Chapter 5

Seto put on his coat, snatched up his briefcase, and stormed out of his office, not caring if he knocked over employees in the way. All of his meek little servants didn't complain, as they knew that when Seto Kaiba storms out of Kaiba Corp it's best not to bother him.

He had already called his limo to come to the front of the building and pick him up. He didn't care that he had left work three hours early. He didn't care about anything.

He only had one thing in mind, and that was to find Tea. The images of his own

past were enough to send chills down his spine, so what would Tea's past be like to her? He kicked himself mentally for reawakening the old wounds caused by the trauma. No one really deserved to go through that. The only reason that he had a will to live was for Mokuba. He was all that he had left. But she...did she have anyone at all? Where the hell were her foster parents all of this time? Why didn't she just go back to Japan after she failed the admittance to Julliard?

o o o o o

Tea sat up in bed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Her eyes were inflamed and bloodshot from crying. No matter how hard she tried, no matter where she went, she could never forget her past. One particularly brutal beating was fresh in her mind...

Flashback

A seven year old Tea tugged on her father's shirt. Judging from her tired blue eyes and the lack of energy in her walk, she was worn out more than any other child her age should have been. She had managed to create a computer program for her father's company.


"Daddy, I've done exactly as you asked me to," she said. Without another thought, her father snatched the disk from her hands, his eyes never leaving the computer he was working on.

"About time," he said coldly as he pushed the cd into the drive. "And do not call me 'Daddy', child."

He scanned the disk carefully on the computer, checking over every detail of the design. He didn't say anything to Tea, but secretly, he knew that her work was better than some of the adults working for him. He clicked on the save button for further use of the project, then pulled the disk out and plastered a cruel look on his face.

"Is this what you call your best work?"

"Dad-um, Father, I worked very hard and I hope that you li…" the girl's voice failed when she looked into the unforgiving eyes of her parent.

"This is trash, you worthless girl. You don't deserve to be called my daughter!" he said nastily.

"Father! I've worked so hard on that!" she cried. "How can you say such a-"

The sound of his painful slap echoed throughout the room. She held her injured

cheek, eyes watering.

Her father still had the disk in his hands. Tea knew what he was going to do. Slowly, he bent the disk. The plastic cover shattered, and the contents of the disk were now useless. Tea burst into sobs.

But her father wasn't done yet. He walked over to his daughter, malice written all over his face. Tea whimpered and held her hands above her, a makeshift shield. But it wasn't enough to block her father...

End Flashback

Tea shivered at the memory. That devil of a man that had caused her all of this pain in the first place. The one who had broken her spirit, her heart, and her trust. Half of her childhood was wasted on nothing but computer programs, designing, and endless days of work thanks to him. The years that she could never get back. But, what she could barely believe now was the fact that she actually thought that he loved her. She actually had thought that deep down in his black heart, that there was a speck of him that cared about her. She was just a naive little girl.

When he died, she had felt a strong surge of many emotions. Hatred towards him for all the things that he had done. Anger, for being amused at her pain. But, the most surprising feeling and the one that had frightened her the most was the relief at his passing away. She didn't shed one tear for him when she found out that her father was dead. She had actually smiled. She didn't attend his funeral, of course. But, what she never understood was one thing. She had been in the car as well. Despite her also being in the car with him, she had somehow survived. It was a miracle how she did not even get an injury. She should've been crushed into a ball of mush and gore. She was right in the path of the impact. But something protected her from the crash. Her locket had been missing ever since. The one that her mother gave her before she passed away. It was her most prized possesion. Her only possession. If anything, the loss of her locket was more painful than the loss of her father.

And now, here she was. Anzu Mazaki, child prodigy, working as a maid! The irony was almost too much to bear. Her father would have been outraged, but her mother wouldn't be angry. She would have just smiled sweetly and be proud and accept her for what she was. But her mother was not alive. And, fortunately, neither was her father. The only people that she had were her friends. But, thanks to somewhat recent events, she didn't even have them. She was really all alone.

o o o o o

Seto arrived at the mansion, after about half an hour of complaining to his driver about his slothful driving. He was on the verge of firing him, but thought better of it…this would be the seventh one that he fired in the last three weeks.

His walk was quite a bit faster than his usual stride, which was saying alot as he walked very swiftly. He was...worried about Tea. But Tea just wasn't suicidal. Or was she? Besides, the idea of bringing up what had happened in the past couldn't possibly be enough to push her over the edge...That was all ancient history now, right? His heart hammering guiltily against his chest told him otherwise. Something was not right in the eerily quiet mansion. In his eyes, Tea was a loud, annoying, and obnoxious girl. There was NO way that she could be that quiet.

