Chapter 17 – The Final Act

One more chapter to go.

I am going to go on hiatus for a while since school will be starting again shortly. A few one shots may pop out in the near future but I'm going to write my multi-chaptered fics out completely before I post them. That way, there is no wait for updates. I'll be able to upload a chapter a week then and keep you all satisfied.

Recap

A loud burst of laughter from the stairwell alerted Seto to their presence. They were too close for him to make it to the bathroom down the hall in time.

He was trapped in Téa's room. Much as he wanted to crawl back into bed with her and hide, he realized that it would be impossible. He was just going to have to face the truth.

"Do you think Téa will mind all of us coming into her room first thing in the morning and waking her up?" came Mokuba's loud voice.

That gave him an idea. One that would hopefully save his butt and keep the peace between them all for a little while longer yet. He only had one shot at this and he'd better make it convincing.

Time to act as he'd never acted before.

Something was definitely not right with the picture he was seeing, Tristan thought, wide eyes narrowing in suspicion instead. It was wintertime and the sun didn't start to rise until at least 7:30 am. It was only just after eight. Too early yet. The lightness he could see on the walls should not have been there. The hallway should have been buried in darkness. Should have been…

And wasn't.

That was the first thing that came to mind.

The second was a change in the intensity of the light he could see. Something was blocking the weak rays of the early morning sun and judging by the vague outline he could see, it couldn't be Téa. The height and width at the shoulders was all wrong. Since it couldn't possibly be either of the four of them, there was only one possibility left. The missing member of their group.

Seto Kaiba.

But what would he be doing up here when he was supposed to be downstairs sleeping? Had he managed to slip past them while they were in the kitchen preparing breakfast? That was possible since they'd been making a lot of noise and horsing around while the cooking was happening. Somehow, though, that idea just didn't seem to fit.

Shrugging his shoulders, his mind continued to turn over the problem in his head as the journey up the stairs continued.

Seto took a deep breath and shook out his hands at his sides. It was a calming technique he'd used many times – before board meetings, stockholders meetings, Duel Monsters games. It helped him focus on the current situation and he needed all the help he could get right now.

His performance needed to be convincing.

Flawless.

The whole reasoning behind this idea was simple. Since he didn't have enough time to make it down the hall to the washroom, he was going to 'pretend' he'd woken up downstairs, heard all the noise in the kitchen and made it his mission to intercept them before they woke Téa up. His righteous indignation would be justified. It was Christmas morning and everyone deserved to sleep in for a little while longer.

Especially the hostess of the party.

She'd been up for quite some time the night before. They both had.

Glancing over at her bed from his post by her doorway, he saw that she was still sleeping peacefully in spite of the noise coming from the hallway – what with the boys making enough of it to wake the dead and his own rushed breathing, he was mildly surprised. The over-abundance of pink and white comforter, and the girl still covered up by it, looked so inviting that it took all of his willpower to remain where he was, listening to the chatter of the 'friends' coming up the stairs.

How much longer was he going to have to wait?

"What'cha tinkin' 'bout so hard, Tris?" Joey asked, noticing the narrowed eyes and the silent pondering expression on his best friends' face. The hackles on his neck rose as a low-throated growl issued forth from deep within Tristan's chest. Yugi gulped at the menacing noise and Yami readied himself to take over should Yugi need any assistance from him.

Tristan had finally put two and two together.

A missing Seto Kaiba…

Light in a dark hallway…

And a devious younger brother…

Tristan thought there'd been something funny with Kaiba's sleeping bag in the basement but in the half-light of early dawn, he'd dismissed it as a trick of the eyes. What should have been Kaiba's hair had looked as white as a pillowcase…

"Where's Kaiba?" Tristan asked softly, menace apparent in his voice. "He should be here to help us, shouldn't he?"

"But Mokuba said…"

"I think Mokuba knows something he's not telling us." Tristan cut Joey off as he glanced behind him at a furiously blushing younger Kaiba.

"What are you saying, Tristan? Man, I hate it when he goes all cryptic on me. Why is everyone doing dat to me lately?" Joey stopped on the final stair and turned to look at his best friend, his golden eyes confused at the fire in his friend's brown ones.

