Hi, reviewers! Thank you for your recommendations. I will be sure to work on further defining the emotions of each character in the future.

….

Tea and Mai, decided to get some food from the food court before they went shopping. As soon as they sat, Mai asked, "So what is going on between you and Kaiba? Joey filled me in on some of it, but how do you like being there."

Tea let out a sigh and answered, "I would rather be living there without the forced proposal. But, he isn't that bad. There are times when I can ring his neck and then there are times when he is really sweet. I start to wonder if he is the same person."

"Sounds like Kaiba. So while you were talking to Ms. Margaret this morning, I heard her asking how you and Kaiba liked the present that she picked out. What is that all about?"

Tea rolled her eyes and said, "Well it all started when Seto asked the maid to pick his fiancé out a gift. He was hoping that a present might make me less apprehensive around him…"

….

Kaiba was towards the end of his explanation and said, "…she hugged me and told me, "Its perfect and I would be honored to wear it Seto." That was when things went awry. I was so happy that she liked the ring, I reached out for her and she panicked. She backed away from me as if she was expecting me to hit her. The fear that was in her eyes would have made you think she had an encounter with Gozaburo. She is scared of me Mokuba."

Mokuba, always being the optimistic one said, "Well Seto, you are just going to have to show her a little more of your true self. If she knew the affectionate person inside of you that Gozaburo tried to destroy, maybe she could learn to trust you better."

Kaiba frowned, It had only been a few days and Tea had already taken down so many walls he used to protect himself. He was not ready to show her further. He turned to Mokuba and said, "I can't make any promises, but I will try."

Mai was laughing like a hyena, "I can't believe you told him that it would look much better on him."

Tea nodded and replied, "Yes that was one of my shining moments. I don't know how I feel about him right now. I made an agreement and I intend to keep it… I just…I wish he would have let me have a real relationship instead, not something that was forced. You know, if Seto would have been a gentleman and asked me out in high school, I probably would have said yes."

"No way! Even with the way Yugi, Joey, and Tristan feel about him?" Mai asked.

"Yes," she said, "I love hanging out with the guys, but make no mistake, they knew not to mess around with my love life."

Mai nodded and said, "Well, how about we start shopping? Is there anywhere you want to go first?"

"Kaiba asked me to pick out a dress from a store called Isabelle's. It is not actually in the mall, but I have an address and it is not too far from here. I am going to be attending a business party with him. It will sort of be an official debut of our engagement."

"Sound's exciting! Let's go!" Mai said as she literally pulled Tea from her seat.

Once they reached the store, Tea's face blanched. There were dresses in the window that looked like they were meant to be worn by royalty. The clothing screamed extortion. Mai literally had to push her towards the door. When they entered there was an older woman with a white suit wearing sunglasses sitting on a really expensive chase lounge and a man in a navy colored suit standing by the register.

The lady in the white suit lowered her sunglasses to look at us and said, "You must be looking for Yzabelle's Exotic Dance Club. Once you get to the end of the street, take a right and go down 3 blocks. The building will be on your right."

Tea's eyes got wide and Mai's jaw dropped. She thought they were strippers.

Mai could somewhat understand with her attire. It wasn't the first time someone disrespected her because she liked to show more skin than most. But how could the woman think that Tea was like that. Her dress was a wearing a modest wrap dress. Mai spoke up and said, "Look, we are here to buy a dress. Seto Kaiba sent us…"

She was quickly interrupted by laughter. The woman then said, "I own this store, and Mr. Kaiba has never sent us a girl to dress before. Why would he start now? Now, get out of my sight before I call security."

Before Mai could retort, Tea grabbed her shoulder and said, "Mai let's go. It is not worth all this trouble."

Mai turned around and gave the owner a malicious glare and walked to her car. She grabbed Tea's arm and asked, "Why did you do that Tea?"

Tea replied thoughtfully, "Because, it would hurt Seto's reputation if your bad temper ended up putting me in jail. Even if it was just a big misunderstanding."

Mai didn't like it, but she knew it probably was the best move to make. Mai decided to change her attitude and said, "How about we head back to the mall and get the rest of your wardrobe set up."

….

As Tea and Mai were leaving, the woman noticed the gigantic ring on Tea's left hand and thought, 'hmmm she must have stolen it from somewhere.'

….

When Tea arrived home, she was exhausted. She didn't bother announcing her arrival and simply lugged her bags up the stairs. When she entered the bedroom, she placed the bags besides the dresser. Tea turned to flop on the bed, when she noticed someone lying there, it was Seto.

