Author's Note: I know that this is very late, but better late than never? In any case, happy holidays! Thank you for reading, I hope you've found something you enjoyed!
"Ready to see some lights, Yugi?" Yami asked as he and Yugi walked away from the ticket booth and towards the zoo entrance. Yami had to fake his enthusiasm, it was too cold to be outside, but he wanted to go see some Christmas lights with Yugi before they were taken down. To make matters worse, an unexpected storm had hovered over Domino most of the day and snow came pouring down in heaps. Worried, and a little annoyed at the storm for showing up the one night he planned on being out, Yami watched the window and kept an eye on the weather report all day. Yugi, on the other hand, was enthusiastic about playing in the snow and had talked non-stop about inviting everyone over for a snowball fight or to build snowmen together. Yami shot this down quickly, telling him that he was absolutely not allowed to play in a blizzard, but it didn't do much to dampen the kid's daydreams. Luckily, the storm devolved into random flurries early in the afternoon and the weather channel said it was safe for them to go out after dark.
"Are there going to be a lot of animals out still? Aren't they going to be cold without coats?" Yugi replied, shivering and shrinking into his coat. He forgot how uncomfortably cold winter could be. Yami took out two of the disposable hand-warmers he'd slipped into his coat pocket, tucked one of them into Yugi's pockets, and then sandwiched the other between his and Yugi's hands.
"Hold on to that, it'll help keep you warm," Yami said. Yugi grabbed the packet, his mittens making the task difficult, and squeezed his dad's hand tighter. "It's past the animals' bedtime. They'll be sleeping inside where it's nice and warm."
"Aww, I wanted to see a polar bear in the snow."
"We can come back another day when they're awake. Besides, I don't think you'd be able to see much of them in the dark."
"Okay," Yugi said, disappointed, but gasped when he saw a giant Christmas tree beyond the gate. It flickered and changed colors to the holiday music that played softly through unseen speakers. Hoards of people were standing in front of it for selfies and group photos that they could post to their social media accounts later.
As the attendant scanned their tickets, she passed Yugi a sticker of an elephant covered in Christmas lights and said, "Have a good time you two!"
Yugi appraised the sticker for a little bit and put it in his pants pocket.
"You don't want to wear that?" Yami asked him as he steered them away from the tree and towards a lion statue.
Shaking his head, Yugi explained, "Some kids at school are putting stickers on their homework folders and I want to, too."
They, along with several others, stopped in front of the plastic lion to admire it. The lion was made with several sections of plastic bordered by thick black adhesive, giving it a pseudo-stained-glass look. Beyond the statue, there was a flashing sign that read "Domino Zoo" and, to the right, almost every tree in the park was either strung up with lights or had a small spotlight shining on it. Yami could vaguely see more lights randomly in the grass so, when Yugi had seen enough of the lion, they walked underneath multiple red and green-lighted archways and towards the rest of the display.
They passed several dark enclosures and Yugi stopped at each one, hoping to see an outline of the sleeping animals. At first, he stood to the side of a large group of kids, but as they went from exhibit to exhibit, he got closer and closer until he mixed with the bunch. It wasn't exactly what Yami had in mind when he bundled them up for their stroll, but as long as Yugi was happy, he was fine with it. Yami simply tucked his face further into his scarf, waited under the nearest heater, and looked at the holiday displays.
Some of the kids started calling out to animals in the enclosures, making sure they were truly empty. After a few attempts, they were rewarded with a porcupine trotting from underneath its hiding place and into the building behind its enclosure, away from the loud children and the cold. This only encouraged them and, while Yugi ran back over to tell Yami what he saw, a bunch of the others ran to the next exhibit and made even more noise. When the kids became particularly rowdy, a mother had to step in and show them the sign that read, "Shhh, baby gorilla sleeping!" They disbanded to play on the metal statues and enjoy the lights with their parents instead.
