Disclaimer – I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!

*Rated M for Mature

Chapter 12 – Friday

Seto flew off the couch when he heard a high-pitched scream sound throughout the mansion like something on some horror film. His head nearly missing the table in front of the couch, he frantically fought with the blanket that was caught around his legs. When he finally managed to free himself, the brunet bolted out of the living room, down the hall, and into the kitchen; it was the only place that could project a sound like that.

"Puppy! Is everything o…kay?" he trailed off as he took in the kitchen's new décor. "What the hell?"

"We were only gone two days!" Joey exclaimed, his breathing becoming rapid. "How could they—"

"At least they didn't burn the place down," Seto mumbled under his breath. He didn't see what the big deal was. It was just paint and it could easily be cleaned. Well…the paint had dried, so maybe not so much. But then again, he could always call someone in to redecorate the place. And he could have his Puppy be in charge of that. Then he could have the kitchen look like he wanted.

"How am I supposed to cook with this mess?" the blond moaned.

Cook? That was something Seto hadn't considered. And his rumbling stomach suddenly changed the outlook he had. "Those kids are in for it."

"What do ya mean in for it?" Joey started anxiously, rounding on him.

It was then the brunet realized how his expression had come off. "I don't mean punishing them physically, if that's what you thought I implied."

The blond seemed to relax. "I know. Ya just…took me by surprise. My dad used to say that when he was mad and…well, ya know…"

Seto squeezed his eyes shut. He'd done it again. He'd unintentionally made his Puppy think about his painful past. Why did he always end up doing that?

A pair of soft, warm hands soon found their way to the brunet's face, stroking him as if trying to relax his tense features. "I didn't mean to react the way I did," Joey stated softly. "It's just…a habit…a reaction. So don't go beatin' yourself up over it."

Sighing, Seto opened his eyes, leaning down to rest his forehead against the blond's. "I'm sorry, too. I didn't think before I spoke…again."

Joey wrapped his arms around his lover's waist and rested his head on the brunet's shoulder. "What are we gonna do about the kitchen?"

"I'm sure they meant well. We'll give them a chance to explain themselves and go on from there, I guess."

"Agreed. So…what do ya want for breakfast? Cereal or cereal?"

Jaden slowly woke, confused because he was holding something in his arms. As he opened his eyes, he noticed that it was the teddy bear he'd stowed away in Daddy and Papa's bag. And upon further inspection, it looked like Blair had hers, too. That meant—

"Daddy and Papa are home!" he cried exuberantly, jolting everyone into wakefulness, promptly making Mokuba fall out of bed due to his shock.

"What? How do you know that?" inquired the young boy as he picked himself up off the floor.

"We got our teddies back," explained Jaden, showing him his teddy bear.

This simple statement gradually dawned on them. If Joey and Seto were really home, then that meant they'd see—

"The kitchen!" Mokuba and Serenity cried simultaneously.

Nearly fifteen minutes later, the young preteens had dressed themselves and the two small ones, and were currently headed downstairs to endure the wrath of Seto…or Joey. Their bets were on Joey.

They quietly tiptoed through the hallway, but paused when they heard sounds coming from the dining room. Peeking inside through the open door, they saw that the table had been set up with breakfast, with Seto sitting at one end of the table with a newspaper and Joey still setting up the table. And when he saw them, his eyes lit up.

"Daddy!" Jaden and Blair cried, racing over to the blond. He picked both of them up and hugged them, showering them with kisses.

"We missed ya," Joey cooed. "I love ya two so much."

"Aw you gonna go 'way again?" Blair asked, looking up at him.

"Papa and I are gonna talk about that, so hopefully we won't," the blond replied.

"Don't I get a hug?" Seto questioned teasingly from his seat.

"Papa!" they cried again, struggling out of Joey's arms so they could jump into the brunet's outstretched ones.

Mokuba and Serenity watched the interaction in silence. They were confused. Joey obviously had to go into the kitchen in order to prepare breakfast, but he hadn't said a word yet about the mess in the kitchen. Had they somehow been transported into an alternate universe or something?

"Don't ya guys want a hug, too?" inquired Joey as he stepped up to them. Being too shocked to answer, they let the blond hug them, kissing them each on the head. "We really did miss ya guys."

"We didn't mean for it to happen!" Mokuba blurted. He couldn't handle the pressure any longer.

"Didn't mean for what to happen?" Joey responded as if he didn't know what he was talking about.

"We know you saw the kitchen and the paint everywhere," Serenity replied solemnly. "We just wanted to make something for you and Seto for when you came back."

