Mermaid sighting

"I knew it!" Joey declared. "She gots a new job and didn't tell us 'bout it, again!"

"You've been saying that for the past hour man. Wherever she disappeared to it's nowhere around here. She probably gave us the slip." Tristan stated bluntly before taking a loud sip of his drink.

"What do ya think Yug'?" Joey turned to his other friend.

"Am I the only one who thinks that it's weird that there's no fish in that fish tank?" Yugi wondered out loud.

"Huh, that is weird." Tristan turned his attention towards the giant fish tank beside them whose side acted like a big glass wall for three sides of the café.

"Are you sayin' that ya don't care dat she's been keepin' secrets again?" Joey challenged Yugi.

Tristan tuned the other two out as Yugi tried to assure Joey that he did care, but he wasn't worried… it was weird that there were no fish; the boy would have thought that with a tank of this size they would have some sharks or something swimming in it-

A flicker of a bright pink tale catches his eye, to his increasing shock he sees Tea glide past them on the far side of the tank, waving to the people staring in awe on the other side before whirling and twirling her way over to their side of the glass.

Tea seems to freeze when she spies them through the glass, sinking down a little in the water in the process.

Tristan's jaw drops and he points to her flabbergasted.

Tea turns tail and abruptly swims away.

"Ah! Oh my god! Tea!" Tristan jumps up from his seat and tries to mush his face to the glass in an attempt to see where the girl had swam off to. "Tea's a mermaid!" The boy wailed.

XXX

"Tea? What are you doing back up here girl?" Jeff asks his fellow mermaid as she pops up to the surface in a panic.

"Those friends of mine that I told you about are here! They must have followed me!" Tea informed sounding just as shocked as she looked.

"Those cute high school honeys that you showed me in that photograph? Damn I gots to see this for myself!" Jeff clapped excitedly to himself before diving into the pool.

"You still haven't told them?" Mai asked, her hands on her hips.

"I never really knew how to string the right words together." Tea smiled apologetically at her girlfriend.

"Uh hmm." Mai deadpanned, kneeling down. "And what do you plan on doing now?"

"Ummm…" Tea thought. "Let them find out on their own? It'll at least give me some time to think about how I'm going to explain myself."

"Like how your going to manage to politely put into words that you're mad at your best friend for ogling you creepily at your last job? Or how you're hurt that they never caught on that you hated the way you were being treated like an object there even though it should have been obvious that you looked highly uncomfortable?" Mai raised a brow.

Tea sighed. "I know that I shouldn't be this mad, after all unless I speak plainly to them they never seem to catch on that something is off."

"But you are still worried that if you say anything that they'll just brush it off as you acting like a whining girl who is making a big deal out of nothing." Mai finishes knowingly.

Tea's eyes widen as the other's words struck home. "…How did you-?"

"I've been there honey." Mai informs sagely. "Remember most of my income these days comes from playing children's card games in tournaments that are mostly male dominated."

"Do you happen to know how I can phrase things in a way that won't hurt their feelings and won't make me sound like a whining brat to their ears?" Tea asked hopefully.

"Not a clue." Mai shakes her head. "You know how guys can get honey, the slightest things that aren't what they appear to be in their worldview and they get all oversensitive and moody about it. It's like PMS only they don't got a decent excuse for it."

Tea couldn't help but snicker guiltily at the comparison.

XXX

"…He's plum lost his mind…" Joey muttered. "For da record I don't know him!" He called over his shoulder to the amused waitress walking past.

"That's not very nice of you to go and call Tea a guy Tristan." Yugi scolded while pointing to the brunette mere-man waving his tail cheekily at them.

"Woah dat guy's got a tail!" Joey squealed excitedly.

"No I swear guys I just saw her swim that way!" Tristan pointed in the direction their friend had disappeared.

XXX

Tea relaxed into a bright grin as she blew the little girl in front of her a bubble kiss, she could see the child giggle happily as she put her little hands to the glass. Tea mirrored the placement of the little girl's hands and grinned widely as she moved her tail up and down in exaggerated movements making the little girl squeal in delight.

'Partner Tristan's right, Tea is one of the mermaids working here.' Yami tattled, the spirit had peeked ahead to the next area over to where Yugi and the others were searching the large, oddly shaped fish tank for a mermaid that looked like Tea at Tristan's insistence.

The girl in question looked over the younger girl's shoulder, to where she could see Yugi's noticeable hair peeking out from behind a wall, waved goodbye, and swam away just as Yugi and the other's came into the room.

