In Times of Peace

Chapter Ten

Grounded is Boring

Yuery knew it was to be a punishment. He had put himself, and worse, his little brother in danger. Mom and Dad were right, he'd messed up. He was still bored. Unless an adult was with him, Yuery was not allowed out of the house not even the garden. Especially the garden, since they were playing there when they wandered off to go find the injured kitten.

Yuery had already finished all of his schoolwork and his alchemy work. He'd finished his chores and he'd played with Maes and Trisha. William had needed some help with his work, so Yuery had helped him as well. There was nothing left to do with the day and it was only noon! Groundings were torture.

Yuery decided to go find Dad or Yeye to beg them to teach him some new alchemy stuff. At least then he wouldn't be bored anymore. Will was pouting about it because he was bored as well, but Will didn't care about alchemy so Yuery wasn't sure what to do about it. He suggested that Will go play with Trish. Maes was following Yuery to talk to Dad.

The plan fell apart when Yuery was told by Mommy that Dad, Yeye, AND Uncle Al had all left a little while ago. The mean reporter had decided to write her story, even after Yeye had told them no, so they had gone back to the city to talk to the newspaper. Aunt Mei was still in the house, but she wasn't feeling good and was taking a nap.

Mom offered to let them sit with her while she finished her paperwork, then they could play together. Maes happily sat with Mom but Yuery decided to go find something else to do. As far as he was concerned being a grown up was terrible. It was nothing but an endless amount of paperwork, and people saying mean things to upset you.

He wandered back to where Will was playing with Trish, "Dad and Yeye left. Mom said we can watch her work on papers. I'll play with Trishy if you wanna."

"Okay." Will said happily before jumping up and rushing off to join Mom and Maes. Nainai and Tad came in as Will was leaving.

"Oh Yu. Would you mind if Tad joined you for awhile? I'm going to start lunch." Nainai said.

"Okay. Taddy, Trishy lets play cards." Yuery said, before grabbing the deck from the drawer and dealing out to the other kids. It went terribly of course, both of the babies started bending and chewing on the cards. They didn't put down the right numbers on the pile. Then Trisha got up and wandered away during her turn. Why were babies so hard to play with?

Trisha was easy to find because she had left a trail of discarded cards behind her as she wandered into the playroom. Now she was playing with her dolls, and Tad joined her but Yuery was bored again. There was absolutely nothing fun to do inside the house. Nainai came to tell them it was lunchtime, so Yuery lead the other two to the bathroom to wash their hands then to the dining room so they could eat.

Mom and his brothers were already sitting there, though Mom got up to help Trisha and Tad into their chairs. After everyone sat down and Nainai had given everyone a sandwich, Yuery asked if Mom would take them out to play after lunch. "Not today, Dad and Yeye want us to stay inside today just in case the mean reporters are hiding out there trying to take pictures."

Yuery was disappointed but nodded. He hated when the weird people wanted to take pictures of them while they were playing. Mom offered to play an inside game with them instead. Maes and Will agreed right away and excitedly. Yuery just nodded as he poked at his food. He was tired of all the people with cameras. It was stupid, all the people who wanted pictures of them.

After Yuery had helped Nainai with the dishes and Will had cleaned the table, Mom lead them back to the playroom to play with them for a while. Dad came home while they were busy painting. He came into the playroom, but he'd been upstairs first because he was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Mom smiled at him when he sat down between Tad and Trisha.

"You shouldn't be breathing in paint fumes." Dad said to Mom.

"I'm not, they're watercolors." Mom said back as she helped Maes dip his brush.

"Daddy, did you make the mean reporter be nice?" Yuery asked.

"No Buddy. Not yet. Yeye is going to do it." Dad said, then told Mom that Yeye was going to sew that woman's pants off which made no sense to Yuery. How was taking her pants going to make her be nice?

"Not sew, Buddy. Sue. It's when you go to court and have a judge make them stop doing something." Dad explained with a laugh.

"But Daddy. How does taking her pants make her nice?" Yuery asked confused.

"Yeye isn't going to take her pants Sweetheart. He's going to take her money unless she stops saying bad things." Mommy said. That made more sense. Pants are where you kept your money, so that's why Yeye wanted her pants. He nodded before going back to his painting.

"Mommy. Did that bad lady make Daddy sad too?" Will asked, looking up from his own painting.

"Very sad." Daddy said. "It always makes me sad when people say mean things to you kids or your mom."

"I'm fine Ed. You and I both know that woman is full of sh- nonsense. I love these boys as much as you do, and there is no difference to me between the boys and the babies." Mom said.

"I just don't want the kids reading old article in the future and doubting their childhood." Dad said.

"I really don't think they will." Mom said before standing up. "If you got these guys under control I'm going to run to the bathroom."

"Of course, of course." Dad said. "Take your time. Once they are finished here I'm going to run them a bath."

Yuery frowned at the word. He had learned that baths were just easier if you didn't fight them, but he still wasn't fond of them. Daddy had suggested offering him a shower instead a few days ago, but Mom thought Yuery was still too small. Hopefully he'd be big soon because then he would be able to skip baths.

Once they were done with the papers, and Dad had cleaned up the paints, Dad took them upstairs. He left Tad and Trisha with Yeye who said their bath was already filled, then lead them into the bathroom. Mom was just turning off the water. She had added bubbles.

Yuery liked bubbles. They made bath time fun. Dad helped him climb in before lifting Maes in beside him and Will after that. "Yuery's not going to fit in here with the others soon." Dad said as he handed Yuery a washcloth covered in soap.

"Well then he'll just have to go after them then." Mom said while she scrubbed Maes' hands and arms.

"We could let him try the shower, and if he's not ready, he's not ready." Dad said and Yuery looked up in excitement.

"Fine. Next time. But you're going to be in charge of drying the bathroom when he gets water everywhere." Mom said with a frown.

"Aren't I in charge of that anyway?" Dad asked and Mom threw a washcloth at him. Then the boys started splashing both of their parents while they all laughed. By the time everyone was done the floor and their parents were soaked.