As these go on, you'll notice that a lot of them come from my other stories. This one is an example. It was originally supposed to be fore 'I Need Your Help, and You Need Mine', but I forgot to put it in, so here it is! Enjoy, y'all!
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It was a beautiful summer afternoon. Atem and Yugi were going to visit Atem's mother for her birthday. Atem was happy that he got to see his family again. His parents and two brothers would be there as well. He was supposed to bring the pasta that his mother had taught him to cook. Everything was almost ready; except for the hard part: getting the baby ready.
"Yugi, are you ready to take a bath?"
"No baf!" He heard called down the hallway. Atem rolled his eyes and chuckled. This always happened every time Yugi had to take a bath. The barely one-year-old would always run away and hide somewhere; usually under his bed. Fortunately for the child, Atem was in a playful mood, so he went along with Yugi's game.
"Yes, it's time for a bath!" He thought he'd give Yugi a five second head start before he started to hunt him down. He heard the small sound of giggling upstairs and heard Yugi's feet tapping the floor as he waddled into some part of the house. Atem chuckled again as he started up the stairs. "Where, oh where could Yugi be?" He stepped into the baby's room. He circled the bed a few times before he dropped to his knees and looked under it. "BOO!" But to his surprise, Yugi was not there like he normally was. "That's strange …" He checked Yugi's closet and bathroom, but both were empty. "Yugi?" He called.
He checked his office, the guest room, his own room, and his bathroom, but the baby was nowhere to be found. The father was starting to get very worried now. "Yugi, this isn't funny anymore; come out this instant!" He walked out of his room and gasped at what he saw. On the other side of the house, the doorway to the attic was open. "Oh no … he could get hurt up there!"
In the attic, all kinds of things were up there. Things one would normally find in an attic, anyway. There were old things from his family and other useless items he collected over the years. "Yugi, are you up here?" Just then, he heard a screaming cry coming from the corner. "Yugi!" Once there, he found the small child tangled in an old, springy mattress. The springs were cutting into his skin and he looked to be trapped between them. Atem chuckled a little. "That should teach you to come up here and wonder off!" Yugi gave his father a 'help me!' look. After seeing that the child had suffered long enough, he carefully helped the boy out of the mattress springs. "I hope you haven't caught Tetanus." He brought the child into his lap. Yugi gazed at Atem with sad and sorry eyes. He was covered in head to toe in dust. "Yugi, you know you're not allowed up here." Yugi hung his head. "Why did you come up here?"
"Hide …"
"You were hiding?" Yugi nodded. "That's no excuse; but I think the mattress gave you a worse punishment then I could, so I guess I'll go easy on you this time." Yugi sniffled and wiped his nose with his arm. When he did, he sneezed loudly and shook off a cloud of dust. Atem had to laugh at that sight. "Well, now there's no denying that you need a bath." Yugi didn't fight it this time. He let Atem carry him down to his bathroom to bathe.
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Once the small child was clean once again, Atem and Yugi set out to his parents' house. The drive wasn't long, but it was such a beautiful day that everyone seemed to want to be out in it. There were a lot of people on the streets, and Atem stopped at almost every stoplight. Yugi kept himself entertained by looking out the windows in the backseat and singing to himself. He swung his legs back and forth. It was an adorable sight.
"D'da …" Atem looked at his son through the rear-view mirror.
"What is it, Yugi?" The baby squirmed in the seat.
"Go pee …" Atem's eyes widened.
"You have to pee? Can you wait until we get to Nana and Papa's?" Yugi started to bounce in his car seat.
"Pee now!" Atem sighed. Finally, the traffic was moving.
"Hang on, Yugi!" The father sped to get to his parent's house as fast as he could. Yugi showed signs that he was ready to be potty-trained, but he always seemed to have accidents. Plus, this was a new car and he didn't want Yugi to have an accident in it."
"Pee!"
"We're almost there, Yugi!" Five blocks and three sharp turns later, they made it to his parents' house. He looked over at Yugi who seemed to stop squirming. "Yugi, ready to go?" The boy blinked.
"I pee." He simply said. The color seemed to leave Atem's face.
"You did …?" Yugi giggled.
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Inside the house, Eleanor was cooking something like … liver with some mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and green beans. If there was one thing she was known for, it was her cooking. All her boys seemed to love it and want more. Just then, there came a knock at the side door. Atem came in with an annoyed look on his face. Eleanor laughed.
"How could I have possibly annoyed you when you just walked in?" Atem glared at his mother.
"Ha, ha; very funny, Mother." He placed the diaper bag down by the door. Suddenly, instead of going around, Yugi walked right through Atem's legs and shouted:
"Nana!"
"Yugi!" The small child waddled over to his grandmother as she grabbed him in a tight hug. "I've missed you so much!"
"Mother, where are Marik and Bakura?"
"Oh, they'll be here in a few minutes; Bakura said something came up at the last minute and that they would be a little late." Atem was about to reply when a voice beat him to it.
"Those two always have something come up at the last second. They defiantly know the fashionably late rule, that's for sure." It was Atem's father, Solomon.
"Hello, Dad." Solomon was about to give Atem a hug when Yugi threw himself at his grandfather's stomach.
"Papa!"
"Well hello there, Yugi. It's good to see you too!" Atem chuckled.
"Yugi, what do you say to Nana?" The baby looked over at his grandmother.
