Chapter 8 - ...the Tough Hang Christmas Lights
Dis..whatisthatagaincuziforgotanddon'tremember...claimer: ????? Oh and I don't own any of the songs that I keep mentioning in this story.
As you may recall, hopefully with some giggles or at least a smile, Joey had fallen onto the vegetable tray and was getting a broom to clean up. The rest of the gang were just about to start decorating the tree that had inadvertently given Tristan some nice scratches. And Mokuba was heading for the kitchen all by himself. And he needed a chair. What was the sugar-hyped kid up to???
Mwahahahaha, we shall soon find out...
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On Dragon! On Dancer!
On Mutt! On Retriever!
On Shrimp! On Spirit!
Let's get the decorating done.
Don't forget the wild child with the smile...
Round 4
Joey grumbled to himself as he started to gather the vegetables onto the dustpan with the broom he'd found in the upstairs hall closet, just where Téa had said it would be. The humour of the situation got to him again and he snickered to himself as he stopped for a moment and watched everyone, except Mr. I'mTooGoodToDoThisKindOfThing Kaiba, start digging into the boxes she had pulled out from beside the couch. Strings of lights, boxes of bulbs, window clings, and cans of fake snow, garland, tinsel and a whole assortment of Christmas figures piled up around the tree and under the front window. This was going to be a lot of fun, he decided, once he was finished getting rid of the mess he'd made when he'd inadvertently fallen onto the coffee table. He was also the only one who spotted Mokuba coming out of the kitchen, his grin big enough to light the Christmas tree all by itself.
"Hey, Mokuba. Lookin' for sumpthin'?" Joey asked, pausing in his clean up of assorted, cut-up vegetables.
Mokuba thought fast. It wouldn't do to have his surprise spoiled just yet. "Yeah, actually. Where's the bathroom. I thought it was through there..." Good cover, he congratulated himself, trying to wipe the smile off his face.
"Oh, it's down dat hall, last door on de right. Are ya havin' fun here?" Mokuba just grinned at him before he turned away and dashed off down the hallway. Guess dat was his answer, Joey thought, picking up the dustpan and carrying it to the kitchen to throw in the trash. The difference between the two Kaiba brothers was extraordinary. Mokuba was as sunny as Kaiba was icy. Although, tonight for some reason, he seemed different somehow, in a way that Joey couldn't quite put his finger on. Why was he worrying about Kaiba anyways? Shrugging his shoulders, he walked out of the kitchen. Now that the mess was cleaned up, he could join everyone as they started to decorate Téa's living room.
"So what's de plan?" Joey asked, joining the small group of people as they stood by the tree, fixing the branches to make them look 'perfect'.
"Well, just like the last time we had a Christmas party, you know, before all of that crazy stuff happened to us, Joey, you and Tristan get to put up the lights on the outside of the house. You know, around the doors and windows out front. Yugi and Mokuba are going to hang the bulbs on the tree and Kaiba and I are going to decorate the windows from the inside." She thought the arrangement perfect. No one would say anything if the two of them were having a little conversation as they worked. As an added bonus, it kept Joey and Kaiba separated by a thick wall and windows. No chance of the two of them getting into a spat over something and forcing her to kick them out. She still had to get Joey back for the way he'd phrased his coffee order. Or she could just consider his fall in the vegetables as enough?
"By the way, where is my little brother? I haven't seen him for a while, ever since we went into the kitchen. He's up to something, that kid. I know he is," Seto told her softly, leaning closer to her and inhaling that scent of shampoo once more. He was going to have to buy a bottle, or the company, just so he could smell it whenever he wanted. Yugi saw the exchange and that flash of jealousy came and went again, not as strongly as before though.
"I think he went to the bathroom. I saw him wander down that hallway." Téa wished she could just wrap her arms around him and lean her head on his chest, just for a second. That aftershave he was wearing was doing a number on her senses and all she could think about was him, lathered up and shaving in a steamy bathroom with nothing on but a... Stop it... bad Téa, she reprimanded herself, think about something else.
A little louder, she called to everyone, "There's hot cider in the kitchen if you want to grab a mugful before you start working. You all know your assignments. And once the decorating's done, we eat!"
