Chapter title: Settling In
Word count: 2551
Chapter: 4/?
Chapter summary: Yami help Juudai settling in at his house.
Chapter warnings: -
Pairings: YamixYuugi
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! and/or Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
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Chapter 4: Settling In
Jounouchi came two hours later like he had promised. That was only because of the thing that Yami had said over the phone. Fortunately, Yami's apartment complex had an elevator so he didn't have to haul the bed up the stairs. It wasn't that heavy but still, why do it the hard way when it can be easier?
The doors opened with a 'ding' and Jounouchi rolled the bed out. Another thing he was grateful for was that the thing had wheels. He hoped that Shizuka wouldn't come without notice, or else she would have to sleep on the couch, or rather he would have to sleep on the couch.
Once he reached Yami's door, he knocked on it a couple times.
"Coming."
He heard his friends footsteps before the door opened, showing Yami. "Glad that you could come, did you bring the clothes too?"
"Yep." The blond man answered, showing the bag dangling from his arm.
"Thanks, I owe you." Yami said with a smile, getting out of the way so his friend could enter.
"Yes, you owe me some explanations."
Yami smiled sheepishly as he motioned for Jounouchi to go into the living room. The man did as was requested and gasped. In front of the moderately sized flat screen television, a child lay on his stomach, his elbows on the floor and his chin resting on the palms of his hands, legs swinging up and down. The boy was wearing an oversized t-shirt that belonged to Yami and some oversized sweatpants as well.
"Since when do you have a kid?" Jounouchi asked with a raised eyebrow. "And why do I find out just now?"
Yami shot his friend a glare. "I am working on adopting Juudai. I wanted to tell you when it was all official."
Jounouchi's mouth formed in a silent 'o'. "I see, why this so suddenly though?"
"I'll tell you later." Yami whispered. Juudai had averted his attention from the television to the two talking males.
"Who is that Yami?" Juudai asked, sitting up.
"Hey, I'm Jounouchi Katsuya, but you may call me uncle awesome." Yami rolled his eyes. Juudai grinned.
"Nuh-uh." Juudai stuck out his tongue at the man. "I will call you uncle Bonkotsu."
Jounouchi spluttered, not being able to form words. Yami burst out laughing, making Juudai smile widely. "He got you there uncle Bonkotsu."
"You better watch it! Do you want your clothes or not? I just might take the bed back with me too."
Juudai gasped. "I'm sorry uncle Awesome!" Jounouchi puffed out his chest with a triumphant smile, his aura oozing victory. Yami rolled his eyes again but chuckled this time. The blond man gave the plastic bag to the child.
"Here you go kiddo, I'm sure these will fit you way better than Yami's clothes. Not that they're too big." He snickered.
"Hey!"
Juudai took the bag and examined its contents before taking off towards the bathroom to get changed. He tripped a couple times over the long legs of the pants but he made it unscathed. Jounouchi looked back at Yami after the little boy was out of sight.
"So, Yami being a dad eh?" He teased with a smile. "Never thought I'd see this day."
Yami gave him a playful push. "Honestly, neither did I." He replied with a chuckle. Jounouchi's smile turned into a small frown.
"What about Yuugi? Do you think he will mind Juudai? Not to mention that you will have even less time to go out with him."
This made Yami think. He never even thought about what Yuugi would think about Juudai. When he told the smaller male about the kid and how he tried to help him Yuugi was very positive about it and called it the sweetest thing that he had heard of, so Yami didn't worry too much. He took out his phone to send the male a small text.
Yuugi, can we meet up sometime? I have something big to tell you.
That was weird… Yami saw Yuugi come online but went away again without replying. Juudai emerged from the bathroom, wearing a simple black shirt, a read vest over it and jeans.
"Yuugi isn't answering." Yami said before Juudai could say anything. The two adults hadn't noticed his return yet. Why was Yami sounding so worried? Who was Yuugi?
"Did you do something to piss him off?" Jounouchi suggested.
"Not that I know of… the date went pretty well last time."
Juudai looked from Yami to Jounouchi as they spoke. Why weren't they looking at him and only talk about this Yuugi person? Yami started pacing. "After the date I went to Juudai and covered him with my jacket but didn't speak to him. The day after work I sent him a text and then encountered Hirutani…." Yami stopped pacing. "I accidentally deleted his message when turning on the camera to record at the orphanage." He said softly. "Yuugi must've been thinking I ignored him!"