One more step and…

All they had to do was turn the corner and look down the hall. There was nowhere left for him to hide. The closet, under the bed, out of her window – those were all discarded ideas that really wouldn't have worked. Standing here, ready to face a firing squad, was his best option. The only option. Besides, he was Seto Kaiba. He didn't hide from his problems – he faced them head on.

Wheeler's elbow and the back of his blonde mop of hair were clearly visible as Seto scowled for all he was worth. It wouldn't do for them to find him in front of her door, peering longingly at the still sleeping slip of a girl. No, it wouldn't do at all. And Taylor's words had been too soft for him to hear but the underlying tone of imminent danger he could easily identify.

Tristan Taylor, dog-boy's best friend and partner in crime, knew.

Everything.

Unless his little scheme panned out as faultlessly as he'd envisioned, their secret was out. There would be consequences to deal with and it was those that he wanted to avoid after such a perfect night spent with the girl who'd somehow managed to capture his heart.

Seto sincerely hoped everything worked out since he really didn't feel up to hurting anyone on Christmas Day.

"Is dere sumpthin' yer not tellin' us, Mokuba?" Joey asked, steadying the tray between hands that had started to tremble uncontrollably for no apparent reason.

"Well…" Mokuba started to say before a cough from further down the hall caught everyone's attention. Amber, brown, violet and violet-grey eyes swung to find the source of the noise. A collective gasp rose from the group of four boys at seeing Seto Kaiba standing in the hallway in front of Téa's door, impressive in his silk-pyjamaed glory, feet spread wide and arms crossed over his chest.

The scowl alone was a force to be reckoned with.

"Would you four mind keeping your voices down?" Seto whispered fiercely, stepping away from the half open door. "Someone is still trying to sleep in this house on Christmas Day." He hoped that he looked fearsome enough that they would slowly back away. Trepidation had gripped him as he realized that one wrong word, one wrong look, would send the entire mystery of his relationship with Téa out the proverbial window.

"Kaiba! What the hell are you doin' up here?" Joey exclaimed, keeping his voice low but unable to keep confusion from infusing it as his hands miraculously steadied around the handles of the tray he still carried. Kaiba's presence, as unexpected as it was, didn't really surprise him. Not in the least. The elder Kaiba had been popping up in the strangest places – both of Téa's parties, Domino Mall (even though no one believed him, Joey knew he'd been there) and his dreams being foremost in his mind – that finding him up here, just a few feet away from Téa's bedroom, didn't really phase him at all.

And it should have.

Warning bells should have been ringing like wildfire.

Yugi and the Spirit of the Pharaoh hung back a step and enjoyed the show on display before them. With a glance to the form floating beside him, Yugi sensed a feeling of intense enjoyment of Kaiba's predicament. How was he going to talk his way out of this one?

"Enjoying his discomfort, Pharaoh?" Yugi asked, noticing the tight grin on the Spirit's lips. His head turned slightly to regard the one whose body he shared and nodded sharply.

"I am. For all of the discomfort he has caused us before, it is nice to see payback happen once in a while," Yami replied before chuckling evilly. Yugi felt an answering grin form on his lips as he watched Kaiba stare menacingly at the other members of the group. "Especially when I have nothing to do with the payback. It is all Kaiba's own fault. Poor Kaiba."

Yugi silently agreed with Yami's observations and turned to watch the events unfold before him.

"What am I doing up here? The real question should be what are you doing up here?" The ice in his voice chilled Tristan to the core. Maybe he'd been wrong to accuse Mokuba of withholding information. Kaiba really was a grumpy dude first thing in the morning. Maybe his suspicions were groundless although the niggling sensation that he was missing something wouldn't leave him alone.

Mokuba stared gratefully at his older brother. His presence had come at just the right moment and saved him from having to answer what would have been a very awkward question. If he'd tried to lie about it, the other three would have seen through it immediately. He already felt guilty enough for 'misleading' them in the basement when they'd avoided 'waking up' Seto with their hollers. That hadn't been an out-and-out lie since Seto really wasn't a morning person.

"Us? We're bringing Téa breakfast in bed." Joey thrust the tray forward slightly, rattling the covered dishes and spilling a drop of water from the vase that held a still bright daffodil he'd taken from the vase on the counter in the kitchen. "Now, explain t' me why we shouldn't be doin' dis. I didn't catch yer reasoning de first time 'round."

