Back again with another chapter. Thanks to the following who reviewed my last chapter:
Tea-The Chosen One
AtemusloverSapphire
fantasia-49
Takashi Kusinagi
Luckygirl777
EgyptianPrincess101
ygo-sh-fan
dancers of the night
Lady-Wicca666
takerschick
ray1
atem15
I would like to give special thanks to atem15 for giving me ideas and Tea-The Chosen One for the song choice.
Summary: He had all of the fame and fortune in the world, but all he wanted was someone that would treat him like he was normal as anyone else. He might get his wish when he meets a cafe waitress who is having problems of her own. Will they be able to help each other?
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or the song "If I Never Knew You". I just own the story.
Chapter 11
The first sign of the morning light came through the bedroom window which aroused Tea from her sleep. She opened her eyes blinking them to make her vision clear and began to sit up, but she felt an arm around her waist and turned to see Atem still sleeping. The events from last night came rushing back to her head and she was still very upset, but having Atem next to her made her feel a little better. She raised her hand to glide it down his face gently and slowly slid her thumb across his lips. As quietly as she could, Tea lifted his arm from around her waist so she could get up without waking him, but when she moved to leave the bed, Atem pulled her back down beside her and nuzzled his face into her neck.
"No, don't get up. Let's just stay in bed." he whispered. Tea smiled and turned to face him.
"I didn't want to wake you, I figured that you wanted to sleep in." she said. Atem leaned over to plant a slow, but passionate kiss on Tea's lips. He pulled back slowly and gazed at her with concerned eyes sensing that she was feeling down.
"Are you alright?" he asked. Tea was quiet for a second and sat up in the bed bringing the blanket close to her chest. Atem rose up to sit next to her and waited for her to speak.
"I guess I'm just still shocked from everything last night, I can't believe that they're cousins. You know it's funny, I was with Renku for six months and not once did I find out what his last name was. Now they're out there somewhere plotting their next move." she said. Atem rubbed his hand up and down her bare back and brought her over to lean on his chest.
"They are going to be found and they are going to pay for what they did you. Trust me on that, I'm not going to let them come anywhere near you again, okay?" he said. Tea lifted her head from his chest and nodded. She was about to answer him back when the phone started to ring. Atem sighed and Tea stood up from the bed telling him she was going to take a shower. Atem picked up the phone to see who it was.
"Hello?"
"Hey Boss, it's Katie."
"Hey Katie, what's up?"
"Well, I just called to see how the party went last night. Anybody tried to make any deals to you about merging your company again?" she asked. Atem sighed and laid back down on the bed while placing his arm over his eyes.
"No, but something else happened last night."
"Uh-oh, by the sound of your voice it must have been something bad. So, what's the 4-1-1?"
"I really don't want to get into it over the phone."
"Well that's another reason why I called. Koji and I were thinking about going out to Yugi's ranch today with Alicia and wondered if you and Tea were going too." Atem gave it some thought and figured that it might be good for Tea to have her mind cleared and spend some time with friends.
"Yeah, I think we will. It'll put Tea's mind at ease."
"Great and that way you can tell me everything that went down last night. Koji and I are going to head on out now and we'll meet you there."
"Alright, we'll see you soon." After he said goodbye to her, he hung up the phone and got up from the bed to check on Tea. While in the shower, Tea was letting the water cascade down on her like as if she was out in a rainstorm. Thoughts of last night would not leave her head. She picked up her cloth and lathered up the bodywash onto it, but she couldn't get a firm grip on the bottle since her hand was shaking and she accidentally dropped it. As she bent down to pick it up, she felt a hand on her waist and turned to see Atem bending down to pick up the bottle. When he stood back up, he took the cloth from Tea's hand.
"Do you mind if I join you?" he whispered. Tea smiled and shook her head.
