Okay, he was pissed. Joey was extremely pissed. Tea was crushed. Utterly,
completely, entirely crushed to like one inch flat. 'That Kaiba freak is
going down. What's his deal?! He comes in and is like; I don't care, you're
all stupid freaks who should die and it doesn't matter to me. Well if he's
going to act like that, then I'll just smack a little sense back into him.'
He clenched his fists and continued walking down the street towards the
mansion. 'Nobody does that to Tea and gets away with it. Nobody! And
especially not that freakazoid who she went through all that trouble for.
She did all that and then he just goes and dumps her for no god damn
reason?! The nerve of that guy!'
Joey didn't bother knocking on the door. He didn't bother ringing the doorbell. He didn't bother stopping to see where Mokuba was to ask him questions. He just went. Straight up the stairs, through the door, right to Kaiba. That shit faced asshole Kaiba.
"Hey Kaiba!"
The executive didn't look up from the screen. "You don't have a meeting. I'll have to call the guards if you don't leave in the next ten seconds."
Joey stomped further into the room and yanked Kaiba out of his chair by the shirt collar. "If you even TRY calling those guards. You're taking a one way trip out your window!"
Kaiba smirked at him. "I'm afraid you are mistaken. You would be the one who would suffer the consequences."
"Well then my corpse will get your fat ass into a jail cell for the rest of your fuckin' life!"
Kaiba removed Joey fingers from his shirt and sat back down. "Oh contraire, I think I'd stay right here. You were the one who attacked me after all, on top of breaking and entering. It's called justifiable homicide Joseph." He locked his icy blue orbs onto Joey with a smug expression.
"Justifiable homicide my ass!" He swung his fist at Kaiba's head but found that the CEO just put up his hand and stopped it. He just stopped it in mid- strike.
"A little hostile today, aren't we?" There was a slight tone of mocking in his voice.
"You're damn right I'm hostile! Now get up and go apologize to Tea!"
"Hm, let me think about that." He sat in silence for a moment and then; "No."
"You dirty, filthy, bast-"
"Do not speak ill of your betters Joseph." The tone was blank and expressionless, but like a parent's reproving a child.
"I'll insult you if I want! You aren't better than me!"
"Oh yes I am. You know I am. Now go be a good little boy and go home. This is no place for you."
Joey glared at him and raised his fist again.
"Don't even think about it."
"You can't stop me!"
Kaiba stood up calmly and sent an icy chill down Joey's spine. "Do you think you can win?"
"Yeah! You're nothing but a creep! Ya big jerk!"
The CEO began chuckling dryly and then started pacing circles around the blonde. "Oh poor little Joseph. You really are in over your head now, aren't you? You think you're doing the right thing here. Coming all this way to defend your little friend. But they don't care about you. They could care less about a pathetic little grub like you. So what are you really defending? You're friends? Or is it just some little fantasy of yours to be able to defend someone who is defenseless without you? Well. Let me tell you. They all would be much better off without you. They're all just little pawns. Little teeny pawns that have no purpose, no feeling. You're a pawn too you know. And you all are just manipulated by the ones stronger than you, smarter than you. So what are you really achieving by coming all the way here? You're just fooling yourself into thinking that you're something special. Well you know? You're just a pathetic slug. A grimy little worm with no friends, and no one that cares for you. You're all alone and if you die, no one will notice, nobody at all."
"Shut up!" However strong Joey may have been feeling, Kaiba was wheedling his way slowly into his head.
"You don't believe me? Well then fine. Try and attack me. It won't do anything. Since you are the weaker, the underling, the one who was put there to obey me. So just try it. You're friends aren't going to come and help you. You're just all alone, all by yourself in this little world that you imagine. The pieces will fit eventually, and then you will understand. But until then you are just going to be lost, continuing on with your delusional fantasies, as a lost little boy who doesn't know the way home. So go ahead. Try it. Try to beat me."
By now Joey had been thoroughly cowed. The icy glare was eating away at him, and Kaiba had kept pacing circles around him and he hadn't even blinked. His expression had remained menacing, motionless, mocking. Joey couldn't fight that. He couldn't beat someone who didn't feel. "I-I'm sorry."
