A/n: wah! This is the second to the last chappie…I am so sad…& about kai losing to yami episode…poor kai…. He looked like he was gonna CRY his eyes out. --;

Kaiba: I. Wasn't. Gonna. Cry. My. Eyes. out!!! (big anime vein) -.- ######

A/n: yep, just CRY his eyes out…..-.-you were so mean to him, yami…nyah! Meanie! :P

Yami: humph.

A/n: bad winner! :P gloater! You could have at least…..uh….hmmm……

Yami:…..yes?

A/n: d-don't you smirk at me! You could have, uh….you could, um…..at least been politer! :P makin' poor kai CRY his eyes out….

Kaiba: I DIDN'T---ah, forget it. (sniff)

A/n: (huggles) poor kai……did big bad yame be aw meanie-weeny to you….? (glares) just for that, you will suffer, yami! Mwa haha ! ah! I got it! (card appears) I activate…..Hoards of Fangirls! In attack mode!

Yami: O.o that's not a card!!!! (hundreds of fangirls appear) O.O

A/n: How do you know? Do you KNOW every single card..? uh, never mind….(sweatdrop)besides, this is MY realm!

Kaiba: (smirk) this is intersitng……!

Yami: Counter attack: Spellbinding circle! (circle of magic appears around fangirls)

Fangirls: (sulk)

A/n: Oh yeah? think ya c'n beat me, eh? (anime flames) attach with Multiply! (infinite girls appear) Mwahaha!

Kai& a/n: (laugh evilly!) Muah ha hah!!!!!

Yugi: oh no, ….please stop ! (big wet pleading eyes) 0-0 pwease?

A/n: oh no…..not…The Eyes! X-x….yugi….you traitor---! X-x (faints}

Kai:: darn you weak authoress!

Disclaimer: ok dat was disturbin' & weird.....oh yeah, I don't own YGO!

%%%%%Tea's POV %%%%%%%

The sound of chirping birds awoke me. their whistling sounded awfully loud, more like trains whistles. I groaned and rolled over in my bed to escape the sunlight peeking in my eyes. There…..bury yourself in your embroidered pillow from Grandma…..tell the world to go away… .

Maybe I was being overly dramatic. After all, it was the last day today, I should be happy, like the rest of DHS students.. Or was that yesterday? I couldn't remember. What was today? Something big..

Oh yeah. Graduation day.

I opened my eyes and stared up at the plaster while ceiling with light yellow wallpapering around the edges. The birds continued to chirp happily, it made me feel sad. No, tomorrow it was commencement ceremony for the seniors, or today, I really didn't care which. I threw my hands over my head at the backboard, resting them near my disconnected phone nearby. Earlier, I had had a fight with one of my very best friends….

Sighing, I attempted to sit up, still in my nightgown, even though it was about 12:00 noon, according to the nightstand clock. I felt like a mess, both inside and out. A pile of dirty laundry stood in one corner, my mom had forgotten it before work. Numbly, I went to pick it up. That was I: wrinkled, old clothes thrown haphazardly every which way, as if pointing every direction of my life.

Suddenly all the energy went out of me in a whoosh, and I sat down with a thump on my bed again. Then I was on my back, giving the ceiling another once over again. I felt tears prick at my eyelids at the fight, the one at the dance Kaiba and I had….

It wasn't fair. Why should I have to be the one to work things out? Shouldn't he want to, too? Earlier, Mai had cornered me to ask about how the night went, since she couldn't make it after all, and took on look at my face and said, "Oh." Sort of like an unsurprised "oh." Like she knew something would have gone wrong. When I asked her why, she shook her head and said, "Let me guess. You two had a fight….?"

I swear, she was psychic. After I explained what happened in detail, (by her request) she nodded, like she understood everything, immediately. "Well?!" I said in frustration., "What is it? why had he been so mad about?"

"Oh, nothing. Just has a bruised ego, is all. Typical male thing. That easy to fix." At my puzzlement, she added, as it were the MOST OBVIOUS THING in the world, "Because, you know, he was caught and felt ashamed of his motives of why he saved your life, you….know?" She waved her hands.

