Chapter Text
It was a busy autumn afternoon at Kame Game. It was cold out, the schools rang their final bell hours ago, and everyone was out preparing for their Halloween parties. All of this added up to the smaller game store being flooded with kids and adults alike. Yami had put on a generic Halloween-themed playlist when people started trickling in and he was glad he decided to do it when he did. Currently, two customers needed his help finding a game and another person was waiting to buy a few cards at his counter.
On Tuesday, he’d set up a display of Halloween-themed games with gimmick games, like candy corn-shaped ring tosses and small ghost bowling sets he’d gotten especially for the holiday, and filled in the rest of the empty spaces with any horror-adjacent games he had. These games were split between their normal places and the display but were quickly snatched up. Hence his hasty search. Plucking Salem 1692’s faux-book box off the shelf and a Nightmare Before Christmas-themed Yahtzee box, he headed back to the two groups who were ambling around the jigsaw puzzles and Gundam kits.
“Thank you for waiting. Here’s this, I’m glad we still had it! Give me one moment and I’ll ring you up.” He passed the Yahtzee game off to an adult corralling several smaller kids. Turning his attention to the college students, he said, “So, it looks like we are out of Werewolf, but this game has the same core mechanic: figure out who the witches are to save the townspeople. It’s a little bit more complex, so you need a good strategy to win, but I think it’s more fun that way.” He tried to pass them the box, but their faces changed when he said “more complex” and “strategy.”
The group leader raised his hands to politely decline, “It sounds like a fun game normally, but we aren’t expecting people to think that hard at the party. It’s supposed to be a break from class. We’ll keep looking.”
Taking the hint, Yami put the box onto his display and said, “I’m sorry we didn’t have what you were searching for. If you have your heart set on Werewolf, you don’t need to buy the physical game. You can always find the rules online and write down roles on scraps of paper. Players can pick a random role from a cup, and the moderator can use their phone’s timer if you want to add a time limit.”
That seemed to cheer up the college kids, and they left with a “Thank you very much!”
He waved at them as he crossed to the other side of his counter to ring up the person scrutinizing his card case.
“Thanks for waiting, did you find everything okay?” After he scanned everything in, he realized it was one of his regulars buying a few booster packs and a set of dice. “Ah! Evan, how have you been?”
“I’ve been doing alright. Hoping to get my Snake-Eye deck ready for tomorrow, but there are a few cards I’m missing.” The 30-year-old in a light-blue hoodie replied.
“Feel free to keep browsing, and if you want to stick around, I might have something that can help in my trade binder.”
Tapping their credit card against the card reader and looking at his watch, he said, “Nah. Thank you, though. I still have my Gimmick-Puppet deck to play with and I’ve got to get home before my boyfriend hunts me down. I promised to be back in time to help cook dinner.” They took the bag and waved goodbye.
Yami waved back and turned his attention to the family he’d given the board game. “Is there anything else you were looking for?” He cheerfully asked as he rang up Yahtzee.
A little girl had broken away from the group to point out the ring-toss set, “Mommy, look, it’s candy corn! Can we get it?”
“It is, sweetheart.” The woman gauged the other kids’ interest. “Do you all want it too?”
All the children shouted, “Yes!” in a mini-chorus, and the girl stood on her tippy-toes to pass off the set to Yami.
“Thank you,” He told her sweetly, turning back to the mom, “Are they all yours?”
“Oh, goodness no. Can you imagine? I’m watching my brother’s kids today. These two are mine, and these two are my lovely niece and nephew.” She gestured to the group. The girl who brought over the game waved at him and her younger brother hid behind his mom. The twins in matching ghost sweaters were too focused on the other games and toys in the shop to listen to the adults talking.
Waving back to the girl, he said, “I have one of my own about their age. He’s a sweet kid, but I can’t imagine having more than one. You must be very patient, raising two of your own and being the favorite aunt.”
She handed him three $20s with a smile. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. I am so glad to have a husband who helps around the house and with the kids. It makes life so much easier.” Taking her change and passing the two games to the cousins, she roused them, “Alright everyone, let’s roll out! If we’re quick enough with the rest of our errands, we can test one of these games before the party.”
With a cheer, the woman and her four kids left while Yami waved at them with a content smile and called after them, “Happy Halloween!”
After they closed the door, he straightened up his store after the rush left it askew. The playlist he’d put on was on its second loop, “Ghostbusters” was fun the first time, but now it’s getting old. He checked the time. 4:53 pm, only 40 minutes until closing, he could endure “Somebody’s Watching Me” once more.