Despite the lack of live animals, there were plenty of lights shaped like them along the path. They passed several shaped like monkeys, giraffes, and zebras in the primate and Savanna desert sections and saw a little parade of otters and black bears as they moved on. As the two Mutous followed the path leaving the forest and mountain habitats toward the Arctic animals, they passed a little girl crying and her mother trying to comfort her.
"But my giraffe sticker!" She sobbed.
"I don't know where you dropped it, but it's only a sticker. You have plenty back home, it'll be okay. Let's keep going, alright?" Her mom gave her a pat on the back and tried to get the girl to keep moving, but she wouldn't budge.
Yami was content to walk past them, the mother had things under control, but Yugi paused. He took out the sticker from his pocket and stared at it. Squeezing his dad's hand for courage, he tottered over to them and silently held out his prize to the girl. When her mother nudged her to look at him, he was blushing furiously. He tripped over his words, saying "It's n-not a giraffe, but you can have my elephant sticker in-instead."
The little girl took it from him with a sniffle and a small smile. He smiled back and ran to hide behind Yami as quickly as he could. Yugi tried to push on the bigger man to propel him onward when he didn't immediately move, but he was too heavy. Instead, Yami took one of the tiny hands from his lower back and held it.
"That was nice of you." He said, but he only got an embarrassed squeak in return. Yugi refused to look at him and kept his eyes glued on the penguin-shaped lights ahead of them. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about, honey. You were just being sweet to that girl. Did you recognize her?"
Yugi shook his head and whined, clearly not liking the attention he was getting. The way Yugi got so flustered over the smallest thing was too cute and Yami couldn't resist teasing him a little more. As expected, his questions were only met with his son silently burying himself further into Yami's side. Once he thought Yugi had suffered enough, he dropped it and they sauntered on. The zoo had decorated the Arctic area with wire statues of reindeer and bundles of candy cane-shaped lights holding a sign that welcomed people to the "North Pole."
"Daddy, do you know what to ask Santa for yet? He won't know what to get you if you don't tell him." Yugi asked, swinging their hands and looking up at the large Santa light flickering between two images, making it seem as if he was waving at people passing by.
Ah, Yami was hoping Yugi would've gotten too caught up in the hustle and bustle of holiday fun to remember their conversation from a week and a half ago. Yugi had written his letter to Santa then, asking for the newest toys and games advertised on TV commercials. Yami never realized how helpful this tradition was until last year when he didn't know what to give the little boy. His friends told him to go off of Yugi's letter instead of overthinking it and, now, he's glad to have one less thing to worry about during the holidays. While it helped Yami shop, it made Santa more real for Yugi.
After Yami told Yugi that he wasn't writing a letter, Yugi caught him off guard by bursting into tears. When Yami got him to calm down, Yugi explained through hiccups that the only way Santa would give his dad a present was if Yami wrote him a letter, and if he didn't write one, he wouldn't get anything! That couldn't happen, the child reasoned and was prepared to stage a mini-boycott. If Yami didn't write a letter then Yugi wouldn't send his and they could receive nothing, together.
The man shook his head. He'd promised to write Santa a letter after Yugi almost tore his up in protest, but he was too busy with holiday shopping, keeping them alive, and running the game shop. Ultimately, his blank paper was forgotten, under a magnet on the fridge next to Yugi's. Yami should have known from his earlier outburst that his kid wouldn't forget. "Not yet, buddy."
"You gotta do it soon! Christmas is only two days away and that's not a lot of time for Santa to get something for you!" Yugi chastised, taking his eyes off of the lights display for a moment to convey how serious this was.
Yami nodded and thought of things he could write on his list. There were games and cards he wanted, but he could get them himself. Enough money to take his friends and Yugi on extravagant vacations would be nice, but the game shop didn't bring that much in and he had to save for Yugi's future. Nothing seemed valuable enough to write down, except one thing.
