Disclaimer: Howdy, folks! I do not, and I repeat, do NOT own this here Yu-Gi-Oh. It be a sad thing, really, y'all. But, c'mon, me friends, we'll be getting' or this we bit o' info soon. Now, won't we? (Picture this said with first a southern accent and then a Irish one.)

A/N: Okay, everybody. I've finally decided to update. I'm so sorry it took me SO long, but I had a real big case of the writer's block. Okay, so for now, I'll just try to satisfy you with this chapter.

Chapter Eleven

Ryou wished that Kida had stayed on the phone longer. That way he would have been spared any further explanation to his little brother.

"Who is he?" Rirsi asked. That was one of the first questions on Ryou's "List of Things I Never Want to Have to Tell My Brother".

Ryou sighed, then asked, "Why do you need to know?" Ryou was pretty sure that he knew the answer.

"Because I care about my best friend!" Rirsi shouted, obviously slightly pissed at his older brother. "Because I want to know if there is a good reason why you or Kida's mom never told Kida who her father is! So I wanna know: Who is he? and Why didn't you tell Kida who he is?"

The he went again, naming another question on Ryou's list. "I don't really think that I should be the one to tell you all of this." Ryou said quietly.

"Fine," Rirsi huffed, "if you won't tell me, then I'll have to ask Ms. Gardner." With that said he stomped out of the room.

You could almost taste the confusion- frustration combined with angst- in the air. It was shared by the three occupants of the apartment; all of them had their own reasons.

Yami was almost in shock. He had- for the first time in twelve years- just reunited with the woman he loved, and then a child came through the door and claimed that she was Tea's 'daughter'. And, the strangest thing about this child was the fact that she shared almost all of her features with- strangely enough- him!

Tea had been trying for years to forget about Yami, and then he came back into her life. For a moment he had made her forget that she was a twenty-eight year old woman trying to raise her eleven-year-old daughter, and that Yami was her daughter's father. Then Kida had come into the room, and brought everything back.

Well, that just goes to show that momentarily forgetting something never did anything good. For Tea, at least.

Kida was mostly confused. All she could figure out of the situation was that there was a man who looked the same age as her mother, had the same hair and eye color as her, and he looked just about as confused as her. Well, maybe not as confused. After all, he hadn't just seen his mother kissing someone she had never met before.

Rirsi was a piece of dynamite. He had a long fuse, but it had been lit a long time ago, and Ryou had just blown it up. Ryou was so mad he was at a point where he had every intention of barging into Ms. Gardner's apartment and force her to answer his questions.

A warning to all those passing by him: Stay away from the boy trying to protect his love.

"Mom, what's going on?" Kida asked. She was scared, and that was a rare thing for her. Kida was a strong, mature girl, and she was frightened by very little. But it seemed that a stranger near her mother was enough to drive her to a point of insecurity. Kida didn't like it at all.

"Tea?" Yami questioned. He looked confused and hurt. "Please, explain what is going on." His eyes became distant. "I'm tired of not knowing what's happening."

With both of their eyes on her, she wasn't sure if there was anything else that could make the situation more awkward, confusing, and painful. She proved herself wrong when the door flew open and Rirsi stomped in, an angry look on his face.

"Ms. Gardner, I-" He cut himself off when he looked around the room. He saw Tea, her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were wet from crying. Kida looked frightened and confused. He turned to see another person in the room. It was the man from the picture: Kida's father.

Rirsi forgot what he was going to say.

Tea turned towards Rirsi. Her eyes showed frustration, pain, and weariness, "Will Ryou be coming after you?" she asked him gently.

Yami looked at her, confused. "The Tomb Robber's hikari?"

Tea ignored his question and waited for Rirsi's answer. "I don't think so," he told her. "He doesn't normally follow people after they storm out in an angry rampage…" the last part wasn't really meant for Tea, she could tell.

No one spoke for a moment, having nothing to say. After a few minutes Kida decided that something needed to be said, or nothing would ever happen. "Mom," she turned to Tea. She looked her strait in the eye and commanded, "You're the only one who seems to know what's going on here, so please, enlighten the rest of us."

Tea looked around the room. All eyes were on her.

"I never imagined it would be this way," she began. "I always thought that I would be able to escape my past, and just move on with my future. And for twelve years, I did." She paused for a moment. "I was fifteen years old when this story began. My best friend Yugi had just solved the Millenium Puzzle. An ancient Egyptian artifact that was said to have mystical powers."

Kida interrupted her, "What does a legend about a piece of Egyptian junk have to do with this?"

"Everything."

Ryou wasn't sure what he should do. He had never really been an important figure when he had been part of Yugi's gang. He had just liked to pretend he was.

He had always wanted to be the main character, the one who the plot wouldn't work without. He always like to imagine that he was the one who people looked up to, the one who would be missed if he left, the one who people always wanted to be friends with, and who always ended up saving those friends.

Instead he had been the one who was the victim. The one who was constantly possessed by the villain and couldn't stand up for himself. He was the person who was aloud to constantly be pushed around, and was considered a traitor because of his dark side.

And then, when he had finally started to be the hero for someone, he had that taken away when his brother had stopped needing him. When his brother stopped to consider what his part in all of this was. Why he couldn't do the brave thing and go and tell Yami Yugi about his daughter, and tell his brother, and tell Kida.

Was there something about him that made him easy to kick around?

My Hikari, you do not want me to answer that. Bakura said from the Millenium Ring.

I hate you. Ryou scowled at his yami mentally.

No you don't. You know you love me.

Are you implying that I'm gay?

Why, would that be wrong?

…You evil, stupid, sexy spirit.

I love you, too.

A/N: I bet you weren't expecting that! HAHAHAHAHA! I DID A RYOU/KURA MOMENT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Okay, I know that the chapter wasn't that long, but I really am still trying to get over writer's block, so don't black me. I hope you all enjoyed my first sad attempt at slash. I just couldn't resist. I was gonna make Ryou love Tea, but I didn't know how to write that, so I just stuck in some Ryou/Bakura.

(Remo Con can be heard cheering loudly in background)