Chapter six:
Curiosity
Tea struggled to find her keys at the bottom of her purse, relieved to see that Yami wasn't anywhere in sight. She stood at her door fishing in her purse, until she finally bunged her fingers around her keys.
Moments later she was inside the comfort of her apartment in desperate need of a shower and some chocolate ice-cream. Ice-cream always had a way of making her feel better. Her head was still spinning as she walked into her bedroom.
She sat at the edge of her bed as she pulled off her shoes. She was way too young to be feeling so frustrated and worn out. And she definitely needed to do something about her headache. She headed to her bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. Aside from her regular toiletries there wasn't much else in there, least of all headache medication.
She decided that she had no choice but to go down to the drugstore and get herself some more aspirin.
After taking a quick shower she changed into something more comfortable and headed back out of her apartment.
She looked at her watch as she walked down the sidewalk; it was still rather early; only 6:30.
Luckily the drugstore was only about a block away other wise she would have to take a cab. She really needed to get a car.
As she neared her destination she found that for some reason she was starting to think about Kaiba. Her headache must be interfering with her thought process. She knew she was attracted to him physically, most girls were, but to actually have some kind of crush on him on a deeper level was completely absurd. Wasn't it?
When she finally entered the drugstore her head was spiraling out of control. She needed to get back home as soon as possible.
She bought one bottle of aspirin and got out as hastily as she came in.
All she needed to do now was to get to her apartment.
As she walked along the sidewalk again, annoyingly enough her thoughts fell right back onto Seto Kaiba. Crap, this stupid headache.
When she was finally home she headed straight for the kitchen. She filled a glass with water from the faucet, popped two of the Aspirin in her mouth and washed it down immediately. After that she headed to her living room and sat down on the couch to watch a little T.V. She grabbed one of the small cushions and hugged it to her body as she flipped through the channels.
After about half an hour her headache finally started to ease up. She was still pretty worried about Yami showing up at her door but she decided not to think about it too much. She needed to clear her thoughts if she wanted her headache to stop.
After she had her fill of some of her favorite shows, she decided to call it a night. She definitely needed some rest if she wanted a lucid frame of mind in the morning. And she knew Kaiba wouldn't be as kind to her tomorrow as he was to her today.
With her mind in a torrent she climbed into bed and fell asleep shortly after.
The next day at Kaiba Corp went by just as quickly as the last, without the damper of a splitting headache. Tea had managed to put on a sunny disposition through out the entire day despite the glum state of her heart. She had tried extremely hard to keep Yami as far away from her thoughts as possible and was surprisingly more successful at it than she thought she would be.
Kaiba was definitely a man of his word, just as he had promised he had loaded her with errands and almost made her faint at the amount of files he dropped on her desk that morning. So by quitting time she was pretty worn out. This is why she wasn't too happy when Kaiba informed her that she would have to stay a few extra hours with him at the office. He needed her to organize a number of important documents for a meeting he had the next day. Oh joy another three hours with Seto Kaiba.
5:30pm (Kaiba's office)
Kaiba's fingers moved swiftly across the keys of his laptop as he tried to keep his mind focused on his work. His concentration levels were lower than usual and he knew exactly why they were. Tea was sitting on the leather couch only a few feet away from him busily flipping through documents and files that still needed to be sorted out. Kaiba knew she was hiding something but he wasn't really sure what it was.
He glimpsed at her just as she was trying to reach one of the research files on top of his bookshelf. It looked like she was having a fairly hard time, it was pretty high up after all. Sighing to himself he decided to give her some help.
"You know if you wanted some help all you had to do was ask."
Tea was startled as he appeared at her side.
Kaiba retrieved the book with ease and handed it to her. She took it from him feeling a bit silly.
"I didn't want to disturb you."
Kaiba felt his baser instincts taking control of his body again as he looked down at her. They were standing pretty close and he could sense her uneasiness. He wondered what she was thinking as she stared back up at him.
"Next time just ask"
With that said he headed back over to his desk. He was starting to get irritated, more so with himself than anything else. Could he be getting soft? Something was bothering her, but why was that bothering him?
He had to do something about this, but what? His concentration didn't get any better as he resumed his work, in fact it got worse. He sighed inwardly as he dragged his eyes from the lap top to look at Tea again. She was flipping through the file he had just handed to her, but she looked as though she was looking straight through the pages, as if her mind was on something else.
He stared at the screen of his lap top, trying to figure out what to do. He didn't know what was going on with him but he decided that it had to stop and the only way to do that was to satisfy his impending curiosity before it ate him alive. He wasn't sure how he was going to do that but somehow he would find a way.
He forced himself to continue his work in silence, for the rest of the evening.
7:00pm
Kaiba managed to convince Tea to let him give her a ride to her apartment again despite all of her protests. Tea had barely said a word to him all evening. Again he was both annoyed and confused as to why that was suddenly a bad thing.
By the time they had driven only half of the distance Kaiba decided to take matters into his own hands. This new concern for Tea was getting old and he needed to regain some of his sanity. He glimpsed at her as she stared out the window.
