Disclaimer: I don't own the idea of Beauty and the Beast nor do I own the characters, story or anything related to the story of Yu-Gi-Oh!
So it's been 25 days since I updated this story. I'm sorry but I was hit with a writer's block for both stories since I wasn't very organized. I need organization in my life to keep things flowing smoothly. Anyways I'd like to give a huge thank you to Elys! She helped me out with this chapter with suggesting several ideas and telling me whether she thought what I shared with her was good or not. If any of you speak Spanish, can read it or have some type of translator, go read her story like ASAP. It's wonderful (:
As they walked down the stairway, Tea could tell that Mana was the talkative one, Serenity was the slightly timid one but she warmed up to Tea quickly and Mai had this sort of older sister vibe.
"Mana, I have a question for you," Mai said as she diverted her attention from her talon onto the female magician. "When does this stairway end?"
Mana, blinked a few times before her eyes grew wide.
"I forgot to make the exit!" Mana screeched, hiding her face in her hands. "Mahad always told me to make the exit first then the entrance since I can't make both at the same time. Oh he's not going to be happy with me!"
Tea laid her hand on Mana's shoulder, causing Mana to look up at her. "I'm sure if you just make the exit now, we'll make it downstairs. How hard could it be?"
"There's a slight problem in that. We don't know where exactly we are in the staircase," Serenity muttered, her snow white wings wrapping around herself tighter.
"You're kidding right?" Tea asked, hoping that Serenity was just making a joke. When the other two didn't reply, Tea just sighed. "Well, at least we're not crammed in with boys."
Mana's head jerked up, snapping her fingers. "I can create a window, leading to the outside. Problem is if we're high up, only three of us can fly."
As soon as Mana said this, the three women turned towards Tea, all curious on how to transport her.
"I'm not jumping out of the window nor am I jumping on anybody's back. I'm probably too heavy for you guys," Tea replied, shaking her head. There is no way she would be jumping to her death nor did she want to trouble them.
Mai scoffed, grabbing Tea as a window, about eight feet high and wide open, appeared in front of them. Mai peeked out and saw that somehow, they were higher up
"I think someone messed with the spell you made Mana. We're high up, above Tea's bedroom" Mai said, as she wrapped one arm around Tea's waist, before jumping out of the window. Tea's eyes grew wide, wrapping her arms around Mai's neck as the other two girls jumped out of the window as well, flying with them.
"Who could of messed with it though? Mahad and Atem are the only on- Oh those troublemakers!" Mana screeched as the got closer to the ground. She made another window appear, allowing them all to swoop into the room easily. Mana however didn't stop as she flew towards a man, clad in blue and orange armor. She knocked him onto the ground, an 'umph!' sound coming from the man.
"What da heck are ya doin' Mana? Get off of me!" The man yelled, trying to shove Mana off as she was standing right on his chest.
"Not on your life Joey," replied Mana. Her eyes were narrowed with pointing her wand directly into Joey's face. "Where's Mokuba?"
A small squeak made Mana dart her head to the crimson curtains hung, a bulge in one of them. Staying on Joey's chest, Mana quickly pointed her wand at the curtains. A pair of pink hands burst out of her wand, flying towards the curtains at a high speed. The hands gripped the curtains, pulling them off the wall to reveal what was making the bulge.
A small boy with black hair, stood there, a brown fur ball next to him. Tea saw that his outfit consisted mostly of purple with a crimson colored slash wrapped around the boy's forehead. He had what appeared to be matching arm braces and what she guessed was supposed to be suspenders, holding up his top in place. His wand however was almost a pale green color, nearly as tall as him. The pink hands grabbed Mokuba and the fur ball, bringing them to her. Once Mokuba was standing in front of her, the pink hands disappeared with a poof, gold sparkles littering the floor.
"What did Joey bribe you with this time to mess with my spell?" Mana asked Mokuba, who looking away. There was no way he was going to look at Mana. He knew once he did, he would break down.
When she received no reply, Mana huffed. She jumped off Joey but before he could even sit up, the pink hands reappeared, holding Joey down. She went over to Mai, Serenity and Tea. She grabbed Tea's wrist, pulling her towards where Mokuba was standing.
"Mokuba. If you do not tell me, I will hog Tea all to myself and I will have Mahad give you a bunch of more homework."
Mokuba's jaw dropped, surprised. "But that's not fair since Tea is new to here and everybody wants to be her friend. You can't give me more homework anyways! Mahad is my teacher, not you!"
"I assist him in teaching you as you're the youngest of us all. I have every right since you messed with my spell and I know that you couldn't have done that spell without stealing Mahad's book. Now if you tell me you can play with Tea and I won't punish you."
