"I'll be right back." He started for the door, and he opened it, but just as he was going to walk out,
she finished, "because I had another brother."
Hey, check out Love: The Art of Battle. It's an audition fic by Silent Scream of Crimson Tears. Not sure what an audition fic is? Check it out!
Hint: To the ladies, you can still audition, some of the names were just filled in to not leave them blank. Try for any part except the OC and the the OC's sister! hurry, hurry while they're available!
Yikes! This chapter is long!!
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
Ch.3
Yugi immediately stopped in his tracks as his heart fell. He quickly turned back to her. His face was emotionless, but stunned and serious.
He wanted to ask what she meant, but her expression seemed to confirm every idea that would explain what she meant. They both understood what she meant. This left Yugi with nothing to say.
Looking at her face, he saw that she was more serious now than she had been all night. It also told him that she was understanding of his reaction, which was stunned silence. The silence however, was appropriate. When he thought of the right words to say, he waited for a moment-just to continue the silence. Yugi was about to speak, but before he could say anything he felt the phone in his pocket vibrate. Then both of them could hear a short tune play. Yugi recognized this tune as a text message alert, so he pulled out his phone and flipped it open.
It was a message from Tea that just said, 'We're home'. He closed it and returned it to his pocket. He looked at her again to see that no words were necessary, and there would be a better time for the conversation. This time though, her expression also showed understanding for why Yugi had to leave it at that, and deal with this situation another time. Yugi simply turned and left
Her words echoed in his mind. Specifically, the word 'had'. Even Yugi recognized it as a past tense word. He left that thought where it was, but that didn't stop him from thinking of a million other thoughts.
As he descended the stairs and entered the living room, he heard Tea and Atem entering the front door and ending whatever conversation they were having.
Yugi walked into the living room and toward the entrance. When Tea saw Yugi, she approached him to greet him with a kiss on the cheek. He didn't at all respond.
She simply asked, "Can you tell me now what's going on?" Yugi looked at her as if having to pry himself out of his own thoughts.
Yugi still did not give Tea an answer before Atem asked, "Who's driving their truck into the garage?" Atem took off his coat and put it on the coat rack along with Tea's and Yugi's. Atem then joined Tea in looking at Yugi and waiting for answers.
Yugi couldn't think of much to say other than, "Right, the garage." Because he had to remind himself that he told his father to stay in the garage, and Yugi did leave the garage unlocked.
However, this didn't clarify much for Atem and Tea, but it did confuse them a bit more.
"Yugi, what happened tonight? What kept you from leaving this house to drive down the block to pick up Tea?" Atem asked another question, still hoping for answers.
The Kame Game Shop was only a block away from Yugi's house. Tea walked to work in the morning, but Yugi picked her up at night because he thought it was too dangerous to have her walk home. Of course, Tea begged for a car of her own, but still has not won that fight.
Yugi's immediate response to Atem's question was at first a sigh, then a reply, "I was about to get Tea, when-" Yugi looked for others words, than the one he was trying to avoid, "the man that was in the truck came and knocked on the door."
"And who is he?" Tea asked, which was the question Yugi didn't want to answer but could not avoid.
The reason for this is because Yugi found it hard to say. This is where he became light headed again. He didn't realize how strange it was to apply this one word to himself. Though it nearly was too hard to say, and the thought felt so foreign in his head, he still tried. He cleared his throat. "Well. He is my-" Yugi took in a breath, then out, "-my biological" he stretched each word as far as he could before stopping. "my biological f-" he just couldn't say the word for himself about himself. Yugi quit, but had said enough for them to figure it out.
"You're father?" Atem finished for Yugi, slightly in disbelief.
Yugi, grinding his teeth at the word, could only do half a nod, which was enough of a sign of his answer.
Tea and Atem found this situation to be so random, it was almost unbelievable. However, they also realized what this meant for Yugi and could not begin to imagine what was going through his head. It depressed them so much to see him have to go though this. All Tea could think to do was grab his hand to comfort him.
"He told me he needed somewhere to stay, and I told him he could stay in the garage along with his truck." Yugi finally explained.