There was another crowd of people who came in before closing, and, unfortunately, he was sold out of most of the games they were after. He managed to persuade some to try alternate games and point others towards alternate stores or online sites that offered overnight shipping.
There was only one person who seemed to be in a rushed panic that had an issue. He didn’t have the Cards Against Humanity expansion pack she wanted and she was upset that Yami couldn’t order it for her. He hated to end the day on a sour note. However, there was nothing he could do to help, so he tried not to take her poor attitude personally while flipping the open sign and locking up. Carrying the medium-sized box a courier delivered earlier, he texted his friends to remind them that the shop’s door was locked and to use the side door to come up.
He walked up to their apartment and found Yugi in the living room. He was talking with his Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl figures while assembling the Red-Eyes Black Dragon Lego set Yami had gotten them to do together. They’d finished the main body of the dragon but after that, it sat forgotten in their game cabinet for a couple of weeks. Yugi studied the booklet every few seconds as he built a black wing. He was so engrossed in his conversation that he didn’t hear Yami walk in.
“...And we learned about spiders and how they make their home out of webs to catch flies. Lots of houses have spiderwebs now, are they just for Halloween or are people forgetting to clean them? Oh, Halloween is two days away! There’s going to be lots of candy and scary things! I hope there aren’t monsters, they like the dark.”
“You know what else they like? Eating little kids whole, just like this!” Yami picked Yugi up, tossed him in the air, and pretended to eat the squirming child.
Yugi squealed and giggled as he pushed against his dad's face to get away. “Stop it! You’re making that up, no more!”
Yami stopped but held Yugi tighter as he laid them on the couch. “You’re right, there’s no such thing as monsters. Even if there were, none of them could get past me.” When his son still tried to wiggle out of his embrace, he rested his chin on top of the smaller head. “Just a few more minutes. Daddy needs a snuggle, okay?” That stopped the kid from moving, and he lifted his arm to pet the side of Yami’s face clumsily.
“You had a bad day too?”
“No, just a very long one. Did you do anything fun at school, besides getting all banged up?”
“We learned about spiders and how they make their homes from sticky silk. Then we watched a movie and colored pumpkins and made the bat thing I showed you. Mr. Price asked us what our costumes were and told us how to be safe when we go out at night.”
“Oh, and how do you do that?” Yami asked, sitting up.
“We have to go in big groups with parents or big brothers and sisters. And we have to bring flashlights in case it gets really, really dark. If a grownup that we don’t know tries to talk to us, we have to go find someone we know for help.” Yugi said, moving his arm to tick off the rules he remembered.
“Those all sound like good things.”
“Are we going to bring a flashlight?” Yugi asked after a few minutes.
“My phone has a flashlight, but if you want to bring one, we can,” Yami reassured him.
The kid nodded. “We should, ’cause we’re already breaking one of the rules by going by ourselves. We shouldn’t break anymore.”
“Alright, I’ll see where we put it.” He gave Yugi one last squeeze before putting him down and getting up. “Thanks for the hugs, let’s see how far you got on your homework and pick up a bit before everyone comes over.”
Yugi grumbled but nodded, and packed up the Lego set. Yami cleared the table of Yugi’s afternoon snack and looked over his homework. It was 2 lists with 3 bullet points saying, “My favorite things about fall are...” and “What I like about school is...” Yugi had filled the school list with one-word answers like “syins” and “resses.” For the fall list, he drew pictures instead of the words. When the game cabinet doors were shut, Yami was ready, twirling a child’s thick pencil around his fingers, and motioned Yugi to sit down.
“Let’s fix this really quick. I like your drawings, and I think your teacher will too, but he wants you to write down what the drawings mean. Can you tell me what each of them are?”
“This one’s a pumpkin, ’cause I like jack-o-lanterns. This one’s leaves. They look pretty when they change colors. Then this one’s a sweater. I like my sweater, and it’s cold enough to wear now.” Yugi pointed to each of the drawings and described them.
“I see. For the first one, why don’t you write jack-o-lanterns?”
Fiddling with the hem of his shirt, Yugi confessed, “It’s too long, I don’t know how to spell it!”
Getting up, Yami rifled around the kitchen drawers until he found a pad of sticky notes. “I’ll write it out here and you can copy it, let’s do that for your other paper too. For the next one, what do you want to say about the leaves?”
