Torment 2
Téa's face went pale and she shook her head, "No, that can't be. I was there when…"
"I know you were there, but he recently paid someone to try to break into my office. Besides that, I saw him when I was sitting at the café across the…" he stopped himself when he realized he was about to blow his cover.
Téa chuckled softly and placed her hand on his. "It's okay Seto, I already knew."
They pulled up to the emergency room and Seto stepped out and waited for Téa to join him. As she stood up, her legs gave out from the blood loss. He lifted her up and carried her into the hospital. As soon as they saw Seto Kaiba, the nurses dropped everything they were doing to help him. Kaiba had built an entire wing of the hospital and assisted in several of the hospitals fundraisers. They were placed in a private room almost immediately with a doctor.
The doctor looked her over and said, "Well the good news is you don't have a concussion. The bad news is you are going to need about 8 stitches and a bag of blood"
Téa yawned and said, "Do what you have to, I want to go home."
The doctor gave her a shot to numb the area and looked over to Kaiba, "She is going to need someone to watch over her for the next 24 hours."
Kaiba nodded and the doctor proceeded to stitch up her forehead. After her head was stitched up, he drove her back to his mansion. Téa was still woozy from her medication, so he walked by her side to the door. Once he unlocked the door, he was surprised to see Starlet sitting on the couch inside. Starlet stood up angrily, "Seto darling, what is she doing here?"
Téa frowned upon seeing Starlet and replied, "Just leaving."
Téa tried to turn away, but Seto held onto her hand firmly and answered Starlet, "She was attacked at work, and requires supervision for the next 24 hours. No matter how you feel about her Starlet, she is family to me."
Starlet's attitude did a complete turn around and she replied, "Oh no Seto, you misunderstood. I love Téa. I'm just surprised is all." She then walked up to Téa and gave her a half-hearted embrace.
Téa rolled her eyes and said, "Right, I haven't seen so much love in a room since Duke Devlin discovered his reflection. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go lay down."
Kaiba started to snicker, but quickly stopped when Starlet shot him a glare. Kaiba cleared his throat and said, "It's probably best if you were to just go home tonight." He then walked past Starlet and followed Téa into her old room. Starlet couldn't believe that Kaiba followed Téa. Starlet grabbed her purse and stormed out the front door, hoping that Kaiba would try to win her back… But, he never came.
He found Téa digging through her old dresser, trying to find something for her to sleep in. "You can use one of my shirts to sleep in, like you used to," Seto said.
Téa shook her head and replied, "A woman only wears a man's shirt if she is in a relationship with him. Considering that you are in a relationship with Starlet, and I am in a relationship with Yugi, it would be improper."
"Do you wear Yugi's shirts?" Seto asked in a softer tone.
Téa's eyes got big, for a moment and she looked away from him, "Let's not discuss this Seto."
Instead of accepting her answer, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She fought to get off of him, but he simply smacked her on her butt and said, "stay still." Seto smirked when she yelped in surprise. He set her down when they reached his room and he sat her on the bed.
Knowing what he was up to, she sat on the edge of his bed and simply mumbled, "I just had stitches, you could at least be more gentle." He ignored her and started to dig through his drawers and threw her a until he found a shirt she could use.
No longer having the energy to argue, she took his shirt, walked into his bathroom and changed. When she came out, Seto said, "You're going to sleep in my bed tonight."
Téa's eyes opened in surprised, "Why? I have my own room."
Seto answered, "The doctor told me to keep an eye on you, and that is what I intend to do. I will sleep on the chaise lounge."
"No, Yugi will have a fit, if I do that," Téa replied.
Seto smirked and said, "I am counting on it. Now, do you use Yugi's shirts as night shirts?"
"You always did have a one-track mind," she said in an annoyed fashion, "I tried once, but Yugi is so short, it might as well have been a crop top." She paused for a moment before she continued, "I was too embarrassed to tell him, so I went home."
She looked up at Seto who looked like he had mixed feelings, part of him looked jealous that she had even tried his shirt on, and the other half looked close to laughter. She threw a pillow at his head and said, "It's not funny Seto."
Seto caught the pillow, and made a serious face, he approached her on the bed. Téa started to fidget nervously at this random change of emotion. He sat next to her and embraced her. Téa stiffened at his touch, but gently pat him on the back.
"Téa, come home," he whispered.
Téa blinked in surprise, "Seto, I can't. You don't love me, and even if you did, it wouldn't be fair to Yugi."
Seto Squeezed her tighter and said, "I do care about you Téa. When you confessed that you loved me, I had just found out that Gozaburo was still alive. I was afraid that if he found out that we were still together, he would have you killed. But, from today's events I can clearly see that he wants to hurt you regardless of whether we are in a relationship or not. At least, if we are together, I could have security team around 24/7 to protect you."
"I don't want to be surrounded by security Seto. And, I don't want to hurt Yugi. Please just let this go. You had your chance," Téa replied.
Seto let out an irritated sigh but nodded. "Fine, but I am going to watch over you tonight, regardless of how you feel," He then stood up and walked over to the bed. He sat next to her and pulled her close to him. She tried to resist him at first but ended up giving in to him when he kissed her injured forehead.
She then snuggled into his chest and listened to his heartbeat until it lulled her to sleep.
…
Dream/Memory
Gozaburo sat face to face with Seto to discuss plans to merge companies with another, "Seto, in a few years you will be expected to choose a wife and continue the Kaiba legacy. For that reason, I am going throw you a sweet sixteen birthday party. I want you to meet with the daughters of other business men, and choose a girl to court."
