All the characters are the property of Kazuki Takahashi, except for Miss Osika, who is based on one of my own elementary school teachers, who really did have that name and hair and kind personality.

Exchanging Blows

All Yugi, Joey, and Tristan could talk about was the upcoming tournament. Their enthusiasm infected Tea, who liked watching her friends play Duel Monsters, and liked to play it herself, when she was feeling brave enough. The truth was, Tea hated to lose almost as much as Joey. Whenever she lost a card game, she fought back acid tears of frustration, ground her irritation between her teeth, and took mental notes on what she did wrong. This was how she learned to dance, starting at the age of three, and it had helped her get to where she was at the barre today. She not only hoped to make Yugi and the Spirit proud someday, using the skills they had taught her, but also to impress them with her own innovations and strategy. She secretly went over her cards at night, imagining different opponents and what she could use against them. She kept lists of combinations in a little red tie-dye notebook—Dark Magician girl (2000)+Dark Magician in graveyard=2,300. Magician of Faith flipped=one card back from graveyard.

She sort of hoped that someone would challenge her to a duel at the very same time she dreaded it.

She was terrified of running into Kaiba, which she knew would be inevitable if she attended the tournament. Hearing Kaiba's name made her feel hot and released what felt like a storm of hornets into her stomach. She felt the same way about seeing him that she did about being challenged to a duel. She hoped that the next time she saw him, he would be the gentle, almost romantic boy that she knew he could be. That boy would listen when she told him that he scared her, and he would say he was sorry about the behaviors of the other Kaibas—the animal Kaiba that cornered her and hurt her, and the cold-hearted C.E.O. who terrorized and insulted her friends. However, Tea knew that this was unlikely, especially at Battle City, which was Kaiba's kingdom.

Kaiba hadn't been in school for a few days. Tea didn't mind. She had last seen him since she got out of his car on Thursday, and it was now Tuesday morning. She was perched on Tristan's desk, listening to the boys wax rhapsodic about the upcoming tournament.

Tristan was standing beside his desk, beaming. "Man, Kaiba's going all out for this!" Tea's stomach tightened at the CEO's name.

Joey hopped up on the desk beside Tea. "I heard he's turning the whole city into an arena!"

"Hey, get your ass off my desk, Joey, you'll break it!"

Joey ground his butt into the desk and turned to grin at Tristan.

"Oh, don't lie Tristan, you loves my butt."

"Especially when I'm kicking it. Now get off my desk so I can disinfect it."

"God, you people are disgusting."

All four stopped laughing and looked up. Kaiba stood there, briefcase in hand, staring at them over his nose. Tea looked at his face and then looked down at her lap. His eyes made her heart shiver.

"Take a hike, Kaiba," Joey said, adding depth and hoarseness to his voice.

"Insults, another thing you're a failure at. Face it, Wheeler, it's pointless for you to come to my tournament. "

"Oh, I'm coming, Kaiba, and I'm going to be in the finals, and when I get to the finals, I'm gonna duel you and cut you down to size!"

"Wheeler, for God's sake, you're a JOKE. Stop trying to be anything else." Kaiba leaned closer to Joey, his lip curling in amused disgust. "You are a dog," Kaiba's paused after every word, enunciating every syllable. "You belong in a kennel, with the other mangy mutts." He paused and looked into Joey's eyes to deliver the final blow. "You should be put to sleep, so you don't dirty the gene pool any more than your family already has."

Joey's eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly. Then it seemed to Tea that he was literally shrinking. He blinked rapidly in the shadow of his shaggy hair. Tea put his arm around him and rubbed his shoulders.

"Kaiba, that's going way too far," Yugi stepped in front of Joey.

Kaiba didn't respond right away. From the corner of her eye, Tea saw him staring at her, and dropped her gaze. For a second, the fist that gripped the handle of his briefcase was white-knuckled. A tremor shook his arm from his shoulder to the briefcase. Then, his muscles suddenly released. His arm and shoulder went slack and his grip loosened. Tea had never seen relaxation look so forced. It was a paradox. "The truth hurts," Kaiba finally said. "Can you imagine his offspring?"

"Shut up, Kaiba," Tea said. Her voice was quiet and steady. She didn't look away from Joey's flushed cheek and tight jaw muscles. She wasn't frightened, or even angry. She was just tired, tired of that cold, hard sarcasm. Tired of his crawling hands and heavy gasps. She wanted him to just go away. "Just shut up."

There was a moment of silence.

"What did you just say to me?" Kaiba's voice was just as quiet and steady as Tea's. It was a razor laid bare.

Tea looked up at him. "I said, shut up." She got up off the desk, gently guiding Yugi out of her way by placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sick of you, Kaiba. I'm sick of you hurting others. I'm sick of seeing the pain you cause." She looked at his eyes. What stood out to her was how small and black his pupils were. She thought of dry ice, cold so freezing it sears third degree burns into the flesh. "It's pathetic."

Kaiba lifted his hand. Tea, to her shame, flinched. If he hit her, he would get away with it. They all knew it. But a part of Tea was waiting for that blow. If he hit her, she would have self-defense as an excuse to leap at him, scratch at his face, break his nose.

Before she had recovered from the flinch Yugi was standing in front of her, his arms stretched out from his sides, protecting her as best he could, just as he had protected Joey and Tristan from that bully, just as, Tea thought, he would protect Kaiba himself if he had to. Tristan stepped to her side in a fighting stance.