"Yugi, I know he's your father-" Tea began as she could feel Yugi tense up when his grip became tighter., "-but after what he did to your family, I think I would have slammed the door in his face if I were you." Yugi looked at her, because he was pretty sure they both knew that for as tough as she was, even she would have let him back in.
He still responded, "I know, and I wanted to slam the door. It's just that..." Yugi wanted to put his words in the best way to have as little impact as possible. Before he could find those words, Tea and Atem thought they were pretty sure of what he would say.
Tea explained, "It's alright Yugi. We know that you're too kind of a person to do that, no matter what he did." Tea looked up at Yugi, and Atem basically agreed with what she said.
This time however, they had the situation all wrong. "No- it's not that. There was a little girl with him."
Of course, they were shocked, which Yugi wanted to avoid. Atem and Tea were so surprised, and in disbelief, they wandered if they should be looking for hidden cameras.
Finally, Atem was able to ask, "Yugi, who is she?"
"His daughter." Which was the answer they suspected. "She's my half-sister. I couldn't leave him alone here, because I don't trust him. I'm sorry I couldn't explain sooner." Yugi looked at Tea, "and I'm sorry I missed our dinner again."
"Yugi," Tea held his hand firmer, and with the hand she wasn't using, rubbed his opposite arm to comfort him. "you have nothing to be sorry for." She looked into his eyes and smiled to him.
Then Yugi's father walked back in through the front door. "I have Iris's clothes right here in this suitcase." He set down a large, black suitcase that appeared old, but still usable. "Who are they?" He looked at Tea, then Atem. Then back at Tea.
Yugi noticed, then pulled her closer as he answered, "This is Tea, and that's Atem." Yugi looked at Tea and Atem, "You guys, that's-" Yugi bit his lip, "that's Komuro, Tanaka " Yugi said nothing more, so Komuro took the opportunity.
"I'm his father." He smiled. Again, Tea could feel Yugi's grip tighten. His father continued, "So, is she your girlfriend or what?"
Yugi's eyes met Atem's before Yugi answered, "Yes. Why?"
"Nothing, I was just wandering." He looked at Atem. "Who is this? A son of your mom's?" He seemed less interested, and even irritated.
"No, he's not." Yugi quickly replied. "Don't worry about it." Yugi became angry at his father's reaction toward Atem, and how he just seemed to look at Atem with disgust.
Yugi didn't have to worryabout that for long though, because the man's eyes soon found their way back to Tea.
"Whatever then." The man looked at Yugi. "What way that is to introduce me to your little..." He looked at Tea, then Atem. "...friends?" then he looked back at Tea.
Yugi didn't answer right away, because he didn't know what his father was getting at. "Why does it matter?"
"Nothing, it's just that I am your only father, and I thought you would introduce me a little bit more politely." Komuro turned to ask Atem and Tea. "Is he just bad at introductions? He's not usually this rude, is he? I'm sure it's all the long hours that are getting to him."
They said nothing. Atem already figured out that Komuro was trying to make Yugi feel bad. He looked at Yugi to see that Yugi didn't catch on that quickly to Komuro's plan.
"Yugi-" Atem tried to warn him. He caught Yugi's attention, but before he had the chance to say anything, Komuro continued on to the step of his plan.
"Anyways Yugi-" He interrupted, as if Yami wasn't speaking. He took a few steps closer to Yugi, but said aloud, "You know, it's still not as warm in the garage as it is in here. Can we both agree that it's freezing cold out there tonight?" He looked at Yugi, and waited for Yugi's forced nod before continuing. "I mean, I don't think that it's fair to treat your family like that. Do you Yugi?"
Yugi just looked away unsure, and reluctantly replied, "I don't know."
So, his father looked at Yugi's friends. As if making polite conversation-with ulterior motives- said, "I read in a magazine article that my son is a generous man. I saw that he helped Seto Kaiba come up with some game ideas for a theme park that orphans could get into for free. He also payed for a years worth of clothes for a local orphanage, as a tribute to Kaiba's campaign to help orphans." He smiled widely, and in the corner of his eye, saw that he had Yugi's full attention. Yugi appeared to be doubting himself, which was just the reaction Tanaka wanted. "I couldn't begin to express how proud I am. Though, I'm shocked that he would allow his own birth-father to sleep in a garage like a dog. He was almost going to make his little sister sleep out there too, but I finally convinced him that the weather was just too harsh for the small child. Poor thing." He looked at Yugi, whose face had turned red, "Yet, you still want me to stay out there?"
