(A/N: I OWED you this chapter. In fact, I'm sure I must owe you AT LEAST like five chapters. It's a long story. I updated the 22nd, got sick on the 23rd -thus, I didn't write ANYTHING- then the 24th rolled around and I got an iPod, so I got like, carried away with that. I wanted to do a Christmas chapter, but then it was almost New Year. I tried to write a New Year's chapter and thought of nothing. Came up with nothing, more likely.

In fewer words, I didn't know what to write until like, two hours ago. So here you go! And I hope you like it! I'll try to have next chapter done by Sunday! I have a fair idea of what's going to be about! -I KNOW I SAID THAT LAST TIME, BUT I GOT SICK AND THEN IT WAS WRITER'S BLOCK, OKAY?- Enjoy! :D

Disclaimer: Nothing in here belongs to me. Except the plot. Partially. I get inspiration from numerous things.)

Chapter 17

The first time Yugi dreams of a future with Yami, it's a little something like this:

He's standing right outside a house that doesn't seem to be that big of a deal, but he recognizes it as the house he drew when he was in seventh grade and the art teacher asked them to do a painting of where they'd like to live when they grew up. It's nothing special, indeed: walls made out of wood painted with a dark brown, three steps forming a porch right outside the door, a beige railing surrounding the construction.

He absolutely loves seeing it come to life… somewhat.

It's not the first time Yugi has dreamt about his future. He's learned to recognize the dreams, because in all of them, he's standing in front of the house he painted, and it's as if he were watching a movie—he can't do anything but stare, almost like a ghost. He doesn't know where his house is built, not really. Maybe because he doesn't really care as long as it is just the way he imagined it.

He walks through the door—literally walks through it—and glances around at the insides; the squared dining table with four chairs, the three couches in the living room, the walls framed with blurry pictures he can't quite decipher. Then he waits until the movie goes on.

In past dreams, Yugi saw himself, but he never saw more than silhouettes around him—two, to be precise. Even if they spoke, he wouldn't be able to recognize the voices, like they were part of his imagination or characters in a book. When you're reading, you can't exactly hear what the characters sound like. You try to read their words in a voice you know. And there relied the problem: none of the voices Yugi had ever heard before. Heck, even if he himself spoke, he never actually understood what he was saying—where they names? Meaningless words? The chemicals for something that hadn't been invented?

Without regarding the silhouettes, Yugi was somewhat aware of the "plot" of his movie. He was hosting a small birthday party. One of the silhouettes helped him while the other one was the receiver of the party. He also knew what the cake looked like: covered in frosting and icing of different tones of blue, red, yellow, combined and scattered as if to create a rainbow cake. Even though it was lit with candles, and they didn't burn that bright, Yugi could never count how many there were, to get an idea of how many years the silhouette had.

But this time, as his dream self (and older version of himself) walks down the stairs to the first store, he perfectly hears him say:

"Yami, hurry up, Mom will drop her by any minute now!"

Yami?

Before, it'd only sounded like one of those really old radios that were always losing signal, so all he could listen to was, "… hurry up… —drop… any minute…" Not anymore.

He almost trips when he staggers back as an also older version of Yami rushes down the stairs, both hands trying desperately to get the tie around his neck done. "I know, I know!" he cries. "If I could just…"

Yugi turns to him and laughs playfully. "Oh, dear," he says, striding towards Yami and taking both of his hands away from his neck. "Here, let me." He quickly, easily, gets the tie done before patting it once softly against Yami's chest. "There, all done!"

Yami smiles at him, and even from a distance, Yugi can see that it makes his dream self blush, no matter how many years it's been.

The dream ripples for a moment, and in the next one, Yugi finds the dream versions of himself and Yami in the dining table, placing the candle-lit cake over it—in front of a little girl.

A little girl that has Yugi's eyes, except they're darker, the almost look black, and a bit of his blond hair, he recognizes in the dark golden color of her mass of curls. She's more than cute, more than adorable, more than pretty. She's stunningly beautiful in her gorgeous red dress, especially for a girl so young. For the first time, Yugi can count seven candles atop the cake.

The girl's clapping excitedly, screeching in glee as Yami and Yugi sing "Happy Birthday" to her. From the song, he discovers that the name of the girl is Vivianna.