Yami squeezed his hand while they walked behind another family admiring the wooden cutouts painted to look like gingerbread-cookie animals. "I've figured out what I'm going to ask Santa for, do you want to hear it?"
Yugi nodded, not taking his eyes off the gingerbread rhinos and elephants.
"I want you to know how much I love you, and I want you to love yourself just as much."
"That's confusing! What does that even mean?"
Yami cupped Yugi's small cheek in his gloved hand and smiled at him fondly, "It means that I love everything about you. I love that, despite being shy, you're brave enough to help other kids and you're doing your best to be friends with everyone; I love that you're clever and you like games as much as I do; mostly, though, I love that you have the biggest heart and you care so much about the people around you." Yami said, as he rubbed the boy's face with his thumb, "I want you to be proud of yourself for being all of those things and I want you to love being Yugi."
"I don't think Santa can do that, he makes toys, not…that."
Yami laughed a little and took Yugi's hand. "I guess so, but that's still my wish."
"...It's mean to ask people to do something you know they can't do, Daddy, it'll make them sad." Yugi pouted, Yami's sentiment was lost on the six-year-old.
Yami chuckled and ruffled Yugi's hair, "You're right, that is pretty mean. I'll stick with asking for new cards, how does that sound?"
Yugi nodded and they continued their walk around the zoo.
On the trip home, Yugi was content to silently look out the bus's window and watch for more holiday decorations. Yami kept quiet too, hoping not to rile him up and make it difficult to put his son to sleep. When they returned home, Yugi made a beeline to the fridge. He pulled down the two letters pinned next to his drawings, put them on the table, and ran off to get two pencils from his backpack.
Yami tossed his keys into its little dish on the kitchen counter, picked up Yugi's letter, and read over it again while waiting. He was curious why this came down with his blank letter, but he didn't have much time to think about it. Yugi bounced back into the room, exchanging the black colored pencil for his paper.
"I want to fix something, you write yours so we can mail them tomorrow! I don't know if the mailman can make it all the way to the North Pole in time!" His anxiety pinched his eyebrows together and fueled his demands.
Yami patted his head, "there's plenty of time, honey. Santa uses his magic to pick up letters every day from the post office, but if it makes you feel better, we can go first thing in the morning."
Yugi scratched something off his list and wrote slowly and as neatly as he could under his signature. The two finished writing at nearly the same time. Yugi wrote two sentences and Yami wrote a large paragraph before signing it at the bottom with the signature he used for all of his autographs.
"Woah, you said a lot! How come you're so fast?" Yugi said in awe.
Chuckling, Yami said, "Practice. Give it a few years and you'll be as fast as me. Now come on, time for bed."
Their nighttime adventure had tuckered the kid out and it wasn't difficult to put him down. Yami did a few last-minute chores before going to sleep as well.
The next day came and, with it, brought Yugi another opportunity to torture the poor man trying to sleep in. Today's punishment happened to be pulling on Yami's arm until it came out of its socket. Yugi used all his strength to pull him out of bed, but Yami hardly budged. He had to commend the kid's commitment, however, and the stretch felt nice.
After Yugi gave up and turned to face Yami, he began to pout. "You're awake? It's time to get up! I want to play and we have to go to the mail place."
"Alright. I'm up, I'm up. Go get dressed and brush your teeth." Yami said, swinging his legs off the bed and yawning.
As Yami promised, the first thing they did after putting on their coats was walk to the post office. Yugi held their letters in his pocket with an iron grip, worried about the wind blowing them far away. At the post office, they found a small box decorated festively with a sign that read "For Santa" right next to the counter. Skipping the line of disgruntled people trying to send their last-minute Christmas presents, they dropped the letters in the box and waved to the postal workers. The nearest one waved back at them as they explained, once again, that it was too late to have a package delivered by tomorrow.
The walk back was quiet as Yami felt his ears begin to freeze and Yugi looked at the storefronts' decorations as they passed by. When Yami unlocked their door, he was ready to sit by their space heater, drink something warm, and play games for the rest of the day.
