A/N: Welcome to chapter 13 of Overcoming Differences!

My niece is turning one year old today! She's growing up to be such a little lady. I babysit her every week, and I love how I can witness how she grows a little bit each time.

With that random note out of the way I must also note that I was a bit presumptuous in the previous chapter. I said that Dartz was going to make an unusual request, but writing this chapter went so well that I didn't even get to this part. It's solely about Atem's surprise for Yami.

Without further ado, I'll let you get to reading this new chapter. Remember that I don't own Yu-gi-oh! or any of its characters, that mobiumshipping rocks, and that I love reviews.

Enjoy!

0o0o0

From the heart

Morning saw three young men sleeping peacefully in their bed. Everything was back as it was supposed to be. Atem was lying on his back in the middle, and on both his sides his boyfriends were sleeping with their heads on his chest. Before he had gone off to sleep the game developer had wrapped his arms around their shoulders, hugging them close and keeping them safe from harm. Yami and Yugi had instantly snuggled closer as a response. Though Yami had pretty much dozed off right after he had been properly welcomed back by his boyfriends, exhausting him even further in the process, Yugi had stared at his boyfriend for a while with a loving smile on his face. He had reached out and linked his fingers with Yami's before he too had closed his eyes to go to sleep.

It was the same position as they woke up in when the alarm clock started blaring . The three men stirred, and Yami groaned loudly, "Why the hell is that thing going off?"

Atem quickly reached out to quiet the irritating machine, returning silence to the bedroom, "Sorry darling, but I have to go to the office for a bit." He said softly, rubbing his hand along Yami's arm in apology.

Yami groaned again and lethargically shifted so he could tiredly face his boyfriend. Atem noted how spend his boyfriend looked. It wasn't a new sight though. Yami was always tired when he came back from tour, and still they would always be intimate that same night. No wonder that he would look worse for wear the day after. Asides from that he once told them that even though he would get tired during a tour, he always had to keep going. But as soon as he got back home and he was back with them he could let everything go, and truly relax. It normally just took a day or two before he would be back to normal, but during that time he would look like crap and have the tendency to be cranky.

"It's freaking Sunday." Yami croaked, his voice heavy with fatigue, "What business can you have on a freaking Sunday?"

"Just a small thing. I won't be gone for long." Atem said softly, placing a kiss on top of Yami's head.

Yami would have interrogated his boyfriend more about his evasive answer, but he simply didn't have the energy to. Instead he just ground out a mumbled 'whatever' and removed himself roughly from Atem's chest and laid back down on the pillows, fully intending to go back to sleep.

Atem simply smiled while Yugi giggled on his other side. He turned his head to regard his chuckling boyfriend with curiosity, "Poor sweetheart." Yugi said sweetly, "I guess we truly wore him out tiger."

Atem hummed in agreement and pressed a brief kiss on Yugi's lips, "Then I'd better get out quickly so as not to disturb the Pharaoh's beauty sleep."

Yugi chuckled again and gave Atem a soft slap on his arm, "Get going then. I'll keep his majesty company."

"Will you two cut it out and let me go back to sleep already?!" Yami hissed annoyed.

Yugi and Atem both smiled fondly at the peeved young man and Atem nodded before he silently slipped out of bed and moved off to get ready to go to the office. Yugi in the meanwhile shifted closer to the bed's other remaining occupant and wrapped his arms around him. He placed a gentle kiss on his cheek, and snuggled back into the pillow, also fully intending to get a few more hours of sleep in.

0o0o0

The Kaiba Corp office building was quiet as Atem entered. Considering it was a Sunday this was no surprise. Usually it was only in emergency cases that people were called upon to work during the weekends, such as when they were struggling to meet a deadline. Luckily this didn't happen that often.

In truth Atem didn't really want to be here, but he didn't have much of a choice. He had hoped to complete the demo of Pharaoh Music Studio on Friday so he could have presented it to Yami, but he was unable to do so. It was really only a small feature that was missing, but an essential one at that. He hadn't wanted to miss Yami's homecoming, so he decided that he would get up early on Sunday to finish it.

With a sigh Atem stepped into the elevator and pressed the button that would take him to his floor. Once it had arrived and he exited he was once again overcome by how quiet the building was. It was sort of uncomfortable, and Atem hoped he could fix the demo and go back home as soon as possible. At one point he even thought he heard something down the hall, in the direction of the toilets, but when he didn't hear any more he simply shrugged it off and moved on to his personal office.

