It was Ryou's eighth birthday, September 2nd. He knew this for certain because his dad had promised to be there, and he'd been counting down for three months. However, it was already noon and Ryou hadn't so much as gotten a call from his dad. 'Maybe he's just running late.' Ryou told himself for the thirtieth time, still watching the door from the couch. He hadn't moved since eight this morning, when he'd gotten up, and he didn't dare turn on the television or get one of his coloring books because he wanted to be able to hear his dad approaching and hug him the second he entered the house. Then, as if in response to his thoughts, he heard a knock. Ryou sprang up, tripping over his feet in his eagerness to reach the door. His smile died as he yanked the door open though, the only person standing there was a mailman holding a nondescript brown package.
"Hello young man. Is your father home?" The man asked in a high pitched voice, the voice of an adult humoring a child much younger than Ryou. Ryou frowned, he was disappointed this wasn't daddy, and he didn't like being talked down to any way. He pulled himself up as tall as he could stand, which was not very tall but Ryou knew it was the thought that counted.
"No, sir, it's just me and my babysitter and she's sleeping right now. She'll be so sad if I wake her up. May I please accept the package instead?" Ryou asked politely. He didn't even really register his lies as lies by this point; he'd been giving the same story since his mommy died when he was five, and it was almost like he had a constantly sleeping babysitter for real by this point.
"Well…" The man hesitated, obviously eager to get on with his job, but not actually willing to let an eight year sign for a package. That was okay, Ryou was used to that too.
"It's okay, my babysitter will be up in an hour or so. Would you like some tea while you wait? Or… I could sign, my daddy always lets me do it when he's home." Ryou said shyly, smiling up at the man through his eyelashes. He had been informed by the class mom in his first grade class that when he did that he was 'irresistible' and 'simply too cute for words'. Ryou wasn't entirely sure what irresistible meant, but she'd always given him extra candy, so he figured it was probably good. The post man's stomach grumbled and he sighed.
"All right kid, when your dad gets home, tell him to call though, okay?" He said and Ryou nodded happily. He signed off on the package and politely waved the post man off until Ryou couldn't see him anymore. Then he pounced on the box. Maybe it was an early present from his daddy, and his daddy would be right behind it!
Ryou ripped off the paper and tore the flaps open with the strength of a child who hadn't heard from his father in six weeks. Under all the tissue paper laid a small, gaudy, gold box covered in hieroglyphs. Ryou picked it up and turned it around a couple of times, perplexed. Finally he opened the little box slowly, and filled with an inexplicable fear. Just inside the box there was a letter, staring accusingly up at him. Ryou unfolded it and read the contents carefully, once, twice, three times, tears welling up in his eyes.
Dear Ryou, his father's handwriting began, I regret to inform you that I will not be able to make it to your birthday this year. I may not be able to make it home until Thanksgiving. I hope this does not put too much of a damper on you festivities. I have found a trinket I thought you might like on my excavation though. Also included is your monthly allowance. Best Wishes, Your Father.
That was all the letter said. Five sentences in exchange for a day of Father. Ryou almost allowed doubt of his father's love to fester in his heart before he remembered. Father had sent a gift! He eagerly returned to the golden box, lifting the lid again. Inside, jumbled up with no sense of order or reason, dozens of golden objects winked at him. Ryou, still slightly confused but now also curious, turned the box around until he found the inscription. Father had taught him hieroglyphics before…Well, it was a while ago, and he had kept up to date with books and the internet, when his teachers let him use it.
"A puzzle!" He exclaimed when he finally managed to decipher the hieroglyphs. This was exciting; this was just what he needed to fill the space between gentle words and pitying looks at his school. He jumped up to write a letter to his sister, Amane, and then begin the puzzle, but his eyes fell on the box again, and he hesitated. Without expectation of anything else good, Ryou gently lifted the rest of the tissue paper out of the box, smoothing it out and checking between each piece. Another letter rested at the very bottom of the box, along with an envelope containing the promised allowance.
Ryou read this letter through slowly as well, and then broke out into hysterical giggles. This letter was three pages long, front and back, detailing the 'abridged' history of his gift. It was apparently called the Millennium Puzzle, or sometimes the Sennen "Thousand Year" Puzzle. That was his father for you, Ryou thought, somewhat guiltily, and a little bit hurt. Five sentences and a hasty allowance for his son, but six pages of love and passion for an ancient Egyptian artifact.
-switch-
On June 4th, eight year old Yugi Mutou stretched out in his bed like a cat. He then giggled as the first thought of the day carved its way through his slow, sleepy head. It was his birthday! Yugi tried to spring out of bed, but was thwarted by his tricky, tangly sheets and instead hit the floor in a cocoon of pillows and blankets. He sniffed a little bit, to hold back tears, that had been really scary, but soon enough he was giggling again, as he imagined himself as a butterfly and broke out of his 'cocoon'.
"Grandpa, Grandpa!" Yugi yelled, running down the stairs to reach the kitchen as fast as possible. He stopped as soon as he reached the kitchen, confusion etching its way over his face. There, at the normally empty table sat two figures, a man and a woman, talking calmly. His grandfather was at his normal place in the kitchen, flipping pancakes on the stove. He turned to smile at Yugi, as he did every morning, but it was grumpier than his smiles normally were, and Yugi wondered if the bed bugs had bit him last night. That thought slipped away as the meaning of the people at his breakfast table clicked in Yugi's brain.