This comment threw Yugi off. He still didn't realize what Komuro was doing. Yugi did suddenly feel a shroud of shame come over him
The plan was working. Yugi felt like he was being put on the spot. He could feel the blood rush to his head. Yugi was so unsure. Yugi always put family first. He always forgave family. He was confused. Was he being hypocritical? Could he trust his father? Could he allow him into his house? Could he allow him back into his life? Yugi thought all of these thoughts, and more. He might just let him in. He really thought that he felt terrible for doing something like this to another human being, and the one who...
Yugi could not finish that thought. For lack of words or for lack of memories to fill that emptiness- he could not finish that thought. Yugi focused his eyes on his father. He tried to decide what to do.
Tea could see right through this trick of Yugi's father's. She thought Yugi had figured it out too, until she saw his hesitation to respond. Atem thought for sure that Yugi figured it out by now, but then again, neither Atem nor Tea were in the position Yugi was in. They also waited to hear Yugi's answer.
That would depend on his judgment. All he knew was that he was in no position mentally to rethink his previous decision. A good sense of judgment would be needed to come up with another answer. Yugi wasn't sure if he had that judgment at the moment. He knew that he had good judgment when he made his original decision. So, he stuck with that answer.
Before Yugi could answer, Komuro tried to push Yugi even further. "You know Yugi, you wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for me."
This statement surprised Yugi at first. Suddenly though, Yugi was struck by anger, but he didn't let it show. Yugi could feel himself losing patience. Yugi was especially getting impatient with his father for continuing to stare at his girlfriend. Atem and Tea looked at Yugi, wondering what their reaction should be, and wondering what his reaction would be.
His father, this time, spoke in a hushed voice, "Son, don't you think you should change your mind? After all, you kind of owe it to me."
At this, Yugi snapped. "I think you should be happy that your daughter has a warm and safe place to stay." He looked at his father sternly, showing that he sees through the man's act. "Now-get out of my house."
This time, his father was defeated. He wouldn't openly admit it, but Yugi did call him on his act. That meant that nothing he said could make Yugi look bad enough, because nothing was worst than pretending to care about your own daughter to get what you want. He decided that he would rather keep what he was already offered, and not be exposed for the lying, selfish, jerk that Yugi already knew he was. So Tanaka just turned to leave. He walked out the front door saying, "Well, I should turn in. I need to get up early tomorrow. Good night Yugi, and Tea, and-"He paused. "-Yugi's friend" and closed the door behind him.
Yugi felt so much relief, but only a bit less tense. Tea looked at him, then turned her face to Atem and showed her concern. He acknowledged this, with his own expression of concern for Yugi.
Atem and Tea had never seen Yugi react like that. It worried them both. They could see the stress change him physically, along with his attitude. At the moment, neither of them knew what to do.
Tea wished she knew how to comfort him. However, she definitely couldn't relate to his problem. She had both of her parents her whole life, and only knew how miserable she would be if she lost either one of them. To be honest, it was because of this feeling toward her own parents that Yugi's reaction to his father confused her. A person only gets one father, and this seemed like it would be Yugi's chance to have one. Though his dad seemed like a jerk, she just didn't know what it took to have so much anger built up toward someone who should have been there as an important figure in one's life. Tea had no clue what it was like to be left by that figure.
Atem also grew up with both of his parents, happily. Once he got his memories back, he was able to explore the memories of childhood in his mind. He remembered it was the best time of his life. Even if his parents aren't alive, he grew up with both of them. He has those memories and he treasures them. It killed Atem to see Yugi effected like this. He was devastated to be left with nothing to do to help.
"Tea, I need to take care of something upstairs." Yugi finally said after seeming to have calmed down. "Come with me."
He began up the stairs, still holding her hand. He stopped and turned to Atem. "We'll be right back." Atem nodded. Yugi and Tea continued up the stairs. When he got to the hallway closet, he opened the door to grab some sheets to fit a twin sized mattress, and a comforter. He handed Tea the sheets.
"What are these for?" Tea asked.
