Author's Note: This particular chapter feels a little slow, but I think that it was necessary to give a little flesh to their lives and relationships. Yugi has never been just a hero, and that's why he's so great. He has things that keep him rooted, and they are his source of strength. He's not the stoic hero of fairy tales who go through difficult trials without feeling fear, doubt, or hesitation, so he is going to feel all of those things. So far it's been fun imagining what kind of adult he'd be. As a parent I think he'd be fairly affectionate and protective because he is protective of who he cares about. Any child that was a combination of his Tea's genes would have to be kind natured and pretty straight laced, so I imagine that they would have a pretty peaceful home life when they're not worrying about being murdered in their sleep.

At any rate, here's a fairly nice chapter with a small bit of fluff. I decided to post sooner since I got a review on a previous chapter and I already had the chapter written. Please enjoy your second chapter on the same day!

-ForeverLily

Higher Stakes Chapter 5: The wrath of Seto Kaiba

The days went by, and little by little Yugi made progress on the puzzle. For whatever reason, he had only been able to connect two at a time each day. It was almost as if the puzzle was dragging it out on purpose. In the meantime life went on in a fashion that was as close to normal as things could ever be. He followed his usual routine of getting up and dressed, eating breakfast with his family, kissing his wife and daughter on the cheek as they left, and then going to the shop to wait for the early morning customers that sometimes trickled in. After the way the things had been recently, going back to his old life seemed so surreal. It felt wrong somehow.

He tried not to think about it by busying himself with unpacking inventory when someone walked in.

"Hello young man." An elderly lady who lived down the street greeted him.

"Hello Ma'am. How can I help you."

"Can I please I have the newest…what's it called…I'm sorry, my mind seems to be going in my old age. The latest tin for that duel monsters game?"

He presented her with the three choices. "Right now there are three new tins. Can you tell me which one he'd prefer?"

"I'm afraid he didn't say. He's just starting out, you see, so he doesn't know what he needs yet." He nodded in understanding. That wasn't an uncommon problem, especially when it came to young children.

"How about his one?" He held up the blue tin. "The cards in this set are especially good for beginners because it includes a lot of staple cards that help create the foundation for a strong deck."

She smiled at him in gratitude and pointed at the blue tin. "Then I'll take that one please, Mr. Motou. You look so much like your grandfather when he was young," she said wistfully.

He laughed awkwardly. "You'd be surprised at how often I hear that."

"I used to have a bit of crush on him you know," she winked. "Back when I was young. Thank you for your help, Mr. Mutou. I can promise you I'll be back sometimes soon."

"Thank you, please come again!"

As she turned around to leave a boy with messy hair and dirt smeared on his clothes came speeding through the door. "Mr. Mutou! Please tell you me have a gravity bind!" The boy's eyes glimmered desperately. "Some kids mugged me and stole my gravity bind. I don't know what to do! I was on my way to the Duel Academy Entrance Exam! How am I supposed to duel with a gravity bind deck without gravity bind?"

"I don't have any in the case, but I might have one more out back."

He expertly began thumbing through the cards recently sold to him by other duelists. "Let's see…Gs…Gamble, Gem Flash Energy, Gift of the Mystical Elf, Grave Robber's Retribution…Gravity bind!" He muttered under his breath. He handed the card over to the boy.

"Thanks! I'll totally." He felt around his pocket. "Uh oh…"

The color drained from the boy's face. "My money's gone!"

Yugi couldn't help but the times that he had been bullied and targeted because of his small size. The poor kid needed a break. "It's okay. It's on me this time. Just go and win that duel, okay?"

"Thanks! I owe you."

"If you run you might still catch the bus!"

He enthusiastically nodded. "I will. Thanks again!" The boy ran out faster than he came in. Yugi was exhausted just looking at the poor kid. "I wish I had that kind of energy!"

"You make yourself sound like an old man and you're not even forty yet!"

"What?" He turned around, startled. He saw his wife standing in the doorway. "You startled me. I thought you had lessons today?"

She sighed in defeat. "Not a single one of my students showed up! Can you believe it? I guess they all wanted to watch the entrance duels!"

The phone rang loudly. "Turtle game shop how can I help you."

"Yugi." It was Kaiba. "Are you aware that your daughter's applied to Duel Academy? Have you finally come to your senses and allowed her to apply?"

Yugi was furious, how could she go behind his back after he told her no, especially at a time like this? "No I wasn't. I'm not even sure how she got there-Tea drove her to school this morning. We told her that she's not allowed to apply because it's too risky." What was that girl thinking? Didn't they just talk about the risks yesterday?"

"Are you questioning my ability to protect my company?" Now his voice had an edge to it.

