Chapter 27 – It Must Be Love

Tea sipped the cup of root beer she held in her hand and watched as the younger Kaiba brother sat down in the opposite chair, smiled at her, and drank a sip from his own cup. Music was playing on the stereo, and Tea saw the CD case for the video game Kingdom Hearts lying carelessly on the glass coffee table. The room was very comforting, having a beige wooden floor and dark red walls. There were bookshelves lining most of the wall, yet a large entertainment system had been placed between two bookshelves, holding a large stereo and television set in it.

It was another strange day for Tea Gardner. First she had to help Seto from falling asleep in class, and then the best predicament ever occurred. She had lost Mokuba's number somehow (either that or she didn't type it into her phone like she originally thought), but Mokuba had ended up calling her on her way over to the orphanage, asking if she could come over. She immediately said yes and called Jade to tell her that something had come up that needed her attention. She had to give it to Jade; the girl was very understanding when it came to being the boss. Most bosses would never allow people to take off last minute, yet Jade was totally fine with it.

Now the two were sitting in the room drinking root beer, the soothing music calming Tea. After all, this was the moment she had been waiting for. Somebody that could give her some answers was sitting right across from her. "About damn time!" she thought as she finished the glass and set it down on the coffee table.

"So how have you been, Mokuba?" she asked, smiling over at the boy. He seemed to have grown a few inches in height since the last time she saw him, and his attire had changed somewhat. Now, instead of normal jeans and his Battle City outfit, he wore black jeans and a light blue t-shirt. His hair was still fit for the American glam metal scene, though.

"Pretty good," he answered, smiling over at her. "School has been really hectic lately. I've had so much homework over these past couple of days."

"Just wait until you get to high school," Tea stated.

"Oh, high school stuff is so easy! I always look through Seto's homework, and it seems like it's a piece of cake."

"You must have your brother's level of intelligence then."

"You don't think that stuff is hard, do you?"

"I don't think it's difficult, but it sometimes takes me awhile. I know Seto just goes through them in minutes, where sometimes the same assignment takes me an hour or so."

"Oh. Okay. But yeah, they wanted me to move up a grade, but both Seto and I agreed that it wouldn't be that good of an idea."

"Why not? Don't colleges and universities love that?"

"They do, but I'd be leaving all my friends behind plus be singled out for being the only kid who skipped a grade."

"Do you plan on taking over KaibaCorp when you get older?"

Mokuba quickly shook his head no. "You couldn't pay me enough to do what Big Brother does," he commented as he finished his drink. "I don't know how he does it."

"Well, what do you want to be?"

"I want to be a writer when I grow up. I've always loved reading, and I figured that since I've been on so many adventures with you guys, it would be easy to come up with a storyline. Besides, Seto said that I can help him come up with storylines for video games, and we could turn KaibaCorp into a pure video gaming industry. He knows that card games won't be around forever, so we decided that once they go out of style, we'll go straight to video games." Putting a finger over his mouth, he said, "But this is top-secret information, so don't tell anybody! Got it?"

"Yep!" Tea exclaimed, chuckling at the boy's antics.

"That's good. I know I can trust you with stuff, Tea." Leaning forward slightly, Mokuba let out a sigh and smiled over at her. "I heard you were working at the orphanage my brother works at. You don't know how happy I was to hear about that."

"He says you visit every so often too."

"Yeah, but I haven't been over in awhile. I told Seto I wanted to visit sometime this week, but with the stuff from school plus friends coming over, I don't think I'll be able to. I have to by next week, though."

"And why's that?"

"I haven't been there in over a month, and I'm starting to feel kind of bad about it."

"I see."

"Quick question for you… Not to change the subject, but I'm going to anyway. Do you have any classes with my big brother?"

Tea felt her eyebrows knit together in confusion at this. "Sure, we have most of our classes together. Why?"

"He didn't…fall asleep in class, did he?"

Tea blinked in surprise at the question and saw worry and a bit of sadness in the boy's eyes rather than the usual happy glow. "Um…well, he kind of did, but then I came over and accidentally woke him up. We got to talking for awhile, and—"

"So he does talk to you in school!" the boy suddenly shouted, jumping up as though he just won a contest. "I knew he did, but he kept denying it over and over again. Now it all makes sense!"

"Uh…might I ask what makes sense?" Tea asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"Tea, do you like my big brother? As in like equals love?"

"Uh, well, um…" Feeling a blush immediately shoot up into her cheeks, she realized hiding it would be absolutely futile at this point. She simply nodded her head and whispered, "Yeah… I'm developing feelings for your brother."

"Whoo-hoo! I knew it!!" Mokuba suddenly burst into a sort of dance, and Tea had to hide her face to keep from laughing at the kid. He pointed at her and said, "You see, ever since Seto mentioned you working at the orphanage, he's been kinda quiet. Not his usual quiet, either. It's like that pensive quiet where you know that person is trying hard to figure something out. I thought something was going on at the company, but when he didn't stop acting like that, I realized that it was because of you working there. I think my big brother likes you but just won't admit it since he's so stubborn."

"And what makes you think that it's me he's thinking about?"

