Disclaimer-Kazuki Takahashi owns Yugioh Stephen Sondheim owns I Feel Pretty (stage lyrics), which I strongly recommened you reading, since doesn't allow song fics anymore, and it was important to the dance recital.
Key
Italics is song lyrics that no one is singing
/ someone singing/
"quotes are speech"
'is dreaming'
/is flashback/
- is thoughts -
Tea looked at the stage, The curtains blocked her view of the audience. She saw the stage crew dashing at break neck speeds setting everything up. Tea laced up her toe shoes tightly around her tights then took her place onstage. -just breathe- she told herself. -whose advise was that again, oh yeah Seto's...- Tea shook her head and wiped away the Teas beginning to brim on her eyes before she shed them.
Kaiba came busting into the auditorium, flowers in hand, just in time to see the lights dimming and the curtains rising. Tea was onstage sitting on a white stool, looking in a mirror and pretending to fix her hair.
Tea was humming loudly. "Someone sure is happy" cooed one of the girls on stage.
"Yea you seem to be in a good mood." agreed another girl. Tea stopped messing with her hair and stood up.
"Happy, in a good mood, I feel better than that, i feel...i feel..."
/Tea: I feel pretty oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and bright and I pity any girls who isn't me tonight/ Tea sang getting all the other girls up out of their seats. -Oh gosh what's the next line, i cant remember what's next, i cant do this.- Tea froze. All the other girls looked at Tea expectantly. The music restarted back in the place where she was supposed to be at but Tea still didn't budge, sweat ran down her face.
Some people began snickering in the audience. Tea ran off stage. All the other girls looked at each other and then ran off stage. "Chotto matte kudasai (a/n: means Please wait a moment) folks there's just a slight technical difficulty, her mikes not turned on properly, don't worry we'll fix it. It'll be just a moment so don't go anywhere onagaishimasu (a/n: one way to say please.)" One girl said covering for Tea then running off the stage.
Kaiba ran backstage. "Hey you cant come back here." said the stage manager, a small weaselly looking boy with bright orange hair and big square, black, coke bottle glasses. Kaiba glared down at him.
"Whose going to stop me." He said his voice low and menacing.
"M-me." stuttered the stage manager.
"You and what army." Kaiba said glaring down.
"Me and this army." said the stage manager pushing on Kaiba's chest. Kaiba didn't budge an inch while the small stage managers feet slid around on the floor. Kaiba rolled his eyes and pushed the guy to the side. The stage manager got up and dusted himself off. "Ok, buddy put up your dukes." The stage manager said, in his small nasally voice jumping up and down. Kaiba rolled his eyes and then picked up the guy and hung him on the coat rack. "Hey no fair." shouted the stage manager, throwing a punch at Kaiba and ending up spinning around, getting himself more tangled on the hook and missing Kaiba completely. Kaiba looked at the guy then shook his head and went more toward the back to find Tea.
"What happened out there." asked one of the dancers, a purple haired girl, with a pink dress on that was similar to Teas.
"I don't know Kira I was just froze, i cant go back out there." Tea said turning away from Kira's concerned amber eyes.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to." sneered one of the other girls, dressed in a black dress that was similar to Teas as well. She tossed her back long, pin straight, dark brown hair and smirked. "My performance of course, went without a hitch, I deserved to go on last. Your undeserving of such a good spot." She said her dark, green eyes glaring down at Tea.
"Shove it Rei just because you've danced in New York doesn't mean your all that, as i recall your parents moved you here with your grandparents because you kept getting picked on after you got booed off the stage." said another girl, also in a pink dress like Teas. Her jet black hair was pulled back in to a ponytail and her periwinkle eyes glaring with the lights of war at Rei. Rei smirked,
"and as I recall you tried out for Kara in Mr. Taka's musical, but you didn't get the part, and i did, but then you never did quite measure up to me." Rei smirked holding out her hand to her chest, making fun of the other girls height.
"Err...Rei." shouted the other girl stomping toward Rei.
"Calm down, shes not worth it Yumi." Tea said holding her back.
"Your right she's not." Yumi said still glaring at Rei.
Just then Rei noticed Kaiba who had been standing there the whole time, unknown to all the girls. "Your...your Seto Kaiba, I'm your biggest fan, can i have your autograph, Ami go get my autograph book." Rei said sweetly to Kaiba then barked orders to Ami, a small girl, who was also wearing a black dress like Teas (a/n: to see a description of Teas dress again go back to the last chapter.), with short light brown hair, and thin rectangle glasses, with no frame, and light brown eyes.
"Yes, Rei, right away Rei." she said dashing off. Kaiba glared down at Rei. -He looks even better in person- Rei thought.