She debated in her mind whether or not to go sleep on the couch or to just sleep next to him. Finally, her mind said, 'screw it,' and she crawled in next to him.

About 2 hours later, Kaiba felt better than he had in a long time. He felt something warm pressed up against his chest and opened his eyes to find that he was holding Tea. Kaiba was unsure if he should move and risk waking her or if he should just stay there and enjoy the moment while it lasted. After a few minutes of savoring the feeling of having her so close to him, he decided that trying to move without disturbing her was probably be his best move. She would probably be furious if she knew that he held her while she slept.

Gently he sat up just enough to free his arm and lowered her down gently on the mattress. He almost escaped when he noticed that she had somehow managed to wrap her legs around his last night. Figuring this could end badly if she woke up while trying to move her leg off of him, he gently shook her awake.

Tea opened her eyes and saw Kaiba's face next to hers. She backed away slightly and he said, "You appear to have entrapped me in your sleep." Tea looked at him confused but then realized that her legs had somehow wrapped around his. She moved her legs and turned red. "You can go back to sleep now if you want," he said.

Tea sat up and shook her head. She then said, "Thank you for letting me go out with Mai today. It really helped calm my nerves some."

Kaiba nodded and asked, "Did you find a dress for the party?"

He noticed Tea cringe and become silent. He realized that she hadn't and asked, "What happened?"

She shrunk under his gaze and said, "It really isn't that big of a deal…"

Tea looked at Kaiba and realized that he wasn't going to drop it so she said, "The owner thought Mai and me were looking for Yzabelle's Exotic Dance Club and kind of threw us out."

Kaiba had a hard time holding back from laughing. Kaiba leaned closer to her on the bed and whispered, "My little "tramp" sure has been busy today."

"It's not funny Kaiba," she said frustrated.

She was about to leave the bed when Kaiba wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her next to him. The action surprised Kaiba at first, as he realized that the affectionate side of himself that Mokuba was talking about was beginning to surface. Despite his reluctance to open up, he decided to go with it and see where it led.

Tea froze when she felt his breath on the back of her neck. When she managed to gain back the ability to use her tongue she said, "Kaiba, let me go."

He breathed in the scent of her shampoo and said, "Actually, I don't think I will."

Tea's eyes lit up in fear again and she asked, "W…weren't you about to go somewhere when you woke me."

He nuzzled his head into her shoulder and some of the fear in her eyes dissipated. Her body became less tense and he answered, "Yes, I was going to get some of tomorrows work done. But, I think I rather stay here with my fiancé."

"You can't do that," she said in frustration.

"Yes I can," he replied.

She bit her lip and answered, "Well, you can but you shouldn't."

He finalized it by saying, "I should."

She rolled her eyes and said, "Fine, just let me get comfortable."

He let her turn over so she was facing towards him and snuggled into his chest. He wrapped his arms protectively around her again and they both went to sleep.

….

Mokuba passed by their room to talk with Seto about how the relationship is going. When he saw them fast asleep in the bed. He grabbed his cellphone and took a picture. This was going to be great blackmail! He sent Seto's phone a copy and snuck into his room to make it his brother's background.

When Kaiba woke up the next morning and he found that Tea had already left. He frowned and got dressed for work. On his bathroom mirror he discovered a post it note from Mokuba stating that he was going to visit Yugi. When he came down the stairs, he saw Tea scribbling a note down on the table. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Tea jumped when she heard his voice and turned around. "Oh Seto, I was about to leave you a note. Your chef got sick last night so she was unable to be here today. There are some pancakes I fixed for Mokuba and you sitting in the microwave. The guys called me saying that they need to talk. It sounds serious and…"

Kaiba interrupted her and said, "And you need to go… Fine. But, do you think you could be here for 2:30. I am going to have a designer here to help you find a dress."

Tea smiled and replied, "I will be here. Thank you."

Kaiba grabbed his cup of coffee and watched her leave. For some reason, he had a bad feeling about Tea meeting up with the guys. But, if he didn't let her go, it would have damaged what little faith she managed to develop in him.

Tea arrived at the game shop that Yugi lived in and saw Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Serenity, Mokuba, and Mai were all staring at her. Her stomach flipped at their facial expressions and she said, "Hey guys, how are you doing?"

Joey took one look at the ring and gasped, "So, it is true!"

"What's true?" she asked curiously. Mokuba stood up and said, "I am sorry Tea. Joey just asked to borrow my phone this morning and he saw it."

