Small Note

Sakura: This is a continuation of the last chapter. Nothing really interesting in this chapter, but I want to slow things down a bit, before the story takes off again with more action.

Chapter Ten

Father, Husband, and King

Three very important titles for just one man

By the time King Yami returned to his palace most of the party goers were leaving and some had already left. Those slowly making their way out were still carrying on with friends or family, while others silently left with a smile on their faces. Guards were stationed all throughout the palace and leading to the front gate to make sure there were no troubles and the party goers could make it home safely. It felt weird sneaking around his own palace, but Yami wanted to slip back into the main hall without being noticed by his spouse. He had hated leaving Yuugi behind, but he did not want to worry him over nothing. The two never kept secrets from each other and given the situation he would need to tell Yuugi about it anyway. However he wanted to deal with that tomorrow and let everyone enjoy the holiday night.

As he moved around to the main foyer he noticed Yuugi was not the one seeing the guest out. Instead it was his three older sons along with Raven. Confused by Yuugi's lack of presence, he headed straight for the throne room. Sadly the only people left in the room where those who were doing a quick cleanup of the place. In the morning they would do a full cleaning so no trace of dirt would be left behind.

Since his husband was nowhere to be seen, Yami decided to try the bedrooms before asking anyone if they had seen him. Yuugi was more than capable of taking care of himself, but it still worried Yami when he had no clue where his lover was. The first most logical place was the younger children's bedroom since his two youngest also seemed to be missing. There rooms were located closer not far from his own bedroom so he would not have to travel far to see if Yuugi was in their bedroom.

When he arrived at the hall, he did not even have to look into any bedrooms, as his husband walked out of Kotaro's room. The smaller vampire took one look at him, before he headed straight for their room. Yami was confused by the frown on Yuugi's face so he quickly followed him. As he entered their room and shut the door, Yuugi turned on him with a glare.

"Where were you?"

Yami was taken aback by the harsh words being spoken to him. "What do you mean?"

"What do you think I mean?" Yuugi shouted as he put his hands on his hip. "I go up for a minute to pass out ribbons and then you disappear."

"I'm sorry if I worried you…"

"Worried? I wasn't worried, but you really hurt Chan's feelings with your little disappearing act." Yuugi informed him to which Yami raised an eyebrow in clear confusion.

"Hurt Chan's feelings? Yuugi seriously stop talking in circles and tell me what I did wrong." Yami said in a calm tone, hoping to calm his own husband down. He honestly had no idea why Chan would be hurt by him leaving the party for a little while. Normally after the party she would disappear to her room with Kotaro anyway.

"Chan won a ribbon and you were not there to see it."

The King's eyes widen at the news as he finally saw his mistake. No matter how much she acted like a big girl, Chan was like any other child that wanted to make her parents happy. By winning a ribbon in the fashion show she did something to be proud of and Yami sadly was not there to see it.

"Oh…" Yami sighed as he really was not sure what else to say to something like that.

"Oh is right. She was so disappointed to turn and see you were not on your throne."

"Yuugi honestly I did not mean to be away…" Yami tried to defend himself. He knew Yuugi had every right to be angry, but he was still the King of a city and had things he needed to tend to.

"Seriously Yami what could be so damn important for you to miss the end of the fashion show?" Yuugi questioned wondering what got his husband to miss the ending of the party.

Yami rubbed his forehead as he felt a headache begin to form. He had wanted to come home and just sleep, but he had to do damage control with his family first it seemed. "Yuugi, listen I had not planned to be away, but there was a fire in the vampire district."

"Fire…?" Yuugi mood changed at that word as his eyes widen a little. "Why in the world was there a fire?"

The King walked up to his husband and placed his hands on his shoulders. "Why don't you get changed for bed and I'll see to everything else. I also want to talk to Chan real quick before she goes to sleep." He kissed Yuugi's forehead. "I promise I'll tell you everything once I get back."

Yuugi could not get another word out as his husband left the room. He had been so mad at his husband and then he learns about some fire. There were so many more questions he wanted to ask his King, but he knew Yami had to deal with some things before they could rest for the night. So without anything else to do, Yuugi set about getting ready for bed so he could wait on Yami to return.

The midnight hour was upon the palace when Yami was finally able to finish all his duties as King from seeing the people off into the night, to making sure the cleaning crew did their job and did not stay up late. His older children left his side as soon as he came down from his talk with Yuugi and he couldn't blame them. He had missed an important moment in his daughter's life and they all had the right to be mad at him. So once everything was done and the palace was locked up tight with guards at their post, Yami made his way up to his daughter's room. There was no telling whether she would be awake or not after what happened, but the King had to try. It did not feel right leaving her upset over what happened for the night and talking to her in the morning.

