Tea walked out of school with her backpack slung over one shoulder as she was chatting about this and that with the guys. She was getting into Joey’s car, since he was taking everyone to Yugi’s Grandpa’s, when she noticed Kaiba watching her as he was leaning up against his car across the parking lot.

“Hey, I’ll catch up with you guys later, ok?”

“Sure Tea. See you later.” Yugi smiled and shut the car door. Joey then started it up and drove off with the happy crew as Tea walked across the parking lot to Kaiba who’s gaze never left her.

As she approached Seto began to smile. “Not riding with our friends today are we?”

Tea leaned up against the car next to him. “I wanted to say thanks.”

Her stared at her, “What for?”

“You know what for…” She rolled her eyes. “I could tell you wanted to cream Joey at lunch…”

Seto smirked at her, “Maybe a little…” He opened the door and let Tea get in before he walked over to the driver’s side and got in himself. Turning on the car he pulled out of the parking lot and went to pick up Mokuba.

Tea sat in the car and watched Seto standing outside the elementary school waiting for his little brother. ‘He’s so sweet. He’d do anything for that little brother of his.’ She smiled and waited for him to come back with Mokuba. It didn’t take that long and they were soon at Kaiba’s mansion. He pulled into the driveway and everybody got out.

They all went inside and Mokuba headed up to his room to start his homework, Tea went to her room, and Seto to his as they all worked on their schoolwork. It didn’t take that long for Tea to finish her homework and she went into Seto’s room. He was just closing up his books when she walked in. Turning around from his desk he smiled.

“Hello Tea.”

“Hi. Um, I’m going to take my stuff home, all right? Since you’re all better I really don’t need to be here anymore…”

“Just call me when you’re ready for me to drive you home…” He turned back to his desk as he said this and finished putting the books away.

“Thanks…” She walked out of the room and went into hers where she packed up all her things. It didn’t take that long and she knocked on Kaiba’s door fifteen minutes later.

*******************

On the drive over to Tea’s house the two of them were silent. It wasn’t a long drive and when they got there Kaiba got out and pulled Tea’s things out of the trunk. She opened the door and went inside followed by Kaiba. He put he things just inside the door and was about to leave again when Tea grabbed his arm.

“Seto… Is everything alright?”

He looked down at the floor for support, “Well… … … … … no… it’s nothing…”

She cocked her head to the side slightly, “Are you sure?”

Somehow she slowly felt a wall of ice forming between them and she saw Seto’s eyes harden as he locked his gaze back into hers. His voice had become the way she had always remembered it, that cold, indifferent voice, as he spoke to her again.

“Yes. It’s nothing. I’ll be leaving now…” Removing his arm from her grasp he walked out the door and drove off in his car.

Tea watched him disappear around the corner and then walked up to her room. She fell down onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling with a heavy sigh. ‘Every time he has a problem he closes himself off. But those are the times when he needs to open up…’

****************************

Over the next week the Tea had been trying to talk to Kaiba, but he had gone out of his way to avoid her. When she started coming over to him at lunch he got up and left. When she tried to talk to him in class he would ignore her and then leave. He always left.

Thursday after school and she got home she dropped her books on the floor and turned on the TV in the living room. It didn’t take that long for her to lose interest and then she decided she go call somebody and talk to them.

Running up into her room she picked up the phone and automatically dialed a number without even thinking as she lay down on her bed.

“Hello?”

“Hi Seto.”

“Oh… it’s you…”

“Are you mad at me?”

There was a long pause, “…No”

Tea smiled. It had been a while since she’d heard his voice, and she found it kind of nice. “Are you busy tomorrow afternoon?”

Another long pause, “…No”

“Then would it be alright if I came over?”

An even longer pause, “… No”

Tea was confused at this. “But you said you weren’t busy…”

“I’m not.”

“But then why can’t I-“

“You don’t need to be here anymore.” And with that Tea was answered only with the dial tone.

Hanging up the phone slowly Tea was confused. “I know he’s upset about something… I just wish he’d tell me what…”

***************************

At school the next day Kaiba acted the same as he always did. He came into the classroom silently, walked over to his desk, sat down, folded his arms, and didn’t say anything.

The lunch bell rang and all the students ran out of the classroom. Tea sat with Yugi and the rest of the gang as usual. She saw Kaiba walk into the room and sit in the corner all by himself… again. And he didn’t have any lunch, like always.

Tea got up and sat next to him. Surprisingly enough he didn’t leave, he just ignored her. She held out half her sandwich in front of her. “Do you want some?”

He looked down at the sandwich, then and her, and then returned to staring off into space.

Tea placed the sandwich down in front of him and cocked her head slightly to the side. “You ok?”

Seto turned to face her with his usual blank expression. “I’m fine.”

Tea brushed a few stray hairs out of his eyes. “Are you sure?”

Kaiba peered over at Yugi and everyone who were of course watching them. Getting up he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked away. “Yes…”

Tea went back to sit with her friends and glared at them. “Why can’t you guys ever mind your own business?”

Joey smiled and pointed a finger at her. “Why should we when you don’t?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You gave Kaiba your sandwich.”

“And your point is?”

“It’s his choice whether to eat or not.”

“So… I just gave him food, I didn’t force feed him or anything.”

