Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh

A/N: Hey, everyone. Yes, I'm actually back. I know it's pathetic how long my updates take, but I do pay strict attention and put a lot of effort into what I've written. Unfortunately, that just makes me write incredibly slow...

QueenofHearts4u: I apologize for how late this is! I was deeply honored that you requested it for your birthday, and I really tried to get it in on time. But, you see, I've come to the conclusion that I'm an extremely slow writer. I try to write things really carefully and am constantly changing my mind. Put that all together and you'll know most of my updates take weeks to come out. I would have loved to have written it in time for your birthday, but if I had it would have been rushed and not nearly as good as it's suppose to be. Hopefully you'll be able to accept this as a late birthday present? Happy birthday!

Once again, thanks to Caorann fridh Brónach for editing my work! I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 10 Not-So-Hidden Emotions

It had not been until she had physically entered the building that Tea's nerves attacked. As if a cold dagger had suddenly been plunged deeply into her lungs, she found herself struggling to take a single breath.

Her heart was giving off loud, resounding thrums that echoed painfully in her ears like a giant, wooden drum.

And yet, despite her negative reactions, the brunette tried to stand tall and pretend she belonged here like the very studious-looking man at the counter, his fingers flashing wildly across the keyboard. It appeared as though he never blinked, his entire body arched forward towards the screen.

Feeling slightly hesitant to break such concentration, Tea slowly made her way over to the desk, clearing her throat as loudly as she could.

The man didn't look up.

Biting her lip apprehensively, she opened her mouth and spoke in a shaking, jerking tone, "Excuse me?"

Kaiba's employee spun around, looking confused and disheveled at being pulled away from his precious computer.

"Yes?" he inquired incredulously, gazing at her through small, spotless spectacles.

"I...I came to see Kaiba," Tea stated, her voice horribly weak and small. "Mr. Kaiba," she corrected hastily upon seeing the man's addling expression.

Nodding slightly, he lifted a finger to his chin, studying her face questioningly. "And...who are you? Exactly?"

A prickle of irritation broke through her mind, causing the girl to regain some of her long-lost nerve.

"I know him from school. I need a whole appointment just to see a classmate?"

The employee smirked, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose as he spoke. "Mr. Kaiba is a very busy man."

"This is important," the brunette insisted in an exasperated tone. "Believe me, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't."

The man shrugged his shoulders, smiling at her as if she were some sort of naive child. "As you wish...but Mr. Kaiba hates being interrupted," he replied loftily, turning to the intercom machine that was almost entirely obscured by crumbled paper.

"I know," Tea sighed hopelessly.

"Mr. Kaiba? Mr. Kaiba, someone is here who wishes to see you," the man spoke into his machine, brushing some wrinkled papers out of the way.

There was a pause, and then Kaiba's voice sounded, just as cold and curt as always, his response short and simple:

"Tell Mokuba I'm busy."

Tea's stomach knotted painfully. She was certain that Kaiba was not going to be to very happy when he discovered that it was not his brother who had come to bother him.

"It's not Mokuba, sir," the employee replied with a quick glance at the girl. " It's a young woman. She claims to know you from school."

The silence was only broken by the constant clacking of keys and footsteps in the rooms and hallways. For a slight second, Tea thought Kaiba was simply not going to answer, but then, in a strangely quiet, strained voice, she heard him say"Fine. Let her come."

The employee almost jumped out of seat, sending his glasses askew as he stared, baffled, at the brunette before him.

"Go to the hallway at the left. Take the elevator to the top floor and walk all the way to the last door," he sputtered, still gazing at her as if she were some sort of phantom.

Tea thanked him before walking away but was unable to conceal a smile of triumph as she made her way to the elevator.

&&&

"This is ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous! I must be havin' sum sorta nightmare!"

Joey had forgotten about his soundly sleeping father, his sick and weary sister. All he knew was that he wanted to make as much noise as humanly possible.

He threw the door wide open and stomped as loudly and heatedly as possible into his living room, breathing heavily through firmly clenched teeth.

