Chapter 11: To Be Human Again
"Oh my gosh!"
Tea continued to just stare down at her hands, totally ignoring the man next to her.
"Oh my gosh!"
"Gardner what the hell are you doing on my property!"
"What?" Finally Tea looked at Seto who was still sitting down on the ground. Her eyes met his and it slowly hit her. She was human, she was a human again. She could talk and walk on two legs and kiss! "Oh my gosh!" She cried with joy, running her hands down her body to make sure she was real. She was and she was alive. "Oh my gosh!"
"Will you shut up already?" Seto yelled, covering his ears from Tea's outbursts. She was now standing up twirling around with her arms out. Man, what was wrong with her? She's acting like she was supposed to be dead or something. Did Luke attack her? Was she kidnapped, or taken hostage? He was about to ask when suddenly, why do I care? Seto pushed up from the ground and stood next to a dizzy Tea who was currently trying to regain her balance. Unfortunately she couldn't and fell…right into Seto's arms. He noticed her falling and came to catch her, wondering why he did so.
Tea had her hands placed on his chest to balance herself. She looked up into his eyes for what seemed like the first time, he looked perfect. His eyes were soft and blue, not iced over, his hair was as perfect as it always was and now Tea could appreciate his body because she had one of her own. Suddenly it was all too much for her and tears started to stream down her face. "Oh Seto!" She cried out and threw her arms around his neck bringing him closer than he already was.
Seto was just standing there trying to comprehend everything that was happening. First she had been over joyed and now she was crying her eyes out. Women, he thought. He tried being his usual icy self and began to extract Tea's arms from around his neck but she was holding too tight. "Look, Gardner…" He tugged again on her arms, "Maybe…ugh." Tea had squeezed him harder then pushed back from him.
She looked up at him with big cerulean blue eyes that were glimmering from her tears, and at that moment Seto felt a very familiar feeling come to him. He studied her eyes, they were the same eyes as… It couldn't be, could it? Seto pushed away the thought, "Look, do you want to come inside?" He couldn't believe he had said that. But it had looked like she had a tough day.
Tea smiled at Seto's offer and gave a slight nod of her head. She gave a little sniff and then followed him back to home.
When Tea entered the house it seemed so very comfortable. She knew everything about it and found herself making her way to the TV room. Seto watched suspiciously from behind but followed silently none the less. Tea sat herself on one of the couches and leaned back closing her eyes, enjoying how very comfortable it was.
Seto sat down on the opposite couch, and watched Tea. He wanted to say something icy, to tell her to get the hell out. To make her frown and want to yell at him, but there was some unknown force inside of him that just made him keep quiet something inside him that made him want to hold her. When he saw her tears out in the maze he wanted to hug her and protect her from whatever it was that made her cry. It bothered Seto that he couldn't sort out this weird feeling.
Pushing his confusing thoughts out of his head Seto glared in Tea's direction to find that she still had her eyes closed. He gracefully got up and then sat down right next to her on the couch. The action opened her eyes and they focused on him.
Tea just sat there, staring into the eyes of the man she loved. It was strange, she didn't really fell all that different out in the garden but now with him so close her feelings started to flood her. Her chest tightened and her heart beat sped up, she knew in a matter of seconds her face would turn into a cherry, but she continued to stare. Getting lost in the sea that was Seto's eyes.
Seto continued to watch her, he couldn't push the thought of her eyes out of his mind. Not now when they were the only thing he was focusing on. They looked just like Nakuru's, it was almost like she was inside Gardner. But that Seto knew was impossible, or was it? Seto's mind started to drift to dangerous territory the territory in his brain that had to do with all that magic mumbo jumbo Yugi and his friends would always talk about. Could it all be true? What if in some sick twist of fate Gardner was really Nakuru, or Nakuru really Gardner?
Seto couldn't believe it, not now. Not after he had denied the whole Duelist Kingdom incident with Pegasus. He had denied so much super natural events that if he were to believe it now…
"It's not possible…" he mumbled to himself.
"I'm sorry?"
Seto's eyes refocused on Tea, had he just spoken out loud?
"What's not possible?" Tea asked again. She cocked her head to one side questioningly.
Seto turned from her, finding the big screen TV more interesting to look at. "Nothing."
Tea narrowed her eyes, "Nothing? It doesn't seem like nothing. Listen Seto you can tell me-" she stopped. She had called him Seto, would he notice? Apparently he did. His face turned back to hers and his eyes iced over. She bit her bottom lip nervously, what was he going to do? It wasn't her fault that she called him that, it was just a habit. A habit that he would never know, she realized. Inless she told him, would it work? No, she thought to herself, how could it work? He never believes anything unless it's proven to him. That was it! She could prove it to him.
"What did you call me?" His voice was cold and lifeless, the old Seto Kaiba taking form. She had to tell him, before he was completely retransformed into the old Kaiba.
