azurite | [YGO] [Seto x Anzu] This Wish (Response for Guardian Kysra)

guardian_kysra requested a fic that either ended the day after MASH or 1 month, 2 days, and 5 hours before Family. Because MASH and Pop were intended to be companion pieces, and I've never had the inclination to flesh them out more, AND because her Family request had a much more specific timestamp, that's the one I'm working with. For those of you unfamiliar with "Family," one of my WIPs regarding Seto and Téa (and Téa essentially becoming a mother while still in high school), check out the fic here.

Because Kysra's got stellar timing, this fic takes place on New Year's Eve, prior to the start of Family, Chapter 1. For the record, I have no intention of working this into the fic itself; this is all-original, all-new. I don't think it'll have any huge bearing on the story, so think of it as sort of a Director's Cut version of the story's beginning.

Téa continually pressed her lips together in a vain attempt to ward off the cold that was creeping up the whole of her body. She tried rubbing her hands together, and creating friction with her legs by toddling along as best she could, but the fastest pace she could manage in her kimono and sandals --and in these horrid New Year's crowds-- wasn't very fast at all, and just gave the bitter cold more time to set in.

But no one else seemed too bothered by the frigid temperatures-- maybe because they, unlike her, were surrounded by family.

So far, she'd seen a full-sized family consisting of a father, mother, at least two daughters, an older brother, the grandparents (from both sides of the family!), and a smaller child, maybe the daughter of one of the children. And she'd also seen the smaller families: Joey and his sister Serenity were here tonight, as was Yugi with his grandpa. She imagined Tristan was here somewhere with his parents, older sister, and "endearing" nephew, and somewhere out here in the bitter Domino frost was Mokuba Kaiba with his elder brother Seto.

As for Téa, well... she had no family. No mother, no father, no sisters or brothers, no uncles or aunts, no grandparents. No one.

This she knew for a fact, and it gripped her tighter than any winter wind.

More than seven years previous, she'd lost her parents to a car accident-- an accident she couldn't even remember. She couldn't remember their small pearl-colored car slamming into an oncoming truck, right as both vehicles rounded a sharp curve-- just beyond the iridescent sea of Atami. She couldn't remember being extracted from that same vehicle by paramedics. She didn't remember anything, up until she saw Yugi's face hovering worriedly over her. Her first memory was asking him what his name was and not realizing that more than a minute passed before he answered, his crestfallen expression masked by a tearful smile.

From age 11 (and three weeks) onward, she'd lived at an orphanage in Domino. Though there'd been many potential parents for her, Téa had never really felt as if she wanted to be adopted. Perhaps that feeling somehow radiated out from her, for she spent the following four years at the orphanage left to her own devices-- not once even getting considered for adoption. Still, in that time, she'd made some lifelong friends...

Friends whom she hadn't heard from in quite a while, actually.

It was all right, Téa supposed; she'd come pretty far on her own, and done well for herself. She had good grades, a wonderful -albeit motley- group of friends, and more than her fair share of incredible experiences under her belt. She also had her own dreams --a future she had planned for herself... but still, without a family to share all her triumphs and hardships with, it seemed so... so...

'Lonely.'

Friends could never truly be family. The connection Téa longed for couldn't just appear out of thin air, nor could it develop from a friendship whose origins even Téa didn't know. She knew she'd known Yugi since before the accident, but nothing else. And since she was too afraid to ask, Yugi never told her, either.

When she was alone, Téa often looked through her small collection of things from 'back then,' the time before the accident. She looked at pictures of herself as a child, surrounded by two loving parents-- but she felt no connection to them. No emotion. How could she, when she didn't even remember-- that pink-and-yellow striped shirt, that picnic at some nameless park, that awful haircut?

When it came time for Téa to make a wish for the New Year, she clasped her hands as tightly as she could manage and squeezed her eyes shut so tightly, not even the tiniest flash of light could have made it through.

'However impossible... this year, I'd like to find my place in a real family. Somehow, someway... whether it's through memories or chance, please...'

She clanged the bell once fiercely before toddling off to join her friends, wiping a lone tear from her face and sniffling as if the cold had finally gotten to her after all.

That was what she told her friends when she joined them at the food stands, and that was what they all believed- though Yugi did give her a look like he knew better, but he wouldn't dare disagree. Sometimes, Téa thought he looked like he was on the verge of telling her something important -maybe something from the past, from the time before her memory- but something always stopped him.

Maybe something in Téa's own eyes, or an expression on her own face that she didn't even know she was showing. Maybe Yugi's own knowledge that for the past six years, Téa had been TRYING, TRYING, TRYING... so hard not to be tied down by memories she could never regain. It wasn't like the Pharaoh, whose memories were still locked away somewhere -perhaps literally in the sands of time. Téa knew her memories couldn't be regained.

'So I'll just have to make new ones, then. A new year, new memories.' It was easy to think, but not so easy to do. Still, the tiniest flicker of determination still burned away in Téa --family or no, she still had some wonderful people in her life, and a dream to chase. She was far from alone.

Alone had been that awful time when she'd first been brought to the orphanage: confused, scared, angry at the world, and bitter that the other children at the orphanage could somehow seem to have HOPE despite everything that had led them to that place. Alone had been the time before Téa'd met her first friends at the orphanage, and before she'd allowed Yugi back into her life.

Although 'back' didn't feel like the right word to Téa; she never remembered first meeting Yugi at all, before the accident. The Téa she'd become after the accident wasn't the Téa that Yugi had first met all those years ago. But he never complained, never said anything, and continued to stand by her side, even when she was viciously cruel to him. Over the years, she'd realized what a blessing it was to have Yugi in her life, and their friendship had grown stronger than any other bond Téa had up to that point. Before starting Domino High, Téa's only friends were Yugi and the two friends she'd made back at the orphanage. They were the closest thing to family she had; even if they could never really be her family, or fill the void in Téa, she knew that without them, her life would be much lonelier.

And now, she had others to fill that void in her: Joey, Tristan, Serenity, Mai... even Mokuba and Seto Kaiba.

But the void wasn't filled yet. The lack of memories still haunted her every day. The loneliness always crept up on her on these cold, winter nights, especially when she thought of everyone else she knew spending New Year's with their REAL family.

But if the memories couldn't be regained, only replaced... then maybe that was what she needed to do to fill that last bit of darkness in her, too. Maybe she needed to make her own family. Somehow, someway...

'As crazy and as stupid as it is, please... let this wish of mine come true. Somehow, someday...'