“I want to change that one. I wanted to say Halloween, but didn’t know what to draw.”
“Okay, we’ll change it to ‘Halloween,’ and for the last one?”
“I don’t know. I just like it. It’s comfy, and it’s warm.”
“What if we say, ‘I can wear my warm sweater?’” Yami asked as he wrote down the answers.
Yugi agreed, took the pencil and sticky note, and got to work. While he was occupied, the older Mutou finished straightening up the apartment and checked on the crock pot he’d set during his lunch break. Everything was ready to go and, after a long day, he was ready to rest on the couch. He pulled out his phone again and opened the dueling app, thinking he could play a few rounds while he waited for his friends to arrive.
His plan was thwarted by a large pressure and accompanying pats on his abdomen. Putting down his device, he found Yugi using his tummy as a pillow. Yami waited for the kid to ask him something.
“When is everyone coming?” Yugi asked.
Checking his watch, Yami responded, “In about 20 minutes.”
“I finished my homework, can we wait for them outside?”
“It’s cold, bud, and the park’s closed. Why do you want to go out?”
Yugi lowered his gaze and played with Yami’s shirt, “I want to see the decorations and look for stars.”
They both knew the other store’s decorations would be as impossible to see as the stars. The city was too dark, but also too bright for that. Instead of pressing it, Yami just took a deep breath and rolled off the couch with a groan. He put his jacket on, passed Yugi his hoodie, and braced himself for the cold night.
As he predicted, the other storefronts had turned off their lights and brought in their plastic jack-o-lanterns. Car’s honking and rushing by overpowered the sounds of the wind, but he could still pick up on the evening crowds’ murmurs at nearby restaurants and movie theaters. The buildings’ bright lights and neon signs made it hard to see stars on a good day, but it was even more difficult now. Dark clouds swallowed the few stars still visible in Domino’s night sky.
Yugi wasn’t deterred by this and sat on one of the nearby benches, looking up at the moon partially hiding behind the cloud cover. Yami followed him, hands stuffed in his pockets. It wasn’t cold enough to see his breath yet, but it was still chillier than he liked. Sitting on the bench, he waited to see if the kid had brought them out for a specific purpose or if he just wanted fresh air.
It took a bit, but eventually, Yugi asked, “Do you like your job?”
Confused, Yami answered honestly, “I do. Great-Grandpa put a lot of work into the place and it would be a shame for it to go to waste.”
“Do you like this one or dueling better?” Yugi threw out, kicking his tiny feet.
“I like them both for different reasons.” Yami had no idea where this was going. “Dueling was fun because I got to meet new people and play my favorite game for a living. Running the shop, I help people find a new game to play or help them get better at Duel Monsters.”
Yugi wasn't in any hurry to get to his point, “Do you ever want to do anything else?”
Yami had to think about that, “Mmm. When I was about your age, I wanted to be an archeologist just like Great-Grandpa used to be. He’d tell me all about the trips he went on and it sounded like a lot of fun. But, I don’t think I’d want to do that now, I like running the shop. It means I get to spend more time with you.” He slung an arm around his kid and brought him closer. “Now, what are you thinking about? Does it have to do with the reason you came home with so many bruises today?”
Yugi didn’t answer, suddenly finding the bench’s wood panels fascinating. He stayed quiet for so long that Yami thought the boy was giving him the cold shoulder. Eventually, he nodded and admitted, “But I don’t want to tell you. You’re going to be mad if I do.”
While he might be upset that his son is getting beat up at school, Yami thought he masked his anger well enough that Yugi wouldn’t have picked up on it. “Why would I be mad?”
“Because I did something bad,” Yugi said meekly.
“I promise I won’t. What did you do?”
They watched a few cars go by, “I got in a fight with other kids. I thought that if I hit them once, they’d get scared and leave me alone, but they didn’t. They kept hitting and kicking me back, even after I said I gave up. There wasn’t anyone else around to stop them and they didn’t stop until the bell rang to go inside.” Yugi said, tears thick in his voice.
“Sweetheart, that isn’t like you. You know better than to hurt others. What were you thinking?” Yami said in a concerned, hushed voice.
“You promised you wouldn’t be angry!” Yugi pulled away and scrubbed his eyes.
“I’m not, I’m just disappointed. Why would you do that?”