Balling his fingers into a tight fist, he rammed his foot into a wooden chair, only causing a searing pain to erupt in his big toe.

"Joey-Joey, what's wrong?"

The screaming and kicking had apparently woken Serenity; she stood shivering on the staircase, still in her flannel nightgown and brushing locks of messy reddish-colored hair off her face.

Disturbing his ill little sister was not something that made the male blonde very proud, and he felt the dead weight of guilt sink into his stomach as he looked up at her pale, tired form.

"Sorry, Serenity. I didn' mean ta wake ya up."

But his sister only tilted her head at him, olive-colored eyes wide and curious.

"It's alright, Joey. You can tell me. What happened?"

The boy sighed and collapsed into the chair he had just recently tried to kick to pieces.

"I don't think I wanna talk about it. It sorta makes me feel sick ta my stomach."

A soft smile flickered across the girl's lips, but smiling was the last thing Joey felt like doing. He buried his eyes in his hands, wishing the darkness his cupped fingers had created could cloud the truth as well as his vision.

Serenity's small footsteps could be heard from the staircase. Moments later, he felt her hand on his shoulder.

"Joey?"

"Do ya think it's possible that somebody coulda taken ova' Tea's mind?" he asked miserably. "Or that maybe the real Tea's been kidnaped or sumthin'?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Ya know how I told ya that Tea wouldn't go ta that dumb dance with Yugi?" Joey mumbled in a muffled tone.

"Yeah," Serenity answered simply.

"Well, it's 'cause she wants ta go with money-bags instead."

Joey felt his sister's hand leave his shoulder and looked up to see that she had taken a few steps backwards, mouth hanging slightly open.

"You don't mean—it couldn't seriously be—Kaiba?"

"Who else do I call money-bags?" Joey yelled out irritably, now thoroughly upset upon hearing the CEO's name once more.

"Oh, but that can't be true," Serenity answered worriedly. "Everybody knows that Tea can't stand him. Unless..."

Realization suddenly dawned on the girl's pale face, her green eyes widening once more.

"Unless what?" Joey asked suspiciously, studying his sister's face for clues, but none came.

Serenity shrugged. "Well, she read his diary. Maybe it said something that made her change her mind about him."

"Yeah, like how much money's in his bank account!" the boy fumed.

Serenity placed her hands on her hips. "Come on, Joey. You know that Tea's not selfish like that."

"Well, she sure is actin' like it! Ya shoulda seen her when I found out—she practically threw me outta the door!"

There was a very tense moment of silence. Joey could hear Serenity shuffle her bare feet against the smooth wooden floor, but for a long time she didn't speak.

"Joey, Tea's your friend. Regardless of how she's acting, you should at least try to see her point of view," she spoke seriously. "I'm not saying that she's right!" she added hastily at Joey's stone-dead stare. "I'm just saying you should give her a chance..."

The boy nodded, but a faint frown line creased his forehead as buried his head in his hands once more.

"True, but when did she ever give Yug a chance?"

&&&

By the time she had reached the door, Tea felt as if her fully functional, beating heart had somehow been lodged within her throat.

Her eyes wavered over the plain, type-written plaque (CEO; Seto Kaiba), and she realized if she didn't do this now she'd never be able to muster the courage to try again. Drawing a sharp breath, she rapped on the door firmly only to find no response.

Nerves shooting up and down her spine like tiny needles, she gave the door a light push and was shocked to see it glide smoothly open.

"Kaiba?"

She spoke in her utmost lowest tone, yet her voice still manage to resound through the room, shattering the still, eerily silent air, devoid of even the dull clacking of fingers flying across keys.

"Why are you doing this to me? Is it that you simply enjoy watching people crumble or that you must know every minor detail of one's life?"

His voice was almost inaudible. He sat at his desk with his eyes averted towards the floor, fingers strewn messily through his brown hair. The brunette wasn't certain, but she almost thought she saw his hand quiver.

For the first time since she had stepped inside the building, a different feeling squeezed her heart uncomfortably. Regret.

Perhaps this truthfully wasn't the best way of going about things. If Kaiba was seriously as distressed as he looked, she may be harassing him more than actually helping him.

