Chapter Text
As the bell on Kame Game’s door rang, Yami glanced up from his laptop to see who had come in. It was early spring, meaning the cold rain dramatically decreased the foot traffic coming into the shop today. The last customer came in an hour ago, looking for a deck box and wanting to trade some cards. The door closed as Yugi shoulder-checked it and struggled with the jacket in his hands. Before Yami could ask why in the world he wasn't wearing his rain jacket, Yugi ran straight for him, deposited it on the counter, and dropped his school bag at his feet. He was bouncing in place and a puddle formed from all the water he shook off.
“Look what I made! It took all day to dry!” He cried while moving his jacket like he was a magician revealing his trick from under a red silk cloth. Underneath was a paper diorama with a cutout tree and bush, as well as two clay figures.
“They look great, but you’re soaking wet. Run upstairs and change. You can come back down and tell me all about this when you’re ready.” Yami told his kid as he picked up the school bag and put it behind the counter.
After a few minutes, Yugi skipped down the stairs in dry clothes and Yami chuckled at his enthusiasm. He smoothed out Yugi’s tousled hair, trying to tame it, and picked out one or two apple blossoms from the mess. The chill on Yugi’s face raised a red flag in his mind, but he ultimately dismissed it. It was still cold outside and he would warm up in no time. Yami focused his attention back on the small figures as Yugi picked them up.
“I made Little Hero and Poki! The principal said we couldn’t go outside for recess so we stayed in and built things out of clay. I wanted to make Pau too, but there wasn’t enough leftover clay. They’re going on an adventure!” Yugi said, walking his creation across the green cardstock paper.
“Oh, where are they going?” Yami egged him on.
“They’re going to the castle to save their friend from the evil lord!” Yugi said seriously, making Poki hop after the star-shaped hero.
“That sounds very dangerous, do you think they can do it by themselves?”
“No way! That’s why I need Pau so they can all rescue Red-Eyes together,” Yugi said, getting more into his storyline.
“Hmm, that sounds like a fun adventure for after your homework.” Yami said while pulling out his folder and a thin picture book, “How much do you have tonight?”
Yugi’s melted into the counter, “too much. I have to color all of the oceans on our map, and do math, and write more words, and I have to read a whole book by myself. I picked one about a magician from the library, but it’s too long! I can’t finish it in one night!”
“I guess you have your work cut out for you. How’s this, if you color in your map and read half of your book, then you can take a break and play upstairs.”
After Yugi agreed, Yami went into the back room to see if there was anything left for him to do. Early weekdays were always slow, even in the afternoon when people were usually free from work and school, so he’d done most of the restocking on those days. Now, he was left with nothing much to do besides straightening the same shelves for what seemed like the hundredth time today. It was always a hit or miss on how many customers would show up on Thursdays, and the rain made sure it'd be a miss tonight.
Running his fingertips through the spotless shelves, he tried to think of an event during the weekday he could put on to generate a little more revenue. He had a lot of people ask him for help building their decks, so he could make an official time slot for it. Alternatively, there were so many other great games that didn't get as much attention as Duel Monsters and he wanted to change that. A game night where he could show off indie hits would be fun. Would people be interested enough in either of those ideas to make it worth the effort, though? More importantly, would he be able to deal with the sudden influx of people and shortage of free time?
He was lost in thought as Yugi ran over to him and proclaimed, “I read half! Can I go play now?”
Yami cleared the bundle of energy to run upstairs and he tried not to hover over the few people who were dueling or writing their DnD adventures at the tables set up in the shop. As the afternoon dragged on, a few more players came in, snagging an empty spot, and random people came to peruse, but it was all rather mundane. The idea of having less free time was sounding better by the minute. He wondered for the umpteenth time how Grandpa managed to not go stir-crazy doing this every day, especially back before the Kame Game was as well known as it was now.
Towards the end of the night, once he hadn't had a single customer for a good twenty minutes, Yami decided to start closing a little early. The Black Clown could handle any late-night gamers looking for some extra cards.