"Why so quiet Gardner?"
"I just don't feel like talking."
She sounded exhausted and withdrawn, much unlike the Tea he had known back in high school.
"humph, I never thought I'd see the day that you didn't have anything to say."
"Well there's a first time for everything."
Now he knew something was wrong for sure, the Tea he knew would never let him get away with a statement like that one.
He decided to push the conversation further to see where he could take it, hopefully in the direction of some answers.
"Any particular reason you don't feel like talking? Or… could it be you just don't feel like talking to me?"
"No, Its not that, I just feel tired that's all."
"That's bullshit."
Tea turned to look at him, a little annoyed
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean why don't you just stop sugar coating everything for once and just admit that you just don't feel like talking to me in particular."
It wasn't his intention to get her agitated but his only goal at the moment was to get some answers. So he was prepared to say or do what was necessary to get them
"What are you talking about? Look its not you, I'm tired, I don't feel like talking, is that so hard to understand?"
"In your case , it is hard to understand…"
"Kaiba, what do you care if I don't say anything anyway."
"Actually I don't care; I just want you to admit that I'm the reason you're not saying anything. It's obvious to anyone with eyes that you despise me Gardner."
Tea was getting aggravated.
" What? I never said I despise you…"
Tea saw the smirk pulling over his lips and immediately wished she could erase what she had just said.
"So does that mean you like me then?"
"No, it doesn't mean anything."
"You sure about that?"
"I know this might be a shock to you but I'm not one of your little fan girls, if that's what you're suggesting."
She turned to stare out the window again, clearly trying to evade their conversation.
But Kaiba wasn't about to let her off the hook that easily. He knew he had to keep pushing her if he wanted some insight.
"Actually I'm not shocked; you seem to be more of a Yami fan to me."
Kaiba knew he was threading on thin ice now but he needed to know if his suspicions were true or if he was just being paranoid. He paid close attention to her response.
"I'm nobody's fan girl, least of all his."
She sounded a little bitter, as if she was speaking more to herself than to him.
"Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't he your boyfriend at one time, and by the way you acted when he showed up at your door the other day, I'd say fan is an understatement."
Tea suddenly became very angry and very hurt all at the same time. She knew Kaiba had no idea what had really happened between her and Yami, but he still had no business talking about it as if it were a joke.
She turned to look at him feeling her temper rise
"Kaiba you don't know anything about me or Yami, so why don't you go mind someone else's business."
Kaiba noticed the sudden change in her tone which confirmed his initial assumption right away. Just what the hell did that asshole do to her?
He glimpsed at her again, she was looking straight ahead but she was fiddling with her purse. She looked down at her fingers, clearly trying to hold back tears.
Kaiba felt a pang of guilt wash over him as he pulled his eyes back to the road. He felt like a jerk, he should've known that Yami would be too much of a touchy subject for her.
After a few minutes of silence they finally arrived at her apartment building. He switched the engine off and turned to look her. She was already scrambling to get out of the car, when he gently grabbed her by the arm, preventing her from getting up out of her seat.
"Look …Tea…I didn't mean to upset you."
She was thrown completely off guard by the tenderness in his voice. She turned to stare back at him noticing that his eyes were a little softer than they usually were. She felt intimidated looking up at him at such a proximity. She didn't quite know how to respond, all she wanted was to get out of the car, she didn't want him to see how upset she was but she knew it was already too late.
Kaiba's concern for her rose as he looked at her, her eyes were glistening and it was obvious that she had a lot on her mind. He waited for her to speak.
"I… I'm not upset ok…"
"But you are…I can tell…"
She didn't give him a chance to say anything further
"Ok fine I'm upset…..but it's not your fault or your problem ok."
Her voice was soft and her eyes were slowly filling up with tears as she spoke.
"I know it's not my problem …."
He leaned in closer and wiped the first trace of a tear from her eyes with his thumb.
"…but I shouldn't have said what I said ok."
She felt her heartbeat speeding up as she felt him touch her face. She didn't say anything, trying hard to pry her eyes away from his, but was surprised to find that she couldn't.
What in the world was going on here?
She felt vulnerable as she stared up at him with teary eyes. Why was he being so nice to her?
But before Kaiba could say another word, she gently pulled away from his touch. He moved back slightly studying her expression. She looked a little frightened and even more upset than before. He felt his guilt return full throttle.
When she spoke her voice was calm but he knew she was anything but.
" I… I really need to go ok, I'm tired."
Despite his concern for her Kaiba decided it best not to press her anymore. His little attempt to eliminate his curiosity had somehow back fired; horribly.
He started the engine again as he watched her climb out of the car deciding that it was better if he didn't say anything further. What was he thinking? he should have never let his curiosity get the better of him. He drove off after watching her walk to the door feeling even more annoyed with himself than the day before.
Tea shut the door to the front entrance of her apartment building as she heard Kaiba drive off down the street. She kept her hand on the door knob, feeling distraught and a little perplexed. What the hell was that about? Her heart was still racing as she tried in vain to steady her thoughts.