QoH: eh... i dont know jack about Tea's home life, so i modeled the flashback scene after my own family, sorta () lol Mom cant sing for beans (doesnt want to, either. think of Mrs G as a cross between her and William Hung XD scary), my sis is a very creative sort with a particular bent for singing (shes not like Tea tho. much more empathetic. she once cried for 3 hours straight after the sight of roadkill), and my dad dropped off the face off planet when we were little (far as im concerned, he can stay there too. very long story ). im tinkering with certain things to fit the fic, of course, so please dont think i should be callin the cops or anything... () its just stuff i heard on the news
ps: gah... --() bein practically restricted to late-night writing sessions sux. but whatever... who else caught the finale to the Yugi/Kaiba showdown? 0 oh, man, that ruled.... (Dark Paladin {along with one of my newest additions, Diffusion Wave Motion} is the centerpiece of my Spellcaster/Dragon deck. it was great seein em in action stupid grin)
Chapter 21: Showdown, Part 2
Tea regained a bit of her composure and stood tall in the face of her accusers, "What are you going to do with us? Have us arrested?" She smirked at this.
"I seem to recall telling you what I would do, should you ever hurt Yugi," the spirit replied in a would-be conversational voice, were it not for the dangerous undercurrent that had sent many a lowlife running, "yet, in light of your latest transgressions, I find even that is not enough."
The smirk grew to a full-blown sneer at her former boyfriend's name as she flicked a piece of lint off her sleeve, her eyes darting to where Naraku remained curled in the smallest ball his massive frame could manage, "I hope the brat had fun with what I told him earlier. I know we did."
"Lemme at her... just for five minutes..." Joey growled and made for her, but was held back by Tristan who was muttering something about Chinese Water Torture under his breath.
"What is it that they did to your friend?" Mrs. Gardener asked, wide-eyed as she looked around at the newcomers. I gave birth to this.... this thing? she thought to herself, disturbed. She'd known her daughter was involved in some shady things, that being the reason they were all here in the first place, but it seemed like this went far deeper than anything she was aware of.
Yami switched his gaze to meet hers, though he kept most of his attention on Tea, as did the rest, "How much do you know about what she's been up to?"
"How long have I been here, again? A few months, right?" she turned to her doctor, uncertain of how to phrase her answer without that knowledge and received a nod in return, "Well, it started about four or five months ago. I was cleaning the house, and I found some very disturbing things..."
Flashback
Mrs. Gardener hummed a little to herself as she moved happily around the living room, glad that she was by herself for the moment. She loved to sing, but was all too aware of the fact that she was entirely tone-deaf. So, she generally liked to save herself the embarrassment of bursting into song in the presence of anyone besides the dustbunnies. How Tea ended up to be so musical is beyond me. It must be from her father.
She scowled slightly at the memory of her ex-husband as she swept her way down the hall. It wouldn't kill him to send her a birthday card now and then. She was always such a Daddy's girl, and I know she misses him. How can he call getting kicked out of strings of third-rate kareoke bars his "big tour?" Frowning, she stopped that train of thought and let up on the broom she'd been using (aka mangling, like she would a certain man right then if she could) so she could let herself into her child's room.
Noting the recent changes in Tea's choice of decor (that being punk and rap-metal posters mixed in with her old ballet things), Mrs. Gardener gave the walls an odd look and shrugged it off as the normal "teen angst". Chuckling, she set about picking dirty clothes and other things up from the floor, "Ah, to be young... You couldn't pay me enough to go through that again."
"Hm? What's that?" she wondered, spying something poking out from underneath the bed. She felt a little guilty as she sat down, ready to go through what the girl had plainly meant to keep private, but she didn't think she'd mind too much. They'd always had a pretty open relationship, even if Tea was a little more secretive and moody these days. Besides, she was curious, and it'd bug her until she found out.
Pulling out the first of what seemed to be at least twenty large shoeboxes and lifting the lid off, she blinked when she was faced with a pile of untitled video cassettes. Audition tapes, maybe? Why on earth would she need so many? Never one to miss watching her little girl do something she loved, she shrugged and popped it in the VCR across from the bed.