"Well… It kinda has to be a girl, the way he's been acting…"

"Which is…?"

His smile immediately vanished along with any traces of joy in his facial expression. Sitting back down in the chair, Mokuba leaned back and let out a long sigh. "Seto… If I tell you this, will you promise not to tell anybody? Not even my big brother?"

"Of course, Mokuba. You know you can trust me." It was ironic coming from the fact that the last time she made this kind of promise, she broke it within the same day. "But still, this just might be the information I've been looking for. I can't let it get past me now."

"Well, you see… Long story short, Seto met this girl named Sophie that he really liked at the orphanage," Mokuba began explaining. "They started going out, and she was really awesome. She was always doing random things and getting into trouble, but you could tell she didn't care. She just liked having fun. But then…we were adopted by Gozaburo, just Seto and me. Seto kept wanting to see Sophie, and they did for awhile…" She saw the boy shiver slightly before looking over at her. "Long story even shorter, Sophie died."

Tea felt her heart stop. "She's…dead?" "No wonder he doesn't like discussing her…"

"Yeah. I don't…want to think about it, but ever since Seto mentioned you working at the orphanage, he's been having these horrific nightmares about her. He's blamed her death on him ever since it happened, but whether that's true or not…" Mokuba shook his head once more before letting out a sigh. "I can tell he was thinking about a girl because he was thinking about Sophie. I don't think he wanted to fall in love ever again after the incident with Sophie."

"Incident? Well, Seto said she was kind of like a daredevil. After all, she took fireworks and lit them up with only Mokuba and Seto's help. Is it really that surprising that a girl like that's dead now, especially when there was obviously less supervision in those days at the orphanage than there are now?"

"That's why I'm so happy to hear that you like my big brother though!" the boy exclaimed, a smile returning to his facial features. "I think that it's as good a time as any for him to move on, yet Seto would never be one to do it on his own. If he likes somebody else, however, I think it would do him some good."

"Is that why you asked if he fell asleep during school or not? Because of these nightmares?"

"Yeah… Seto has never been one to sleep normal hours, but I could hear him last night tossing and turning like crazy. It's a wonder he didn't fall out of bed."

"Did you wake him up?"

"No. The last time I tried to wake him up, he accidentally hit me. It was only a small bruise, but he acted as though he whipped me across the room." Mokuba chuckled and rolled his eyes. "For someone who acts so coldly towards others, he sure acted nice towards me that week."

"You didn't blame him for it, did you?"

"Of course not. I know he couldn't control it. But he blamed himself, as always." Smiling over at her, he asked, "So what do you have planned to win over my brother's heart?"

"Well, I figured just acting like myself has given me his friendship, so if I just continue acting like this, then—"

"He already considers you a friend?" Mokuba asked, his eyes opening widely at this. "Wow, I'm way behind. Did he tell you he thought of you as a friend? When did this happen?!"

Tea chuckled. "He told me at the party he invited me over to."

Mokuba grinned widely at this. "The one where I heard you two danced together at…?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"Seto always danced with Sophie. That was there big thing. She wanted to be a ballroom dancer when she grew up. God only knows where she got that idea, but she was good at it." Mokuba laughed and said, "Obviously my brother is into the dancers."

Tea laughed and said, "Yes, I guess so."

"Speaking of which, do you still dance?"

"Of course."

"When do you have lessons?"

"Just whenever. I'm not part of an actual academy anymore; I joined a club where you can go and get a room to dance in by yourself for as many hours as you like. It's a pretty neat place."

"Wow, that sounds cool!" Mokuba exclaimed. "Maybe you should invite Seto to one of those…"

Tea blushed and quickly shook her head. "Oh no. I couldn't do that."

"Well, let me give you some advice. You're going to have to make the moves, not him. Seto is, surprisingly enough, way too timid to go out and flirt with a girl. You'll probably be the one asking him out on dates and that sort of thing."

"I figured just as much…"

"In fact…" Mokuba placed a finger on his chin and looked down at the floor as if pondering the problems of the world. Snapping his fingers, he smiled and said, "Why don't you hang out with him this Sunday? Are you busy that day?"

"N-No, I don't think so, but…doesn't he usually have work during the weekends?"

"Not on Sundays, no. That's our day to hang out, just the two of us. We sometimes play video games or go to the park or even hang out at the orphanage, but I want you to spend time with him."

"Mokuba, I don't want to intrude on your guys' plans!"

"Go ahead, Tea! If it means making my brother happier in the end, I'll gladly give up a day. Besides, I already know he loves me. He needs to realize he loves somebody else too!"

"Are you even so sure he loves me?"

"Yeah… With the way his nightmares are acting, it must be because he loves somebody, and I highly doubt that person is Jade. Those two are just good friends. It has to be that he loves you."

"I…see." Letting out a sigh, she smiled and said, "Fine, if your brother is okay with it, then tell him I'm free for Sunday."

"Yes!" he shouted, jumping back up out of his seat. "I'll tell him ASAP! But…now that you are here…" Standing up and walking over to the entertainment center, he tossed her a game controller, smirked, and asked, "Do you know how to play video games, Tea?"