Chapter Text
In Yami’s mind, there were a lot of benefits to taking over Solomon’s game shop. The first was knowing that the old man’s love of games could live on, even when he couldn’t. The second was watching customers find their new favorite game or listening to his regulars talk about the Duel Monster’s meta; they would chat about which new monster combos were the strongest and which magic cards had been nerfed by Industrial Illusions. It kept his deck relevant and strong, which certainly helped during tournament nights at the Kame Game. The winners usually got a box of booster packs and a chance to duel the retired King of Games. The third benefit of running Kame Game was Yami’s favorite: he was able to be home when his six-year-old son came back from school. Usually, Yugi would quickly say hi and give him a hug before running upstairs to play with his toys but sometimes he would stay in the shop and tell Yami about all of the interesting things that happened during his day.
Looking at the clock, he realized that Yugi was a couple of minutes late, which was odd. He always told the boy that he needed to come straight home and Yugi was usually back a half hour after school let out. 15 more minutes . Yami thought, I’ll wait 15 more minutes before searching for him. He probably got distracted on his way home. The park is only two blocks away after all.
Yami ran his thumbs along the studs of his leather belts, a nervous tic he picked up as a teenager, before he realized what he was doing. He forced himself to stop and grabbed a rag and glass cleaner to wipe off some fingerprints from the countertop, all while sneaking glances over at the front door. It didn’t take long for the door's bell to ring and he quickly turned to see who had come in. Disappointment ran through him before he could stop it. It was an elderly woman who seemed to be lost. He quickly put on his best customer service smile and asked, “Can I help you?”
“I wanted to buy my grandson dice for a game. He’s having a birthday party tomorrow and loves this Dungeons-and-something game.” The woman replied.
Pausing for a moment, Yami said “Do you remember the rest of the game’s name? There are a few that use dice. There’s the Dungeon Dice game–”
“No, no. It’s older than that, I had classmates play it in high school. Their parents thought they were summoning Satan and forced them to stop playing it. Goodness, what was it called… Dungeons and Demons?”
Hearing this, Yami understood exactly what game the woman was talking about and walked behind the counter. He motioned for the woman to follow him and said, “Is it called Dungeons and Dragons? I have several dice sets for that game right here. Most of the sets I sell are made of resin and some have glitter or little figures in them. Take your time and let me know if you want a better look at any particular set.”
The lady seemed overwhelmed at first but gravitated towards the metal dice. With some suggestions from Yami, she chose a hollow metal set with dragons as the die faces. She also flipped through the books with several prepared adventures for players to finish in one or two sittings. She ended up purchasing the dice and a book for her grandson.
“Thanks for stopping in today, I hope your grandson enjoys his game!”
“I hope he does too, thank you for your help!” The woman said as she walked toward the door, only to pause as it opened before she could reach it. Yugi walked into the shop, eyes glued to the floor, and he would have run into the woman if she hadn’t moved out of the way. Yami glanced at the clock, he was eighteen minutes late.
Turning from the clock to Yugi, the first thing Yami noticed was the tears in his son’s eyes, followed by his quiet sniffles. There were torn-up red and purple papers poking out of Yugi’s bookbag. The sight worried him even more. He wasn’t just late, something went wrong and Yami wasn’t there to prevent it from happening.
“Yugi, come here. What’s wrong, what happened?” He asked as he walked around the counter.
Yugi dodged his dad and ran upstairs, whimpering when he couldn’t stop himself from crying anymore. He slammed the door shut and Yami heard a loud thump, a chair scraping on the floor, and cabinet doors slamming open and shut.
Yami sighed and decided to give Yugi a few minutes to work out whatever frustration he was feeling before investigating further. He stocked the Duel Monsters booster packs and faced the jigsaw puzzles, trying to make them look more appealing. There were four or five puzzles that hadn’t sold for almost a year and it was time to lower their prices to make room for a better selling option. While trying to remember where he had left his label printer, he heard an irritated scream coming from upstairs.
Alright, that’s enough now. What is going on? He thought and locked the door. Leaving a sign that said “Back in 20 minutes!” in the window, he climbed the stairs towards the living area of the building. He opened the door and discovered a mess of glue, safety scissors, broken green popsicle sticks, and scraps of colored paper cut into wobbly hearts. Yami had no idea what it was supposed to come together as. Turning his attention away from the craft pile, he spotted Yugi’s bag discarded on the floor and Yugi sitting at the kitchen table sobbing with his head in his hands. While trying to understand the meaning of the paper pile on the table and why it was making his boy so upset, he walked over and called out to him.
