And tomorrow came, and the next tomorrow, and the next, until tomorrow was Saturday.

Tea rolled out of her bed onto the floor. Wearily pushing herself up she dragged over to the phone and picked it up. 'I don't see how he does it. I've been calling him every hour at night all week and he doesn't sound the least bit tired, but you look at him and it's clear he's dragging.' She groaned a little and dialed his number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Seto."

"Hi."

"I'm coming over, ok?"

"Sure."

"Ok then, see ya." Tea hung up the phone and got dressed. She grabbed a quick breakfast and then headed over to Kaiba's. When she got there she rung the doorbell and Seto opened up the door.

"Hey."

Tea smiled at him, "Hey." She'd had plenty of time to wake up on her way over so she wasn't feeling as sleepy as she had been. She then looked up at the sky with its puffy clouds slowly floating across. "Nice day today."

He just shrugged.

She looked down at him again. "Here, how 'bout we do this. Instead of staying inside all day and becoming mole people, let's go outside into the sun!" Tea grabbed his arm and then pulled him out the door.

"Um, okay." He let her drag him out along behind the side of the house where it was woody. She pulled him underneath of one of the trees and then to the ground.

"Now we sit here and listen to as many sounds as we can." She watched him lean up against the tree and she next to him with her head lying on his chest while they began listening.

'One, the water. . . Two, the wind in the trees. . . Three, Seto's breathing. Four, his heartbeat. . . . .' She looked up at him for a second and saw he had his eyes closed and was peacefully sleeping. With a happy sigh from herself Tea snuggled against him and continued listening, 'Five. . . Six. . . . Seven. .' and then she too drifted off into slumber.

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

Slowly opening his eyes he saw Tea laying on him and the sun was still high in the sky. 'How long have I been here?' He looked at his watch: 4:16. 'Heh, a while.' He then looked at Tea and smiled. 'She's been staying up with me.' "I'm sorry." He whispered this and gently kissed the top of her head.

At this she started moving and her eyes flickered open. Yawning Tea stretched and sat up before she looked at Seto. "What time is it?"

"About quarter past four."

A smile grew on Tea's features. "I guess it's tomorrow then, huh?"

"Guess so."

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

The next day after Tea came home from Kaiba's she picked up the phone.

"Turtle Game Shop, how may I help you?"

"Hi Yugi, are Joey and Tristan at your place?"

"Um, not right now. Should they be?"

"Get them there, I'm on my way over now."

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

Tea walked inside the shop and looked around at Joey and Tristan as she walked over and took a seat. "Hey guys."

Joey leaned over the back of his chair. "So what's the big news you were just dying to tell us?"

She smiled happily, "I fixed our problem. He's all back to normal now."

Yugi then walked in from the kitchen with sodas for everyone. " 'He' as in Kaiba?"

"Yup. I finally got him to sleep yesterday."

With an evil grin Joey snickered. "You got him to sleep did you?"

Tea put her arms up in defense. "Whoa! Whoa! I didn't do anything like THAT! We just, oh never mind, I can't explain it. but he just went to sleep, okay? Isn't that great?!" She clapped her hands together with joy as her smile grew wider.

"That is great, so now you can dump him."

She stood still and stared blankly at Joey, "Um, what exactly do you mean by that?"

He shrugged, "Well I mean Kaiba's all better, you just said, so you don't really need to date him anymore."

"You can't be serious."

"Why not?"

"Are you even considering his feelings? Do you know what kind of stress this would cause?"

Joey shrugged again, "But you don't need to date him anymore."

She started pacing around the room, "I can't believe you! You hate Seto, then you say he's fine, and now because YOU hate him again you expect me to just dump him too. You aren't considering HIS feelings let alone my own!"

Joey was sitting there blinking as the expression on his face became more and more confused while Tea was yelling at him. "But, Tea, it's Kaiba?"

She whirled and glared at him, "So what if it IS Kaiba? Is there something wrong with that? He's a person too, he has just as much right to happiness as any of you. He has a right to even MORE happiness than you guys by the way you've been acting!"

Yugi cocked his head slightly, "Tea. We don't hate Kaiba."

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, sure, whatever. Just tell that to them." Sending one more glare over at Joey and Tristan she stomped out the door and slammed it behind her.

Tristan blinked at Joey and then Yugi. "What just happened here?" ((Sorry about my little Tristan ignoring, I think it's kind of hard to come up with his character, but hey, I'm gonna give it a shot.))

Joey stared at the door, "I think we just did something wrong."

Yugi looked over at the two of them and sighed, "You know we have been a little inconsiderate to Tea. Maybe we should try and make friends with Kaiba, I mean it seems kind of important to her." He glanced over at the door and then back at his friends.

"We could try, but I'm not sure he would be too keen on the idea." Tristan shook his head and then started to head for the door. "I'm gonna go and catch Tea, be right back."

Joey watched him leave and then turned to Yugi, "Are you serious Yug? We're gonna try and be friends with Kaiba?"

Yugi shrugged, "I guess so Joey, I think this is important to Tea. You saw how upset she got, we can at least give it a try."

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

Tristan ran down the street and he tried to catch up with Tea. When he finally reached her he just walked beside her as she looked down at the sidewalk and kept walking.

"Hey Tristan."

He shoved his hands in his pockets, "Hey, are you gonna be coming back?"

She shook her head, "Why should I. Nobody cares; they all just want me to feel the same way they do. I think even Yugi does, even though he won't show it. they don't understand."

Tristan watched as a tear rolled down her cheek and he patted her on the back. "It's okay, why don't you just talk to them about it. I'm sure they'd understand. I mean it's not like they haven't done some really whacked out things in the past."

Tea stopped walking and glared at him. "You think I should dump him too, don't you?"