He dashed up the long flight of stairs, silently cursing at them for their sheer steepness and length. He ran until he reached her room. Her door wasn't locked, so he took that as a good sign. Slowly he turned the knob...

He mentally sighed in relief when he saw her sleeping in her bed. Her salty tears had made many trails on her cheeks, and her ragged breathing gave the hint that she had had a rough day.

Yeah, a rough day because of me. He thought. He didn't really know why he even cared. Wasn't her friend his "enemy"? Maybe it was because he went through the same thing.

Boy I'm getting soft...

He walked over to her slowly, and sat on the bed. He peered closely at her face. Despite her flushed face and her tear-streaked face, she really was rather pretty...He shook his head of such thoughts before deciding to get some work done in his home office. Just as he got up, he heard her faint voice.

"Daddy, please don't...no..." she said in a voice barely higher than a whisper.

"Daddy it wasn't my fault that momma died..." she moaned and tears fell down her cheeks as she shook violently in her sleep.

Seto decided that now was a better time than any to wake her up from her nightmare. He lightly touched her shoulder. She flinched at the contact like she had been slapped. He lightly nudged her on the shoulder. This time her eyelids fluttered open. Her eyes focused and widened as she almost shot out of bed.

"Kaiba...hey...aren't you supposed to be at work...?" she asked, still sleepy.

"It's my company, fool. I can leave whenever I feel like it," he shot back arrogantly. Tea rolled her eyes.

"Why were you on the foot of my bed?"

He hesitated, but he decided to tell her. "To tell you the truth, I...needed some papers that I had left in my home office. When I passed your room, you were crying, so I woke you up," It wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't an entire lie either.

Tea was silent. Seto took this as a sign to continue.

"You really shouldn't keep things like this a secret, Gardner. Or...do you prefer Mazaki?"

Her eyes widened, but then narrowed just as quickly. "Pray tell why you know so much about me," she asked. It wasn't even a question at all, really. It was a command.

"Let's just say that I did my homework."

"Who the hell gave you the right to look up my past? I'm pretty damn sure that I didn't ask you to!" she snapped furiously. Kaiba raised his eyebrow at her sudden burst of fury, but kept his cool.

"Well, your last name is Mazaki, isn't it?" he questioned her "innocently". Tea didn't buy it.

"My only last name is Gardner. Mazaki is the surname of my late father." she said shortly. She stood up to leave, but Kaiba caught her by the wrist, turning her around to face him.

"Why didn't you tell anyone about this, Gardner?" he asked.

"And I'm hearing this from Mr. Talkative himself?" she retorted nastily, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm serious."

Her eyes glazed over with misty tears, but she refused to let them fall. If there was one person that she didn't want to cry in front of, it was most certainly Seto Kaiba.

"I know what it's like, but you need to..."

"Don't tell me what to do!" She snapped at him. "You don't know what I've been through!"

"Did you just not tell me this morning not to contradict myself and assume things? Try me. When I was seven, my father died. I saw it all happen, the car crash. Since then, I had to take care of Mokuba. Then, when I was twelve, Gozaburo Kaiba adopted us," Seto's stormy blue eyes swirled with a hurricane. "That was pure hell."

Tea held her tongue for once. So Kaiba had a rough childhood too...

"I was beaten mercilessly whenever I made a mistake, or did not do something exactly right. Sometimes there wasn't any reasons at all for why he whipped me," he

broke off. Why am I even telling her this?

Tea made a gulping noise, almost as if she was swallowing her tears. "I'm sorry..." she murmured apologetically. The man shrugged.

"I'm over it now. But you...not so much. You need to forget the past, leave it behind. It's over. If you always reminisce on the past, you'll never move away from it. It will hurt you later on," he said to her. The storm in his eyes was replaced with a distant look. She nodded.

"But I do have one question," he said. "Why didn't you go home after you failed the admission to Julliard?" At this, Tea heaved a sigh.

"After I said that I wanted to dance, my foster parents didn't want anything to do with me. They said that if I left, I would have to find my own way home," she replied.

There was a very pregnant pause before Seto got up. He walked away, to the door of the room, before Tea suddenly thought of something.

"Wait, Seto!" She exclaimed, running over to him. He stopped walking and waited impatiently for what she had to say.

"I just wanted to say thanks...for cheering me up."

She threw her arms around his neck in a hug. Seto stumbled back slightly, flustered at the girl's childish actions. He wasn't exactly an expert at how to respond to things like this. Tea let go of him, then stood up on the tips of her toes and gave him a soft kiss on his cheek. She left the room. Leaving...

A very dumbstruck, very red Seto behind.

What the hell just happed here?