Tea sat bolt upright with the eyes bugging out of her head. "Oh. My. God." She looked at Kaiba and then through the opening into the front hall and then back at Kaiba. "You, hide somewhere."

With a slightly confused expression he sat up as well. "Why?"

"Because. I'm not supposed to have anyone other than Yugi, Joey, and Tristan over when they aren't home. And unless you didn't tell me, you aren't one of them. So you have to hide or I'll be like grounded for life."

"Oh. That's a reason." Looking around him briefly he finally picked the point of closest escape. under the couch.

Tea watched him crawl under it and then scampered out into the hall where she stared at her parents who were lugging in their suitcases. "Hey Mom. Hey Dad. Welcome Back!"

Her mom looked up from pulling in a big bag. "Hello dear. Would you mind giving me a hand?"

Tea nodded and helped to drag in all the suitcases and other various bags from the car and into the house. Placing the last plastic bag full of souvenirs on top of the pile she sighed and smiled at them. "Aren't you guys back a little early?"

Her dad smiled and gave her a hug. "Not by much Tea. Haven't been having any parties while we were gone were we?" He tweaked her nose playfully and then started hauling the bags upstairs. The whole family then chipped in and moved everything that was going to be up into the master bedroom. All the while Tea was somewhat grinding her teeth nervously and kept thinking about Seto lying underneath the couch.

After everything was upstairs Tea went back downstairs with her family. Everyone headed into the living room and Tea bit her lip as she watched her father sit down on the couch and a muffled grunt came from underneath.

"What was that?"

Tea smiled and looked at her father looking totally innocent. "What was what?"

Her father waved his hand. "Nah, I just thought I heard something. So what have you been up to Tea? Doing good at school I hope while we've been gone."

She nodded. "Yeah, I have. I've basically been hanging out with the guys, doing homework, the usual. you know?"

Her mother smiled and headed for the kitchen. "I'd better get dinner started."

Tea then looked to her father who picked up the remote and turned on the TV. "I haven't had a good dose of television ever since we left." And with a big sigh he leaned into the couch and started watching the screen.

Inwardly groaning Tea wrung her hands. "I'm gonna go do my homework." And she ran upstairs into her room and started doing her work as she nervously chewed away at her pencil. 'I hope he's okay. It can't be the best thing for him to be underneath that dusty old couch. Who knows how long he's gonna be stuck down there.' She pressed the eraser against her forehead. 'Well, I can't really do anything about it now. Just chill Seto, I'll get you outta there as soon as I can.'

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

Just Kaiba's luck, Tea's family decided to be special and eat dinner in the living room that night. ((::giggle giggle:: That's my fault! ^^)) After the meal her parents went upstairs to unpack their bags and Tea finally was able to duck down to the couch and lift up the little cloth flap to look at the captive underneath.

"Seto?"

He turned his head to look at her. "Can I come out now?"

She nodded and then he crawled out from underneath the piece of furniture and started brushing all the dust balls off himself. Tea couldn't help but giggle at the site of Kaiba being covered in dust and other such couch lint. He sent a small glare her way. "You guys really need to clean under there."

She put her hand over her mouth and continued her giggling. "I know."

Crossing his arms and tapping his finger he stared at her as the dust still managed to cover him even though he'd done his best to brush it off. "It's not THAT funny you know?"

With a smile she went on with her giggling fit helplessly, "I'm sorry. It's just." Tears started streaming out of the sides of her eyes as she clutched at her stomach. "You' e all gray... and covered. "Even your skin."

Taking his hand he ran it across his cheek and then looked at it and saw it was covered in the dusty powder. "Well. If your dad hadn't been sitting on me the whole time I might not be so covered. He's really heavy, did you know that?"

With another little giggle she was about to say something when a shout came from upstairs.

"Tea?! Is somebody there?!"

"No Mom!" She turned back to Kaiba headed towards the door with him.