But I still didn't understand. "Is that all?" I said angrily, thinking about how I'd felt guilty when he had left me standing there.Me! Why? Who knows! But I did, and he yelled just because he was embarrassed?! Mai said something then left, but I didn't hear it, except it was something like, "you ought to make up with him, hon."

Me? Why do I have to be the one, I fumed all the way down the street that night. ...when he's the one at fault?!?!?! I was the one who was supposed to be furious! After all, if Ishizu hadn't been there for someone to impress, Kaiba would have let me die that night, and walked away without a scratch. To think that I was some sort of….sort of…..pawn in his 'victory road' made me sick and feel used. That's it. I felt used.

"Would you just tell me already?!" I said with a tinge of irritation at his stubbornness. "I want to hear it from you."

"All right…..I DO have feelings for you!! Happy?!"

I stopped to work out the lump in my throat. Why couldn't I be more like, well….like him and just brush this off my shoulders like it were no biggie? Even Mai could do it. Still, she had advised me to make up with him.

And face it, even though you would happily tear his head off, right now, for putting you in this position and situation, you still have feelings for him. Even though!

But WHY? Wh-hy do I have to be the one to make up?

Back in my room at the present, I remembered after my talk with Mai, I felt even more frustrated, and found myself looking up the store windows of the Game Shop. Where Yugi and Yami's grandpa worked. Without thinking about it, I had arrived there. Unconsciously. And just like in the same dream state, I walked up the stairs to the back door, where to main house was and tapped on the door, my hand feeling like it wasn't mine at all, but somebody else's.

Mr. Moto greeted me and let me in, and I felt my mouth form the words, "Is Yami in?" [a/n: sounds like that phone wireless commercial…'are you in?' ok I be quiet now --;;] "No, but he'll be back soon, he just had to run to the market for a few things. Won't you sit down? Do you want water or….?" He said kindly, as I sat down. I shook my head, and he left towards the store. I felt so uneasy waiting, because my mind was whirling around for what I would say to him, making no sense. I fidgeted around, waiting, then finally decided I would have that water after all, and went into the kitchen.

"Oh! Tea, I'm sorry I completely forgot you were waiting, Tea" explained Mr. M, while my feet went cold from all the blood draining. I was SO dreading this! "I'll leave the two of you alone," said Mr. M to us, then am-scrayed it out of there, the door slamming behind him like a tomb's.

I said hi in greeting, then took a shaky breath knowing he wasn't going to like what I had to say to him. but I had to know! To make some sense of this! "Hold on," said he, going over to the door and opening it again. "Stop overhearing!" I heard him say, then a muffled sulky voice and feet running up the stairs. I was glad he scared away whoever was eavesdropping, because this wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Er, Yugi's home, I suppose….?" I said with a sweat-drop, adjusting my letter jacket.

"No, that was Grampa. So what is it?" he said with a friendly smile [a/n: OMG he made a joke! ::great wall of china crumbles:: yeah, yeah, ssh….] "Did you have to ask me something?"
"Er, yeah," I said, feeling embarrassed and sort of ashamed. "You're not going to like it though….." I trailed off, wondering if I could really do it.

"Go ahead, Tea. you can ask me anything. We're friends, aren't we?"

I nodded rapidly in quick agreement. "Well, ah…..it's about that night…….at the school dance….." a look of dawning realization crossed his face, and I went on rapidly, "I don't want to offend you, but I want an honest answer…" Oh great, make him feel even worse!


"Yes?"

"When you told Kaiba about what you had found out about, you know….did you know I was listening?" I blurted in a rush. "Too?"

There was a pause and I considered his answer. If he said yes, then that meant he had planned on just being malicious and spiteful, even though I didn't want to believe he would be that way. If it was a no, an honest no, then…..that's what I was hoping it was. He didn't do it out of spite for Kaiba…..and jealousy...?

