. "That's the first time you've really said you loved me."
Looking at the floor he shrugged. "Well I do."
Still smiling she lay down next to him and started twisting a small part of his bangs with her fingers. "I know Seto. I know."