Still, there were some things she needed to sort out with him before she could even think of confronting her companions.

"Kaiba, you're mixing up everything. I...I'm sorry that I read the book, okay? I told you it before; It wasn't for my own amusement or anything–" Tea faltered, a thick, choking pressure rising forcefully into her throat, as if trying to barricade the words coming out. Refusing to give in, she took a small, shaking breath and forced herself to continue.

"I only opened it to check its name, and I found yours in it. I wasn't going to read it or anything, I swear, but I caught hold of the first line by accident and it just opened the door to so many things. I never knew how you were hurt like that. Are still hurt–please just let me help you..."

Kaiba looked up at her with cold, dead eyes. Eyes that almost made her shiver. For a slight moment his face stood still and immobile, as if he truly wereentirely and utterly emotionless. But a minute later he had opened his mouth, and words of fury spilled out of it.

"Don't try to sugar-coat your curiosity. You found it amusing that someone as rich as I am had once been a orphan. Why else would you have thrown it in my face that day in front of that damn store? In truth, the only reason you're saying all this nonsense is to cover up the fact that you opened the book in the first place."

The burning lump that had been steadily forming in Tea's throat now felt like a knot of gnawing flames. She opened her mouth to speak, a million half-thought-out, insane sentences flashing across her mind.

Both anger and guilt peaked at the same moment, exploding into a parade of words and sentences she would never have even thought to utter.

"What's wrong with you? It's like you believe that the entire world is nothing more than a black, discouraging pit full of people who all sneer at one another! Don't you believe a human being is capable of love—compassion? Doesn't the word hope mean anything to you at all? Or is it that you think all I believe in is a lie? That the human race really is nothing more than a pack of greedy, cruel monsters?"

"Yes," Kaiba answered instantly, shooting upright out of his chair and glaring at her with the coldest, emptiest eyes she had ever seen. "Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to say, Gardner. You and your friends can go around believing in your childish, Peter Pan ways of living,but I'll know the truth! This world is filled with liars and thieves–people willing to shed blood and torture to get what they want. I've seen it, I've experienced it. No one truly cares–they're all too busy grappling for power. That's what this world's really about, Gardner. Not those fairy-tales you're so content in telling during speeches."

Tea was shaking. And yet as she stood there, staring at him, she realized that she felt more pity than anger. It was only in this moment that she realized how much people like Gozaburo had corrupted the CEO's view on humanity. Still, one figure shone out distinctively though the darkness.

"So," she replied in a cool voice that quavered only slightly, "you must believe Mokuba's like that as well, do you?"

The brunette could literally feel the thick tension her word had already formed, could see both the confusion and anger brewing in Kaiba's dark blue eyes.

"Mokuba has nothing to do with this conversation." His face was chalk white, his hands formed into shaking fists.

"No," Tea whispered slowly. "You don't see Mokuba that way at all...because he loves you. And you love him. That's why you were in that tiny shop the day you found me with your diary. You wanted to get him something that would be special, something that one of your servants couldn't go out to by for you."

"Stop trying to understand me!" Kaiba snarled. "Just because you read that damn book you think—"

"It's true, though, isn't it?" the brunette replied, raising her voice slightly louder. "Please, Kaiba, why won't you let me help you?"

"Because I don't need any! And even if I did, you'd be the last person I'd go to!"

The CEO was shaking, glaring at her with furious eyes, his face reduced to a pale, ghost white.

"The person who wrote in that book needed help," the brunette spoke, fixing her eyes upon him with a meaningful stare. "Why won't you just admit what you wrote?"

The demanding sentence flew through the stiff air and seemed to pierce Kaiba's very soul as if she had thrown daggers at him instead of words.

He slowly lowered his head to his hands as if ashamed to accept the defeat that was so bitterly upon him. If there were ever a time Tea had wished to reach out to him, it was now, but her voice was locked away, drowning in the deep pools of regret she could feel her heart pouring.

"No matter where I go..." Kaiba whispered softly, "no matter how far away I am, I can still feel their accusing, unblinking eyes staring down upon me, trying to cut through my memories and force me to remember.

