Disclaimer: Not in this lifetime will I own YGO, maybe when I'm reincarnated. ^___~

A/N (1): Still dying.....

A/N (2): Yugi was just joking when he asked Tea to marry him at the end. *sweatdrops*

Title: Christmas in my Hometown

Random Quote: Did Michael Jackson ever tell you to Beat It? *cough* Don't ask....

"Great party, Yugi."

Yugi waved warmly, "get home safetly."

A sudden relief came over him as he watched the last two people leave in a state of concord. Though it was a great party, it had taken its toll, mentally and physically, on his body. He closed the door behind him and walked upstairs to see cups, confetti, streamers, plates, and leftover food lingering around the living room. He sighed heavily and made his way for the couch before his legs gave in under him.

"This is something I am never doing again," he fell onto the couch and groaned.

As his mind drifted toward the dream world, he didn't take notice to Tea's presence near the doorway. Tea, meanwhile, just gazed lovingly at Yugi's sleeping state until she decided it was time to leave. She walked toward the closet quietly and grabbed her jacket that was resting on one of the many hangers on the rack. After taking one last look at Yugi, she reached for the doorknob to hear, "I don't even get a goodbye."

She pulled her hand from the doorknob, "I didn't want to disturb you."

"Tea," he sat up, "that's no reason and you know it."

Yugi knew her like a book. "I didn't want to say goodbye."

"What?" He asked as she turned around to look at him.

"I know I told you that I was going to move back to Domino City, but," she walked toward him, "Kaiba will find some way to make me stay in New York. I didn't want to say goodbye when I knew I might not be coming back here."

"You can't let him control your life."

Tea knew Yugi was right, but he wasn't the one that had to stand up to Kaiba and tell him that. "I know."

"Then....promise me you'll come back." He took her hand in his.

"I-"

Her cell phone disrupted their conversation once again, but this time Yugi grabbed it before she could answer and looked at the name of the caller. Did Kaiba have her on speed dial or something? "Tea, before you answer to Kaiba, I need you to make that promise to me."

"Yugi..." She shook her head and took the phone from his grasp, "I...can't..."

Once on the phone with her boss, she noticed Yugi's back turned away from her. She ignored it once she

heard the word "promotion" spoken between the lines of rants and threats. "If I come in tomorrow, you'll grant me a promotion? Business supervisor? What time do you need me in?" After listening for a slight minute, she nodded her head and said, "okay, you should expect me in by eight o'clock."

"I see love gets in the way of your dreams."

Tea raised an eyebrow up at Yugi's accusation. "I'm not in love with Kaiba."

"How could you not be in love with him? It seems you do everything he requests of you."

"It's my job," she said as he folded her arms, "and he's my boss."

"Quit." He stated plainly as she put her coat on.

"You don't understand," she pulled her hair over her coat, "business supervisor is a big career move."

"Fine." Yugi wasn't going to argue with someone who had made up their mind.

"I'm sorry, Yugi."

Yugi brought his hands to his sides. "Don't be."

"I guess this is goodbye...again." She hugged Yugi, but he didn't respond to it.

A tear slid down her cheek as she made her way to the door.

"Just answer me something," she turned to look at him, "what would Tea Gardner do?"

Part of her understood the question, while the other seemed confused by its nature. All of her, however, couldn't understand why Yugi would ask such a question. She was Tea Gardner and she was following her.....dreams.......

"What wouldn't Tea Gardner do?"

As she closed the door behind her, she broke down in tears. It wasn't like her to give up on her dreams, especially when she had so many to accomplish. Yugi was right. She wasn't Tea Gardner at all. Tea Gardner didn't quit.

~~~***Meanwhile***~~~

Yugi could hear Tea crying from outside, but he was in no shape to comfort her. The conversation had caused him to shed some tears as well. He hated giving Tea, the love of his life, the cold shoulder, but he thought he could bring the old Tea back if he did. Why hadn't she come to her senses? Was she so in love with Kaiba that she would change everything about her just to be him? He rested his head on the couch arm, unsure what to think at this point.

One thing stood clear in his mind though, "I won't give up."