"No, not at all." Atem stepped closer to her and gently placed the lathered cloth on Tea. While he covered her with the soap, he leaned down and kissed her neck and slowly traveling up her jawline until he reached her lips which he immediately planted a kiss on. Slowly, he massaged her lips with his. He licked her lips asking for entrance and Tea wrapped her arms around his neck while opening her mouth to grant him permission. They both let out a moan when both of their tongues touched sparking the same passion they built up from their lovemaking last night. After about an hour of being in the shower together, they dried off and headed into the bedroom still wearing their towels. Tea went into the walk-in closet getting herself dressed in black long sleeved shirt with the sleeves fanning down to her hands and dark brown jeans with chains connected to her pockets. When she finished dressing, she walked out to see Atem already dressed in black jeans and a gray shirt. He came over and kissed her before pulling her to sit next to him on the bed.
"Hey, you up to going out to the ranch today?" he asked. Tea looked down in her lap and sighed.
"I don't know, I thought I just catch up on some reading." she said. Atem pulled her chin up to him and gazed at her.
"Is that really what you want to do or is there something else? Is it about Rachel and Renku? Because if it is, then you don't have to worry about them." he said. Tea closed her eyes and stood up from the bed to stand in front of him.
"So when do we worry about them? When they somehow decide to come back and finish the job on me or maybe they'll make a new target on you or someone else that we care about." she said as she started to walk out of the room, but Atem stood up and blocked her way out of the door.
"You're doing it again."
"Doing what again?" she asked getting a little frustrated from the subject.
"You're pushing me away, Tea I don't want you get stressed out from all of this." he said.
"Then how do you expect me to act Atem? Renku almost placed a knife to my heart and if you hadn't came through the door, I would be dead by now. Those two won't stop until they get what they want and they don't care who gets hurt in the process, just as long as the job's done." she said.
"I know and it makes me sick to know that they are still out there planning to hurt you. So why are we arguing?"
"I'm not arguing with you, you're the one who brought up the subject."
"I only brought it up because you were being bothered by it. All I wanted was for us to just have some time of peace and that's why I suggested that we go to the ranch today." he said.
"Fine, let's go to the ranch. Are you happy now?" she said. Tea then went around Atem to leave the room and go downstairs to wait for him. Atem sighed and placed a hand over his forehead before grabbing his keys off of his dresser and meeting Tea down by the front door. They both got inside the car and started the journey out to Yugi's ranch. For a whole hour it was nothing but silence between the two of them. Times when Atem would stop the car at a red light, he would take a glance over to Tea and hopefully try to make eye contact with her, but she was still upset and decided to leave her alone until she was ready to talk. They finally arrived at the ranch and Atem parked his car near the entrance. When Atem and Tea stepped out the car, they made their way over to the stables where they saw Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Katie and Koji standing outside. The five of them looked up when they saw Atem and Tea walking up to them.
"Hey guys, what's up?" said Joey waving at them. Tea walked past all of them without saying a word and headed inside the stables to greet the horses. Atem stopped and watched her going inside with the others.
"Whoa, was it something I said?" asked Joey scratching his head.
"No Joey, you didn't do anything wrong. Tea's just a little upset right now." said Atem.
"Does this have to do with what happened last night at the party?" asked Katie. Atem nodded and when he did, she walked over and pulled him away from the stables with the the guys following them. Once they were inside the house, Katie let go of Atem's arm and placed her hands on her hips.
"Well, spill it. What exactly happened last night?" she asked. Atem sighed and sat down on the sofa with the others sitting down around him. They all waited for a few minutes for Atem to start and took a deep breath to tell them everything.
"I'm going to start from the beginning that way you guys won't be confused with certain parts. Do you guys remember Rachel?" he asked Yugi, Joey and Tristan. After they gave some thought to the name, a look of recognition came to their faces when they remembered the name.
"Oh yeah, the girl who had this crazy idea that she was your fiancee. Man, she was a total whack job." said Joey.
"Yeah, and ever since she's met Tea, she's been doing everything she could to try and get rid of her, along with some help." They all leaned in to listen. "Last night, I was having a great time with Tea for most of the party. After about an hour later, Rachel's father Akiyoshi Ookami came over and I introduced Tea to him. He was telling me all about how he made a partnership with someone from a different company and how that's going to be a success once everything was settled. When Tea found out he was Rachel's father, she got a somewhat upset, but not at Akiyoshi. So when she went to get herself something to drink, I told him all about the trouble that Rachel caused to me and Tea by trying to get Tea out of the picture. It wasn't even a good five minutes when she mysteriously came up beside me with a fake innocent look on her face. I suddenly felt a sharp feeling in my chest and knew that something was wrong." Katie gasped.