She looked them all in the eyes and asked "Saw what?"

Mokuba opened his phone and showed Tea the picture. She turned red out of embarrassment and said, "It's not what it looks like."

Tristan replied, "Not what it looks like? Tea, you're lying in bed, in the arms of the enemy."

"Hey," Mokuba shouted, "My brother is not the enemy! He saved Tea's life and you know it."

"Kaiba didn't do anything wrong Tristan. When I first moved in, he gave me his room since he is hardly ever in it. After I came home from shopping with Mai, I was exhausted. I went upstairs to take a nap and saw him sleeping there. I was just too tired to care so I crawled in the bed and went to sleep. Somehow in our sleep we ended up… for lack of a better word snuggled up to each other." Tea explained. It wasn't the full truth because the second time they were together, she chose to stay with him. But, they didn't need to know that.

"See, I told you nothing happened. It was all completely innocent!" Mokuba said in triumph.

Yugi then asked, "Tea, I know you agreed to marry Kaiba, but do you have feelings for him."

Mokuba listened intently as Tea said, "I don't really think I should talk about this right now." She used her eyes to signal that she didn't want to talk in front of Mokuba.

Yugi turned to Mokuba and said, "Hey Mokie, I have a few frozen pizzas in the fridge. Would you mind throwing them in the oven?"

Mokuba wasn't stupid. He knew what was going on and replied sure Yugi. He walked through the swinging door and when they weren't looking he moved the door slightly and set up his camera phone to catch the whole conversation.

When Mokuba left the room, Tea said, "Look guys, I know you all are worried about me. But, you should know that I can take care of myself. The Kaiba brothers have been treating me extremely well and I think you all are worrying about nothing. And, pertaining to your question of how I feel about Kaiba…I don't know. The truth is, ever since my mom and dad sold me, to pay for their debt, I am having issues trusting anyone. There are times when my mind even gets cautious around you guys. It is nothing personal, I am just scared of getting hurt or abandoned again."

'So that is why she has been so guarded lately,' Mokuba thought to himself.

Joey retorted, "Tea, you know that you don't have to worry about us doing something like that."

The look in Tea's eyes was almost unbearable to look at. There was so much pain, distrust, and anger. "Really Joey, and let's just say that Kaiba and I do get married. After all, I am wearing an engagement ring." She held up her ring to make a point and continued, "If things do work out and we decide to get married, will you attend the wedding? Would you want to spend time with us during the holidays? And let's say that we have a child together. Would you attend their birthday parties? Tell me Joey, if things work out, would you be able to handle that we might not be able to hang out as much because I am going to be responsible for caring for a family."

Joey was silent and Tea decided that she had an answer. She got up to leave and Tristan grabbed her arm, "Joey might not be able to speak right now, but of course we would still be friends with you. No one here is particularly happy that you are engaged to him. But, none of us really had the chance to adjust. This is a big change Tea and if this is what makes you happy we will all respect it. Besides, although we may not care for Kaiba's personality all that much, we do know that he would do anything to protect his family."

Tea smiled and wiped a stray tear. She hugged Tristan and said, "Thank you for understanding." Tea looked at the clock and saw it was almost time to meet with the dress designer. She bowed to them all and said, "It was nice to see you guys, but I have to go. Let Mokuba know that I am going home."

Mokuba clicked off his camera and quickly threw the pizzas in the oven.

Seto Kaiba sat at his desk, looking forward to his next phone call. He picked up the phone, typed in a number, and waited…

Ring

Ring

Ring

A man's voice answered, "This is Isabelle's Formal Attire. How may I help you?"

"This is Seto Kaiba. Put Isabelle on the phone." Kaiba commanded.

In a peppy voice the man said, "Yes sir, here she is right now." He heard the man whisper, "Miss Isabelle this is Seto Kaiba."

"Ah, Mr. Kaiba, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Isabelle said with a voice oozing with flattery..

"Miss Isabelle, I have wonderful news. I am getting married." Kaiba said.

In her head she heard the dinging of a casino game when it hits the jackpot. Excitedly she said, "And you want me to make your suit. Ooooh I could even make her wedding gown, if you would like. I promise you that royalty won't be able to compare to the gown she will wear."

Kaiba smirked, "Actually, I wanted to let you know that I am canceling the 3 suits I ordered last week: the white suit, the cream colored suit, and the pale blue one"

"What? Why sir, they just came in this morning?" she said panicky.