A smirk crawled onto Kaiba's face. "Good boy. Now go home and return to your little world before I change my mind and decide to have you locked up." Swiftly turning he sat down at his computer. "You are dismissed."
Joey slowly crept backwards out of the room stuttering. "I-I'm sorry for d- disturbing you." He left the office and walked down the stairs and headed to the game shop, feeling every inch the worm that Kaiba had called him.
*********************
He shut the door behind him and headed towards the living room where he heard the voices of his friends. 'I'm not that pathetic am I? I wasn't being that stupid.'
With his head hung he trudged over to the couch and fell down on it as three pairs of eyes looked over him.
"Hey Joey, was there a bug in your soda or something? You look like the world has ended." Tristan walked over and stared at him.
'I'm not a little worm.'
"Hello? Earth to Joey?" Tristan waved his hand in front of Joey's face. "Anybody home?"
Snapping out of thought the blonde blinked a couple of times and then gazed at Tristan. "Oh sorry. What?"
"Man. What happened to you?"
Yugi then walked over to him and sat down. "Yeah, are you okay?"
Joey shook his head and rested his chin on his palms. "That Kaiba dude really knows how to make a guy feel low."
Tristan smiled. "Oh is that all? I thought we had something to worry about."
The blonde sent a death glare at his friend. "Shut up."
"Why? Kaiba's insulted you before? It's not like it's true or anything."
Joey shrugged and sighed. "Yeah. I guess you're right."
Tea was watching them with the tears from earlier starting to resurface in her eyes. Wiping them off on her sleeve she went over to Joey and put on the best smile she could. "Why don't we just forget it and go do something. It's not like it matters anyway."
Yugi nodded and smiled as well. "Yeah. See Joey? It doesn't matter."
He got up with a half smirk. "Sure Yug." 'I guess it was just stupid. but man, Kaiba really can get into your head.'
*******************
Seto pulled out of Kaiba again and glared at him. That-was-mean.
"No it wasn't."
You're-being-mean.
"Shut up kid."
There was a defiant glare that met him. You-know-what? You've-just-given- up. That's-you're-problem. You've-given-up-on-the-world.
"The world has given up on me."
Seto continued glaring at him.
"Stop doing that."
You-know-you-still-have-a-heart. You're-just-ignoring-it.
"No."
Just-you-denying-it-proves-me-true.
Kaiba growled in slight frustration. He didn't know why he had let himself change to drastically. He was letting himself drift in the direction that he had been fighting for so long. He had sworn that he would never end up like Gozaburo. But what had he just done? He had just used the same methods of cowering upon Joey that his adopted father had done to him.
See?-You-don't-want-to-be-like-this.
With a sigh he started typing again. "What choice do I have."
You-could-start-by-fighting-again.
"It didn't work then. It's not going to work now."
Do-you-really-want-Mokuba-to-end-up-like-you? He-will-if-you-keep-this-up.
"Shut up. What do you know."
Fine.-Don't-listen-to-me.-But-you-know-what-you're-doing-is-wrong.-Mom- would-be-disappointed.
Seto disappeared back to the inside of Kaiba who sat there blinking at the last sentence that was sent to him. 'Mom?'
A small image flickered through his head of his mother's smiling face. 'M- mom?'
It disappeared again and then he let his head fall forward onto the keyboard. 'What am I doing?'
With a sigh he then got up and walked out of his room. He was about to head downstairs when he heard the sobbing coming out of Mokuba's room. He sighed again and opened the door a fraction to see his little brother lying on the bed in tears. 'And now to try and pick up the pieces.'
"Mokuba?"
His little brother immediately sat up on the bed and tried to wipe his eyes. "I'm sorry. I wasn't crying."
Kaiba walked over and sat next to him. "No, it's okay. If you need to cry you can."
Mokuba's eyes started to water again. "Do you really not want to take care of me anymore?"
The older looked uneasily at the floor. "I, don't, Think, so."
"B-but."