Yugi realized that he didn't tell her why. "I invited my sister to stay in the spare bedroom next to your room. Her bed doesn't have any blankets or pillows though." He closed the door and they proceeded to the room that he was talking about.
Tea asked outside of the room, "Is she in there?"
"Yes." Yugi opened the door to the room which the girl was waiting in. She looked up, and at first had no reaction. Then she saw Tea, then Yugi. Then her face lit up, as they walked in, which made Yugi smile.
When Tea saw the small girl, she smiled from ear to ear. Tea turned to Yugi and whispered, "She's adorable!" Yugi kept smiling and he nodded. Tea sat down next to the girl on the bed. The child looked up at Tea and smiled. Tea asked, "What's your name?"
"Iris ." The younger girl replied, "What's your's miss?"
"My name's Tea, it's nice to meet you."
Iris nodded, "I like you Tea. You smile a lot, and you smell pretty."
As Yugi watched this, he felt the tension lift away, and his heart melt. He wasn't the only one to feel better. When Tea walked into the room Yugi could see the clouds of sorrow and depression, which were surrounding the young girl, vanish.
"Thank you, I like you too. How old are you?"
"I'm six. How old are you Tea?"
"Wow, you're six. I'm twenty-six."
"Really? Does that mean you're twenty years older? You don't look that old."
Tea laughed. "Thank you."
"Hey Tea, we both have six in our age." Iris said excitedly.
"Yeah, we do." Tea loved the joy she could feel from Iris. It made Tea so happy to be with the young girl. Tea looked over at Yugi, who also seemed to be enjoying himself. This alone made Tea smile to herself.
The little girl said to Tea, "Yugi's twenty-seven."
Tea looked back at her, "How did you know?"
Iris didn't say anything at first. She seemed to be thinking of an answer. "Because. I just knew."
Yugi turned to Tea, "She watches the Duel Monsters channel. They have shows that talk about duelists' profiles all the time. I'm sure that's where she heard it."
The little girl thought some more about it, "Yeah, I think that's where I saw it. That channel mostly talks about Yugi. I would say they talk about Yugi eighty percent of the time." Yugi and Tea both looked at her. She thought again on what to say, then she finished, "They talk about him a lot."
"Well, yeah, who doesn't want to talk about Yugi?" Tea laughed, turning to him as if expecting an answer.
He replied, "Yugi doesn't like to talk about Yugi." He blushed and, out of embarrassment, smiled even larger than before. Yugi always was shy, and is still shy, and so he wasn't sure how to react to his popularity. It was strange to him that so many people watch that channel just to see him duel. "Even though I duel a lot, they should show other duelists more often."
Tea looked at him, and saw how cute he looked with that huge smile on his face. His arms though, were still crossed, and she recognized this stance as an 'I don't really feel like opening up and being happy' stance. The reason for this, Tea knew, was that even though he was enjoying himself, Yugi was still deep in thought. It was obvious to her what he was thinking of and she wanted to take his mind off of it and cheer him up. Her ultimate goal was to make him laugh; when she saw that he was in arms reach, it gave her an idea.
So Tea reached out and grabbed Yugi by the belt of his pants to pull him closer to her. She did this often because it was her best way to bring him close to her. He immediately began laughing, because whenever she did that, he thought she was going to tickle him. Tea knew he would react that way, because he was very ticklish.
Through his laughing he tried to say, "Sorry." as he calmed down, "Sorry, I thought you were going to tickle me."
"No, I just wanted to see you smile."
Yugi looked at her confused. He quickly forgot about it though, because he realized that he forgot something. "Hey, we forgot to bring her luggage up here." He said to Tea.
They were silent for a moment before Iris asked, "What's luggage?"
Yugi glanced at her, "Your stuff. We left it downstairs." Yugi looked back at Tea. "I'll go get it real quick."
When he was completely out of the room, Tea turned to Iris and asked, "So, you watch Yugi's duels all the time?"
Iris thought about her answer. "Not all the time, but when I can. It's the only thing I watch. I like watching his duels more than any other other duelist. He's the best."
Tea wanted to keep Iris talking. Tea had this feeling that Iris was saying all of her thoughts. Iris seemed to think a lot, and maybe think about everything she says. Wanting to test her theory, Tea pried a little. "Do you play the game?"