"Hi, Seto, can i call you that, i am your biggest fan, did you get the package i sent you, my mother baked those cookies herself. I cant begin to tell you what an honor it is to finally meet you, I admire your work, and am not just talking about duel monsters, which by the way i still think your the best in the world, that Yugi Moto punk must have cheated or something..." (a/n: The preceding paragraph in no way reflects the views of the authoress, Yugi is actually one of my fav characters, i wrote that paragraph from Rei's point of view.) Kaiba walked past her and walked over to Tea.
"Hey, Tea what's wrong." Kaiba asked.
"What happened out there, you just froze." He asked her concerned.
"I did...I can't go back out there." Tea said crying. Kaiba wiped the Tears from her face.
"Yes, you can, I know you can do this Tea." Kaiba said reassuring.
"But what if I mess up, what if i get stage fright what if..." Tea said. Kaiba put a finger on her lip to shush her.
"Tea no matter what happens I am here for you, so go onstage and dance, I'll be right here cheering you on." Tea nodded then hugged Kaiba tight. Kaiba looked up at Rei.
"And as for you, Rei..." He said, saying her name as if it was poison. "Your right about one thing, I am the best, and that's why I am in love with Tea, because I only love the best. And as for your mothers nasty cookies, yeah i got them, but i dumped them in the trash, the only thing i regret is that i cant dump you in the trash, because if theirs one thing i cant stand its idiotic little bullies like you. Now if you excuse me, I have to go cheer my girlfriend on." Kaiba said, then he kissed Tea and walked back out into the audience and took a seat. Ami came running up to Rei.
"Heres your autograph book Rei."
"Err, shut up." Rei said smacking the autograph book out of Ami's hands.
"Shutting up." Ami said scurrying towards Rei, who had stomped off to take her place on stage.
The lights dimmed. The girls took their place on stage. Tea in the center in her white dress. With Yumi and Rei on one side, with Yumi in a pink dress then Rei in a black dress, and Kira and Ami on the other side, with Kira in a pink dress and Ami in a black dress. The curtains rose and Tea began to pretend to be fixing her hair, sitting on a white stool. "Someone sure is happy." cooed Ami. "Yea some sure seems to be in a good mood." agreed Yumi. Tea stopped messing with her hair and stood up. "Happy, in a good mood, i feel better than that, I feel...I feel..."
/Tea: I feel pretty oh pretty, oh so pretty, i feel pretty and witty and bright and I pity any girl who isn't me tonight/ Tea sang getting all the other girls up out of their seats. The other girls twirled around when Tea stood them up then looked at her.
/Tea: I feel charming oh so charming its alarming how charming I feel and so pretty I can hardly believe that I'm real./ Tea twirled over to the mirror. The other girls stood on tip toe and danced their way over by Tea.
/Tea: See that pretty girl in that mirror there: Who can that attractive girl be./ Tea turned toward Rei and started dancing with her. /Tea: Such a pretty face Such a pretty dress Such a pretty smile Such a pretty me/ Tea said letting go of Rei and spinning her away, purposely too hard right off stage. Rei stumbled backstage and fell on her butt. Rei growled and then faked a smile and danced back onstage.
Tea twirled around started dancing circles around Rei, ticking her off. During the entire number she kept tyring to one-up her or tripped her, but Tea always landed on her feet, and ended up handling the whole thing with grace and refinement, backflipping, twirling, leaping and prancing like it was supposed to happen, no one was going to ruin her number.
Tea came to a stop then stood on tiptoe and danced to center stage followed by Ami. All the girls surrounded Tea and twirled around non stop. While Tea danced around the center of them randomly putting her hands under her chin in a ain't I cute gesture. All the girls except Tea came to a stop and twirled around so that they were in straight line then linked arms, Ami linked with Yumi, and Rei linked with Kira, so that dresses were in the color pattern, pink, black, pink black, Tea twirled in between them and bowed gracefully on tiptoe.) The girls twirled around Tea unlinking arms slowly while Ami and Kira stayed in place Yumi and Rei crossed over to the other two girls in front of Tea there pink and black skirts billowing around them.
As the last notes of song ended they twirled back to center stage. They all stopped twirling in place and raised their arm and leg eloquently around Tea. Tea in the center ther hands framing her face. /Tea:For I'm loved by a pretty wonderful boy.(Tea held the note a bit)/ Then Tea got up and they all split up then twirled off stage at the end music.
The crowd gave a standing ovation with Kaiba clapping the loudest. The curtain closed briefly then all the dancers in Tea's company was onstage and took a bow. Tea smiled triumphantly. Yumi, who was the student president of the wing weaver dance company stepped forward.