"The other me says that we just missed her." Yugi informed the others while gesturing over to his spiritual partner, making the little girl giggle.

"Hi other meeee~!" She laughed at the area that Yugi had pointed to. "Are ju da bigger boy's indivisible friend? I've got's a indivisible friend tooo!"

"Oh now that's just cute." The former pharaoh chuckled warmly at the little girl.

XXX

"Hey Tea?" Mai inquired as her girlfriend came up for air. "Just out of curiosity did your fellas ever ask you why you haven't been working at Burger World lately?"

"Nope." Tea shook her head. "Yugi's too shy to ask me about anything, Yami doesn't seem to care about what I do in my off time- I think that my life bores him-, Joey's never been back after a case of food poisoning, and Tristan's been too busy waxing on about these three waitresses that still work there to really notice that I've been gone."

"And you've never told them yourself." Mai concluded.

Tea winced and shrugged. "Like I said; I don't know the full reason why I'm mad at them, I've got bits and pieces of it, but not the whole reason. But I am hoping that this feeling will subside after they find out about all of this on their own. I don't know why but I just get the feeling that I might feel better after this."

"You're feeling like they're ignoring you and your life." Mai realized. "Tell me; have they asked you about how your day has been or what's going on with you?"

"…No." Tea admitted sinking down into the water a few inches. "And I feel like I'm being a pest by just announcing what's going on. So I've stopped saying anything about myself."

"You're hoping that if you attract their attention like this then they'll start remembering that you exist and have interesting things to tell them about your life that aren't related to duel monsters." Mai guessed.

Tea blinked. "Huh. Well that does make sense. Though I also want them to start telling me things about their lives too. Aside from Tristan waxing on about practically every cute girl he meets Joey and Yugi have been unusually quiet. It's even gotten to the point where their constant need to talk about duel monsters has gotten really old."

"The plot thickens." Mai joked.

"Lets see how long it takes them to find me this time." Tea grinned wickedly, pushing herself up to give Mai a kiss before dunking beneath the water.

XXX

Tea fought the urge to out and out look as she openly swam past her friends and headed towards the hidden locker room area, herding her bewildered friends to and fro in a game of fish tank hide and seek had been fun, and her supervisor had been kind enough to allow her some extra time in the water (especially since her friends kept buying food and drinks during Tea's breaks and the entire moral of the waiting staff was endlessly amused) however her time in the pool was up and Tea was actually happy that it was her turn to go over the stock of toys that they sold in both the café and in the aquarium gift shop it would give her more time to think about how to go about the eventual confrontation that was sure to ensue sooner or later.

Tea felt guilty for keeping any secrets from her friends but… was it really so bad if she was just afraid of losing them if she were to-?

To do what exactly? Tell them about her day? That didn't sound like it was such a bad thing right? She avoided complaining about her last job at the burger place partially because if word ever got back to her old manager that she had been speaking out of turn she'd get sacked without a last paycheck… and also there was the fact that on more than several occasions both Tristan and Duke (the latter being someone that Tea never really ever considered to be one of her friends, one of the forever forgiving Yugi's friends sure, but not her friend) complain about the pretty waitresses that they were flirting with complaining about their job, and yes Tea suspected that they were mostly grouchy (well Duke was mostly grouchy, Tristan was a lot nicer though he did say that he was frustrated that the girls would always come to him as a sounding board now) about being firmly put into the sympathetic-ear-friend-zone by the waitresses instead of scoring a date with them… but Tea wasn't too certain as to what the other's reactions would be if she were to raise her voice.

Tristan probably would not appreciate being retold the same complaints that he'd been hearing from his lost crushes, Joey would be sympathetic but the crushed feelings of his bud Tristan would have to come first, Yugi probably would be infuriatingly optimistic and would have tried to make Tea see some good sides of the job… and also make shy comments on how "nice" Tea looked in that uncomfortable uniform and how he always enjoyed it when she served him food with a smile (and she knew that he'd only mean it in the nicest possible way because that was Yugi but she just could not trust herself to not snap at him because it would totally freaking sound smarmy and dismissive no matter how kindly he said it or what he really meant by it!), and the spirit wouldn't give enough care to it to even make an appearance most likely, except maybe to ask about the special collection of water-themed duel monster cards that they were selling special beside the bins selling polished rocks and cheep plastic sea creatures.