Once there he took out a key so he could unlock the door, only to notice it was already unlocked. With a frown he pushed the door open to be met with the sight of his cousin leaning on his desk. Atem raised an eyebrow in question. Sure, Seto was a workaholic, but for as far as he knew there was no particular reason for him to be here. Although he needed some programming from Seto's department to finish up the demo, he was under the impression that it was already done.

Without waiting for his cousin to formulate the question about why he was here, Seto held up a cd-rom, "I found a bug in the programming just after you left on Friday." He announced, "I went over it and fixed it for you."

"Thanks I guess." Atem nodded as he took the disk from his cousin and booted up his computer, "You didn't have to give it to me personally though. You could have just left the new version on my desk."

"I didn't say it was a small problem Atem." Seto said gruffly, "It took me the whole day yesterday and last night to fix it, because I pretty much had to rewrite the entire programme."

"Really?" Atem replied incredulously, "But it was working fine before."

Seto nodded, "It was, until we added the final element. That one part kept crashing. It turns out that that specific coding was unable to be implemented into the overall programme, which is why I had to rewrite the latter, and rewrite the existing elements to conform to this new coding."

Atem whistled, knowing that it was no small feat what his cousin was talking about. Now that he looked closer, he could tell that Seto was trying to hide the telltale signs of fatigue behind his stiff posture. For how long had Seto actually been working on this? Not that Atem wasn't grateful of his cousin's efforts, but he also didn't want him to overwork himself.

Before Atem could ask he noted there were footsteps coming from down the hallway. Frowning again he watched as the door to his office opened up again and a new person entered. He was both surprised and relieved when he saw it was Joey.

"Oh hey Atem." Joey greeted his best friend's boyfriend with a friendly grin, noticing how he was looking at him funny, "What's the matter? You look like I've grown two heads."

Atem blinked and relaxed. He grinned back at the blonde, unable to resist his teasing, "Nah, just didn't expect to see you here. Speaking of which, what are you doing here?"

"I just tagged along with Seto here to bring you that disk." He explained as he walked up to stand next to his boyfriend, "Now that he has I can make sure that he takes some much needed rest."

"I'm fine puppy." Seto protested, and Atem was struck by the way Seto spoke. His voice sounded much softer and caring than when he would have protested against him, "I'm used to this. Don't worry."

Joey abruptly turned his head, glaring slightly at the brunette, "No it's not all right Seto." He accused, "If you'd just told me you were too busy to come along with me to that concert you wouldn't have had to pull an all-nighter on this. I can tell you're exhausted so stop trying to hide it. You're going straight back home and get some sleep, or I'll tie you to the bed."

"All right puppy." Seto conceded, again amazing Atem with his demeanour around the blonde, "You'll stay with me though, right?"

Joey smirked at him, "Of course. Who else is there to make sure you keep your promise, dragon?"

What happened with Joey being a mutt? When did Seto start to call him puppy? What's up with Joey calling him dragon? Why was Seto behaving so submissive? Even though many questions were roaming through Atem's head, he couldn't formulate one of them. He was baffled by the exchange going on before him. Never before had he been able to talk to Seto like that without causing an argument to erupt between them instantaneously. Seto always talked back, and hardly ever conceded. Even when his cousin had come to him for advise concerning Joey he had always been reluctant to accept it. But with Joey he hardly argued back. It was so weird that Atem wondered whether it was even Seto who was standing before him, rather than some person who happened to look exactly like him.

Perhaps the entire idea that Seto could learn a lot from Joey wasn't so strange after all. It certainly seemed that the blonde had the brunette wrapped around his finger.

"Yo, Atem?" Joey turned to him, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Yes Joey?" He replied.

"Was there anything else you needed, or can I take him home?" Joey asked while he pointed at Seto, who was still looking down at him adoringly, with his thumb.

Atem smiled and shook his head, "Nah, I'm good. This shouldn't take more than a few hours to finish."

"Good. Then we'll be going." Joey grabbed Seto's hand and turned around to leave.

Atem didn't miss the brief look of uncertainty his cousin shot him. He wondered what that look was for. Was it because Joey had just grabbed his hand? Atem could only imagine how uncertain Seto was about his newfound relationship, even though he had been the one to start it off. He was still treading on unknown ground, trying to find out what worked and what didn't, and what was required. Atem smiled inwardly at his cousin's struggle, but had faith in how Joey turned out to deal with it. Perhaps there was a future for the both of them.

