Chapter 44 – You Wondered Why

"Come in," came the muffled voice of Seto as she knocked on the double doors leading into his office. Smiling, she opened the door and walked inside, quietly shutting the door behind her and glancing across the room at the CEO. He smirked and quirked an eyebrow at her. "And what in the hell are you carrying around?"

Looking down at her shopping bag, Tea shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Mai and I went out shopping for some clothing."

"Mai? You still hang out with her?"

"Yes; she and I are close friends." Tea set the bag onto the couch and sat down next to it, leaning back onto the smooth, black, leather seat. "I told you when I first started working at the orphanage how Mai and I always go to the local coffee shop, and every now and then we go shopping for clothing and such."

Seto nodded his head before turning back to his computer on his desk. "Sorry I obviously interrupted something you were doing," he stated as he pulled a manila folder out of his desk, "but I wanted to show you some pictures of the new orphanage."

Tea blinked in surprise and slowly stood up as Seto opened the folder and began spreading out pictures across his desk. Strolling across the room, she smiled at the pictures of people painting walls, new rooms being built, and even several pieces of furniture. "It's definitely not completely done," he continued, pointing at one with several workers laying down wood, "and we don't know how much furniture we truly need. It's getting there, though. Some of the bedrooms are done along with the kitchen and dining room. I'm going to start buying furniture now so that, when construction is complete, we can buy the leftover furniture we need and then move those kids in. It will be a hassle, but the sooner we get them out of that neighborhood, the better."

Tea smiled and casually looked at all the pictures before turning her gaze upwards. Sure enough, the mark from the car incident was still there, although she had to admit that the black and blue mark was dying away. "It's getting better," she thought before returning her gaze to the photos. "That's all I need to know."

"What do you think of some of this furniture?" he asked, placing a couple of pictures in front of her. "We don't want the furniture to be too girly or too boyish, as you know how little kids are, so Jade and I decided on blues, reds, and greens for the majority of it."

"What all are you planning on buying?"

"We're going to get a huge entertainment system for the living room," he explained. "The study will have several computers for them along with bookshelves and necessary equipment. We basically have everything for the dining room, which we both agreed wouldn't be all that fancy. The kitchen, well… Jade has the calls on that. She loves to cook, so she wants to design the kitchen however she wants to." Chuckling, he rolled his eyes and said, "That's fine with me. It's her orphanage anyway."

"But you're the one who's building it," Tea pointed out.

"And yet she's the one who protected me as a kid," he countered, narrowing his eyes slightly. "I told her I would repay her for that, and now I am."

"Are you still going to help out with the kids once this project is done?"

"Of course. In fact, I'm planning on adopting one of the kids sometime soon."

Tea again blinked in surprise. "W-Who are you planning to adopt?" she asked. "Should I be upset that he never told me about this? After all, we've been dating for a couple of weeks, but then again, it's only a couple of weeks. We aren't married yet; we just realized how serious the relationship truly is just awhile ago. So should I be angry that he's making plans for a family without my consent?"

Seto, who seemed to notice her sudden tenseness, closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "I honestly didn't know how you would react to that," he stated. "If it's a problem, then I'm sorry about it. I always promised myself that I would adopt a child, already knowing what those kids go through day-in and day-out, so I'm sorry if having a family wasn't one of your life goals."

"N-N-NO!" she exclaimed, waving her hands in front of her and grabbing the CEO's attention. She saw his eyes widen at her little spectacle and blushed. "I didn't mean that at all! I've always wanted a small family, but a family nonetheless. It's just… I mean…"

Seto's lips parted as a small smile formed on his face. "I know we haven't been dating for very long, Tea, but I can't see us breaking apart anytime soon either." Reaching out to grasp her hand, he said, "I want you to be part of my family, even if we're only dating like the teenagers we really are. No marriage, no contracts…we can just be the way we are now. I just want to adopt her after I graduate high school."

"'Her'?" Tea inquired. "You mean Lilith?"

Seto nodded his head and looked back down at the photos taken of the orphanage. Without looking up at her, he asked, "Is this okay?"

Leaning forward, Tea wrapped her arms around his shoulders and whispered, "Of course it is." She smiled as she saw a slight blush appear on his cheeks.

A loud, ringing noise interrupted the small embrace as the phone began to obnoxiously go off. Tea frowned as Seto quickly pulled away and answered the phone. "Kaiba," he stated, leaning with his elbows onto the desk. She sighed and walked away from the desk, taking one last peek at the photos, before beginning her stroll around the room.