He wondered how Duke Devlin was doing over on that side of town, it's been too long since Yami saw him last. Since Duke first challenged him to Dungeon Dice Monsters, they'd played a few rounds when they met up and it was always a good time. Yami flicked off the lights and headed upstairs, wondering if Ryou would be willing to pause their DnD campaign for a week to invite Duke to their game night.
Not seeing Yugi in the living room, Yami headed to the kitchen to put in the casserole that he’d prepped during his lunch hour in the oven. He called out, “Yugi, dinner will be ready in about half an hour,” and there was a muffled, “Okay!” from Yugi’s room.
Going to change into something more comfortable, he saw his closet open and a hanger on the ground, which was odd. Yugi usually didn’t take his clothes. Yami, deciding to investigate and poking his head into Yugi's room, was greeted by a dozen action figures and stuffed toys lined up on the ground. They created a path to the boy on the opposite side of the room who’d stopped playing to turn his head to take note of him.
Yugi was wearing thick, fake glasses and the toy stethoscope from the doctor's play set his grandmother gave him a year ago. The clothes thief also had on one of Yami’s white dress shirts to replace the too-small lab coat that came with the kit. The sleeves went well past his arms but instead of pulling them up, he coped by using them as ridiculously long sweater-paws. Yami had interrupted Marshmallon’s check-up and Yugi went back to his game of make-believe when Yami didn't say anything apart from his soft snickering.
“You have no-bones disease. It’s okay, that’s normal for marshmallons. You need to drink milk every day and you’ll be fine.” He said, patting the pillow’s eyes.
“I thought you were going on an adventure?” Yami cleared his throat and asked.
“We saved Red-Eyes, but Gaia needed a check-up,” Yugi said, lining Marshmallon up with the rest of his toys.
Yami gave him a knowing smirk, “Like you did on Monday?”
“Yes. Now I’m Dr. Yugi and it’s your turn for a check-up.” The kid said, pulling on Yami’s hand.
Humoring him, Yami sat cross-legged on the floor and rolled up Yugi’s sleeves for him. He let Yugi check his heart rate and give him a vaccine, loosely playing out what happened at his doctor’s visit— minus a dramatic meltdown from the patient.
“All done, you did very good.”
“Thank you, Dr. Yugi. Now, does this mean we need to go to the park again?” Yami teased and ruffled his hair.
“Yes, doctor says!”
“Well, we can’t go against the doctor’s orders, can we? Let’s go on Saturday so we can spend as much time as you want there.” Yami said, getting up while Yugi cheered. He let Yugi play for a little longer on his own and set the table.
After dinner, Yami left Yugi to play until it was time to get ready for bed. The boy was uncharacteristically quiet, but he chalked it up to him being extra tired from running home in the rain and thought nothing more about it. He took the opportunity to read more of the novel Téa had lent him. He thought he'd more-or-less solved the mystery, despite Téa's doubts, but he liked the characters enough to keep reading. He only set the book down when he had to send Yugi off to sleep and go to bed himself.
Morning came and it was one of those rare occasions where Yami woke up before his alarm. He felt refreshed, energized, and ready to tackle his usual Friday routine. Opening the fridge, he pulled out eggs to make breakfast and took out some of the left-overs and fruit to put in Yugi’s lunch box. As soon as he was done cooking, he left their plates on the table and went to wake Yugi up.
The light was still off and Yami didn’t bother knocking. Pushing the door open and flicking on the light, he walked into the room. The lump in the middle of the bed let out a small whimper and curled closer in on itself.
“Yugi, it’s time to get up. You have school today.” He walked over to bed and shook his kid’s shoulder, “Come on, breakfast is ready.”
The whimpering turned to something awfully close to sobbing and Yami pulled back the covers, officially worried. Yugi half opened his eyes and flipped on his back, his whole face was a bright red and contorted in pain.
“Daddy, I feel yucky.”