When he arrived at his daughter's door, he first gave it a quick knock to see if she would answer, but when she did not then Yami opened the door. Inside it was dark except for the light coming in from the moon. There was a small figure on the bed curled up under the covers staying perfectly still so it was hard to tell whether Chan was asleep or not.

The little girl's dress laid forgotten on the floor along with it the ribbon she got for winning the children group. A simple dress that had looked so well on his daughter was casted to the side without a care and it caused Yami's heart to hurt. If anything Chan took the best care of her clothes mostly her dresses since she loved to go around the palace in them to show off. She was every bit the little princess Yami had come to care for.

"Chan, are you still awake?" He called out to his daughter, but once again she remained silent. Yami did not wish to wait the sleeping girl if she really was asleep. The best way to find out was to look for himself so he carefully made his way toward the bed and took a seat next to the small girl. Placing his hand on the covers he pulled them back just enough to see hazel eyes staring up at him.

Tears stained her cheeks in rows and just at the sight of her father, Yami could see new tears that wanted to come down. The King reached out pulling Chan out of her cocoon she had created out of her covers and setting her on his lap. He wrapped her up in his embrace letting her cling to him as she cried all over again. There was so much pain in her tears that Yami never wanted to hear her cry like that again. The last time she had cried this hard was when he mother walked out on her and left her in the care of the King.

"Chan I…"

"You weren't there!" Chan cried as she wiped at her tears. "I looked for you and you weren't there."

"I know honey and I'm so sorry," Yami apologized as he felt tears from his own eyes start to fall. "Something came up and I had to leave. If I had known you were going to win I would had stayed."

"Why?" The little girl asked as she looked up at her father. "What was so important to make you leave?"

Yami reached up to wipe her tears away and move her hair out of her face. "It's nothing you need to worry about. Just know that I'm so sorry for not being there when I should have been. Yugi told me you were so happy to have won. I really should have been there to see it for myself." It was moments like this that he wished he had not been made King of the city. There was so much responsibility for one man, who was also a husband and father. Often times his children understood if he had to leave for business, but when his children had a major achievement in life whether it is getting married like Jason and Raven did to Chan simply getting a ribbon in a fashion show. He wanted to be there and he could have been if only he had made the better choice. Chan did not have many achievements in life and the one she was most excited about her father had not been there like the rest of her family.

"Daddy, please don't disappear like that again…" Chan said quietly as she calmed down. She had stopped crying when she realized she had made her own father cry. That was the last thing she had wanted to do, but she had just been so upset that he had not been there.

Yami continued to hug her as he gently rocked his daughter. "Never again will I disappear again without telling you where I'm going." He promised as he kissed the top of her head. "I just don't want you to be mad at me anymore."

"I'm not mad daddy, just sad that you were not there to congratulate me."

The King smiled at those words as he slowly released his hold on his daughter. He placed her back on her bed, so she could get under the covers. "No matter what anyone else says you looked beautiful in that dress of yours and you deserved that ribbon." He told her as he went to pick up the ribbon off the floor and return it to her. "Make sure you take care of it so you can show it off to everyone tomorrow."

Chan nodded as she took the ribbon back in her hands. She then used the string attached to the ribbon to tie it to her bedpost near her head. "You know I love you right daddy?"

"Yes and I will always love you sweetie." Yami gave her another kiss this time on the forehead before he tucked her into bed. Almost immediately as her head hit the pillow did Chan close her eyes and drift off to sleep. As she fell asleep, Yami took the time to hang her dress up properly before heading out of the room. He took one more look at his daughter and promised to be a better father from then on before he closed the door.

Before he headed back to his own room, he quickly checked in on Kotaro who was fast asleep already. Since the little boy was already passed out for the night, Yami left him alone and then headed to his and Yuugi's room. Once inside he closed the door behind him turning out the light before making his way over to his bed. His husband was already under the covers dressed in his pajamas, so Yami quickly stripped to his boxers then made himself comfortable on the bed with his lover.

Yuugi welcomed the warm arms that encircle him even though he had been mad at Yami a few hours before. His husband deserved a chance to explain himself and not be yelled at. Yami was a great father to their children and he felt bad for shouting at him earlier. "I'm sorry…" He said as he began to apologize, but was quickly silence with a kiss to the lips.

When Yami pulled away he had a smile on his face to show he was not angry. "No you have every right to be mad at me. I talked to Chan and I feel really bad about leaving without telling anyone. I really should have thought my daughter had a chance to win. My family should always come first…."