He put his arm around the little one. "Hey, it's okay. I won't let anything bad happen to you. I just-.need a bit. To get my head together."
"Are you sure?"
He sighed again and nodded slowly. "Yeah. I think so. Now, I'm going to go and try to fix some other things. I've done some pretty rotten stuff today. I have to correct that. And don't worry. I'll get rid of that guy." Getting up he ran downstairs and opened up his phone. The bodyguard was really supposed to start tomorrow, so he had gone home. Kaiba called him and told him that he wasn't going to be needed. Of course the guy was sort of pissed at being called over in the first place for no reason, but what would you expect.
'That fixes Mokuba. Now for the harder one. . . Tea.'
Kaiba traveled to his car and drove off towards her house. 'I only know of one thing that I can really do. She probably won't even forgive me after I do this. If I do this.'
It didn't take him that long to get there. When he did, he didn't stop down the street. He parked right next to the house. Walking up to the front door he tapped on it lightly. 'You have to do this. You just have to. Don't give up. Do it for Tea.'
The door opened slowly and he saw the face of her mother.
"Hello, may I help you?" Her expression was flat. Sure she remembered him, he was that Kaiba character. That Kaiba character whom she thought she had gotten rid of.
"Hello Mrs. Gardner. I know you must not be very happy to see me, but I don't think you or your husband are being very fair to your daughter."
Her eyes narrowed a little. "And why would that be?"
"Because you overreacted over this whole thing. Sure Tea stayed over at my place for a while. But it really wasn't that bad."
"Oh it wasn't?"
"No. It wasn't." He stared back at her flatly. "Now, let me explain this. You obviously didn't like my other explanation a few weeks ago. Especially since that was when you moved. I assume that was because you were trying to protect Tea from some sort of bad influence. But if you realize, just by the plain fact that I am standing before you, your original goal was not achieved."
"All the more reason for her to not see you."
The harsh parental gaze didn't waver him in the slightest. He was going to do this. Even if it killed him. "Mrs. Gardner, if you'll put aside the thought for a moment that I have done anything, then let me explain further. Yes, I'm here. Yes, I have followed Tea even when it seemed in all likelihood that I should just give up. And yes, if you were wondering, I am still dating her. So in fact your motive was not completed at all, whatsoever, it was a complete and total failure. I'm here to tell you, to move back. I can even pay for the move. I could pay for the whole House if you wanted. And no, I didn't steal the money. I own a company." He noticed the skeptic look on her face. "Ever heard of the Kaiba Corporation? Well you are looking at the soul owner. Gozaburo Kaiba was my adopted father, and he was the one who left it to me. I have a younger brother Mokuba. He lives in my mansion with me." Seto didn't care that Tea's mother wasn't really budging, while he was here, he was going to put all of his cards on the table. All of them. "Your daughter is in fact the first girlfriend I have ever had. She even stopped me from committing suicide twice."
"Is that supposed to be comforting?"
He smirked a little. "Not exactly. I used to cut my arms too, I even slashed my wrist one time and Tea took me to the hospital. I have done all these crazy things to myself, the backs of my arms were quite bloody and weak. I even went through a phase where I wasn't eating or sleeping. And do you know what? Tea stayed with me. Through all that she never gave up hope and she hung on with me."
The worried expression on her mother's face stayed there.
"You know what happened after Tea moved? I had followed the truck here. That's how I found you in the first place. But anyway, when I finally decided to come here and see how Tea was SHE was cutting."
"That's a lie."
Kaiba smirked again. "No, it's not. She was. But she's stopped now. In fact I sort of pinned her down with the knife at her throat. I know that's not a very reassuring thing to hear as a parent. After that I thought I'd killed everybody. I was going insane with all that and I kept seeing pictures in my head. And just recently I saw your daughter with this other guy that I had just beaten up the other day, Bakura. She was with him and then of course I was upset because I thought Tea hated me. And at this point she does. But that's because I started acting like my adopted father and thinking that emotions didn't matter at all." He paused for a breath of air and took it. "So you see, now that I've told you absolutely everything, you can't hold anything against me by saying that I lied to you, or kept something from you. I've told you everything. Now, are you going to move back? I'm perfectly happy to pay for the house. I'll even pay for all the taxes on THIS house until you sell it. And if you're still paranoid about your daughter being influenced by some insane freak like me. Well she's probably never going to forgive me for this last thing, so I doubt you have anything to worry about. So what do you say?"