"Yami?" Juudai asked, lightly tugging at the man's sleeve.
"Not now Juudai." Yami said, yanking his arm out of the kid's grasp. He dialed Yuugi's number and walked into the kitchen. Jounouchi sat down on the couch and flipped on the TV. Juudai pouted and sat down next to the man.
Juudai did not like Yuugi. He didn't know Yuugi but he did not like him at all. Because of this Yuugi, Yami was already ignoring him.
"Who is Yuugi?" He asked Jounouchi. The man diverted his attention from the screen to the young boy. Jounouchi hummed in thought.
"Well, you could call him Yami's boyfriend. He's head over heels and been trying to date the other for some time now. Finally said yes and now he made Yuugi angry I think."
Juudai looked from Jounouchi to the kitchen door. Yami's voice was heard after a good ten minutes. Juudai heard him apologize profusely about not answering back and explaining the situation. The man returned to the room with a bit of a relieved expression.
"He believed me… for now." He plopped down on the couch next to his almost adopted son. "He didn't seem too convinced though." Jounouchi shrugged his shoulders.
"At least he talked to you." Yami nodded, then he noticed that Juudai was done changing.
"Let me see how you look Juudai." He said, pulling the boy into a standing position. The clothes were a little on the big side but they suited him nicely. "Looks really good." Yami said with a wink. Juudai beamed at the compliment.
"I asked for a six years old."
"How old are you Juudai?" Yami had guessed it the whole time. The look of concentration on his face was just adorable as he counted his fingers.
"This much!" Juudai exclaimed holding up five fingers.
"Wasn't too far off." Jounouchi stood up from the couch, stretching his limbs for the heavy labor he had to do.
"I'm gonna go home now. Good luck with everything, if you need something give me a call." He said. He grabbed Yami in a headlock and gave him a noogie before leaving. Juudai snickered at Yami's messed up hair and the action of the blond male.
Yami swatted him away and tried to fix his hair. Jounouchi left, leaving Yami and Juudai alone. There was a bit of an awkward silence between the two. Juudai sat, playing lightly with the zipper of the red vest. Yami had sat back down as well and was watching the television that Jounouchi had left on.
"So…." Yami drawled to break the tension. "What… do you even want to be adopted Juudai… by me." The boy nodded frantically.
"I really don't want to stay at the orphanage… or live at the streets." The boy was on the verge of tears. "Yami… promise me you won't leave me alone."
Yami sighed. "I can't promise that now… but once everything is official, I will. For now, let's get your bed ready." Yami pushed the folding bed through the hallway to his study. The bed was unfolded there after it was cleaned up a little. He took his laptop from the desk so he wouldn't disturb Juudai.
It was past nine by the time they were done with Juudai's temporary room. Children were supposed to sleep early right? Juudai had swapped back to Yami's clothing for sleepwear. He tucked the young one in.
"I probably won't be home when you wake up the next morning because I have to go to work. Do you think you can stay alone?" Juudai nodded. Yami trusted him for the child was able to live alone on the streets. "Alright then, don't open the door for anyone and try not to go outside. There is no spare key." The boy nodded again. He was slowly started to drift to sleep.
Yami smiled at this. "Good night." He whispered. Before he knew it, he leaned down and kissed the boy on the forehead, just before the big eyes close. He was fast asleep before Yami knew it. The adult smiled lightly as he watched the child's sleeping face. He was secretly actually looking forward to fatherhood.
With slow and silent steps, he sneaked out of the room and closed the lights. Sitting back in the living room, he opened the laptop on his lap and checked his email. He had received one from Ryou. It seemed like the usually shy and quiet one was taking the charge of this project. Not that Yami minded. He had worked with the man before and the game was a success.
Ryou wanted a meeting Friday morning. Yami was okay with that so he clicked the 'will attend' button. It would automatically notify Ryou that Yami would be there. It was not like they had anything better to do at work without a plan. He closed the laptop and watched TV for the rest of the evening.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Yami had been right when he said he wouldn't be home in the morning. Juudai awkwardly shuffled back to the living room after checking every room in the house. He did not quite know what to do all alone. He did not know what he could touch and what not. He had found a note on the table but Yami had used both Hiragana and Kanji.
Since he usually ran away from the orphanage, he didn't quite learn how to read well. He had placed the piece of paper back down on the table and just sat on the couch, staring out in front of him. It felt like hours to him.
