Tea Gardner

Name: Tea Gardner

Age: 16

Nationality: American

Special Skills: Dancing, forgiving

Likes: Dancing, friendship

Best Friends: Yugi, Atem, Joey, Tristan

Background: Tea is the daughter of a prominent lawyer in Domino City. Her parents are relatively normal and also relatively unaware of the weirdness in which she engages on a regular basis.

Tea and Yugi have been friends since childhood. Tea was originally quite a friendless person, lonely and sad, until Yugi came into her life and showed her the true value of friendship. She was there when Yugi received the Millennium Puzzle from Solomon and started putting it together. She's no pushover, either; when Joey and Tristan used to bully Yugi, she would send them on the run if she was around. Some of her dance moves, she discovered, have other uses as well!

Eventually, thanks to Yugi's sweetness, they all became the best of friends. And while they accept others as friends too, there's a certain bond between the original four friends that is unequaled.

Tea has carried a torch for Atem since he first emerged from the Puzzle in her presence, while Yugi has crushed on Tea. He recognizes, however, that Tea simply doesn't see him in a romantic light and he's fine with them staying friends. He's even tried to encourage Atem and Tea to get together. With Atem gone, Tea focuses more on her dancing and her friendships than anything else. Someday the future may hold something in store for her that she doesn't expect in the least. But is that something Atem's return and the possibility of someday starting a romance with him after all . . . or is it an increased understanding of and association with someone she generally can't stand, like Seto Kaiba?

Personality: Tea is outgoing, friendly, and cheerful, but she isn't afraid to speak her mind if she's upset. She can and will scold friends, enemies, and strangers she encounters when something seems amiss. She is loyal and true to her friends and is willing to risk her own safety for theirs.

Despite Tea's usual outspoken behavior, one thing she has trouble with is speaking about her romantic feelings. She has never revealed the depth of her feelings for Atem, both because she's afraid of ruining their friendship and because she's concerned about hurting Yugi (even though Yugi already knows). But perhaps that is just as well, as she is starting to discover that feelings for another may be taking up residence in her heart ... although she will fight against this discovery and deny it for quite some time.

Tea loves cute cards and enjoys showing that even highly disregarded characters like Happy Lover and Shining Friendship can be valuable . . . especially when paired with powerful Magic and Trap cards. Joey lost to her many times when he was just learning. Tea hasn't often dueled since the bizarre adventures started, but every now and then she and Yugi enjoy a quiet game of Duel Monsters in between the chaos.

Differences between the timelines: Tea's parents are included only in the new timeline, I think. In the old timeline, Tea and Seto managed to come to quite an understanding and friendship, and depending on if one includes my Azureshipping fics as canon to that timeline, they finally get together romantically. The new timeline is just starting to get there, but it looks like full-fledged Azureshipping may happen in the present-day of the new timeline instead of only in the future. It's one of the few romantic pairings I like, and nothing has ever convinced me not to like it ever since I first decided to experiment and see if what sounded impossible could actually happen.