Hearing his dad, Yugi immediately jumped up and ran over to him. Yami knelt down and wrapped his arms around Yugi, being mindful not to dig his studded bracelets into the kid’s back, as Yugi buried his head in Yami’s shoulder and cried. Yami rubbed Yugi’s back, softly shushing him, and waited until his boy calmed down. The wails eventually died down and he felt his boy take a long, shuddering sigh soon after. He decided to try asking again.
“Sweetheart, what happened today? Why are you so upset?”
After a few more sighs, Yugi lifted his head and stutteringly responded, “W-we made flowers in art class for Mo-Moth-Mama’s Day. I picked red and yellow and purple flowers. It was fun and the petals are made out of hearts. They’re pretty and I wanted to show you! But, some of the other kids followed me after school and wouldn’t let me leave. They said that I didn’t have a mama to give my flowers to so I didn’t need them. They said that she died ’cause my hair looks so weird and she was embarrassed. Then they laughed and went home. I got mad and really sad and I-I broke my flowers.” He paused to catch his breath and rub his eyes. “I tried and I can’t fix them!”
Yami felt like he was hit by a truck. Of course the elementary school would have the students make something for Mother’s Day, why didn’t he think of that? His heart twinged and his eyes stung when he remembered his dead girlfriend, Anne. Yugi’s mother died when he was three, so they only really celebrated the holiday together once and the date completely slipped his mind. It also pained him to know that Yugi was hurting because he was missing out on an important holiday for children. He just held his kid closer and shifted to softly knock their heads together and thought of what he should say.
“I’m so sorry that happened, honey. Those kids were wrong. Just because Mama isn’t here doesn’t mean she can’t have flowers. She would be so happy to know that you made them for her and she would have loved the colors that you chose. Yellow was her favorite color.” He paused for a moment, lost in old memories. “From the moment we knew about you, the only thing she wanted was to be the best mama in the world. Even if she can’t do that now, she would want you to know that there are a lot of people who love and care about you. Grandma, Téa, Joey, and Tristian all love you… And do you want to know a secret?” Yami pulled away to look at Yugi, smiling conspiratorially. He waited for Yugi to nod and saw the little boy’s sadness into curiosity, “I love you more than anyone else!” With that, he launched into a tickle attack until his child was wiggling on the floor, laughing and begging him to stop.
When the giggles died down, Yami suggested, “Why don’t you start over with the flowers after I close the shop? I think we still have some popsicle sticks from your other crafts in the cabinet. Do you want me to help you cut out the hearts?”
Yugi paused to think, “I can cut them! I did it in class all by myself! But, who gets the flowers? Mama can’t keep them.”
“You can always give them to Grandma and Téa, I think they would like that very much. On Sunday, we can visit Mama’s grave and give her real flowers. Would you like to do that?”
“Yeah!” Yugi jumped up, excited now that they had a plan.
Yami smirked a little. “Okay. In the meantime, I have to watch the store. Why don’t you get started on your homework? I’m sure your teacher gave you some to do over the weekend.” He internally laughed at the small groan coming from Yugi. Everything was back to normal.
As Yugi pushed scraps of paper to the side and threw away the broken popsicle sticks, Yami fished through the first grader’s bookbag for the kuriboh folder that usually held notes from the teacher and homework. It was a little less than what he was expecting for the weekend, but he assumed it was to make sure that the students were available to help their parents on Mother’s Day. There were just a few worksheets, one on the water cycle, some simple arithmetic, one on how to read an analog clock, as well as a list of spelling words that needed to be memorized by Monday. He set out two worksheets, Yugi’s pencil case, and a juice box on the table as Yugi climbed onto his chair with his Magnet Warrior action figures. Right now, they were separated into Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, but Yami had a feeling that they would be combined into Valkyrion by the time he came back.
“Don’t play too much, alright? I want you to be finished with these by the time I come back up. The magnet warriors will be sad if you can’t play with them during the weekend because you have to do your homework instead.”
Yugi whined a little but ultimately said, “Okay, Daddy. Can we have burgers for dinner tonight? That sounds yummy!”
