AN: I am starting to feel more comfortable with how I want this story to progress now, and am getting to know my characters…with their back stories becoming clearer and the P&P similarities and differences more evident. I am thus making some rapid progress and am ahead enough that I am confident I will be updating every Friday (barring unforeseen mishaps). If you are one of the readers who have been kind enough to review and/or are following my story, expect to see regular instalments each week. Please continue to review – it adds such a lot to the experience of writing to know it is 'out there' being read and hopefully enjoyed.

Many thanks to all who have reviewed: Bill and Bill's wife – you have had me in fits of laughter a few times…I wish you had an account so I could PM you – thanks for your support! Also a big thank you to: Bella, Nenya85, Acirederf, TheAlphaChives, SmellyBelly69 and the intangible Guest.

"Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can." Jane Austen, P&P.

Chapter Three:

A few days later at breakfast, Solomon astonished the family with a sudden announcement, "It seems we are to receive a visitor in the next couple of days."

"I wasn't aware we were expecting anyone," Arthur replied, "unless Yugi should drop by…which would hardly be unusual."

"No," Solomon continued, "This person is someone I haven't seen in over ten years."

He enjoyed the curiosity and surprise evident amongst his family for a moment, finishing his toast and coffee whilst they exchanged questioning looks, and then spoke again, "It is my niece Tea."

"Oh," Arthur said looking distressed, "I didn't know you had had any contact with your family for years now Solomon?"

"I haven't, until now," was the reply and the two shared a poignant look of understanding. There were difficulties in Solomon's relationship with his family and thus little contact with its members.

Solomon had suffered several tragedies during his life. Over sixteen years ago his wife had succumbed to an illness; he was not only devastated, but had five young boys to care for. For some years he had struggled on alone, raising his boys and taking solace in his love of duel-monsters and interest in Egyptology in his few moments of leisure time. Then disaster struck again…his elder brother who ran the family gaming shop was killed in a traffic accident, leaving behind his wife and small daughter. Since the widow decided to move away to be nearer her parents, Solomon was asked to take over the management of the shop until his niece was old enough to inherit. He was happy to do so – moving in with his family and glad of the income. For three years life continued in this fashion until one evening – attending a lecture on Egyptian artefacts Solomon encountered Arthur. The two had much in common, both were lonely and they had many mutual interests. Their friendship blossomed over time and it was unsurprising that it should eventually deepen into love. This was when the 'difficulties' began, the family of his widowed sister-in-law had an outdated and intolerant view of same sex relationships. Whilst they were unable to alter the legal arrangements regarding the management of the shop until Tea was twenty-one, they severed all other contact with Solomon. Even now there were still a few years to go before Tea reached her majority and would inherit, but meanwhile they had communicated only through lawyers and when absolutely necessary, thus Solomon had not seen his brother's child for over ten years and the topic was a sensitive one.

"I have received a letter from her," Solomon went on, "Apparently her mother remarried several years ago following the death of her grandfather and her grandmother has recently died. She writes that she has long been distressed by the family estrangement but was unable to alter the opinions of her grandparents and did not wish to further distress her mother by angering them. Now that this is no longer an issue she wishes to visit us to get to know her father's relations. She seems to feel a little worried about the fact that she will ultimately take over the shop – some nonsense about disinheriting you boys – as though it were not hers all along. Yet she clearly believes that family is important and speaks of the friendship she hopes can be between us."

The family were silent for a moment thinking this over. Arthur appeared both relieved and hopeful; Marik muttered that he was sure he could have altered the 'foolish views of her grandparents if people weren't so narrow minded about the safe use of ancient relics' and Tristan and Ryou showed only tepid interest since each doubted she was a dice player.

It was Joey who first spoke, "Wow a cousin, friends and family are important, if she wants to befriend us that will be great!"

"We can soon set her mind at ease regarding the shop and her desire to distance herself from the prejudice of her maternal relations is honourable," added Yami, "What do we know of her interests?"

"Not a great deal," responded Solomon, "but I know she is a dancer and heard that she is good enough to have attracted the backing of Maximillian Pegasus – patron of the arts."

"Interesting," commented Arthur, "I have heard of his backing of painters, understandable when one considers the beautiful work he did himself with the duel-monster cards. His company, Industrial Illusions has sponsored several promising artists but I did not know his support extended to the other arts."

