A/N: *examines the story sideways* Hm, short but I think I like how it came out... Jiishipping for Compy's contest! Yes. Jiishipping. Arthur x Sugoroku. The two grandpas. Y'know, just to provide some warning for the unweary XD
"It was summer of fifty three..."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, it can't have been fifty three. You might be that ancient but I'm not. It must have been sixty three."
"What do you mean it must have been sixty three? You don't even know what story I'm trying to tell."
"Am I in it?"
"What?"
"So you're deaf now as well as daft? AM I IN IT?"
"Of course you're in it, y'old coot. Don't know why I'd tell a story without you in it when both grandkids are sitting here."
"Well then it can't have been fifty three, all the good stuff didn't happen until sixty three, after the South American dig when that large rodent creature chased one of the young'ens clear up that tree and we lost an entire day getting him down."
Apparently Sugoroku recalled the incident well and chuckled to himself as he re-lit the pipe that Arthur had so generously provided him with, reconsidering the disputed date.
"Fine then. It's not that important anyways. It was the summer of sixty three and Cambodia was unbearably hot-"
"No, no, no, we were never in Cambodia together."
"Of course we were, y'old codger..."
The old men leaned forward in their chairs to argue and their two younger companions exchanged a pained look.
Yugi leaned to the side every so slightly to speak low out of the corner of his mouth. More to be playful than anything as any sound below a yell would go unheard over the bickering.
"So how long do you think it will take for them to get through this story."
Rebecca tilted her head back to examine the ceiling, one finger tapping her chin as she thought. Somewhere between now and the last time he had seen her, she had grown up. She was far quieter in the way that comes with the shock of learning that you do not, in fact, know everything and seemed to have lost the need to prove to the world that she was better than it. He thought the change in personality suited her much better and found himself greatly enjoying her company. Even if she did seem a bit nervous at times.
"No less than forty five minutes but that's without distraction. And I'll back it with a bet of two nights worth of dishes." She moved closer as well, hesitating before placing a hand on his leg in a very carefully planned out, casual flirt laced with just the tiniest bit of awkwardness that comes from learning such things from a book.
The bold move seemed to embarrass them both.
"Um, would you like more tea?" she asked quickly, getting up from the couch they shared and grabbing Yugi's still half full mug from the coffee table for something to do.
"Sure, I'll go with you," he replied just as quickly and the eagerness with which he followed her into the kitchen was noted by a twinkling pair of old eyes.
Arthur grinned and gave his pipe a good puff before returning to his pastime of goading Sugoroku.
"Well now you've done it, you old fart, you've lost our audience."
"I've lost our audience? You're the one who insists on arguing every point." The story teller took in the room for the first time since he started speaking that evening. "Where did they go?" Bewilderment and non-comprehension at how the two grandchildren could possibly not be hanging on his every word.
Arthur nodded his head toward the kitchen and soft giggles, both male and female could he heard in the quiet moment. Arthur smiled in amusement and Sugoroku laughed until he was forced to stop, holding his side and gasping for breath.
"Ah well, leave the young things to the young people. Here's to what really happened in Cambodia, anyway." He held his pipe up in salute and Arthur's joined it with a grin even as the he protested.
"If you can even remember how it really went. And it wasn't Cambodia!"