“I’ll see what I can do. Now be good while I’m downstairs and come get me if the apartment is on fire.” Yami teased as he patted the little kid’s head and descended the stairs for the last bit of his shift. After sending a quick text message to both his mother and Téa asking to meet up tomorrow, he finished off the last rush of customers. It was an average crowd for a Friday night, which was still pretty busy. Everyone wanted to get something new for their days off. Besides a few errant board games and Warhammer figurine sales, the clear focus of the night was the new set release that Industrial Illusions had come out with.
It seemed everyone was restructuring their decks and getting ready for the tournament that the Kame Game was hosting next Saturday. Gamers excitedly exchanged strategies and argued which cards from the new set were useless and which could be used in unbeatable combos. Between ringing up his customers, Yami did his best to participate in the conversation and sneak sips of his energy drink. He had some difficulty closing on time, a few teenagers took their sweet time debating what board game they needed for a party, but Yami managed to get them out the door only a few minutes after he was supposed to lock up. He went upstairs to quickly change into some comfortable sweatpants and an old t-shirt before turning on his Bluetooth speaker and playing a random playlist from his phone. Yugi insisted on helping cook dinner and they fried hamburgers and stir-fried vegetables together.
After they finished dinner and cleaned up the dishes, Yami corrected Yugi’s homework. There were a few mistakes, but they talked through them and corrected them. The kid may be clever when it came to games, but schoolwork was not his forte. It took several explanations before he understood what was being taught. Once the homework was done and out of the way, Yami opened his phone, turned on a more calming playlist, and turned the volume low. He found two pairs of scissors, the hot glue gun, and an old sheet he draped over the coffee table. Yugi skipped to the craft cabinet where he found markers, more paper, popsicle sticks, and some fuzzy pom-pom balls. He gathered the supplies in his arms before rushing to the living room and dumping them onto the table, all while babbling about which colors they should use.
Yami paused for a moment and said, “Yugi before we start, we need to have a talk. Do you know who the kids that followed you home were?” Yami hoped that he would, maybe then he could finally begin to fix the issue. As it was now, he could only simmer in anger. The school's bullying policy was convoluted and it took too long for them to step in and help with a bullying issue. If Yugi could give him a name, he could go straight to their parents instead.
Fiddling with the hem of his shirt, Yugi mumbled, “No. They were from a different class and I wasn’t looking at them. I don’t remember.”
Yami sighed. He knew the little guy was lying but decided not to press the issue. It wouldn’t have been a constructive conversation if he wouldn’t participate. Yugi’s big heart usually led him to forgive his tormentors easily and he never wanted to get anyone in trouble. The other times he tried to get Yugi to confess, the boy ended up so overwhelmed that he buried his head into the nearest soft surface and effectively used the “I can’t see you so you don’t exist” strategy. Instead of enduring another night of silence, Yami decided it would be more productive to send his teacher an email to let them know what happened. Yami doubted it would actually help, but he also knew that no one on the school board would lift a finger to help until he could prove there was an ongoing issue, and leaving a paper trail was the best evidence he could provide.
With a solution in mind for the bullies, he needed to move on and address Yugi’s poor reaction to the situation. Unfortunately, Yugi tended to have extreme reactions to his negative emotions and Yami needed to remind him how to deal with them in a less destructive way. “You said you were really frustrated when you tore up the flowers you made, right?” He waited for Yugi to nod in response. “We’ve talked about this before, haven’t we? When you get upset, you can’t destroy things. It’s okay to feel mad or sad, but what should we do when that happens and we want to break or throw something?”
“We need to stop and take four big breaths. I’m sorry, Daddy. I just kept hearing what they said and I forgot.” Yugi murmured.
“I understand, they weren’t being nice at all. I just need you to try harder to remember next time, okay? What would happen if you broke one of your toys because you were mad?”
Yugi looked as if he was considering what would happen, “I would be really sad. I’ll try and remember.”
“Good choice, buddy.” Yami praised him and ruffled his hair, “Now, what color do you think Téa would want her flowers to be?”
