A gentle breeze awoke Seto the following morning. Without needing to open his eyes he knew Tea lay next to him. They'd drawn closer overnight - Tea's back was now pressed into his front, his arm draped over her waist; possessive even in sleep. He sighed, breathing in the scent of her. It intensified as another breath of wind rustled the brunette's hair, blowing it lightly against his face.
A breeze. Seto suddenly sat bolt upright. Why was there a breeze? There shouldn't be a breeze. And he shouldn't be lying on a bed of grass. The last thing he remembered he and Tea had been sleeping in a bed in his cottage. His body warmed at the thought. Pull yourself together Kaiba. He gritted his teeth. This isn't the time.
He felt Tea stir next to him as he analysed their surroundings. He didn't look at her, his mind working furiously. For what possible reason could they have been relocated back to the cottage exterior? He felt Tea brush against his arm as she stood up and began walking towards the cottage – her mouth slightly ajar, eyes full of wonder.
"Tea, wait." Seto called. Tea stopped and turned towards him. The look in her eyes changed, and a faint blush appeared on her cheeks as he approached her, one of her fingers twisting around a lock of hair –the same expression she had worn as he had walked towards her the previous day. Fighting down his smugness, he continued. "This must be part of the next level."
"Well duh." Tea replied. Seto looked at her frowning. "What else would it be?" She continued at his expression. "This is my dream cottage."
Seto's frown increased. There was something wrong about this, a sinking feeling beginning to develop in his stomach.
"I'm really not sure why we're here." Tea continued, looking puzzled.
"Probably another one of those dumb challenges." Seto answered, the sinking feeling in his stomach intensifying.
"Hey, why don't we-"
"Ask the computer what we need to do to get out of here?" Seto continued dully, knowing what she was going to say. Tea looked at him curiously and nodded. "Because Yugi deactivated it. Tea," He moved closer towards her, his hands resting on her shoulders. "Where were we last night?"
"What do you mean where were we?" Tea replied, her voice filled with confusion.
"I said, where were we last night?" He said, gripping her shoulders more tightly.
"Seto you're hurting-"
"Please Tea, answer my question. Where were we last night?" Seto said, ignoring the girl's protests, wanting, needing her to refute his suspicions.
There was such intensity in Seto's eyes, Tea blushed and dropped his gaze. "Well you know, with you in the cave after Yam- I mean Yug-"
"DAMN IT!" Seto interrupted. He turned his face upwards, directing his shouts to the sky, "YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS."
"Seto, what's going-"
"HOW DARE YOU DO THIS!" Seto continued. "You can't just play with people's lives like this. Who the HELL are you?"
There was no answer to his question. Seto, breathing heavily, continued, his voice now soft but laced with menace. "When I get out of here, there will be nowhere for you to run or hide. I swear, when I find you…" No words could describe what Seto wanted to do with the utter filth that had trapped them in this virtual world. Not only trapped them in the world, but who was playing with their lives. Who was playing with her.
"Kaiba, Seto, you're scaring me." Tea said, backing away.
Tea's words stirred something in Seto who tore his gaze from the sky to look at his companion. She was indeed looking frightened. He took some steadying breaths, trying to master his anger.
"Come with me." He said harshly - the best he could do at present. He grabbed Tea's hand and pulled her into the cottage towards the sitting room.
"Sit." He said more calmly, "Please." He added checking himself. His companion sat down on the settee with trepidation, looking straight at him, concern etched on her face. Seto took a few more steadying breaths before continuing, his voice tense. "Does anything in here seem familiar to you?"
Tea relaxed at his calmer voice but looked around confused. "Yes." She said slowly, "I've been here several times in the outside world. I had wanted to buy this place but somebody got to it before I had a chan- hang on," her eyes narrowing at his tired expression. "Was it you that bought it?"
Seto nodded once.
"I thought it looked like you knew your way around."
"That's not important right now," Seto said brusquely.
"Well I think we should talk abou-"
"We already have Tea," He said heavily, sitting down next to her.
"I'm sorry, what?" Tea looked confusedly at him, "Seto you're going to have to fill me in, I'm lost."
"Yesterday we arrived outside this cottage in the field. In a very similar manner to this morning," Apart from the sleeping arrangements, he thought to himself. "We explored, cooked and waited for that crazy fool to start another challenge. But it didn't come. So we decided to sleep upstairs together. And then we-"
"Hang on," Tea said loudly, interrupting Seto, her face reddening. "We slept together upstairs?"
"That's not what I said," Seto replied rolling his eyes, "I said we slept upstairs together. I didn't say we slept together upstairs. You know, for a 'good listener'" He said, making quotation marks with his fingers in the air, "You don't listen very well, do you?"
"Well I-" Tea spluttered, reddening even more.
"Perhaps you just heard what you wanted to hear." Seto said, a smirk appearing on his face, despite himself. He couldn't resist unsettling his companion, even in the predicament they found themselves in. "If you'd like Tea," He purred huskily, leaning closer, "We can continue to debate sleeping together, upstairs…" He trailed off suggestively.
"Um-" Was all Tea could reply.
Seto chuckled, but then remembered the point of the story he was telling and mentally shook himself. Not the right time.
He sighed, leaning back. "So we slept. Then we awoke in the field again. And you-"
"Can't remember anything that happened." Tea said quietly, finishing his sentence.
Seto sighed and nodded gravely.
"So this creep is now messing with my memory?" Tea said, firing up. "As well as my life, AND my friends. When I get my hands on him…"
"Get in line." Seto said sardonically.
There was a pause in the conversation, as they both considered their situation.
"So what do we do?" Tea asked Seto, breaking the silence. "Obviously this is another insane challenge. How do we get through this one?"
"The key to understanding any game is knowing its parameters." Seto mused. "We know it's based around the cottage and the field. And from what happened yesterday we know that there's no one else on this challenge level."
"You mean, YOU know," Tea said bitterly, "Wait-" She said, her eyes suddenly bright, an idea coming to her, "Maybe the challenge for this level is for me to remember what happened yesterday." Looking up at Seto, she saw him pull a face that told her exactly what he thought of her new idea. "Well I don't see you coming up with any ideas, brainbox" She said scowling.
Seto opened his mouth, ready with a retort but stopped himself. "Okay." He said quietly, making Tea freeze on the spot. "From the beginning."
A very very very VERY overdue chapter. I hope you're all still out there... I can only apologies for the lateness of this update. I have re-read the ending I had already written for this story and would really like you guys to read it! I'll have to write the next couple of chapters from scratch but after that it should be pretty quick work to get the rest of the story out to you. R&R but please be nice because I'm a bit rusty having taken all this time off! xoxo