Kaiba answered, "Why indeed? Miss Isabelle, do you remember 2 women coming into your store yesterday? One was a blonde who was wearing a biker jacket. And the other, had short brown hair, a blue wrap dress, and a very large engagement ring."

Isabelle thought back and realized he must be talking about those two women she threw out yesterday.

Before she could speak, he said "I actually had been thinking about having you do all the clothes designing for our wedding. However, after I sent my fiancé to you to get an evening gown, and you threw her out. I decided to go with a different designer. The designer is going to be meeting Tea at the mansion at 2:30 today. If you have any hope of me returning as a customer I highly suggest that you go and apologize to my fiancé."

"Of course sir, I am so sorry that happened, it was simply a misunderstanding. I will go straight away. Have a wonderful day Mr. Kaiba," she replied. Once she hung up the phone, she called her salesman over and said, "Bryan, grab your most expensive dresses and place them on the rolling racks in the back. We have a sale to make."

Tea pulled out the key to the Kaiba mansion, when a white van pulled up and a woman with big sunglasses hopped out. She walked up to the woman and said, "Excuse me Miss, but can I help you?"

The woman took her sunglasses off and said, "Oh darling, I don't know if you remember me, but I am Isabelle. I am so sorry for the things I said yesterday. I was completely out of the line! In order to make it up to you. I brought you a number of fine dresses for you to look at."

Tea saw the man pulling out a rack full of dresses from the back of the van. She thought to herself, 'Seto, I thought you were going to have someone else come today. I don't want to deal with these people.' Nevertheless, she didn't want to disappoint Seto by not having a dress for the ball. She checked her watch and it read 2:00. 'Well, at least they weren't late,' she thought to herself.' She opened the door and allowed them to come in.

Isabelle said, "Hold on a second dear. He has to get a second rack and I need to get something for Mr. Kaiba in the car. Just have a seat and we will get started in a moment."

She ran out the door, grabbed the man who was getting a second rack, and said, "Another designer is going to be here at 2:30. We have to be quick if we want this sale." The man nodded and rolled the other rack inside the house.

Isabelle walked in with a box and said, "By the way, these suits are for Mr. Kaiba. The total is $9,000. I am assuming he had left you with a method of payment."

Tea's eyes got big, '$9,000 Is he crazy? Doesn't he know that he can get the same damn suit at the mall for about $100.' Nervously she replied, "He didn't tell me about it…But, I am sure he would appreciate it if I took care of it. You do take credit right?"

She nodded eagerly and Tea paid for the suits. Isabelle then said, "Okay dear, prepare to be overwhelmed!"

She first pulled out a red dress with real crystals across the entire bodice. It was pretty, but red didn't really go with her skin tone. Regardless she tried it on and asked, "How much do dresses like these go for?"

Isabelle answered, "Most of my dresses are between $25,000 and $50,000. This one is a measly $22,500, a real bargain if you ask me.

Tea's mouth dropped, "Does Seto know the how much these dresses are? I don't want him thinking I am trying to take advantage of him."

Isabelle laughed at her question and replied, "Seto just bought $9,000 dollars in suits. Of course, he knows how expensive things are in my shop. He also knows that there is no designer in the world that creates such fine quality clothing as I do."

Tea felt guilty, but she picked out another dress to try. The next dress presented was a one-shoulder Emerald colored gown with a rhinestone headband. Despite hating the color, she decided to try it on so she wouldn't offend Isabelle and her worker. When she came out the bathroom to show her Isabelle swooned over the way the dress and headband looked on her. Never the less Tea shook her head no.

Another dress had tiny mirrors covering the whole thing like a disco ball. For some odd reason she actually liked the style, but she was afraid the dress would catch the light and blind somebody.

She was about to try another when there was a knock at the door. She heard Isabelle say, "Shit," as she walked to the door. Isabelle followed her and there was another designer standing on the front porch."

Isabelle decided to butt in and said, "I am sorry young man, but she is already picking out her gown with me." Isabelle then slammed the door in his face.

Tea turned to Isabelle and said, "Excuse me Isabelle, I can speak for myself, thank you." Tea ran out the door and flagged him down before he left. He rolled down the window and she said, "I apologize Sir for her rudeness. Please, come on in and show me your dresses." She then lowered her voice to a whisper and said, "The truth is, her dresses are almost as tacky as she is."

