LD:Hi there!
Tea: 'Sup?
LD:^_^ Nothing much.... why is Bakura trying to give you a bouquet of live scorpions?
Tea: (hits Bakura over the head) Darned if I know!
LD: O_o O..K, well I do not own any of YuGiOh's original plot or characters.
Bakura: (stng soulfully at Tea) But you own everything else right?
LD: (punt kicks him into orbit) Darn right!
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Yugi's Grandpa sighed as he worked the flood pump.
There had not always been a flood pump, because there had not always been need for such a mechanism. But in recent times it had become a necessity, ever since-
"WHY MEEEEEEE? I WAS A GOOD PHAROH, I ALWAYS TRIED MY HARDEST, AND I DID'NT MEAN IT WHEN I SENT SETH'S BOOKS TO THE SHADOW REALM-"
"Yugi!" snapped the old man as his grandson came rushing into the house after school. "Is there any alternative to this?" Yami's tones roared on. "JUST LIKE I DIDN'T INTEND TO SEND HIS CLOTHES THERE-"
Yugi smiled apologetically. "I'm sure he'll calm down in a matter of time. Maybe he just needs some alone time to-" "OR WHEN I TELEPORTED HIS TOYS THERE-"
"Think things over." Yugi finished lamely.
"OR THE TIME I LEFT SETH HIMSELF THERE-" Yugi and his Grandpa stared disbelievingly up the stairs. An image of Kaiba, cold and emotionally stunted, did a tap dance in their brains. Unanimously, a thought ran through them. 'That explains a lot.'
"AND ACCIDENTALLY FORGOT HIM THERE FOR A MONTH!!" A frigid wind blew. Yugi assumed the pumping job, as his Grandpa twitched on the ground. "You know," he said to thin air-his bestest buddy before the others came, "I am starting to wish Tea had kicked Yami too."
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Sluggishly, Tea made her way back to her dingy apartment, aka D.A.. She leaned over like a hunchback, and every step seemed to demand singular effort from her.
When she finally came into sight of the complex, her sigh of relief was audible. She dragged her weary body up the stairs, fumbled for keys, and entered her self maintained home.
She stared at it for a while, still poised in the doorway. This was hers. This was all that was hers. Unwittingly, she bit her chapped lower lip. She didn't want to be superficial or selfish, but......
The kitchen was tiny. The entire place was tiny, and it was dirty. She barely had any food. She had several pages of homework to do, and it was already 10:50 PM. She had a job where she recieved minimal, if any, respect and low wages. And she had just alienated most of her precious friends.
Splashes of moisture dampened her fisted hands. More disinterestedly than anything, Tea stared at her own tears as more showered down from her blue eyes. Shutting the door, she slumped down against it and let them fall.
...............................................................................................
When Malik woke, he just knew the day would not be inclined in his favor. Maybe it originated from his recent shift of abode, maybe it had to do with the clump of neon fungi in the corner ogling him.
However, Malik mused as he eased himself up, it most probably came from the dream he had concerning Mr. Fabulous himself, Pegasus, and a pink frilly dress.
With the taste of bile in his mouth, he readied a meager breakfast.
..................................................
Just a wall away, Tea roused from her slumber, still crouched against the door. For some reason, the morning seemed especially beautiful to her. Tears burdened the soul; they left her, and left her a lot lighter. With a cheerful glide to her step, she spun about her diminutive domain.
So, sure the accomodations were cramped, the provisions low, the work piled high, and dirt proliferating by the second. Mid-plie, Tea gazed on it with emotion dappling her orbs. It was hers. As ever throughout history and evidenced even now, each breath embodies the ability to change and to cause such.
Rose tinted in their grogginess, sunbeams plundered the rooms normal dreariness and converted it into a possibility.
With a deep cup of air caught in her lungs, Tea promised herself: I can do this.
........................................................................
Bakura woke in his room, and he didn't really think anything, but that's all for the best, right?
Hearing the vegetative silence emanating from his Yami's room, Ryou smiled in relief and attended to the eggs in the frying pan. After all, it truly was a pleasant alternative from the usual expletives and death threats against Yami, pigeons, deer, squirrels,
and basically anything capable of moving.
Trying futilely to stifle a grin on his lips, Ryou recalled the time they had been examining amoebas in science class. Bakura had been fine with the single celled organisms- until discovering they moved, whereupon, he permanently relocated all the specimens in their classroom to the Shadow Realm-along with the very expensive microscopes. It had been a close thing to get him to retrieve them. However, no amount of cajoling could persuade him to bring back the poor amoebas.
Saddening, Ryou shed a sympathetic tear for them. It slid down his angelical face, pausing slightly on his plush, perfect lips, which happened to be exceedingly ticklish. The end result was a sneeze of which his cooking eggs bore the full brunt.
"Oh bugger."
..........................................................................
With a dismal air, Malik fortified himself for the torment of school. As a distinct possibility of Isis being there nagged at his brain, he also erected stout bulwarks against his certain reencounter with the Pharoh, and possibly the truculent Bakura.
Still, it came to him that all this pondering simply made him more trepidatious of what was to come, and had not the power to impact the outcome of things.
Heavily reisigned, he shouldered his bag, swatted aside some of the mold creeping over the door, and opened it. Or, at least, he tried to. He rattled the handle once, he rattled it twice. For good measure, he rattled it three times. The only result manifested through his rising ire.
"YOU STUPID DOOR!! SO HELP ME I WILL F*****G UNHINGE YOU!!"
He groaned. This recent obstruction could really trash his intentions: His first day in a new school, and he had intended to portray himself as a well-mannered student-not a slacking hoolegin.
Malik resigned himself to clambering through one of the windows when a delicate voice spoke from the other side of the door.
"Excuse me," Tea called. "But do you require any assistence? I heard some rather obscene yelling and thought I'd see what was up. After all, I guess we are neighbors, so we should be friends!"
Darkness swirled in Malik's vision. Oh Ra, he moaned internally, not another friendship preacher! Outwardly he said:
"Could you please try opening the door? I'm certain it is unlocked, but it refuses to open for me." He shot a glare at the offensive structure.
Tea placed her bookbag down with a thump and a giggle. "I see you've found that objects in this complex can be a tad tempermental. Don't worry, if you name them and become friends, they tend to be much more obliging."
Great, Malik brooded, more friendship. Moodily, he poked a green clump inching past his scruffy black shoes.
"In the meantime," Tea obliviously continued. "Try being polite. Generous door, would you be benevolent enough to open for me?" Seperated by said door, Malik manfully suppressed a gag. 'The Pharoh's spiky hair that's gonna work!'
The door pondered for a bit, and then aquisced to Tea's plea. After all, she was pretty cute-for an animate being, anyway.
To Malik's eternal- and secretly shameful- astonishment, the door swung open smoothly.
"By the way," the annoying voice persisted as its owner stepped in. "My name..is.....Tea."
The supposedly friendship-obsessed girl gawked at the before-posessed boy, who was probing mutant mould.
"Um..you have green stuff on your face," Tea whispered, and dropped down to the floor.
............................................................................................................................................................................
Wow, my first cliffhanger. Please leave any comments you'd care to, and look out for Bakura's change in perspective-coming up soon!