"Don't even think about it, Kaiba," Tristan's voice was low and dangerous.

"Think about what?" Kaiba's hand flicked across his sleeve, brushing off some imaginary piece of dirt. "Like I would want to touch your whore."

The words were acid thrown into all of their faces. Tea could swear that, for just a second, her heart stopped beating. Her gorge rose, and she tasted sour, bitter vomit at the back of her throat.

In the shocked silence, Kaiba looked right at Tea. There was something burning deep within his eyes, something that melted the ice. His lips were quivering slightly as he opened his mouth. His voice was hoarse and strained.

"You don't know what pain IS, you little bitch," he whispered to her.

He turned away from them. Tea wondered if her friends had heard Kaiba say that. She wondered if they had formed a telepathic link. It was a crazy thought.

Kaiba had one more dagger in his sheath to throw as he walked back to his desk. "Have fun with your whore, geeks," he laughed scornfully as he strode away.

The teacher took her place at the front of the class, and everyone went to their seats. Tea sat down. All she felt were those words pounding in her ears and in her blood. Every echo was a punch to her chest and her stomach. She wrapped her arms around her torso and hunched over the desk. The teacher, a young woman famous around school for her beautiful hair and kind nature, began the math lesson. She was telling the students to take out their books and their notes.

"Tea," Miss Osika said. Tea knew she was imagining it. That voice was so wispy and thin and warm compared to the booming blizzard of words that rained blows on her.

"Tea?" This time the voice was louder and Tea looked up. The other students were bent over their work. Miss Osika's concerned face was right next to hers. It reminded her of her father's face when she came home from school last Thursday. "Tea, why don't you go get some water? I'll write you a pass." Tea followed Miss Osika up to the big desk at the front of the room on shaking legs, feeling incredibly vulnerable and exposed and fully expecting another something else to hit her—a snort of cruel laughter, a word, even a physical assault. She stared at Mrs. Osika's waist-length, wavy, earth colored hair that was tied back with a piece of green elastic.

Miss Osika handed her a pass. The pass said "Nurse's Office."

"You look very ill, Tea. Why don't you lie down," Miss Osika whispered. "Do you need someone to go with you? You look like you might faint."

Tea felt like a little girl in elementary school. Miss Osika used to teach kindergarten, and would probably let Tea sit in her lap if Tea was sick enough. For now, Tea had another request. She whispered, "Joey."

"Alright," Miss Osika whispered back. "Just sit tight in the hallway for a few minutes. I'll say I'm sending Joseph on an errand, and he can take you."

Tea leaned against the cold locker out in the hall and realized she didn't want to go to the nurse's office. She wanted to rip Kaiba to shreds. She wanted to feel his teeth shatter under her fist.

Joey appeared next to her. His body radiated rage. Some crimson still clung to his cheeks. Tea saw that he had tears in his eyes.

"I don't want to go to the nurse's office," Tea said. "Let's just walk around for a little bit."

Joey ran his sleeve over his eyes. "That BASTARD," he hissed. "That shitty SON OF A BITCH. That GODDAMNED FUCKER."

"I know, Joey." Tea put her hand on his shoulder and led him down the hall, the need to comfort and her affection subduing her own anger and hurt.

"I'll kill him. I'll kill him for what he said, Tea."

"I know, I know," Tea was happy she had asked for Joey to come with her. He needed out of that classroom more than she did. "You're better than he is, Joey, never, ever forget that." She stopped and put her hand on his face. He turned and looked into her eyes. "Don't ever, ever forget that, Joey. I NEED you to remember it."

Joey took her hand from his face and held it in both his own. "I promise, Tea." He took a deep breath. "I'd do anything for ya, ya know that? I'd do anything ya asked." There was a hint of a plea in his voice and in his eyes.

Tea knew from the way he looked at her that he was begging her for permission. She contemplated giving him that permission. She bit the inside of her lower lip. No. It was too dangerous for Joey.

"Please leave Kaiba alone, Joey," she finally said. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"I can take him, Tea," Joey's hands tightened around hers and his eyes were fierce.

"I know you can. But it would be better if you just prove to him how good you are. He would sue you if you touched him, Joey. It wouldn't matter how much you wouldn't be able to give." Her voice became even softer. "You are BETTER, Joey. You might as well squish a cockroach." The words sounded very hollow and false, but Joey straightened slightly. "He'll know it someday. He'll know that you're so much happier than he is."

Joey thought for a moment, and then nodded slowly. "You're right, Tea!" His face broke into a huge smile, a smile that soothed Tea's stung emotions.

"I know," she said. "C'mon, we'll take a cruise around the halls for a little bit, and then go back to class."

They walked together, comfortable in their companionship. Their friendship was an aloe balm on a burn or a roaring fire on a winter day. Tea knew then that she was right. Even if Joey never beat Kaiba in a duel, he would always be happier, just as she would always be happier, no matter what he did to her.

From the entryway of the classroom, Kaiba had watched Tea look into Joey's eyes. He had watched her hand cup Joey's cheek. He had watched her mouth as it curved into a smile, and, if he had been feeling poetic, would have likened it to watching a sunrise.

As he watched her hands and her mouth and her eyes as they were tender to the mutt, he felt the same icy blows he had dealt.