"Oh yes, I believe his interest in the possibilities of the virtual technology KaibaCorp is rumoured to be working on caused him to extend his interests into all the arts." Solomon answered. "I think it likely Tea will arrive tomorrow."

Tea did indeed arrive, as expected the following morning. The family were all waiting to greet her, curious after the previous days conversation. Arthur may have squeezed Solomon's hand encouragingly but all were calmly welcoming. She proved to be a slim young woman with dark brown hair and blue eyes who looked brightly at them all with a beaming smile; she seemed not to need encouragement and was clearly not inclined to silence. Their first impression was favourable and as Solomon was moving forward to welcome her she burst into impetuous speech: "Wow I'm so pleased to meet you all, and so many handsome boys too, I can already feel we're going to be such great friends."

They all burst into laughter and formality no longer an issue, crowded into the shop together.

Over coffee they had further conversation, Arthur - at first a little awkward, brought up a topic which he felt was bound to be welcomed by Tea and complimented her upon the good fortune of having the patronage of the flamboyant Maximillian Pegasus. He could not have chosen better, Tea was (surprise, surprise) eloquent and expansive in her praise. "Such a good friend he was to her," "so considerate to her wishes" and "he had been so complimentary about the two performances she had so far done for him." Yami asked whether she thought the reports of him which suggested he could be manipulative and had a spiteful temper were exaggerated and Tea warmly defended him saying she had certainly never seen anything but affability in him. "And anyway," she added, "one who looks for a friend without faults will have none you know."

"Do you live near him?" Joey enquired, since it seemed clear Tea saw a fair amount of her muse. "I do now," she responded, "He likes his protégées to be nearby. I have an apartment near the main Industrial illusions HQ - as president he stays in the penthouse there a lot you know. Particularly now he's involved in a business venture with KaibaCorp."

"He is?" Solomon asked, "I had heard he was interested in their virtual technology…"

"Oh yes," Tea enthused, "they're collaborating on a new project…very cutting edge holographics…solid vision is the watchword…that's one of the reasons he extended his arts patronage into other areas."

The family looked at her enquiringly.

"NPCs and motion capture!" She explained, "He's been so wonderful, it was a struggle to gain recognition until he found me. It's true what they say…"

"What's that?"

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

Joey and Yami exchanged amused covert glances; it seemed a theme was developing here. Their cousin seemed very likeable but there was certainly a very friendly bee in her bonnet.

"That all sounds wonderful I'm sure," Arthur interjected, re-joining the conversation. "He's a widower isn't he? Does have any children?"

"A daughter named Serenity, she is all he has left of his wife Cecilia and is a lovely girl but has a problem with her eyesight, he has had many specialists examine her and is hopeful she can be cured. Health is like friendship you know!"

"How so my dear?" asked Arthur kindly, Solomon glanced reprovingly at Joey who was red with suppressed mirth and Yami who quickly turned a snort of laughter into a polite cough.

"The value of it is often not realised until it is lost," she responded sincerely, smiling brightly at the family.

The conversation turned to family news and the brothers were able to get their composure back. Tea touched on the subject of the shop and was relieved by Solomon's reassurance that the arrangements were of long-standing. He and Arthur planned to travel once the boys were established and this would likely be around the same time that Tea was ready to take-over. Furthermore all the boys had their own interests which would not have been compatible with running it.

"Actually," said Arthur, "the person who has the most interest in this business would be Yugi who is Yami's best friend. I'm sure you'll meet him."

At this juncture, Solomon intervened saying he was taking Tea out to lunch so he could tell her stories about her father. Tea embraced him warmly, mistily saying how lovely that would be…she had so few memories of him, and the gathering broke up. All had their own things to attend to and would see each other again that evening.

"All in all she seems really nice," said Joey, as he passed Yami on his way out.

"I agree," Nodded Yami, "but I still couldn't meet your eyes without laughing - not that I don't value friendship!" Chuckling they went their separate ways.

After dinner that evening Tea offered to dance for the family, this slightly unusual method of passing their time was greeted with horror by Tristan and Ryou (who wished to go into town to meet with some of their dicing friends), they hastily mentioned they were expected elsewhere but were overruled by Solomon who declared they could see their friends tomorrow. Yami and Joey resigned themselves politely but in fact were surprisingly much entertained by the proceedings. Marik was enthralled by Tea's dance routines particularly one which involved baton work and jumped to his feet demanding instruction. Baton and rod were soon twirling around…not entirely successfully as Ryou was left rubbing his sore head in disgruntled fashion…but with lots of gusto.