~~~***Later***~~~

Tea leaned her head gently against the taxi window, staring unconsciously at the hands on her watch that appeared to have stopped. She laughed pitifully at this because it reminded her of her relationship with Yugi. Ra, why had he thought she was in love with Kaiba? Seto was too busy in his technological devices to actually give her the time of day. In addition, she felt no physical attraction to him. It was strictly business and she preferred it that way.

"What would Tea Gardner do?"

It seemed that whenever she cleared her mind of all her troubles, his awful words would strike her mind like a hammer on a nail. Had she really changed that much for Yugi to take notice? Tea didn't feel like she created a new image of herself. What did Yugi know that she didn't?

"How could you not be in love with him."

She lightly banged her head on the window, hoping to make her head hurt so much that she couldn't think. The only thing that this accomplished was getting the taxi driver to think she was nuts. She leaned into the old leather seat, tilting her head toward the roof so she couldn't attack the window again.

"You can't let him control your life."

She closed her eyes, trying to block out his voice. The harder she tried the louder his voice got in her head. Knowing that she was defeated, she picked her head up and looked out the window to see where they were. She could tell that they were only a few blocks away from the airport.

"To be honest, I came here for you..."

Her eyes bolted open as her own voice now filled her head. She remembered saying that when Yugi told her how much he was happy to see her. She smiled weakly, remembering the smile on his face when she said it. She loved seeing him happy, especially when it was because of her. Her smile soon turned to a frown when she realized how much she was already missing him. This was bad. She wasn't even out of Domino City.

She didn't want to go back to New York. She knew what to expect already. As soon as she walked into Kaiba Corps, the first things that was going to come out of his mouth is, "why are you late?" No "hi" or "how was your trip?" Ra, why was she going back? Did Kaiba really control her life?

"No, I'm no one's duel deck."

The taxi driver looked at her, through the rear view mirror, for saying that out loud. She only smiled and said, "could you make this my stop?"

~~~***The Next Day***~~~

Yugi awoke to the smell of....bacon? He sat up and looked around warily. "Grandpa?"

That was a stupid thing to say. Grandpa was away on some senior cruise to the Caribean Islands for at least a month. It took a lot of persuading to get his Grandpa to leave the shop, but when he heard the words, "free buffet" he was already packing his bags.

"Hmm..." Yugi mumbled as quietly stepped toward the kitchen.

As he stepped into the kitchen, he saw a cheerful Tea cooking breakfast while dancing with a pair of headphones on. His eyes widened, remembering what happened last night. Ra, his jealously got the better of him. He wanted Tea to stay so bad, but he only drew her away with his words.

"Good morning," she pulled her headphones down, "I wasn't sure if you liked scrambled or fried eggs, so I made both."

He looked down at the plate of eggs, unsure what to say. Though it shocked him that she was here in his kitchen, it shocked him even more that she wasn't sad, angry, or even upset by what happened yesterday. It was like she was trying to hide and conceal what happened between them. Almost like what.... the old Tea would do. As long as he had known Tea, there was never a day where she looked at her life through an empty glass. Whatever happened to her, she wouldn't show her true feelings. "Thanks, Tea."

"No, thank you."

He would have asked to elaborate on her response, but he only sat down and kept it to himself. She smiled and pulled out a chair, that was across from him, and placed a plate down for herself. As she munched on her food quietly, he only picked at his food, while watching her suspiciously.

"Is it that bad?"

"Huh?" He looked down at his food, noticing that he hadn't touched anything. "No...just not hungry."

She put her fork down and looked at him. "Last night was the culprit, huh?"

"I...well....yes.." He uttered, but then regained his composure to say, "why are you here?"

"Well, I remembered years ago that you told me about a spare key that was taped under the bench in front of the Game Shop." She picked up her fork again, "I hope you don't mind. There was really no place to check in for the night."

He shook his head. "No, I mean, why aren't you in New York?"

"Ohhh..." She looked away from Yugi. "Let's just say that I realized what a big mistake it would have been."

Before he could answer, Tea jumped up and cried, "is that snow?"

Yugi watched as she ran to the window to watch small ice particles falling from the sky. He pulled himself to his feet and walked over, "it seems we are going to have a White Christmas after all. Wait, isn't there a lot of snow in New York."

"It seems that since I've been there, snow is as rare as rain in the Sahara."

Yugi smiled, "you must be too hot for New York."

"Oh yeah," she blushed while hiding a smile, "I think not."

"So," he stated before silence could end their conversation, "you wanna go outside?"

She turned to look at him with an "are you crazy?" look planted on her face.

"Come on," he raised an eyebrow up, "don't tell me NY has turned you into a chicken!"

She folded her arms. "Take that back!"

"Not until you go outside and prove it to me."

"Fine," she walked out the kitchen, "we'll see who's the chicken."

Yugi smiled to himself, glad to know that Tea was here with him. As he followed her out of the kitchen, he realized that the living room was cleansed of all the garbage he had neglected to clean last night. "Tea, you didn't....clean all of this?"

"All of what?" She walked into the living room, "oh yeah, it was nothing."

His eyes widened as he put his shoes on. "Are you kidding me?"

"Yugi, you know there's inventions known as the vacuum cleaner and dishwasher, right?"

This statement didn't phase his shock, "you didn't have to do all of that."

"Don't worry, I left you the bathroom."

"Joy."