"What all is there to do in the office of the CEO of KaibaCorp?" she thought playfully, eyeing the entire room since she figured the phone call would last awhile. "Let's see… There's a television, but I don't want to interrupt his phone call right now with the news blaring in the background. No games, that's for sure. Books…? He does seem to have a lot of bookshelves." Hearing him talk to what sounded like another CEO or president of some other company, she smirked and shrugged her shoulders. "Might as well see what he's got…"

Tea walked around the room until she was standing in front of the two, wide bookshelves that lined the wall. "What does he have here?" she thought as she leaned forward to get a better look. "These all look like horror or fantasy novels. Is this Mokuba's bookshelf or something? There's a lot of fiction here, that's for sure. I'm sure Seto likes to read these every now and then, but I can definitely tell this is more Mokuba's style of reading." Smiling, she thought, "It's nice that he stresses reading so much, especially with those kids at the orphanage. At least he shows this philosophy towards Mokuba too."

"What else does he have here…?" Scanning the spines of the books, Tea thought she would only find science fiction novels in the next bookshelf when she came across a thick, black spine. "This doesn't look like an ordinary book," she thought as she slowly took it out of its place, making sure to remember it so that she didn't screw up the order. The books looked as if they were hardly taken off the shelf, yet she knew it would be just her luck that a maid or janitor would notice the difference, notify Seto, and get him worked up over nothing. It didn't sound like something Seto would do, but who really knew what to expect with him? "After all, I didn't expect such a kind, caring man behind those cold, menacing, blue eyes he has."

Opening the large book up, Tea gasped in surprise. It was a scrapbook! Pictures of what looked like a young Mokuba and Seto were placed haphazardly on the sheets of paper, which were laminated to keep them from being ruined. The first page had a picture of Mokuba as a baby, and the next page had one of Seto holding him as a little kid. "This must be a photo album of when they were kids," she realized in awe. "No wonder it's one of the dustier books here."

She flipped through the pages, noticing how Seto was growing up right before her eyes. "And the amazing fact is that he's smiling in almost all of these pictures," she noted. "Mokuba is too, but he always smiles. That kid is so full of energy…and it looks like Seto has that energy in these photos too."

She could hear the CEO still talking over the phone and decided to flip to the next page. There was a building behind the two in one of the pictures, and Tea recognized the outside courtyard all too well. "The orphanage…" This was the first photo that Seto's smile began to fade in. It was a forced smile out of the both of them, to be sure, although Mokuba looked sorrowful while Seto had a glint of anger in his eyes. "Was this picture taken when they first moved there?" she wondered, glancing over the next couple of pages. There were pictures of a few other kids, but most were of Seto and Mokuba reading, playing chess, or on the swing set outside.

And then she flipped to the next page, only to gasp in absolute shock. These pictures were totally different. The two were smiling again, only this time they were accompanied by a third person. A girl, who looked to be about Seto's age, maybe bit older, with long, straight, blonde hair and circular glasses. She was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt along with a black, beanie hat, and was giving a thumbs-up to the camera. "Who is that?" Tea thought as she looked down over the pictures. There was one where the Kaiba brothers were playing a game of chess, the girl reading a magazine and sitting next to Seto. Another one where she was pushing Mokuba on the swing, Seto getting ready to jump on her back. A fourth one where she was dressed up as a dancer in a long, flowing dress, Seto dressed up as a vampire next to her. A Halloween picture, no doubt. But that meant…

"This is Sophie!" Tea concluded. "This…was her?" She looked pretty for her age, though Tea now understood where the whole daredevil concept came from. The girl looked a bit quirky in all of the photos, as if she didn't belong in them. One in particular caught Tea's attention; the two were sitting on a curb, melting popsicles in each of their hands, as the two were caught on camera giving each other a small kiss.

"And what are you looking at?" a playful voice asked, making Tea jump up in the air in surprise. Turning around, she saw Seto smiling down at her. "Sorry about that. I needed to arrange a meeting for next week. What are you…doing…" His voice trailed off as he looked down at the scrapbook she was holding, his eyes widening in recognition of the pictures.

"I-I'm sorry," Tea stated, going to close the scrapbook when the CEO pointed at one of the pictures, preventing her from doing such. "I didn't mean to--"

"I remember getting that picture taken," he interrupted, his voice soft. Looking up at him, Tea saw his eyes soften immensely as most likely a wave of nostalgia swept over him. "Mokuba was angry because he wasn't in it. He wanted to dress up as a clock that year, but they had to fix his attire right before we left. We didn't have time to take pictures afterwards…"

Gulping, Tea slowly asked, "Is this…Sophie?"