“You certainly don’t look very good.” Yami brushed Yugi’s hair back and felt his chubby cheeks with the back of his hand. “Let me go get the thermometer.” Returning with a collection of things, he helped Yugi get the thermometer in place and put down the plastic cup of orange juice and children’s Tylenol on Yugi’s nightstand. Yugi dozed off after Yami practically propped him up, but he snapped awake at the beeping. Yami took it and grimaced. It read 101.3 degrees.
He measured out the cherry-flavored medicine. Time for the first battle of the day. “Sorry, honey, you’ve got a fever. This will make you feel better,” he crooned, hoping a sweet tone would help persuade him to drink the bitter medicine.
Yugi leaned away, “tastes gross!”
“I know you don’t like it, but you need it. It’ll help make you hurt less.”
Continuing his protest, Yugi shook his head and covered his mouth. Yami put the pink liquid down in case the kid got a spark of wicked energy and decided to knock it out of Yami's hand, again.
“The more you think about it, the worse it’s going to be. I got you some juice to get rid of the taste, so let's get it done quickly, alright?” Yami frowned and waited. He wished Yugi would realize he was working himself up with needless anxiety by prolonging the inevitable. Eventually, he broke. Sweating and shaking from both the fever and nervousness, Yugi held his hand out for the medicine. Yami passed it over and held the cup in place the moment Yugi made a face and tried to pull away. “No, all of it."
When he was done, Yami gave him his prize, “good job. Finish this for me and you can go back to sleep.”
Yugi sluggishly finished the juice with Yami’s help and laid back down, grabbing for his kuriboh doll. Instead of pulling the quilt back on him, Yami stripped it off the bed and replaced it with one of the spare sheets in their linen closet. He didn't want Yugi to get overheated and an avoidable visit to the emergency room was not on Yami's agenda. Yugi whimpered something incoherent but quickly settled back to sleep.
Yami set a timer for four hours on his phone and went to pick at his cold scrambled eggs. There were so many warning signs he chose to dismiss. He should’ve insisted that Yugi bundle up in warmer clothes and given him an umbrella before he walked to school yesterday. He should have given him the medicine as soon as Yugi stopped talking last night. Sighing, he pushed away his plate and took a deep breath.
Criticizing himself wasn't going to help anything. Yugi wasn’t going to get better no matter how much Yami wallowed. He also had things to do, like calling the school, opening the shop, and figuring out how to balance his chores on top of keeping a vigilant eye on his kid.
The shop. He couldn’t leave Yugi alone, even if he was only on a different floor. There was no way he'd be able to hear Yugi from his room, let alone quickly deal with whatever he needed and leave the store unattended. That was the first thing he’d take care of then.
Picking up his phone, he dialed Joey. It rang for a while and Yami flipped his fork with nervous energy.
“Hey man, what’s up?” Joey picked up on the third ring.
“Hey. I didn’t wake you up, did I?” Yami asked.
“Nah, just getting out of the shower. Did you need something? You’re usually busy this early.” Joey said and Yami could hear him crack open an energy drink.
Joey's response helped put Yami somewhat at ease but he still rushed out, “Yugi’s sick, but I can’t afford to keep the store closed. I need someone to cover for me. If I paid you double your rate, would you mind?”
“Whoa, slow down.” Joey said after taking a sip, “Yugi’s sick?”
“He’s got a fever and I can’t leave him upstairs by himself.”
“Poor guy, I have to meet with some coordinator for an upcoming tournament, but that’s at ten thirty. Can I cover from noon till six? And you don’t have to double the rate. We’re buds and you’ve saved my ass plenty of times. I’m happy to repay the favor.”
“You say that, but you’ve covered for me as much as I've helped you. I say we’re pretty even. Thank you, Joey. Whenever you can come in, I appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it. I’ll be there a little before noon to say hi.”
“Thank you.”
“You said that already. What are you, a broken record? I’ll see you then.” Joey joked and hung up.
One obligation taken care of, Yami was feeling less overwhelmed and called the school to let them know Yugi was staying home. He cleaned up breakfast and went downstairs to change Kame Game’s opening hours to 12:00 instead of 9 on the sign. With his major concerns out of the way, Yami patted his front pockets while walking around the apartment. He was left with a bunch of nervous energy and he needed to do something to avoid tearing his hair out.
