A/N: a special thanksgiving-ish one-shot, its kind of just drabble but I hope you like it anyway.
A family gathering
It was autumn in domino city, the falling leaves were painted warm colors in contrast to the icy cold weather and families everywhere cuddled up to one another and celebrated the season, and On a cozy corner , near the city , a family of sorts, did just that.
At the tiny, rundown, kame game shop, grampa Solomon, yugi mouto and his mother were all preparing for a little fall festival gathering. was in the kitchen preparing a special tuna dish, her specialty. Yugi was in the main room sweeping and grampa was finishing up some work in the shop, all the while, Atem, Yugi's new "brother" , sat in a corner next to a window, not really knowing what to do with himself. Some part of it was because he was solitary to begin with, but it was also because he didn't feel like he was a part of the family.. Or even fit in… he felt like a puzzle piece that didn't fit where you thought it was supposed to but no one really knew what puzzle it originally belonged to, so he sat there, shuffling his deck and trying to stay out of the way.
At the moment, yugi and gramps had just about finished their work and were about to head to the grocers to by some more food.
"hurry up ya little dickens, if we don't hurry all the good products will be gone!" said grampa as he opened up the front door .
Yugi, close behind him buttoned up his jacket. "coming grampa!… oh! And yami?" he said looking to his darker half.
"yes?" he answered flatly
"don't be a stranger! Go see if mom needs any help in the kitchen." he suggested
"uh…" yami looked at him as if he nervous about doing such a thing "sure…"
Yugi smiled "great! Okay. See ya, we'll be back in a jiff!" he then left hastily and closed the door behind him.
Hearing the door close, walked out of the kitchen with a bowl of batter in her hands, still stirring it.
"eh? Did they leave already…?" she asked mostly to herself but turned to look at yami.
"uh… they just left…" he said quietly.
The red haired woman frowned "what a shame… I was just about to tell them I needed more eggs…. but oh well, we have enough for now." she smiled at him, yami shied a little at her enthusiasm.
Noticing this, ms. Mouto tilted her head and smiled again.
"hey! Why don't you help me with the cooking huh? I could use a nice strong young man like you to stir this batter." she insisted
Yami hesitated, but yugi did say that he should offer to help her so…
"okay."
"great! Come on, let me get you an apron!" she said giddily
Yami followed her into the kitchen and scoffed…
"an…apron?" he questioned
"yeah! You wouldn't want to get any soy sauce or flower on that nice sweater of yours." (yugi insisted he wear it since it was so cold out)
Yami just shrugged "I guess…"
She then pulled a nice pink apron from a pantry and gave it to him, he put it on reluctantly and thought he looked ridiculous as he tied it around himself but he left it on nonetheless.
"hey! See? You look great!" she complimented "now…hmm… how about you finish stirring this for me and then you can move on to the mincing".
She handed him a bowl and a spoon and he took them , awkwardly , and began to mix. watched as he did so for a few moments, noticing how similar he was to yugi.
" you know… you are rather quiet…." she pointed out.
Atemu , was taken a little by surprise…
"I uh… don't really have much to say…. I suppose …." he replied
"is that true?" she asked
"…why wouldn't it be?" he answered, a little irritated
"well… I don't know much about you… but I know you have plenty of stories and wisdom to share… I can see it in your eyes."
Atem looked up at her for a moment, then let himself give a little bit of a smile, which in turn, made happy.
"there it is, that cute little smile of yours. You should show it more often"
Yami just looked away and continued to stir, he was doing it all wrong though, spilling it and leaving bits of flour stuck to the sides of the bowl, this then lead to him getting a light smack on the head with a ladle .
"WRONG!"
"OW! What was that for!?" he exclaimed
"you're mixing it wrong sweetie…. Look…" she took the bowl and mixed it showing him how to do it the correct way.
"you need to get ALL of the flour and hold it steady so you don't spill any of it… see?"
"okay.. .. That still wasn't a reason to hit me on the head… im not used to cooking …." he said taking the bowl again doing it the right way.
"well why not?…" she asked
"uh… did yugi tell you why im…well… here?" he asked carefully
"well… grampa and him had said that you're a distant relative on yugis fathers side… " she said
Atem nodded , apparently they hadn't said anything about ancient pharaohs or saving the world multiple times.
"okay…uh I suppose you could say I come from a …. upper class family… we always had people do it for us." he fibbed
"that doesn't sound like any way to prepare a young man for life on his own… " she inferred, taking the bowl from him when the stirring was done ,
"well…. I managed …. My parents have been dead for most of my life, I never really had a mother , father killed himself and I was taken care of by the people that worked for them… ive had to do plenty of things on my own…except cook. "
She gave Atemu a sad look "that sounds awfully lonely …"
"….used to it…" he said looking down
"…hey…" she said to him
He looked up at her,
"you don't have to feel that way anymore…. You're a part of this family now, yugi has taken a shine to you so much that if you weren't here,… we just wouldn't be complete, you'll always be loved here, no matter what,"
Atemu looked at her with wide lavender eyes
"t-thank you "
"please…. Call me 'Mom'"she insisted
"uh…I mean, thanks…. mom" atem got a weirdly comforted feeling inside when he said that….. Like he finally had someone who might give him all the unwavering motherly love he missed out on as a child.