"A little."
"Are you good at dueling?"
Iris shrugged. "I don't know."
"I'll bet you are, you're just really shy- like Yugi."
Iris again, thought before speaking. "Umm..." she replied, "What's shy?"
Tea smiled. "Forget about it. So, why did you start watching Yugi's duels?"
Iris really didn't want to explain why, and she tried not to. However, sh e couldn't help but to express to Tea why she liked the game so much, and why Yugi was such an inspiration to her. "I think Duel Monsters is the best game ever. I do really like to play other games though. That's why I admire Yugi so much. He is not only a duelist, he is a gamer- he's the king. Every other duelist is just a duelist, and they focus all of their day on training for Duel Monsters, just to not embarrass themselves when in the presence of Yugi Muto." She paused collectively. "Of course, Yugi never looks down on others, and he doesn't consider them weaker. Yugi judges others on potential, rather than ability. He always encourages others to just do their best and to not compare themselves to others, like himself. He doesn't have to work hard to beat others, but works hard anyways because it's not fair to those who work even harder to beat him, but fail."
Tea was impressed by the sudden maturity that Iris showed. Awed by the display of vocabulary, she wondered if Iris really understood half of what she was saying. Tea quickly stopped wondering. She knew that no one could show so much admiration toward someone, and not know what they're talking about. "Wow." was all Tea could say.
The little girl blushed again. She didn't realize how much she said- she never really intended on saying so much, or in that kind of way. To recover quickly, she chuckled and replied deceivingly and innocently, "He's my hero."
"How sweet." Tea could see that Iris did not want to reveal everything on her mind, and seemed to be pretending to be more of a child than she really was. What Tea could not figure out though, is why Iris would want to do that. Whatever the reason was, Tea decided that she would find out. She wouldn't do it tonight though, she would talk to Yugi about it first.
Yugi walked downstairs to see Atem standing and waiting at the bottom of the steps.
Atem could see that Yugi had calmed down. Knowing that Yugi was feeling better, relieved Atem-a little- he was still worried about the whole situation and Yugi's temper.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." Yugi said as he reached the last step then stepped onto the living room floor. "I didn't want to confuse her by showing her two Yugis."
"That's fine. We'll confuse her some other time." They both laughed. "Yugi, are you really okay with this situation?"
Yugi shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I don't really have a choice. I don't even want to think about it." He paused to sigh, "I mean, I don't want to think about how I feel. I feel trapped and angry, but terrible for feeling angry, and sick for feeling trapped. Then again, it's my stubbornness that got me into this mess."
"No, that's not it at all. It's your father." Yami could see Yugi flinch. "He's the one that's giving you all of these tough and uncomfortable choices. You're being more of a man than he ever was. You're showing a lot more responsibility for your sister than he ever showed for his family. It's his own daughter, and he can't provide what she needs, and he's coming and begging you to bail him out. Of course you can't give him what he really wants, which is money. He has no right to be trusted, and I think you made the right decision."
Yugi allowed those words to sink in. He needed to convince himself that those words were true. "Thanks Yami." They both knew he valued Yami's opinion more than anyone else's.
"I should go home, but if you'd like I can stay here tonight, if you feel safer."
"No, it won't be necessary."
"Then I'll talk to you tomorrow." Yami walked to the coat rack pulled his coat off of a hook.
"Good night Yami."
As Yami walked out the door he said, "Goodnight."
Yugi locked the front door behind him, and went around to check all of the other doors and windows. Then he turned off all the lights downstairs. Once he finished that, he grabbed the large black suitcase that, was stilling sitting at the bottom of the stairs, to take it upstairs with him.
He walked down the hall and into the spare bedroom where he could hear the bathtub water running. Yugi went into Iris's bedroom and only saw Tea. She looked at him and announced, "I put her in the bath."
"That's good. Thank you." He set down the large, but surprisingly not that heavy, suitcase. "Here's her clothes."
Tea opened it and began to look through the clothes. "Thanks, she'll need some pajamas for when she gets out."
Yugi sat on the bed, laying back lazily, and let Tea go through the clothes. He watched her pull out shirts and put them in a pile on the bed, and do the same with shorts and pants. The piles were small, and not getting much larger. As she continued to look through them she seemed to be getting more and more frustrated, and looking even harder. So Yugi asked, "What's wrong?"