He’d been meaning to deep clean their place for a while now so he jumped on that. Spring cleaning had arrived at the Mutou household. He found a good playlist and, after some consideration, took one of his earbuds out of its charging case before hitting start. The speakers would have woken Yugi up and this way Yami didn’t have to censor the harder music for his sake. Waiting for the headphones to sync, he pushed up his sleeves and headed back in the kitchen. It was as good of a place to start as any. Once the electric guitar started its riff and the drums pounded out a rhythm, he pulled out their dishes from the cabinet so he could dust off the shelves.
A few hours later, his alarm went off but Yugi was still fast asleep so he turned it off and went back to work. Yami was too focused on scrubbing baked-on charcoal off of the oven's racks and didn’t hear the apartment door open. When Joey put his hand on Yami's shoulder, he stiffened. Water splashed outside the sink and the metal rack sank to the bottom, softly clinking against its partner.
“Someone’s jumpy today.” Joey took a step back and leaned against the counter, sporting his usual carefree grin.
Drying off his hands and the counter around the sink, Yami replied, “I didn’t hear you come in. How did your meeting go?”
“They kept going on and on, I don’t remember most of it. All I know is that it seemed legit so I signed what they needed me to sign. Now your boy’s going to be playing in front of a sold-out crowd in Singapore. I only wish you were in the tournament too. I could use moral support and, if you were playing, I know Kaiba would be there. Then I could stomp rich-boy into the dust. He wouldn’t stand a chance against my new and improved deck!”
“Kaiba’s updated his deck since the last time you two dueled as well.” Yami chuckled. “I know that you have it in you to beat him, it just won’t be as easy as you think it will be.”
“Bah, I could take him. Easy as one, two, three.”
“If you say so. At least your heart’s in the right place. As much fun as it would be to go to Singapore, my place is here now. We’ll be watching the show with everyone and sending you all the support we can from over here.”
“I know I’ll be able to hear you guys and I’ll have Serenity and Mai rooting for me in the crowd!”
“If Mai isn’t your opponent." Yami taunted, "Who will Serenity cheer for if she is?”
Joey put him in a head-lock, “Serenity would always choose me. In case you forgot, I happen to be the best big brother in the world.” He loosened his grip and let Yami duck out of the hold, “Speaking of family, how’s the little guy holding up?”
“He went right back to sleep after taking some painkillers. He missed his next dose, so he’ll be sore when he wakes up, but I didn’t want to wake him up to give him more.”
His friend slapped him on the back, cheerfully saying, “Seems like you have an easy day ahead of you if he stays asleep.”
Yami shot him a side-eyed glare. “Don’t jinx it.”
“Don’t tell me you’re serious. He’s been sick before and you’ve made it through.”
“Yes, and he’s been difficult every time. It’s like he is trying to get worse, but still wants me to fix it.” Yami griped.
“That sounds like a little kid to me, they’ve got no sense of self-preservation. You’ve got this. He’s still alive after all these years, isn’t he?”
The older Mutou huffed, “Come talk to me after you’ve fought with an irrational child all day, and tell me you aren’t exhausted.”
Before Joey could say anything, Yugi trudged over to the table and sat down. He briefly raised his hand to wave at his uncle, but it immediately followed his head on a crash course into the wood.
“Look at that, we were just talking about you. How’re you feeling?” Joey walked over to sit with him.
“Sick,” Yugi whined.
“I heard. That’s not fun, is it?” Joey indulged and ruffled his hair.
Yami placed another cup of Tylenol in front of Yugi and poured out more juice. With great effort, Yugi held his head in his hand and eyed his medicine as if he’d finished a trying day at the office and it was the first of many shots he’d be drowning his sorrows in. With about as much enthusiasm, he shot it back and quickly reached for his chaser. After the taste had been washed away, he stuck out his tongue and gagged.