"Even when I try to run away, I'm surrounded, trapped within the stony glares of people I make strangers...phantoms I make strangers..."

Tea had the distant impression that the CEO was no longer speaking to her, but to someone else. Maybe even himself.

Kaiba looked up. His eyes were like empty, echoing chasms that had no ending, simply running on for eternity into cold blueness.

"But that's not enough," he suddenly spat angrily. "No, it's crucial for me to have a living tormentor as well. Someone to constantly follow me and whisper words of how horrid and failed my childhood was; someone trying to simply resurrect the past pains I've tried so hard to get rid of."

It felt as though all of Tea's insides had vanished, like her heart as suddenly ceased beating and was standing perfectly still–like time.

"Kaiba," she murmured, slowly taking a few steps forward. "Seto, please, listen..."

"No!" Kaiba shouted loudly, causing Tea to actually jump in shock. "Get out of my office right now. Don't ever try to talk to me again!"

The brunette took a few steps backwards and out of the door, occasionally bumping into people in the hallways as his voice echoed within her now thoroughly muddled mind.

&&&

The mansion was dim and quiet, the only sound a distance crackle of flames emitting from the living room's fireplace.

Seto stepped silently inside, his footsteps resounding loudly down the empty corridor. A slight knot in his stomach contracted when he saw the hallway's absence of Mokuba–but then his eyes caught hold of the boy's huddled figure on the coach.

It was not at all usual to find Mokuba moping in the dark, and Seto had an uncomfortable feeling that he had assisted in whatever it was that had upset his brother.

"Mokuba?" he asked quietly. "What's up, kid?"

Mokuba lifted his head, his purplish eyes bloodshot, but a somewhat puzzled look set upon his face. It had been a very long time since Seto had called him "kid." In fact, the last time the CEO could even remember calling him that was all the way back at Duelist Kingdom, when he had come to rescue Mokuba from Pegasus's clutches.

A very long while ago.

"Nothing," the boy muttered, hastily wiping away tears. "I was...I was just wondering."

Seto knit his brow and stared at Mokuba, debating over whether he'd even be able to answer whatever it was that his brother was thinking about. No matter how intelligent he was when it came to technology, Seto always failed when things touched even slightly upon emotional issues.

Even so, the CEO opened his mouth and spoke, "What were you wondering?"

There was a hesitant silence. Mokuba shifted from side to side, avoiding eye-contact with his older brother. Then, when he finally seemed to make himself comfortable, he began to mumble in a low voice barely audible above the flames.

"It's dumb, really... But...do you think that Christmas would be different? If Mom and Dad were still around?"

For a moment all that sounded were the flames gnawing greedily at the wood in the fireplace and the distant whistle of wind tapping against a window.

Seto opened his mouth to explain to his brother that their parents were dead–that there was no point imagining what life would be like with a pair of lifeless memories, and yet something stopped him.

Something that might have had to do with Gardner's voice still ringing in the back of his mind.

"I think," he whispered softly, taking a seat next to Mokuba and looking him straight in the eye, "that if our parents were still alive, they wouldn't want you to cry anymore."

Mokuba's mouth broke into a watery smile, and he threw his arms around his brother's waist, sobbing openly and ignoring the fact that he was thirteen instead of nine.

They sat like that for a while, Seto patting Mokuba's head uncomfortably and thinking hard on Gardner's words.

It was only just now, in the dimly lit room, that he fully realized he had basically told Gardner that his past memories still haunted him–if she had even understood what he had meant.

Maybe Gardner does hold more than a semblance of truth in her words, he thought, staring out the window at the flickering Christmas lights Mokuba had dressed the whole house in. Maybe some of the things she says isn't just senseless ramble... Part of Seto tried to wash these thoughts away—the calculating, emotionless part that was normally in control—but a different part of him seemed to emerged.

A part of him that had been long-dead for quite some time.

He stared down at his little brother, who was gently slipping into a peaceful slumber. Slowly, Seto's lips formed a small smile.

"Merry Christmas, kid."

A/N: Please read and review! And no flames!