Yugi had different plans. Instead of following Yami, he dusted off one of their forgotten flower pots with his sleeve and peeked inside.
"Can we go to the park, please?" He called up to his dad.
Yami was already moving up the stairs but turned around. "It's too icy to play on the playground, and it's covered in snow!"
"I know, I want to build a snowman with you, like the ones in the windows," Yugi said and offered the pot up like it was proof.
"Aren't you cold?"
"No…" Yugi glanced down at the dead flower.
Yami shot him "The Look" and gave him another chance.
"I'm cold, but I still want to go to the park! Please?" Yugi half-begged, hugging the flower pot closer to his coat.
Internally sighing, Yami nodded. The heater would have to wait. "Okay, stay there a minute." He trudged the rest of the way up the stairs and got their scarves, gloves, and a pair of ear muffs for Yugi. If his ears were cold, Yugi's must be too.
As he put the gear on his kid, he commented, "If we're going to be playing in the snow, you need to dress warmer. Can't have your fingers turning blue."
"They can do that?" Yugi asked excitedly and tugged at his mittens, wanting to see his skin change color.
"Stop that. It takes a long, long time for them to turn blue but when it does, we'll have to put your hands in hot water and it will hurt very badly." Yami said as he put on his gloves and headed towards the park.
The boy squeaked, pulled his mittens back in place, and put on his ear muffs. Frostbite no longer seemed fun. His fear was quickly forgotten when they entered the flat, snowy field. A few kids were having a snowball fight and others were braving the jungle gym in their water-proof winter gear. Yugi skirted around the war zone, afraid of getting hit by a stray snowball, and stopped at the other side of the field.
"I'm going to make the bottom, you make the middle part." Yugi put his pot down, the flower sagging to the ground, and made his snowball.
Yami, a little warmer in a scarf and gloves, crouched down and followed suit. Instead of immediately tossing it around the field and running after it like Yugi was, Yami rolled and packed his snowball with the snow around his feet. When it became big enough, he gently kicked it ahead of him and followed Yugi as they chased after his growing snow pile.
They went in a loop around the park and by the time they returned to their beginning spot, Yugi's ball had turned into a chubby cylinder that reached his knees when turned upright. Yami's didn't pick up nearly as much snow, considering he didn't pat the thing every time it rolled a few inches like Yugi did, but it was a decent middle section. The boy, encouraged by his ability to get his "snowball" to stand upright by himself, lifted the other one a few inches off the ground before he had to put it back down.
"Daddy, yours is too heavy!"
Raising an eyebrow, Yami lifted his snow pile and placed it unceremoniously on top of Yugi's. "You weigh more than this, kiddo."
Yugi shook his head, "Nu-uh, that weighs at least as much as a car! Only super strong people can lift it."
"I guess you're right. It does, but I bench press cars every morning at the gym." Yami joked and flexed a little under his coat.
Yugi gave him the side-eye, unconvinced. "When? You're always at home with me."
"After you leave for school and before I open the shop." Yami crouched down and started to make the snowman's head.
"Hmmm, you should go more, that way you can be as strong as Joey and Tristan," Yugi tossed out. "I'm going to look for things to make his face." But he swiveled back around when he didn't get an answer.
Yami shook his head, trying to cover a small laugh at Yugi's innocent insult. He jumped and shivered when he felt snow run down his coat.
"Okay?" Yugi put his snowy mittens on Yami's scarf and back to get the man's attention. He saw Yugi's worried frown and met it with a reassuring smile.
"Sounds good, stay where I can see you."
Nodding, Yugi trotted off towards the tree line while Yami stayed behind. When he returned with a few sticks and a bunch of rocks, the snowman had a head and Yami was softly carving spots for eyes and a mouth into the head.
"I found rocks, we can use them for the face and for buttons," Yugi said as he ran back. He giggled as he got closer, delighted, "he's as tall as me!"