Unimpressed, Yami rolled his eyes and set another timer on his phone, although he doubted Yugi would stay awake for long enough to take another dose on time. Joey leaned back in his chair, chuckling at Yugi’s one-man act, “You really are your dad’s kid, aren’t you?”
Yugi glanced at Yami and Joey, confused.
“It’s just a saying. You’re a pair of drama queens.” This didn’t seem to clear anything up, so he added, “Don’t worry about it, it was a joke.”
Yugi tried to hum, but his voice cracked and he drank more juice.
“Alright, it’s about time for me to start work. I’ll be downstairs if you two need me.” Joey waved as he walked out.
Yugi turned to Yami curiously, “How come you aren’t working?”
“Because someone needs to watch you,” Yami replied.
“I can be alone, you said so. You can go,” he dismissed.
“That’s only for a few hours after school and when you’re feeling well. You aren’t old enough to take care of yourself all day yet.” Yami said sternly while Yugi pinched his eyebrows together. Yami tried to smooth it over before Yugi made his life arduous by giving him the silent treatment. “You’ll be able to soon enough. Before you know it, you’ll move out and be on your own every day, sick or not. Now, you were out for a long time, did you get some good sleep?”
Yugi nodded.
“Good, it’s nearly lunchtime, did you want something to eat?”
Another nod. Seemed like he was too late, maybe an open-ended question would get Yugi talking again.
“Any suggestions?” He asked and rummaged through the pantry. “We have soup, I can make a sandwich, or reheat some of last night’s dinner.”
“...Applesauce, please.”
“Applesauce it is.” It was a small victory but a win’s a win, especially on days where he knew he wasn’t going to have many. Yami put the can back and made them lunch. When they were finished, he set Yugi up in the living room to watch TV with some water while he washed the baseboards.
Cartoon sound effects mixed with his playlist in an unpalatable way, so he quickly gave up on his music. Unintentionally, he listened along to the show and caught himself getting invested in it, sometimes slowing down to listen to the characters speak or humming along to the theme song. He heard the credit’s end and he peeked back into the room. Yugi was sleeping, sitting upright with his head thrown back and mouth agape. The remote was slipping out of his hand and, as Yami went to take the remote, Yugi stirred. He growled something unintelligible, and clutched it tighter, “No, I want to watch more.”
Yami softly chuckled at Yugi’s antics. It reminded him of Grandpa doing the same thing when Yami tried to sneakily change the channel from one of Solomon’s boring documentaries. “You can barely keep your eyes open. Come on, time for sleep.”
With Yugi tucked under his quilt after he complained about the cold, Yami lingered and felt Yugi's forehead with the back of his hand. He didn’t know what he expected, the fever wasn’t going to go down after a few hours. Hopefully it would break tomorrow with more rest. Yami paused at the tug on the hem of his shirt.
“Stay?” Yugi said with large, pleading eyes and a small, tired voice.
“For a bit.” Yami conceded before it turned into a pointless battle. He sat next to him on the bed and softly began talking about nothing in particular to help the boy drift off.
Afterward, Yami dusted most of the living room shelves but decided it was time for a break. Booting up one of their consoles and turning on the TV, he collapsed onto the couch and loaded up his save file on Elden Ring. He couldn’t play it with Yugi around, so he took the chance to progress a bit further and maybe find a few hidden spots along the cliffside. With every enemy he defeated, he let go of some of the anxiety he’d been holding onto. In exchange, feelings of self-resentment began to crop up again.
Rationally, he knew neither the anxiety nor the resentment served any purpose and only led him to be short-tempered and short-sighted, but he couldn’t stop either of them from bubbling up. Running a hand through his hair in frustration after the mini-boss he'd been stuck on killed him with magic again, he sighed and looked out the window.
It was still raining. Of course it was. The weather decided to taunt him and reflect the dismal vibe inside. His next attempt at the Erdtree Avatar was even worse. Tunnel-visioned wth frustration, he was killed by the most obviously telegraphed move the enemy had. As his player collapsed and the mocking "You Died" message appeared with its infuriating trill, he set the controller down and flopped back on the couch with a huff.