There was a pause and then her mother spoke out. "I'll have to talk this over with my husband. We'll call you when we've made a decision."
Kaiba watched her shut the door and then he headed back to his car. "Well, I guess all I can do now is wait. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. It was just so-"
"Stupid?"
His eyes snapped up from the ground and he saw Tea glaring at him.
"Tea?"
"Yes Kaiba. It's Tea. Why did you just do that?"
He looked back at the ground and muttered. "I-I thought it might help."
"With what? With screwing up my life further?! You just told my mom that the person who I USED to date is some suicidal, homicidal, paranoid jerk!"
"I-I'm sorry."
"You know what? I give up! You're just too much of a psychopath for anybody to help! Go off on your own and cut yourself in half! See if I care!"
"But Tea I-"
"Shut up! It's your fault I'm here in the first place! I never should've even stayed at your place! I never should've even THOUGHT of helping you in the first place! You're just a wacky nutjob who thinks that he can go flashing in and out of being insane! Well, no thank you! I'll pass! I don't need that!" She flung her arms up in the air to emphasize her point. "Just leave me alone! Seto, Kaiba, whatever you're calling yourself today. Just shut up and get out of my life!!!" Stomping inside her house she slammed the front door.
He winced as it shut and then headed back to his car. 'Well that went well.'
********************
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Yugi! Could you get that!"
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Okay Grandpa!"
Ring. Ring. Ri-
Yugi ran down the stairs and snatched the phone off of the hanger. "Turtle Game Shop, how may I help you?"
"YugiYugiYugi!!! You'll never guess!"
He leaned against the counter. "Okay, yeah. What is it?"
"WE'RE MOVING BACK!!!!!!!!"
Snapping up a smile immediately spread on his face. "You are?!"
"YesYesYes!!! And we get to come back NEXT WEEK!!! And guess what else?! My mom said I can stay at your place until then!!!""
Doing a little hop skip he ran up to his room with the phone and started picking it up. "Really?! That's cool! Wait, I have to go ask Grandpa!" He bolted back down the stairs and shouted into the basement where the person of interest was. "Gandpa?! Can Tea stay over here for a while?!"
He shouted back up at his grandson. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"No! She's moving! And her parents said she could stay here until next week!"
"Okay then! It's fine with me!"
"Thank you!" Dashing back up to his room he dived onto his bed. "That's great! Grandpa said that you could stay!!!"
"Cool!!!"
Gasping for breath from being so excited Yugi tried to calm himself down. "So where are you going to come over?"
"Today?"
"Okay." With a huge grin he ran back downstairs and hung up the phone before going back up once more to set up the guestroom. All the while he was humming to himself. "Tea's moving baaaaack. Tea's coming hooooome. Tea's staying heeeeeeeeere. Tea's moving baaaaaack. Tea's coming hoooooome. Tea's staying heeeeeeere."
******************
Later that night Tea was sitting at the dinner table with Yugi and his grandpa. She had already gotten her stuff situated up in the room and after she and Yugi had been spazzing for about another hour after that they had started to calm down. Bringing them to this point, dinner.
"So what made your parents change their mind?" Yugi glanced over at her full of curiosity.
She shrugged. "Dunno. They just told me we were." Of course that wasn't that answer. It was because of Kaiba, but of course Tea wasn't going to tell Yugi that, or admit it to herself either.
"Really? Well hey, if it gets you back here, it's good!"
Tea smiled again and took another forkful. "Yup, it definitely is!"