“You’re taking care of him.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No. I’m really not.”

“Yes. You really are.”

“Stop it you guys.” Of course Yugi is the one to calm things down. And it always works… So the gang just went back to eating lunch and talking about how annoying this teacher is and what they want to do after school and other bits of this and that.

********************

Mokuba had wanted to take the bus that day so as a change of pace Seto walked. He hadn’t looked at the daily weather forecast though, and just his luck it had started raining. And to add to his even luckier day Yugi and the gang were walking too.

Joey and Tristan had decided to have a race for some reason or another and they were running ahead of Yugi and Tea when they spotted Kaiba walking down the street. Joey being the joker he is decided to have some fun, winking at Tristan he stopped running and walked up idly next to Kaiba with Tristan following his example. Kaiba ignored the two and just kept walking until Joey decided to speak up.

“Hey Kaiba. How’ve ya been?”

Seto just kept walking.

“Something wrong buddy?”

No comment…

Joey snickered and looked over to Tristan. “I think he’s not talking to us.” Going back to Kaiba, Joey made little sniffle sounds and pretended to cry. “Maybe Kaiba should run back to his mommy…”

Joey grinned evilly as he noticed Kaiba tense up when he said this.

“It’s ok Kaiba. Mommy and Daddy will protect you from us mean people. I’m sure Mommy will scold us and send us home. And if we’re really bad Daddy will come to the rescue and- OOF!”

Kaiba swung his big metal briefcase right into Joey’s stomach. Chucking it to the side he then hurled himself at Joey and started pummeling him with his fists.

Joey was taken completely off guard and he couldn’t get away from the infuriated Kaiba. Tristan tried pulling Kaiba off of his friend but he received a solid punch in the middle of his face, which sent him spinning.

Tea and Yugi came upon the scene of Joey getting his face bashed in as Kaiba sat on top of him. And Tristan was sitting on the ground with his face in his hands and moaning.

They started running and both grabbed Kaiba’s arms and pulled him off of Joey. They didn’t get him far away enough before he landed a few good kicks and even then they had a hard time holding back the angered CEO.

“Let me go! I’ll kill him! I swear I’ll kill him! LET ME GO!!!”

Joey sat up slowly and clutched at his head. He stood up and walked over to Kaiba slowly.

Joey pulled his arm back ready to punch Kaiba. But the executive twisted his arms around getting rid of Tea and Yugi and he dropped to the ground kicking at Joey’s feet knocking him to the ground. Picking up his briefcase Kaiba glared down at Joey and then walked away from the scene.

Tea helped Joey up and Yugi went over to Tristan. Looking at the blonde somewhat angrily she asked, “What did you guys say?”

Joey half smiled through a wince. “I just said that his parents would have to come save him from us. That’s all, no biggie…”

Tea shoved him away from her. “You jerk! His parents are DEAD!”

Joey’s eyes opened in surprise and then he looked down at the ground guiltily. “Oh…”

Scowling at her friend Tea turned and started running after Kaiba.

********************************

Seto walked down the street with fire in his eyes. ‘I should’ve stayed and beat the crap out of that bastard. How dare he pick on my parents. How DARE he. I should’ve killed him. I should have beaten him to death. That would teach him.’ Glaring at the sidewalk in frustration and mentally maiming Joey, Kaiba barely noticed the voice calling out behind him…

“Seto! SETO!”

It finally clicked in his brain and he turned around to see Tea running up after him. When she reached him he glared at her. “What do you want?”

To his surprise Tea hugged him and whispered into his ear. “I’m sorry…”

“What for?” He pushed her away slightly and took his trench coat off and wrapped it around her shoulders to protect her from the rain.

“I’m sorry about what they said… about your parents…”

Seto looked away from her with hurt in his eyes. “It’s not your fault…”

Tea gave him a little kiss on the cheek. “It was still wrong of them.”

Pulling Tea into him Seto nuzzled into her hair and smiled. “You know, I missed you…”

“I missed you too…” Sighing happily she rested her head on his shoulder. Then suddenly she felt his body tense and she looked at him. “Something wrong?”

Kaiba was staring off down the sidewalk. “It’s them…” Looking into her eyes he leaned forward and gave her a kiss. “I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

She nodded and with that he turned and walked away…

As the rest of the gang caught up Yugi nodded his head in the direction Kaiba had just gone. “What was that about?”

Tea wiped the dreamy look off her face and looked at her vertically challenged friend ((teeheehee)). “I was just doing some damage control for a certain someone.” She glared over at Joey who put up his arms in a sort of I-didn’t-do-anything-bad motion.

Yugi then looked over at his two friends. Tristan only had a broken nose, but Joey had been landed with two black eyes and a couple other nasty bruises. Shaking his spiky head Yugi sighed. “You guys should really be careful what you say to people.”

****************************

Kaiba had felt a lot better after talking to Tea and when he got home he had gone into the library to read something relaxing. He hadn’t been in there in a while since he generally absorbed himself in his work so much. And when he went in there he looked around and noticed a book lying on the table. Opening it up he looked at the inside cover and saw scribbled in cursive: Tea Gardner.

Seto smirked and walked out of the library. Getting into his car he put the book on the seat beside him and drove off…