He wasn’t getting anywhere like this so he headed back to the cave system he was saving for later in order to gather upgrade materials for his weapon. It worked. After getting a boost to his attack, he watched as the lumbering thing stepped back and fell while vanishing. He threw his fist in the air and silently cheered.
Just as Yami reached another safe area to take stock of his inventory and reassess, he heard a soft thump in the other room. He put the controller down and listened closer. Did Yugi knock something off his dresser or—? He didn’t have time to finish that thought, soft wails came through the walls and he was instantly on his feet. Halfway across the room, he heard, “Da… Daddy!” and he picked up the pace.
Pushing open the door, he went straight for his son, who was sobbing and sitting on the ground with Kuriboh and the blanket tangled around his legs. He picked Yugi up and held him, ready to chase away whatever fever-induced nightmare woke him up. “It’s okay, Daddy’s here. You’re okay.”
With Yugi curled against him, he picked up the discarded blanket to put it back on the bed and noticed the problem. Dropping it in a heap, he let out a barely audible, “Oh.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I tried to fix it myself, but I can’t. I tried and I fell.” Yugi croaked in a feverish ramble and held his plush tighter. Yugi wet the bed, something he hadn’t done in a while.
“It’s alright, sweetheart. It was just an accident.” Yami internally cringed feeling his shirt getting wet. Yugi’s hot forehead in the crook of his neck, he hushed the small child and noted that his temperature was worse than before.
Moving to the bathroom, it was time to kill two birds with one stone. He leaned against the counter and waited for the crying to dissolve into hiccups. Putting Yugi down, he said, “Bath time. Can you get out of those clothes by yourself or do you need help this time?”
There was a longer pause than Yami anticipated, and he saw Yugi’s face screwed up as if he’d licked a lemon but he eventually answered, “by myself.” Yami was happy to let him try to regain a sense of self-efficacy and turned his attention to fiddling with the bath temperature until it started filling with lukewarm water.
Whatever Yugi was doing, it wasn’t going well. His growls escalated into soft screams until he’d accomplished what he wanted. The tub was mostly filled at this point and Yugi stuck his hand in the tub. “Cold!”
Testing it and confirming it wasn’t, Yami corrected him. “It’s not cold, you’re warm.”
Yugi furrowed his eyebrows but still started to get undressed while whining softly to himself. Yami was only barely paying attention to Yugi’s earlier struggle, too busy worrying about when he should call the pediatrician, and unintentionally made things worse.
“No, Kuriboh!” Yugi tried to rescue his toy out of Yami’s clutches.
“Kuriboh is wet, too. See?” Yami flipped Kuriboh to show Yugi the wet patch on his fur, “he needs to get cleaned up too.”
“He can take a bath with me.”
“He gets a different bath, you know that. He goes in the washing machine.”
“No, with me!” Yugi hit his breaking point, he crumpled to the floor and banged his fist against the tub’s edge.
Yami gave him a sympathetic tut and wrapped a towel around his heaving shoulders. “Yugi,” he began.
“No!”
“Yugi, listen to me. I’m going to go take care of your bed and give you a chance to sort yourself out. When I get back, we can try again.”
It was a stalemate, and neither party was happy about it. Not wanting to dwell on it, Yami took his time throwing everything into the washing machine and cleaning up. With nothing else to do, he slowly made his way back to the bathroom, scrounging up the patience necessary to deal with Yugi’s tantrum.
He’s not being disagreeable for the sake of it. Yami reminded himself that Yugi wasn’t thinking clearly and the fever and aches were making him act out. It would be nice if Yugi understood Yami was trying to help and not fight back, though. He couldn’t wait until this fever passed and he had his sweet-tempered child back.
He knocked and found Yugi had gotten into the water but was still sniffling and refused to meet Yami's eye. Yami put in a few of his bath toys as a bargain for the boy to stay in long enough for Yami to make another quick trip back to the laundry room and throw in the last bit of wet clothes. With that running, he went back to the bathroom and did his best to help lower Yugi's fever by intermittently pouring water over Yugi’s head while the kid half-heartedly played. As the shark started to attack his other hand, he raised an eyebrow.
