They soon found a place to sleep. A double bed with plush looking pillows and duvet stood in the centre of a room off the corridor. Kaiba sighed internally, knowing he would be spending an uncomfortable night on the floor, before entering the room followed closely by Tea.

"I'll keep watch." Kaiba said in a tired voice, "You should get some sleep." He closed the door behind them and began and sat himself down by the door. Tea again felt the warm sensation as she watched him settle himself down onto the cold wooden floor. Seto Kaiba was being nice now. Nice to her. She almost laughed at the dumbstruck expressions Joey and Tristan would have if they were there.

"Hey Kaiba, catch." She said before promptly throwing most of the pillows over to him on the floor. Kaiba gratefully caught them, nodding to Tea in thanks. They were silent for awhile as they both settled into their respective positions. After a while, Tea cleared her throat,

"Kaiba, thank you. For, you know, what you did just now. I really appre-"

Kaiba chuckled sardonically, "Don't get all soppy on me now Gardener, I don't need to get any wetter than I already am." Tea smiled at his sarcastic comment. This sounded more like the Kaiba she knew. She paused, deciding on something, before continuing sleepily.

"It's Tea."

"What?" Kaiba said, with no sarcasm in his voice.

"I said, call me Tea. It seems we may be here for a while and I'd rather you call me by my first name. My friends always do." Kaiba was taken aback. Tea told him earlier that she considered him a friend. But this was another step and felt… different. But before he could order his thoughts and reply, Tea was wishing him a sleepy goodnight.

Kaiba looked over to the figure of Tea, the light just enough to make out her face. "Goodnight... Tea." Kaiba said hesitantly. He saw the sides of her mouth turn upwards into a small smile before she relaxed completely and fell into a deep sleep.


Kaiba had brief spells of sleep during the night. But he mainly stayed awake, watching Tea sleep and thinking. In the past he had never seen anything phase Gardener – no, Tea – no matter how many insults he threw her way. But what Yugi - the virtual world version of him anyway - had said about her family and her friends had really affected her. There was much more to this girl than her smiling, happy exterior.

And then there was the aftermath. The feeling of her pressing against his body. The way her back had felt as he had caressed it. These thoughts sent a warm, tingling feeling run through his body. He liked the way she had felt. He wanted to touch her again. He cast his eye over the sleeping form of Tea.

Wait. He stopped himself suddenly and shook himself. His scowl replaced his neutral expression and he crossed his arms tightly over his chest. What the hell is she doing to me? He asked himself. I will not - cannot - let her affect me. I can't trust anyone. I rely on myself and only myself. My only objective is to escape from this place. I don't need unnecessary complications.


When Tea woke up all the events of the previous day came back to her. The confusion, the sadness and the strange feeling about a particular boy... she looked around the room. There Kaiba was lying down on the pillows, his eyes open and fixed on her. She coloured and looked away.

"I was wondering when you'd wake up." Kaiba said, sounding grumpy. "We need to get moving."

Tea nodded and got out of the bed, shaking her hair out of her eyes. She reached for the hair tie she always kept attached to her belt and tied her hair up. It was getting too long, she had to admit. Her fringe had always bothered her but now with it being greasy as she had not washed it the previous night, it was particularly annoying. Thinking about her hair, her mind drifted to her friends and what they had said the previous night.

"We need to go now Gardener." The use of her surname jogged Tea from her reverie. She frowned and scowled at Kaiba.

"I thought you were going to call me Tea from now on." She said accusingly.

Kaiba scowled. "Well it's going to take me a lot of time to get over the habit. Sorry if that bothers you." He added sarcastically, not meaning to sound as harsh as he did.

"Fine." Tea said shortly. Her face was red with anger, her sadness forgotten for the moment. "Are we going then?"

"After you," Kaiba replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

The two exited the room and looked down the corridor. It looked the same as it did the previous day except now the castle was flooded with light, making it feel a lot less oppressive. They walked in silence down the corridor, both thinking about what they should do next.

"I think we should split up." Kaiba suddenly announced as they approached a cross road in the castle.

"Kaiba..." Tea began.

"I'm going down here." He gestured to the passage leading to the left. "You follow the path to the right. We will meet back here in exactly one hour. You have a watch don't you?" He only gave her the chance to nod before continuing. "If we don't meet back here at that time we'll know something is wrong and then we can find each other."

"Kaiba I really don't think this is a good idea..."

"Look Gardener," Kaiba said impatiently ignoring her balling of her fists at the sound of her surname. "I work best on my own, if you hadn't noticed. I got my company, my life and everything by relying on myself and only myself and that is how I intend to continue." He looked at her. She looked angry, but there was something else, hurt, in her eyes.

"Then why did you choose me on the computer?" Tea asked. This had been bothering her since Kaiba had told her. "You know I work as a team, you have seen I don't like to be on my own. Surely you wouldn't have been stupid enough..."

The mention of him being stupid made a vein pulse in his head and he put his cold eyes on Tea. She was trying to look brave as the tall boy towered over her, but her hands were shaking.

"Do you really think I would have chosen you out of all my options?" He sneered, "I was going to choose Yugi. But my time run out and that damn computer randomly chose you. And I've been suffering for my hesitation ever since." He regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth, but he pressed his lips together in a thin line to prevent him apologising and diverted his eyes from the girl in front of him.

Despite a voice in his head screaming telling him to be reasonable and apologise, he swept away from Tea and strode away down the corridor to the left. He half expected to hear her footsteps following him, to hear her voice shouting at him to be reasonable or to call him some stupid name. But it didn't come. All he heard was the voice inside his head screaming at him in distress.


A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry for the late post - been away for 2 weeks. What do you think of the story so far? I'd love to know your thoughts, so please R&R and let me know what you think.

PS I kept forgetting to write an author's note at the end of the chapters before I posted them - hence why you haven't heard from me before! Hopefully I've broken the habit...