Tea dropped her hands in defeat, "I don't see any pajamas. There's really not much here that she can even wear. Most of the shirts and pants are either too small, or too big. She only has about four or five shirts for a girl her age, and three pairs of pants that might fit her-if she had a belt."
"Well, she doesn't need pajamas, she just needs something comfortable to wear. Find her a t-shirt and some shorts or something."
She nodded, then sighed, "I guess so." Tea picked out a plain t-shirt that would be big on Iris, and some cotton shorts that would fit. She put those on the bed and shut the suit case. Tea then began to put the clothes from the piles onto hangers and put them into the closet. She was silent, as if thinking hard. Then she finally asked, "What can we do?"
This question caught Yugi's attention, and he looked over at her. "What can we do?" He asked, making sure he heard her right. "Do about what?"
Tea hung another shirt in the closet and grabbed another hanger. "Well Yugi, she has so little, and we have so much." She put the last shirt on the hanger, and into the closet. "It breaks my heart to see such a young, sweet girl with basically nothing but the clothes on her back."
"I know what you mean, but I don't know what you want me to do about it." He replied, which made Tea look at him sternly. "I mean, I don't know what to do about it."
"I think I do." She replied. While he was laying back and lounging comfortably, Tea sat next to him on the bed and sat up with her great posture.. She had an expression that told him she was asking for something.
Yugi caught on, and quickly figured out that she wanted something. "What? What do you want?"
She smiled sweetly and replied, "Some money."
"What?" His expression told her that she was crazy. "You're crazy."
"Yugi, please."
"There is no way I'm giving you a bunch of money to walk around to a bunch of stores to buy clothes. No way."
"Well, I didn't exactly say, 'a bunch' of money, but keep talking." She smiled.
"No, like I said, you're crazy."
Tea gave him sweet, large, puppy dog eyes. "You could give me your credit card."
Suddenly, it was his eyes that became larger, as he was stunned with fright, and began shaking his head. "No, no, no." He gasped. "I'll never do that again!"
"Why not?"
"Do you remember what happened last time?"
"Yes.." She tried to appear as angelic as possible. "I decorated the house, that's all."
"Oh, you decorated the house all right. There is not one spot in this house that was left undecorated." Yugi looked around at the bedroom. "Except this room."
She looked around also. "I wanted to leave options for this room." She looked back at him. "Besides, most of the cost was the furniture, which was necessary."
"Okay, I'll give you that. The furniture was necessary- most of it. You know what wasn't necessary was repainting the house- to create a theme, the paintings hanging on the walls-to fit in with the theme, those rugs that were extra- for the theme. And, after I begged you to leave my room alone, you painted it pink and red! You had to put in those vases with flowers, and those purple colored curtains on the windows." He looked around again. "But you didn't touch this room. I can't believe I let you manipulate me like that."
Tea was shocked at the way he spoke of her decorations, implying that they were unimportant. She quickly retaliated, "Well first of all, I can believe you let me manipulate you." She replied, and Yugi glared at her. She quickly continued, "Second of all, I didn't paint your room pink and red. It's lavender, which is a great contrast with the purple curtains..." She smiled, but he rolled his eyes. That showed her that she wasn't helping her cause. "...which is a very manly color pallet. And thirdly, I was just getting that out of the way so I wouldn't have to redecorate it when it becomes my room."
Yugi partly sat up a bit. He looked at her questioningly. "Your room?"
She thought for a moment and smiled, "I mean our room. When it becomes our room."
He sighed. "I am such a sucker."
"A sucker that I love." Tea's smile grew larger. She knew she was going to get what she wanted. "Pleeeeease Yugi." She pleaded.
"You can't have my credit card." He scolded. She frowned noticeably. He continued, "But she's my little sister, so we can take her shopping."
Those words confused Tea. "You hate shopping. That's why you gave me your credit card to begin with. Besides, you would have no idea what to get for a six year old girl. You've never been one."