Murmured agreements, and Joey's whoop of joy, reached her ears and she and Seto turned to head back to the kitchen they had only vacated a few minutes before. The cups of coffee were still sitting on the end table, quickly forgotten in the rush for cider, and safely out of the way should any other... accidents... happen. The radio, she noticed absently, was now playing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". Mokuba joined them a second later, coming down the hallway and meeting them at the archway. He was smiling. Why, she had no idea, but he was happy so she let him be. Seto just narrowed his eyes at his little brother. Mokuba put on his best 'innocent angel' expression and went into the kitchen ahead of them, grabbing a seat at the kitchen table. Everything was going according to plan, now he just had to wait.
The cider on the counter was generously distributed to everyone, mugs still steaming, and the hint of cinnamon in the air just added to the Christmas atmosphere they were about to create with the tree and lights. The four friends stood close to the oven, chatting idly amongst themselves, with Téa once in while smacking Joey's hand to keep him out of the crumble that rested on its surface. Nothing more than murmurs, and an occasional laugh, escaped the tight-knit little group for few minutes but Téa threw a glance over her shoulder at Seto, on the pretext of adjusting her hair, and gave him a quick smile, letting him know that she was still thinking about him. The smallest twinkle in his cerulean eyes let her know he was feeling the same way.
She just wished that he could join the group without raising too many protests. 'Soon,' she thought, 'he'll be part of the group and they'll just have to accept it.' Seto was such a lone wolf. He did everything on his own – take care of his brother, run his company, do his homework, eat lunch at school. And that she'd somehow managed to melt a hole through that wall of ice and sarcasm he'd built around himself honoured her greatly. All it had taken was one, honest token of friendship. Glancing down, she saw his belt buckle glitter silver in the light from the lamp and blushed slightly. She wondered where her other present to him was stashed. Knowing Seto, it was close at hand. He never went anywhere without being prepared for a duel. Fingering the flame-and-diamond pendant around her neck, she took a sip of cider and sighed softly.
Seto had taken over his favourite spot at the counter and just sipped slowly at his cider, watching Téa and her friends chat idly for a few minutes before the work got started. An occasional smacking sound let him know that Wheeler was still trying to eat the crumble. The mutt and his stomach. He watched the group in silence. Maybe one day he'd be accepted into that group as one of them. Hopefully as her boyfriend and maybe later as her... no he didn't want to think about that yet. Too far into the future. Yugi would accept him as a friend as readily as Téa had but Taylor and the mutt would be a whole other story. Her silken wave of chocolate hair flowed over her shoulders and the smile she sent his way made his toes curl. He watched her eyes flick down and knew, somehow, that she was wondering where the rest of her present to him was. The duelling case was currently stashed in his coat pocket, his duelling deck nestled in the blue velvet interior, just in case he got the chance to face Yugi again in a duel. But beating him was no longer as high on his priority list as it had been before. He had more important things to do with his time now. Somehow, he managed to suppress the laugh that was desperately trying to escape at that last thought. Hopefully, she caught the twinkle in his eyes. And he watched with jealousy and envy as her lips connected with the mug and she took a sip of cider.
Téa Gardner. He almost shook his head in disbelief. If someone had told him he'd start something with her today, he would have laughed in their face before firing them and asking what they'd been smoking to make them hallucinate such a crazy thing. The perky cheerleader and the cold-hearted bastard. But what a pair they made. She may not have seemed it on the surface, but she was a lot like him. They both liked to take control of situations. That made him think for a moment. What if she had somehow set Roland up with her aunt in anticipation of...? No way, that was too devious, even for her to come up with. The snow wash then quickly popped into his head and he looked down at his socks, hiding the grin that crept across his lips. And her poor, little friends didn't even grasp how much control she had over them. She was the force behind everything. Take the Christmas party for example. She was the one who had organized the whole thing, made the food and assigned everyone their 'duties'. Hell, she'd even managed to get him to come here. He was ready to bow down to a master strategist and hope that she never took up Duel Monsters seriously.