"Thank you, for coming to see this wonderful performance, lets hear it again for the girls huh?" Yumi said. The crowed applauded again. "Now please remember to drive safe and please leave any change that you can, because without you we wing weavers would cease to exist. Thanks again and come back next show, bring your friends." The crowd began to file out while some people went to the backstage area to greet the various girls they had come there for. Joey, Tristan, Yugi, Mai, Serenity, and Duke went back stage followed by Kaiba.
"That was great Tea." Serenity said.
"Yeah, you were awsome" Joey said pumping his fist in the air. Duke gave her the thumbs up.
"You were amazing, Mon chereri" Duke said.
"Hun, i usually just think that dancing is boring, especially your kind but you had me glued to my seat." Mai said giving her the victory sign and winking.
"Uh, thanks Mai, I think." Tea said, a bead of sweat running down her face. Tristan and Yugi laughed, then turned toward Tea.
"I've never seen a better performance i give it a A+." Yugi said.
"It was all right...Oh who am i fooling girl you were great!" Tristan added. Kaiba just watched them.
"Tea you were better than great you floated around the stage with all the grace of a swan, and your singing was like a sweet melody of bells ringing softly in the twilight, i couldn't believe that I got to watch you for free, I'd give up a thousand lifetimes just to watch you dance across the stage, mi amour." Kaiba said bowing down and kissing her hand. Tea blushed.
"Well, I couldn't of done it without you Seto, thank you for giving me the courage to go up there." Tea said to Kaiba. Kaiba wrapped his arms around her waist, and Tea wrapped her arms around his neck. Kaiba and Tea shut their eyes and kissed a slight blush tracing their features.
"Awww..." cooed Mai, Serenity, Yumi, and Kira. The couple turned around and broke apart from each other, they had completely forgot that anyone else was in the room, for them time had stopped and everyone else had simply disappeared.
They glanced down at the floor and blushed. "You guys..." Tea finally said.
"Its ok, it was cuute." cooed Kira, holding her hands together and putting them by her face. Kaiba rolled his eyes.
"We should celebrate." said Yugi.
"Yea." cheered all the others, except Kaiba. Just then Rei and Ami came over. Rei walked over to Tea and glared down at her.
"You may have won this round Gardner, but rest assured, I'm not through with you yet." Tea glared back up her.
"Its that supposed to be a threat."
"Yes, so consider yourself officially screwed, because I wont rest until I take you down, and when your sitting alone a mere shell of what you once were, remember this day, may it haunt your dreams forever."
"Oh don't worry, I'll remember this, but i wont remember because its the beginning of the end, I'll remember because its the day i finally brought you down." Rei smirked and tossed her hair over her shoulder.
"Gardner, don't make me laugh, once a loser always a loser." Rei said turning around. "Come on Ami." Rei said snapping her fingers and walking off.
"Coming!" Ami shouted scurrying behind her.
Just then Tea parents came walking up. It was easy to see where Tea got her looks from. Both her parents had brown hair and blue eyes just like Tea. Her mother looked liked and older version of her while her father was a tall, lanky man with broad shoulders and small oval glasses.
"Hello Tea." said her mother flatly.
"Hello mother, father, what may I ask are you doing here?" Tea said just as flatly.
"What do you think we're doing here, we came to take you home." stated her father.
"Well, I'm not going, I got a new home now." Tea said linking arms with Kaiba and resting her head on his arm.
"Err...Tea why don't you stop this foolish delusion of yours and come home." shouted her father
"I don't know what your talking about." Tea said.
"You know full well what I'm talking about, this foolish dream you have of being a dancer, honestly Tea do you really believe you can make it on such a useless talent, what happens when you have kids, huh, why don't you quit this nonsense and quit being such a meiyo o kegasu (a/n: meiyo o kegasu is dishonor)" said the father.
"Iya please lower your voice." said Tea's mom to her dad.
"No, Kisha I wont lower my voice." growled Iya.
"Tea honey please just come home, and we'll talk about it. Dancing could be your hobby or something, and you could become something decent like a lawyer or a dentist, like your father and me." said Kisha.
"No, Kisha, Tea your going to put this dancing nonsense behind you and come home and that's final." growled Iya.
"No, I have a new home now, and I'm going to continue to live there and I'm going to continue to dance rather you like it or not." Tea said flatly.
"Don't make me drag the police into this, need i remind you your still a minor." Iya scowled.
"Well you do what you have to do Mr. Gardner and we'll do what we have to do, c'mon Tea." Kaiba said giving her his arm.
"Gladly." Tea said linking her arm with his.