“That’s worse!” Yugi started crying in earnest but he continued to rub his eyes, trying to erase the tears from existence. “They were saying mean things about you. One of the girls said that her older sister was graduating and going to be a doctor soon and then everyone said what their parents’ jobs were. Then, Mr. Price asked me what you did and I said you worked here. But everyone called me a liar. They said working at a game shop wasn’t a real job and that they knew you used to be a duelist ’cause their parents and big brothers and sisters used to watch you. I tried to ignore them like you said I should, but it made me mad that they wouldn’t believe me.”
He sniffled and wiped his face with his jacket sleeve. “Some boys followed me at recess and kept telling me that you stopped dueling because you lost and were hiding. They said that I made up where we lived because you were scared to come back. I was mad, they were wrong but wouldn’t listen and were being so mean. So I hit them, I just wanted them to stop.” He laid against his dad again, exhausted from his emotional confession.
Yami stared wide-eyed at the cars rushing by. Where should he even begin with this? “I see. Well, I appreciate you standing up for me, that was very kind and brave of you. You should stand up for other kids if you see them being bullied, but I’m not a child and I don’t care what others have to say about me. I made some people angry by leaving and there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t regret it. If I kept dueling, I would’ve had to leave you here with a babysitter more than I would’ve liked. I’m not going back until you’re ready to join me or until you can stay home alone. If the kids at your school have something bad to say about me, ignore them. It doesn’t matter what they think.”
“I just want them to stop. I don’t know why they don’t like me.” Yugi softly whispered, tinged with enough desperation and despair to strike Yami’s heart.
“Sometimes there’s not a reason. Sometimes it’s not about you or something you did,” Yami said, fixing his gaze on a flickering lamp post.
Yugi just sighed a broken sigh. Yami knew it wasn’t very comforting, but having gone through this before, he didn’t want to tell Yugi an optimistic lie and have it crush him later. His mother and grandpa tried their best, but let him down by doing just that. While bandaging his cuts and putting ice on his bruises, they’d say “Tell them how you feel when they hit you and ask them nicely to stop!” or “If they try to cut your hair again, go tell an adult!”
Politely asking never helped, and neither did throwing a punch or constantly tattling to a teacher. Teachers had too many students to deal with, they couldn’t take care of every little incident. He also learned that running to an adult too often only showed the other kids a severe weakness, one that they loved to prey on. He knew only one way to make a bully stop.
“Did I ever tell you that Joey and Tristan used to pick on me when we were younger?” Yami asked. He wasn’t proud of this fact, for him or his friends, but maybe Yugi would find it helpful.
“No, how did they pick on you?”
“They’d call me names and take my stuff.” The man dug up old, uncomfortable memories. “I didn’t like how they treated me, so I told them to stop. I didn’t ask, I didn’t hit them back. I told them to stop. Then, when they needed help, I helped them. Later, they apologized for being mean and we became friends. I learned they were having a rough time at home and they couldn’t fix it, so they were taking it out on me.”
Yugi, trying to understand, ventured, “Like when I couldn’t do the pyramid puzzle and threw Marshmallon?”
“Exactly like that, baby. It was never about me, I was just someone they thought they could be mean to and get away with it.”
Yami could see the cogs running in Yugi’s mind and he gave the boy all the time he needed. A couple walking their tiny terrier stared at the duo sitting on a bench in front of a closed store at night. Yami smiled and nodded at them to assure them that nothing was wrong.
“Does that mean the mean kids might be my friends if I tell them to stop?” Yugi asked hopefully.
Yami yearned to feed into his hope and lie to his son, but he knew he couldn’t. “Only if they say sorry for treating you badly and mean it. Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen because they would have to understand what they’re doing was wrong and truly believe it. That’s difficult to do as an adult and even harder as a kid. Joey and Tristan were special that way.”
Yugi sighed and turned away from him, slumping his shoulders.
“I’m sorry, honey. I wish I had a better answer for you, but I don’t think there is one. I want you to remember something when someone is being mean to you. It might hurt, but the bully is probably hurting inside too. This doesn’t mean you should let them hurt you, you need to tell them to stop firmly, but we also need to be a little more compassionate to them.”
“But they aren’t nice to me, I don’t want to be nice to them!” Yugi protested.
“I know, I’m not asking you to play with them. I’m asking you to ignore them until they stop picking on you and to understand that they’re probably being hurt by someone else. If you have to talk to or be around them, I want you to treat them how you’d want someone to treat you when you’re hurt. Ask if they’re alright and listen to what they say. If they go back to being mean, walk away.”
The little kid pouted and turned to bury his head into Yami’s side, “That’s hard.”