“Pink and yellow! And Gramma’s are blue and purple!” Yugi pulled out sheets of paper and handed them over. He colored the popsicle sticks green while he waited for his dad to draw hearts as a guide to cut from. Both of them hummed along to the music while working. Intermittently, Yugi told Yami about the rest of his day at school. There was a cool rock he had dug up in the playground during recess, but he was told to leave it outside and he was excited for the field trip the class was going to take in two weeks. Yami responded to all of the stories with enthusiasm and nudged his child to tell him more details. He also made a mental note to keep an eye out for the field trip’s permission slip. Perhaps he could convince Joey to take an extra shift in the shop and he could volunteer as a chaperone.
With all of the hearts glued to the popsicle sticks, they glued pom-poms in the middle of the flowers and the two bouquets were finished. Yami held his phone in his hand, slowly tilting it around his fingers. Ultimately, he decided against taking a picture to send to the two women. He noticed the time when the phone lit up with Yami’s lock screen. It had already past Yugi’s bedtime for weekdays and it was getting close to his weekend bedtime.
“Let’s get ready for bed, kiddo. Come on, up-up-up,” he encouraged when he got a pout from the tired child. “Time to brush our teeth and get pajamas on.” He got up himself and stifled a groan as his spine cracked and his knee popped. It looked like Tylenol would be added to his cocktail of medications and vitamins tonight. Half pushing and half leading Yugi to the bathroom connected to his room, he gave the little guy his gummy vitamins and they brushed their teeth. He waited for Yugi to wash his face before heading to his child’s bedroom. Yawning, he stepped over the race car tracks laid out on the floor to get to the bookshelf.
While Yugi put on his starry pajamas, he searched for a book. “Would you like Daddy to read you a bedtime story or do you want to read it?” It was only recently that Yugi had voluntarily agreed to read with him. A year ago, the kid was severely behind in his reading skills but caught up to his peers after finding a few stories he loved and a lot of practice. Yami couldn’t be more proud of his son’s growth and wanted to encourage it as much as possible.
“Umm, both! Daddy reads one page and then I read one. Can we do the hero book, please?”
“Alright, we can read The Little Hero and Friends together.”
He pulled the thick picture book from the shelf. The spine had cracked and the edges were wearing down, Yami was wondering if it was almost time to replace the thing. Yugi hopped into bed and gave his marshmallon plush a quick squeeze before maneuvering it between himself and the wall. With the pink blob settled in the perfect spot, he searched for his kuriboh doll. Yami made his way over to the bed and tucked him in, making sure that his son’s nighttime companions were where they belonged, before sitting down and opening the book. He angled it so Yugi could see the pictures and read his pages.
“Once upon a time, there was a little hero who wanted to go on a grand adventure. He decided to visit the big castle on the other side of the forest, but he needed friends so he wouldn’t get lonely on the way there.” He turned the page and waited for Yugi to read.
“Then Little Hero met Poki! He was small and soft and he worried about leaving home but very happy to go on an adventure. He would be the best friend to talk to when it got too quiet so the hero asked Poki to join him!” Yugi recited while fiddling with Kuriboh’s paws.
Yami noticed that Yugi had switched a couple of the words on the page to ones that were easier to pronounce and wasn’t reading the book word-by-word like he was learning to do in school. He let it slide, though. Being critical might make the kid clam up again and, besides, this was just to make him tired. “‘Where are we going?’ Poki asked. ‘To the big castle on the other side of the forest.’ Little Hero responded. ‘Oh! That is very far away. We need more friends before we make it there!’” Yami had read the story so many times that he’d made up voices for every character. Poki’s voice was a high-pitched one and it hurt his throat to go up to that octave, but it made Yugi smile so he kept doing the voices.
They had only made it to the second chapter before Yugi drifted to sleep. Yami closed the book and watched him sleep for a moment. He had rolled over to lay his head on Marshmallon and to grab a fistful of the pink fleece and was curled around Kuriboh. It always brightened Yami’s day to hear his son laughing and playing, but it was also nice to see him calm and quiet. It gave Yami a sense of peace. Getting up, Yami returned The Little Hero to the bookshelf. He came back over to tuck the covers tighter around Yugi and gave him a kiss on the forehead before saying, “Goodnight, baby. Tomorrow will be better.” He then turned on the little star-shaped nightlight and closed the door.
Tending to his last-minute chores, Yami went to clean up the mess in the living room and emailed Yugi’s teacher before he forgot. He turned off the lights, plugged a heating pad in for his back, and went to finish his own nighttime routine before going to sleep himself.