~~~***Outside***~~~

"Crap, it's freezing."

Tea smiled at Yugi, who was jumping around like he did when he lent her his jacket after she battled one of the Big Five. It had to be one of the sweetest things Yugi, or any guy for that matter, had ever done. "Not as bad as Penguinville."

Yugi heard what she said and laughed, "you remember that?"

"How could I forget?" She folded her arms to keep herself warm, "that was my first real duel."

Yugi smiled. "Do you still duel?"

"Funny, though I work for a dueling industry, I haven't dueled since then."

Yugi nodded sympathetically. "It seems that way for me too."

Tea gasped. "The King of Games?"

"That's Yami's title." Yugi sighed.

"That's not true, you've earned that title, with or without Yami."

Yugi smiled weakly. "Ra, I've missed you."

"What?"

"I really haven't had anyone to cheer me on ever since you left." Yugi looked toward the sky, catching some snowflakes on his face as he did. "Then Yami, Serenity, and Tristan left." He sighed and looked at her, "it was rather depressing."

"Really?"

He nodded and slipped his hands in his pocket. "It seems that I really wasn't strong without my friends around."

"I know something that will cheer you up." She smiled maliciously as she hastily picked up some snow and threw it at her victim. Yugi only looked at the snow on his shoulder before realizing that the snowball was only a warning shot.

Soon, three others came into sight. He ran and dodged two, "hahahaha! You missed me!" That's when the third one hit his ear. "Ah! I've been hit! I need back-up!" Tea only giggled as he fell into the snow with his leg wiggling in the air.

'He's so cute..'

"Tea," he coughed weakly, "I don't know how long I can....hold on."

"Ohh...okay.." Tea said cheerfully as she turned around, "bye!"

Yugi hastily sat up and looked over at Tea, who was already running for the door. He formed a snowball and aimed for her head, but wound up hitting her in the leg because he was so far away from her. She fell down and looked over to him, "that's all you got?"

He cocked an eyebrow up and stared at the snow, "are you challenging me?"

"Care to accept?" She asked as she eyed the snow carefully as well.

Before he could even answer, Tea picked up a pile of snow and looked at him furtively. He stepped away from her and broke into a run, but not until he realized that he was running away from the house....which was the only exit. Unfortunately, they had a small backyard and the Game Shop property was surrounded by a thick stone wall, which looked too dangerous to climb. He stopped hastily and yelled, "you wouldn't hit a short person, would you?"

She stopped and looked at the snowball in her hand, "hmmm...yes!"

She smudged the snow into his hair and ran away, carrying fits of laughter as she skipped across the white paradise. Yugi only watched, laughing to himself, knowing that things were finally back to normal between them.......

"For now."

~To be continued....~

Alright, that's it for chapter two. Tell me, did it meet up to expectations? It seems I've been so busy to actually get into my Yugi/Tea groove. Ra, that sounded wrong on so many different levels. *shakes her head and walks away*