((Now people, Englasu has come to ask for a lovely vote from her nice reviewing friends ^^ do you want me to keep going? I know this fic has kind of taken a lopsided flip backwards and ish all confuzzled and turned around. But I need to know if you want me to keep going with it or just kinda kill it off as quick as I can. Tell me please, I need to know. And just to give you summing to think about, I'm probably going to write another Seto/Tea fic, it'll just be less crazy and possesed. But okay, just tell me what I should do, kill it, or keep going. It's up to you peeps. Submit your vote!))
Joey didn't bother knocking on the door. He didn't bother ringing the doorbell. He didn't bother stopping to see where Mokuba was to ask him questions. He just went. Straight up the stairs, through the door, right to Kaiba. That shit faced asshole Kaiba.
"Hey Kaiba!"
The executive didn't look up from the screen. "You don't have a meeting. I'll have to call the guards if you don't leave in the next ten seconds."
Joey stomped further into the room and yanked Kaiba out of his chair by the shirt collar. "If you even TRY calling those guards. You're taking a one way trip out your window!"
Kaiba smirked at him. "I'm afraid you are mistaken. You would be the one who would suffer the consequences."
"Well then my corpse will get your fat ass into a jail cell for the rest of your fuckin' life!"
Kaiba removed Joey fingers from his shirt and sat back down. "Oh contraire, I think I'd stay right here. You were the one who attacked me after all, on top of breaking and entering. It's called justifiable homicide Joseph." He locked his icy blue orbs onto Joey with a smug expression.
"Justifiable homicide my ass!" He swung his fist at Kaiba's head but found that the CEO just put up his hand and stopped it. He just stopped it in mid- strike.
"A little hostile today, aren't we?" There was a slight tone of mocking in his voice.
"You're damn right I'm hostile! Now get up and go apologize to Tea!"
"Hm, let me think about that." He sat in silence for a moment and then; "No."
"You dirty, filthy, bast-"
"Do not speak ill of your betters Joseph." The tone was blank and expressionless, but like a parent's reproving a child.
"I'll insult you if I want! You aren't better than me!"
"Oh yes I am. You know I am. Now go be a good little boy and go home. This is no place for you."
Joey glared at him and raised his fist again.
"Don't even think about it."
"You can't stop me!"
Kaiba stood up calmly and sent an icy chill down Joey's spine. "Do you think you can win?"
"Yeah! You're nothing but a creep! Ya big jerk!"
The CEO began chuckling dryly and then started pacing circles around the blonde. "Oh poor little Joseph. You really are in over your head now, aren't you? You think you're doing the right thing here. Coming all this way to defend your little friend. But they don't care about you. They could care less about a pathetic little grub like you. So what are you really defending? You're friends? Or is it just some little fantasy of yours to be able to defend someone who is defenseless without you? Well. Let me tell you. They all would be much better off without you. They're all just little pawns. Little teeny pawns that have no purpose, no feeling. You're a pawn too you know. And you all are just manipulated by the ones stronger than you, smarter than you. So what are you really achieving by coming all the way here? You're just fooling yourself into thinking that you're something special. Well you know? You're just a pathetic slug. A grimy little worm with no friends, and no one that cares for you. You're all alone and if you die, no one will notice, nobody at all."
"Shut up!" However strong Joey may have been feeling, Kaiba was wheedling his way slowly into his head.
"You don't believe me? Well then fine. Try and attack me. It won't do anything. Since you are the weaker, the underling, the one who was put there to obey me. So just try it. You're friends aren't going to come and help you. You're just all alone, all by yourself in this little world that you imagine. The pieces will fit eventually, and then you will understand. But until then you are just going to be lost, continuing on with your delusional fantasies, as a lost little boy who doesn't know the way home. So go ahead. Try it. Try to beat me."
By now Joey had been thoroughly cowed. The icy glare was eating away at him, and Kaiba had kept pacing circles around him and he hadn't even blinked. His expression had remained menacing, motionless, mocking. Joey couldn't fight that. He couldn't beat someone who didn't feel. "I-I'm sorry."
A smirk crawled onto Kaiba's face. "Good boy. Now go home and return to your little world before I change my mind and decide to have you locked up." Swiftly turning he sat down at his computer. "You are dismissed."