…Not that the spirit ever really talked to her much at all in the first place, maybe it was to prevent her from falling for him instead of Yugi (because she was a girl and therefore she was obviously after something from her childhood best friend even though she had as of yet to try anything despite the fact that Tea was hot and she knew it enough that she could twist any guy she wanted around her little finger… if she had actually been born with that sort of inclination in the first place…), or more likely (because it should have become obvious that she wasn't interested in any of them by now damnit!) he just figured that she simply was just too boring since she wasn't into games and was female so she wasn't worth the effort to try to get to know aside from the occasional semi-flirtatious remark he directed at her that was, she could clearly tell, mostly done out of boredom.

And for months now none of them have ever expressed interest in going to one of her dance recitals to cheer her on even when she had the ability to give them free tickets (the irony of her always being there to cheer during dueling tournaments even when she didn't like duel monsters that much was not lost on her), or talked with her about anything aside from, the spirit, games, or food! Sure she never asked the outright to come, to a dance thing or an art opening that would be exciting for her but boring for them, she wanted to have fun without the guilt after all… but still they never expressed interest in going even when she did talk about it to them… and all conversations after she began talking about her dancing dreams were then always sidetracked to something boring and really strange like glitter or nail polish, always clothes, always, always clothes, which got to be so strange (and more than a little frightening because heated discussions about hemlines? Really?), so she stopped talking about herself out of sheer self-defense and in recent weeks… ended up mostly being left out of the conversation completely…

"You'll figure out somethin' hon." Tea grinned like a loon at Mai as the older woman kissed her before helping in getting her tale off. "They like you enough to stay friends with you this long so there must be something good there."

"I know, and I'm confident that as long as I keep calm and not freak out on them that we'll work out what is going on." Tea half-lied and proceeded to discuss lighter subjects with her girlfriend until Mai had to get going in order to get to her duel monsters seminar on time and Tea had to go back to work.

As soon as she walked into the large loading bay at the back of the aquarium and began the task of cataloguing all the boxes of new merchandise however Tea let her brave smile falter.

If she didn't trust her friends enough to talk to them about her getting a new job or about her looking into applying to dance schools all over the United States if she didn't make it into a school in New York without fear of negative rebuttal then how the heck was she even going to hope to explain to them that she liked girls instead of boys in a romantic sense?

Tea continued to fret as she continued on with her day, doing everything possible to avoid going into public areas or the café just incase she ran into her friends before she was ready.

Maybe this was for the best, Tea figured forcing herself not to cry (she learned how to stop tears as a little girl after the first time she fell off her bike and scraped her knee badly enough that it bled all over the sidewalk and the boys she had been attempting to make friends with had been laughing at her for showing such weakness. As her grandmother had attended to the wound the old woman taught her to 1. Hold her breath, 2. Roll her eyes up as far as they would go, and 3. If need be to pinch the bridge of her nose where the tear ducts were to stem the water wanting to escape), maybe it was time to get out while she could with as little pain as she could handle. If it had gotten to the point where she had to pretend that she was happy and that there were no issues then what was the point? She was exhausted when it came to having to constantly worry about getting harassed at school or at home if people ever found out that she was gay then how the hell was she supposed to handle being afraid of talking plainly to her own friends for heaven's sake!

…Maybe because she still had to go to school with them?

She was smart enough to test out of high school. She could attempt to test into the more advanced classes at Domino on Monday and if she was successful (and really, really sneaky) she could stall having to interact with them until she had gotten the okay to leave once the test results came back and then she could be outta there like a fire demon outta a freezer.

She just had to keep calm, not cry, not show any weakness, and just let the conversation flow. She could hide her hurt well enough on a good day, why let them see her hurt if she could just simply make them think that she had seen this coming a long way off?

Oh good hell this was going to be painful…

XXX

The café was almost empty when Tea got off shift.

Save for four certain people sitting at a booth up against the empty fish tank (although you couldn't tell it was more than three because Yami was invisible…) and some lonely dudes at the sandwich bar… and the sandwich bar tender, and by now the people who had overheard Tea and Mai talking had hit the gossip mill and the rest of the staff were hiding in the kitchen, being sure to give Tea one big rehearsed thumbs up and an offer to raise hell if Tea ended up in tears.

Tea resolved herself further to not end up in tears or to show any sort of upset at all, her old friend's lives could very well depend on it.

Tea armed herself with a smoothie and a sandwich to help make everything feel and look more normal (that and she could eat on the run), pulled up a chair and set it backwards to the end of the table so that she could straddle-sit on it much like she'd seen boys do on occasion (it would further help her if she could escape quickly).

"So that the spirit can sit there." Tea mumbled softly pointing to the empty seat beside a confused looking Yugi.