"No, of course not, but you know our feelings. We want her to have a more broad education, although we were reconsidering letting her apply until all of this happened. We thought that it would be too obvious for her to go. If someone comes looking for her during the day the first place they'd assume my child would be is Duel Academy."

"I was notified of falsified information because she tried to forge your signature."

What had gotten into that girl? "Alright, I'll head over and bring her home."

"There's no need-Mokuba's heading there on business. I'm sure he won't mind bringing her back."

"Thank you for letting me know."

"I'll have a word with her on the way back. I trust you'll do the same."

"Of course." He actually wasn't sure that he could bring himself to scold her too much after a talk with Seto. He could be harsh, maybe even too harsh, and those conversations usually ended in tears. She told him that he had a way of making her ashamed of herself for not meeting his expectations.

"I'll talk to you later, so bye." He hung up

"What is it?"

"Akari forged my signature and signed up for Duel Academy entrance Exams."

"She did what? Oh, when I'm through with her-"

"Seto's beaten us to the punch. He's going to have a talk with her first."

"Oh." He could see her anger starting to deflate. "Good. Maybe then she'll learn that her actions have consequences." Seto Kaiba was their ultimate threat, although they rarely needed to follow through because after she heard the threat she almost always cleaned up her act. Seto had noted this once with some amusement, and made snide remarks about their parenting, but he didn't seem to mind. Akari hated disappointed her family, but she particularly dreaded disappointing Seto because she had always looked up to him.

Mokuba showed up at their front door right around 2 o'clock in the afternoon with a very sullen Akari. "I figured that she had already missed enough school that she wouldn't be counted present by the attendance office, so I thought it might be best to take her home."

"Thank you Mokuba. I'm sorry you had to go through all of this trouble."

"No, it was no-" He saw Tea's and Yugi's expression and cleared his throat, changing his expression from gracious and reassuring to annoyed."I mean, yes, Akari, you put me through a great deal of trouble. Your immaturity forced me to interrupt my business. You didn't just inconvenience me, you inconvenienced Seto and your father. Things might look calm, but you are in danger. Something could have happened to you. I, uh, hope you understand."

"Go to your room young lady! We'll have a word with you after you think about what you've done," Tea scolded.

Without another word Akari turned around and went to her room. "Don't be too hard on her. Seto's already talked to her," Mokuba pleaded.

"What did he say?" Yugi asked.

Mokuba grimaced. "That what she did was stupid, dangerous, illegal, and inconvenienced everyone. He said that he thought she was a smart girl, but her actions showed otherwise today. He expected better from her, and she had better shape up if she wished to get anywhere in life because angering the people who are on your side is a bad move for both your professional life and personal life." There was a short pause. "She'll be fine. I think he gave a similar speech to me once when I was a teenager. That was probably the only time I disobeyed him as a kid." That was pretty harsh, especially considering that she was only fifteen.

"I hope she's alright…" Tea said with pity.

Yugi put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll talk to her. She's a smart girl, she'll see reason."

"Yugi, she's a teenager. I'm not sure that's physically possible."

They waited fifteen long minutes in the shop before going upstairs.

Yugi knocked and then walked in. Akari was lying on her bed crying into her pillow.

"Akari?"

She just turned away. "What was I thinking?" She said in between hiccups. "I've disappointed everyone. All I wanted was to be like every other kid. I just wasn't thinking. Now I've put Uncle Seto and Uncle Mokuba out, and everything's all wrong!" The only time she actually cried when she was in trouble was when someone said they were disappointed in her. She held herself to high standard in order to please her role model and her parents, and falling short of them was devastating.

Yugi's heart wrenched. He hated seeing her like this. Tea went and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Honey, we're not angry, just worried. Something bad could have happened to you and we'd have no idea. And further, you broke law. Seto gave you a second chance, so let's just to try to learn something from all this, okay?" Yugi kneeled next to the bed. "Look at me Kari." He used her childhood nickname to soften it a little. She rolled over, but refused to look him in the eye. "We're not going to give you another lecture because we know Seto beat us to it, and he can be pretty scary. This time around we won't ground you, but we will if we you do something like that again, okay?" She nodded.

"Now give me hug."

She hugged her dad and cried into his shirt while Tea stroked her hair. "Okay. I promise I'll make you proud!" She sniffled.

Tea hugged her too. "Why don't you go and clean yourself up? And then after that you should go and study for the test on Monday."

Her parents left her alone. Once they got into the living room they collapsed onto the couch. "Do you think we were too easy on her?" Tea asked.

"She never gets into trouble. I think the worst thing she's ever done is lie to us about finishing her homework before going out with her friends, and even then she always has it done before class starts. I think that we should give her the benefit of the doubt. Besides, I think her conversation with Seto has set her straight. She won't make the same mistake twice."