"No Mokuba don't do it! She's lyin'!" Joey yelled before a finger from the pink hand covered his mouth.
"Joey bribed me with candy and snacks for Kuriboh. Oh and promised me he would take me to see the sea koala pups," Mokuba replied, snickering as he heard Joey try to break free of the chains. "Hey Tea want to go play with Kuriboh and me?"
"Umm sure. I would-"
"TEA!" Two voices shouted before she felt two hands grabbing her wrist, pulling her away. Suddenly she felt a small gloved hand grab onto her other wrist, pulling her.
"Hey kid. Let go of her," Duke ordered, narrowing his eyes at Mokuba.
"Don't call me kid! I'm probably stronger than you," Mokuba growled, his eyes narrowing at Duke. Tristan rolled his eyes, reaching over to Mokuba to shove his hand off Tea's other wrist.
Bad move.
Mokuba, predicting what Tristan was going to do, ordered Kuriboh to flung himself at the two boys.
"Come on Tea, this way!" Mokuba laughed as he, despite his small size, pulled Tea with him towards the opposite way. Suddenly five blurry images slowly formed in front of their path. But Mokuba wasn't paying attention as he was sticking his tongue at Duke and Tristan.
"Mokuba watch out!" Tea screeched, hoping that Mokuba would stop in time.
"Huh?" was Mokuba's reply until he hit the now solid image. He looked up, finding it to be his older brother, his eyebrow arched. Tea on the other hand, hit her head against a metal ring, nestled in the middle of a muscular chest. A hand gripped her arm gently, pulling her back slightly.
"Are you alright?" The owner of the muscular chest asked Tea, his voice laced with concern. Tea looked up, her mouth gaping open when her eyes met the man's face.
Tea didn't know if she should feel afraid of this man, feeling as if his crimson eyes were searching her very soul while they appeared to be so gentle at the same time. Despite wearing almost entirely black leather with chains, markings on his face and long charcoal hair, Tea felt safe.'He's the one that left the flowers for me?' Tea thought, wondering if her new friends were actually telling her the truth. Realizing that he was probably waiting for an answer, Tea snapped out of her dazed state.
"Yes. Maybe just a little bump on my forehead but that's it. Oh!" Tea replied before pulling away from the man, a blush forming on her cheeks. She didn't realize how close she was to him.
Just as the man was about to reply, Tea was being dragged by Tristan and Duke, coughing up a few hairballs.
"Tristan, Duke! Let me go, I'm not a dog toy!" Tea ordered, dragging her feet.
"No Tea. We're getting out of here," Tristan replied, pulling on her a bit harder. Tea wondered if the boys knew they couldn't leave. However, right now she wasn't happy with the two pulling her. Tea shot one of her legs out, aiming at the back of Tristan's leg. He let go when he felt the kick, falling to the ground. Duke soon joined him as when he turned around, Tea accidentally got him in a bad spot. Tea's hands flew up to her mouth, kneeling next to the guys.
"I'm sorry but you guys are being irrational and kind of stupid," Tea sighed, holding out her hands to both of the idiots.
"We're not!" Tristan and Duke replied, now standing up.
"Yeah you are. You do know that we can't leave the-What's this place called?"
"It's called the Domain of Beasts," Mana answered, causing the three to turn over to her. Mana smiled, gesturing with her hand for Tea to continue on.
"The Domain of Beasts. Don't you think they would have left?" Tea asked Tristan and Duke, her arms folded against her chest. She looked like a mother, scolding her two crazy sons.
Tristan and Duke looked at each other then back at Tea. "We didn't think about that."
Tea's palm now rested upon her forehead, shaking her head slowly.
"This is why I need more female friends in my life as you two forget to think before you act."
Tristan and Duke mimicked her, their arms folding across their chests.
"We think before we act," Tristan scoffed, watching Tea roll her eyes. 'Since when does she think we don't think before we act? This is the first time I've heard of this.'
"Name one time Tea. Just name one time," Duke said, eager to hear what Tea's answer would be.
"Remember the time I told you guys that if you needed me to call my cell phone as my instructor wanted my dance partner and I to try to dance in different surroundings?"
"Yeah."
Tea fought the urge to blow up then and there as last time they said they didn't remember her telling them that information. "You didn't then. You both went to the park and when you saw my partner and I practicing, you automatically assumed he was feeling up on me even though I told you that my instructor wanted the entire class to practice the Argentine tango and add our own flavors to it."
"It was kind of your fault Tea. You told us before breakfast," Tristan replied as the incidents of what happened. "You know how we can be without food in us."