He sighed again. "What I mean is you'll take her shopping, and I'll follow you around paying for everything." His unhappiness was apparent, as he had already begun to imagine a whole day, sitting in stores, waiting for Tea to find several outfits. He would say 'no' to most of them, then Tea would start explaining why all of it was necessary. She would begin to say things that Yugi didn't understand, like some skirt "accentuates" some feature, and some color is a "neutral" and something about a "pattern" or a "hypotenuse", Yugi wasn't quite sure.. Suddenly everything would become so blurry and confusing to him that he just says, 'yes' to everything. Eventually, using her big words and fashion lingo, she gets her way. He knew that was true.
Yugi's horrified expression did not stop Tea from being overwhelmed with joy. "Yes!" She exclaimed while throwing her arms around him. In her excitement and throwing her weight on him. "Thank you, thank you, so much!." She hugged him tighter as her was laying on the bed. "I promise you won't regret it."
"Tea." Yugi attempted to get Tea's attention.
"Yes my perfect boyfriend!" She said before kissing him.
Yugi laughed. "Boyfriend? Ha! You're so using me." Yugi accused jokingly.
While smiling, Tea pretended to be shocked. "How could you that?"
He smiled back. "It's true admit it."
"Hmmm... Okay, it might be a little true. But even if I am just using you for your money, I still love you." Tea kissed him again to prove it. "Now admit that you like it when I use you."
"Well-yeah. I do." This time he kissed her.
"And admit that you like it when I decorate your house."
Yugi stopped smiling. "No, that's too much."
"You like it and you know it."
"You mean when you decorate your house, that I just live in and pay for?"
Tea smiled. "Yes, my house."
"Okay, I like it." They laughed.
The door opened, and they looked at the small child who was dripping wet and wrapped in the towel. "I'm done." She announced. "And I brushed my teeth like you asked me to."
"Great!" Tea replied while getting up off of Yugi.
"I think I forgot to turn the bathroom light off though." Iris turned to go back and turn it off, but Tea stopped her.
"No, that's alright. Yugi will go do it. Won't you Yugi?" She smiled at the confused Yugi.
"Oh, yeah. I will. I will do that right now." He got up and left the room, shutting the door behind him. As he approached the bathroom, helooked inside. He was surprised at how it looked, because somehow he never saw it before. Yugi was blinded by the amount of pink. In reality, there was not even that much pink, but to him any amount of pink is too much pink. He took notice that the shower curtains were white with pink trim, and so was the mat on the floor. The glass toothbrush holder and the soap holder was also white with pink. It truly disgusted him.
He turned off the light as he originally planned. He walked back to the room and waited for a few minutes before knocking on the bedroom door. "Can I come in?" He asked.
"Yes." He heard Tea reply.
As he walked in, he stated, "It's so pink and girly."
Tea immediately knew what he was talking about. "Do you like it?" Tea asked teasingly.
He gave her a funny look. "You're crazy. DO I look like a girl?"
"How long have we lived here and you've never seem that bathroom."
Yugi did think that was strange. "Why is that?" He asked.
She walked up to him, preparing for any reaction he might have to what she was about to say. "Well, it's actually because I've always changed the subject whenever you asked about it. Oh, and I made you avoid it completely."
Yugi gave her a dirty look. "You manipulative, conniving little-"
She kissed him to cut him off. "I love you too. But watch your language now."
He shook his head, and smiled mischievously. "I swear, if you weren't so good looking, we wouldn't even be standing here." He joked.
She smiled back. "The same goes for if you weren't so good-looking." She joked back.
"Oh yeah? Why is that?"
She wrapped his arms around his chest. "Because, we both know that if you weren't so good-looking, you wouldn't be able to score a good-looking chick like me."
He gasped at her comment, before replying. "Well, maybe she'd love me for my personality."
Tea thought for a second. "Ummmmm-No. It's definitely just for your money." she smiled teasingly.
Yugi knew this comment would get him in trouble, so he kissed her before quickly remarking, "Maybe she's better looking than you."
Immediately he flinch because he knew she would hit him. She gasped and did just that. She slapped him on the arm before pretending to storm off. "Maybe you should go find her then, I'm sure she's out there somewhere."
"No." He called as he grabbed her arm to catch her before she got away. Tea turned around. Yugi just stated. "I found her."
She smiled and wrapped her arms around him again. His apology was another kiss.
"You guys kiiissed!" Iris teased.