"You can't help it though," Yuugi argued back. "You are the King to this city. I should have realized that something important had to have come up for you to just leave like that. The important thing is that at least one of us was there for Chan."

"Why don't we both just forgive and forget," Yami suggested since he knew Yuugi wanted to know about the fire he told him about earlier. After the nights events he was tired and seriously needed some sleep badly.

Yuugi agreed with him as he asked the question they both knew was coming. "So what is this about a fire?"

"It happened in the Vampire district. I was informed that two houses had gone up in flames while the ball was going on and two families had lost their homes. There was one vampire who was killed in the fire given he was weak against it. After investigation by myself, Bakura, and Marik, we all feel that someone started the fire on purpose and made it look like an accident." Yami explained to his partner, who was surprised all over again after hearing the whole story.

"Wait a minute, someone wanted to murder those vampires?" Yuugi asked in disbelief. "Who would want to do such a thing?"

Yami sighed as he turned to stare at the ceiling. "Believe me Yuugi, I wish I knew. Bakura and Marik are going to continue to look into it so we have plenty of proof that someone else started the fire. However with how much damage the fire did, we are not sure how much proof we can get." He reached up to rub his forehead trying to relieve the stress he was feeling. "It's not often a vampire is killed and the last time many were killed was during the rebellion."

Memories of that rebellion flashed before Yuugi's eyes and he seriously hoped this was not the start of another uproar by the vampires. Yuugi could not lose any more people to another war. So many had died during that fight and it was also when Yuugi almost died at the hands of Jiro. Peace had been restored to the city already and he wanted it to stay peaceful.

Warms hands turned his face to look down into crimson eyes full of nothing but love. The King pulled him down just enough to brush their lips together, before tan arms encircled Yuugi again pulling him down so he was laying on top his husband. "I'm sorry if this is scaring you, but you have the right to know."

Yuugi shook his head as he buried his face in Yami's chest. "No, you have no reason to be sorry. I'm just scared for our family if this turns out to be something bigger than a simple fire."

"Well nothing has been concluded yet, so it's best we get some sleep and try to forget about it for now." Yami said as he started to run his fingers through Yuugi's hair. It always helped Yuugi sleep at night and tonight was no different.

Yuugi curled up as much as he could to his mate as he took his advice and closed his eyes to sleep. There was so much running through his mind now, but after that nights events he was just ready to pass out. His husband on the other hand would lay awake for another few hours, before sleep would finally claim him. It was a restless night for the both of them and there would be a lot to discuss first thing in the morning.

By the next morning, breakfast was eaten closer to noon for both the King and his mate before they made it into the King's study to begin the day. Yuugi set to work on his daily duties of filing paperwork that was left from yesterday and putting new files that Yami needed to look over on the desk. However the King's mind was on other things as he pulled out blank building permits to be filled out. He wanted to get the construction of the new homes done as soon as possible so the families could move back in if they so desire to. One home would go up for sale since the owner of the last home died in the fire, but either way two new homes would be built in the vampire district. He also had to look into getting a vampire working crew given where the homes were being built. Humans were in no way allowed in the district for any reason.

"Hey Yuugi, look into the files of supplies we have for construction. I think a new shipment of lumber is supposed to come in at the end of the month." Yami asked of his husband. The city held many things thanks to humans coming and going, however there were still things that needed to be shipped from outside the city such as lumber and bricks for building. Every month a shipment would come in and a stock pile would be held at the palace until it was needed. When the city was running low he would contact the portal holders who would then use their resources to get it and at a reasonable time. Besides construction items, there were sometimes shipments of grocery items to stock the grocery stores but those shipments came at the beginning of the month. Other than that, not much else was shipped into the city from the outside. They had factories for making clothes and automobiles located at the farther end of downtown away from the communities and businesses.

Yuugi looked for the correct file on his laptop before approaching the desk to show Yami. "We might have enough supplies to finish the construction on both homes, however any other construction will have to be put on hold until we get the new supplies."

"I'll write up letters to our two construction companies to let them know construction of any building will be on hold until the end of the month. I'm sure given the cold and snow they have probably not worked for a while now anyway." Yami said as he wrote himself a note to write those letters.

"Where will the families stay until that is finished?"

"They are staying with other family members at the moment. The victim had a daughter staying with him for the night who did not live there, so his house will either go on the market or I will give the daughter the option to move into the new home. The other home had a small family, who will either be placed in a new home on the market or stay with family until we finish rebuilding their home," Yami explained to him as he continued to fill out the paperwork to have the homes rebuilt.

