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With Christmas coming up, all four families came together and decided that, for Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the day after Christmas, they would all spend at Atem and Yugi's house. Including Josephine, Seto, Tristan, and Serenity. Duke and Tea would only be there for the evening of christmas day, seeing as they promised their parents that were still alive to spend the Christmas with them. As such, they hung out and talked in the living room, enjoying the close friendship that they had…
That was completely absent in their own children.
"Look, Amara, there's a mistletoe." Jason said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Care to kiss me?" Amara visibly turned green and looked around desperately for help just as Ammon tugged Jason by the back of his jacket and pulled him away with a scowl.
"You wish." He replied, standing in front of Amara. "Besides, you put that there. The only real mistletoe in this household is the one above the door to the master bedroom. This one doesn't count- and guests aren't allowed on the second floor." Jason glared at Ammon and started to say something angrily, but it was at that moment that Ammon's hearing decided to fade out.
He had tried to follow the best he could with lip reading until his hearing could come back, but there was so much spit coming out of his mouth, and with his hearing gone his other senses were heightened naturally, giving him the ability to smell the disgusting breath behind the breath mints.
He scrunched his nose up in disgust and turned around while Jason was still yelling at him, signing to Amara that his hearing was down.
"That's ok." She said slowly, and clear enough for him to read. "Come on, Ammon, I think mother is calling for us." She grabbed his hand and pulled him along, Ammon with a goofy smile on his face. While they went to the living area, they passed the kitchen where Mali was trying to teach Joey and Atlas how to make Christmas cookies.
"It says that we need to put in an egg now…"
"I'll get it!" Joey and Atlas said at the same time, throwing competitive glances at each other before reaching for the eggs while trying to prevent the other from doing so. Mali rolled her eyes at the becoming familiar scene, reaching for an egg herself, causing Joey and Atlas to freeze as she cracked the egg and put it in the mix.
"Bakas." She muttered under her breath with a roll of her eyes, and Joey and Atlas sulked like little kids on either side of her, throwing the occasional glare at each other. "Can't you two work together? There's no competition in helping me make cookies that are for everyone." At Mali's seemingly simple request, Atlas and Joey sized each other up.
Could they work together?
At first, Atlas thought that he would be fine with Mali liking someone else- but someone like Joey? No way in h***.
Joey was thinking along the same lines, and as they stared at each other, Mali added on "I'm seriously starting to think that you two have acquired a mental illness or something. You're both acting younger than you normally act." Both winced, gave eachother a grudging handshake, and turned to help Mali with the cookies…
But only for this once!
Meanwhile, by the Christmas Tree, Tyson was telling Claire one of his family's many traditions.
"Popcorn?" Claire asked with a small laugh. "How would you string popcorn? Wouldn't it just fall off?"
"Not if you do it right!" Tyson said with a finger in the air. "And we also get to open our stockings the night before Christmas- right before we go to bed."
"Doesn't sound like home at all." At Tyson's confused glance, she continued. "At home we had a tree, but it was small. There were only a few ornaments on it- usually made out of wood and hand carved. We normally only got four to five presents every year because Ryou and Malik believed that Christmas shouldn't be stolen, or bought, but made from the heart. We got hand-crafted gifts most of the time, from those who know how to make things, anyway." She fingered a pair of earrings that she wore, that were a deep green color. "Father gave these to me a year ago- he said that they were mother's. She died from the flu when I was a little girl."
"I-I'm sorry." Tyson said slowly, running a hand through his brown-ish red hair.
"Don't worry about it, it was a long time ago." Claire shook her head. "What other traditions do you have?"
"They're all very sweet." Serenity said softly with a smile as she watched Tyson continue to talk to Claire. She leaned into her husband's embrace.
"Well, their mother's were mostly sweet." He said softly as Serenity lifted a mug of hot chocolate to her lips.
"I wish Jason didn't act like that with Amara." Tea commented, shifting from one leg to another. Duke hummed in agreement, his arms around her midsection. "All I wanted was for our children to be friends- I never thought that would lead to this." She turned to look at Yugi, who was sitting comfortably in Atem's lap. "Ammon seems like the right person for Amara, though."
"That's what I keep on telling Atem here." Yugi pointed at her husband as he nuzzled her neck with his nose.
"I am reserving judgement until we can talk one on one." He said seriously. "But I still say that no one is worthy of our daughter." Yugi giggled and rolled her eyes.
"What do you think, Seto?"
"Hnm?"
"About Joey being in love with Mali." Josephine expanded, drawing her husband's attention away from a book he was reading.
"I say that Joey needs to stop acting like his mother and win her over already." Seto said stoically, looking back down at the book in his hands.
"Stop acting like me?" Josephine said, offended. "I'm pretty sure you were the one that needed to man up and make the first move, I was dropping hints all over the place."
"Really?" Seto raised an eyebrow and placed a bookmark in the book before leaning in awfully close to his wife. "I don't seem to remember. Would my pup care to enlighten me?"
"Stupid Dragon." Josephine placed a kiss on his cheek. "That's saved for later."
"I can't wait."
"Ehem." Tea cleared her throat. "Well, I hope it goes well."
"What possessed Joey to offer that anyway?" Tristan asked. "You know, to give them the chance to come here."
"You know, I have no idea." Josephine admitted. She looked toward the kitchen. "He hasn't told me anything, and we haven't asked."
"Well, whatever it is, it was a good thing." Yugi smiled. "Amara has never been so open before…"
"Do you think that she'll be able to take them off?" Atem asked softly. "She's so unique, I wish that she didn't feel the need to hide them."
"Patience, Sennen."
"Don't tell me patience, Kaiba." Atem shot the other a glare. "You're just as bad as me." Seto shrugged.
"Seto, how is Mokuba?" Tea asked.
"He's doing better than I thought he would, working for the Kaiba Corp. Branches outside of Japan." Seto admitted. "I hope he finds someone soon, though. It would be nice to know what it's like to be an uncle."
"Mama, Papa!" Yugi and Atem turned their attention to their twins, who were wearing adorable matching Christmas dresses.
"Amara dragged Ammon off somewhere!" Nour said excitedly.
"Do you think they're going to go on a date?" Keket asked just as eagerly.
"I'm certain that their not going out on a date." Yugi said with a soft smile.
"Awww…"
"Why don't you two go and play with Shizuka and Tiana?" Atem suggested. "I'm sure that they'd love to play with you."
"But their playing dolls!" Keket exclaimed with disgust.
"We wanted to play hide and go seek or tag." Nour said calmly. "But no one wants to play with us!"
"Did you ask?" The two girls sulked, giving their reply. "Why don't you go and ask? I'm sure Amara, Mali, and Ammon would like to."
"Ok, bye mama, papa." They kissed their parent's cheeks and ran off giggling.
"Sometimes your daughters scare me." Serenity admitted.
"They are twins." Tea pointed out, leaning back into her husband's embrace.
"I know, but still."
"Makes me want a boy…" Atem murmured.
"We'll see." Yugi replied. "For now, let's just enjoy the calm and warm atmosphere that we have here."
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