"Mommy, Daddy!" Yugi cried, propelling himself like an aircraft missile into his mother's arms before squirming over to be held by his father. His face shone like a star and a smile threatened to break his face in two, he laughed freely as his daddy tickled his side and his mommy blew raspberries on his tummy. Then he pushed them both away with a very serious face. "It's my birthday today." He informed his parents. "Today, I am eight." And then Yugi smiled brightly again, giggling a little.
"That it is Yugi, and my how big you've gotten." His father laughed heartily, and his mother joined in, a tinkling bell-like laugh. Yugi didn't entirely understand what was so funny, but he loved his parents, and so he threw his head back and laughed even harder along with them. He noticed that his grandpa did not laugh though, not even a little. Grandpa was making a funny face with tight lips and angry eyebrows as he flipped pancakes. Yugi didn't like that face, and was worried it would make the pancakes taste funny. But once again, he was distracted by the fact that his parents were here, in his kitchen, not on the phone or on a piece of paper, but actually with him. Maybe his mommy would tuck him in tonight, even though he was too big for grandpa to do it anymore, and maybe daddy would read him a bedtime story with heroes and dragons and beautiful princesses, like his friend Anzu, in it.
"I'm so happy you came back!" Yugi announced when the laughter died down. He hugged his dad's chest, since that's who he was closest too and smiled. His face hurt with how much he was smiling, but he couldn't stop. "This is the best birthday present ever. Only, it's a school day, so we can't hang out all day." Yugi's smile died a little bit at this realization. Grandpa probably wouldn't let him skip school, even though he didn't understand a lot of school anyway. But maybe as a birthday present! Yugi perked back up.
"Oh, but Yugi," his mom exclaimed "this isn't your birthday present." Yugi's eyes grew wide as that sank in. What could possibly be a better present than this? Maybe they were coming back forever, or he was getting a baby sister, or maybe a puppy!
"It's not?" He asked, looking from his father's face to his mother's and back again. They both laughed, but Yugi was too excited to join this time.
"Oh no. This" his father proclaimed royally, taking a rectangular package in brightly colored wrapping paper out from underneath the table "is your birthday present." He held the package over his head teasingly as Yugi reached for it. "A merchant in Egypt sold it to me for cheap on one of my excavations. It's got a very rich history." His father explained as he finally allowed Yugi his prize. Yugi tore it open eagerly and gasped at the contents inside of the box.
"Oh wow!" Yugi gasped. A gold necklace twinkled up at him. It was in the shape of a circle with five gold spikes pointing down hanging from the bottom. "This is so pretty." Yugi whispered, running his hand gently over one of the spikes. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" He yelled, hugging his dad and mom fiercely.
"It was nothing Yugi." His mother said, smiling gently at him and reaching over where he had settled back down on his dad's lap to rub his hair.
"Would you like to hear its story?" His father asked, imitating his mother and rubbing his shoulders. Yugi nodded eagerly. "Well alright then." Yugi's father began the tale and traded off with his mother as Yugi listened in awe. This necklace had been everywhere it seemed, and it was said it used to belong to the king of thieves in long ago Egypt.
"So maybe there's a friend in this necklace?" Yugi gasped when the story finished.
"A thief king friend, the best kind." His mother smiled, tweaking Yugi's nose.
"Wow." Yugi breathed, staring at the necklace in awe.
"I'm glad you like it Yugi." His father laughed heartily again, before glancing at the clock on the wall. "Oh no, I'm going to be late." He groaned, and gently slid Yugi onto his mother's lap. "I'm so sorry Yugi. Have a great birthday, I love you." He kissed Yugi's head gently before gathering his belongings and rushing off.
Yugi's mother sighed then, as well. "I'd better get going too, or I'll miss my flight." She said, not looking at Yugi. "I'm so glad you like your gift. Think of us when you look at it, all right? I love you darling." His mother managed a weak smile before she too gathered up her belongings and raced off.
"O-oh." Yugi whispered to himself. He looked at the clock too, he had trouble reading it sometimes, but this time it seemed clear as day. Barely half an hour had passed, not even long enough for his grandpa to finish up breakfast, which he insisted was the most important meal of the day and as such should always be large. The kitchen seemed very empty now, except for the sound of his grandpa slicing fruit in the other room. Yugi huddled in on himself, balancing his present, the Millennium Ring his daddy had said, on his knees.
"I'm very sorry Yugi." His grandfather said, bringing in two plates to the table. Yugi thought to himself that grandpa had known his parents weren't staying, that's why he had seemed so grumpy. Yugi wanted to cry. "Eat up so you aren't late for school. I'll try to find a string to hang your necklace on, if you'd like." Grandpa said softly, setting one plate down in front of Yugi. It was his favorite, pancakes with strawberries and blueberries, but Yugi didn't really feel like eating.
"Thanks Grandpa, I'd really like that. Thank you for the food, too." Yugi said, finding a smile within himself, though it quickly died away. Grandpa smiled sadly back before shuffling off to find a string from which to hang the necklace. Yugi sighed softly and nibbled at his pancakes.
"Well, at least I still have you." He offered to the Millennium Ring. The necklace, unsurprisingly, remained silent and twinkling in the sun that crept through the windows. "Yeah." Yugi sighed. "I'm not really most people's first choice either."
I started writing this last year because I saw the crack fic, the one where fate had it that Yami Yugi and Bakura switched hosts, and I thought, what if it was serious, hence, Mixed Fate. Maybe a butterfly flapped its wings a little different, maybe it's that Yugi's mom became an archaeologist, but something caused Yugi and Ryou to recieve the wrong spirit container. Anyways, I thought it was interesting.