Tea let go of Yugi. Iris sat down on the bed, and Tea sat next to her. Yugi was going to stay standing, but then he knelt onto the floor next to Iris to see her face now that it was all clean. She smiled again to display her white teeth. Her smile made him smile.
"Is that better, now that you've had a bath?"
She nodded energetically. "The dirt's all gone now."
Yugi laughed, only because he never knew a child who enjoyed taking a bath. He himself hated to take baths. He also heard the story of Tea being afraid to take a bath because she thought she would go down the drain. He laughed some more to himself. Then Yugi looked back at the child. "Now that that's done, you look so clean and pretty."
She smiled again, "Thank you. I think you look clean and pretty too."
Yugi's eyes immediately shifted to Tea, who already began to laugh hysterically. He glared at Tea before looking back at Iris, who also started laughing a little. "Thank you." he simply replied. "Are you ready for bed?"
"Yeah. I'm really sleepy."
"Well, if Tea decides to quit laughing long enough for you to get into bed, that would be nice."
Tea took the hint and got up, and so did Iris. Yugi pulled back the covers to allow her to climb into bed, then placed them on top of her. From her bed, she looked up at Yugi and Tea. She held open her arms for them to hug her. Tea hugged her first. She bent down and put her arms around the child, while Iris reached her arms around Tea's neck saying, "Goodnight Tea".
Tea replied, "Goodnight." and kissed Iris on the cheek. "Sweet dreams." Tea brushed some of Iris' hair back away from her face.
"You too." Iris smiled. Tea walked toward the door and stopped to wait for Yugi. Iris held out her arms for Yugi to hug her as well. He took a seat at the edge of the bed and reached his arms around her to hug her as she reached her arms around his neck. This time though, she whispered to him, "Thank you Yugi."
He sat there and hugged her tighter, and whispered back, "I'm glad to have you here."
As he pulled his arms away, her eyes met his and she said, "I really appreciate it."
He smiled and shook his head as if it was nothing, "Any time."
This certainty of his made her large bright smile return to her face. "Goodnight Yugi."
Yugi got up off of the bed and replied, "Goodnight" and he walked out the door and turned off the light.
Shutting the door behind him, he looked at Tea and said, "I think it's time for you to go to bed also."
"I think so too."
He kissed her goodnight, then said, "Get some rest" as he began to walk away.
She stopped him, "Yugi." She called.
Before getting too far, he stopped and turned toward her. "Yes Tea."
Tea didn't say anything. She seemed nervous to say anything, and not sure what to say. "Well-uh. Nothing. Never mind." She was about to let him go, but then said, "Actually, Yugi, I was wandering..."
She stopped.
"Yes." He tried to coax.
"Well. You just seem...tense Yugi. Are you going to be alright?"
Yugi shrugged, "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Do want to talk about anything?" She approached him, waiting for his answer.
"No, but thank you."
"I'm just-"
"Worried, I know Tea. So was Yami."
"Yami?"
"I mean- you know- Atem." Yugi really only called Atem, 'Yami' when they were talking alone.Tea didn't know Yugi called him Yami. "Of course. I'm fine though."
She looked into his eyes. Though she didn't believe him, she had no choice. She placed her hand on his face to bring his closer to her, so she could get a better look into his eyes. "I really care about you. I want to see what's going on in your mind. I want to be able to make you happy."
He looked back into her eyes. He could see her deep love, and care for him. "You do make me happy. I'm completely happy right now. Really."
Tea looked away from his eyes. She still didn't believe him. "I love you Yugi." She said, looking back into his eyes and kissing him.
"I love you too."
He pulled away from her, to go to his room and get ready for bed. As he got ready, he hopes that she believed that he was content with the current situation. Trying to believe it himself, he climbed into bed. Though, to be completely honest, he did toss and turn in his sleep.
AN: I will be FURIOUS if I see that a bunch of people read this story but didn't review. I'm not joking, have some courtesy to at least say that you read it and enjoyed it. Going around thinking that you can just read stories and not even say "great story" to the author is just rude. It's not like we get paid for it. Either say good job or give some helpful feedback or something. That's all I'm asking, because when people add my story to their story alerts and they didn't even review, it makes me not even want to update my story. Readers have a job too.