"You mean that same feeling you had when we were leaving the office and you said it had something to do with Tea?" she asked. Atem nodded.
"Yeah, that same one. When I looked around to look for Tea, I couldn't find her anywhere and started getting worried. About a few seconds later, the feeling in my chest was much more intense. It was like my heart was squeezing so tightly and it was times when I was having trouble breathing. So I looked up to Rachel who had this conniving look that just told me she knew where Tea was. When she confessed that she was upstairs, I ran up as fast as I could to find her. I heard her screaming in one of the rooms and rammed the door down to see her ex Renku. He had her up against the wall and was about to stab her in the chest with a knife. I ran inside and tackled him to the ground before he could hurt her."
"Wait a minute, what was Tea's ex doing there in the first place?" asked Joey.
"That's what was running through my mind while I was beating him to a pulp. When Akiyoshi came in the room, that's when everything started coming together. You see Renku is Akiyoshi's nephew which made Rachel and Renku cousins." Everyone on the room gasped.
"You mean to tell me that Rachel and Tea's ex are cousins?" said Tristan.
"That would also explain the encounters you were having with Renku before." said Koji.
"I'm getting the feeling that there's more to the story." said Yugi. Atem nodded.
"There is, and what I'm about to say next is going to shock all of you. When Rachel came into the room, Tea all of a sudden started screaming and I looked over to see her clutching her head. From what the doctor was telling me before she came out of the hospital was that there might be moments when Tea would have flashes running through her head from the explosion. When she looked up, she knew what happened and who she saw that night. The ones who caused the cafe to explode and tried to kill Tea were Rachel and Renku. When they were exposed for what they did, the both of them ran out and no one has heard from them. That's why Tea is upset because she's afraid they're going to come back and finish what they started." he finished telling them everything while leaning his arms on his legs and lowering his head to face the floor. Katie started crying while standing up from where she was sitting.
"I knew that she was trouble the moment I first saw her and now she's got a cousin who not only is Tea's ex, but he's also the cause of helping to make Tea's life miserable." she said. Koji stood up and walked over to his wife and brought her into an embrace while the others clenched their fists in anger for what happened to their friend. Katie let go of Koji and wiped her tears away.
"Those two are going to pay, you and Tea deserve to be happy together and they are not going to stop that." she said. Katie then walked outside to the stables where Tea was with the horses. The guys were all quiet and turned to Atem who was still facing the floor.
"So, what are you going to do Atem?" asked Yugi. Atem looked up to his brother and answered.
"There's not much I can do right now since they both disappeared without a trace, but I know that their going to come back. When that happens, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure they never come near me or Tea again." he said.
"Well, you know that we're here to help you out if you need it man." said Joey.
"Yeah, this Renku guy is making me want to beat the stuffing out of him from all the stuff you told us about him." said. Tristan. Atem smiled and nodded to them.
"Thanks guys." he said.
Tea was busy keeping Angel happy by brushing her mane and feeding her a carrot. She was still very bothered about Rachel and Renku plotting on what they were going to do next, but she felt guilty about how she acted to Atem. She knew that he was only trying to help her and she didn't mean to blow up at him. Tea was awaken from her thoughts by Angel neighing and nuzzling her hand that held the brush realizing that her arm stopped moving from brushing Angel's mane. She gave out a smile and started up again.
"Sorry girl, just have alot on my mind right now." she said. Angel grunted as if she understood and went back to eating her carrot. Tea turned around when she heard someone coming and saw Katie walking inside and came over to stand next to her and the rest of the horses. She petted one of them before turning to Tea with a friendly smile.
"Hey girlfriend, how are you doing?" she asked. Tea nodded her head while keeping her eyes on Angel.
"Good, I'm guessing Atem told you guys what went down last night."