"Uh, well, I mean, kinda, but-"

"You guys don't even know what you've done. You don't know what Seto's done to himself, you just don't understand."

Tristan tried to comfort her but she shoved him away. "Just leave me alone."

"Tea, wait. The other guys said they'd try-"

"Just. Leave. Me. Alone." She then walked away leaving Tristan bewildered on the sidewalk before he began walking back to the game shop.

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

Tristan walked into the door with his head hung down and Yugi looked at him hopefully.

"Any luck?"

Tristan shook his head and sat down next to Joey. "No. She thinks we don't care about her feelings, and something about how we just don't understand."

Yugi sighed, "Well, we have to do something."

Joey shrugged, "What can we do? It seems Tea doesn't want our help, so why not let her be."

Yugi glared at his friend slightly as the hurt look on Tea's face flickered into his mind, "That worked so well last time when we ignored her." He was still sore about that; he hated to see Tea upset especially when it was his fault. She was his friend, and they should be trying to help her not hurt her.

Rolling his eyes mildly Joey looked over at Tristan, "Did you get to tell her we were gonna try and make friends?"

"No. She pushed me away before I could say it."

Joey then looked back at Yugi, "She doesn't want our help, why not let her just get it out of her system. We'll be just as friendly as normal and if she wants to hang with us she can, but if she doesn't then fine. She might just need some time by herself right now, everybody needs a little alone time now and then."

Yugi sighed again and shook his head, "I hope you're right Joey."

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

Monday at school Tea was still upset at the guys for wanting her to dump Kaiba. 'The nerve of them. They don't even know what we've been through, they don't know he'd tried to kill himself, they don't know he practically DID kill himself. And I really like Seto, I mean I really do, I can't just keep dumping and going out with him and then dumping him again all the time.'

She looked over at Yugi's table and then at Kaiba's corner. She didn't want to sit with him now, not when everything was so confused. Looking around the cafeteria her eyes finally rested on one more person she could sit with who was sitting all by himself at one of the other tables. She slowly headed over there and placed her lunch down across from the silver haired person. ((Hey look, it's Bakura!))

Bakura looked up from his lunch and then his eyes grew wide with surprise. "Hey Tea, what brings you here?"

She sighed and looked over at Yugi's table. "Having some issues with the guys. I don't want to be with them today..."

He cocked his head to the side slightly. "What sort of problem? I'm sure it's something you can work out, you've been friends for so long it can't be that big of a deal."

Tea just shook her head. "It is though, it really is."

Bakura glanced at her curiously, "What exactly is that problem?"

"Kaiba."

"Kaiba?"

"Kaiba." She looked down at the table wearily and sighed.

"What has Kaiba got to do with you?"

"Everything."

Bakura tapped at the table a little agitatedly; "You're going to have to give me more than that."

"I want to go out with him, and I currently am. The only reason I could though was because I was trying to fix a problem Seto was having. Now he's all better again, so they want me to dump him."

"That doesn't seem very like them. Have you talked about it?"

"A little, but the just don't understand how I feel. They just expect me to hate him just like they do, but I can't. I mean, he's just so sweet and helpless. They aren't even giving him a chance."

"Well. maybe you should explain it to them."

'He doesn't get it either, they won't understand even if I tell it to them. I should just leave everybody to himself or herself. My "friends" don't care about me anymore, and Seto wouldn't understand, he just wouldn't, and I don't want to hurt him anymore than I have to.' She sighed and shook her head before she spoke, "Thanks Bakura, but I think I have to do this by myself."

He just shrugged and went back to his lunch, "I understand Tea, just remember that sometimes when you want to solve the problem yourself you really need others to help."

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

On the following Wednesday, after being basically ignored by Tea, Seto decided he'd go talk to her.

He walked over to where she was sitting with Bakura and sat down next to her. "Hey Tea, what have you been up to the last few days?" He didn't want to go straight to his point, he was afraid that would cause problems. 'I hope everything is fine, she hasn't been hanging out with Yugi either. that's not a very good sign. She looks so sad, I hope I didn't do anything to cause this.'

Tea glanced sideways at him, "Not much Kaiba."

Seto closed his eyes and felt a burning hole start eating it's way inside his chest. 'She called me that again. It's my fault, now I'm sure of it. Get out of her life now Kaiba, she doesn't want you anymore, there's no reason why she should have wanted you in the first place.' Getting up he walked away from her and back into his corner where he stared into space. 'Who were you kidding when you thought she actually liked you. The only time that she really cared for you was when you were hurting yourself, and now I'm not hurting myself, so she doesn't care. She didn't love Seto Kaiba, she pitied him. she pitied him.' He looked over at Tea for a brief moment as he tried to go back inside himself again, but he found only a wall keeping him on the outside. 'You can't go back in now Kaiba, you've been out for too long. No defenses now, you can't protect yourself, might as well let all the pain come down on you, let it crush you. Let it hurt you, that's what you were meant for. You were meant for pain, you were created to take pain, so take it, embrace it. Don't kill yourself, it won't do any good. just cause pain.'

These same thoughts were running through his head on his way home. Walking through the front door he walked up to his office and did all the work he needed to do, including school, before going into his room. Looking around as the burning feeling ate away at him more and more, he noticed the knife from the first time he'd cut his arms laying on his desk. Picking it up he smiled slightly and started picking away slowly at his arm. It hurt at first, and he didn't care, then the pain just became numbing so he was free to cut all the patterns into the skin that he desired.

He cut three slices into the back of his hand and watched the red liquid seep out slowly before he wiped off the blade and put it inside one of his desk drawers. 'See Kaiba. don't you get it? You deserve this, don't make any big deal about it, don't cause any problems, just keep to yourself, you would've been safer if you had never left there in the first place.'