Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Life Inside the Chemical Heart ❯ Prologue: Rain ( Prologue )

Author's Note: This is a completely self-indulgent story that pairs Nick King with Téa Gardener. This is based off DJ Rodriguez's Snow Bride Trouble story but set several months before that story (with a few changes since no offence to DJ but I'm not a big fan of some of the pairing from his story, And I'm not talking about the main one).

 

Disclaimer: To quote Asuka Langley Soyru from Neon Genesis Evangelion, what are you, stupid? Of course I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, or any of the songs mentioned.

 

Note: The chapter names, as well as part of the story title are names from popular music. The prologue is Rain by Seatbelts (From Cowboy Bebop), the story title is Chemical Heart by Grinspoon.

 

Prologue: Rain

 

Weather seems to be a good reflector of mood. Sadness and depression is reflected in rain, joy and happiness by a sunny day. Today the former was upon the citizens of Domino Japan, it was raining, the third day in a row that hard rain and fallen. It wasn't as windy as the previous day. But still rain fell hard upon them.

 

One girl among the thousands that lived in Domino Japan didn't mind the weather, all in all she didn't really care. It wasn't worth caring about.

 

“Téa honey, it's time to get up!” A voice yelled from the foot of the stairs.

 

Under the covers in her room the said girl stirred slightly, `Oh Kami, I'm, back again.' She thought through her sleep addled mind.

 

“Téa, don't make me come up there to get you, if you stay up there you won't have time for any breakfast before school!” Téa's mother yelled again.

 

Téa moaned and gathered herself rising under the covers, “Another day, yay.”

 

Téa got out from under the covers and bed dressed in her panties and bed shirt, she had a quick shower and dried changing into her school uniform a white undershirt, pink overcoat with a blue skirt, it wasn't a very long skirt, even in winter. Téa grabbed her school bag automatically and walked to the door of her room, she turned and like every day at this time her mind reflected on the past.

 

`I, I was so close, but, Yugi was there instead, I couldn't tell him, and then…' Téa thought a tear rolling down her cheek, however her thoughts were interrupted.

 

`Téa honey, breakfast is ready!” Her mother called from the foot of the stairs once again, Téa composed herself wiping away the tear, her family didn't, and wouldn't know, that she went to sleep every night crying.

 

Across town the Wheeler residence was a buzz with the usual morning activity, the head of the household, the brown eyed dirty blonde High schooler known as Joey Wheeler was doing his best to prepare breakfast, his efforts were being hampered however.

 

“SERENITY! Would ya close ya shirt!” Joey scolded his younger sibling; she simply gave him a mischievous smile and continued to swan around with her pink shirt open, her white cotton bra visible underneath.

 

“Look Seren, ya better close dat shirt, I'm about to get him up.” Joey warned, Serenity grinned and continued to ignore him.

 

Joey walked across from the small enclosed kitchen to the door of the guest bedroom. He wasn't that thrilled about having someone here, particularly with his little sister having moved in two months previous. But Joey needed the money to pay the rent; he never wanted to go back to living with his drunkard father.

 

Joey opened the door to the bedroom, “Hey, get up, I made breakfast.”

 

Joey heard several sounds, and then a loud snore from under the covers, Joey shook his head and picked up a pillow from the chair near the door chucking it hard at the head of the bed, he heard a loud curse followed by several quieter ones.

 

“I'm glad ya up, so is breakfast.” Joey announced.

 

“I'm up, I'm up.” A voice from under the covers grumbled, Joey walked away from the door not knowing Serenity was hanging around behind him. As soon as he was back in the kitchen she grinned and ran into the bedroom leaping on top of the covers.

 

“GAH!” The voice under the covers exclaimed, the head that belonged to the voice popped up from under the covers.

 

Serenity grinned, “Hi Nicku, time to get up!”

 

Nicholas King blinked wearily, “Hello Serenity, I'm awake now.”

 

Serenity continued grinning, “Yup, you need to get up.” Serenity said poking him through the covers.

 

“Are you like this with everyone, or just me?” Nick asked.

 

Serenity giggled, “Nope, just you.”

 

Nick nodded wearily, “Um, Serenity, would you mind leaving, I've kind of got to get up and get ready for school.”

 

Serenity smiled, “I don't mind if you get ready while I'm here.”

 

Nick sweat dropped, “The point I was trying to make was for you to…” Nick said before being interrupted.

 

“NICK! WHAT DA HECK ARE YA DOING!!!?” Joey yelled from the door, he'd returned from the kitchen to see where Serenity had gone and why Nick was taking so long to get up.

 

Nick slumped, “Joey, this wasn't…”

 

“OH SURE IT WASN'T!” Joey yelled grabbing Serenity around the waist and hauling her out of the room. Nick groaned and slumped back on his pillow, `Maybe Transferring here wasn't my brightest idea…'

 

Groaning he rolled out of bed, he looked in the mirror adjacent to the bed, he wasn't in bad physical condition. He wasn't fat, then again he wasn't exactly cover of sports illustrated material either, not that he wanted to be. He had fat in the right places, and mostly none in the right places which suited him. He grabbed a black robe and threw it over himself taking his clothes with him as he retired to the shower.

