Chapter 10

It had taken Duke a while to settle on a suitable second half to their date. In the end he'd chosen a trip to the cinema, allowing her to choose the film so he wouldn't be accused of patronising her or taking her to something too adult for her child-like mind to handle. They'd munched their way through most of their snacks before the trailers had even started, which seemed to help both of them relax a little. Apprehensively he placed an arm around her shoulder, not sure whether or not this would be too much too soon for her. She giggled a little and half curled herself into him. He found himself relaxing as he repeatedly reminded himself she might have been child-like, but she wasn't a child and he needed to stop worrying so much.

They were about halfway through the film when he sensed a pair of eyes watching him. Glancing about edgily he spotted a figure stood in the gangway. It was too dark to make out anything about them, but their mere presence made Duke squirm more than a little. What made it worse was the fact he was certain they were the one staring at him. Focussing his attention back on the screen he tried to ignore it, but the feeling of the unseen eyes watching his every move completely unnerved him. For nearly five whole minutes, his attention became divided between the action on the screen and the shadowy figure in the gangway. Then to his great surprise, on what must have been his twentieth glance away from the screen, the figure vanished.

A cold shudder ran up his spine; the only thing creepier than some weirdo staring at you was when that weirdo completely disappeared. He tried to forget about them and refocus his attention on the film, but it was impossible. He felt as though his privacy had been violated and nothing could convince him it hadn't.

'You know this could become a problem.'

'What could?' Catilin yawned as her eyes fluttered open.

'You falling asleep on me every time we go out.'

'Oh no, I didn't, did I?' Her body jerked into a sitting position. 'I'm so, so, so sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep on you, honest. It was just so nice and cosy snuggling into you and I've been so, so tired lately I...'

'It's okay,' Duke laughed lightly as he cut her off, 'I don't mind, you're cute when you're sleeping.'

His words made Catilin grin.

'What?'

'You think I'm cute?' Catilin giggled.

'I believe I said I think you're cute when you're sleeping,' Duke smirked at her, 'that doesn't mean I think you're cute when you're awake.'

'But you do think it,' she pulled herself up proudly, 'I know you do, you think I'm cute.'

'I think I might start regretting asking you out.'

'You wouldn't,' her face fell.

'You're right, I wouldn't,' he laughed again, 'so what do you want to do now?'

'You mean the date isn't over yet?' Catilin blinked at him.

'Only if you want it to be,' he shrugged, 'but the way I see it there's still plenty of day time left and... I'd like to spend at least a little more of it with you.'

'So what do you think?'

'What do I think of what?' Yugi frowned at her.

'Weren't you listening to a word I just said?'

'Sorry,' he shrugged, 'I guess I was a little distracted.'

'You've been a little distracted a lot lately,' Téa folded her arms, 'if I didn't know better I'd say it was your way of telling me you were bored of my company or something.'

'This isn't about to be followed by some long winded friendship speech, is it?'

Téa wasn't sure if she should feel offended by his comment or not. Instead she just rolled her eyes and shot him a displeased look.

'So what were we talking about again?'

'Tristan and his little visit to me today,' Téa sighed. 'You know, the one which ended with me having to take him home because he couldn't remember how to get there.'

'Didn't you also say something about him looking really tired and admitting he's not been sleeping much or something,' Yugi shrugged. 'A lack of sleep can have a serious impact of a person's memory you know.'

'Yeah and so can being in an abusive relationship,' Téa made a noise of disgust.

'You can't go around saying things like that Téa,' Yugi's expression was strangely unreadable considering the condemning tone of his voice. 'You don't have any proof for a start and for a second didn't you say something about Kaiba looking just as exhausted as Tristan did.'

'I also mentioned screaming; don't forget the screaming,' Téa pulled a face. 'Something weird is going on with them and as Tristan's friends we have a duty to find out what.'

'In other words you want to see just how far you can push what little threads of friendship you still have with Tristan before he completely cuts the chord on you,' Yugi cocked an eyebrow.

'Yes, because he's our friend and he's in trouble.'

'You don't know that.'

'I do,' she stuck her chin out slightly, 'and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get him back.'

'Get him back?' Yugi appeared to study her for a moment.

'I mean help him out,' Téa averted her gaze, marginally unnerved by her own choice of words.

'It might have been what you meant, but it's not what you said,' he continued to stare at her. 'You're still holding out hope for a shot of getting the old Tristan back, aren't you?'

'I...' she hesitated, 'the old Tristan is still in there somewhere,' she gave a heavy sigh. 'How can I just accept this new him is all we have left, when I don't believe it's true?'

'Just because the new Tristan still has some similarity to the old Tristan doesn't mean you can reverse time,' Yugi rolled his eyes. 'Tristan has been through way too much to just go back to being the friend we used to know. The sooner you accept that the sooner this damn friction between the two of you will pass. I mean, seriously, your inability to accept we're all changing is really starting to piss me off.'

'Yugi!'

'I'm sorry Téa, but it's just how I feel and I'm not the only one,' there was something strangely callous about the way Yugi was speaking. 'The rest of us might not completely get this new Tristan, but with you around nobody else is getting the chance to find out anything about him. Well nobody but Mokuba and Kaiba that is, who you're automatically condemning as bad influences... No wait, abusive, I believe you said Kaiba specifically was being abusive. I hate to say it Téa, but right now the only bad guy I see in this situation is you.'

