Surprise

Atem had a headache.

Really, had he been this bad? At three?

His son, Kai, had managed to sneak out of the Palace in a basket of laundry, had spent two hours running around the city, and was now running through the desert in the heat of midday in nothing but his loincloth. The Crown Prince had been chasing him for the whole time, ignoring how the townspeople were laughing at the escapade—they rarely got entertainment as good as a grown noble chasing their own child through the city streets, after all. Or rather, until Kai had started walking, they hadn't.

The strange thing was that he was sure he'd been watching Kai closely, and a moment later, he'd been gone. Only, the moment, as it had turned out, hadn't been 'a moment', but half a candle mark. The only explanation he could think of was that the boy was quite a powerful Mage, one with High Priest Set's power to manipulate other's minds, to take control of their bodies at will—only Kai's power was entirely natural, not granted by one of the Millennium Items.

At least the brat was heading in the direction of an oasis, assuming he kept going in that same direction, and there was no guarantee of that.

He had such a headache...

Suddenly, rather than 'running down' the slope of the next dune, it looked more like Kai 'fell'—and a moment later, he heard yelps.

"Oh, great..." the Crown Prince sighed, picking up his pace.

When he reached the top of the slope and could see down the other side, he realized this was a dune which had built into a cresting wave shape, hence how Kai had fallen without warning, and that he'd landed on a man below while a woman stood beside the two as she giggled. The man was sprawled flat on the sandy ground with Kai sitting on his waist and staring in shock, and it looked like both were foreign travelers from north of the Inland Sea. Then, he looked again, realizing the woman looked familiar—she looked like the servant Shizuka from Nihon!

Slowly, his eyes went back to the man—and his heart stopped for a moment.

"Seto!" he cried, jumping down to land on the man—and trapping Kai between them. The younger boy yelped as the man groaned, then, even as he wept, hands took his face and turned it up.

When his scarlet-amethyst eyes met sapphire blue, there was no thought, just tears and deep kissing for some time, even as Kai managed to wiggle out from between them. Atem assumed Shizuka caught him, since his energy stayed close by this time, so he just relaxed and turned all his attention to the man he hadn't seen in nearly four years. Seto apparently felt the same way, as he reacted equally fervently.

Finally, they broke the kiss and Seto said, "I'm so glad we made it here...But what are you doing outside the Palace?"

At that, the Crown Prince chuckled and pointed in the direction of Kai's energy as he said, "I was chasing that little brat. I daresay it's a bad idea for us to have kids if we want peace and quiet, since our combined blood is anything but 'peace and quiet'."

Blinking in surprise, then looking over at the little boy, Seto began to peace together the story—the child's almost 'pale' indigo eyes, deep brown, flyaway hair, and softly creamy skin. There were shocks of blond and red in the boy's hair, much like Atem had, and it was clear he was the slender sort, but how tall he would grow was another story. It was a nearly perfect blending of the two parents, and the result was a child nearly as abnormally attractive as the 'mother'.

"That's...our son?" Seto asked quietly, looking back at Atem.

With a nod, the younger of the pair said, "I named him Kai. I chose it because it was a name which was very similar to both our peoples." His eyes then went to Kai as he said, "Come over here and meet your father properly, Kai." Sure enough, Shizuka had managed to catch him and hold him by the hand, but when he took a step in Atem's direction, she let go of the boy's hand.

"You're okay with introducing me as his 'father' when you're a man, too?" Seto asked in mild amusement as Kai took another step in their direction.

As the boy turned to bolt, Atem growled, "Not this time, brat. Lightning Paralysis!"

In the next moment, a lighting bolt came down out of the sky—and Kai yelped as it hit him and he found he couldn't move.

"...Um—" Seto began with a rather stunned, horrified look on his face.

"That's the only way to keep him behaved. I've been chasing him for over two candle marks already, and this is how far he managed to get," Atem replied dryly. "The spell doesn't cause any degree of pain, it just makes it impossible to move for about a candle mark. With Kai, trust me, it's needed. As soon as he could walk, even without the ability to transform, he's been getting out of the Palace and making me chase him around the city and desert. And I have a headache right now, anyway. Are you happy with the results of your son, Seto?"

"Er...Well...he's rather attractive, isn't he?" the other man asked as he thought about the words.