"I know you guys have midnight snacks so don't pull the breakfast card on me. You're just lucky my dance partner decided not to sue since I'm like a little sister to him," Tea shot back, in disbelief that they pulled the breakfast card again. They always did that to prove their side of the felt someone tapping her shoulder, making her nearly jump. She turned to see Mana standing there, a huge smile on her face while it appeared that she was trying hard not to laugh. Tea's eyes grew wide when she noticed almost everyone, with the exception of Atem, Seto and who Tea guessed was Rebecca, had the same expression as Mana.
She forgot about the others.
Tea's cheeks flamed red, turning her face away from everyone's gazes.
"Oh don't be embarrassed Tea. It's actually really funny to see you three interact and it brings some excitement around here. Those three over there don't know what's funny is even if it hit them in the face," Mana chirped, all the laughter inside of her escaping in small giggles.
Rebecca, folding her arms against the beautiful amber dress she wore, scoffed.
"Mana we'd all like to be carefree as you but you have to finish scouting remember?" Rebecca said, a stern look on her face. "Just because they come doesn't mean you can forget your duties."
Mana quickly rushed over to Atem, getting on her knees and then wrapping her arms around his. She looked up at him with the biggest puppy dog eyes and pout she could muster.
"My king, my good friend, Atem. Can I please, please stay here with Tea and the two? I can give them a tour around the castle and make them feel more comfortable since they're going to be living here with us for who knows how long. And I don't want to let them suffer from Rebecca giving them a tour."
"Excuse me? Yugi let go!" Rebecca screeched, a red glow erupting around her. The man in the dark blue robe, also wearing a blue head decoration with the crimson ornaments, had his arm around her waist. A nervous smile was on his lips.
"Rebecca calm down. Think about it, if Mana stays then you and I can go in her place. Didn't you say you want to check out the fire lilies that grow in the mountains?" Yugi said in a soothing tone, trying to calm Rebecca down. The red glow faded, as well as the look on her face. A smile was now formed on her lips as she wove her hand around Yugi's. Yugi looked over to his brother, who had a small smirk on his face. Atem always did find it amusing how quickly Yugi could calm down the ball of fire.
"We can go in Mana's place Atem, if you don't mind that is," Yugi said, hoping his brother would say yes. He seriously didn't want Rebecca to set someone on fire because she couldn't control her temper.
Atem nodded, the small smirk still on his face. "Go ahead. Mana, you're not going to be here alone. Joey, Serenity and Mokuba are going to stay here with you to help out with Tea, Tristan and Duke."
"Kuri-kuri!" cried out Kuriboh, his eyes narrowed.
"And Kuriboh too. Try not to get lost please."
Mana let go of Atem's legs and saluted him before flying over to Tea, Tristan and Duke who now had Serenity, Mokuba and Kuriboh standing with them. Mana flew quickly back, floating in front of Mahad. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before heading back to the others. They watched everybody fly out of the castle or simply walked away to head to the dragons, not wanting to waste their energy by using magic.
"So where do you guys want to head to?" Mokuba asked as Kuriboh was bumping himself against Duke and Tristan playfully.
"The kitchen. We need some grub in our bellies," Tristan whined slightly, his arms folding across his stomach.
"Yeah. We're men after all," agreed Duke, his hands shoved into his pockets. Tea's palm was now against her forehead again as she sighed.
"We could get a small snack. But I have no idea what to do for dinner. Mahad and Atem will probably be too tired to use their magic from patrolling. Joey do you think you could make dinner tonight?" asked Mana when she looked at Joey. Joey smirked, giving her a thumbs up.
"Can do Mana. I could figure look through da cookbooks da chefs left a long time ago. I just wish dey didn't become food and run off."
Tea thought about Joey's words, the castle and everybody's demeanors. She wanted to know how long from these people have they been like this, untouched by the outside world until today.
"Before we begin the tour, how long have you guys been like this?" Tea asked, everybody's attention on her.
Mana, Serenity, Mokuba and Joey were staring at each other silent for a bit, as if they were afraid to give Tea the answer.
"Well right now according to the date we found in Tristan's memories, we've been like this for about two hundred years," Serenity answered calmly as if the thought of being in her current form about two hundred years didn't bother her. "That makes us really old I guess."
"You better listen to us since we're your elders," Mana joked, wagging her finger at Tristan and Duke. "Mokuba, you're going to help Joey make dinner for tonight."
Mokuba's mouth gaped, folding his arms across his chest. Kuriboh whined, now rubbing himself affectionately against Tea.
"But I want to go with you guys on the tour."
Serenity kneeled in front of Mokuba, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Your job can be to help Joey out with dinner. And maybe you could give Tea a tour of the gardens if Atem says you can."