Yugi smiled at Tea as he tilted his head to the side as if listening to someone beside him, breaking out into a grin after a moment of silent listening. "He says thank you for being so considerate for him."

Tea nodded nervously, taking a small bite from her sandwich.

"So… Tea, why'didya not tell us you was working here?" Joey began casually, batting his eyelashes.

"Well I left my last job a few weeks ago due to the fact that they offered their employees no protection from the creeps that frequented the place, the hours were growing more demanding, the manager was a creep, the pay was crud, and I hated that itchy uniform, the fact that I was constantly freezing in the dang thing and the fact that the most frequent patrons tended to be adolescent boys or old men who were getting their rocks off of a little girl wearing a dishtowel serving them and being unable to do anything to protest if they decided to get a little grabby or talk out of turn." Tea grumbled lowly glaring down at the table, hating the fact that she currently felt like a child that was being scolded unfairly, she felt nine-years-old all over again and this situation reminded her of something like the time she clobbered a bully who was trying to smash her face in the dirt in order for her to run off to safety before he came out of his daze and do something about being knocked on his bum by a tiny girl.

"I didn't want to be annoying or a hassle or anything by complaining bout it especially since you guys were already getting an earful when the others were complaining to you guys about it so I just-"

Tea nearly jumped a foot when Joey suddenly knocked Tristan's head into the table with alarming force. "I tolded you! Didn' I tell ya's? Didn' I tell ya's dat you was bein' insensitive 'bout spewin' all dat stuff 'bout yous not wantin' 't hear 'bout dos nice girls tellin' ya's dat dey hated workin' dere an' dat ting 'bout girls always whinin' 'bout nuttin' worth hearin'? I swear every time you hang out wit dice boy outside'a duel monstahs game ya's de-evolve inta an idiot Neanderthal!" The blond boy snapped grabbing onto his friend's ear and twisting it, only letting go when on instinct Tea coaxed her fellow brunette's head out of the blond's grasp and held her cold plastic smoothie cup to the red spot on Tristan's head.

"Holy- Tristan are you okay?" Tea asked over Joey swearing left, right, and center.

"Is fine. I deserve it. I so sorrwy Tea. I sorrwy." Tristan groped blindly for a moment before finding the girl's forearm to pat companion-ly his other hand clutching the growing welt at the back of his head.

"Dis is why you is always single!" Joey punched Tristan's arm for emphasis before turning to Tea. "An' you! Why didn't you come ta Yug' or I if ya couldn't come to Tristan? Hmm? We woulda listened."

Tea gaped for a moment. "I-I didn't want to be a nuisance."

"A nuisance? Tea you're never a nuisance to us, what ever could have given you that idea?" Yugi asked, his tone soothing and gentle.

At that Tea had to think a little, forcefully pushing the shock of somebody who was male asking for the cold hard truth for once in what seemed like forever. "…I guess it just never occurred to me? I never had much of an opportunity to talk about these things before without worrying about… the fact that I'm a girl, getting in the way of my personal relationships, I've already had some pretty bad experiences in the past with speaking about these things when guys were around and until recently I've never been able to really make a positive impression on other girls to the point where I can talk about it to them… so usually when something like this happens I just… deal with it?"

Yugi shook his head not comprehending. "What does being a girl have to do with anything?"

"Pretty much everything?" Tea looked around the table feeling as lost as she felt. "I mean it's been this way since I was a kid, every time I managed to make some resemblance to friends for a while I always end up messing it up by reminding them in some way that I'm a girl like… if I got hurt while doing some sort of activity and ended up crying over the pain I'd be made fun of and left friendless at the end of the day, or later on after puberty hit all of the boys- save for Yugi obviously- that I had been of acquaintance with in the past all either cut all ties to me due to my gender or… demanded some sort of compensation for letting me hang out with them." The girl winced feeling a little tired at the thought of the subject.

"Compensation?" Yugi asked his brows furrowing worriedly.

"They demanded sex." Tea wrinkled her nose as she spoke bluntly, too tired to dance around the subject. "It was always a demand for sex. Which is why I did not want to say anything and end up being all whiny and annoying to you guys because you all have been so fantastic and never demanded such things from me, especially since I do not feel that way about any one of you which makes you guys safe for me to be around, and even though I still run into the rare occasional jerk who either wants to "save me" from following the horrid path to destruction by becoming a dancer or just creeps in general-"

"What?" Tristan yelps. "When did this start happening?"