A few minutes later Akari was downstairs, face washed, and with a book in her hand. It read, Math for the Mathematically Challenged.

"What's this?"

"It's a book Sara gave me. She says it should help me with my homework. I'm not getting this whole fraction with a variable thing." She lowered the book and blushed a little. Uncle Mokuba said he'd help me study for my test this weekend," she added. "He's really good at this stuff, so he promised to help me."

"Okay, have fun studying," Tea teased.

"You know me, I totally will." Akari walked to the kitchen table and began spreading her stuff out. She said that she could never stand to sit at a desk for too long. She said it was too distracting to study in her room, so she often studied in the kitchen. They decided that they didn't care as long as she was doing well.

Yugi took a peek at the shop, and at his daughter who had quietly begun flipping through the pages of her book. "Tea, would you mind taking over the shop for me? I was thinking I should work on the puzzle, but I didn't want it out in the open at the shop."

"Sure."

He went upstairs and switched on the ancient desk lamp and began to try to fit them together absent mindedly. Even if my mind can't remember, maybe my hands can. He thought of other things, like what the puzzle wanted him to wait for. It was clear to him that the time hadn't come for him to solve it, so when would it be? What was it waiting for? He put together is two pieces for the day and found that he could not put anymore together, although like always, he tried. Exhaustion began to seep in from staring at the puzzle for so long. Slowly he could feel his eyes begin to fall.

"Hello Yugi." The Pharaoh greeted him.

Yugi looked around in confusion. He was standing by the sparkling waters of river, and when he turned around he could see sand as far as the eyes could see. This desert wasn't inhabited, though he recognized the buildings. He was in Egypt staring at the Nile. He realized then that he must have fallen asleep.

"Hi."

The pharaoh read his expression like a book. "You are frustrated about something."

"It's the puzzle."

"You still haven't solved it?"

"For some reason I can only manage to do two pieces a day. I think it's purposefully dragging this out- I just can't figure out why."

The smiled comfortingly, "I'm sure there's a reason, just have faith." He remember that smile that Pharaoh used to give them when everything looked like it was about to fall apart. It was meant to offer comfort, and it was absurdly comforting, despite the fact that it was coming from someone who looked almost physically young enough to be his son. The idea was almost laughable, but it had been easy to fall back into old roles. Somehow the Pharaoh had a way of making him feel like teenager stumbling around as he tried to find his way again.

"I was hoping you'd know. You know about shadow magic, and you understand more the puzzle's intricacies better than I do. Most of what I knew about the puzzle was more, I don't know, instinctual. When I went inside the puzzle it was never something that I thought about. I just did it."

He chuckled. "Sorry Yugi, I may be a King, but even I'm not all knowing, although people seem to think I am."

They stood in awkward silence for a moment until Yugi couldn't stand it any longer. "So...did you pick this?"

"Hm?"

He motioned to the general area that they were in."Egypt. We're in Egypt. My thoughts have been taken over by daughter sneaking into the Duel Academy Entrance Exam, so I would have thought that if I was in charge of the dream we'd be in a duel arena or something."

"It may be the puzzle. When did you last work on it?"

"I fell asleep while working on the puzzle," Yugi admitted with some embarrassment. "I don't know why I've been so exhausted. Joey tells me it's because I'm an old soul, so my age is doubled," he laughed. "I feel kinda bad now for teasing grandpa about falling asleep early."

"I see. That explains things. You should try taking your mind off of it for a while."

Maybe they all needed a day off to do something fun. They had been awfully tense lately. He wasn't sure if he could get Tea to agree because they were supposed to punishing their daughter.

"Is there a reason you don't want her enroll in this Duel Academy?"

"I get asked that a lot, especially since Kaiba runs the academy. Did you know we're friends now? He comes over to my house with Mokuba and Mokuba's wife and son?"

The Pharaoh nodded. "I had a feeling. I thought I saw the beginnings of a friendship before, so I was hardly surprised. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but you have always had a way of turning your enemies into friends, or allies at the very least."

Yugi opened his mouth to protest when he realized that he was right. Joey and Tristan had been bullies. Kaiba had stolen his grandpa's card and used to be full of hatred and anger. Duke Devlin had tried to humiliate him on camera and made Joey his personal dog because he lost a duel, and Marik's dark side tried to steal their soul. Even Pegasus had helped them on a few occasions. "You might have a point," he admitted. "People assume that because we're friends, and because I'm the King of Games my daughter should go, but I want her to have a more broad education, and also, given the current state of things it's not safe."

"Wouldn't she be safer there?"

"It would be the first place he'd look for her. There's another reason, although we've never told her about it…"

"What is it?"

