So I know I'm a little late for this, but I wanted to write something for Valentine's Day. The ship that kept coming to mind to write was Roseshipping, but I ultimately got inspired to write for those who might not have that romantic someone to celebrate with. But there are all kinds of love in the world, and that's kind of what ended up being the heart of this story. Ultimately, this story takes place about fifteen years after The Final Duel.
Another Kind of Love
Pegasus set the bouquet of roses in front of the portrait in the dining hall of his castle. "Your favorites, Cecelia," he chuckled at looked into her pastel blue eyes. "Happy Valentine's day. I love you."
He meant that with every fiber of his being. Cecelia was his life. She was his best friend from the moment they met as children. She encouraged him to paint, and she made the castle a home. She lit up his world like no one else could.
"What do you think about purple in here?" Cecelia asked him.
"I think it would look wonderful," he answered with a grin. "The color would really compliment the pink fur and red overalls of Funny Bunny.
"Oh you," she playfully swatted at him. "We can't just fill the whole room with Funny Bunny! What if it's a girl? What if she likes Daffy Duck instead? Or what he loves Transformers?"
"Then we'll paint them on too," he grinned and kissed her. "I just can't wait to meet the little one."
"Well you're going to have to," she laughed. "You know, some would say we're getting over-prepared."
But he was nowhere near prepared for what would happen. The little one never came. Only weeks after they painted the playroom Cecelia took ill. And the rest became history. Pegasus was left alone in an empty castle, waiting for a family that would never come. And he would never truly be able to bring back.
Pegasus brushed the inevitable tears from his eye, resigning himself to the heartache he felt every year. Valentine's Day was Cecelia's favorite holiday, and Pegasus has been more than happy to indulge her. Roses everywhere, and all the chocolate the two of them could eat. Who needed to go out to a fancy restaurant when you had a fairytale castle?
"Mr. Pegasus," a hand tugged on the end on his red blazer, interrupting his reverie. He turned to see seven-year-old Mana Muto looking up at him.
"What are you doing here, Mana-girl?" he crouched down so he was eye-level with the little girl. "I thought you were playing with Atem-boy and the other children." Having hosted a tournament that ran into the previous day, Pegasus had offered to give the finalists a holiday and let the children play in the castle. Last he looked in on them, Croquet had been watching the six children.
"I got hungry," she answered. "Why are you sad?" She reached a hand to his still damp cheek.
"I miss my wife," Pegasus scooped the girl up so she could see the portrait better. "Her name was Cecelia."
"She's pretty," the seven-year-old looked in awe at the painting.
"Yes, she is," he smiled. "I have an idea. How about you and I head back to the other children, and I'll see if Croquet can find us some ice-scream?"
"With sprinkles? And chocolate?" the girl's blue-green eyes widened in anticipation of the frozen treat.
"But of course," Pegasus grinned.
The two wandered through the castle halls until they came to the purple playroom that was seldom used. Inside were two boys and three girls playing. Pegasus set Mana down, and she charged forward and jumped on a taller boy with tri-colored hair. "Mana!" he yelled at the girl.
"Master Pegasus," Croquet bowed at the door. The grey-haired butler looked so out of his element, Pegasus had to resist the urge to laugh. "I apologize for losing Miss Mana."
"It's all right, Croquet," he assured the butler. "But perhaps you could procure some ice-cream sundaes for the children. I can watch them in the meantime."
"Yes, Master Pegasus."
Pegasus smiled as he looked at each of the children. They were so very much their parent's children. Nine-year-old Atem Muto looked so much like his father with his spiky tri-colored hair and amethyst eyes. As the oldest, Atem was a little ringleader, and won the other children to his side. So very much like Yugi-boy. Pegasus wondered if the child would end up anything like his namesake as well.
Mana giggled as she held onto her brother from behind, insisting on a piggy-back ride. She certainly had Tea-girl's athleticism, as well as her blue-eyes—though Mana's had green in them too—and brown hair, but that hair had some of that Muto spikiness to it. She bounced with energy that seemed to light up the area around her.
He glanced to the white-haired girl sitting in the corner by herself, playing with the stuffed Blue-Eyes White Dragon she'd brought with her. Six-year-old Airi Kaiba was the spitting image of her mother, but she imitated her father like it was nothing. Easily as stubborn as Kaiba-boy himself, Pegasus laughed to himself at the thought of what the younger CEO would have to deal with when the little girl reached the infamous 'rebellious teen phase.' If that was hard for most parents to deal with, Pegasus could only imagine what it would be on a Kaiba scale.
The other three children played with the Funny Bunny and other toys Pegasus had stored in the room. Six-year-old Maxwell Wheeler had Ruff Ruff McGruff growl at his five-year-old cousin Joan Taylor's Funny Bunny. Seven-year-old Amane Ryou forced her Daffy Duck into the middle of them. Like the other three, Pegasus could see the reflections of their parents in them. Max was a Wheeler through and through, but he could see that Valentine cunning in how Ruff Ruff would try to catch the Funny Bunny. Joan looked like Serenity with Tristan's coloring. Amane wore a pink ribbon in the lavender hair she'd inherited from her mother, and her brown eyes lit up as she yelled "Rabbit season!" at the other characters.
"The ice-cream sundaes you requested, sir," Croquet returned with a long cart full of goodies. Multiple flavors of ice-cream, sprinkles, syrups, and even little frosting roses. I'll have to make sure Miss Samantha gets a little bonus. Pegasus's heart clenched at the roses his cook prepared. Cecelia would have loved serving those to the children. "All right, children!" he called to them. "Who wants ice-cream?"
