Disclaimer – I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!

*Rated M for Mature

Chapter 21 – Thursday

Joey sighed contentedly as he cuddled closer to the warm bodies next to him. Wait. Bodies? Hadn't he only been sleeping next to Serenity last night?

Eyes shooting open, the blond took in his surroundings, sighing in relief when he saw Mokuba and Serenity of either side of him. Now, when did that happen?

And where the fuck was Seto?

Grumbling to himself—but not so much that he would wake up the young ones—he carefully rose from the bed, stumbling around in the early morning light in search of the missing CEO. When he finally made it to the door, he quietly stepped out into the hall. All was quiet. And it still seemed like the power was still out.

Joey rubbed his arms together and trudged down the stairs. "Seto?" he called. "Where the fuck—AAH! Don't sneak up on me like that, you fucking bastard!"

The blond smacked Seto on the shoulder just for good measure. Smirking at his Puppy's obvious embarrassment, he ruffled the blond's hair some in apology.

"Sorry, Pup. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Where were you?" Joey asked, trying to change the subject. He didn't like the smirk he was receiving.

"I came down here to make a phone call. It seems the storm knocked out most of the power in Domino. School is cancelled until further notice, so it looks like we have the house to ourselves…with the little ones…and no power," he grumbled heatedly.

Joey pinched the bridge of his nose. "You don't have to make it sound like the end of the world. Do you have a backup generator or anything?"

"No."

"Kerosene?"

"No."

"Candles?"

"No."

"Do you have anything?" Joey snapped, peeved due to Seto's unpreparedness.

The brunet balked. "Um, we have a fireplace in the living room," he offered.

"Is there any wood to burn in the damn thing? Matches or lighters included?" Joey inquired coldly.

"Yes," Seto managed to…squeak out. He wasn't used to angry, domestic Joey.

"Okay," replied the blond, who seemed to be appeased for the time being. "Where is everything?"

"There's a door off to the side of the living room. If you open that, you'll see the wood that's been stacked there and everything else you might need should be in there as well," Seto rambled.

"Good. I'll get started on that and you can wake the kids up. Make sure they dress warmly. Serenity can borrow something of mine. Sweats should fit her. Then bring them down to the living room."

"What for?"

Ooh! Joey's death glare was back!

"If you hadn't noticed," the blond began as if he were speaking to a child, "the mansion is freezing. I'm going to start a fire in the fireplace so that everyone can warm up. I'll also be gathering what I can from the kitchen in order to make everyone a decent meal since the power is out. Got it?"

"Yep," Seto answered briefly, wanting to get out of Joey's way as soon as possible. "Love you." And with that, the brunet scampered off to wake the kids.

Joey chuckled amusedly by Seto's behavior. Messing with him like this was fun. He wanted to tease him as much as the brunet did. He had that right, didn't he? Smiling, the blond set off to the living room, where he hoped they would all be spending some quality time together.

Waking up two nearly comatose preteens had not been on Seto's to-do list. It was almost impossible to wake them up. But when he did, the brunet had really wanted to knock them back out with whatever he could get his hands on. Who knew those two could be so uncooperative?

Seto had just about had it with their complaining. Whining about wanting to sleep some more was not something he was accustomed to dealing with.

Now that he thought about it, he felt really sorry for the maid who woke Mokuba up every morning. He could literally feel her pain. Seto didn't know that waking up Mokuba included being swung at with a fist. He was worse than Joey.

Oh, no. Joey. Seto was actually surprised that the blond hadn't checked on them yet. And facing off against him when it came to parenting was not something he wanted to encounter just yet.

"Look," began the brunet, losing his patience, "just come on and we'll go downstairs to the living room. Joey's making a fire in the fireplace and he said he was going to cook—"

Two bodies whizzed past him. Mokuba and Serenity were out the door before you could say, 'Duel Monsters.'

Seto stood there, dumbfounded as he mulled over what he'd said. What did he say that would make them bolt downstairs like lightning?

Not being able to figure it out, Seto left the room and went downstairs and into the living room. When he got there, Mokuba and Serenity were sitting near Joey, eagerly watching what he was doing.

The brunet had to admit, his Puppy looked quite stunning in firelight. The blond's hair shimmered like gold and his skin just seemed to glow.

"Would you like to join us or are you just going to stand there like a statue all day?" Joey joked.

Startled out of his reverie, Seto strode toward the three of them and sat down before the fire. "What the hell are you making?"

Joey rolled his eyes at the brunet's blatant approach. "This," the blond said, handing a mug to Seto, "is hot chocolate. Since the power is out—and we don't know for how long—I took out most of the perishables that would go first, like the milk. Now drink it before it gets cold."

"But…I don't like hot chocolate," Seto muttered, staring at his mug that should have been holding coffee.

"Well, you do today. Besides, you might like mine," replied Joey, giving him a wink. When Seto didn't make any move to drink it, he said adorably, "If you love me, you'll take a sip."

"If you love me, you won't make me," Seto retaliated childishly, glaring at the hot chocolate. He wanted a caffeine high, not a sugar high.

"Seto," Joey sighed, exasperated. "Fine. Then just do whatever the hell you want."

The brunet's head shot up. His Puppy wasn't going to fight him on this? Why? Usually he could get him worked up over the smallest of things.

