Chapter Three: Paint Me A Perfect Place

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.

Warnings/Notes: Possibly OOC, the story about Yugi's mother is in no way factual, I made it up and in all honesty have only seen her once in the series and a few times in the manga. Italics are a flashback.

Pegasus looked at her intently as she moved some hair out of her face and looked down at the ground, it was as if she felt she shouldn't be discussing this at all, and yet she'd been the one to bring it up. He waited a few moments, maybe she needed time to collect herself…maybe the woman was hard for them all to talk about…? He sat mulling over his thoughts as she finally chose her words.

"When Yugi was still a baby his mother wanted to give him up, his grandfather stopped her and took him in. He told Yugi later on when he was old enough to find out the truth, he told him that his mother was a good person, that she loved him, but that she wasn't someone that liked to be tied down to anyone or anything. She wasn't the maternal type and it was better to have someone more suited to raise a child anyway. He told him that he'd always be there to support him and that he loved him very much, none of his family held anything against him. They all care about him, and his mother even comes to see him sometimes…he wants to tell her that its alright, that he doesn't resent her or anything, but she never stays with him more than a half hour…. Well…I guess he just likes to enjoy the time he actually has with her…he tries to make his encounters with her cheery and upbeat but with her that's always a problem." She began to explain.

"I see, so is it that he doesn't know how to feel about his mother?" Pegasus inquired. That brought about all the more potential in a painting.

Tea shrugged, "I don't know, I guess. I really shouldn't even be talking to you about this, I should've let Yugi do it when he was ready…he'd have never done this to me. I feel bad, I really do but I just wanna protect him, he takes on the weight of the world sometimes and I know…I know…"

"Tea if this is uncomfortable we don't have to talk about it." Pegasus offered as he handed her a tissue from a box on his bedside table. "I won't tell Yugi-boy about any of this, you don't have to get so anxious." He then assured.

Tea blew her nose and took a deep breath to calm her nerves, "Thanks." She replied, "I know that he'd understand if I explained to him why I was telling you, but I just…feel bad. His mom's a drug addict too, and takes a lot of the money Yugi earns from dueling for her own. His grandfather recently put a stop to it and told her that she had no right to take someone else's hard earned money. After that she hasn't come to see Yugi, he feels like its his fault, he tells us sometimes that he wants to go see her but every time he tries she never lets him into her house, never even moves to the door to tell him to go away. It's like…he's dead to her."

Pegasus nodded in understanding as he crossed his legs, "And how long ago was this?" He asked.

"About six months ago." Tea informed him, "It seems like she only wanted to interact with him in the first place to get his money."

A sadness stirred in Pegasus's eye, "Yes, it most certainly does. I can imagine that the subject will be touchy for Yugi, but not all projects will involve this particular subject. What I'm going to attempt to do is show him how to express himself through his art so its like venting and working at the same time. You don't want the emotions to overwhelm you, you want them to write themselves out, if you will." He continued.

"Do you think Yugi can learn how to do that?" She asked.

"Little Yugi's a strong boy. And even when he struggles the other Yugi won't let him fall too far, he's the closest friend the boy has and he shares every emotion that the other does. It's going to take a while for the boy to learn how and when to control which emotions; but he's never-or seldom let them get the better of him before with other Yugi around." Pegasus reminded her, trying to keep up beat as he messed with the cut that was still bleeding slightly in order to keep it out of plain sight.

"I guess you're right." She seemed more contemplative than anything. "In any case thanks a lot for helping him out like this, you didn't have to, you know." She continued.

He smiled, "It's alright, since I still owe him quite a bit for our little…mishap…at Duelist Kingdom." He clarified. The teen chose to stay clear of such a topic. "Well would you look at that." He smiled and tucked the art books under his arm for a later time, "It's nearly supper time, guess we'd better go gather your friends." He continued.

She nodded, "Not that Joey'll need recruiting."

Pegasus smiled and walked with her down the many hallways of the extravigantly lit castle until they came to the person they'd been looking for, "Croquet, round up the others and inform them that their meal is ready, trust me that won't give you any trouble." He instructed.

The older man stared at his employer momentarily before nodding, as if silently willing him to ask someone else to do something so tedious. Nevertheless he went on his way to search the rooms in pursuit of the three boys and came back with all of them in a matter of minutes. At least, the head of security thought, they were predictable kids.

Joey yawned as he took a seat across from Tea; Pegasus sat at the far end of the table, "Alright!" He exclaimed, immediately brightening at the sight of some of his favorites (though all food was his favorite and he didn't like to seem partial) "I love this place! All you can eat for free!" He exclaimed as he piled a plate full of ham, mashed potatoes and various types of chicken in a mound on top of one another.