"ME!" All six children jumped to their feet and ran over to the adults with the frozen desserts.
It was borderline chaos as Pegasus and Croquet filled each child's order with minimum mess. It didn't help neither one of them were entirely used to dealing with this many children at once, at least when it came to serving bowls of frozen deliciousness.
Soon each child had a bowl of ice-cream with heaping piles of sprinkles and at least two frosted roses, and they settled down to eat their treats. Pegasus suspected he'd get an earful from at least one of the parents later for allowing so much sugar at once, but it was Valentine's Day, and it wasn't like he'd be in charge of them. Besides, Cecelia would have approved.
"Mr. Pegasus," Atem spoke up after finishing his sundae. "How come you're not with anyone?"
"What do you mean, Atem-boy?" he turned his amber eye on the nine-year-old.
"Mommy and Daddy are out having fun together," he said. "Why aren't you?"
"Yeah, how come?" Max agreed with the older boy. "My mommy and daddy are out too." The other children nodded in agreement.
They are observant little minks, aren't they? "I'm afraid I don't have anyone," he said. "I did have a wife, but she passed away a long time ago."
"Like Great-Grandma Muto?" Mana turned blue-green eyes on him.
"Yes," Pegasus nodded, knowing Solomon's wife had passed before Yugi-boy was even born. That probably didn't stop the old man from sharing stories about her. Pegasus reached for the card he kept in his blazer pocket, so Cecelia was always by his heart. "Would you like to see a picture of my wife?"
"Is it the picture from the room with the roses?" Mana asked.
"Yes," he held out the card for them to see. "Her name is Cecelia."
"She's really, really pretty," Amane said.
"I think so too," Pegasus smiled. "Today was her favorite holiday."
"She loved Valtines Day?" Joan spoke up, stumbling over the name of the day.
"But of course," Pegasus grinned. "It's a day to celebrate the happily-ever-afters we see in stories. Roses, chocolates, candy, kisses—"
"Ew!" all the kids yelled at the same time.
Pegasus chuckled. "Okay, maybe not kisses. But there were also cards, and other gifts, and just sharing the love we had in our hearts."
"Is that what Mommy and Daddy are doing?" Airi asked.
"Yes, though I suspect Kaiba-boy's a little on the reluctant side." The children snickered at the CEO's nickname. Pegasus resisted the urge to convince the impressionable youth to call him that when they next saw him.
"Can you tell us a story about Cecelia?" Mana asked.
"But of course," Pegasus took a seat on the sofa along one of the walls. The children clamored around him. "We first met when we were children…"
…
Pegasus opened his eye to the dimmed playroom. Last he remembered was telling the children about his wedding day—to them, the happily ever after—but… they must have all fallen asleep. He glanced around to see where the children were and smiled at the answer.
Mana was curled up under his left arm, her head resting on his chest. Atem was next to her, sleeping against his arm. Joan had fallen asleep using Pegasus's lap as a pillow, and Max clung to Pegasus's right arm in his sleep. Airi and Amane were curled up at his feet, also sound asleep. Well this is unexpected.
He glanced over to the doorway to see Kisara-girl holding her phone out. "Sorry, it was just such a sweet picture," she apologized.
"Hey, I want a picture of that too," Tea-girl narrowed her eyes at her friend, alerting Pegasus to the fact that she, Mai, Serenity, and Miho where there too.
"Oh, it's fine, Kisara-girl," he whispered, trying not to wake the children. "I really should have gotten them to bed first." He tried to shift, but realized how trapped he was. "I may be little stuck."
The moms chuckled and each went to collect their respective child. When Tea-girl gathered Atem up, Pegasus shifted Mana more comfortable into his hold. "I can carry her."
"Thank you," Tea-girl smiled. "For everything tonight. It was sweet of you to volunteer to watch them so we could have a nice Valentine's Day."
"Oh, it was no trouble at all," Pegasus smiled. "If not for them, I would have spent the holiday alone, remember all that I no longer had. This was the best Valentine's Day I've had in a long time. So I should be thanking you."
…
The next day, Pegasus watched the families get ready to depart back to Domino City. "Mr. Pegasus!" The six children ran up to him, Atem holding a massive piece of paper in his hand.
"Oh my, what's this?" he put on his most surprised expression for their benefit. "Could it be a paper airplane?" He feigned throwing it through the air.
"NO!" they yelled.
"It's a card, silly!" Mana pointed it out.
"A card for me?" he pressed a hand against his chest, as though the shock. "But who could it be from?"
"Us!" the children giggled.
Pegasus opened the big card and had to fight the urge to tear up. It showed a drawing of a castle with six children playing. Above them, a silver-haired man clad in red rode a winged horse with a blonde woman wearing a pastel blue dressing sitting behind him. In wobbly red letters, it read 'Happy Valentine's Day, Mr. Pegasus!" and had each child's name written on it. "This is wonderful! Thank you so much!" He stooped to hug each child.
"Can we spend Valentine's Day with you next year?" Amane asked.
"I think I'd like that very much."
…
Once his guests were gone, Pegasus found himself back in his dining hall, still looking at the card. "What do you think, Cecelia?" he asked the portrait. "This year was more fun than previous years, wasn't it?" He placed the card behind the bouquet of roses. "I think we found another kind of love to celebrate on Valentine's Day."
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I hope you all had a happy day.