"Oh, by the way Atem, I nearly forgot." Joey said before the pair had left the office. He turned back to him and continued, "Will there still be a welcome home party for Yami tonight like usual?"

Atem smiled and nodded, "Yes. You're welcome to join us at six." He confirmed, and then shot a look to Seto, "I know you usually don't come Seto, but you're more than welcome to tag along with Joey."

"I'll think about it." Seto said.

"He'll come along." Joey decided for him, shooting his boyfriend a dazzling grin that halted all protests, "It'll be fun, and you'll get to hear all about Yami's response to the new programme you're working on."

"Right." Seto said weakly with a nod.

"All right then, with that settled we'll leave you to your work Atem. See you tonight!"

Atem smiled and waved the two goodbye. Once they were gone he sank into his chair, continuing to ponder over what he had just witnessed. It was sweet, weird and funny at the same time, but he was mostly happy that Joey was able to handle his cousin and that things seemed to be working out for them.

He shook his head. Now was not the time to think too much about it. He had a demo to finish, and he wanted to be home before lunch. He wanted to help Yugi with the preparations for tonight's party, and Yami should also be out of bed by then. He wanted to show the pop singer the demo before the party and see his response.

With his thoughts now back on his main priority, Atem set to work with an excited smile on his face.

0o0o0

Several hours later Yugi cracked open his eyes again. He glanced at the clock to see it was ten in the morning. A good time to finally get up in his opinion. He looked down at Yami, but his eyes were met with their sheets. Only a few tangled tufts of hair were jutting out from underneath. Apparently the tired singer had subconsciously drawn the covers further up, now hiding him from view. Yugi didn't like that though, so he gently moved the covers away so he could actually look at his boyfriend. The action caused Yami to stir and hold on tightly to the covers, savouring the warmth they were giving him.

But Yugi wasn't going to have it, "Yami? Come on sweetheart, let me see you." He said while he kept tugging.

"Buzz off Yugi. I wanna sleep." Yami groaned and mumbled sleepily

Yugi huffed and crossed his arms, "It's already ten o'clock. You've slept enough."

Yami groaned again, but let go of the covers so he could turn around and regard his boyfriend with sleepy eyes, "Can't I stay in bed for another few hours?"

Yugi, who could now finally see Yami, smiled at him and leaned down to hug him. Yami in turn wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and buried his face in the other's hair while Ygi voiced his reply, "No, I need your help preparing for your party tonight."

"Can't Atem help you?"

Yugi shook his head, "He went to the office remember? He shouldn't be gone for long, but I have no idea at what time he'll be home."

Yami let out a long sigh, his breath tickling his boyfriend's neck, causing him to let out a soft giggle, "Whenever you need him he of course isn't around, the bastard." He swore, though by his tone Yugi could tell he wasn't really serious. He was only annoyed at being awoken and forced out of bed when he'd been sleeping so peacefully, "Why did he need to go to the office on a Sunday anyway?"

"He needed to finish up something." Yugi said quickly, glad that his boyfriend couldn't see his face, for he could surely tell that Yugi wasn't being completely truthful. The latter knew the answer of course, but didn't want to spoil the surprise. He wasn't really a great liar though, so had to opt for this half-truth.

Yami hummed in response, accepting the answer because he wasn't really interested in Atem's work. He did wonder about something though, "He doesn't do that too often, right?"

Yugi leaned up on his arms and shot his boyfriend a puzzled expression, "Do what?"

"Leave you alone like this." Yami clarified with a look of concern on his face.

A disapproving frown appeared on Yugi's face, and he slapped the singer's arm in discontent, "Stop it Yami. You know I can take care of myself even if he does."

"I'm just checking." Yami defended himself, "You know I feel better knowing you're all right."

"Then trust in my own ability to be all right, instead of relying my welfare on Atem being there or not." Yugi implored, on one end getting tired of pressing this sentiment onto Yami for the umpteenth time, but on the other end knowing that he needed this lecture after being away from them for a while, "Honestly you sound like an over concerned mother worrying about whether he daughter's boyfriend treats her right. Hasn't last night taught you anything?"

Yami didn't respond immediately as he stared at his boyfriend's pleading face. His eyes briefly glanced to where his legs should be, instantly remembering Yugi's present from last night. He then shot him an apologetic look, causing Yugi to smile back at him, knowing that the message came across. They leaned towards one another and gave the other a brief kiss on the lips.