"Yeah and a little more, like Rachel and Renku are actually cousins and were plotting for a while to get you and Atem separated and that they were the ones responsible for the explosion a few weeks ago. I'm so sorry all of this is happening to you and Atem." she said.
"Thanks Katie, you know it was bad enough that I had to deal with them separately, but now that their related I have to deal with double the trouble."
"Well, you don't have to deal with them alone, you have Atem, you have me and the rest of your friends." Katie said giving her a reassuring smile.
"That's just it Katie, I'm not worried about me. Atem says that he wants to protect me from them, but who's going to protect him if something happens? Or what if they decide to come after you guys instead? That's the only thing that's running through my head." Tea stopped brushing Angel for a minute to wipe away the tears the were coming through her eyes. Angel sensed her sadness and nuzzled her face trying her best to cheer Tea up. Katie placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Oh Tea, you don't have to worry about that, they wouldn't even think about coming near me or my family and friends. Girl, you give me a baseball bat and I'll knock both of them out, they don't want to mess with me." Tea gave out a giggle and shook her head.
"I don't think I want to see that."
"Yeah, I can be pretty brutal when I want to be. I got to go inside and check on Alicia, are you going to be okay?" she asked. Tea nodded and gave her a smile telling her she was.
"Uh-huh, I'm going to stay out here for a little while anyway." Katie nodded and walked back in the house leaving Tea to her thoughts again. The smile disappeared from Tea's face.
'If only it was that easy, it's going to take more than that to stop them.'
Katie went inside the house to see Alicia awake and playing with Joey and Tristan on the floor while Atem, Yugi and Koji still talking. She walked inside when Alicia looked up and ran over to her.
"Mommy, I'm hungry." she said. Katie laughed.
"Okay sweetie, Daddy and I will pick up something for you when we leave so go get your coat."
"Aww, can't I stay?" she asked giving a little pout.
"Yeah let her stay Katie, Tristan and I will watch her." said Joey with Tristan nodding in agreement.
"Well alright, Koji and I have some things to take care of anyway so we'll be back soon. Now honey, you be a good girl for Joey and Tristan, okay?" she said.
"Yes, Mommy." Atem walked over to Katie as she was placing Alicia down.
"Is Tea alright?" he asked.
"Yes, I think she'll be okay, but just talk to her. I'm sure she'll feel much better when you do." Atem nodded and walked outside to get a little air. Yugi was grabbing his jacket to leave also.
"I got to go into town and gather some supplies so guys, don't trash my house." he said. Joey and Tristan gave out nervous chuckles.
"You can trust us Yug, we'll take care of everything." said Joey. Yugi shook his head and left out with Katie and Koji following behind him closing the door.
"Well it's just the three of us here now. So what do you want to do Alicia?" asked Tristan. Alicia tapped her finger to her lips while thinking about what she wanted to do.
"Let's play Hide and Seek." she said.
"Uh, okay you hide and Tristan and I will try to find you, okay?" said Joey. Alicia nodded and went off to find a hiding spot. Joey covered his eyes and started counting but Tristan tapped his shoulder.
"Are you sure this is a good idea for her to be hiding?" Joey scoffed and waved his hand carelessly.
"C'mon Tristan, there's only a certain amount of places where the kid can hide. What's the worst that could happen?" he said as he went back to counting. A few minutes later, Joey and Tristan were looking all over the house looking for Alicia, but the only little, itty, bitty, teeny, tiny, problem with that was...they couldn't find her anywhere.
"Oh nice going Joey, 'C'mon Tristan, there's only a certain amount of places where the kid can hide. What's the worst that could happen?' You are so going to get it when Katie and Koji get back and you lost her." Tristan said.
"I lost her? Who was playing the game with me? You could have tried to stop me, you know how I am with these things. Oh man, we are so dead if we don't find her, no, no, no I'm too young to die. There's so many things in life that I haven't gotten to do." Joey said dramatically as tears streamed down his eyes like a waterfall.
"Joey, get a grip. We just have to keep looking."