It didn't take her long at all to realize that what she was seeing was no audition performance, or at least, of the kind she'd been expecting. Oh, Tea was the star, all right (or shall we say, co-star), but it was most decidedly not for ballet that she was contorting her body. Alarmed, Mrs. Gardener turned it off immediately and dove under the back under the bed to drag out more boxes.
To her horror, things went downhill from there. As she pried each one open, she found a variety of items she'd never thought would be anywhere near her house, much less in it. While some revealed still more tapes, others yielded pictures and obviously used condoms (A/N: eeww! BAD mental image!!). Yet, nothing could've prepared her for what she found in the final five: what had to have been no less than three thousand dollars worth of different drugs and their related paraphenalia.
Sitting there amid her daughter's newly discovered "hobbies," Mrs. Gardener shook her head and tried to take it all in. Staring up at a poster of Tea's favorite childhood ballerina over her bed, she asked it blankly, "Where's a time machine when you need one?"
Present time
All eyes went to the brunette who still stood ready to race out the door at the first sign of possible escape. No one really knew what to say or do, aside from stand there and let all this lovely new information sink in. There was one thought among the four who'd discovered Yugi so ill in his room: Now I know a little of how he must have felt. Hearing it second-hand is bad enough...
"I think I'm going to be sick." Mai announced, turning away rather abruptly. Indeed, she did look quite green as Joey put his arm around her and helped her to the bathroom, shooting Tea murderous dagger-glares over his shoulder.
Mrs Gardener shook her head regretfully as she stared after her, then turned to the others, "I'm sorry. I really tried to keep it devoid of as many details as possible."
"No, it's not your fault." DJ assured her with a wry little smile, shrugging, "It's a gift and a curse, having a good imagination."
"So..." Dr. Tamahome shifted her clipboard somewhat nervously in her hands, anxious to get off this topic, as it was making even her queasy, "what do you intend to do with these two?"
Yami gave her his infamous cryptic smile and replied with deadly calm, his gaze sliding from the so-called "man" slowly recovering on the floor and the dung beetle who'd hurt his aibou, "You needn't worry. Judgement shall find them... in one form or another."
Doctor and patient glanced at each other with brows raised as a shiver slid down their respective spines. Neither of them had any clue as to who or what he truly was, but both had the feeling that there was something... ancient about the slightly odd-looking young man. Which reminded the surgeon of something, actually. Frowning, she tilted her head a bit as she scrutinized him, "Are you related to Yugi, somehow? You look remarkably like him and even dress similarly, but I know I've never seen you before."
The spirit smiled that same, weird little smile that made a person think he knew more than he was telling, "I'm called 'Yami.' Think of me as his brother." A derisive snort from Tea's direction had him in front of her faster than any of them could blink. His voice was quiet, almost helpful in tone, but the ex-pharaoh's deep red-violet eyes flashed like distant lightning from a deadly, fast-approaching thunderstorm, "It would be wise for someone in your position to be silent."
Sensing the mounting tension, Tristan jumped in to redirect the conversation, "Mrs. Gardener, I don't believe you ever really finished telling us how you landed in here."
"Oh, yes, that's right..." she put a hand to her forehead and grinned a little sheepishly, "I'm so bad with tangents. When your friend got ill..." Looking beyond Dr. Tamahome to where Joey and Mai sat talking quietly, she sighed and nodded, her attention back on them, "Well, naturally, I confronted her about everything, and demanded to know why she was doing all that."
"I told you, it's none of your business," Tea spat venomously at her, then rounded on the rest, "and it's none of your's either."
"Help me?" Mrs. Gardener turned to her doctor, who very carefully arranged the necessary machines before easing the somewhat frail woman out of the bed. Once on her (though slightly unsteady) feet, however, she put in a remarkably commanding presence, "It most certainly is my business, because you are my daughter, whether you like it or not. I won't sit by and watch you malign these children, who, I suspect, have even more right to be angry with you than I do," her eyes narrowed, the analogy of her next words making her want to turn Tea over her knee for the next ten years, "You made your bed, now lay in it."
