Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Care of a Mother
Characters: Edo, Tome
Word Count: 770||Status: One-shot
Genre: Family||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: 31halloween: prompt #26, spiderwebs
Summary: [one-shot, 31halloween, prompt #26, spiderwebs; Edo & Tome] Edo wants to check on the state of his yacht once he returns to Earth. What he finds isn't what he expected.
Celebration and confusion still reigned behind Edo as he made his way through the forest to the docks. He paid little attention to it. He'd seen what he didn't want to see already (damn it, Ryou, where the hell are you?) and now he wanted to just get on his boat and head away from here. Where, he didn't yet know. Back to the Pro Leagues eventually, he presumed, though for now he would settle for a certain house and a couple of friends he hadn't seen in far too long.
The yacht would be messy, he knew that. At a guess they'd been gone about two or three months and since he was the only one who took care of it, there would be dust everywhere, at the very least. He didn't even want to think about what some of the food supplies would look like. He'd have to clean up everything and get replacements.
At least that would give him a plausible excuse to get the hell away from here as soon as he could.
Dust, cobwebs, possibly even a spider or two living in the webs, and who knew what else. He trusted Samejima to at least keep the curious students away from the place, but that was about all he trusted. At least no one left here was as prone to breaking the rules as Juudai was. Fewer chances someone would decide to sneak on there regardless of what the principal said.
He stepped onto the yacht and looked around, checking for any signs of damage. He took a quick breath and frowned almost at once. He should've smelled something wrong, something that had gone bad. Yet there was nothing. Everything smelled right, which was wrong.
Edo made his way to the kitchen, noticing a distinct lack of anything that even resembled dust. For all that this place showed, he might well have been there last just a day or two earlier.
"Edo-chan?" He whirled at the quasi-familiar voice, tensing at the sound of someone on his boat that he didn't fully recognize. But only a fool would fear the sight of Tome. She smiled at him. "I hope you didn't mind, but I kept your boat clean for you. It didn't feel right to just leave it alone while you were off helping Juudai-chan."
Edo shifted, transferring his attention from her to the refrigerator and back again, not sure of what to say.
"I made sure to keep your food fresh, too. Just changed it early this morning, actually." She started to take a step toward him. Edo didn't know if he wanted to move or not. In all of his short life, he couldn't ever remember someone taking care of him like this, with the sole exception of his father. His mother had died when he was a year old, gunned down in a convenience store robbery gone horribly wrong. Was this what a mother did?
He steeled himself and nodded politely. "Thank you." That was what was right to say, wasn't it? He wished human interaction came with a manual, something he could use to look up 'what to do when someone does something you didn't ask and never expected'. He was pretty sure 'thank you' was acceptable, though.
"My pleasure. You know, you're invited to the party."
"Party?" This was why he preferred being friends with Saiou, who he didn't need to clarify himself for, or with Ryou, who simply didn't bother giving a damn about whether Edo was clear or not.
She nodded. "It's to celebrate everyone coming home safe and sound." She frowned for a moment. "Almost everyone, at least." She didn't have to list who didn't return, and while Edo could cheerfully go the rest of his life never seeing Amon Garam again, he suspected Juudai might be useful to have around and Ryou had been known to have his uses, as had Misawa. "At any rate, it's going to start in another hour or two, and I need to get cooking for it."
Tome waved and all but vanished through the door. Edo stared after her, still not entirely sure about what just happened. Party? He latched onto what he could think of at the moment. No, he wasn't going to go there. But he would settle down and call Saiou and think of a few sharp words to deliver to both Ryou and Juudai once they got back. He didn't doubt that they both would, sooner or later.
And he wouldn't tell anyone anything about this. Some things needed to remain private.
Of course, Saiou already knew.
The End
Note: I originally posted this back in October 2012, but now am reposting these ficlets separately instead of as a collection, in order to have each listed under their proper character and rating.