-1The Beauty and the Duelist
Chapter Five: Match Maker Mokuba
One early afternoon a beautiful brown haired maiden stands in front of a particular gaming store. She wears a simple floral pattern dress as her rich hair flows freely in a cool and gentle breeze. Her eyes sparkle radiantly and her entire being seems to glow with an angelic light.
"I wonder if I'll come across either Joey or Yugi here today. I believe it was Yugi's grandfather who owns this store? Well, I hope I get to see them soon. I really need to thank them for helping me the other day," Mia remarks to herself as she smiles beamingly.
Walking towards her is another beautiful young lady with short brown hair. She notices Mia standing in front of the store apparently waiting for someone or something. Tea decides to approach her.
"Excuse me, miss, are you waiting for someone," Tea asks.
Mia turns around and greets an equally friendly face.
"Well, sort of. I'm kind of hoping that I might run into a couple of guys I met here the other day," Mia answers.
"Oh? So are you looking for people to play Duel Monsters with," Tea casually inquires.
"Well actually I still need to learn how to play. I only recently bought my first deck...so I really don't know much about the game yet. The guys I met here the other day are apparently pretty famous duelists. They helped me out with something and I wanted to at least thank them properly."
"You wouldn't be talking about Yugi and Joey," Tea asks.
"Yes, do you know them," Mia wonders.
"Yes, actually. We're all pretty close friends actually."
"They're really nice people aren't they," Mia remarks.
"Yah, they're both pretty decent guys. Joey's a little funny, but he's alright. You won't find any better friends or duelists for that matter," Tea comments.
"Yah, I could tell. I've met so many cool people recently. I even met Yugi's rival, Mister Kaiba."
"Mister Kaiba? You mean Seto Kaiba?"
"And Mokuba too," Mia adds.
"You met them both? You must be kidding," Tea speaks with a hint of disbelief, "now how'd you bump into those two?"
"That's kind of a long story, actually," Mia admits, "the very short version would be that one thing kind of led to another. Actually, I've been invited over for dinner tonight."
"Wha-wha-WHAT?! You're having dinner with the Kaiba brothers," a familiar voice calls out in shock.
The two girls turn around to see da-one-and-only Joey Wheeler.
"Hiiiiiiii Joey," Mia greets happily in a high pitched voice.
Joey suddenly interposes himself menacingly between Mia and Tea. He hovers over the young lady like a detective grilling a criminal.
"You're not serious, are ya? Did Kaiba really invite ya to dinner," Joey inquires.
"Yes, actually. I was kind of surprised myself since I don't really know him. I probably shouldn't have accepted, but he kind of insisted. I think he just wants me to keep an eye on Mokuba since he's not going to be out that evening," Mia explains.
"That makes more sense," Joey mutters sarcastically to himself.
"What was that Joey, we couldn't quite hear you," Tea pinches Joey thinking that he might have muttered something rude.
"Hey guys, what's going on," a very friendly voice inquires.
"Hey, yo what's up Yug," Joey greets then adds in a quieter tone so only his best bud can hear, "don't suppose ya can call off Tea on me, can ya?"
Yugi smiles and laughs at his good friend. Tea, seeing Yugi, leaves Joey alones and focuses her attention on the adorable petite young man that just arrived.
"Oh, hello Mia. So you're back here again, eh? Have you come to get some new cards for your deck or are you looking for a lesson in dueling," Yugi greets.
Tea quickly becomes cross with Yugi, who is not only currently ignoring, but paying MORE attention to some other girl.
"Well actually, I really just wanted to properly thank you and Joey for helping me out the other day. Thank you very much. I really appreciated it. And, to be honest, I haven't even looked at my cards yet. I'm kind of nervous really. I'm a little afraid as well."
"There's nothing to be afraid of. It's not like the monsters are going to pop out of the cards and attack you," Yugi comforts.
