Tipshipping (Jonouchi x Yugi x Sugoroku)
It was a nice, breezy day with a cheerful, not-too-warm sun that was often broken by fast moving, fluffy clouds. Birds were singing, children were playing in the park under the watchful eye of their parents, and the trees and flowers were never so bright and cheerful as they were today.
So, naturally, Yugi and Jonouchi were sitting in the Mutou's dim, dusty game shop playing games.
"I lost again..." Jonouchi groaned, letting his head fall to the table.
"Well, I've had a lot of practice with peg racing games," Yugi said comfortingly.
He shifted the old Egyptian frog game away from Jonouchi's collapse. His grandpa would probably kill him if he knew they were playing around with some of the older games. But the two boys had already worked their way through their usual games, and they had wanted to try something a little different.
"Yeah, and you've also had a lot of practice with fighting games, racing games, puzzle games, role-playing games, even life sim games...I can't beat you at anything! You really are the king of games!"
Yugi couldn't help but laugh.
"That's the pharaoh, and you know it, Jonouchi. I've lost plenty of times!"
"Yeah, but never to me!"
The back door creaked open, and Jonouchi's head shot up. Instantly, Yugi grabbed the old Egyptian game and slipped it under the table into his lap, only moments before his grandfather walked in with a pile of boxes.
"Grandpa! Do you need help with that?" Yugi said.
Jonouchi half stood, intending to help him, but Sugoroku hmphed, and set the boxes down before the blond boy could do anything. He stood up and wiped at his brow.
"Hoo wee," he said. "Your mother's going on quite the cleaning spree upstairs, Yugi."
"Again?" Yugi said, jumping up and nearly losing the peg game before snagging it and putting it back on the table. "She hasn't gotten to my room yet, has she? She keeps threatening to get rid of my Duel Monsters binders if I don't clean my room!"
"Don't worry, don't worry," Sugoroku said, grinning. "I've already headed her off of your room. And mine, for that matter. I told her I'd take care of it."
"And she believed you?" Yugi said.
Sugoroku guffawed for a moment. Once he had recovered himself, he wandered over to the table.
"Ah, getting into my artifacts stash, huh? You boys must have been bored."
Yugi's face flushed as he remembered he hadn't hidden the game.
"Sorry, grandpa...mom shooed us out here so we couldn't play video games," he said.
"I asked him to get this one out," Jonouchi said, sitting back down. "I thought maybe I could win at this one."
"Hah! Yugi keeps beating you, does he? Well, he did learn from the best!"
Sugoroku ruffled his grandson's hair, and Yugi blushed deeper.
"Grandpa..."
"Hey, I learned some stuff from you too!" Jonouchi protested.
Sugoroku just grinned and pulled a chair up to the table, sitting down.
"I think I have a few minutes before your mother comes looking for me," he said to Yugi.
He pushed the game back to the center of the table.
"Ah, that's where you were going wrong, Jonouchi," Sugoroku said, examining the pieces. "See here, you should have moved your peg here, and you would have been open to fill these spaces, see? You let Yugi box you in."
"Really?" Jonouchi said, leaning forward. "How'd you see that? I totally missed it!"
"Well, an old man like me ought to know a few things by now," Sugoroku said. "Go on, you boys restart, and I'll take a look at how you're strategizing."
Jonouchi took his pegs out and replaced them at the beginning corners, trying to hide the look on his face that said he had absolutely no idea there was a strategy to peg racing games. Yugi followed suit, though he looked a little bit happier.
"All right, Jonouchi, you go first," Sugoroku said. "Oh – see there, that was the first mistake! You're not giving yourself enough room! Look, Yugi's already boxed you in there. Take a look at this formation here – no, no, no, don't move your peg there. Here's a better spot. Oh, Yugi, I ought to be ashamed of you – that move was not well thought out! See, look, you let Jonouchi get the advantage there. Good, good, both of you, you're really competing now! All right, Jonouchi, try this formation out –"
"Oh, tou-san!"
The three gamers jumped almost at once. In the doorway stood Yugi's mom, hands on her hips and looking very cross.
"I thought I asked you to take these boxes to the curb, tou-san!" Yugi's mother said, throwing up her hands in exasperation. "And you said you were going to help with the bathrooms, didn't you? And you, Yugi, Jonouchi, it's a beautiful day outside! Go on, shoo, shoo! Life's too short to spend inside – you'll be doing it more than you want to when you're my age!"
Yugi hurriedly swept the game off the table and scurried to the shelves, while Jonouchi sheepishly jumped out the seat as though it was hot and hurried to stand by the door to wait for Yugi. The much shorter boy hurried over to his friend, only half-listening to his mother's still-constant scolding. Both boys glanced over their shoulders at Grandpa Mutou before they stepped outside.
He caught their gazes, grinned, and put a finger to his nose conspiratorially.
The park, five minutes, he mouthed while Yugi's mother's back was turned.
The boys grinned, and hurried outside into the sunlight.
A/N: Wow, it's been so long since I posted! Life has been getting so in the way lately, what with crazy last-minute Halloween costumes and college applications and such. Don't worry though, now I have a schedule, and I'm ready to start posting regularly! You can check my profile page if you want to see the update schedule. Yeah, we'll see how long I last before it falls off the track...all right, next up is Timidshipping (Yugi x Shizuka). Dude, I'm excited for this one. :3