"Dude pass me that tuna…thing!" Tristan called to the blonde who had begun stuffing his face.

"Of all the food on this table you want the catfood and mayonnaise?" Pegasus asked as he lifted a bite of potatoes au gratin to his lips.

"More or less." The brunet replied as he took the bowl from Joey and piled some on his plate.

"What are those Pegasus?" Yugi asked gesturing to the books Pegasus had set on the table as he at last collected himself enough to focus on his current surroundings. He had to admit compared to his normal adventures with the gang these circumstances were fairly normal.

"Those are some books I'd like you to have a look at if you have some free time in your room. I know I said you wouldn't start lessons until tomorrow but I think these will help you not to be overwhelmed when that time comes in the morning. They walk you through the personal aspects of visual arts." He explained.

Yugi smiled, "Sounds great, thanks!" He gratefully replied as they began eating again.

"What's wrong with your potatoes, they're…they look…like…green!" Tristan noted as Pegasus dug into the mentioned food.

Staring down at it, his silver hair momentarily falling into his good eye, he laughed. "It's probably just parsley Tristan." Yami informed him as he took over to eat something as well.

"Well actually Tristan-boy's got a point, they're not normal potatoes au gratin, normally that's made with cheddar cheese, these have Gorgonzola in them." He informed his guests.

"Ew…isn't that MOLDY?" Joey asked in mortification.

Again Pegasus laughed heartily, "Of course not, here." He slid a dish full of the potatoes down to Joey, "Have some." He coaxed. Joey looked at the blob of food as if locked in a life or death battle with it.

Carefully he lifted his unused spoon and dipped it into the dish, "If I die no one touch my deck." Was the last thing he said before putting it into his mouth, immediately his face turned green and he looked as though he'd been poisoned. His eyes danced about from person to person as his face went from green, to red and then blue.

"Joey just swallow and breath man!" Tristan exclaimed as the blonde screwed his face into a pained expression.

"You can't choke on potatoes right?" Tea observed as she tilted her head to the side slightly.

Pegasus meanwhile was laughing hysterically, "Come now Joey-boy, they can't be that bad." He teased playfully as the boy swallowed at last.

"BLEGH! And you said TUNA was catfood!" Joey snapped as he stuffed half a piece of chicken in his mouth in a desperate attempt to rid his mouth of the taste of the potatoes.

"Don't choke now Joseph." Pegasus chided in a cheery manor as they all continued to eat.

"Is something the matter Tea?" Yami asked the brunette in a serious tone, "You've barely eaten anything." He added.

The girl looked down at her plate of food, "Oh." She laughed a bit, "Guess I was just distracted by Joey." He hurriedly took a bite.

Tristan eyed her suspiciously as Joey attempted to chew his mountain of chicken without breaking his jaw, "You're not worried about your weight like all those girls at school are you, you look good." He spoke up.

Tea laughed authentically, "No, I'm comfortable with who I am." She assured him as she ate some more, "I was just enjoying the show." Everyone burst out laughing as at that moment Joey attempted to retort and nearly choked on the other half of the bite still in his mouth.

"Hair ball?" Pegasus asked as he wiped his face with a napkin.

"Haha, very funny." Joey replied as he at last finished off the chicken and moved on to the rest of what was on his plate.

"Well we all have a lot of catching up to do." Pegasus informed them as he sat back in his chair and allowed the servants to take his plate away. "What've you all been up to since our little run in with Dartz?" He asked.

"Surprisingly enough, not much." The four replied in unison.

"How are you grades?" He asked.

"Mine are really good." Tea admitted proudly, "Joey and Tristan are flunking Spanish four." She informed him.

"Usted pensaría con como muchos canallas como usted ha encarado la clase española sería una brisa." Pegasus replied.

"Yeah it'd make sense." Yugi replied as he and Yami once again switched places.

"What'd he say?" Both Joey and Tristan asked as they looked at the man in bewilderment.

"You'd think with as many villains as you've faced Spanish class would be a breeze." Yugi replied.

"Well at least I'm passin' calculus." Joey put in.

"Yeah because you copy off of Mischa Young every day."

"Shut up Tristan!"

Tea and Yugi laughed at the two, "Calm down guys, at least you're not failing art." He put in.

"Well there's a reason for that, your teacher sounds like an incompetent fool and it wouldn't surprise me if most of your instructors were at that school. I was never one to pick things up right away either, someone always had to show me multiple times for me to retain it and then I was fine, with no help you may as well not even be there." Pegasus spoke up in consolation.