"I'm sorry aibou." Yami said softly once they had parted.

Yugi smiled, "It's okay sweetheart."

0o0o0

It was already past noon when Atem arrived back home. Finishing up on the demo had actually taken him a little bit longer than he had anticipated, due to him getting used to Seto's new coding. He got it done in the end though, and was excited to show it to Yami.

He found said person lounging on the couch in the living room, wearing little more than sweatpants and a sleeveless shirt. On either side of him was a bowl. Spiced ground meat was in the bowl to his right, while the left contained the small meatballs Yami had already made. Atem observed the young man for a while, while he took a little bit of the ground meat from the right bowl in his hands and rolled it into a ball before depositing it in the bowl on his left.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch or are you going to come over here and help me?" Yami grumbled, looking up at Atem and shooting him an annoyed look.

"Hmm, well I think you're handling those balls perfectly on your own. Are you making rods as well?" Atem replied with a challenging look on his face.

Yami, who hadn't failed to pick up on the innuendo, started mumbling insults under his breath as he flipped his boyfriend off, "On second thought, buzz off Atem."

Atem laughed and walked up to his annoyed boyfriend with a huge grin on his face. Yami started to sweat, knowing that Atem wasn't going to let it go if he was having that grin on his face. He tried to avoid it by ignoring his advancing boyfriend and turn his attention back to his work. Atem took the opportunity to look over Yami's shoulder as he furiously rolled meatballs.

"My, you're doing an excellent job on those balls. You can handle mine and my rod any time." He said in a low voice right next to Yami's ear.

In response Yami turned bright red. He would never look at meatballs the same again after this, "I said buzz off!" He yelled as he turned slightly to push his obnoxious boyfriend away.

Atem merely laughed again. It was so easy to rile him up when he was still tired. Though he was truly annoyed now, Atem knew that Yami could laugh about it later. That was just how he was. He was simply still cranky from being tired, but truthfully Atem liked that occasionally. It gave Yami some fire that he usually didn't see. Normally Yami would either go along in the teasing or simply ignore Atem altogether. Even though the former was fun as well, having Yami being so assertive kept their relationship exciting and fresh.

"What's all the fuss about out here?" Yugi called out as he rolled out of the kitchen.

"Aibou!" Yami called out, still annoyed, "Please get that annoying excuse for our boyfriend out of my face before I punch him."

Yugi crossed his arms and rose a questioning eyebrow at Atem. He in turn shot him an innocent look and said, "I was just telling him how he was doing an excellent job on those meatballs."

Yugi wasn't falling for it though, knowing Atem well enough that he had purposely pushed Yami's buttons. Probably by making some sort of innuendo that he frankly didn't want to know about, "Didn't you have something better to do Atem?" He asked him, hinting towards the briefcase Atem was still holding.

Atem grinned again, "Yeah you're right squirt. I'll get to it right away." He replied before disappearing into their home office to install the demo on their laptop.

Yami was confused by this. He had expected Yugi to order Atem around in helping out with the snacks for tonight's party. Apparently something was going on that they knew about while he didn't, "What's he going to do?" He asked Yugi.

Yugi shook his head, "You'll see soon enough sweetheart. Now get those meatballs done. The tomato sauce that goes with them is nearly ready." He replied while he turned his wheelchair around so he could return to the kitchen, effectively stopping Yami from questioning it further.

Yami huffed and did as he was told, but he didn't like it that his boyfriends were keeping something from him. It obviously had something to do with him. He just knew it. But what was it? Yami tried to collect all the pieces of evidence that he had to try and figure it out. First Atem goes to his office on a Sunday morning, supposedly to finish up something. And now he was doing something in their home office. It wasn't much, but Yami could make out a few inconsistencies. For one it didn't make sense to him that Atem would go to the office during the weekend, unless they were struggling with meeting a deadline. He knew that whenever that happened Atem would be at the office the entire weekend, not just on a Sunday morning. Secondly, Atem never took his work back home, so there was no reason for him to head straight for their home office.

So what kind of conclusions could he reach from that? Had things simply changed over the course of four months, or was something else entirely going on? The fact that Yugi wasn't providing him much information on the matter at all only confirmed his suspicion that they were plotting something, and he wasn't supposed to know about it. Another surprise perhaps?