"Tea get back here." shouted Iya, as the group walked off.
"This conversation is over." Tea shouted back. Then walked out the door.
"What are we going to do?" cried Kisha into a tissue.
"Don't worry she'll come around." Iya said.
"But what if she doesn't I don't know what I'll do without my little girl, maybe if we let her be a dancer..."Kisha said.
"No, as parents we have to do what's best for her and twirling around in little circles for the rest of her life is not what's best."
"But its her life, we should want what makes her happy, and if that means being a dancer..."
"Kisha, shes still just 16 years old, heck she just turned 16 a couple of months ago, she doesn't know what shes doing or what shes talking about. Don't worry we'll get her back."
"But what if we don't, are you really going to call the police?"
"No, i just said that to try to get her back home with us."
"Oh Iya i miss my little girl."
"I do too Kisha, I do too." (a/n: I pushed all the characters ages back to fit with the story line and made them all born the same year,with the exception of Serenity, Mai and Mokuba and Sam of course, so some characters are younger than others by a few months, and some are older by a few months but i gave them all the same birthdays as what's on Janime.)
Tea sighed as they headed out the door. "You guys I don't feel like celebrating anymore." Tea said.
"We understand." said Mai. Tea hugged each of the guys goodbye then got into her car and drove off. Kaiba called his limo and got in.
"Home." he ordered the driver.
Kaiba walked in and saw Tea sitting on the couch, she had changed out of her white dress into a pink nightgown. He sat down next to her then studied her for a minute. She was reading a book. "Why?" he asked her.
"Why, what?"
"Why, haven't you told anyone but Mai and Serenity that your living with me?" Tea put down her book and looked at him.
"I just haven't...Its just that the guys are having a hard enough time dealing with the fact that we're dating, I'm just not ready to tell them we're living together too." she said frowning. Kaiba nodded his head.
"Oh and before i forget don't think your sleeping in our room tonight." He frowned. Tea, who had went back to reading her book, shot her head up and looked at him.
"I'm not!"
"No. Your sleeping in the silence room." He said smirking. Tea gulped.
Joey laid on his bed in silence, staring at the ceiling and frowning. -So far every thing is going to plan, but how am i suppose ta get Tea to go along wit dis.- he turned on his side and stared at his door, in particular the flame swordsman poster on it. -Wha' the heck am I to do, laugh all this thinking is making my head hurt.- Joey said rubbing his hand through his hair. He went down the hall, making sure to sneak past his dad, lest he wake him, and got himself a glass of water. He gulped it down then sat at the kitchen table. -Now what to do, what to do, i know dem too is gonna have a argument, a big one and den...-
Meanwhile Rei up laid her back against her wall. She pulled down her cordless phone off the hook and punched some numbers in. "Hello Ushio, remember that favor you owe me, well I'm calling it in look this is what I need you to do..."
Renee smirked as she walked out of Mokuba's room. -Everything is finally coming together...soon Seto...soon everything you possess, will be mine, including you.- Mokuba paced back in forth in his room, thinking about Renee had said. -Maybe Renee is right, maybe i wasn't harsh enough on him, if i don't want him to like me anymore, if i don't want to ruin his life anymore, then I'm going to have to kick it up a notch, but how?- Mokuba looked at himself in the mirror, he was wearing the silk, black and gold , Kaibacorp pajamas Kaiba had given him.
/"Hey Mokuba, I got something for you." Kaiba said smiling.
"What Seto?"
"Well, I know how much you liked my black and gold Kaibacorp pajamas so I got you a pair of your own." Kaiba said proudly holding up the bag. Mokuba looked at the PJs them smiled.
"Thanks Seto, your the best." Mokuba said hugging him.
"No problem Mokuba, brothers forever?" Kaiba said holding up his pinky.
"You know it, forever until the end of time." Mokuba said locking his pinky with Kaiba's. Then hugging him some more. Kaiba smiled then hugged him back./
Mokuba narrowed his eyes and then changed Pajamas. He grabbed a pair of scissors then closed his eyes and started shredding them. He walked into Kaiba's room and placed them on his bed along with a note that said, I hate you and these stupid pajamas i only wish i could of shredded you instead of them. Then left the room. He heard Tea come in, followed not to much later by Kaiba. He walked upstairs then laid on his bed, after locking his door. -I hope I'm doing the right thing, Seto sure is going to be upset when he sees that, but no matter what I have to keep being mean to him, its for his own good, he'll be really really upset at first, but he'll move on, at least that's what Renee said, I hope she's right.- Mokuba thought crying into his pillow. -I going to miss him when I leave...now all I got to figure out is when.-