Chapter 8: Mystery To Me

"Kaiba!" Tea smiled as she came into their seventh period class. "I'm so glad you came back."

"Came back? I never left." Seto lied, glaring at her.

"But I saw…......" Tea began. Leaning forward, Seto roughly flicked her wrist with finger and she fell quite, startled.

"What the hell are you trying to do?" Seto hissed. "Get me in trouble?"

"Oh." Tea winced finally catching on. "Well, uh, it must have been somebody else."

"Must have been." Seto nodded shortly before returning to the drill. Taking her seat in the back of the class, Tea pulled out her homework and quickly shot a glance at the back of Seto's head.

'What is his problem?' Tea asked herself. 'He's so moody! This morning he looked like he could kill someone and storms out of the school after yelling at me about not being my friend. And what's the deal with his lack of homework? It is not like he can't do it, so why doesn't he? Moreover, he's way too paranoid. Always acting like the world is out to get him. Well, I suppose I should be glad he's showing any emotions at all. Usually he just glares at you and insults you with that cold, harsh tone of his. It's like he's hiding something. What is it with guys and hiding things? Kaiba's hiding something. Ryu's hiding something. Oh! That reminds me! I get to meet Ryu again tonight! I do believe I've begun to miss him.'

And with that, Tea's thoughts turned to Ryu.

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"Hello." Seto muttered as he passed his father.

"Seto, I…...... I wanted to apologize for yelling at you last night. I had no right."

"It's all right." Seto shrugged, as he went into his room and began to change. Pulling on his trench coat, he spun around as Mokuba came in.

"Seto? Where are you going?" Mokuba asked.

"Out." Seto mumbled while quickly buttoning his trench coat.

"In those clothes? Where did you even get them?"

"It doesn't matter!" Seto hissed, before quickly streaking his hair with black.

"Why do you have to go out? You're never here, big brother! We don't even talk anymore." Mokuba whined.

"I'll be back before midnight and we'll talk, at the very least. I promise." Seto sighed as he walked over to Mokuba and bent down to look his brother in the eye. Smiling slightly, he ruffled Mokuba's hair and this caused Mokuba to smile back. "Later."

"Bye." Mokuba whispered with a frown as he watched his brother run through the dining room and out the door.

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"He's so strange." Tea admitted to Mai, as she helped behind the bar before the club opened.

"I can't say I can help you." Mai shrugged. "Men confuse me just as much as they confuse you, and this boy of yours seems to be a bit nuts."

"Not nuts, just guarded or skeptical." Tea defended Seto. "He's also really smart…...... but he doesn't try."

"I think Tea has a little crush." Mai teased.

"I don't know!" Tea moaned. "Maybe I do, but I don't know him at all!"

"I didn't know Joey when I took up with him." Mai shrugged. "Heck, the only think I knew about him was that he could fix my car and looked damn good! That's what dating is, you know. Getting to know the guy."

"But I'm not sure I want to get to know him. He seems to hate me." Tea sighed. "And then he'll turn around and do something no one would ever expect."

"Such as?"

"He took the hit for me once and ended up getting sent out of class."

"So he's a gentleman."

"A foreign gentleman." Tea winked, causing Mai to laugh. "Okay, so not so foreign. But he did just transfer from LA."

"Really? So you're in love with a LA gangster, huh?"

"I am not in love with him!" Tea yelled, emphasizing each word by smacking Mai with her dishtowel. "How can I even like him when he hates me. Not to mention, I do like Ryu a whole lot better."

"Ah. Now I see." Mai sighed dramatically. "Whatever shall Tea do? How can she choose between her two loves. Will it be Ryu or…...... What is the boy from schools name? You never did tell me that."

"His name is Kaiba. Seto Kaiba."

"Seto Kaiba?!" Mai gasped. "You never mentioned that!"

"Is that important?"

"Yes! Ever heard of KaibaCorp?"

"Isn't that the name of a technology company?"

"Yes. And a fabulously wealthy one at that."

"You think Kaiba's a relation?"

"Think? I know! You see, even when I was about fourteen or fifteen, KaibaCorp was a major company. So of course, it was big news when one of the wealthiest couples in America, perhaps even the world, decided to adopt a boy from Japan. They ended up getting two brother because the eldest would not be separated from his younger brother and the Kaiba's were touched."

"So, Kaiba was one of the boys?"