Mokuba nodded, going over to Joey with Kuriboh trailing after him. "Come on Joey. The sooner we go, the sooner we can start making dinner."
All the girls smiled as they watched Joey, Mokuba and Kuriboh leave the room quickly, with excitement.
Serenity turned towards Duke and Tristan, finding them staring at her with weird expressions on their faces. She heard two quiet feminine giggles, coming from Tea and Mana. Serenity turned towards the two other females, a confused expression on her face.
"We'll tell you later Serenity. Now what are you going to show us first?" answered Tea, as all of them were leaving out of the throne room and back into the entrance where two elegant staircases were at, leading to the upper floors.
"How to get to your bedrooms without relying on us," Mana replied playfully.
They never got lost (probably because Mana didn't use magic to create shortcuts) when they were doing the tour. Now the five that went on the tour was heading into the dining room, the smell of dinner luring them in. Mana told the other four that everyone else was in the dining room, waiting for them to join the rest. Tea noticed that Atem was sitting at the head of the surprisingly small table, Mahad to his left while Yugi was on his right. Rebecca sat next to Yugi, while Seto was sitting between two empty seats near Rebecca. When Serenity got closer to the table, Seto got up from his seat and held out his hand to her. She took it gingerly, a smile on her face as he led her to her seat, pulling out her chair for her. Mahad also led Mana to her seat while Tea was about to just pick a random seat when Atem was suddenly in front of her. His hand was extended towards her, Tea looking up at him.
"Would you like for me to show you your seat for tonight?" Atem asked Tea, waiting for her to reply. Tea nodded, placing her hand in Atem's. As he led her to her seat, Tristan and Duke followed. They knew that they had to sit by Tea and also they were making sure Atem wasn't going to pull a thing. When everybody was seated, Joey came in with Mokuba, smiling.
"Dinner is done but we're going to begin the meal with some soup. You know what to do Mana," Joey said, winking at Mana. Mana nodded, snapping her fingers. A bowl appeared in front of everyone while baskets of bread were in the middle of the table.
"I helped with making the ramen soup," Mokuba said as he took the other empty seat near Seto.
"Now I know it's safe to eat," Seto said, a smirk on his face. Joey made a fist at him as he took his spot between Serenity and Mai.
"I love ramen," Tea said, sending a smile towards Mokuba. He smiled back at her before looking at his soup.
"Well let's start eating," Yugi said as he reached for some bread. Tristan and Duke eagerly started digging into the bread, before dipping it into the ramen soup. Suddenly a noodle inched out of the soup, waving itself like an enchanted snake. Everybody's silverware dropped as noodles from Tea's and Duke's bowls slowly followed Tristan's noodles movements.
Tristan and Duke screamed in a high pitch, jumping away from the table, knocking the dishes around them onto the ground. They grabbed Tea's chair, pulling it back as if to save her from the noodles. When they thought they were far enough, they saw that Tea wasn't in the chair. They saw her kneeling next to the mess they made, picking up the silverware that was on the ground.
"They're just noodles. There's no reason to- ouch!" Tea muttered when she was reaching for a spoon. She brought her hand up to her, finding a jagged cut from below her index finger to the middle of her palm. Blood oozed out of the cut, appearing as a slow moving crimson waterfall. Leather fingers slowly appeared in her vision, wrapping themselves around hers gently. Tea's hand was brought closer to the owner of the fingers, looking up to see Atem's crimson eyes locked onto her hand.
"You should be more careful," Atem said as he brought up his other hand. Tea noticed that it was emitting a blue like circle around it. As his hand moved over to the cut, a faint bright light surrounded them both. Tea's eyes widened at the light but she saw that Atem had no type of reaction what so ever. The light slowly faded away, the feeling of warmth lingering in the air however. Atem slowly rose, Tea also rising as Atem had not let go of her hand. She looked at her hand, finding the cut and blood completely gone. "How d-did you do that?" Tea stuttered, completely awed that her hand had no evidence of ever being sliced open.
Atem's lips curled into a small smirk, before he let go of her hand. "I healed you. Unless you rather have wanted the cut to heal itself, the cut could have become infected."
Atem looked over towards everyone else, finding Joey and Mokuba with their heads hung down in shame as Mahad had his arms folded across his chest.
"You two got into my cabinet didn't you?" Mahad asked, causing Joey and Mokuba's head to snap up and point at each other.
"Joey messed up on the ramen so he started going through everything. All I did was suggest that you could have something Mahad," Mokuba said, looking innocent as he sat in the giant chair. Joey sat there with his mouth, gaped open.