'I... uh...' Téa just found herself staring at him, once again unsure as to how she should feel.

'You know what, I think you owe Kaiba and Tristan an apology,' Yugi's expression was as serious as his voice.

'I'm sorry, what?' Téa blinked.

'I said I think you owe them both an apology. Tomorrow. We'll go round first thing in the morning.'

'Err... okay,' Téa found herself frowning, 'but can't I just apologise over the phone?'

'That depends on whether or not you accused Kaiba of being abusive to his face,' he smirked slightly, 'because if you did then an over the phone apology really isn't going to cut it. Besides, we wanted to try and do something with Tristan tomorrow anyway, didn't we?'

'Err... yeah, I guess.'

'So it's settled then. Tomorrow we go to the Kaiba mansion.'

He was already finding it hard enough to sleep, so when music drifted in through his open window Kaiba felt himself groaning in disgust. He got up in order to shut out the noise, but when he got there he found himself hesitating. The music was too loud to be coming from one of the neighbouring houses. Curiously he went out onto his small balcony and stared down at the garden below. The three trespassers were stood in the middle of his lawn dancing for all they were worth. And if that wasn't enough to make his blood boil, the fact one of the three was the brown haired youth was.

Gritting his teeth, he stormed out of the room, through the house and out into the garden. The trio ignored his approach, continuing in their overly zealous dancing as if nothing else in the world matter. All that did was further fan the flames of anger he was feeling.

'Who the hell are you and what the hell do you think you're doing in my garden?' Kaiba came to a stop a few feet away from them.

His words caused the youth to stop dancing and turn towards him. The smile plastered across the visible half of his face was as creepy as a waxwork figure and he made no attempt at a reply.

'I asked you a question,' Kaiba glared at him, 'answer me.'

Still the youth remained silent. The taller of the two blonde girls he was with caught hold of his hand and tried to pull him back into the dancing, but the youth simply shook his head at her and continued to focus his gaze on Kaiba.

'Are you deaf or just stupid?' Kaiba balled his hands into fists. 'I want to know what the hell you think you're doing here and I want to know now.'

The youth took a step towards him. A strange spike of fear moved through Kaiba's stomach as he vividly remembered his last encounter with the youth.

'Don't you even think about pulling a stunt like that again,' he took half a step back, 'I swear I'll hurt you if you do.'

The youth ignored his words and continued moving towards him. When he was within striking distance, Kaiba swiped at him. Unfortunately the youth was able to catch hold of his fist with ease and prevent his attack from landing any kind of damaging blow. The youth's visible brown eye then filled with a confused and hurt little boy look.

'Get off me,' Kaiba snatched his hand back.

This only increased the look of hurt in the youth's wax-like expression. As he stood there staring at Kaiba, the shorter of the two blondes came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her singular visible eye made a close and sweeping examination of Kaiba. There was something about the way she did so which felt strangely analytical, as if she understood a lot more than she would ever let on. After a few moments she grabbed hold of the youth's arm and encouraged him to follow her back towards the other girl. He reluctantly followed, but his singular visible eye remained focused on Kaiba as though he just couldn't bear to look at anything else.

Once the trio had reunited all three of them vanished without a trace, taking their loud, obnoxious music with them. After making sure they were really gone, Kaiba gritted his teeth and returned to the house. As he headed towards the stairs, he thought he saw the youth again, but in the blink of an eye he was gone. Making it back to his room, he crashed down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He wasn't sure if he felt angry or freaked out at the thought of being stalked by three complete and utter freaks. What he did know was that this was just about the last thing he needed right now. Did the multiverse not think he had enough to deal with as it was? Did it really need to throw one more thing his way?

Sighing heavily, he rolled onto his side and stared vacantly at the wall ahead of him. Within seconds a loud scream cut through the momentary stillness of the house and he knew without a doubt it was going to be another long night.

Joey brushed some of the hair back from Mai's forehead as he watched her sleep. Even like this, with her hair tussled and her face devoid of any kind of makeup, she was beautiful. Every inch of his being knew he loved her and he couldn't imagine himself being with anybody else. So then why couldn't he get the strange blonde girl out of his head?

He lowered himself onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. In his mind he went over his encounter with the ash blonde, right up to the moment he almost kissed her and she disappeared. He knew he should be feeling guilty over the memory, even though nothing had actually happened, apart from the dancing, but still... He half closed his eyes as he remembered the way the girl had smelt, the self assured but gentle nature of her touch, her easy grace and mysterious beauty. Somehow his memory of her made her even more enchanting than she already was.

A deep feeling of infatuation made its way through his body. He wanted to see her again. No, he needed to see her again. To talk to her. To find out her name. To find out where she'd come from and why he just couldn't get her out of his head. He wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to make her his. The thought came with no guilt attached and with no concern for anyone else's feelings but his own.

For the first time since Mai had become pregnant, Joey got up out of bed and made his way back towards his own chamber. He couldn't sleep next to her, not when he knew the ash blonde was going to fill his dreams. Her presence beside him would have just ruined the fantasy. And he needed the fantasy, because who knew when he'd get to see his mysterious blonde girl again.