Yami wrapped his arm around him and patted his back. “I know it is, it’s very difficult to be that kind to someone. But do you want to know something?”
Yugi moved his head to meet Yami’s eyes.
“You’re one of the kindest kids that I’ve ever met. Being nice to these kids might be hard at first, but once you’ve done it a few times, it’ll be so easy for you. It’s just like learning how to play a new game, it’s hard when you’re still learning the rules, but it gets easier the more you do it.”
He got an unsure hum in response, but Yami knew better than to press. They just sat on the cold bench looking up at the sky, admiring the almost full moon and searching for the faint stars behind the retreating clouds.
They heard their friends crossing the street before seeing them. When they were on the same block, Yugi jumped up and abandoned his dad to give his aunt and uncles a hug. He gave Joey his hug last and the former delinquent picked up the tiny boy and carried him back.
Putting his arms around Joey’s neck, Yugi said, “Daddy told me that you and Tristan used to be mean to him when you were younger.”
“Is that so, little man?” Tristan asked.
“Yeah, he said it was because you were hurting too. I’m sorry that someone hurt you, that wasn’t very nice of them,” he said while cuddling closer.
Yami could see Joey stiffen up in surprise before shooting him a steely look.
“Well, thank you, buddy,” Joey said. “It was a long time ago, but I shouldn’t have been a jerk to your old man, it wasn’t the right way to deal with it.”
They met him at the door and Joey put Yugi down, encouraging him to go upstairs with Téa and Tristan. When the two duelists were alone, he turned to Yami.
“What the hell, man? Why’d you go and tell Yugi about when we were kids? I didn’t want you to know about it back then and I don’t want Yugi to know about it now. I don’t need to be pitied.” Joey glared at him.
Yami put his hands up in defense as an old reflex and stuffed them in his pockets when he noticed, “I only told him that someone was hurting you when you were younger. I didn’t say anything about it being your father or how you joined a gang, he didn’t need to know that much.”
“You didn’t need to know either, damn Tristan for telling you.” Joey fixed his glare at a nearby bush.
“Tristan did his best, but when you decided to skip school and we found you harassing someone, Téa forced him to talk. It was out of character for you and Tristan was trying to help us understand. I know you’ve changed and you’re not that person anymore.” Taking a breath, he continued, “Yugi told me his bully problem is getting worse.”
“Oh yeah?” Joey said gruffly.
“He hit another kid because they followed him around and told him ridiculous theories about why I quit dueling. He got beat pretty badly, there are bruises all over his arms and back.”
Joey finally turned around, sympathetically wincing for the child. “Did he at least throw a decent punch?”
Yami shook his head, “Yugi doesn’t know how to fight, I doubt he hurt the kid, but I’d rather he didn’t learn. I don’t want him to think that violence is the answer to his problems. I told him about you because I wanted to explain to him why someone would choose to be a bully. I swear I didn’t go into details, I wanted to point out that it isn’t about the victim and tell him a way to get them to stop.”
“Alright, I guess I can understand why you told him, then. I’m sorry your kid’s going through this.”
“Thank you, and I’m sorry that I brought up something painful for you. It wasn’t my intention to make you feel bad.”
Joey slung his arm around Yami and they walked inside, “An outcome you didn’t predict? I never thought I’d see the day. We’re cool, just don’t go writing a book about me.”
“I’d never, we both know that I’m a terrible writer.”
“Yeah, but with a subject as good as me, it’s guaranteed to be a best seller.”
“Oh? You sound like you want me to write one now.” Yami rolled his eyes.
Joey lightly shoved his friend, “Nah, like you said, you suck at writing. I have to find someone much more qualified than you.”
They strolled up the stairs and into the Mutou’s apartment. Tristan had put the grocery bag on the kitchen counter and was on the couch, fiddling with his phone. Téa and Yugi were at the kitchen table, the younger showing off the little paper bat garland he’d made at school.
Yami and Joey went into the kitchen, Joey took out a bag of M&M’s and passed Yami the loaf of bread and salad kit they’d brought. As Yami set the oven to broil, Joey poured the candy into a large bowl and placed it on the kitchen table before joining Tristan on the couch. He heard the bowl scrape across the table and a small whine while he made toast.
“No candy until after dinner, Yugi!” He called out and the kid groaned. When the toast was cooling on the stove, he returned to the living room to join everyone. Joey had sat next to Tristan on the couch and Yugi quickly shoved something in his mouth. Yami raised an eyebrow and was going to tell him off, but Téa cut in.