"Blow out the candles, baby girl," Yami says, an arm wrapped around Yugi's shoulders. Vivianna nods once to herself, closes her eyes for a few seconds, and then she takes a deep breath to blow the candles on her cake out. The three of them cheer and clap. In a flash, she leans down and takes a bite straight out of the cake, which makes Yami call her name in mocking surprise. Yugi laughs but says no more at the grin in her face.

"What'd you wish for, princess?" Yugi asks her, but Vivianna shakes her head in horror.

"I can't tell you!" she says. "You know that if I tell you it won't come true, Daddy!"

Daddy?

Daddy? Yugi repeats inside his head. This girl is my… she's my and Yami's…

"Well said!" Yami's older version exclaims, moving to the girl and lifting her in his arms before she can protest. He carries her upside-down, the back of her head touching his stomach as her legs wiggle next to his face. "Daddy was testing you to make sure you hadn't forgotten!"

"Papa!" Vivianna cries between fits of laughter. "Papa, put me down! Or I'll throw up the cake I just ate!"

"Oh, no, we can't have that!" Yami says, turning her so that she's looking at him. "The birthday girl can't throw up on the beautiful dress Grandma Chiyoko sewed for her!"

Her laughter slows down to a couple of giggles, her arms around Yami's neck to steady herself in his arms. "Is this why you left me with Grandma Amelia? To give me a surprise birthday cake?"

"Aw, you figured out our plan!" Yugi says, pressing a hand to his head in a dramatic attempt at a face-slap. "Well, I guess you also know about your other surprise now."

Vivianna perks up immediately, wriggling in Yami's grasp. "Another surprise? I get another surprise? Really?"

"Ah, so that's still a secret!" Yami grins at her, poking her nose. He kneels down and leaves her standing on the floor, him crouching beside her.

"What is it? What is it?" the girl repeats over and over above Yugi's chuckling. He has one arm around his abdomen and the other one's hand covering his mouth, trying to hide a smile.

"If we tell you, it won't be a surprise, now will it?"

"Is it outside, Papa?" She turns to Yami, but he pretends not to see her and turns his head around to look at anywhere but her. "Papa! Papa, it's outside, right? Papa!" Yami's stronger than he looks. He doesn't give in, and Vivianna realizes she can't beat him. She decides to try with Yugi. "Daddy, Daddy, is it outside?"

As Yugi finds out, his lack of resistance towards children will follow him when he grows older. "Yes, princess," his dream self responds. "It's in the backyard."

"Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy!" Vivianna yells joyfully, her arms spread over her head as she dashes through the front door.

"You've never been able to resist her," Yami jokes once he and the older version of Yugi are alone. He stands up and takes him in his arms, his hands resting on the small of his back. "You do realize that you're spoiling her that way, right?"

"Oh, please, like you never spoil her," Yugi replies, playfully smacking Yami's chest. "Remember you're the one who thought of a second surprise for her, not me."

"Yeah, well—" Yami shrugs nonchalantly before he leans down and kisses Yugi, smiling against his lips. The kiss doesn't last long, but as they pull apart, they're breathless. "She's my baby girl. I believe I'm allowed to spoil her."

"Our baby girl," Yugi adds, a shy smile across his face.

"Our baby girl." The dream images of he and Yami kiss again one last time before the image ripples and vanishes completely.

When Yugi wakes up the next day, he feels slightly confused. He feels like he shouldn't be thinking about marriage right now, about marrying his first boyfriend and having a family with him. Not when he's in high school. Not when he's barely seventeen. Gee, what kind of guy thinks about those things when he's seventeen? He's supposed to be thinking of getting out of high school, getting out of the "nest" to embark on his journey as independent of his parents, find himself a job and settle somewhere nice and relatively quiet.

Then he remembers his dream, remembers how he'd never known who was in his life as a grown-up until last night. He remembers how happy he looked. He remembers how happy Yami looked, how happy their daughter looked, God, they had a daughter.

Yugi knows he can't see the future. He can't tell himself that what he saw in his dreams will become a reality, that he'll live in the house he's always wanted with the man he loves and a girl with dark golden curls and eyes so obscure they're almost black, wearing a red dress sewn by her grandmother on her seventh birthday.

But he definitely wouldn't mind if what he saw did turn out to be his future.

Not at all.

And who knew, maybe he would tell Yami everything he thought one of these days.