This thought sparked something. It made sense. Yugi had surprised him with his feat last night, but Atem hadn't done anything special. Perhaps he had a surprise prepared as well. But what could it be? Something to do with Kaiba Corp? Some kind of game or programme? Then again, the thought was rather silly. He felt that no game or programme could top what Yugi had given him, and Atem knew that. So then, what was he doing in there?

By this point he was barely able to contain his curiosity. He kept on glancing at the closed door to the home office, wondering whether he should actually get up and see for himself. But doing that might ruin whatever surprise his two boyfriends were cooking up. And speaking of cooking, if Yugi wouldn't get his meatballs as soon as possible Yami would be in serious trouble.

And so he sighed and kept rolling the ground meat in his hands, watching how the bowl on his right slowly became empty as he left bowl started to fill up.

Finally Atem walked out of the home office and smiled at him, "I'd like to show you something darling." He said, making the excitement Yami was feeling even more intense.

"What is it?" He said eagerly, standing up and walking towards Atem.

Atem placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled charmingly. He briefly looked towards the kitchen and called, "Squirt, are you coming?"

"Hold on! I'm coming!" Yugi called back. He first made sure nothing in his kitchen could burn while he was away and then rolled out to join them.

Yami in the meanwhile tried to look over Atem's shoulder, but couldn't see anything. His frustration grew a bit, but luckily Atem decided not to tease him this time. He walked to stand behind the singer and placed his other hand on his shoulder as well, guiding him inside the room and to the laptop. Yami gasped as he sat down. In front of him a programme was running. The words Pharaoh Music Studio greeted him in the same font that was used on his singles and albums. An animated figure of himself in his Pharaoh outfit was standing underneath it, singing voicelessly into a microphone while swaying with moves that Yami instantly recognized as his own. To say he was baffled wasn't enough. Overwhelmed came closer to what he was feeling. What in the world was this?

"Kaiba Corp and Atlantis are working together on this programme." Atem, who had noticed how Yami had gotten speechless, explained, "This is only a demo, but it'll give you a good idea of what it'll be eventually." Atem then took the mouse and started clicking, revealing the main menu, "Users can play your songs in an rpg-like environment where they must rise up from being a nobody to a super star. We're taking elements from your real history as a singer to make it even more real. But this programme will also feature the possibility for users to write their own songs and even let your synthesized voice sing them. They can share their creations on a forum."

"Wow…" Yami breathed out. He took the mouse from Atem and started clicking around. He was amazed by the amount of detail that had gone into this. His animated version literally looked like his twin, and the moves he was making, not just on stage but while he was walking through the environment that would be part of the rpg segment, were also exactly like him. Atem had no doubt something to do with that.

He continued to silently try out every aspect of the programme while Yugi and Atem shot each other a smile. It was obvious that their boyfriend was impressed and happy with the programme.

"You did a really good job tiger." Yugi noted, also seeing the actual programme for the first time now, "You even added the way Yami's right hand flaps about when he's running."

Atem chuckled, "Well I did do you graphics on the character myself, and I should know how my boyfriend runs."

Yami then turned around, a bright smile lightening up his face, "This is amazing Atem." He said happily, "I never would have thought this was going to happen. It looks awesome and perfect. Thank you!" He quickly stood up and grabbed the game designer in a tight hug, kissing him passionately, albeit briefly, "I'm going to check it out some more." He announced before taking his place back into his seat and exploring the demo further.

Atem looked slightly hurt at getting only a very brief thank you from the singer. Yugi noticed it and laughed, "Don't look like someone has just taken away your favourite toy Atem. Come on, now that his majesty is busy I'll need your help with the snacks."

Atem nodded and left the room with Yugi to leave Yami to exploring Pharaoh Music Studio. He was happy that Yami liked it. He had often wondered whether he would. During those moments he thought he might be doing too much, have it too much focussed on his boyfriend. But all those fears had been washed away by the stunned reaction and the ecstatic, even though it was a bit brief, display of gratitude.

0o0o0

A/N: That went pretty well if I say so myself. The one thing that bothers me though is my tendency to start each paragraph with a name, especially in a conversation. I'm having trouble with writing a dialogue with just text. I always want to add something; an emotion, a movement or a tone. I think that is something that I could work on…

I also decided to have a bit of puppyshipping in there. I thought it would be nice to actually show the two interacting now that they're together for a few weeks already. I'm sorry if you feel Seto is a bit OCC here.

Next chapter: Let's party! *Meatballs all around* And now Dartz is going to make that request.