"Abra…abra…cadabra…my rod will reach out and grab ya…" Marik warbled (somewhat off-key).

"Watch your footwork Marik," instructed Tea, "it can't be all about the rod."

All in all a much more diverting evening than most had anticipated.

Tea was a kind-hearted and enthusiastic girl who loved dancing and had a kind of besotted over-developed idea of friendship. This had come about through the combination of growing up without the loving attention of a father (many times she had seen school friends doted upon by their own) and instead being the subject of overzealous interest from the grandparents she and her mother had lived with. They had loved her but were old-fashioned, a little censorious and set in their ways. Their attention had sometimes been intrusive and she idealised friendship as an always supportive emotional haven where one would be accepted for whom one was and wanted to be. She had been fortunate to have encountered and favourably impressed the erratic millionaire Maximillian Pegasus just when her dancing hopes were beginning to seem unattainable and she now had a strong devotion to him, viewing him almost as a sort of surrogate father-figure. Despite the aforementioned difficulties, Tea had a naturally strong sense of family and had always felt badly about the rift in her own. Coming from a more liberal and less judgemental generation, she thought the cause unfair and ridiculously overblown and thought Solomon had been shabbily treated after stepping in to manage the family business - hence her concern about the shop. She was relieved to find this was not an issue and genuinely keen to 'embrace' her uncle and cousins (it didn't hurt that they were so good looking…especially Yami). It must be mentioned Tea could sometimes be both gushing and silly. It was also a fact that secretly she hoped to find a friend who would become more than this, one which could develop into a romance; she was definitely alert for candidates and it was only a couple of days before Yami began to feel alarmed by the attention she paid him.

The next day Tristan and Ryou proposed going into town to see some of the dicing fraternity they had missed the night before. Yami and Joey decided to walk with them since Tea was keen to visit the local shops and Solomon had asked them to show her around. The whole party walked along chatting, Tea occasionally beguiling any tedium they might have felt with interjections such as: "fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends…how lucky I am they are already combined" (a meaningful glance here at Yami who affected not to notice) and occasional snatches of song.

Upon reaching the town centre the group were preparing to disperse to their various destinations when Tristan spotted one of his particular buddies just crossing the road ahead with another young man. He called out to him and all stopped to exchange greetings and introductions. The newcomer was a strikingly handsome young man (as Tea evidently noticed) with vivid green eyes set in a sharply defined face beneath a wealth of spiky black hair. The hair was 'caught back' by means of both a sweatband and ponytail but parts of it were (artfully) unconfined to frame his pleasing visage and he dressed, while casually, in clothes definitely chosen for their flattering exposure of his trim figure - fitted black trousers and a waistcoat with nothing beneath it. From one ear hung a single dice…proclaiming his gaming choice and his smile was frankly sensual. His name was Duke Devlin.

The whole party were standing together talking very agreeably when the sound of a car drawing up caught their attention. It was a limousine and was found to contain Kaiba and Mai - who was evidently the reason it had stopped since she instantly went to Joey saying she had been on her way to see how he was. Kaiba was (unwillingly) drawn towards Yami and was about to speak to him when he suddenly noticed the presence of Duke Devlin; Yami distinctly noticed an immediate stiffening of his posture. Both changed colour (unobserved by the rest of the group) one red the other white and each unwillingly acknowledged the other by a slight head nod. Yami's brain was afire with curiosity – they clearly recognized one another, and with acrimony, what could it mean? It was impossible not to long to know. Somewhat abruptly Kaiba returned to the limo and Mai with a quick "goodbye, see you all later," followed.

The party went their separate ways. Tristan and Ryou leaving to game with the others, Joey and Yami to escort Tea on her shopping expedition but Yami was consumed with both curiosity and a desire to know more of Duke Devlin…

Later, on the way home Yami confided what he had seen to Joey, but he could no more think of an explanation than could his brother.

AN: Chapter four is already complete…look out for Duke - he will be giving his version of history and working towards gaining Yami's esteem.

Further interaction between 'Mr Collins' and the others is coming also.

I am now working on chapter six. ;)