Seto turned back to her as he stood in the open doorway. "The fact that they're home doesn't mean I don't get to see you anymore. right?"

Giving him a quick kiss she smiled. "Of course not. Now get going before they come downstairs and see you."

Smiling he gave her a little salute. "Aye-aye ma'am." And with a chuckle he turned and started walking down the street away from the house and back to his mansion.

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

((Thinks about what she can do in the sequel ::brainstorm:: Ooooooooh, I likey ^_^ ::scrambles like a maniac to try and find some way to tie this off:: Okie den, hehe =) I type the rest of this chap now.))

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

Wednesday, the next day of school, Kaiba walked into the lunchroom. He looked at Tea's table, then his corner, table, corner, and then table again. 'They'll notice me this time. Awe well. I'll try.'

He walked over to the table and sat down next to Tea. She smiled at him and he smirked back at her. He looked around at the silent table. Tea didn't mind him, but everyone else was staring at him. Having three silent people stare at you can be unnerving, even for Seto Kaiba, a little. Closing his eyes a second he racked his brain for some middle ground that he could talk about. 'I think I liked it better when they just ignored me. Then at least I don't have all these people looking at me.' Taking a deep breath he looked at everyone at the table. "So what have you guys been up to lately?"

Joey glared at him. "Why do you care?"

Closing his eyes again Kaiba took a deep breath and tapped his finger lightly on the table. "It's just a question."

"One that you wouldn't ask."

Seto tapped his finger again and shook his head. 'Well this is going well. but I'm not leaving, I have to be able to be nice to them.' He looked at Tea who smiled at him and that sent a mental spark to his head. "Well anyway. I'll just tell you what I've been up to then. Mokuba got his hair filled with gum."

Yugi being the innocent little soul he is couldn't help but ask, "When'd he do that?"

"The day before yesterday. when I got back. His head was covered."

Tristan couldn't help but smile. "I wonder how he accomplished that."

Joey grinned. "Really big bubble?"

"So how'd you get it out?" Yugi cocked his head.

"Cut it."

Joey broke out laughing. "Hahahahahaha! He must be bald!"

"No, he's not quite bald, but he won't go outside of the house without a hat on." Seto smirked. 'So this is what it's like. I guess it's not that hard to have a normal conversation with other people. even if there is no real point to it. I guess it is sort of funny. Especially since these people wouldn't even have given me the time if I had asked this morning.'

Tristan smiled evilly. "Maybe you should take his hat away for a day just to see how he'd react. He'd probably have a spazz attack and then go get high on some sugar cubes."

Everyone laughed at this, and Kaiba gave a little chuckle. 'Maybe there is a reason not to exclude yourself after all.'

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

Walking up into his room that afternoon Kaiba looked at the knife that was laying on top of his desk. Still with a slight smile plastered on his features from earlier today he picked up the blade and took it downstairs. Putting it in the kitchen sink he carefully washed it off with soap and hot water before he placed it in one of the drawers. Then running back up into his room he grabbed the pair of scissors and went and put them inside the drawer of his office desk with all the tape. Traveling back to his room once again he pulled out a bunch of things from his desk as he continued making trips back and forth as he returned the objects. He put back a pocket knife, two more pairs of scissors, three various different kinds of hand guns, a lighter, a bag of nails, a claw hammer, four or more other kinds of knives. You get the idea ((^_^))

Walking out onto the balcony he leaned against the railing and pulled his phone out of his pocket and punched in Tea's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey."

"Hi Seto. What's up?"

He breathed a happy sigh and looked out at the water. "I'm done."

"With what?"

"I just took everything out of the desk in my room and put it back where it belongs. I think I'm going to try and deal with my problems in a less deadly way from now on."

On the other end little fireworks shot up inside Tea's mind and a huge parade began. "That's great!"

He chuckled, "I also wanted to tell you something."

"Mm?"

"Thank you. for saving me. I don't think I could have gotten through this by myself."

She smiled. "No problem Seto. No problem."