He got startled when a phone rang. He simply stared at the direction it came from. It stopped for a couple seconds before ringing again. This time Juudai stood up and slowly made his way to the kitchen, where the ringing came from. The phone stopped ringing for the second time, and rang again for the third time. Juudai mustered up all his courage and picked up the horn.
"H-hello?"
"Juudai? What took so long for you to pick up?"
It was Yami. Juudai let out a mental sigh of relief. Yami didn't sound angry for taking the phone without asking.
"I-I didn't know if I was allowed." The boy answered truthfully. Juudai pouted as he heard Yami laugh at the other end of the line.
"Why wouldn't you be?"
Juudai did not answer, experiences from former homes coming back to him. The silence bothered Yami so he cleared his throat.
"So, what are you doing? Did you eat the hot cakes I put in the fridge?"
Juudai looked at the fridge. So he had been starving to death for nothing? Again, he was too scared to open the fridge and eat something from it. Past experiences flashed before his eyes again. "I wasn't hungry yet… I will eat soon."
"Alright then. What were you doing anyways? I hope you weren't too bored."
Juudai bit his lower lip. He was bored to hell. "I… don't know what to do."
"Then why don't you watch some TV?"
Juudai gasped. "Can I?"
"Of course you can…." He heard the man sigh. "Look Juudai I have to hang up. Eat the hot cakes and you can watch TV. I will see you later this evening. Bye Juudai."
"Bye…" Juudai said and Yami hung up. He was kind of happy to hear that Yami would be coming back and not leave him alone but he was also kind of disappointed in the agitated tone Yami's voice had. He did it again. He had annoyed his foster parent without even trying.
Juudai opened the fridge and found a plate wrapped with aluminum foil. After he removed it, he found a stack of 3 thick hot cakes. They were already cold by now but he was already grateful. Never had he received such a delicacy from the orphanage or his former foster parents.
Without thinking twice, he gobbled them up, having been quite hungry. Satisfied, he crawled onto the couch and turned on the television. There were enough children channels for him to be occupied with. This was also how Yami found him.
The kid was sitting on the edge of the couch, cheering a shounen anime character on to defeat the bad guy. "Having fun?" Yami asked with an amused smile. Juudai got so startled that he fell off the couch. Yami laughed, walking over to help the boy up.
"Good thing you didn't bore yourself to death. Why did you think that you couldn't do anything?" Juudai fidgeted slightly. He was a little uncomfortable with telling but he thought Yami deserved to know.
"M-my previous foster homes wouldn't let me…" He answered with a soft voice. Juudai squeaked when he was suddenly enveloped in warmth. Yami's arms wrapped around the young boy, his face buried in Yami's belly.
"I would never do that to you." He murmured. Yami pulled back once he heard a sniffle. He kneeled down to Juudai's level and lightly ruffled the hair. "Come on, stop crying. I got a little something for you."
He gave the bag he was holding to the kid. Juudai took it from the adult. He looked at it first before looking at the man. Yami smiled and nodded for Juudai to open it. The boy did and smiled brightly.
In it were a couple sets of clothing, a set of pajamas, some undies that would actually fit him and a couple toys. "C-can I really have these?" He asked looking back at Yami.
"Of course you can. I bought them for you after all."
"B-but what if I can't stay?" Yami smiled sadly, taking the contents out of the bag.
"You can still keep them. You're going to need them a lot more if you have to go back, which hopefully will not be the case."
Juudai dropped everything and hugged Yami. "Thank you so much Yami… this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done to me. I really hope I can stay… I don't want to go back to the orphanage!"
Yami wrapped his arms around the boy, one hand resting on the head while the other rested on Juudai's lower back. "I hope so too Juudai." He sighed. "I hope so too. Tomorrow we'll see."
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Author Notes: I'm so sorry for taking so long ;-; I just haven't been in the mood to write lately. I'm doing my best to write the next chapter for this one but I just can't force it.
Bonkostu is what Kaiba calls Jounouchi during Battle City. It means average/mediocre/ordinary person, meaning that they are nothing special. I usually try to avoid using Japanese words in my stories but I couldn't quite find a replacement for bonkotsu, hence why I used it. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible.
It's just that I can't quite feel peaceful at my desk. It's so cluttered with stuff I can't put somewhere else and I can't move my laptop elsewhere either since the poor thing is practically falling apart. Also I kinda have to hunch which makes my back hurt real fast.
Finally, thank you xFallenAngel13x for betaing this chapter! Love you ;D
Next chapter: Daddy?