“Angry Shark eats Mean Daddy,” Yugi grumped and pushed the shark away. “But that’s not nice. Time out.”
Yami hummed and reminded him to wash his hair. Even if he were to help Yugi sort out his emotions, the boy’s brain was too fried. He handed Yugi a towel when he was ready to get out and went hunting for some clean pajamas.
“Which one do you want, stars or bears?”
Yugi, looking miserable wrapped in a towel, shivered and shook his head. “No.”
“I think we found your new favorite word.” Yami said jokingly, “Which one do you want, then? The rest are dirty.”
“Your shirt.”
“Okay, put these on and I’ll be back.” He gave him some bottoms and left to rummage through his dresser. Putting on another long-sleeved shirt, he returned with an old T-shirt and handed it over. Normally, it was like a cute oversized dress on him, but, now, with his shoulders hunched and such a dismal demeanor, Yugi more closely resembled a miserable hospital patient.
“Do you still feel achy? Do you want to go lie back down or do you want to do something?” Yami murmured in sympathy. Yugi didn’t answer, but his lower lip wobbled.
“I want to watch you play,” He tilted his head towards the discarded controller.
“Alright,” He was sure the enemies in this area were less human-like, so he turned off the blood effects and continued. Yami found another catacomb entrance and peered down at his quiet kid. Yugi wasn’t paying attention to the screen at all, he was curled into the corner of the couch and was trying to sink his fingers into the armrest. Most troubling, however, was all of his false starts at talking. The most Yugi got out was a squeak before bowing his head and digging his fingers further into the furniture.
“Something on your mind, sweetheart?”
Yugi shook his head and sniffed.
“You know you can tell me anything, right?”
Yugi wouldn’t look at him, but he took the tissue that Yami offered.
There were a few more failed attempts and Yami half-heartedly went back to his game to give Yugi a chance to start the conversation. It never happened. While Yami felt dismayed at the silence, he wasn’t going to push. He respected his son’s choice and knew that he’d talk as soon as he was ready. Instead, he patted Yugi on the shoulder, put the box of tissues in front of him, and then went back to exploring the game’s catacombs. The layout was more confusing than the last few and Yami was ambushed by stone imps more times than he’d like to admit. By some miracle, he was able to locate and defeat the boss after three tries. Once he was teleported to the nearest site of grace, Yami got up to stretch and put the laundry in the dryer.
“How are things down there? I was going to reheat leftovers for dinner if you wanted to come up and have a duel when you’re done.” Yami texted his friend.
A few minutes later, his phone buzzed. “Nah, I’m going to head out soon, Mai’s waiting for me back home. Hope both of you are still alive up there, I heard someone shouting.”
“We’re surviving.”
Joey gave the text a thumbs up and Yami set down his phone. It’s been a long day and, luckily because tomorrow was Saturday, he didn’t have to worry about work or calling the school. Knowing that any plans he’d made for the weekend had been tossed out the window, he mentally prepared for at least two more tedious days cooped up inside his apartment.
When Yugi was, hopefully, down for the rest of the night, he went to the kitchen to do some research alone. He’d been toying with the idea of getting a pet for a few months. He’d never had one growing up, but Tristan swore that it was an important milestone for childhood. It was supposed to teach them about responsibility and companionship. Tonight might not be his best showing but Yugi was usually patient and gentle with others, and he was reliable in doing his chores. He could be ready for an animal.
Honestly, Yami also needed something new to break up the monotony in his life and thought that taking in a pet might help. He knew that he’d mostly be the one taking care of whatever they got, but he could get Yugi to help with small things at first then he could pass off more of the work as Yugi got older. Tristan had advocated for a dog, offering one of Blankey Jr’s puppies from her next litter, but they didn’t have enough space or time to take care of a large dog that needed long daily walks and nightly training sessions. He googled turtles, reptiles, and fish but they didn’t seem to quite fit. For the rest of the night, he read up on what could fit into their small family.