"Listen S-Kaiba, I don't know how to really explain this to you but…" Tea had trouble forming words, "Um…I…I was your…uh…your cat." She gulped down air trying to calm herself, she had said it, now it was up to him. She waited for his reaction, it seemed to take forever when he finally opened his mouth. His face was completely unreadable as he talked, "You were my cat?"
Tea let a small smile touch her lips, he hadn't exploded. "Yes!" she nodded with enthusiasm. "I know you don't believe me but, Yugi gave me this necklace--" Her hand went to her neck to grab the black jewel but it wasn't there.
"Yugi?" At the mention of the name, Seto stiffened. "This is some kind of joke isn't it!" he accused.
"What?" Frightened Tea stood, "No! It's not trust me! I can prove it to you." Her mind worked frantically trying to find some way to convince him. "When you had that fight… that fight with Mokuba, he was telling me that you were abused when you were little, by your step father." She hoped that would prove it to him. But as she stood there with hope filled eyes Seto's eyes burned.
"How dare you nosey your way into my personal life!" He yelled, he then stood. "I let you come into my house and you talk about my past!"
Tea shivered, she had awakened the true Seto in an attempt to prove her story to him. Now he was as pissed as pissed could be. "I just wanted to prove to you-"
"You wanted to prove to me that your as nosey as I thought you were? Get out of my house!"
Frightened Tea quickly ran toward the door, she opened it and before she turned to leave tried one last time. "I was named after your mother, Seto."
Seto didn't even have time to reply before he heard the door slam. He stood there, his fists were clenched at his side slightly shaking now from that last comment. How could she have known that? It was easy for someone to wheedle their way into his past with Gozaburo, but no one, no one knew of his biological parents. How could she have known? He growled in frustration and fell onto the couch again. He pressed his palms to his temples trying desperately to think logically. But logic didn't seem to work, there was no reasonable explanation behind the fact that Gardner knew about his mother.
Seto sighed with defeat, he didn't like the fact that she was right. She had come in here trying to prove the truth and he shot her down, because he didn't want to believe. Nice job, he thought to himself. He lazily got off the couch and headed for the door, she only had about a 20 minute lead.
As Seto ran through the night looking around for Gardner, his thoughts began to wonder. He thought about what he would do if he caught up to her, about what would happen after that, and of course he thought about his feelings toward everything. There was no denying that when he saw her in the garden he felt something. In all honesty he was rather relieved to discover that he didn't love his cat but an actual person. Seto stopped running, had he just admitted love? He was just about to argue with himself when a flash of yellow caught his attention. He narrowed his eyes trying to focus and then he saw it again, heading through the park to the center of Domino.
Tea ran through Domino Public Park, tears blurred her vision as she headed toward the center of Domino to the Game Shop. She had to see Yugi, to tell him everything that had happened, what she needed now was a shoulder to cry on. No one, she thought, could feel as bad as she did right now.
Unfortunately there was someone else that felt worse than Tea did. Shelby. She was currently rolled up on the couch, tears streaming down her face as the words that were said to her over the phone kept repeating in her head. 'I'm sorry Miss Forth, but your brother Luke, has recently passed away.' She cried out in pain, how could this have happened? As soon as the cop had told her she refused to listen to anything more. She didn't want to hear how or who or why. She didn't want to know anything more, she wanted to curl into a smaller ball and die. Luke was all she had ever had, ever known in the world and he was taken from her. Suddenly she was angry at herself for being so stupid to hang up on the cop. She didn't even know if it was murder. But who would murder Luke? she thought. He wasn't even well known, he just worked for Kaiba.
Shelby instantly sat upright, Kaiba! It was him! His…his project! It killed Luke! Rage burned within Shelby like none she had ever felt before. He was the reason behind Luke's death, and at that very moment Shelby swore she would have her revenge upon the rich bastard that had taken her brother's life away.
In the park Tea, tired and worn out from the days events plopped herself down on a green bench in the park. She inhaled deeply, letting the cool night air dry her tear stained face. She closed her eyes and listened to the leaves rustle in the night breeze, the peace calmed her. After a few moments she rose from the bench and headed toward the Game Shop once again. She walked slowly, admiring the park as a human again. She heard a twig snap but paid it no attention as she continued to walk on.
Tea hadn't even walked two steps when suddenly something grabbed her arm. She gasped in surprise and turned to face Seto. "S-Seto…" He winced when she used his name, but she didn't pay heed to it. She remembered that it was him that had driven her out into the park to cry and be left alone. Anger bubbled inside of her and she wrenched her arm out of his grip. "What do you want?"
"Look, Gard-Tea… I came out here to tell you…" he gulped. "To tell you…"
Tea watched as he struggled with his words, in all honesty she thought it made him appear rather cute. Her anger subsided and she interrupted him, "To tell me that you're an ass for not listening to me?" He gave her a pointed look of warning but didn't comment.