 

Seven minutes later he stepped out of the bathroom full dressed apart from his shoes and socks. Of course respecting Japanese tradition he wouldn't put his shoes on until he was ready to leave. He didn't know why they did this, but it was there country and he was going to respect their traditions.

 

“Ya almost ready Nick?” Joey asked around a piece of toast.

 

Nick grabbed a piece of toast off the plate left for him and nodded, “These aren't my colours, but yeah.”

 

“Ya can't go wearin black ta school, dis is da uniform, learn ta love it.”

 

Nick sighed slipping his shoes on putting his black trench coat over his blue school jacket and white shirt, “What's this place like anyway?”

 

“It's a school; dere ain't much else to say.” Joey responded.

 

Nick nodded opening the door; the two men came face to face with bucketing rain, “Sweet…” Nick whispered walking out the front door. Joey locked up and the two were on their way. Serenity had set off several minutes earlier for the Junior High School she was attending.

 

Fifteen minutes later the two arrived at school, their clothes were soaked from the rain, and being splashed every other minute by cars that were travelling to close to the curb. Nick's black leather trench coat was dripping, he stowed it in the locker with his shoes taking out and putting on his school slippers.

 

“Da principal will want ta see ya, he'll place you in a class, if ya ain't in da same class as me I'll see ya after school.” Joey explained, Nick nodded and headed off in the direction of the Principals office.

 

Joey took the opposite route scaling a flight of stairs and walking down the corridor to his class. Sliding back the door he entered a room filled with eighteen other boys and girls around his age, the boys were dressed in the same attire as he was, the girls in blue mini-skirts, pink school jackets that just revealed the white shirts underneath. The students were gathered around various desks in the room doing basically regular before school things. Most all of them were soaked to various degrees, except for Kaiba who sat at the back of the room reading a book called `An Examination of Nihilism: Views & Opinions', Joey guessed he'd been driven to school by his goons. Kaiba looked up slightly as the two exchanged their morning glare.

 

“Joey, hey Joey!” A voice from the middle of the room called. Joey grinned and walked in between the desks to the desk of his best friend Yugi Mutou, the spiky haired teenager's Amethyst eyes glowed happily as Joey approached clutching a white sheet of paper in his hands.

 

“Morning Yug, what's up?”

 

Yugi smiled, “Morning Joey, I got a letter from Ryou this morning, he wrote a page for each of us.” Yugi explained handing Joey his letter page.

 

Joey skimmed it and grinned, “Did ya tell him bout ya girl yet Yug?”

 

Yugi's face suddenly went deep red, “Well, ah, we're not that serious yet, that we have to, you know, tell the world.”

 

Joey laughed, “Right, dat's why we haven't been able to make plans all week…”

 

Tristan Taylor one of Joey's other friends walked up over hearing the conversation, “And the week before that.”

 

Joey grinned, “And da week before dat to.”

 

Tristan posed in mock thought, “Actually Joey, how long has it been since we've been able to make plans with our little friend here?”

 

Joey assumed the same pose as Tristan, “Well Tristan, I'd have ta say it's been weeks.”

 

“Months at least.”

 

“Maybe even years.”

 

By this time Yugi's face was completely crimson, so much so that weather satellites were reporting a large high pressure system over Domino High School.

 

Tristan and Joey laughed even more seeing Yugi's face slapping his back happily; unfortunately the hilarity ended a moment later. The three stopped as Téa walked in between the desks, her head was hung low, her body slumped.

 

“Hi Téa.” Yugi said brightly putting on a smile. Téa didn't respond as she sat down in her seat.

 

“Hey Téa, I said hello.” Yugi said the three looking over at her.

 

Téa looked up, her eyes slightly out of focus looking over at them, “Oh, hi.” She said quietly turning her head away to look out the window.

 

Even in the reflection Yugi could see the distance loneliness mixed with sadness in Téa's eyes. It pained him deeply, knowing that he couldn't really help her in the way she needed to be helped. He had Keara, they were growing closer every day, he wasn't willing to disrupt that. No matter how much pain it caused his heart to see her so sad.

 

Joey saw the pain in Yugi's eyes and patted him on the shoulder, “She'll be ok Yugi, I'm sure of dat.”

 

“I wish I could be as confident as you Joey.” Yugi whispered back as Tristan and Joey took their seats the teacher entering the class. The class representative stood and gave the morning order of standing, bowing before resuming their seats as was the custom.

 

The teacher opened his book and looked up the class, “Class today we a new Student, a Transfer Student, Mr. King you may come in.”

 

Nick walked in taking a position in front of the class, he smiled and surveyed them. At the same time Téa who'd snapped out of her trance when the class was ordered turned her head to take an uninterested look at the new Student, just as he looked in her direction…

 

To Be Continued…