Seto turned towards his little brother and noticed 'the look' Mokuba had on his little cherubic face. That was not a good sign. He knew his little brother had been planning something. And the last time Seto had seen that 'look', he'd ended up wearing a bottle's worth of blue dish soap on his head. Don't ask. It wasn't a pretty picture. Funny, but not pretty in the slightest.
Mokuba glanced up and noticed that his surprise was still in place, attached to the light fixture that hung in the middle of the room. It wouldn't do to spoil the surprise before the time was right. And he really only wanted two people to stand under it. His brother had already walked under it once. He just needed him and her to walk under it together.
Now he just had to wait for his intended victims to approach. Even if it meant waiting all night.
Seto glanced up himself, quickly, and spied what Mokuba had attached to the light. He had to give the kid credit, it was almost hidden from sight. What had given his little brother this idea? Why would he hang mistletoe in the middle of Téa's kitchen... Damn. One way or another, his devious, cunning little brother had found out about his little, more than a little, crush on Téa. Seto almost smirked to himself. He'd underestimated his little brother this time and found that he was proud of the little, black-haired rascal for doing it. Seto might even be able to make use of it later on, once he got Téa alone in the kitchen that was. Maybe once the decorating got under way, he'd be able to get her in here under some pretence or another. The strain of not being close to her, touching her or hearing her talk and laugh, was getting to him. And that little kiss they'd shared in kitchen a while ago was definitely not going to be enough to sustain him until everyone left. Taking a sip of his cider, he saw that the little group had broken up.
"Okay, guys, it's time to get to work. Joey and Tristan, you two can head outside once you've grabbed the lights from the living room. If you need a ladder, there's one next to the garage in the back. Same place it always is. Yugi, you and Mokuba can start with the tree decorations. Just grab a chair from the kitchen, if you need it, to put the star on top. Kaiba and I will start with the window clings and fake snow. Now, any questions?" Téa asked, eyeing the group before her. Seto had moved closer and Mokuba had left his perch at the kitchen table, vibrating slightly from all of the sugar rushing in his system.
Joey glanced over at Kaiba and grimaced. "Kaiba gets t' stay inside where it's nice 'n' warm. He should be de one goin' outside. He probably wouldn't even feel de cold... human popsicle..." Joey grumbled, almost under his breath, as he headed for the living room. Seto's normally frosty stare turned ice cold and his mouth opened, a biting remark ready to spill forth. Téa heard him, though, and quick as a wink, Joey's left ear was between her thumb and index finger and she was pulling him lower, down to her level. Not gently either.
"What did you say, Joey?" she growled and Joey whimpered at the anger he saw starting to build in her eyes and the pinch his ear was getting. The rest of the gang turned and watched the amusing sight before them. Joey was about to get his ass proverbially whooped by Téa. As usual.
"N..n..nothing, Téa. Jus' can't wait t' get outside 'n' hang dem lights wit' my good ole buddy, Tristan," he replied, praying that she would let go of his ear soon. What was with her today? Okay it was true, she had told him to behave and play nice with Kaiba, KAIBA!, but he hadn't said anything that bad. Kaiba had gotten away with calling him a mutt and a puppy dog in less than two minutes and SHE hadn't grabbed his ear. Something fishy was going on here...
"Good. And just remember, Joey, I think payback's are fun. I won't just kick you out. Remember what I did to you after my barbecue this summer, after the rosebushes died? One more crack like that last one and you'll find that that had been a picnic compared to what I'll make you do this time." Téa left her threat hanging in the air between them as she released the death grip she had on his ear. Everyone else was grinning widely, well Kaiba was smirking, and two others in particular remembered exactly what she had forced Joey to do after he threw up in her rosebushes. And it hadn't been pretty. Funny, hilarious even, but not pretty in the slightest at least not from Joey's point of view.
"Okay, okay. You've made ya point. C'mon Tristan. Let's go get dem lights up." Tristan went to grab the lights from the living room and Joey grabbed the coats from the banister leading upstairs, making sure his coat stayed wrapped up. There were probably still vegetables clinging to it. He'd shake it outside to get rid of them. Joey and Tristan put on their shoes and they both went outside, Joey surreptitiously rubbing at his still red ear.