Yuugi set to work helping him by dealing with other matters and paperwork. As Yami set at his desk working and Yuugi made himself comfortable on the couch, two of Yami's council came barging in. Bakura and Marik walked straight into the room, the white hair one carrying an evidence bag with a piece of cloth inside.

Bakura set the bag on the desk. "We finally got your proof…"

Yami reached for the evidence bag to get a better look at what was on the inside. It appeared to be a torn piece of cloth either from a coat or shirt. "Where did you find this?"

"Seems whoever started the fire, had escaped out the backdoor. They probably climbed the backyard gate and their shirt got caught and ripped. They either did not think anything of it or did not notice." Marik explained to his King. "The real kicker is the scent we found on the cloth."

Careful of the evidence tape, Yami opened the bag and took a small sniff inside the bag. Once the smell reached his nose he pulled back in shock. "You're serious that this was found near the home?"

"Completely serious and no one has touched it but me and Marik," Bakura informed him. "Someone did start the fire and that someone was not supposed to be in the district."

"What is it Yami?" Yuugi asked as he completely forgot his work and made his way back to his lover. "Do you know who that cloth belongs to?"

Yami shook his head as a response. "I don't know who, but this does tell us what had started the fire."

"What started the fire?" Yuugi pressed as Yami closed up the evidence bag and gave it back to Bakura.

His next words made Yuugi's blood run cold. "A human started the fire." The room felt silent at those words and Yuugi almost could not believe it.

"But humans aren't allowed in the vampire district."

"I know that Yuugi and it appears someone forgot that rule and started that fire." Yami looked up at Bakura and Marik with a serious look on his face. "Make sure this does not get out to the media or anyone in the palace. I want a full investigation done so we have the full story. There is no need to cause an uproar when we do not have all our facts together."

His two friends agreed before they quickly left the office to get to work. Once they were gone, Yami pulled keys out of his pocket and unlocked one of the drawers on his desk. Inside on a pillow were two flash drives, one labeled humans and the other labeled vampires. He grabbed the one labeled humans and passed it off to Yuugi.

"I want you to compare the humans living here with the list of people who came to the party. We need to narrow down our list of humans before asking questions." The King looked around his desk before he finally found the list from the party the night before that he had put in his office before bed. Everyone who came to the palace the night before was supposed to sign their names so if anything happened to anyone he would know where they were last at. He then located the small list of humans who were only here temporary and passed that also to Yuugi. "I need you to do this for me as quickly as you can okay."

Yuugi nodded as he looked up at Yami with concern. "What are you going to do?"

Yami closed and locked the drawer before he stood up with some files that needed filing in the file room. "I'm going to visit the file room and find the file on our victim. I need to know more about him before I can figure out why he was killed." This was the part of the job Yami hated the most when a vampire or human died. He was the one responsible for taking their files out of the file room and getting rid of it. The files were useless if the person was dead, but when their files were burned it just felt so final to Yami. It was not so bad when a human left the city for good, because they were still alive. He hated when a vampire or human died in his city especially after the small war they had went through. Many had died during that fight and it took a while for everyone to recover.

Before Yami could leave, Yuugi grabbed his arm and turned him to face him. He then lean up and kissed his husband with as much love as he could. When they broke apart Yuugi simply smiled at him. "Please be careful."

Yami smiled right back and lean in for another quick kiss. "I promise I will. Come and find me when you're done with the list okay…" He told Yuugi before quickly leaving the office.

Yuugi sighed as he collected his laptop off the couch and headed over to Yami's desk. He made himself comfortable before he connected the flash drive with his laptop to bring up the files on it. The real files on the citizens were kept in the file room, but names of who lived in the city were kept on flash drives for easy access. The younger vampire remembered Yami telling him that it was his own children who came up with the idea when the city started to upgrade to the technology age before Yuugi had even been born. First they had use floppy disks, but then smaller more useful flash drives came out and everything changed to those. It had taken the children months as a family to go through the file room and put everyone's names down. If anything Yuugi was grateful for it since it made this job much easier.

"Alright time to get to work," Yuugi said as he opened up the first file and a long list of names popped up. Slowly and carefully with a speed of a vampire, Yuugi started to go through all the names on the flash drive and compare it to the party list. If anything Yuugi really hoped that a human had not been the cause of the fire. The evidence was there and if a human had started the fire, then this could destroy the peace they had built back up.

Sakura: This chapter wrote itself! I was going to put something totally different in this chapter, but then out of the blue this came along. I love showing Yami as a father to his children, a husband to his partner, and a king to his city. He really does have three different roles to juggle daily.

Yumi: Review!