"Traitor," Joey muttered, earning him a few snickers.
"Did you use it in other foods?" Yugi asked, a little afraid.
"No."
"Well then lets bring out dinner."
Mahad snapped his fingers and plates appeared in front of everyone. Everybody's eye twitched when they what was on their plates. They could tell that it was supposed to be roasted meat, which they were fine with that. The problem was that it was covered with a red like substance that was creating a sizzling sound and appeared to be pulsating.
"Flame boy what is this?" Seto growled, pushing Mokuba's and Serenity's plates away from them, before they even tried to take a bite.
"Roasted beef with my signature sauce."
Tea, Tristan, Duke Rebecca and Joey were the only ones who didn't push the plates away from their view.
"The spicy sauce? Yum!" Rebecca chirped before she took a bite of her dinner. As Tea was about to take a bite, Mai quickly yanked the food away from her, giving it to Tristan and Duke who seemed to be unbothered by the sauce.
"There's no way you're eating that hun. We wouldn't want you to burn off that pretty tongue of yours. Tristan and Duke on the other hand though," Mai said giving the plate to them. "I wonder how they can handle it since the first time we all had it, well those who tried, couldn't speak for awhile. Anyways Mahad, make something new for us."
Mahad made a less spicy dinner for everyone with no magic added in it. After almost sampling every dessert and noticing the time, everyone decided it would be best to go to bed now. Even though Tea felt like she had gotten a lot of sleep already today, when her head hit the pillow, she was quickly lulled to sleep by the cackling of the fire. Yet while she was sleeping soundly, her cousin was not. Tristan laid in his bed, tossing and turning often. Fed up, he jumped out of his bed and darted over towards Duke. Tristan saw the Duke was also tossing and turning on the bed.
"Dude are you awake?" Tristan asked, shaking Duke. Duke sat up, shoving the blankets aside.
"Of course I'm awake! Do you really think I could sleep here, in a place with those freaks?" Duke hissed, glaring at his friend.
Tristan shook his head, resisting the urge to hit his friend. "I can't sleep here either. My Miho could be in danger at this very moment! That's why I was thinking about escaping this place by going the same way we came in."
Duke blinked a few times, before jumping out of the bed too. He ripped the sheets off the beds along with finding other fabrics and began tying them together, creating a long, multicolored rope.
"We can't leave through the front entrance so you're gonna have to go get Tea and try not to wake her up. You know she screams when she's woken up too roughly."
Tristan nodded, dashing out of the room into the hallway. He was really glad that those freaks, well one very pretty girl and the freaks had their bedrooms in totally different wings. When he was in front of Tea's room, he opened the door slowly, finding the room dimly lit by the dying fire. Tristan slowly inched towards the slumbering form of Tea, his arms sliding underneath Tea. He lifted her up gently to avoid her waking up. He heard someone entering the room, becoming completely frozen.
"It's just me dude. Calm down," Duke whispered before he went over to Tea's bed, pulling off the sheets to add them to the rope. "Grab some long fabric. You're gonna have to tie Tea to your back while we make our escape."
Tristan nodded and gently put Tea into Duke's arms, turning around to allow Duke to put Tea on his back. Once Duke made sure Tea was laying comfortably on Tristan's back, he tied fabric around her, tight enough that she wouldn't fall off. Duke opened the window, throwing one end of the multi colored rope over the edge while tying the other end to the bed. He tugged at the rope, finding that the bed wouldn't budge at all.
"Perfect," Duke smirked as he inched towards the window. "I'm going to go first. That way if you slip, I can at least save you both."
Tristan nodded as he watched Duke step onto the window ledge and slowly disappear from his view. When he saw the rope twitch twice, he climbed onto the window ledge carefully. He slowly inched down the rope, grunting along the way. When his feet touched the ground, Tristan had to contain himself from releasing a joyous whoop into the air as he saw Duke rolling his eyes.
"Come on dude. We don't want those freaks to wake up and catch us. They could lock us up in a tower for all we know!"
"You're right. Let's go," Tristan replied, dashing off into the forest with Duke. Little did they know that something was lurking in the forest, waiting for them as growling and the sound of faint chuckling removed the silence of the night.
Nearly 5k for chapter four. I apologize for the late update again. Anyways for those who haven't read ARW, I made two announcements on it. One is the fact that I'm going to be gone for 10 days visiting some family so I won't be able to work on chapter five of this story. The second is that now I'm judging which story gets more reviews for the newest update, I'll work on updating that story first. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as I'm curious to see which story I'll be working first when I get back ;)
Oh by the way, Mokuba is Apprentice Magician and Kuriboh is like the pet in the story.