The brunet looked back down at the hot chocolate. Well…his Puppy had made it—had made it for him. He might as well try it. Lifting the mug to his lips, Seto took a small sip.

His insides melted.

"Where the fuck did you learn to make hot chocolate?" Seto rasped out.

Joey tried not to show the delight that crept onto his face, but failed miserably. "I taught myself. Why?"

"It's good," Seto said.

The adoring look of admiration was starting to creep the blond out a little bit. It was like Seto was going to jump him or something. Not that he wouldn't mind, but—

He better not jump me in front of the kids! Joey screamed inside his head, his happy expression turning to one of utter shock. The food!

"Seto, would you like something to eat? I made sandwiches and am heating up some soup near the fire as we speak," Joey said, hoping to avert whatever thoughts had crossed the brunet's mind.

There was food, too? If it was anything like his Puppy's hot chocolate, Seto thought he would fall in love with him even more. Just as long as he didn't make a fool of himself while eating. What he really wanted to do was for him and Joey to feed each other, but Mokuba and Serenity were there, so that was out of the picture.

"That sounds really good," Seto replied earnestly.

Joey then passed out some sandwiches he'd made. After he was finished, he moved onto serving them soup.

"This is really good, Joey," said Mokuba.

"Yep! It sure is!" added Serenity.

"You're a wonderful cook, Pup," supplemented Seto.

"This is hardly a three course meal. It's just soup and sandwiches," stated the blond, although inside, he was bubbling.

"I didn't know you could cook this well without modern conveniences. Perhaps you really should do the cooking around here more often. At least, that is, if you want to," Seto finished hurriedly.

Joey seemed to think on that request for a moment before answering. "As long as the three of you eat what I cook, I agree. Just make me a list of things you don't like and I'll make sure to make compromises when I make meals."

Everyone nodded in agreement and sequestered themselves more comfortably on the floor, content in each other's company and the food.

"I am so glad the power is back on!" Joey said tiredly as he collapsed on the couch.

"I'm glad those two monster are in bed now," commented Seto, collapsing right next to him. "We should eliminate all sugar from their diet."

Joey laughed lightly, swatting Seto's hand playfully. "Maybe. But you have to admit, we did have fun today."

"Yes. I suppose we did," reminisced the brunet. "However, we need to find a balance between family time and us time."

"What? You want certain days of the week where we're alone?" asked Joey as he snuggled up to Seto.

"Exactly. I don't want to share you all the time. All Fridays and Saturdays—all twenty-four hours—are our days."

"Hm…that means tomorrow will be our day." Joey turned so that his face was in the crook of Seto's neck. Kissing the exposed flesh gently, he said, "Mokuba will be in school tomorrow, Serenity will be shopping with Tea tomorrow, and we could also let them sleep over at Yugi's tomorrow."

"But when Mokuba's at school, Serenity will be here. When Serenity goes shopping with Tea, Mokuba will be here," Seto pointed out.

"Nope. I work fast. Serenity is going with Mokuba to school tomorrow to shadow him before she starts school Monday. After school, Mokuba will be accompanying Tea and Serenity when they go shopping, and afterward, they'll have a sleepover at Yugi's."

"But we still have school."

"No, we don't."

"And how did you manage to pull that off?"

"Gozaburo and my father died recently, so the school allowed us to take the rest of the week off," explained Joey.

"Oh. So what did you want to do?"

"We'll go to school."

"What? But you just said—"

"I know what I said," Joey giggled. "We won't be going to school to go to class. We'll be going to school so that I can take you to the Art Room and show you some of the current pieces I've been working on."

Seto pulled Joey into his lap, kissing him soundly on the mouth. "I really like that idea," he replied thoughtfully. "And what would you like to do after?"

"Well, we'll have the place to ourselves. I think we can get creative," Joey hinted.

"You mean—"

"We're not having sex until my cast is gone," the blond deadpanned, virtually extinguishing all hope in Seto's eyes. "But we can have an extremely hot make-out session."

"How about we start now?" the brunet growled as he suddenly pinned Joey to the couch and eyed him hungrily.

But before they could make a move, a loud crash from upstairs made them shoot upright.

"Sorry!" Mokuba and Serenity called from above.

"That's it!" Joey snapped, leaping from the couch and storming upstairs. "When it's summer, we're sending their asses to Summer Camp. A very long Summer Camp."

Wow. And Seto thought he was the sexually frustrated one. It appeared his Puppy wanted it as much as him…even if he made it seem like he didn't.

"Get your scrawny butts in bed right now! You're both going to school tomorrow!" roared Joey from above. A few moments later, the blond's voice returned. "Don't you 'but Joey' me! Bed! Now!"

Another few moments later, Joey came down the stairs looking fearsome.

"Is everything okay? Do you want me to deal with them?" Seto offered.

"No, I got it. I told them that if they didn't go to bed that you'd be doing the cooking for the next week. They shut up and went to sleep in a matter of seconds after that."

Seto was now fuming. "Are you insulting my cooking ability?"

"Hey, I can't insult what I haven't tried…and there's a lot of you I haven't tried yet," Joey hinted suggestively as he sauntered back toward the living room.

Seto made to grab him, but the blond evaded his reach. "Come back here."

"You have to catch me first!" Joey laughed as he ran away, Seto hot on his tail.

A loud thump sounded in the living room accompanied by the sound of laughter—from two people. Everything was going well after all.

End Chapter