"It was scurrilous of me to talk to you that way." He stated calmly, ignoring her previous comment.
Tea sighed, scurrilous? she thought, he couldn't just say 'rude'?
"Can we talk?" Tea's eyes locked with his at the statement.
"We are talking."
Seto knew this wasn't going to be easy, he had hurt her and now he was going to have to do the one thing he had never done before. Apologize. He shuddered at the thought. He looked deep in her eyes and saw the small flame of anger that still lingered inside of her, he had to do it and there was no backing out now. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, all the while telling himself he could do this. He was Seto Kaiba, the big CEO, there was nothing he couldn't do. Nothing, he thought, except this.
Tea just stood there waiting for Seto to say something. She started to grow impatient and placed her hands on her hips. "Well?" She continued to glare at him until, "I'm sorry." Tea's arm slipped off her hip and she fell forward slightly from the shock.
"What did you just say?"
"You heard me."
"Did you, Seto Kaiba just apologize to me? Yugi's 'Cheerleader'."
Seto rolled his eyes, "yes alright. Now can you quit the bitchy attitude?"
Tea placed her hand back onto her hip, she was about to reply when she realized that it would only cause another fight. And right now the one thing she wanted was for Seto to listen to her and now she had him. There was no point ruining the moment. "Fine" she mumbled.
A smirk came to his face but quickly faded, "Alright, I don't know how to say this but there's no way for you to have known about my mother unless you were in my office that day."
Tea's eyes widened, it was one thing to get an apology from Seto but to actually have him believe her? "Are you," she hesitated, "are you saying that you believe me?"
Seto's mouth opened when suddenly there was another mouth on top of his. An incoherent murmur came from him but Tea didn't even try to understand it as she wrapped her arms around his neck. His lips were as soft as velvet and sent a wave of warmth through her. He was stiff at first but she felt him relax and wrap his arms around her waist, bringing her against him. He kissed her back with a gentle force, Tea traced his lower lip with her tongue and he happily parted his lips for her. A small moan broke from her as their tongues rubbed together. All too soon Tea broke away gasping for air, she quickly look into Seto's beautiful blue eyes that were now darkened with emotion.
"I'm sorry," a flush came to her cheeks and she unwrapped her arms to push away from him, avoiding eye contact when she felt his arms tighten around her.
"For what?" Tea looked back into his eyes to see them glitter with laughter. "You know, I thought I had gone crazy when I realized I was in love with my cat." He explained, "But now I feel grateful that it was just you." A smirk curled his lip as he gazed down at her.
Tea felt hot tears in the back of her throat, "Oh Seto!" She felt the tears fall from her eyes but no longer cared as Seto hugged her to him. He placed his chin on her shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his neck once again.
"This is going to be a pain to explain to Mokuba." He said, Tea laughed and rubbed her cheek against Seto's chest, enjoying the warmth his body gave off. "We should head home, it's late." She nodded into him and allowed herself to be lead back to the mansion she called home.
Inside the Kaiba Mansion Tea curled next to Seto on his king sized bed. She rested her head on his chest as his cheek leaned against the top of her head, his arm wrapped around her and hers around him. "I love you Seto." She whispered.
"And I love you Tea." He whispered back, pulling Tea closer to him. He kissed the top of her head and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Epilogue
The bright August sun beat down hard upon Domino City and the Kaiba Mansion. The sun light glittered through the leaves of the tall trees surrounding Tea and Seto in the backyard. They both lay upon the grass looking up to the bright blue sky, without a care in the world.
Tea's parents returned from their trip safe and sound, with a new understanding of what kind of parents they should be. They now spend every Friday with Tea learning more about their daughter and what she wants to do with her life.
Seto had a tough time explaining to Mokuba about Nakuru not to mention understanding the whole wish thing from his girlfriend, but with the help of Tea he managed to get through to his brother.
Tea finally realized that her wish was undone do to the fact that she had indeed witnessed a day when Seto was nice and the change in her heart from hate to love reversed the wish.
The duel disk system which still contained the virus was thrown out by Seto who realized that his current duel disk was good enough for him and he started work with Mokuba to start construction of Kaiba Land.
And Yugi learned never to give out Wish Fulfilling necklaces again.
Aww…it's finally done! Sorry it took so long, but I'm happy I took my time. It's longer than usual, at least for me and I hope you guys enjoy it.
If you didn't notice, I did leave something for a sequel IF I ever decide to do one. When and if I do a sequel is completely unknown at this point.
I'd also like to thank everyone who reviewed and took the time to read my story! I'd really like to get to 200 reviews, plus I want to know if you guys liked the ending or not, so review review review! Also on my profile I have up ideas for some new stories if you want to see what I'll be working on from now on.
MSparrow29