Seto slowly nodded his head and let out a long sigh. "I haven't looked at those pictures in forever…" Turning around, Seto began to walk back to his desk, and Tea sighed before closing the book and placing it back on the bookshelf. She spun around as well and began walking towards the couch when she noticed the CEO calmly take a seat in one of the comfort chairs. Clasping his hands together in front of his face, he let out another sigh before slowly opening his eyes, their normal luster now dull and unfocused. "She died in this very room, you know?" he whispered.

"She…what?" Tea asked, leaning forward to hear more clearly. "Did he just say—"

"She died…in this very room," he repeated, his voice rising in volume only slightly. Tea took her seat on the sofa and frowned. This suddenly wasn't the Seto she knew. "It took all my willpower not to move the office when I became CEO here at KaibaCorp. I wanted to so badly, but that would just attract attention, and attention was something I was trying to stave off at that point. Besides, nobody knew about her death… I couldn't have people prying into her life."

Tea looked around the floor in wonder. "She died…in here?" she asked, pointing down at the floor. Seto merely nodded his head.

"It was a little after Gozaburo began abusing me," he continued, his eyes still unfocused. "He first started it just to show his power over me, yet I continued doing many things that I did at the orphanage. Dating Sophie was one of those. He didn't know I had a girlfriend, but one day when she came to visit, she noticed my bruises from a particular beating. She… She had no idea what was going on and stormed into Gozaburo's office, me tagging right behind her trying to stop her. I knew of his cruelty…and she didn't."

"She marched on in, demanding to know what had happened to me, and she probably scared Gozaburo at first. After all, he didn't know whether or not the police would learn about my treatments. When he realized who she was and her relationship with me, he…he…" Tea noticed his breathing become quick, rigid, almost forced. "He pulled out a pistol and shot her. Three times. One pierced her heart, the other two in her stomach. He left her here, in this very room, to die… He told me it was my responsibility to call the cops and that he would fabricate a story for them to buy into. If I told them what had happened…he threatened he would do the same to Mokuba."

All Tea could do was stare at the man before her. Seto Kaiba, the most stoic man on Earth, the cruelest man on Earth, the richest snob of Domino City…all those nicknames fell by the wayside with what she now saw. His entire body shook at the memory of his lost girlfriend, his hands covering the tears that were threatening to surface. Even his voice had dropped back down in pitch, and the idea of speaking seemed foreign to him, as his words came out like badly memorized lines. "I couldn't get Mokuba into that kind of trouble, and I immediately called Dr. Kelan to come and help Sophie. But… I was too late." He leaned back in the chair and let his head roll back, letting out a long sigh and not caring as a single tear rolled down his cheek. "She died in my arms in this very room. I never forgave Gozaburo for that…and I never forgave myself for that either."

"I…" Tea was at a loss for words. There was nothing she could say to that confession. Nothing at all would mean a thing. What could she say that would erase the memory of watching a loved one suffer?

"You wondered why I was on so much medication?" he asked, not bothering to raise his head. "You wondered why I was so skeptical about entering a relationship? You wondered… You wondered why I always promised myself to protect you?" Another tear fell. "I didn't want you to end up like her, like Sophie… She didn't deserve to die like that. Nobody does…"

Tea quickly stood up and walked over to the CEO, wiping his tears away and smiling down at him. "I… Thank you for telling me, Seto," she whispered, sitting down in his lap and wrapping her arms around his shoulders once more. "Thank you so much."

It seemed as though all secrets were now gone, now done with between the two. She now understood his past and what shaped him. Sophie didn't just die; she was killed in his arms. It all made sense now. His behavior towards others, of pushing them away…of the car incident, where the gunshot startled him…of his over-protectiveness towards friends and loved ones… "It all makes sense now."

"I'm not going to be able to do any work now," he commented, raising his head slightly to look up at her. A small smile formed on his face, and he asked, "Do you want to go get something to eat?"

Her smile widened as she tightened her grip around him. "I would love to, Seto," she answered. This seemed to be fine enough an answer, for he wrapped his arms tightly around her.

"Thank you, Tea…for everything."

And rather than giving off her usual speech on how he did everything, on how he helped himself, she realized that he was not in that state of mind. Instead, she replied with a simple, "You're welcome," before closing her eyes and kissing Seto on the cheek.