Joey slowly crept backwards out of the room stuttering. "I-I'm sorry for d- disturbing you." He left the office and walked down the stairs and headed to the game shop, feeling every inch the worm that Kaiba had called him.
*********************
He shut the door behind him and headed towards the living room where he heard the voices of his friends. 'I'm not that pathetic am I? I wasn't being that stupid.'
With his head hung he trudged over to the couch and fell down on it as three pairs of eyes looked over him.
"Hey Joey, was there a bug in your soda or something? You look like the world has ended." Tristan walked over and stared at him.
'I'm not a little worm.'
"Hello? Earth to Joey?" Tristan waved his hand in front of Joey's face. "Anybody home?"
Snapping out of thought the blonde blinked a couple of times and then gazed at Tristan. "Oh sorry. What?"
"Man. What happened to you?"
Yugi then walked over to him and sat down. "Yeah, are you okay?"
Joey shook his head and rested his chin on his palms. "That Kaiba dude really knows how to make a guy feel low."
Tristan smiled. "Oh is that all? I thought we had something to worry about."
The blonde sent a death glare at his friend. "Shut up."
"Why? Kaiba's insulted you before? It's not like it's true or anything."
Joey shrugged and sighed. "Yeah. I guess you're right."
Tea was watching them with the tears from earlier starting to resurface in her eyes. Wiping them off on her sleeve she went over to Joey and put on the best smile she could. "Why don't we just forget it and go do something. It's not like it matters anyway."
Yugi nodded and smiled as well. "Yeah. See Joey? It doesn't matter."
He got up with a half smirk. "Sure Yug." 'I guess it was just stupid. but man, Kaiba really can get into your head.'
*******************
Seto pulled out of Kaiba again and glared at him. That-was-mean.
"No it wasn't."
You're-being-mean.
"Shut up kid."
There was a defiant glare that met him. You-know-what? You've-just-given- up. That's-you're-problem. You've-given-up-on-the-world.
"The world has given up on me."
Seto continued glaring at him.
"Stop doing that."
You-know-you-still-have-a-heart. You're-just-ignoring-it.
"No."
Just-you-denying-it-proves-me-true.
Kaiba growled in slight frustration. He didn't know why he had let himself change to drastically. He was letting himself drift in the direction that he had been fighting for so long. He had sworn that he would never end up like Gozaburo. But what had he just done? He had just used the same methods of cowering upon Joey that his adopted father had done to him.
See?-You-don't-want-to-be-like-this.
With a sigh he started typing again. "What choice do I have."
You-could-start-by-fighting-again.
"It didn't work then. It's not going to work now."
Do-you-really-want-Mokuba-to-end-up-like-you? He-will-if-you-keep-this-up.
"Shut up. What do you know."
Fine.-Don't-listen-to-me.-But-you-know-what-you're-doing-is-wrong.-Mom- would-be-disappointed.
Seto disappeared back to the inside of Kaiba who sat there blinking at the last sentence that was sent to him. 'Mom?'
A small image flickered through his head of his mother's smiling face. 'M- mom?'
It disappeared again and then he let his head fall forward onto the keyboard. 'What am I doing?'
With a sigh he then got up and walked out of his room. He was about to head downstairs when he heard the sobbing coming out of Mokuba's room. He sighed again and opened the door a fraction to see his little brother lying on the bed in tears. 'And now to try and pick up the pieces.'
"Mokuba?"
His little brother immediately sat up on the bed and tried to wipe his eyes. "I'm sorry. I wasn't crying."
Kaiba walked over and sat next to him. "No, it's okay. If you need to cry you can."
Mokuba's eyes started to water again. "Do you really not want to take care of me anymore?"
The older looked uneasily at the floor. "I, don't, Think, so."
"B-but."
He put his arm around the little one. "Hey, it's okay. I won't let anything bad happen to you. I just-.need a bit. To get my head together."
"Are you sure?"