"Good. From now on, you can chase him, then," Atem replied. At those words, Seto flinched and Shizuka sighed sadly, making the Prince look between them and ask, "What? What's wrong?"

"Your Highness...when the castle collapsed, part of it...crushed His Majesty's leg...If Ra hadn't appeared and shielded him from the worst, he wouldn't have survived, but the only Healers I could find also weren't fully trained...They did as much as they could, which was enough to allow him to walk with a cane, but...he could never chase a child with his injury..." Shizuka explained quietly.

The smaller man's eyes widened as he reached out to take the other man's face in his hands, to make Seto meet his eyes. "Is that true, Seto?"

"Yes," the older man admitted, voice pained and eyes wounded.

Atem reached out to hug him again, crying into his shoulder as he realized how hard the last four years would have been for the other man.

Seto also wrapped his arms around Atem, holding him tightly as he asked, "You won't leave me?"

"Never," the Prince replied through his tears. "Never. When you came to the tower room, when you saw the dagger...all your shields came down and I could read your soul. I won't lose you, not over something so petty."

After a moment, the older man said softly, "Part of me was afraid to come now that I'm only a burden...I was so afraid of being turned away. It was Shizuka who convinced me to come anyway, convinced me to try at least once before giving up...Now, I'm glad she did. Thank you so much, Atem." The younger man just nodded into his shoulder.

For a long time, they just stayed like that. Even when the power released Kai, he just moved into the shade and began playing in the sand, making something like little towers. Shizuka sat down with him to play with him while they waited for the men to finish whatever emotional bonding they needed.

Finally, Kai got tired of waiting and complained, "Mother, I'm bored!"

Atem burst out laughing as Shizuka giggled and Seto asked incredulously, "He calls you 'Mother', even though you're a man?"

Looking up, the smaller teen said, "He knows very well that he came from inside my body, so I'm his 'mother'. I never intended to hide that from him, so he's been told from the time he was born, about transformation and about how I used it to have him with his 'father'—you. It's just, you're still a stranger to him, so he might not actually treat you like a father until he gets used to you."

After a moment, Atem rose and offered a hand to his lover, who took it and let him pull him up. He retrieved his fallen cane, then they began walking back to the Palace, going in through an entrance leading straight into the Palace grounds, not the city. It didn't take long after that for total chaos to erupt as people figured out who had arrived in the Palace. Kai was surprisingly well-behaved for once, and Atem was grateful to him, given all the other chaos he had to deal with.

In the process of the introductions and re-introductions, while he was sitting in the dining hall and staring absently off into space, Seto realized Yuugi and Mokuba, both four years older than they had been, were sitting on a window ledge behind a curtain. As he watched them, visible as they were only to him, he realized how they were touching each other and realized they had become more than 'playmates', unless the one speaking meant 'sexual playmates'. His heart almost stopped as he stared.

"What's wrong?" Atem asked as he sat beside the taller man. Seto just nodded at Yuugi and Mokuba, so the Prince looked, then gave a wry grin and said, "Yes, they rather enjoy 'playing', though compared to us, they're mild."

"They're not supposed to be—" the older man began, voice tense.

He was cut off by a sigh as the smaller man said, "Seto, stop it. You're being too protective when I've already accepted it, and it's my brother who winds up in the woman's position most of the time." He paused, then added dryly, "And anyway, what did you expect, given what they have as examples from us, their older brothers?"

For a long time, the former King was silent, then he sighed and relented, "I guess you have a point."

Isis and Kisara also took the man aside to see what they could do about his leg, and they were able to do a little more than the previous Healers had been able to, but there was no way to completely fix it. "It's beyond our skills to repair such sever damage which has already healed the wrong way—even a fresh wound would have been difficult to repair fully with the extent of the damage," Isis told him with a sigh.

"In other words, I'm going to be a burden for the rest of my life, and I shouldn't have come..." the former King sighed as he slumped.

Suddenly, Kisara slapped him, quite openly and fearlessly, and said, "Even assuming you can't fight any longer, your mind still works just fine, and your skills as a commander and tactician certainly would not have deteriorated. Rather than thinking about all the things you 'can't do', start thinking about what you 'can do', since there are still things you can do for those you care about and for those of your people who made it this far, like your brother and myself."

After a silence, he realized how much the current conversation sounded like his conversation with the newly-captured Crown Prince, and he began laughing as he said, "Thank you for both the physical and verbal slap. Now I know how Atem was able to be so easily depressed by his situation when he'd just been captured, so thank you."