"We were afraid she'd be treated like a celebrity by the other students, or that they would have unfair expectations for her just because of who I am. We want to her to make a name for herself, and for people to recognize her because of her talents and her personality. It's not that we think it would change her, but we don't want to burden her with that. In a regular school she's treated by most of her peers just like everyone else. We knew that she wanted to take the exam, but we never thought she'd forge my signature to do it."

"How did you find out?"

"Seto was alerted when the signature didn't match up with mine. He gave her talk already, so I don't think she's ever going to repeat that particular mistake. We were terrified when we found out that she had left without telling us. What if Bakura had tried something?"

He could tell the Pharaoh wanted to say something. He was holding back. "What is it? Do you think I'm worrying too much?"

"I shouldn't interfere with your parenting."

"What is it?"

"I think that you should let her go and get the training she needs. You do not know what her destiny is, and will not be able to protect her forever."

"We haven't been neglecting her dueling education. She has quite a few high ranking duelists at her disposal. Seto, Joey, Mai, and I all take turns teaching her everything we know. Mokuba helps, and so does Rebecca when she visits."

"It's not the same, and you know it. If duelists are, as you say, being trained in schools, perhaps she should be there."

For some reason this made Yugi feel more defensive. It also made him wonder why he had come to see him. He was only allowed to come in certain situations, so he couldn't have come just to catch up. "Not that I'm not happy to see you again, but why exactly did you want to talk to me?"

His face grew grave again."I can sense that the time is drawing near. Do not be overly cautious. If you are, it may only cause you more grief."

"I thought that might be case." He could sense it as well, and it had put him on edge. "We know the location of five of the seven items, so all we need are the millennium key and scales."

"Believe in the heart of the cards and you will find that things are not as bleak as they appear." Bleak wasn't the word that he would have used now that they knew the locations of the items. "You need to wake up now Yugi, Tea's looking for you. Tell her I said hello," the Pharaoh smiled sadly. Suddenly the heat and the desert sand faded away and his eyes fluttered open.

"Tea?"

She put a hand on his forehead to check for his temperature."You okay? You haven't been sleeping well lately, and now this?"

Yugi laughed it off. "Really Tea, I'm fine. I just fell asleep while working on the puzzle. I was trying to not think about so that muscle memory could kick in, but all I managed to do was fall asleep! I had another conversation with the Pharaoh."

Yugi recognized a flicker of something cross her face, but it was gone before he could identify it. "Really? What did he say?"

"He says hi, and that, and these are his exact words, the time is drawing near."

She took a moment to formulate her words. "I see. Well then, I guess we'll just have to give it all we've got, won't we?" Instead of the dread that he expected to see, he saw raw determination in it's place. His wife had always had a fire in her that he admired, and now that she was showing it he somehow felt more determined than ever. It was one of the many traits that he loved about her. Sometimes Yugi, despite being cheerful by nature, found that he internalized his problems until they began to leach away at him. Tea had a way of drawing him out of it.

"I'm going to try again. I feel like this time I'll be able to do it for real."

"I'll be rooting for you." Tea dragged an old chair right next to his. She wiped the dust off and sat down. "I'll keep you company."

She leaned back in her chair. "So Yugi, does it feel weird to be doing this again? I feel like a teenager again, only a little bit wiser than I was back then!"

"So do I. I used to spend hours doing this every night. But, do you know the difference between now and then?"

"What?"

He put the puzzle piece that had been manipulating down and leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm happy. Before I solved the puzzle I was lonely. Now I'm happier than I ever thought I'd be, and it's partially thanks to you."

Together they chatted happily as Yugi worked to fit the puzzle pieces together. They talked about everything from their childhood to the shop and the ridiculous thing that she had seen on her way work. For the first time in days they relaxed together and forgot their troubles.

Author's Note:

Akari has two main role models in her life-Her father and Seto Kaiba. It's only natural that having a role model with such high expectations would force you to strive to work harder. She knows her dad and Seto would love her no matter what, but she also knows that Seto has little tolerance for laziness, and his displeasure is not something that you ever want to face. This chapter revolves around this idea.

On an entirely different note, I'd like to apologize for any weird spacing you might find in this chapter. When I converted it into a word doc I noticed that some of my spacing seemed a bit off. I've tried to fix as many as I can, but nobody's perfect and I might still have missed some. The same goes for name inconsistancies. Originally I was going to use Japanese names mixed with a few of the English ones (for minor characters), but thought that it would be misleading and cause me greater problems down the road because I grew up with the dub and the English names come the most naturally to me. I'd inevitably find myself slipping and just decided that it would be easier to switch.

Thanks for reading! I would also really appreciate it if you could find the time to review as well!

ForeverLily