I have realized that I have forgotten to put a disclaimer for many chapters now. Allow me to remedy this. This is all based on Kazuki Takahashi's work. I welcome (who am I kidding, I crave) reviews.

For Nothing

Kaiba's eyes were ringed with shiners and red-rimmed. Again, she felt that mixture of pity and rage she had felt before she left him in the closet. She almost reached out to touch him, to help him to the floor, or to his knees before the toilet if need be. But Kaiba was quicker, and he took her by the shoulder and pulled her out of the stall before she could make up her mind to do anything.

She tried to scream but all that came out were muffled little squeaks and whimpers. She twisted about in the tightening circle of his arms but only succeeded in getting turned around so her back was pressed against his belly. He swung her around and pressed her against the wall.

They stood there for a moment, as if they were both trying to get accustomed to the contact. Kaiba's hands then moved tentatively down her arms to her wrists, holding them—not pushing, just holding them—against the creamy lime colored tile. Tea's fists trembled in the circles of his fingers. Then he leaned back a little, clasping her to his chest, and brought her arms between her chest and the smooth coolness of the tile and concrete.

Tea kicked at the wall. Her whimpers and sobs and ragged breathing echoed off the wall in front of her and back into her face. She twisted in his arms, but Kaiba just leaned forward and slammed her into the wall. His arms around her ribs and the force of the blow were hard enough to bruise her knees and shove the air from her lungs in a breathy yelp. Her yelp startled him. He drew back slightly, as if he was afraid of hurting her.

Tea felt weak and dizzy. She was disoriented. For a moment, Kaiba's arms disappeared from around her middle and she felt like she was drowning, floating in a bright white sea populated by brown- black, gelatinous shadows spinning and dissolving in chaotic patterns.

Kaiba's arms and hands and fingers and palms returned gradually with her breath. They moved over her like they did in the closet—quickly, thoroughly, tracing circles, lines, curves. He would switch her wrists from the grip of one hand to the other, depending on what region of her body he was exploring. She felt his thing pushing into the small of her back as he rubbed and pressed himself against her harder and harder and his breath grew heavier and heavier in her ear and on her neck. His mouth smelled like fruit punch, like he had been eating Skittles.

Tea let her head drop and her hair cover her face. She noticed that the mint colored tiles of the floor were freckled with dark blue flecks. She tried to lose herself in the infinity of those dots, tried to get away from the bruises on her knees that ached deep down to them marrow whenever Kaiba thrust hard enough to press them with his knees into the wall. He had pulled her from the wall only enough to give himself access to her chest and belly. His hands shook when he ran them briefly over her breasts.

You stupid, cowardly bitch, she thought to herself. You're just letting this happen. You have to fight.

He was so big. He was so heavy. He had weaponry between his legs—a sword of flesh and blood, a rifle of muscle.

He pulled back a bit, still gripping her. His hand dropped down and stroked her ass, his fingers rounding along her curves. The hand rubbed and cupped, and then reached between her legs.

Tea jumped, her mind suddenly clear. "Kaiba, no," she gasped.

He paused, his hand on her inner thigh. He began to move the hand upward again. She felt the fabric of her shorts move against her private parts through her underwear.

"Kaiba, I'm BLEEDING down there," she cried. She felt immensely grateful for her period. Her hassle was her salvation.

Kaiba slowly removed his hand from between her legs and gently placed it on her belly. Tea held her breath. His palm was tender on her stomach, his fingers curving around her almost from one side of her waist to the other.

"Does it hurt?" His voice was soft and the question sincere.

She swallowed and licked her upper lip, her eyes transfixed at the hand on her stomach.

"Does it hurt, bleeding like that?" The hand gripping her wrists let go and crossed over the other hand on her stomach.

"No," she whispered. She had weighed telling him that it did to get him to let her go, but she assumed it probably wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. "It's just annoying, sometimes." Why was he being so soft with her?

"You're not wearing a pad," he said. "I didn't feel one. So you must wear tampons."

"That's none of your business," she tried to wrench away, but he held her fast, wrapping his arms tight around her.