Tea gives a sarcastic laugh while Joey gives his good buddy an annoyed stare. They both know that such an idea is far from being far fetched. After what they've been through, there's hardly anything that they wouldn't believe. Of course, the exception would be Seto Kaiba suddenly become a kind, nice, friendly, and all around good person, but everything else from aliens to soul stealing duels to ancient Atlantis magic is all plausible. In all honesty, Joey and the others have gotten used to expecting such weird things happening when Yugi's around. In fact, perhaps the Seto Kaiba that Mia met wasn't really Seto, some virtual reality duel monster could have possessed his body. After all, weirder things have happened.
"Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that," Joey remarks.
"Don't be silly Joey, they can't 'pop' out of their cards without a duel disk," the little King of Games remarks hoping to avoid freaking Mia out about stories of duel monsters coming to life.
"Eh? Is that something else I have to buy in order to play? I didn't expect a card game to be so complicated. Are they sold in the store? How much does one cost," Mia frets.
"Man, you really don't know anything about Duel Monsters, do you," Joey remarks.
"Settle down Mia, there's no need to worry about it. You don't need a duel disk to play the game," Yugi reassures the young waitress.
"Oh that's good to know. So is it some sort of CD tutorial then," Mia asks.
"Actually," Tea begins breaking into the conversation no longer wanting to be ignored, "it's a device that you strap to your arm where you can play your cards and hold your deck."
"Tea, don't forget to mention that it reads the cards you play and keeps track of your life points."
"Well, you've already mentioned it for me. Oh yah, and we mustn't forget to mention that a duel disk projects holographic images of the cards. They may look real, but their harmless," Tea adds.
"What is this, a commercial," Joey complains.
"Oh and Mia, you probably don't know this, but the duel disk was created by Seto Kaiba," Yugi mentions.
"Really? Wow. All that sounds really cool. Maybe I need to save up and get me one then," Mia remarks.
"Oh yah Mia, did you give Kaiba back that money," Yugi inquires.
"What?! Kaiba gave you money," Tea exclaims in shock, "why doesn't anyone tell me these kind of things?"
"Because, it's a long story," Joey answers.
"Still, I'd really like to know!"
"Yes, but he ended up giving it right back to me. He gave it back to me while he walked me home. I managed to palm it into his jacket when he left my apartment. I searched my room this money to make sure he hadn't slipped it back to me, but it doesn't look like he did."
"WHAT?! HE WALKED YOU HOME," the trio ask in disbelief.
Mia Chiba sweatdrops, wondering why they are making such a fuss over something so trival. She sighs as she wonders how best to explain it all. Even she could tell that walking young ladies home isn't apart of Mister Kaiba's daily routine, and that it isn't exactly something he seems inclined to naturally do. She shrugs and attempts to explain.
"Mokuba suggested it. I think he escorted me for Mokuba's sake. He seemed to have resented it. He was rather rude about it at first, but then he just kind of...I don't...relaxed I guess?"
"I'm telling you guys, something's really wrong here. I think Kaiba's been abducted by dueling aliens who are subjected him to all kinds of probes in an attempt to suck all of the dueling skills out of everyone on the entire planet! He must have been their test subject, but then something went horrible wrong and his brain was fried! Oh man Yugi, I don't wanna be probed by no aliens!"
"Joey, you know you're weird, don't you," Tea remarks as she scoots away from the paranoid young blonde.
"Okay then, but what ELSE could it be? Da only thing that hasn't happened yet are aliens attempting to invade over to steal our ability to play Duel Monsters," Joey insists.
"You really have an overactive imagination, don't you Joey," Yugi laughs.
"I think it's kind of cute," Mia giggles.
Joey blushes slightly as he looks away and stutters an, "Ah...well..."
Tea merely shakes her head.
"Oh but Joey-bear, I thought you had a thing for Mai, won't she be all jealous and whatnot," a voice teases into Joey's ear.
Wheeler spins around to see the last member of their group, Tristan. Tristan looks at Mia with a suave charm as he bypasses Joey to introduce himself to there.
"Hello, I believe we haven't met yet. Allow me to introduce myself. The name's Tristan. Joey here is sort of spoken for. As for myself, I'm more than willing to accommodate you."