Seto was not interested in dating anyone, but he thought marriage might be his way to take over his father's company. So, he reluctantly obeyed his stepfather and returned to his room. Téa was sitting on his bed with a laundry basket folding clothes. She moved over to make room for him to sit. "How did the meeting go today? He didn't hurt you again, did he?" She asked while examining him from head to toe.
Seto grabbed her hand and gently moved it off him before replying, "He didn't punish me, he wants me to pick a woman to court at the next business party." Several emotions crossed her face as she spoke, fear, confusion, sadness, anger, jealousy, and acceptance. Téa always was an open book emotionally, but he had never seen her have so many emotions at one time.
…
The night of the party, Seto was led around the room by his stepfather to meet all the young daughters in the room. Kaiba forced a smile on his face and greeted each one of the families. The girl he was currently speaking with was the heir to the Tottle Toy Company, Rebecca Tottle. Her father was showing her off like she was a rare gemstone. While talking, Seto saw Téa wearing a simple white chiffon dress that was handed out to all the maids for this occasion. She was handing out glasses of wine to the guest. He excused himself from the conversation and greeted her, "Téa, you look beautiful. Are you having fun tonight."
Téa blushed and replied, "Thank you. It's fun to see people dancing in their beautiful ballgowns. Maybe one day, we can go out dancing together…" Her blush seemed to deepen, and she changed the subject, "At least there will be plenty of leftovers tonight." She patted Seto on the back and handed him a glass of water before saying, "good luck tonight."
…
David Tottle saw the young Kaiba's attention drift while in conversation with Gozaburo and said, "You might want to talk to your boy about who is appropriate to court and who is not."
Gozaburo turned around and was not surprised to see Seto with that slave girl again. He was about to approach him about it when he saw her return back to the kitchen, and Seto go back to meeting with daughters. He decided that he would deal with that problem later.
When Téa came out with another platter full of wine glasses, she walked around the room to hand them out. Rebecca who was insulted earlier walked over to Seto and asked him for a dance. Seto nodded and followed her to the dance floor, as she passed Téa she bumped into her and knocked the tray on Téa's dress. "Watch where you're going you klutz, you almost destroyed my dress," Rebecca shouted at her.
Téa looked down at her own dress which was completely destroyed. She bowed to the girl in front of her and said, "I'm sorry miss, I…"
Seto grabbed her wrist and stopped her, "Téa, don't you dare apologize. She did this on purpose."
"Seto, how dare you accuse me of something like that. I'm hurt," Rebecca said with tears in her eyes.
Seto ignored what she said, and instead took the tray out of Téa's hand. He placed the tray down on a nearby table and led her to the dance floor. "Seto, what are you doing?" she asked nervously.
"You said, you wanted to dance, didn't you?" Seto answered.
"Not like this. I'm dripping wet and… Oh my god, Seto, your father is going to kill you later," Téa said fearfully.
Kaiba pulled her closer, looked her in the eyes and whispered, "Téa please, dance with me." His eyes were so intense at that moment, she knew that she couldn't refuse, and more than that deep down she wanted to dance with him.
Everyone in the room was stunned to see Seto not only stand up for the help, but also dance with her. Where did a maid learn to dance so well?
When Gozaburo saw them, he was enraged, but he couldn't show it in public. Instead he walked over to the two dancing and said, "After the party, I strongly suggest that you meet me in my office." Téa cringed because she knew that Seto was about to be punished. Fearfully she tightened her grip on his arm.
When the dance ended, he whispered, "I will be alright. Get back to work."
She nodded and went back into the kitchen.
After the party, Seto rode in the limo to his stepfather's office. He knew that the consequences for his actions were going to be cruel, and he tried to mentally prepare himself for the pain that was about to happen.
When he walked in, he was shocked to see Téa tied to a chair. Immediately, he ran to her side to untie her, but Roland grabbed him and pulled his arms behind his back. His stepfather walked over towards the fire and started to warm the fire poker. Seto's eyes got wide, knowing what was about to happen. He struggled with all his might to free his hands, but Roland had his wrist locked. Gozaburo slid his desk chair across from Téa.
"Don't look at me like that Téa, I tried to convince him to stay away from you, but he just couldn't look away from that pretty little face of yours. Maybe if I just adjust it a little," Gozaburo said as he lifted the glowing fire poker.
Finally, Roland couldn't take it anymore, he let Seto go. Seto ran to and Téa and used his body as a shield to protect her from Gozaburo. Seto braced himself for the pain but was surprised when the pain never came. That's when he heard a crash, and realized Roland pushed Gozaburo's desk chair out the window. Seto and Téa were sat in shock for a moment. Roland turned around after the incident and started to cry, "Oh god, my family…" he whispered.
Those words snapped Seto out of the trance that he was in and he immediately shut down all the security cameras. He swapped the videos with a video from a prior evening, completely erased the video from today, and disabled the sprinkler system. He looked up at Roland and said, "For protecting Téa, I will protect you from the police. There will be absolutely no evidence of any of us being here tonight. Rest easy Roland."
Roland was shocked, but nodded and said, "Thank you, Sir."
Seto then untied Téa and used the fire poker to roll one of the flaming logs onto the carpet, "Let's go," he said as the carpet caught fire. There was nothing but ash and metal left after the building had burned that night.