"But we looked everywhere in the house except, uh, you don't think she went outside, do you?" They both turned to look at the back door to see it was slightly open and ran outside to try and find the three year old. Unfortunately, as they were running past, they failed to see the bottom cabinet open to reveal the little playful girl that they were looking for. She came out and walked over to the door to slam it shut locking the two of them outside. When they heard the door shut, they jiggled the handle and tried to get it open.
"Hey Tristan, we're locked out." said Joey.
"Brilliant observation Sherlock Holmes, can you use that detective knowledge of yours to figure out to open the door?"
"Yes as a matter a fact I can. It's elementary my dear Tristan, we'll just have to do this. ALICIA! ALICIA OPEN THE DOOR!!" Joey screamed through the glass door window. Tristan sweat-dropped.
"Oh very smart." he said sarcastically. They kept calling out to Alicia to open the door and she decided it would be funny to leave them out there while she went and played in the living room. About ten minutes later, Atem came inside after his walk and saw Alicia sitting on the sofa watching TV.
"Hi little princess, where's Joey and Tristan?" he asked. Alicia placed her finger to her lips.
"Shhh, their hiding."she whispered. Atem chuckled and walked over to pick her up.
"Well, let's go find them, okay?" he said. As Atem was walking, he heard some pounding on the back door in the kitchen and guessed that they were locked outside.
"Please Alicia, if you open the door, I'll give you a cookie. A nice big chocolate chip cookie the size of my head." said Joey. Atem stifled a laugh and placed Alicia down and as quietly as he could he opened the door. Joey and Tristan ran inside to be met with Atem who was laughing.
"Where's my chocolate chip cookie?" he said. Joey and Tristan's eyes were two black dots as they saw Atem open the door and they both looked down to Alicia holding her hands to her mouth while having little giggles of her own.
"We looked everywhere for you Alicia, where were you hiding?" asked Tristan. She then ran over to the cabinet and opened the door which answered their question. Then Joey had a question of his own for her.
"Why did you lock us out Alicia?" She then held up her hands to them.
"I don't know." Atem snickered and shook his head at the two of them. After Katie and Koji came back from their errands and Yugi came back with his supplies, it was nothing but laughs when they heard what happened with the mischievous little three year old. It was around two in the afternoon when Koji and Katie took Alicia to leave so they bid all of them goodbye. Joey, Yugi and Tristan left for the rest of the day leaving just Atem and Tea alone on the ranch. He came outside with a picnic basket for them seeing as Tea didn't eat anything all morning. He went inside the stables to see her sitting down on the hay with Angel just petting her mane. She looked up and met his gaze as he walked over to sit next to her.
"Hey." he said.
"Hi." she said. Neither of them said a word and the only noise that was around was the horses neighing. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Atem broke the silence.
"So, how's Angel doing?"
"She's doing great, she much more happier now since I came back to visit her."
"That's good, I know she must have missed you. Everyone is gone for the rest of the day and I thought you and I could go out by the lake to eat lunch. We can take the horses with us too." he said as he held up the basket. Tea smiled at the thought and nodded.
"Sure, that sounds great." Once they saddled up the horses, they rode down by the lake where Atem took her before. As they were riding, they would take glances of each other and smile. When they reached the lake, Atem placed the blanket on the ground under his favorite tree and sat down with Tea sitting beside him.
"It's a great day today, isn't it?" he said. Tea sighed in agreement.
"Yeah, it's perfect. I'm glad you brought me here." Atem nodded and opened the basket for them to enjoy a delicious lunch. The whole afternoon consisted of them talking, skipping pebbles and just laying around enjoying the fresh outdoor breeze while listening to the portable boom box he brought along. Hours went by and the sun was setting with beautiful colors mixing together in the sky turning dark as the stars were coming out. Atem was laying in Tea's lap and he gave out a contented sigh as she was running her fingers through his hair. Tea looked up when she heard the Angel and Bronco grunting and smiled when she saw them nuzzling each other. Suddenly, the smile vanished from her face and she looked down to Atem who had his eyes closed.
"Atem?" He opened his eyes when she called him.
"Hm?"