"It was just finger painting, but then…we kinda lost the paints," Mokuba continued.

"Lost them how?" the blond questioned further.

"Well…the little containers of paint were all open and we were getting ready to take them away, but Jaden and Blair disagreed. So a little tug-of-war happened and it…ended up flinging the paints everywhere," elaborated Serenity.

"We're really sorry, Joey. Honest. We meant to clean up the kitchen yesterday, but it took forever to clean up just Jaden and Blair. We'll do it today if you want," insisted the young boy.

"That won't be necessary," said Joey, shocking the two even further. "I'm glad ya were bein' truthful and took responsibility, so you're not gonna be punished. And besides, the both of ya look awfully repentant."

"You're not mad then?" Mokuba asked hesitantly.

"I was when I first saw it, but then this gives me an excuse to have the kitchen decorated the way I want. I can finally have me dream kitchen," he laughed in response.

The two preteens didn't quite know how they slid by with that one, but they were grateful for it.

"Joey, do you mind coming with me to my study? You know, my home office?" started Seto.

"Sure," replied the blond, following the brunet down the hall and into the study. "Did ya wanna talk about somethin'?"

"Yes. I want to discuss our future…with both our family and the company. Since we're co-CEOs of Kaiba Corp., we'll both be taking the entire summer off. This will allow us to refrain from going on any business trips. However, we will keep up with what's going on with the company at home."

"What about after summer is over?"

"That's where it gets a little tricky," continued Seto. "I plan to work on weekdays at the company on your typical nine to five shift and I won't work weekends, but will more than likely check on things from my laptop. I would prefer it if you'd be…the stay-at-home parent, if you know what I mean. Any work that you do can be done online. And your pay will continue to be sent to your account."

"Wait. What account?" the blond inquired. This was the first time he'd heard of this.

"I…didn't tell you?" the brunet began slowly.

"Tell me what?"

"I set up a personal account for you. The money within it is for you to do with as you please. There's also a trust fund for Mokuba that he'll get when he's eighteen and I put a certain about of money in it per year. I also set up a trust fund for Serenity as well; since she's two years older than Mokuba, there's more in hers. And I've just recently set up trust funds for Jaden and Blair. So far, all their trust funds have the amounts they should have."

"Ya…when were ya gonna tell me about this?"

"I'd meant to, I swear. I just kept getting distracted with everything that had gone on."

"So…how much am I makin' then?" Joey wasn't sure if he wanted to know or not.

"Since I made you co-CEO, I split my income in half so that you'd get the other half. I was making about thirty million a year…so you'll be receiving half that. You're getting over one million a month."

Seto watched as his Puppy gaped at him. Apparently, that had been a lot more than he'd been expecting.

"That's too much, Seto. I can't—"

"Listen to me. I don't care what you do with the money. It's yours. But if anything were to happen, I'll be glad knowing it's there for you if you need it."

Joey sighed in defeat. What the hell could he do with all that money? It was more than he could possibly have imagined.

"And…I know you were worried about business trips, so I've decided to set up a team that can handle all foreign affairs. There might be occasions where I'll be called away on business, but you'll be exempt from that. Okay?"

"Okay," the blond replied softly. "You really put a lot of thought into this."

"I had to. My family is my priority now."

Well, that was something Joey couldn't ignore. And he was going to show Seto exactly what he meant. Stepping closer to the brunet, he yanked his lover's head down for a heated kiss. Just as it was getting good, his fucking cell phone rang.

Pulling away, Joey opened his phone and snapped, "What?"

"Um…hi, Joey. Is this a bad time?"

"Oh! Sorry, Yugi. No, it's not. What's up?"

"Well, the gang and I were thinking and we wanted to make it up to you guys for the…living room disaster. So…we were wondering if you guys would like to come camping with us this weekend."

"By this weekend, do you mean tomorrow?"

"Yep! We'll handle all of the supplies! All you guys need to do is bring clothes and any essentials that Jaden and Blair might need. Well?"

Joey looked over at Seto, who really wanted to know what was going on. The more he imagined the brunet in a camping scene, the more he wanted to do it. "Sure. We'll do it."

"Great! We'll pick you guys up tomorrow at seven! See you then!"

"Bye, Yugi!" Shutting his phone, he stared at Seto with a smug look on his face.

The brunet really didn't like the look he was receiving. "What did you just agree to?"

"We're goin' campin' with the gang this weekend," his Puppy replied.

Camping? Seto felt his stomach drop to the floor. They were going camping?

End Chapter