If the tray hadn't been occupying his hands, Seto suspected that Wheeler would be imitating his own current stance as he tried his best to look intimidating. As it was, blonde-boy was just glaring at him, his eyes scrutinizing every detail about the situation. If Seto didn't think it was impossible, he'd swear that Wheeler was thinking.

Scary thought.

Téa sighed in her sleep. She was in that wonderful state between dreaming and waking up, the one that felt like she was floating on air. There was a reason for her to be so happy. A smile turned her lips up as she remembered the events of the night before. Seto could be quite frisky under the right circumstances and with the right encouragement. Memories of scorching kisses and gentle caresses made her sigh once more as the thought of waking him up for a Christmas morning snuggle started to sound better and better.

Her hand reached out, expecting to encounter the warm, satiny material that covered Seto's arm. The small frown on her face indicated that said object was nowhere within reach. Stretching out a little further, she still didn't find anything that remotely felt like what she wanted to feel under her palm. A small draft of cold air had her instantly curling up under her blankets, legs tucked almost under her chin as her hands grasped the edges of her comforter and pulled it tightly around her still half-asleep body.

Where could he have gotten to this early in the morning? They'd been up for quite some time the night before, til well past 2 am. He should have been fast asleep next to her, exhausted, and sharing his body heat with her. Some niggling thought that he'd had to leave squeezed across her mind but she dismissed it instantly.

He didn't have to go anywhere. It was Christmas morning and she wanted him next to her.

What she wanted, she always got.

No matter the consequences.

This whole situation felt wrong, Joey thought as he waited for Kaiba to answer him. Dream-Kaiba's phrase about "getting the rest of it" and Dream-Téa's phrase about "opening his eyes" were a non-stop mantra in his head. What was he supposed to get that he wasn't seeing? Taking a mental step back, Joey looked at the circumstances with as unbiased an eye as he could manage. He had a feeling that he was close to a breakthrough.

Point one: Tristan thought there was something that Mokuba wasn't telling them. The little imp had been about to say something when Kaiba, his older brother, had interrupted him. And that look he'd seen flash between the two siblings…

Point two: They hadn't seen or heard Kaiba wake up and run up the stairs while they were making breakfast. Sure, they'd been noisy but one of them would have seen something come up from the basement and none of them had…

Point three: Kaiba was a mess. Joey had never seen Kaiba look anything but perfectly put together. But this morning his hair was sticking up in five different directions as if he hadn't bothered brushing it yet. Even Joey had done that before he'd gone to make breakfast. Kaiba's pyjama shirt was completely askew and the buttons weren't done up properly. Completely out of whack was more like it. And if he wasn't mistaken, there was some sort of oval bruise forming at the base of his neck. A bruise that looked suspiciously like a …

"Wheeler, it's Christmas morning. Even I sleep in on this one day every year. How dare you even think about waking Téa up at this ungodly hour to feed her whatever it is you're hiding under those plates…"

Kaiba's mouth kept moving but Joey didn't hear anything else he had to say. He was too busy processing what had just taken place.

Moneybags had called her Téa. Not Gardner, as he usually did.

Not Gardner.

Whoa…

Joey's eyes widened as the mantra in his head came to a screeching halt. No more excuses or reasons.

Joey knew.

Tristan watched as Joey's eyes burned and his nostrils flared. Something had just pissed him off beyond reason.

Yugi saw Joey's back stiffen and his hands clench around the handles of the tray he still carried. In fact, he was holding it so hard that his knuckles had turned white. If he didn't ease up soon, the tray was going to crack under the pressure.

Mokuba blanched at the soft curses Joey whispered under his breath. He was suddenly very afraid for his older brother.

Silence ruled in the hallway as Kaiba's words trailed off into nothingness.

Soft rustling noises seeped into the hallway from Téa's open bedroom door and an even softer voice damned everything Seto had been doing his best to try and hide.

"Seto, come back to bed. I'm cold…"

"You BASTARD!"

Hope you liked this chapter. Please leave a review to tell me what you thought of it.

The last bit should be up by the end of the week. I hope...

As always, I am…

Aphrael21 ;)