"Ummm…" Tea gives the boy an odd look. "Since I was twelve? It's not like it's something abnormal although it's not as bad now as it used to be-"

"And who may these unsavory young men be?" The baritone voice of Yami Yugi, spirit of the puzzle, speaks up in a deceptively light tone.

"Does it matter anymore?" Tea blinks at the boy in weary surprise. Since when did he care? "I don't speak to the ones from my past anymore and the few recent ones I don't even remember their names because… I don't know why exactly but one minute they're there and the next minute, poof, they're gone." And all of the older acquaintances had learned the value of staying away all in thanks to Tea being a dancer and therefore a lot stronger in the punching and kicking department than the average girl, she still had a reputation for being that crazy girl who had once kicked one of Yugi's bullies so hard between his legs that he had to go to the hospital.

"And that's a really good thing though it would be… best to be safe and mention some names or descriptions, we know that you can take care of yourself but we would also like to be in the know if something is bothering you." The spirit spoke gently, covering one of her hands with both of his own.

"…Would that really be alright?" Tea asked feeling as uncertain as her voice sounded, eyeing the table in complete bafflement. Idly she could see in the reflection of the glass fish tank that the staff had come out of the kitchen and were going about their work with one ear to their conversation. "I don't want to annoy anybody-"

"Ya won't be annoyin' us." Joey sniffed glaring daringly at Tristan. "I know dat dere are a lot of fellas out dere dat are weird 'bout bein' near da lady-folk but we're not dem."

"Then why have you guys been acting so weird recently?" Tea blurted out. "Half the time you guys are talking about really strange things like hemlines and the other half you don't seem to know how to talk to me."

There was a sudden bout of sheepish looks and nervous coughing.

"…There may have been a few attempts that were clearly ill executed to make you feel more at ease around us with topics we had assumed you would like." The spirit finally admitted tactfully. "You seemed preoccupied and withdrawn we were worried that you were getting bored with us or that something was wrong."

And I was worried that they were getting bored of me while I was dealing with the depressing thoughts of them not accepting me as I am. Tea thought in astonishment.

"And here I was worried that you guys were getting bored with me." Tea shook her head feeling completely mystified. "Now how did that happen? You guys and I were having more or less the exact same issue and none of us picked up on it. I mean what was stopping us from just… communicating, talking plainly and such."

"Well… to be fair we had thought that you didn't want to talk to us and would get angry if we tried." Yami cast two guilty looking faces across the table an I-told-you-so look; obviously he had not been a part of the faction that had assumed that. "We noticed you looking a bit down a while back and we just assumed that you wanted your space."

"Oh…" Tea coughed self-consciously. "I was merely dealing with some personal worries about… well me being me and a lot of big decisions I've been making for my future. As it turns out going from a girl who wants to grow into an independent woman with a dream career and a life to live as I very darn well please is… happening a lot faster than I had anticipated. To be honest I had always assumed that all the crazy new life in a new city stuff would all happen the summer after high school… I didn't anticipate things to accelerate to the point to where… well one of the many things that have been happening is that I've been approached by several individuals in the field and they've… offered to help me take some special night classes so that I could test out of high school and either get myself a scholarship that would allow me to leave early or to keep working here for a while longer and save up what I'd get working fulltime to help me out over in the states… and that is just one teeny tiny facet to all the other stuff that has suddenly turned up and… I am very overwhelmed.

"I'll bet." The spirit, bless him, spoke immediately even as Joey and Tristan fell into shocked stupors. "You are very bright and persistent, I'm sure that if you would put your mind to it that you'd be able to get your high school degree early, I've come to understand that the city of New York is rather pricy to live in, a scholarship or a fulltime job will help you greatly."

Tea felt completely thrown. What? The spirit was actually paying attention and- what? "I-I know that it will but… geeze it's scary you know? All these possibilities are right there for me to take but there are just so many of them… I honestly don't know how I'm going to keep up with them all!" Which was very true, there was so much going on at the moment that her head was completely spinning from all the possibilities suddenly offered to her.

Yami squeezed her fingers and smiled, there was laughter in his eyes as well as a great deal of relief. "Which is why as your very important platonic friends, if you would like, we can all sit down with some paper and a pencil and start making lists and such to help you out with narrowing it all down and forming a plan…"

And so Tea relaxed as things were suddenly pulled back into alignment, as her friends all chipped in with encouragement and ideas a small but significant flicker of hope sprung to life in her chest.

Maybe… it whispered with a lingering thought of Mai and her, together, years down the road.