"Good job! Go ahead and put them on." Yami walked away and grabbed the flowerpot. He waited until Yugi put the rocks in place before offering the pot, but it was pushed back to him.
"You can put that on. It's his hat!" He patted the top of the snowman's head, having to get on his tip-toes.
Yami quickly sat the flowerpot in its place to keep dirt from spilling out and moved back to let Yugi finish. He pulled out his phone and took a picture of Yugi giving their snowman arms, making it his new background and sending it to his friend's group chat. As he opened up his mother's messages to send the picture to her, he saw the text he'd completely forgotten about, "I finished shopping yesterday so I'm coming over a little earlier. I should be there around noon."
"Shoot, we gotta go now, buddy." This was met with a whine and a pout. Yugi was unwinding his scarf to give it to his new friend, but Yami stopped him and offered his hand. "Grandma's coming over soon and we can't let her stay out in the cold, can we?" Yugi shook his head and took his hand, and they hustled back home.
As Yami was helping Yugi take off his coat and boots at the bottom of the staircase, Mrs. Mutou came up the walkway carrying a large tote bag.
"Merry Christmas, you two!" She said while taking off her gloves.
"Merry Christmas, M—" Yami was cut off by Yugi jumping up from the bottom stair and hobbling over to her with one boot on. "Yugi! Get back in here, you're going to catch a cold!"
Yugi ignored him and ran out into the snow to hug his grandma. "Christmas is tomorrow, Gramma!"
Mrs. Mutou returned the hug and steered the kid back inside. "Yes, but I'm not going to see you tomorrow," She gave her son a pointed look, "so I came over today instead!"
Yami rolled his eyes, not wanting to start an argument with his mother in front of Yugi. He pulled off Yugi's other boot and set it near his pair on a towel by the front door. "Go change your socks, sweetheart, that can't feel nice."
Yugi shook his head and ran upstairs towards his room. Yami turned to face his mother, crossing his arms. "Please, don't pick a fight. I want to spend Christmas alone with Yugi, it has nothing to do with you."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said nonchalantly. "Just because I was excluded from a family holiday doesn't mean I'm here to argue with you."
"You weren't maliciously excluded, I simply want the chance to make holiday memories with my child, and only my child. Just like you had your chance when I was younger and Grandpa was with his old archaeology buddies." Yami picked up Yugi's discarded coat and scarf and headed upstairs. "You're welcome to join us, I only ask that we be civil to one another. It would be nice to spend time with you today."
The older woman balked at his directness and huffed. She was going to argue back, she was always civil, but he was already through the door towards the upstairs apartment. Her choices were clear. She didn't like it, but she knew it would be better for both of them if she worked harder at being less… aggressive today.
Climbing up the stairs and into the apartment, she put down her bags and hung her coat up in the old coat closet. Yugi was already out in the living room and playing with a few of his toys. He looked up at her with a grin and she could've sworn she was staring at her son instead of her grandson.
"What do you want to do?" He asked.
Smiling, she asked, "Well, have you made Santa cookies yet?"
The grin disappeared, "we forgot! Oh no, he won't be happy about that, will he?"
"Grandma came prepared, don't worry. Do you want to help me make some?" She took out a package of sugar cookie mix and showed it to the kid.
"Yeah! The kitchen is this way, Gramma. I'll stir and you can do the oven part, like when me and Daddy make cookies." He took her hand and led her to where she'd cooked so many meals and treats for her family before she moved out.
"That sounds lovely. Let's hope your daddy hasn't moved things around too much," she went straight to where she used to keep the cookie sheets. Bingo. They may have been replaced with newer sheets, but they were right where she'd left them, same with the measuring cups and mixing bowl. The two were rolling their dough out on the counter after a miniature flour flight when Yami appeared out of his room. He was holding a few wrapped packages and stood in the doorway.