He sighed again and nodded slowly. "Yeah. I think so. Now, I'm going to go and try to fix some other things. I've done some pretty rotten stuff today. I have to correct that. And don't worry. I'll get rid of that guy." Getting up he ran downstairs and opened up his phone. The bodyguard was really supposed to start tomorrow, so he had gone home. Kaiba called him and told him that he wasn't going to be needed. Of course the guy was sort of pissed at being called over in the first place for no reason, but what would you expect.
'That fixes Mokuba. Now for the harder one. . . Tea.'
Kaiba traveled to his car and drove off towards her house. 'I only know of one thing that I can really do. She probably won't even forgive me after I do this. If I do this.'
It didn't take him that long to get there. When he did, he didn't stop down the street. He parked right next to the house. Walking up to the front door he tapped on it lightly. 'You have to do this. You just have to. Don't give up. Do it for Tea.'
The door opened slowly and he saw the face of her mother.
"Hello, may I help you?" Her expression was flat. Sure she remembered him, he was that Kaiba character. That Kaiba character whom she thought she had gotten rid of.
"Hello Mrs. Gardner. I know you must not be very happy to see me, but I don't think you or your husband are being very fair to your daughter."
Her eyes narrowed a little. "And why would that be?"
"Because you overreacted over this whole thing. Sure Tea stayed over at my place for a while. But it really wasn't that bad."
"Oh it wasn't?"
"No. It wasn't." He stared back at her flatly. "Now, let me explain this. You obviously didn't like my other explanation a few weeks ago. Especially since that was when you moved. I assume that was because you were trying to protect Tea from some sort of bad influence. But if you realize, just by the plain fact that I am standing before you, your original goal was not achieved."
"All the more reason for her to not see you."
The harsh parental gaze didn't waver him in the slightest. He was going to do this. Even if it killed him. "Mrs. Gardner, if you'll put aside the thought for a moment that I have done anything, then let me explain further. Yes, I'm here. Yes, I have followed Tea even when it seemed in all likelihood that I should just give up. And yes, if you were wondering, I am still dating her. So in fact your motive was not completed at all, whatsoever, it was a complete and total failure. I'm here to tell you, to move back. I can even pay for the move. I could pay for the whole House if you wanted. And no, I didn't steal the money. I own a company." He noticed the skeptic look on her face. "Ever heard of the Kaiba Corporation? Well you are looking at the soul owner. Gozaburo Kaiba was my adopted father, and he was the one who left it to me. I have a younger brother Mokuba. He lives in my mansion with me." Seto didn't care that Tea's mother wasn't really budging, while he was here, he was going to put all of his cards on the table. All of them. "Your daughter is in fact the first girlfriend I have ever had. She even stopped me from committing suicide twice."
"Is that supposed to be comforting?"
He smirked a little. "Not exactly. I used to cut my arms too, I even slashed my wrist one time and Tea took me to the hospital. I have done all these crazy things to myself, the backs of my arms were quite bloody and weak. I even went through a phase where I wasn't eating or sleeping. And do you know what? Tea stayed with me. Through all that she never gave up hope and she hung on with me."
The worried expression on her mother's face stayed there.
"You know what happened after Tea moved? I had followed the truck here. That's how I found you in the first place. But anyway, when I finally decided to come here and see how Tea was SHE was cutting."
"That's a lie."
Kaiba smirked again. "No, it's not. She was. But she's stopped now. In fact I sort of pinned her down with the knife at her throat. I know that's not a very reassuring thing to hear as a parent. After that I thought I'd killed everybody. I was going insane with all that and I kept seeing pictures in my head. And just recently I saw your daughter with this other guy that I had just beaten up the other day, Bakura. She was with him and then of course I was upset because I thought Tea hated me. And at this point she does. But that's because I started acting like my adopted father and thinking that emotions didn't matter at all." He paused for a breath of air and took it. "So you see, now that I've told you absolutely everything, you can't hold anything against me by saying that I lied to you, or kept something from you. I've told you everything. Now, are you going to move back? I'm perfectly happy to pay for the house. I'll even pay for all the taxes on THIS house until you sell it. And if you're still paranoid about your daughter being influenced by some insane freak like me. Well she's probably never going to forgive me for this last thing, so I doubt you have anything to worry about. So what do you say?"