Joey glares angrily at Tristan. He still vividly remembers all the times that jerk has tried to hit on his sit and is now even angrier seeing that good for nothing playboy making a play on a new girl. The situation could only get worse for Joey if either Duke Devlin or Seto Kaiba were to show up. He grits his teeth in frustration.
"Oh...um...well, I'm sorry, but I think you might be a little too young for me. I don't exactly find younger men to be very attractive," Mia confesses.
Poor Tristan stumbles and teeters backward in shock. he babbles incoherently to himself about his rejection. Joey laughs it up, soaking in Tristan's utter and humiliating defeat. He seems to ignore the fact that Mia implied that she is probably older than any of them. Even Yugi seems to be oblivious to her remark. Tea, on the other hand, seems to be contemplating this fact.
"Well you can definitely forget about her Joey, 'specially with that baby face of yours," Tristan teases as he pinches and pulls on Joey's cheeks.
The two boys immediately go at each other slinging insults and poking and pinching one another. Mia bursts out laughing at their childish rough housing.
"Those two are really funny. I wouldn't mind having friends as interesting as they are," Mia remarks laughing.
"Well they're your friends now, like or not," Yugi jokes.
Meanwhile Seto Kaiba is making preparations to leave for his business trip. The elder brother speaks with his younger in regards to the arrangements he made for tonight.
"I expect that you behave yourself tonight Mokuba, of course I needn't have to tell you that."
"Who cares," Mokuba whines, "I'm just gonna be eating alone."
"Actually," Seto smirks and then silently wonders whether or not he really should mention the guest he invited to join his brother for dinner tonight, "I've made arrangements for a guest to accompany you for dinner tonight. I hope you don't mind."
"A guest," Mokuba wonders suspiciously raising a brow in disbelief, "who?"
"Oh, no one important. No one to concern yourself with. Just think of her as apart of the dinning decor."
"Oooooooooo, is it that pretty girl Mia from the other day," Mokuba teases his mood lightening up.
Seto gives a very fleeting look of annoyance, then sternly looks at his younger brother.
"Does it really matter who I invited?"
Mokuba giggles.
"Wow, I didn't think you had it in you! Asking a girl over for dinner, I'm really surprised," the young Kaiba brother congratulates.
Seto coughs then reminds Mokuba, "In case you've forgotten, I'll remind you again, I won't be eating here tonight. I have a meeting to attend to."
Mokuba sighs and pouts momentarily.
"Oh, is that so," Mokuba begins sadly, and then continues with a mischievous notion, "soooooooo will she be joining us for supper tomorrow night as well?"
"Of course not. After tonight there should be no reason for either of us to see her again," Seto informs.
Mokuba's eyes begin to water as his lips curl with sorrow.
"Bu, bu, but Seeeeeeeeeeetooooooo," he whimpers in his best adorable puppy dog voice, "Mia's such a sweet girl and I reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllllyy like her. I don't have any friends or anyone to hang out with, and you're always so busy."
"Friends are a waste of time Mokuba. Look at me, I don't waste my time with friends and look how successful I am."
Mokuba grumbles to himself and thinks about how is brother is a real prick (Note: if anyone thinks that's a little too harsh, I'll change it).
"I don't care! I like Mia! I want to spend time with her," Mokuba pouts.
"You're eating dinner with her tonight, that's more than enough time with her! This isn't open for discussion," Seto insists.
"Fine, I'll just go and do drugs and have sex with anything that walks on two legs," Mokuba threatens (Note: Again, if anyone thinks that's too extreme I'll change it back to his original line).
"Knock it off Mokuba, you're acting like a spoiled little brat. Besides, I know you'll never do anything like that," Kaiba calls his brother's bluff.
"So, I'll just hang out with Yugi and his crew every time your back is turned."
"Come on, you know I won't let that happen," Seto counters.
"Alright then, as soon as you're gone I'm gonna go online and join a cult that practices Ancient Egyptian magic."
A nerve is finally struck. Seto glares down angrily at his younger brother.
"Fine...what do you want Mokuba?"