"Do those hurt?" His sounded genuinely curious and free of malice. He sounded almost eager. "It's supposed to hurt, right? Whenever something goes in there, it breaks the—it breaks the skin."

"Let me go, Kaiba." She tried to pull away, but he tightened his hold and pulled her back into his body again. He looped his elbow under her armpit and put his hand on the side of her neck, his cheek pushing into her temple. He kept one hand on her belly.

"Tell me," he whispered in her ear. "I won't let go of you until you tell me."

Tea contemplated screaming, but then imagined Josie or Madelyn or Delaney, her dance teammates, hearing it and bursting into the bathroom and seeing her like this. It would be all over the school, especially if Delaney, who was sweet and friendly but a gossiper, was the one to see it. Kaiba would say she came onto him, and it was her idea, and because they were afraid of him, they would believe him, or at least pretend to. The truth, however, was her ticket out.

She looked down at her feet.

"It's uncomfortable, at first," she whispered. "Then it doesn't bother you at all."

"If you use them, that means you're still a virgin. Right?"

"Yes," Tea's voice was even softer.

Kaiba's hands took turns resting on her stomach and stroking up and down her bare arms. Tea took a deep breath and let it go, watching his hands move with her breath. His touch was light and caring. This is how a husband holds his wife, she thought, and this is how a husband touches his wife after he's made her pregnant. She felt that pulling tingle on her breasts again.

The thoughts and sensations were unexpected and visceral and Tea shuddered, almost gagging. She felt panicked and out of control, like the whole universe had disappeared outside the walls and all that was left were the tiles, the toilets, and Kaiba's arms, which wrapped around her tightly.

"You said you would let me go," she said.

"I have one more question." He turned her around and slid his hands down her back until he was cupping her ass. He lifted her, his pull steady and insistent, until she was standing on tip -toe. He pushed her up against the wall until she lifted in his hands, pressed between his body and the tiles. He hoisted her higher until she was at his eye level, then relaxed his grip. She began to slide down the wall. She latched onto his shoulders.

Her legs wrapped around his waist almost reflexively. She couldn't help it.

Kaiba closed his eyes and breathed hard through his teeth. At first Tea thought she had hurt him. Then she felt his thing pressing into her pubic bone and knew that it wasn't pain that made Kaiba gasp.

He began to grand her against the wall again, his hands beginning their restless circuit over her body. Tea struggled to hold back tears.

"Are you a virgin?' His breath was thick in her ear. Underneath the fruit punch she smelled something meaty. She began to cry.

He touched her face, her neck. She felt the moisture of his lungs on her skin and whimpered. Her body felt a numbing wave of prickling from the side of her neck to her hip that was not all unpleasant. Her pubic bone felt bruised where he pressed his genitals against her, but she knew there would be nothing to show for it. Six aches appeared on her spine as the vertebra threatened to rub through the skin where it was pressed into the wall.

"Are you?"

She nodded. His grinding thrusts became more frenzied.

"Don't lie to me," his voice was a gravelly growl, but Tea heard something beneath it—was it desperation? She trembled, feeling ice lance through her followed by a flood of heat. She was sick. She had a fever. She was dying.

"I am, I am a virgin," she gasped.

He jerked and clenched his hands around her upper arms. Bone rubbed against bone as he pushed his pelvis further into hers ,and she cried out in pain. He didn't notice. He jolted rhythmically against her.

She stared at the wall opposite them as Kaiba howled and moaned and growled into her neck.

He relaxed and slumped onto her. She unwrapped her legs from around his waist and slid down until her feet touched the floor. He leaned on her, her shoulders taking his weight while his knees buckled. She tried to push him up off of her. His breathing was ragged. The sounds he made hung in the air around them. Tea felt them creeping up her spine and wafting on the back of her neck like ghosts.

Kaiba steadied himself and put his hands flat and light on her back, holding her to him. His heart thrashed against her face, like it was trying to break free from its sinewy bonds that suspended it behind his ribs.

When he took one hand off her back, she pushed past him and ran out into the hallway, down to the studio.

There was a note on the door. Practice had been canceled.

Tea didn't see why. All she saw were the words "dance team" and "canceled," and she started to cry because it all could have been avoided. She could have just gone home. This all happened for nothing.