There was a pause and then her mother spoke out. "I'll have to talk this over with my husband. We'll call you when we've made a decision."
Kaiba watched her shut the door and then he headed back to his car. "Well, I guess all I can do now is wait. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. It was just so-"
"Stupid?"
His eyes snapped up from the ground and he saw Tea glaring at him.
"Tea?"
"Yes Kaiba. It's Tea. Why did you just do that?"
He looked back at the ground and muttered. "I-I thought it might help."
"With what? With screwing up my life further?! You just told my mom that the person who I USED to date is some suicidal, homicidal, paranoid jerk!"
"I-I'm sorry."
"You know what? I give up! You're just too much of a psychopath for anybody to help! Go off on your own and cut yourself in half! See if I care!"
"But Tea I-"
"Shut up! It's your fault I'm here in the first place! I never should've even stayed at your place! I never should've even THOUGHT of helping you in the first place! You're just a wacky nutjob who thinks that he can go flashing in and out of being insane! Well, no thank you! I'll pass! I don't need that!" She flung her arms up in the air to emphasize her point. "Just leave me alone! Seto, Kaiba, whatever you're calling yourself today. Just shut up and get out of my life!!!" Stomping inside her house she slammed the front door.
He winced as it shut and then headed back to his car. 'Well that went well.'
********************
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Yugi! Could you get that!"
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Okay Grandpa!"
Ring. Ring. Ri-
Yugi ran down the stairs and snatched the phone off of the hanger. "Turtle Game Shop, how may I help you?"
"YugiYugiYugi!!! You'll never guess!"
He leaned against the counter. "Okay, yeah. What is it?"
"WE'RE MOVING BACK!!!!!!!!"
Snapping up a smile immediately spread on his face. "You are?!"
"YesYesYes!!! And we get to come back NEXT WEEK!!! And guess what else?! My mom said I can stay at your place until then!!!""
Doing a little hop skip he ran up to his room with the phone and started picking it up. "Really?! That's cool! Wait, I have to go ask Grandpa!" He bolted back down the stairs and shouted into the basement where the person of interest was. "Gandpa?! Can Tea stay over here for a while?!"
He shouted back up at his grandson. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"No! She's moving! And her parents said she could stay here until next week!"
"Okay then! It's fine with me!"
"Thank you!" Dashing back up to his room he dived onto his bed. "That's great! Grandpa said that you could stay!!!"
"Cool!!!"
Gasping for breath from being so excited Yugi tried to calm himself down. "So where are you going to come over?"
"Today?"
"Okay." With a huge grin he ran back downstairs and hung up the phone before going back up once more to set up the guestroom. All the while he was humming to himself. "Tea's moving baaaaack. Tea's coming hooooome. Tea's staying heeeeeeeeere. Tea's moving baaaaaack. Tea's coming hoooooome. Tea's staying heeeeeeere."
******************
Later that night Tea was sitting at the dinner table with Yugi and his grandpa. She had already gotten her stuff situated up in the room and after she and Yugi had been spazzing for about another hour after that they had started to calm down. Bringing them to this point, dinner.
"So what made your parents change their mind?" Yugi glanced over at her full of curiosity.
She shrugged. "Dunno. They just told me we were." Of course that wasn't that answer. It was because of Kaiba, but of course Tea wasn't going to tell Yugi that, or admit it to herself either.
"Really? Well hey, if it gets you back here, it's good!"
Tea smiled again and took another forkful. "Yup, it definitely is!"
((Now people, Englasu has come to ask for a lovely vote from her nice reviewing friends ^^ do you want me to keep going? I know this fic has kind of taken a lopsided flip backwards and ish all confuzzled and turned around. But I need to know if you want me to keep going with it or just kinda kill it off as quick as I can. Tell me please, I need to know. And just to give you summing to think about, I'm probably going to write another Seto/Tea fic, it'll just be less crazy and possesed. But okay, just tell me what I should do, kill it, or keep going. It's up to you peeps. Submit your vote!))