Finally, they let him go, and—to his surprise—Mai guided him to Atem's room, where he saw the Crown Prince sitting on the cushions beside a soundly sleeping Kai, even as he gently brushed his hand over the boy's hair. When the younger man looked up and saw him, he jumped up and ran to hug him.

"What did the Healers say?" Atem asked, keeping his voice low so he didn't disturb the three-year-old's sleep.

"Well, I can walk without a cane...but the operative word is 'walk'. I'm limited in how fast I can go, and for how long, but this way, it's better than it previously was," Seto explained, holding one hand to the back of the Prince's head as he wove his fingers through his hair. As such, he felt a nod, rather than seeing it.

"At least you have that much...I should never have left..."

"You had to go. Besides, you probably would have died from what was left of the winter if you didn't go, since it turned out to be a long, cold winter. Spring came late, and the crops nearly entirely failed—the north fell into civil disarray to such an extent that everyone was just killing everyone else, regardless of class or profession. I never would have wanted you to live through that, let alone our son."

Silence fell for some time before Atem drew back to look at him, saying, "I'm so glad you lived to reach here. My only real regret was that you weren't able to be there for Kai's birth." He then chuckled and added, "What's most amusing is how Uncle Akhenaten dotes on him, even though he was the one most opposed to me having him."

With a chuckle, Seto said, "Now that I have to see—your old stick of an Uncle actually doting on my son? He must be having a crisis in himself. Er...but if Kai shares your...or is it 'our' room? Anyway, if he shares it, where would we have time to enjoy ourselves privately?"

"We can have two separate rooms or share one. Until Kai starts his classes in about two years, he'll share my room, since I'm his 'mother', and the more operable question would be 'when' we enjoy ourselves. Basically, while he's with my mother or his nanny, we can take time to enjoy ourselves—but not tonight. I'm much too tired after the chaos today," the Prince explained.

"It's fine," Seto agreed. "I was thinking I was too tired tonight, as well. I just wanted to know what kinds of plans we'd have to make, since I can't just assume we'll be spending every night passionately any longer."

"No, not until Kai has his own room," Atem agreed wryly.

He then led his lover to his bed, and they made themselves comfortable as they held each other for the first time in nearly four years.

CI

The next day, Atem was just returning to his room after passing Kai on to his mother for the afternoon, when he felt arms wrap around him from behind. He'd just stepped into his own room, and the door had closed without him pushing it shut, himself, so he realized he'd have very little time to convince Seto he wanted to rest. As he opened his mouth—an all-too-familiar hand gripped his member, and he forgot all his arguments of exhaustion. It had been too long since he'd been with anyone, let alone his lover, and his body immediately reacted with desire.

A blindfold settled over his eyes, and he shut them obediently, already knowing fairly well the direction things were going to go, even as Seto's familiar voice told him, "You have quite a collection of toys in here. How did you explain them to Kai? Or did you somehow keep them away from him?"

"No...He thinks they're just normal toys and plays with them that way," Atem answered in amusement as calloused hands undressed him. "I was trying to make sure everything I had enjoyed so much with you was here, just in case I ever had someone here to use them—ideally you, but maybe someone else many years down the road."

"Oh, that was quite a comment, wasn't it?" the older man asked in amusement. "I guess I should punish you for it."

"Don't say it like a question, Love. It isn't nearly threatening enough," the smaller of the two replied in amusement.

With a chuckle, Seto very quickly began playing very thoroughly with his lover—he had four years to make up for, after all.

CI

Late that evening, Seto walked out to the balcony overlooking the Palace gardens, leaning his arms on the rail as he mused over how different it was from Nihon. Atem was still sleeping off their time together, and Kai...was he really still with his grandmother so late? He'd been rather careless, since he'd been expecting the boy to be back in their care by the evening meal, only...they had missed the meal, apparently.

"King Seto, is it?" a voice asked him, making him jump in surprise and turn to look—at Atem's father, Pharaoh Ahknemkhanen.

"Not 'King' anymore, unfortunately," Seto replied with a sigh, turning back to the view. "And I doubt you came out here to exchange pleasantries with me, Pharaoh."

