A/N: Greetings loyal readers, thanks for spending part of your day (or night) reading my work. Lots of reviews for the last chapter (well, just a lot to me anyways), so I'll take some time out to answer them:
Seguha: Here's the update, and I'll gladly join your C2 staff! You're the first person to ask such of me, and I'll be glad to jump on board. One thing though, can you tell me how to register for it and such? I don't think I've used it but once since I've been here. Thanks for reading!
LadyPhoenix99: Thanks for reading. Glad you like the update strategy; here's hoping it works for more than a week.
Haven of Darkness: Two words…well said! Thanks for reading, and enjoy the update.
Moses the little gurl: It's in America…I thought I had pointed that out sometime earlier, sorry if you were confused. Thanks for reading.
TrueYamiGirlfriend: Thanks for the rave review. Me? Mature? Some said it was never possible…anyway, enjoy the chapter.
LeighC (and Shy): Thanks. I'm not stressing too much over the chapters, I just want to make longer ones so that you guys (or girls) would have more to read. Yup…people can be narrow-minded sometimes. I think we're all at least a little guilty of it sometimes.
DojomistressAmbyChan: Hey, thanks for reading! I enjoyed your update very much so and I hope you can get some chapters of your own in.
Well, that's everyone. Enjoy the chapter!
Angry People
Chapter Six
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Yugi, Tea, and Joey walked near the Kaiba mansion, a surprisingly cool breeze blowing in their faces.
"Thanks for walking me over here guys. After the whole thing that happened the other day...I really appreciate it."
"No prob, Tea. Dat's what we're here for. I wish you knew who those punks were who tried to rape ya! I would beat the living sh-"
"Joey...no need to get worked up." Yugi butted in, trying to calm his longtime friend. "Hey, here's Kaiba's house."
Tea looked over the gated 100 acre estate in sheer awe The lawn was pefectly cut with a large fountain with a mermaid as the centerpiece in the front. On one side, a regulation sized basketball court complete with benches sat unused On the other, a pool with a big slide was visible, with what appeared to be a little raven-haired boy sliding up and down on it with glee. "That's not a house...its a freakin' palace!"
"Too bad moneybags has ta be such a jerk, huh?"
"HEY! That jerk helped save my life, bonehead!" Tea took a swing with her rather heavy booksack, and clubbed the blonde in his midsection.
"Owww! Geesh, what happened to ya sense of humor?" Joey grabbed his midsection in pain as Tea walked over to the front gate.
State your name and purpose, please.
"Tea Gardener, and I'm here to work on a project with Seto Kaiba."
You're early, Miss Gardener. I'll inform Mr. Kaiba of your presence immediately. Welcome.
"Thanks."
With that, the gate opened up for Tea to pass through.
"Well ...I'll see you guys tomorrow?"
Yugi and Joey nodded. "Yeah. Call us if you need anything, OK?"
Tea smiled to her two friends and walked past the front gate, which closed shut behind her.
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Marik and Ishizu rode down the street in silence, still angry about the day's events. "Ishizu...why does this kind of crap happen to us? I thought when we came here, things would be even better for us than they were before, instead they get worse! It's like we're fucking cursed!"
"Watch your mouth...I've told you about using words like that." Ishizu warned, her sapphire eyes glaring down the road.
"Sorry, sister. It's just that it seems like we're hated so much here. It gets so bad sometimes that I just want to pack up and head back to where we came."
Ishizu brought the car to a stop as they reached their destination. "I'll be here to pick you up at seven, OK?" She tried to at least fake a smile for him, but Marik saw through it and rushed out of the door.
"Drive carefully on the way back."
Ishizu nodded. As she watched him file past the Kaiba Mansion gates, books in tow, her head began to fill with worry. She knew that they could rebuild they could rebuild the material things that they had lost in the theft; she had saved thousands of dollars in insurance and savings. The thing that she wondered about most was that if she could somehow rebuild Marik's trust in society.
As she pressed on the accelerator and sped away, Ishizu was sure that would be a difficult task.