The hidden meaning wasn't lost on any of the others, including Mai and Joey, who'd just reentered, looking much healthier and calmer, respectively. Coming to stand beside Yami again, Joey kept his arm around his girlfriend and glanced at his friends, "Ya don't need to fill us in. We heard everythin.'" He eyed the girl he used to count among that number, "Ya give new meanin' to the phrase, 'cheap thrill,' ya know that?"
Yami chuckled ironically and smiled slightly at him, his fingers seemingly idly toying with the Puzzle, "I think you're half right about that, Joey. While she's probably the cheapest thing any of us will ever see, she's definitely no thrill."
"How would you know?" Tea threw back, earning herself another round of wary glares, "You never gave me a chance!"
"Like you gave Yugi a chance?" DJ spoke up quietly, though it had the same, perhaps even more, effect as if he'd shouted. The entire room went silent as the two old schoolmates had a staring contest. Not surprisingly, her gaze broke first as he continued, "We've known him longer than anyone else here, and we both know he's always thought you were the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel. All he ever wanted was for you to love him like he loved you--"
"Yeah, big deal," she returned scornfully, a look of pure boredom on her face, "That was probably only because I stopped bullies from picking on him sometimes. After so many years of holding his hand, I just got tired of it."
He crossed his arms, and one could practically see the icicles in his voice, "Interrupt me again, and you'll find yourself sitting in the middle of a vat of starved leeches. " Noting her hastily shut mouth, he went on, "When you agreed to go out with him, he wrote to me to make sure he wasn't, and I quote, 'dreaming or in heaven.' Even though you didn't love him, the least you could've done was respect him enough to say no, that you liked someone else. Would that really have been so much to ask?"
"What's it matter if she broke that loser's poor little heart?" Naraku asked as he stood up, evidently recovered from the earlier blow he'd taken, "It's not like he's worth all this yapping, anyway."
"You want to be a human shishkabob?" Mai threatened, lifting her boot a little. She went up to him and put her hands on her hips, "You know, I used to be a little like you and your girlfiend, there. It was Joey and Yugi who showed me how pointless it was to be superficial and materialistic. If for nothing else, that's worth this whole disgusting conversation to me." Not waiting for a response, she came back to Joey's side and smiled at him as she took his hand.
He blushed, "Aw, I didn't do much..."
"Quite the contrary, Joey." Yami shook his head, smiling as well, "Yugi and I were both very proud of you that day."
"This is all revoltingly cute," Tea put in with another bored sigh, "but can we get on with whatever it is you plan to do with us?"
"Quit your griping. You'll get what's coming to you soon enough." Tristan replied, then looked at the others, "So, who's gonna take responsibility for these two? We've got places to go, after all."
"I will." Yami said, stepping forward to take a firm hold on Tea's upper arm, despite her fighting.
"Us, too." Joey and DJ chorused as they took positions on either side of Naraku.
Mai grinned as she went to open the door, "I guess we're the reserves, just in case they try to get away."
Tristan smirked, standing near the captive gang leader, "If they're smart, for once in their lives, they won't."
"And if they do," Yami gave their "prisoners" a long warning glance, "all that awaits them shall be things that would give their nightmares nightmares."
"Picked that up from Yugi, did ya?" Joey laughed, "It's appropriate, from what I know about that place."
With that, the better part of the strange procession said goodbye to Mrs. Gardener and Dr. Tamahome, who still had faintly puzzled expressions, and frog-marched out the door.
It will end here, Yami promised his still-unconscious light, his mental eye keeping a careful watch on the closed soul-room door. By Ra, she will never hurt you again.
QoH: ooh, Yami's mad, not to mention the others… :D Tea and Naraku had better pray for a miracle, no?
ps: my YGO collection is growing again :D hee! i just got Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction and the GBA Video of Yugi vs Joey in Battle City... drools some of my fave episodes (especially that finale! OO), not least of all because its mostly about Yugi! 0 and Joey of course hehe