She was holding the box he’d brought up earlier, “It says it’s from KaibaCorp, what did you sucker Kaiba into doing this time?” Téa asked.
Yami shrugged and took out his pocket knife, passing it to her, “I don’t sucker him into anything, he can always say ‘no.’ Kaiba puts so much value in taking my title and who am I to deny him his chance? All I did was give him a good business idea in return.”
Inside was a shirt box with the KaibaCorp logo stamped in the middle. Opening that, Téa passed Yami a card and then took out the bundle of black fabric. He flipped it open and read, “Come to my office as soon as you get this. Due to unforeseen complications, I deserve another chance at my title. Kaiba” Underneath that was written “I hope Yugi likes the costume, Happy Halloween! -Mokuba.”
“What did rich-boy send you now?” Joey asked as he craned his head over the back of the couch. As an answer, Téa pulled out the dragon outfit inside and held it to the side. The boy it was intended for was completely enamored and reached for the sleeve.
“Woah, you got him to make Yugi a costume?” Tristan asked skeptically.
“It’s not just for Yugi. I asked him to make a Gandora-themed costume for Yugi and suggested he do the same for some of the other popular monsters. I haven’t seen them in stores yet so I assume this is the prototype. I’m also guessing that getting the copyright from Pegasus was more painful than we thought and that one duel won't cover it. He asked to meet me tomorrow.”
Successfully taking the onesie from Téa, Yugi ran off to change and Yami chuckled at the boy’s enthusiasm.
“Don’t you and Joey have a tournament to run tomorrow?” Téa asked.
Joey looked back at them, “Oh yeah, I completely forgot. I was gonna show up at 2 instead of noon! By the way, Yami, I bought a costume. What are you going to wear?”
Yami inwardly groaned, “I don’t have anything, so I’ll leave that to you. I’ll go visit Kaiba before the shop opens, Téa, and see if we can’t arrange for another time.”
At the sound of a creaky door being pushed open, the adults turned to look down the hallway. Yugi had pulled the hood up on the costume and brought his Gandora toy with him. Bolting back over, he tripped, dropping his toy and making the fabric wings stick up as if they were mid-flap. He quickly recovered, held the recovered action figure high above his head, and gave a large “Roar!” The adults clapped and complimented the smiley child and, at Téa’s request, he did a spin.
The costume was a softer, less detailed, version of the imposing dragon. It had Gandora’s face on the hood, complete with two stubby tusks at the bottom and stubby black spikes down the back. The tail pointed upward but dropped down to the ground. Large red patches of shiny satin lined with light gray fleece ran throughout the onesie, imitating the dragon’s giga-rays and muscles. It had large black buttons that blended into the body and made it easy for clumsy hands to close the suit up. Overall, the outfit was made out of black fleece and was good quality, but too large. The length was correct, but it was too wide. It hung several inches off of Yugi, to the point where the elastics were covered by excess fabric.
Yami took out his phone and hummed, “Yugi, stand still. It seems a little too big. Let’s see if Grandma can fix it.” Snapping the picture, he opened his messages and began to write to his mother.
“I think that’s the style,” Joey said, plucking up a wing and making it flap when Yugi went over to him. “They’re supposed to be baggy and used as pajamas.”
“Oh. Then it fits fine, I suppose? It seems like Kaiba had some talented people work on it.” Glancing at the clock again, Yami left his friends chatting, discussing the game plan for their DnD session, and his happy kid running around the room “flying” with his dragon action figure. In the kitchen, he sent his mother the picture and opened a new message, filling it with Kaiba’s contact info. The phone automatically pulled up their previous messages from a few months ago and Yami sent him the picture, texting “It looks good, thank you.” He pulled out some plates, and his phone vibrated in his pocket. It was Ryou asking to be let in, not wanting to be rude and barge into someone else’s home, and Yami gave the message a thumbs up.
“Can one of you run downstairs and let Ryou up, please? I’m going to finish making the salad.” He asked and, after a brief moment, he heard Tristan sigh, “I got it. I swear, you’re cheating Joey. No way can someone win rock-paper-scissors every time.”
“I’m just that good. Don’t worry, I’ll keep your seat warm.” Yami could practically hear the smug grin on Joey’s face. When the door opened up, Téa and Joey called out their greetings and Yami walked out to say hi to his friend that he hadn’t seen in half a year.