Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Things Change ❯ You look familiar! ( Chapter 9 )

Now for the latest installment! Either in the middle of the next chapter or in the beginning of the one after that, it's back to the group meetings for Joey, Arisa, and Kaiba!

LadySaturnGirl - Thanks and as for your guess…just wait and see…

Angel-Belle - S'okay. I'll try to make some descriptions of the monsters or cards they cosplay as. That's right, I said cards. Why? You'll see.

Magicman/Smokegirl - On Arisa's costume…sorry, it's not Mystical Elf. But it was a good guess though.

Sanura-sama - You want to know who she is? You're gonna find out.

"Hello…" Kara waved a hand in Kaiba's face. "You okay?" She was worried. Her sister Debra has gone through the trouble of finding her a date for the dance since, as hard as it was to believe, she never had the best luck when it came to guys or at least trying to get them to go out with her. She was a beautiful girl with long blue hair, blue eyes and a nice smile. However, her shyness played a huge factor with the opposite sex as it was both a blessing and a curse: The guys she was too shy to talk to would just be taken by the other girls, while the rest would try to take advantage of her. She may have been shy, but she wasn't stupid. "Seto Kaiba…?"

Kaiba blinked, snapping out from his trance. "How do you know my name?"

"For someone owning his own company at a young age, how can anyone not know who you are?" She giggled. "And besides, my sister told me about you."

"Right…" Kaiba sighed, remembering that she was the girl Debra told him about. But why did she look so familiar to him? It was like he knew her from someplace before. Like an old friend. Damn it, why was this so confusing?

"So…are you okay?" Kara asked. "You were zoning out."

"I'm fine." He simply said, then examined her. "Tell me, have we met before?"

"Not that I can remember." She said. "Why? Am I supposed to?"

'Good question,' Kaiba thought, trying to figure out why this girl looked so familiar to him.

Meanwhile, the door opened as Joey stepped in, wearing a tuxedo save for the jacket for some reason. Then again, this was his costume: Sand Gambler.

"Nice party…" He said to himself. "Now to find-"

"Could you wait up for just one second?" Tristan complained as he then walked in with Serenity. Tristan was dressed in camo pants tucked into a pair boots, as well as a metal facemask and a blaster gun. Yes, he was once again Cyber Commander.

Serenity was wearing Green cargo pants tucked into a pair of Black Boots, as well as light blue T-shirt. Save for a pair of angel wings and a Blue Beret. Serenity was going as Command Angel to match, to a degree, with Tristan.

"Jeez Tristan, no need to put your panties in a bunch!" Joey replied as he browsed through the crowd.

"Well you were in a big rush to get here…" Serenity reminded. "Who are you looking for, any-" She then thought the obvious. "Don't answer that. I already know."

"She could've gone with us, ya know." Tristan said.

"Tell me about it. She says that her costume's a bit of a surprise..." Joey shrugged as he then smirked. "Hmph, some surprise. I tell ya Arisa's a true work of art!"

Tristan and Serenity was puzzled until they then saw the Dark Magician girl at the refreshment stand helping herself with a cup of punch, back facing them.

Joey approached her. "And I thought you weren't going to dress up as the Dark Magician girl. But here you are! But I love ya anyway…" He said as he placed his arms around her waist. "You may look like Dark Magician Girl, but you're my Dark Magician Girl."

"Umm…Joey, I'm not Arisa!" She replied. It wasn't the sweet soft voice of his girlfriend…not saying that the voice of the person in front of him wasn't sweet and soft, just not as sweet and peppy as Arisa's.

Joey jumped back, startled and embarrassed by his revelation. "Tea!?"

Tea sighed as she removed the hat and wig to reveal that it was her. "Yeah…who were you expecting, your girlfriend?"

"Yeah…" He said, wanting to walk away but Tristan shot him a 'Remember what we talked about?' look.

"Joey…we need to talk." She said, also seeing Tristan's look on his face. Apparently she thought that it meant for her.

"Sure…" Joey sighed as the two walked to a pair of chairs, dodging the large group of dancing Duel Monsters in their path.

"So what's up?" Joey asked as he sat down in the chair as well as Tea, but she crossed her legs.

"Well…about what happened yesterday…" Tea said, shuffling her blue and pink boot-clad feet. "I just want to say-"

"Hey, forget about it." Joey cut her off as he sighed. "I'm over it."

"No Joey, you have to hear this." Tea said, then asked. "You want to know why I've been acting the way that I have?"

"Wait Tea, before you tell me. Just let me apologize for, ya know, about screaming at you and all."

"It's okay…I have been pushing you a bit far." She sighed. "I'm just worried about you. I mean, you hardly make good enough grades to get by, and you…well…used to have an attitude problem. And when we found out about this group you're going too, I was hurt. You've been going there for weeks and you didn't even bother to tell us, not even Yugi and me."

"Well…I didn't want to burden you guys with my problems. I mean with my Dad abusing me and drinking, talking about when he found my sister he was going to kill my mom and rape my sister…" He sighed, "It was just too much to lay out on you."

"Joey…" Tea said, just imagining what Joey must've gone through. No wonder Joey used to be a bully! How was he supposed to learn right from wrong when his father was possibly the worst role model he ever had?