"I need to apologize to you for this morning, I didn't mean to come off like that on you, it's just there are two psychos out there somewhere just waiting for their plan of attack and it's making me nervous because they could come out anywhere or they might have people watching us." she said. Atem sat up and moved to sit next to her.
"I promise you that nothing is going to happen to you. I am not going to let them touch you again because I'm going to do everything in my power to protect you from them with my life." he said. Tea turned to him.
"You still don't understand, you say you want to protect me, but who's to protect you from them? If you lose your life trying to save me, I'll never forgive myself. You know, I keep thinking to myself what would happen if we never met each other. Maybe...maybe none of this would be happening." Atem turned Tea around to face him while lifting her chin up.
"If we never met, I would still be living the boring life of a C.E.O sitting in his office right now instead of sitting here with the woman I love. If I had a choice of never meeting you and giving up my life, I would choose my life in a heartbeat." Tea shook her head while tears were flowing down her face and she wrapped her arms around his waist to embrace him.
"But I don't want to lose you, I was able to believe in love again because of you." Atem embraced her back and rocked her gently while trying to get her to calm down.
"Then let's make a promise, no matter what happens, we'll let nothing keep us from each other." He felt her nod against his chest and sat with her in a comfortable silence. Then, they both heard a beautiful melody came on the radio and something made them both want to listen to it.
If I never knew you
If I never felt this love
I would have no linking of
How precious life can be
And if I never held you
I would never have a clue
How at last I'd find you
The missing part of me
In this world so full of fear
Full of rage and lies
I can see the truth so clear
In your eyes
So dry your eyes
And I'm so grateful to you
I'd have live my whole life through
Lost forever
If I never knew you
Atem laced his hand with Tea's while he was listening to the words feeling just how they matched the way he was feeling.
If I never knew you
I'd be safe but half as real
Never knowing I could feel
A love so strong and true
I'm so grateful to you
I'd have live my whole life through
Lost forever
If I never knew you
Tea closed her eyes and was amazed at how much the words she was listening was exactly how she was feeling.
I thought our love would be so beautiful
Somehow we make the whole world bright
I never knew that fear and hate could be so strong
All they'd leave us these whispers in the night
But still my heart is saying we were right
Oh if I never knew you
There's no moment I regret
If I never felt this love
Since the moment that we met
I would have no linking of
If our time has gone too fast
How precious life can be
I've lived at last
I thought our love would be so beautiful
Somehow we'd make the whole world bright
I thought our love would be so beautiful
We'd turn the darkness into light
And still my heart is saying we were right
We were right
And if I never knew you
If I never knew you
I'd have lived my whole life through
Empty as the sky
Never knowing why
Lost forever
If I never knew you
As the song finished, Tea looked up to Atem the same time he looked down to her. He lifted his hand to her rub her cheek and lean down to slowly kiss her showing her just how much she means to him. They pulled back when they were running out of air and smiled at each other.
"I love you Atem."
"I love you too and you never have to worry about losing me, you and I will always be together. Do you feel a little better now that we've talked about this?" he asked.
"Yeah, I do." Atem place a kiss on her cheek and stood up bringing her to stand up with him.
"Good, we better get on home since it's getting late." Tea nodded and they both went over to the horses and rode them back to the ranch. Once they got them back in the stables, they said goodbye to Yugi, Joey and Tristan and drove back home into the city. Finally after an hour of driving, they arrived at their quiet home and went inside. Tea went upstairs to take a shower before bed and Atem made sure to turn the lights off and lock the door before he went upstairs to join her. A half hour later, Atem had Tea on riding on his back while she was laughing telling him to put her down. He dropped her gently on the bed and climbed in beside her to wrap his arm around her waist as they got under the blankets. Sighing in comfort, he buried his face against her neck to smell her sweet fragrance while placing light kisses on her. After saying good night, Tea drifted off to sleep while Atem watched her and running his fingers through her hair.
'Don't you worry Tea, I won't leave you, but I'll make sure to protect you from Rachel and Renku if they ever decide to show their faces again.' With that thought in mind, he went to sleep while cuddling closer to Tea.
Another chapter done, let me know how you guys like it in your reviews, I'll be sure to update soon. L8TR.