The man smiled and pulled into the driveway. She walked back in the house and waited for him to come in. When the man stepped in she gasped at the sight of the very first dress on the rack. It was an off-the-shoulder white chiffon gown. There weren't any sequins or gemstones. But it was modest enough to really make her personality shine out more than the dress. That was what she wanted.

Isabelle turned her nose up at the reaction. How could anyone possibly want to wear dresses like that? They are so simple. They look like a junior prom dresses for god's sake.

"What is your name sir," she asked the gentleman.

"James Paterson, and you must be Kaiba's lovely future bride," he said with a bow. He looked over to the dresses on the other designer's rack and thought to himself, 'Awe man, those are stunning. I am never going to be able to compete with them.'

Tea blushed and replied, "I thank you for the complement, and yes I am his fiancé. You can call me Tea. I really like this white one up front, may I try it on?"

He smiled and handed her the dress. While she was in the bathroom trying it on Isabelle was busy harassing the poor boy. He had just graduated from Fashion Academy and was incredibly intimidated by other designers.

When she put the dress on it hugged her curves. The way the fabric touched the floor made her appear as if she was floating. She walked out with a smile and said, "I love it." She did a small twirl and asked, "How much is it?"

"$500 miss," he answered.

She was about to accept, when Isabelle said, "$500, seriously? It must be made from the cheapest fabric you could find. Tea darling, why don't you try on this beautiful purple dress? It is made of the finest quality silk. After all, it is not right to wear white before your wedding."

Tea knew Isabelle was going to give her a hard time, but she decided to play her little game. "I suppose you are right," she said. James appeared to be disheartened by her decision. Meanwhile, Isabelle grinned smugly. Tea then turned to James asked, "James, do you think you could die the dress light blue for me? Then it would be perfect!"

James smiled and said, "That would be no problem. I could even die your shoes the same color if you bought white ones."

Tea shook her head and replied, "That won't be necessary. Thank you Miss Isabelle for your time, but I have made my decision." They tried to persuade her to try on other dresses. She practically had to push them out the house for them to leave. When she managed to get the door shut, she said, "Thank God! I thought they would never leave!"

James laughed and said, "They are a bit pushy. Let me work on fitting this dress to you better."

Since he didn't have his pedestal he normally stood people on, he had to hem and pin while she was standing on a plastic milk crate Mokuba used as a stepstool in kitchen.

While he pinned her dress he asked, "Miss Tea, why did you choose my dress over theirs? She was right by saying my fabric can't compete with the quality of theirs. Not to mention, I could never afford the amount of Swarovski crystals she had on her dresses."

Tea turned her head to look at him and said, "Several reasons, the first one is I don't want my dress to be more expressive than I am. If I am going to be meeting my future husband's business associates, I want them to look at me, not my dress. A dress like the ones Isabelle displayed would only distract people from seeing my personality. Two, I found many of the dresses had so much jewels and embellishments on it, that they reminded me of a parade float." James started to laugh and she continued, "Finally, you did something that they didn't."

"What was that Ms. Tea?" he asked curiously.

She smiled and answered, "You treated me with respect. I value that more than anything. When I first met her, she threw me out of her store because I didn't look the part of one of her wealthy customers."

James replied, "Well dear, when everyone sees you in this gown they are going to think you look like a million bucks. I can see why Mr. Kaiba fell for you. You are just as pretty on the outside as you are on the inside."

She blushed and said, "Thank you."

James had finished and he adjusted his pink cardigan. She truly shined in that dress. "Okay dear, go take it off and try not to stab yourself with the pins. Here is a formal bag to place it in."

She nodded and grabbed the black formal bag and hanger.

As she was coming out with her dress with a bag she heard Seto say, "Tea, we are home!"

"I am up here," she yelled as she handed the man the dress.

Both Kaiba brothers met her in the room and Mokuba asked, "Did you pick out a dress Tea?"

She nodded and gave the boy a hug. Kaiba saw the box sitting on the bed and asked, "Is this the dress?"

Tea shook her head no and said, "Isabelle dropped by to apologize and said that you ordered some suits. She gave me the total and I paid for it with the card since you weren't here."

Kaiba tried not to show it, but he was pissed! How dare Isabelle pull such an underhanded trick? Kaiba nodded and asked, "How much did it come to?"

"$9000," she answered.

Kaiba's face started to turn red with rage. He knew if he didn't get out of there soon he was going to lose it. He picked up the box and said, "Thank you, Tea. I have a few things to take care of. Do you think you could keep an eye on Mokuba for me?"

Tea looks suspicious but she smiled and agreed, "Of course."