"The oldest. I think the younger brother's name was Moke? Moku? Something like that."

"Wow. I had no idea."

"Most people don't. They dropped out of the media after a few days and only the parents have really been mentioned since, so most people don't even know the Kaiba's have two sons. I only remember because one of my friends was going through an Japanese kick at the time and was completely obsessed with the story."

"So Kaiba is really from Japan. I wonder why he was so adamant about being from LA. Say, you wouldn't have any pictures of him, would you?"

"No, I wasn't even really into the story anyway, so I don't even remember what color hair he has…..... or had."

"Oh well." Tea shrugged. "What time is it?"

"Almost ten. Time to meet the hansom Ryu, is it?" Mai teased as she went over to the door to let in the first few customers and one of the bouncers.

"Stop that." Tea muttered before going over to a corner to wait for Ryu.

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Hurrying into the club, Seto blinked a few times while allowing his eyes time to adjust to the darkness. When they were used to the dim light of the club, Seto quickly searched for Tea and found her, standing in their usual corner, with her eyes closed.

"Hey." He whispered in her ear.

"Ryu!" Tea smiled. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." Seto admitted. "Come on. Let's dance."

"Uh, could we not? My feet are so tired."

"Okay. Should we sit down and talk?"

"No. Let's just stand."

"But you said you feet hurt. Are you trying to get rid of me and my two left feet?"

"You're a wonderful dancer and you know that. I just…......"

"You just?"

"Oh, I don't know! I'm so lonely, Ryu!"

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't got many close friend—you know, the kind you can really talk to—and it seems that these days I can't even talk to my close friends. Joey and Tristan are always at the garage, and Yugi is always at his therapists."

"His therapists?"

"Yugi has a split personality disorder. His second personality is really violent and horrible, but I don't really mind. Yugi's so nice and I've only meet his second personality a few times. His second personality only comes out when Yugi is really angry or scared but unfortunately it doesn't leave until someone can calm Yugi down. The only way he can attend regular school is if he sees a therapist twice a week and keeps his second personality suppressed during school."

"Oh. I see. I had no idea." Seto nodded. "Uh, keep going."

"Well, anyway. It just seems that they're always busy and the only person I can talk to is Mai but even she's busy most of the time."

"Don't worry." Seto soothed. "You've got me to talk to now."

"I know. And I know I can trust you, can't I, Ryu?"

"You can trust me."

"Because you would never lie to me." Tea smiled.

"No, I'd never lie to you." Seto frowned. 'Even though that, in itself, is a lie. Great job, Seto. Lie to her again! You know, this would be an excellent time to tell her the truth, but are you? NO! I can't believe this! I'm lying to her even though I should be telling her the truth. But if I tell the truth, she'll be angry. And if she's angry, then she'll never talk to me again. I really don't want that! That cannot be allowed to happen.'

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"All right class. Pass in your drill and take out your homework." Mr. Benzinger smiled, causing the class to groan.

"But it's Monday!" A kid in the back groaned.

"Tough. Tristan; nope. Samantha; check. Jonathan; nope. Bobby; Only half-done? Joey; nope. Jane, well, you have an excuse."

"Excuse me, sir." Seto called. "You skipped me."

"You have your homework?" Mr. Benzinger gapped.

"Of course. It's just a essay." Seto shrugged as he showed his homework to the teacher. Changing the grade in his book, Mr. Benzinger shook his head and Joey leaned over to whisper to Seto.

"'Ey, Kaiba." Joey hissed. "Wha's da deal? Ya slack on homework all week an' suddenly star' doin' it? Ya 'ad a great record goin' dere."

"Shut up." Seto hissed back.

"Well? Wha' 'appened?" Joey pushed.

"Things…...... started to get better for me." Seto shrugged as he thought back to his talk with Tea.

'So why aren't you doing so well in school?' Tea asked.

'I just don't have time. I keep getting into fights with this one guy and I'll end up staying out the whole night because I'm so mad. You really can't write an essay on a street corner.'

'Why don't you just move out? Get a new place to stay?'

'Housing is hard to find in this city. You know that.'

'I suppose. So you just stay out all night and get in trouble because you're not doing you work?'

'That's about right.'

'Perhaps you should try apologizing to this guy…...... and may be swallow your pride once or twice.'

'Perhaps.'

'Well, remember you can always talk to me about your problems, right?'

'Right.'

AN: Chapter title by R.E.M.