Tea wasn’t going to leave Kaiba alone though. After she finished her breakfast she went up and knocked on Kaiba’s door. He yanked the fork out of his leg and walked over to the door. He opened it slightly and looked down, expecting it to be Mokuba, but instead he saw himself staring straight down Tea’s shirt. He jumped back awkwardly with his ears burning and shoved the fork into his mouth licking off the blood. She walked in and cocked and eyebrow at Kaiba. He pulled it out of his mouth and quickly recovered becoming his usual Kaiba self, “What do you want?”

She looked at him plainly, “Why do you have a fork...” Her expression was blank and her tone was flat also as she stared down at Kaiba’s leg with the blood seeping through the blue fabric.

He threw the fork over onto the couch next to his bowl of oatmeal and folded his arms, “Just eating my oatmeal... What are you like my mother or something coming to check up on me?”

Tea scowled at him and slapped him across the face. “You jerk! I just came to see what the news was about the guy coming for the car, but I might as well be checking up on you based on how well you take care of yourself. Look at you! Yesterday you tried jumping off a balcony and I come in today and your leg is all bloody! Look at yourself Kaiba! Your a WRECK!”

Kaiba stumbled and fell back onto the floor. Great just what she needed, a headache to grow off his other one. She clutched at his brain and kicked out at Tea making her fall down to the ground as well. “What’d you do that for you bitch?!”

Tea hadn’t expected to come crashing down to the ground. She fell clumsily down next to Kaiba and crashed her head on the floor. “OW!” She rubbed at her head and glared at him. Why’d she even bother, this was still Kaiba, he didn’t care about anybody. She shoved him against the floor and started smacking his face. “Kaiba, I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HAAAATE YOU!!!” One thing happened that she didn’t expect to though, there was no fight against her...

Tea stopped slapping him and say that he COULDN’T fight back. Kaiba had gone unconscious. “Ooooooh, oooooooh, oooooooooooohhh.....” She moaned and tapped Kaiba’s face lightly, “Come on Kaiba, get up. Get up Kaiba. GET UP!” She leaned her head on his chest just to make sure he was breathing and alive, he was. Then she pulled him up and hugged him to her rocking back and forth as her anxiety attack set in. “Stop faking it Kaiba, I know your awake, come on, COME ON!”

Kaiba’s world spun as colors flashed before his eyes and it went dark. Sitting up in his dream world he looked around at the black expanse surrounding him. ‘Am I dead?’ He faintly heard Tea’s callings in the background and stood up. ‘Hmph! NOW she cares about me...’ He shoved his hands into his pockets and started walking as the clacking of his shoes echoed around him. He looked up and saw a flickering image of Tea appear in his view as her voice seemed to come out of the walls when she spoke, “I can save you Kaiba, you just gotta let me in... you just have to open the door a little.........” Her image faded along with her voice as it drifted off into the background.

He sat down on the ground and glanced around him. Why was this place so dark? He saw one little patch of light off in the distance and a picture of Mokuba flashed into his mind. He smiled and took out the picture case from inside his shirt. Clicking it open he looked at the face of his dear little brother. Memories started flashing into his mind. Pushing Mokuba on the swing, pinning him to the ground and tickling him, the whole big brother bonding bit. The picture frame began to glow and act like a sort of flashlight, but then more images flickered into his mind, fighting those guys who were beating up on Mokuba, his parents dieing, the other orphanage kids excluding him and acting like he wasn’t even there when he talked to them, being alone...... that last thought echoed in his mind. Alone.......... even with Mokuba they didn’t talk a lot, Kaiba had successfully managed to bury himself from all emotions in work. If he got angry? Hack some systems. If he was sad? Make a new program. If he was frustrated? Push the buttons down REALLY hard. Computers couldn’t hurt you, they didn’t have feelings, they didn’t have hearts. They were just computers, cold, boring... safe.

Then he saw Tea, when he had first met her in his duel with Yugi. She had been so loyal, and so confident that friendship would fix everything. He didn’t believe in that... did he? No, friends were for the weak, friends were for those who liked to feel pain, for those who liked to have their hearts torn out and cut up into tiny pieces. No, he didn’t need friends, he didn’t need anybody...

“KAIBA! KAIBA!!!!”

The world faded around him and he found himself staring at a crying Tea who was screaming in his face.

He put his hands over his ears to drown out her deafening shouts, “What?”

She screamed with joy and hugged him. Kaiba blinked as his face turned red. Why? He didn’t know, but he didn’t push Tea off. She started sobbing into his shirt as her whole body quivered, “I thought I’d lost you, you kept muttering something about ‘I don’t need it, I don’t need it.’ I thought you were dying!” She squeezed him tighter as the tears seeped through his shirt.

Kaiba brought his arms down and rubbed her back and spoke somewhat awkwardly, “It’s ok Tea, I’m still here... no need to worry... it’s ok...” Was he comforting her? Well... yeah, he didn’t know exactly why, but he was... Then a weird thing happened to Kaiba, he started to cry. Tears tickled down his cheeks as he continued rubbing Tea’s back, “It’s ok... I’m here for you...”