Emerald-demoness: Once again the only thing I can say is "Damn writer's block!" and hope it gets better soon. I am so sorry for how long this took.
Chapter eight:
A few days after Zira returned, she got tired of sitting around doing nothing but cleaning up the shop and cooking. With money loaned from Kaiba, she bought a small run-down building near the Gameshop. Even with everyone's help, it took nearly two weeks to fix the place up to her satisfaction. They found out that Joey was surprisingly good at construction jobs.
The windows in the front were big and clear, giving a good view of the inside. The floor was dark hardwood. The walls were a rich, dark red. String instruments decorated the walls. A piano, the same one that had been in Grandpa's shop, sat in the middle of the room.
She opened the shop to teach people to play piano, the violin, or sing, calling it "Apollo's Studio". She had always been interested in Greek history, and even though the sprits were a bit put out about her not finding a nice Egyptian name for it, everyone agreed that it was a fitting name for a music studio.
However nice the name, it didn't help much when it came to customers. Many people walked in, only to walk back out when they saw the scar on her face. It was frustrating to her, and it made everyone else angry on her behalf. There were many, many rants about stupid people not seeing at anything but a person's looks.
She did, however, get a few customers, though one of them did ask her if she was a trouble maker and straight up told her that if that was the case she should find a better way to make money. Zira had laughed and assured him that she was nothing of the sort. The two got along quite well now; she loved hearing about the places he went to when he was a pilot. She was also quite grateful that his grandchildren were well behaved.
After a few weeks, Zira started going to Ryou's house to talk about his split personalities. Everyone knew that going to a therapist was out of the question, what with money problems, Bakura, and the disdain most of them had for therapists in general. So, Zira took it upon herself the help him as much as she could. They had a deal of sorts going on, where they basically traded stories.
Ryou would tell various memories he had of his dad, and she would talk about her captivity. They kept their talks to the lighter stuff at first; like Ryou complaining about how his dad sent him money to pay off the bills, and if he took anymore then his measly monthly allowance out before sending the rest back to his father, he'd know and get pissy. Zira talked about the mild starvation she went through in the beginning. Then the themes of their talks gradually got darker: Ryou's father throwing him down the stairs, breaking his arm, a few ribs, and giving him a concussion. Zira told him about the torture they put her through in return.
Eventually, Ryou told her about the memories he gained from Hope and Affection. Afterwards, she told him her own secret, one she hadn't shared with anyone but Grandpa.
"Yugi and I, we went to live with Grandpa because our parents were arrested for child abuse." She told him, looking down and hugging her knees to her chest.
Ryou's mouth dropped open, and he could feel Bakura's surprise as well. How could anyone abuse Yugi? And if what Yugi said was true, Zira used to be just like him. Why wasn't there any sign, unless . . .
"Yugi doesn't know; Grandpa and I have never had the nerve to tell him. I don't know what he thinks now, but he used to think that they were on a trip, or dead. That's the reason he's so short. Those first, crucial years he only got what he needed to survive, and he had severe malnourishment. I knew what they were doing was wrong, but I didn't mind. Not until Yugi came along. With him came all my big sister instincts, which I didn't understand at the time.
I'm only six years older than him; I didn't know what to do. I'd told the music teacher once, but I looked healthy to him and he didn't believe me. They were smart, and only hit me where my clothes would hide the bruises. I decided that I didn't need help, and that I'd just have to protect Yugi myself. I gave at least half of my food to him, once he was able to eat it. When mom or dad came home drunk, I drew their attention towards me. It seemed to be working, and I was as satisfied as I was going to get, I didn't trust authority figures to help me out anymore.
But then one day, they came home early, before I came home from school. I wasn't there to divert their attention, and I came home to my father hitting my three-year old brother. It was then I realized that I couldn't protect my brother all the time. And I came to the conclusion that we had to get out of there. So the next day, I got my secret stash of money, got Yugi, and left. I didn't have much, but I had a little less than I needed to get to Grandpa's house. So I went as far as I could on the bus, and walked the rest of the way.
Grandpa was furious when he found out, and immediately called the authorities. Apparently accusing your own son of child abuse makes them sit up and take notice. After that we lived with Grandpa. But I've always remembered that I couldn't protect him, and I started to learn how to fight. I started teaching Yugi to use his survival instincts, and the very basics of fighting. But he was always a little softer than me. He wouldn't use the fighting I'd taught him when he was bullied because he didn't want to hurt anybody, even if they had shown that they had no problems with hurting him.
From what Grandpa told me, Yugi pretty much lost the will to live when I disappeared. If it wasn't for Yami, Joey, and Tristan, he would still be letting himself be bullied, not even using the survival instincts I embedded in him. I've failed my brother twice, being too weak to protect him when he was little, and too weak to keep from being kidnapped . . ."
"That is complete bullshit and you know it. How could you be expected to protect your brother from your own parents when you were nine? And you couldn't help being kidnapped." Ryou told her firmly.
"But!" she started, but Ryou interrupted her.
"But nothing! If parents can so completely and utterly fail so often, don't you think it's fair that older siblings get to make some mistakes, or even be unable to help because it was out of their control?" he asked her, silently begging that she would just understand.
"Yes, you're right, of course. But that doesn't change the fact that I still feel guilty about it, and nothing anyone says is going to change that." She admitted.
They talked about simple things the rest of the night, not wanting to bring up anymore bad memories.
Zira slowly intergrated herself into the group, and even got along with Kaiba, unless she was announcing to the world that he and Joey were secretly in love with eachother but were too afraid to say it. The rest of the gang joined in on the teasing, much to the two's mortification. Those were the only times that Kaiba and Joey willingly teamed up against someone.
Her meeting with Tea was also amusing. Once Tea screamed at Yugi about not telling her about his sister she announced that she felt sorry for the monkey Tea killed. Marik, Bakura, Tristan, and Joey almost died laughing, hell, even Kaiba chuckled. Tea didn't get it until Ryou said "She does scream like a dying monkey, doesn't she?". She then proceeded to yell at them all and walk of in a huff when they didn't stop.