"I know how you feel, it's so frustrating when you're sitting in English class going over Great Expectations with Ms. Mutter and you still feel like you need an English translation." Joey added.

"It is hard when teachers don't give you a chance to prove that you're at least trying." Tea concluded, "I passed AP Physics with a C- last semester because Mrs. Norman just told me to read the problem over when I struggled with what it was asking me to do."

Pegasus shook his head, "And this is the kind of public education we pay taxes for, honestly." He spoke up in disgust.

"That's not as bad as what Mr. Evander tried to pull with Tea in her theatre class." Joey spoke up angrily, immediately Pegasus felt sick and Tea sat up a bit straighter in her chair.

"He was a creep and lost his job like he deserved." She reminded the blonde, whom this not at all consoled.

"What exactly happened?" Yugi asked her, "You never explained to me in detail."

She shook her head, feeling tears welling up behind her eyes, "It's not something you openly talk about." She told him.

"Tea." Yami took over now and put a hand on her shoulder, "What happened, Tea?" He asked, his voice strong and almost commanding.

"It's been really hard to talk about, all we know is what Yugi knows, he was harassing her about being late, or absent or something."

"Yeah but that's what gets me so damn mad, that wouldn't have caused him to lose his job." Upon noting this Joey got up to move to Tea's side and hug her as she swiped at her tears with the back of her hand.

"Tea if he attempted anything inappropriate it should cost him much more than his job." Pegasus informed her, "Did he hurt you?" He asked as he himself got up to move from his spot at the table.

"Half way through the semester." She paused to collect herself a bit, "I was failing his class and asked him why, because it was just a proforming class and the other members of my group were doing well…"

"Mr. Evander, I don't understand why I'm failing and I just wanted to see if there was anything you could tell me to help me improve."

The middle aged man looked up from the work on his desk in the auditorium, "You need to put fourth more effort, you might as well not even be here."

"But I don't understand-"

"You know you've got a lot more going for you than Natasha Wright and Shannon." He eyed her in a way no teacher should a student and on impulse she stepped back a few paces.

"But I'm trying really hard and-"

"If you want to pass this class." The man got up from his desk and moved to stand in front of her, his tall, heavy set form towering above her, "You're gonna have to convince me you deserve it." He whispered at her ear.

"What are you doing?" She moved away from him but he grabbed her wrist to hold her back, "Get off me!" She exclaimed become slightly frantic as she tried to pull herself free.

"You need the class Tea, you need me, go on." He whispered at her as he moved his body closer to hers, "Say it, tell me you need me." She screamed, and reflexively kneed him and fled the room, she stopped to look at or wait for no one. Tears were streaming down her face but she was shaking so hard and in so much shock that couldn't feel them there.

"And so that's basically how it went, I found an administrator, made him sit down and listen to me, transferred out of the class until they could take action and eventually you found out I wasn't the first person he'd done that to." She dried her eyes completely, "It's not like he hurt me, I mean much worse things have happened to people and I shouldn't be so dramatic. It's just that I never expected something like that…with you guys around…I never thought…"

Her friends hugged her and assured her that they understood and that there was no need for her to continue, "It'll be alright now, no one's ever gonna let that happen to you again!" Joey exclaimed as he embraced her, "That asshole."

"Yeah, just forget about it okay?" Tristan added as he too hugged her.

"Tristan and Joey are right, we'll keep you safe from now on." Yami assured and silently Pegasus's mind was racing. He had no idea that these children that were so brave were only made that way because of the things they were forced to endure at home. Inside his stomach lurched violently.

He moved to place a hand on top of her head to console her as she stood stronger now. "No one here will ever do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. If when you go anywhere, whether it be Domino or Tokyo, and someone makes you feel threatened I want you to take down my number and call me right away. I'll get in touch with someone that'll help you and take care of you if you're alone."

Tea nodded, "Yes and you have the number of Yugi's grandfather." Yami added.

"And Professor Hawkins." Yugi put in through their mind link.

"My mom's in Brooklyn." Joey informed her and right then and there she smiled, for she understood as she looked from Pegasus to her friends that whether someone she was close with was physically with her or not, she was never alone.

Her eyes fell on Yami as he and Yugi switched places so that the shorter of the two could join in the moment, she hoped someday soon she could instill in him that same comfort. A thought crossed her mind and she smiled.

And yet, perhaps in some way, even though none of them felt or realized it yet, Pegasus already had.

AN: Dramatic chapter, I know, this isn't the end of the story, no where close actually. I just figured I'd throw some character development in the mix, from here on out I'll try to focus more on the plot. Thanks for reading.