A chuckle made him look over at the larger, darker man again as said man also moved over to the rail and leaned his arms on it to look out over the gardens. "Well, I can't say if wanting to know about you counts as 'pleasantries' or not, but if your son is going to be Atem's replacement, I should know his...'father'. That you survived and made it all the way here in your condition is a boon to me, believe it or not."

Pausing, Seto considered the words for a minute, he asked, "Why does everyone just seem to call me Kai's 'father' when Atem is a man, too?"

"Didn't my son tell you? Kai came from his body, so male or not, he still takes the role of the 'mother' and you take the role of the 'father'. Since this isn't the first time this has happened, though not normally with a former enemy, we simply adapted to it," the older man informed the younger.

"...Were you told the extent of the damage concerning my 'condition'?"

"Yes, Isis informed me."

"...Is that really...I mean, if I can't move around properly, I'm a burden to—"

"King Seto."

The younger man stopped talking for a moment, then sighed and said, "I hope you won't repeat Kisara's scolding yesterday."

"No, of course not," the older man agreed in amusement. "But I have no use for self-pity, and I suspect, neither do you. I recall you being quite a hand with a sword, given some of the sparring matches my people saw you fight, and which they relayed to me. If your skills are truly so great, you should be able to adapt them to a style which requires very little movement from the place where you stand. Rather than self-pity, it would most likely suit you better to use your time working out something useful, yes?"

After a silence, the younger man chuckled and admitted, "Yes, that would be a much more effective way to use my time. Thank you."

"Good," the Pharaoh said, then paused for a moment. "The strength it would have taken for you to survive for four years and make a journey like this under those conditions is worthy of respect. I can accept you as my son as much as Atem, Yuugi, and Mokuba, so it would be in your own best interests to stay at Atem and Kai's sides." After saying those words, the man turned and left, nodding at the High Priest as he went.

Said High Priest took a few steps towards the paler man as he commented, "Kisara was right, we look eerily alike."

Blinking in surprise, Seto asked, "So I noticed, but why does that matter?"

"When Kai was born...Atem used my energy to keep him in the form he needed to give birth. Apparently, it irritated Kai, but I passed out—twice—during the process. Did you ever pass out from him taking your energy?" Set asked, his brow raised a little.

Shaking his head, Seto replied, "I got weak and shaky for a few minutes when he did a sudden, large draw, but other than those few minutes, I felt fine. The rest of the time, he was just constantly siphoning off a smaller quantity of energy, and I never even noticed that. For the birth, I have no idea what would have happened, since I have no idea if he would have been drawing the same amount or more energy."

That time, it was Set's turn to blink in surprise, then he gave a wry grin and said, "I want to know how extensive your energy is, so once Kai starts his lessons in about two years, you may want to convince Atem to bear another child—the action suits him oddly well. That is, it won't hurt him to produce another, and it would let you know what the birth is like for him. Well, as long as you don't produce another child like Kai."

"In what way?" the paler man asked in surprise.

"Did Prince Atem tell you about how often Kai manages to get out of the Palace?" the darker of the two asked in mild amusement.

"...He implied it was fairly regularly."

"Ah. Well, let me clarify that, then. Since your arrival, he's been behaved and stayed in the Palace, so a day and a half. He's never been so well-behaved before, and the Prince easily spends a third of his day every day chasing him through the city or the desert, or, more often, both. The boy never seems to stop or run out of energy, the sun and heat apparently have no effect on him, and he only takes enough time to drink any liquids when he stops to eat his meals. More often, he grabs things like grapes and pomegranates off the farmer's stands in the city or off wild plants and eats them on the run to get his liquids. The entertainment value of the chase is really both their only saving grace. That's what he's been dealing with since Kai was only about a year old."

At first, Seto was shocked and horrified by the reality of the situation, but he then instinctively began finding ways around the situation—and came up with, "If he has so much energy and apparently likes running so much, let him carry messages for people and make the whole city his babysitters in the process."

After a surprised blink, the High Priest asked, "At three?"

"Well, 'running' seems to be his way of 'playing', and as far as I can tell, the whole city is what he considers his 'playground', so it isn't actually making him 'work' to give him a destination, is it?" the former King asked in mild amusement.

With a little chuckle, Set commented, "I guess you have a point. I'll see if the soldiers and others in town would mind it, then, and you convince the Prince to do it."

"That shouldn't be hard if it means we both get time together because Kai is otherwise occupied," Seto replied in amusement, and the other man laughed.