Face to Face, Eye to Eye

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. I'm doing this for fun… seriously.

Since I did promise to write a third chapter to this story, here is a little teaser for it. I'm slowly working on it more and more but I need to get myself back into the right mood to write it and that hasn't happened recently... Sorry for the long wait but at least you have this to start thinking about...

Azurite: Thanks for the tips. I didn't know how long a Japanese phone number was and well, sorry about the "cartoon" usage. I wrote both parts fairly late in the night and my mind wasn't quite what it should have been at that hour… :)


"Hello, Téa? I… have a question to ask you…"

"Seto, that's good because… I have something… to tell you… but… you go first."

Seto gulped inaudibly at Téa's statement over the phone. This was the decisive moment. He'd find out if he'd been a fool when he heard her answer to his question. To date, this was his toughest challenge yet. Defeating his stepfather in that crazy duel with the virtual world crumbling around his ears was a cakewalk compared to this. Hell, escaping from a pool full of ravenous piranhas without a scratch was as easy as … well a lot easier than asking her a single question. What he was about to do would bare his heart and soul, leaving him defenceless and open to rejection, loss and utter humiliation.

"Seto? You still there? Is everything okay?" Téa was little nervous. He usually wasn't this quiet on the phone. She'd been expecting to hear about his afternoon at work, it was Friday after all, and not the deathly silence her ear was currently bathed in. At least she didn't have to worry about the length of the phone call tonight. Her parents had left late last night for a business weekend in Los Angeles. They'd even promised to bring her back something nice.

But that was neither here nor there.

Seto made up his mind. Over the phone was not the best way to handle this. He needed to see her face, her eyes especially, to judge her reaction. Just her voice wouldn't tell him much and if she hung up the phone… He didn't even want to contemplate that.

With his mind finally made up and his courage almost in tatters, he finally spoke to the girl on the other end of the receiver he was holding. "I'm sorry, Téa. I can't do this on the phone tonight. I'm sending Roland to get you right now."

"Seto, is everything okay? Just tell me that much," her voice quavered as she heard the resignation in his. What was going on? He'd never asked her to come over before. Not that they had discussed it or anything. It had never crossed her mind before either.

"Everything is… fine. I… I just need to see you, that's all. Roland will be there in ten minutes. See you then." The conversation was cut short as he hung up the phone. He couldn't give her a chance to say 'No'. Looking over his latest journal (diary) entry, his resolve strengthened. Finding out how she felt was consuming him. He needed an answer.

He'd started this and he was about to finish it, no matter what the outcome was, no matter how many pieces his heart was about to be shattered into.

Picking up the phone once more, he relayed his orders to Roland quickly and with more confidence than he was feeling.