After exchanging a warm smile, they went back to cooking, and mrs. Mouto taught Atemu how to mince
OoooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo
Later that day, yugi and grampa had come back and were helping Atemu set the table, and that was when the doorbell rang.
Yugi gasped "its him! He's here!" he exclaimed
"who's here?" Atemu questioned
Before he got an answer grampa swung the door open to reveal a tall man with a beard and sharp, lavender eyes, yugi ran to him and the man laughed and ruffled the boys hair.
"ha ha! Yugi my son! How ive missed you, you've grown much since last I saw you "
"ha ha!" yugi just laughed and hugged him
Just then came in and wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss.
"hello dear…" she said
"my darling.." he said back
"ho ho ho! My boy! You'll start looking like me if you keep growing out that beard of yours," laughed gramps
"im not there yet old man." he joked as he walked in further, and that's when he spotted one last person in the room he hadn't seen before .
"and whos this?"
Atemu , stood there, nearly petrified as he looked at the man in the room … he looked just like…. Just like…..
"f-father….? " he whispered
"excuse me?' he asked
Atem couldn't answer back as flashbacks of his fathers death flashed before him,
"….I…. I haVE TO GO!" he then ran spontaneously upstairs, into yugis room and slammed the door as child like tears began to stream down his face.
Yugi, the man, and the rest just watched as he ran off up the stairs like a frightened deer.
The tall man turned to yugi.
"who was that?" he asked
"uh… it … I'll tell you later I have to go get him!"
He then ran off after his yami.
When he got upstairs, he opened the door to his room and found yami sitting on his bed with the sheets over him.
"y-yami?" he said softly
"go away….." said yami
But yugi stayed "no, yami, what happened? Whats wrong?….. Im sorry if he startled you, I can understand it, he is rather big for a member of the mouto family…. "
Yami cringed "I-it wasn't that….. Yugi…. Was that man your… your…"
"my dad?" he finished "yeah." Then something in yugis mind clicked
"wait a minute, does he …remind you of …"
"yes." he siad
now yugi understood why he was acting so strangely , atem told him how he had to watch his father basically commit suicide…. His father was his role model , who he wanted to grow up to be like and having him taken away like that, especially when he went through so much and needed him around, probably scarred him deep.
"he looks just like him yugi! He sounds just like him! But he doesn't know me….. He not actually my father…. But…. I … he just…. " he didn't really know what to say
"hey…its okay yami…." said yugi
Just then, the door to the room opened a little wider and a head popped out from behind it.
"yugi… are you okay.?" he asked peeking in, then he saw the two boys sitting on the bed.
"oh…. Hey dad…" said yugi
The man looked over the taller boy with the sharp eyes that were wide and stunned at the moment.
"hey you, I don't think I got a proper introduction, …whats your name?"
Yami looked to yugi who urged him to open up a little and talk.
"a-Atemu…. My names Atemu."
The man rose an eyebrow
"oh?… really? that's an Egyptian name."
Atem nodded "yeah… uh I am Egyptian… but sometimes people call me yami."
"yami? Interesting …. Seems like one of your names means sunlight, and the other means darkness… those two things contradict themselves don't they?" he inferred
Yami shrugged "I suppose…"
The man smiled "well, tell me yami..er…Atemu…, what brings you to the game shop?" he asked
Atemu was silent not knowing what to tell him.
",,uh…yami is staying with us now…. He doesn't have a family….." yugi finished for him.
"you don't?" he asked surprised "what happened to them?"
"dead." he said flatly
"oh… well, you know, we may not have much space, but there's always room here for one more…. You can stay here for as long as you need, who knows, in another few weeks you might even be call'n me 'dad'"
With that last comment atem couldn't hold back anymore and hugged the man tight, without warning, as much as it surprised the man, it surprised yugi even more, he had never seen yami literally pounce at someone like that, except for that one time in California when yugi was ghost and yami just fell through him.
"well you sure are the affectionate one." he said, patting him on the back.
Though the man was taken aback by this, he didn't mind much, something about this young man really called out to him, besides, he reminded him a lot of his own son. He looked over to yugi and smiled and yugi did the same, just happy that yami finally had a real family of his own, and a place to call home.
A/N: this was really just to see what it would be like for yami to face having parents after never really having any, and also to bring yugi's mom ,who is an actual character in the yugioh series, into the light. P/S: there was a part of the original yugioh manga where yugi's dad being alive was mentioned so that's why I decided to bring him into the last part of the fic , anyway, thanks for reading! Leave a fave and a review please!