Oh, riiiiiiight. He was jealous. Riiiiiight. No time to get a big head, Tea! Jealous. Sheesh.

I supposed he was thinking the same things because he looked away for a full minute, not saying anything. I thought I saw a hint of nervousness in his expression, but of course that was impossible. "No." said he.

"…..okay."

"I didn't do it out of jealously, Tea." He looked me sqaurely in the eye, as if wanting me to believe it. "I just felt you ought to know everything, before....you get too involved with him and all..."

"Okay," I said again. As I felt a wave of relief wash over me, he went on, sticking his hands at his waist:

"Can I give you some advice?" He said it in a tone that meant that I wasn't to disagree or refuse. I nodded mutely, somehow dreading it. "About …..the whole idea of you….and Kaiba….." He pulsed, looking away again, and I held my breath, for some reason. "I…maybe it's just me, but I sincerely don't think it would be a good idea.....It will be way too much problems for you. Do you understand?"

I felt a wave of dejavu. "I don't think it would be a good idea, Tea," he had said when I had asked him out way back when. "It'll be too much problems for you." In the same, low, soft deep voice of his. Don't you understand? Nearly in the same sympathetic way. For an instant, I felt so dizzy as all the blood rushed out of my head, that I caught myself on the back of a dining chair. He asked if I was all right, and I answered yes. Liar!

He started it! I ignored it and said, "Thank you for your opinion, Yami. You know I do respect it......." but my lips felt so numb, it was automatically said rather than heartfelt.. "I have to go, good bye," I said in a hurry, turning to leave out the front door, rather than the back. I think he got the point, and left me be.

Walking home, and later, when I was in bed, awake, I thought about what he had said, and how it affected me. Could it it just be….I wondered, struggling, that secretly I had always resented Yami for not even giving us a chance? For not even trying to? He knew how sincere I was. He knew how much I had wanted to be with him. Yet…..I sighed, turning over, now, in the morning. I had barely gotten a wink of sleep and felt like it.

Maybe I was manipulative, too. Maybe the sudden rush of feelings for his arch-rival, Kaiba, had spurned out of the fact that I had resented Yami's refusal. Rejection. Ugh. It sucked to be rejected. Just sucked…..! I thought viciously. Maybe I was resentful. So what.

Ugh! Men……them and their big egos…..!

My calendar on my wall said that it was indeed the 16th, which meant today was the commencement ceremony for the senior class at DHS. I checked the clock again. in two hours, it was to start. Being a junior, I wasn't actually in the ceremony, but I had planned to go, since Yami was a senior this year, as well as…..

Staring at my dresser, I opened it to find….that photocopy I had stolen that day when I babysat Rebecca and she had lost her teddy. My mouth went dry as I pictured how he had looked at the little girl when she had gotten her teddy back from him. and then I had stolen the photo, and he had found out and ripped it in two. And threw it in the trash. But I had recovered it. back then, I had hated him so much, for all the stupid things to do, this was somehow the stupidest…….Great, now I'm REALLY confusing myself! But the person I had resented the most was….me, because of my rather inconsistent moods, and never knowing what's going on, really. Never making sense….still-having feelings for Kaiba, that is…….and I'm pretty sure he still has some for me. he's just too stubborn to say. If I didn't say anything, just continued to snub, gradually we would drift apart, further and further…..

"I'm NOT like him," he had said to me. "And I know….you know it, as well."

I got up suddenly and stuffed it away.

I knew what to do.

TBC!

A/n:: yay, tea knows what to do! Go, tea! go, Tea! ::waves pompoms:: Getcher man!

Tea: ..........er, thanks for the cheer, authoress…..:: big SWEATDROP::

A/n: & don't listen to what ol' Yame's doom and gloom predictions! He's just bitter!! Bitter, I say! Bu-ut…..he's also right. ::dramatic point:: Even if S/t does get together again , their future has….. obstacles! ::boo hoo.:: T---T but they don't care! Aw! Anywho, R&R!