Téa stopped and turned the radio up. The music would hopefully put everyone into a Christmas mood. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" came on and she started to hum along softly. Yugi and Mokuba enthusiastically dove into the piles of boxes of bulbs as Seto and Téa picked up the cans of fake snow and clings and moved them closer to the window.
Glancing at her, Yugi could see a smile playing around her lips and he wondered what the cause of it was. Could it be because of Kaiba? The only girl he'd ever had a crush on quite possibly had a crush on the elder Kaiba brother. Kaiba had to be the one who'd given her the necklace. Flames surrounding a heart-shaped diamond. Fire and ice together. That didn't sound like something her parents would have given her. It had to have been him. And his own heart started to break a little at the thought. Yami could offer no words of comfort, since Yugi's heart was his as well. Yugi simply sighed a little and went back to the task of putting up bulbs on the tree, putting thoughts of Téa out of his mind. If that was where her heart was, so be it. As long as she was happy, he would be happy, too.
Looking over at Yugi, her best friend for the last 10 years or so, she saw him sigh dejectedly. What was he so sad about? Today should be a happy day. Friends were all together and decorating for Christmas. There was actually snow on the ground this year. And Christmas Eve was only four days away. Shaking her head, she turned back to the job at hand and started to sort through the window clings her parents had accumulated over the past decade or so.
Seto knelt down next to her. "So what do you want to do first?" If that wasn't a loaded question... his tone of voice didn't help any either. A thousand images flew through her mind but her voice was steady and her cheeks betrayed nothing, for a change. Why did he have to ask something like that? That infuriatingly attractive eyebrow was arched at her again when she answered his question.
"Well, um, do you want to pick out some things to put on the window? Then we can spray the snow on afterwards." She was so proud of herself. Her voice didn't crack once when she said that.
"Sounds good to me but I wish there were 'other' things we could do first," he whispered to her, his hand brushing lightly over the open palm of hers as he reached for one of the window clings. Electric tingles raced up from the base of her spine, rendering her speechless for a second. Every time he got this close to her, the intensity of the tension between them grew just that much more. Her teeth caught her lower lip, biting down gently, to stop herself from attacking his mouth with hers. Breathe in. Breathe out. Well, if that was the way he wanted to play, she'd show him a thing or two about teasing.
He watched her slowly lick her lips, first the top one and then the bottom one, and knew that was one move that was going to haunt his dreams for a very long time. That small pink tongue was doing exactly what he wanted to be the one doing right now. A deep breath calmed him down momentarily. Seto picked up the first window cling his fingers grabbed and stuck it haphazardly on the window. It happened to be one of Santa Claus carrying his sack of goodies and it was all crooked since his eyes were still riveted on her mouth as her tongue continued its journey once more.
"Stop that," he growled softly, conscious of the presence of Yugi and his little brother not ten feet away.
"Stop what? My lips are a little dry," she purred as innocently as she could manage through the smile on her lips. It was nice to know that she could affect him as much as he could affect her. Highly... entertaining. If he wanted to play dirty, so would she. Picking up another cling, she deliberately broke eye contact with him – his eyes, her lips – and smoothed it onto the window before fixing the one he had just put there.
The eyes that had so recently been entranced turned skyward. Seto prayed to whatever Higher Power there was above to give him the strength to keep from tackling her to the ground right now and putting his mouth where her tongue had just been.
It was going to be a long, hard, frustrating night. And it had only just begun.
Round 4 – complete
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I had to get this chapter done. I needed to build the suspense for Chapter 9. Who will "crack first"? Seto or Téa? Will Joey have his suspicions confirmed? Stay tuned for Chapter 9 – "If you can't take the heat..."
Isn't Mokuba a devious little scamp, bringing mistletoe with him??
Cookies go out to:
Twilight eyes 8120
Lilagirl
Vaz1201 and Demona
Darkarcticfox
Blue eyes baby
Winterwing3000
Bandgeek77
Julie Feinstein
Peeps
Sorry bandgeek77, I was going to go on with what I was telling you earlier at work tonight, but I just couldn't do it. I have so much planned for chapter 9.
And I apologize if it's a little sappy or sad. I had to throw in that part with Yugi. Don't want to get too complicated here. Just a little, fluffy, sweet story.