"'Ppy bifdy, Nana." For anyone who couldn't translate that, that was 'happy birthday, Grandma.' Eleanor squealed and hugged Yugi again.
"Oh, thank you, Pumpkin! Oh my, what's that smell?"
"It's probably Yugi; he had an accident right when we pulled up into the driveway." Atem said while rolling his eyes. Yugi smiled and started to hop up and down.
"I pee!" Solomon and Eleanor both laughed at the adorable child.
"Very nice for you, Son; now let's go change your clothes and dry you off." Atem said, picking Yugi and his diaper bag up and heading to the bathroom. Yugi waved to his grandparents.
"B'bye!" Just then, the side door opened again.
"Sorry we're late, but Marrie here, had to get one last shot, and I do mean shot, at the neighborhood cats before we could go." Bakura said, setting a box of cookies on the table. Marik held his hands around his youngest brother's throat.
"Hey, hey, hey! Those cats 're formin' some kinda rebellion against us humans, I know it! And stop callin' me Marrie!"
"You are all kindsa crazy!" Bakura replied. The two started to fight, which eventually turned into a physical fight. But Eleanor and Solomon didn't move to stop them.
"Remember when they were living here and we had to referee these kinds of things, Dear?" Solomon asked. Eleanor nodded.
"Yes, thank God they're all grown up and moved out." Solomon shrugged.
"I wouldn't say grown up …" While Marik and Bakura continued to argue, Atem came back out with Yugi in his arms, dressed in fresh clothes. He put the child down. Somehow, Bakura ended up on the floor with Marik on top.
"Say it!" Marik kept repeating while Bakura always reply:
"Never!"
"Say it, or I'll neuter ya!" Bakura struggled a little more.
" … MERCY!" Finally, Marik got off of his younger brother. Both looked up when they heard Atem chuckling. He stood there with his arms folded.
"'Pile on Bakura'; haven't played that game since high school." Marik scoffed.
"Whaddaya mean? We played it last week at 'All You Can Drink' night at 'Patrick's Pub'!" Marik finished. Atem laughed as his two brothers stood up and greeted him with a headlock and head-bashes. Bakura looked around for something.
"Hey, where are my cookies?" A giggling sound was heard behind them. Yugi stood there with a box of cookies in his hands.
"Cookie!" Atem took a few steps towards his son, but Yugi giggled and took off.
"Yugi, no! You know you're not allowed to have cookies!"
"Why not?" Marik asked. Yugi started to run around the house, screaming. Atem held out his hand.
"That's why not!"
Soon, it came time for dinner. Yugi sat in a booster seat at the end of the table while Atem sat next to him, then Bakura, on the other end, Solomon, then Marik, and then Eleanor. The three triplets just stared at their food.
"Mom, why do you make this when you know none of us likes it?" Bakura asked. Eleanor didn't seem to have a problem with the liver.
"You liked it last time I made it." Marik kept poking his.
" … I don't think it's dead yet."
"Boys, your mother put a lot of work into this meal, so just eat it!" Atem cringed.
"Not even if you paid us like the last time she made it." Solomon dropped his fork and Eleanor did the same with her jaw.
"Solomon, did you pay these boys to pretend they liked my liver?" Atem and Marik exchanged glances.
"…Well, not all of them …"
"Yeah, what a rip off!" Bakura exclaimed.
"D'da!"
"What is it, Yugi? You haven't even eaten your mashed potatoes yet." Yugi extended his tiny arms and flexed his fingers. Marik raised a brow.
"What's he want?"
"Ah!" The baby opened his mouth and kept it open like a baby bird waiting to be fed. Finally, Atem caught on.
"You want to try this?" Yugi nodded. Bakura scoffed.
"Why, when three outta four of us don't like it?" Atem didn't answer. He sighed and cut up a small piece of the meat for Yugi.
"Alright, but I don't think you're going to like it." Atem inserted the meat into his son's open mouth. Yugi started to chew with the few teeth that he had. His lips made smacking sounds as he chewed. The rest of the family watched to see the boy's reaction. Once Yugi was done and he was able to swallow, he squealed loudly and clapped his hands.
"He likes it!" Marik and Bakura both exclaimed in unison. Atem raised a brow when Yugi begged for more.
"Weird kid … oh well, here. You can have mine." The other two wanted to give Yugi their dinners too, but his tiny stomach wasn't going to hold that much meat.
Later, Eleanor was able to open her presents. She received some spices from Bakura, a sweater from Atem, and a card from Marik that said on the front: 'Mom, no matter how old you get, I'll always be there with you.' On the inside it said: 'kinda scary, huh?' Everyone had a good laugh at that. When it was time for cake, Solomon and the triplets sang 'Happy Birthday', and Yugi did his best to help out. He blew out the candles on the cake. Once the candles were out, the baby took both of his hands and grabbed two handfuls of cake.
"Yugi!" Atem yelled, but the boy only giggled with icing all over his face and in his mouth. "Yugi, what do you say?" Yugi looked at his grandmother with his mouth still full and his hands still covered in cake.
"Fakoo." Everyone laughed while Marik took a picture.
"I believe that was 'thank you'." Atem translated. All and all, it turned out to be a very nice family reunion. Yugi did more adorable things that wore him out in the end. He fell asleep before they even started to go home. The sugar finally took its toll on him. That night, he dreamed of cake.
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End of Chapter