"I had a lot of shit to deal with: My mom and Serenity leaving. Dad using me as his favorite punching bag as he got drunk just about every night… Then I met Yugi. I decided to let out my frustrations on him. I didn't physically hurt him or anything, just messing with him. I was basically doing the kid a favor by toughing him up. He was too trusting. But it turned out that it was him that changed me."

Tea nodded, "So is everything okay, now that your dad's gone and your mom and Serenity moved back in?"

"It's been great…with Serenity…" He admitted. "But with Ma, I'm not sure. After all, she never told me why she didn't take me with her in the first place. She's probably thinking up a good excuse. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that she really hates me…"

"Now you're acting like an idiot!" Tea said sternly. "If your mom doesn't care about you, why'd she come back for you? You could've been put up for adoption…"

"Probably out of pity…" He figured. "If she really cared, why she left me with that bastard? Why did she basically leave me for dead? Every time I ask her, she tries to avoid the question."

"I think you and your mom need to sit down and have a long talk…" She said before going back on subject. "Anyways, what I've been trying to tell you is…that I was hoping that…"

"Hoping that what, Tea?"

"Hoping that you and I could…"

Before she could finish, a few voices were shouting at the entrance, which interrupted Tea.

"Look at her costume!" One said.

"Whoo-Hoo! Now that's what I'm talking about!"

"What's that about?" Tea wondered.

"Hey Joey!" Tristan called out, leaving the crowd. "Remember when you said Arisa's costume was going to be a surprise?"

"Yeah!"

"Well she's heeeeeere!" He finished in a voice that was a mixture of tease and sing-song.

"Be right back Tea…"Joey told her as he jumped out of his seat and sprinted towards the crowd.

"But Joey, you didn't give me the chance to finish! The chance…" Tea said, but it was hopeless as Joey and Tristan were long gone. "To say how I really feel about you…" She finished sadly.

When he reached to the front of the crowd, Joey's eyes went wide. "What the-"

Kaiba looked into Kara's eyes again. They were blue, but not like his which were cold and lacking emotion. They were blue like the ocean, almost like her mid-back-length hair. Her skin was tanned, as he then looked down at her…umm…assets which were fairly big. They weren't exactly big melons, but they weren't small apples either. Damn it, now that annoyance of a conscious of his would never let him hear the end of it. He could hear it now, "I told ya you like girls with big boobs! See, I know what you like!" He then noticed a golden cross around her neck which gave a small flash.

"Umm…Seto?" Kara asked as she pointed up towards her face. Even her voice was familiar! "Eyes up here, buddy!"

"Sorry…" He said a bit startled. So startled that he forgot that she called him "Seto," which only Mokuba was allowed to call him that. "I was just admiring your necklace…" He said, a bit in a "You buy that, right" voice. After all, it was partially true.

"Oh this?" She showed her necklace. "My dad got this for me when he went on a trip to Egypt."

Kaiba's eyes went wide then narrowed at the word. "Egypt." It was all making sense now. "Egypt?" He looked at Kara again as she nodded. Blue hair, blue eyes! Now he remembered where he saw her before. "Okay, who are you and what do you think you're trying to pull?" He said in his usual coldness in his voice.

"What are you talking about?" Kara asked, surprised at Kaiba's actions.

"You know what I'm talking about. The gold necklace around your neck! And, assuming that they're not really your natural color, your blue hair and blue eyes!" He hissed.

"Yeah? What about them?" She replied, aggravated by Kaiba's behavior.

"Don't play dumb with me girl! Just how much money is Ishizu paying you?" He asked, growing impatient. He believed that Debra and Ishizu made a deal for Kara to pose as the girl he saw in his vision back during the duel against Ishizu in the Battle City Finals. How low will that hocus pocus lady go just to get him to believe in those superstitious fairy tales?

Kara blinked. "What?"

Kaiba dug into his pocket as he then took out his checkbook. "Okay…whatever Ishizu is paying you, I'll triple it if you tell her to take her talks about destiny and the ancient past and shove it up her ass! How many times do I have to tell her that I don't believe in those-"

"What the hell are you talking about!?" She shouted at him. "I never met this Ishizu person you're talk about! All I wanted was someone to meet at the dance, someone who I could really get to know, and my sister was gracious enough to help me. I thought that I found that person tonight…" Kara sighed as she then walked away. "I guess I was wrong…"

"Keep convincing yourself with those stories you're using to cover up why you're really here, I don't believing you. And tell your friend Ishizu that if she sends someone else out there to annoy me, I'll sue for harassment!" Kaiba said to her.

"What's his problem anyway…" Kara asked as she brushed back her blue hair. "How can someone be that paranoid? Probably comes with the territory of being a CEO of a big company…" However, a flash then emitted from her golden cross as Kara's slightly curled hair straightened. "Is it really him?" She asked, but in a slightly calmer voice that showed maturity, as she took a glance at the Vampire Lord.

Well that's it for this chapter. It appears that Kaiba was right…to some extent. But what will happen now between Kara and Kaiba? Also Arisa arrives at the dance, but what is her costume? And why are the guys so excited over it? Find out in the next installment!