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Marik's POV
After I checked in at the front gate, I walked on the long sidewalk in to the behemoth that is Seto Kaiba's home. I prayed silently that Tea and Kaiba weren't in a particually talkative mood because I sure as hell wasn't. My home had just been vandalized, my sister had just been threatened with bodily harm, and they stole my damn laptop! That's probably enough to piss off just about anyone.
After making my way into the living room, I flopped down on one of the couches and waited for Kaiba and Tea to show.
"Hey! Please get off the couch like that! Seto hates it when company does that."
I looked around to try to find where the frantic shouting was comming from and I found a boy of about thirteen standing behind me. His hair was black and messy, and his eyes a deep, rich shade of blue.
"Hello, Mokuba."
"Hey, you must be Marik. Follow me, Big Brother told me to lead you over to the study."
I got up off my comfortable position on the couch and followed Mokuba to the study. As soon as he was sure I had found the room, he hurried off into his own room. I think I heard him say something about a girl named Rebecca, but I was tuning most of his dribble out. I opened the two double doors and saw Kaiba (who for the first time I had seen was NOT wearing a trenchcoat) and Tea. Tea glanced up from what she was doing and smiled in my direction. "Hello, Marik. I guess it's time for us to get started on our work."
Kaiba, who was working on his desk, grunted. "It's about time. You've wasted three minutes of my time by not dragging your carcass in here at the time we arranged."
"Hey! I'm your research partner, not one of your damn employees."
I think that little rip caught his attention. He immediately stopped whatever he was doing and looked up at me with this death glare. "Watch your tounge when you address me."
"Guys, can we go ahead and get started?" Tea looked at us both with pleading eyes. "I have dance practice after this, so I would like to get this done as quickly as possible."
Kaiba said nothing and proceeded to get back to whatever he was doing, and Tea breathed a sigh of relief. I'll admit she looked very cute in her mid-length skirt and sleeveless blouse, both of which were a light blue that matched her eyes perfectly. Tea wasn't neccessarily the prettiest girl in our school (popular opinion said Mai Valentine), but something about her personality made me curious. I'm not sure, she just seemed different from everyone else...as if she didn't hate me.
About two hours later...
It didn't take long for us to finish the assignment. Kaiba had everything printed for us and we each took a copy of our own to turn in just in case we lost the original we had put together. Kaiba quickly had his personal security escort us from the estate, and we were left to wait for our respective rides home.
"Kaiba's a bit of a jerk, but he knows how to get things done."
I could tell she at least wanted to have a little bit of a conversation going between the two of us, so I obliged.
"Yeah."
"It's a little chilly outside, don't you think?"
"Yeah."
She looked over at me and frowned a little bit. "Is that all you say?"
I gave her a sly grin. "Maybe..."
She giggled a little at my little joke, and I laughed with her. It had been a while since I had sat down and laughed with someone other than my sister; I was LONG overdue. After our laughter had subsided, her expression suddenly grew serious.
"Marik...you were there when I was...attacked. If it weren't for you and Kaiba, I probably would be laying dead somewhere right now."
I cringed a little at the thought. A creature asbeautiful as her didn't deserve to be treated that way. "Are you trying to thank me?" I smiled again.
She put her hands on her hips. "As a matter of fact I am! Are you mocking me?"
"Maybe..."
She rolled her eyes at me, amused with my head games. Finally, my sister Ishizu showed up to get me and I slipped into the passenger side.
"Hello Tea. Will you be alright out here? We could give you a ride if you need us."
Tea shook her head. "No thanks, Van's comming to pick me up and he should be here any minute. Any news on the game today?"
"I think they won, 2-nil. Don't take my word for it."
As the two young women pratted on and made small talk, all I could do was look over at Tea. For just a few minutes, I didn't care that I was the most hated person in the entire city. I didn't care that my apartment had been ransacked by thugs. I didn't care that my ribs were still healing from beatings nearly a month ago.
Something about her makes me whole.
Hope you enjoyed it folks. It's probably going to be a while before I update again. I recently got a new job, so now I'm going to have to squeeze in updates whenever I can during the week. The little update chart on my profile, ignore it. I've got to change it anyways. Thanks for reading, leave a review on the way out, and take care of yourselves!
BDB...out