"Perfect timing, darling. I forgot the cookie cutters in my bag, could you get them for me, please? I'd do it myself but..." she trailed off, holding up her flour-covered hands.
"Sure. These are for you, where would you like them?" He asked and indicated to the gifts in his arms.
"Put them in the tote bag, yours and Yugi's are in there, too, if you want to get them."
Yami hummed in response and exchanged the gifts, putting theirs where he hid the others and returned with the cookie things. He put them on the counter and took his laptop off its charger. While the other two were having fun, he was determined to get some work done. He brought up the Excel sheet he'd made for Kame Game's finances and tapped on his phone's calculator app. It had been a good year for them, but life with a child was always expensive. With all the school supplies that he'd bought, along with clothes and other general necessities of life, he was hoping that he still had a decent chunk of profit left over to put into Yugi's college fund and his retirement.
"Daddy! Come make cookies with us!" Yugi called over, waving the rolling pin until Mrs. Mutou lowered it.
"Careful, baby, you might hit someone."
"Sorry, Gramma."
Yami got up to get a glass of water. "I'll join in a minute," he said. "I've got a little work to do."
Yugi gave him the biggest puppy-dog eyes that he could muster, "can't you do it later?"
"I'll help you decorate when they're done," Yami said, patting Yugi's shoulder and kissing him on the head. "You have fun with Grandma."
Yami went back to work while the other two made cookies. After they were out of the oven and cooling down, Yugi roped Yami into joining them by asking him to play a few games together. They played a round of Sorry, but board games were soon abandoned when his mother brought out decks of playing cards. Starting with games that Yugi could play like Golf and Go Fish, Yami and his mother's competitive natures took over and they progressed to harder games like Canasta. Yugi had to join his dad's team to play, but it was enough for him. He enjoyed spending time with his family and helping his dad occasionally win. The two adults' thorny behavior towards each other melted the longer they played. Everything said outside each round was forgiven and forgotten, the only thing that mattered in the moment was having fun and winning.
Glancing up at the oven's clock, Yami discovered that it was almost 4:45, they'd been playing for much longer than he'd thought. "Didn't you say you had somewhere to be at 5, Mom?"
"Hmm? Oh, yes! Thank you for reminding me, darling. I was going to go to a friend's party." She collected the cards and tallied their scores, "We won't count this round, but it was really close. It looks like you two won. That one hand gave you a handsome lead."
The two boys walked her to the front door and waved as she climbed into her car. "Good night, have a good time!" Yami called after her.
"Bye-bye, Merry Christmas!" Yugi added.
She waved and drove off, leaving them alone once again.
Yugi tugged on Yami's shirt, "Help me with cookies now?"
"Sure," Yami said and walked up the stairs with Yugi.
Yami put on a classic holiday cartoon to watch while decorating the cookies. When they were done, Yugi set aside a couple of cookies for them and put the rest on a plate near the tree with an empty glass.
"That way, we won't forget to leave out milk too," he said.
They watched the rest of the show and Yugi asked to watch another. Yami obliged and left him watching the Claymation Rudolph movie to cook dinner. After a while, it was a little too quiet and that raised a few suspicions in Yami's mind. When he went to call Yugi into the kitchen, he couldn't find him. The rustle of plastic branches and ornaments clinking together gave away his hiding spot and Yami quietly went over to the tree to find a pair of feet sticking out from underneath. Suppressing a smile, he pulled Yugi out from under the tree, much to Yugi's surprise, and tickled the little boy until he pleaded for mercy.
"What did you find down there, sweetheart?"
"Nothing!" Yugi answered in between gasps.
"Hmm, I bet you found a lot of that. Let's have a bowl of soup instead of looking for presents, okay? The earlier we sleep, the earlier it will be Christmas, and the earlier you can find your gifts." Yami offered, spinning the idea of an early bedtime into what he hoped was a tempting offer.
They went through the rest of the night routinely, Yami wrangled Yugi into the bath and let him play with his toys until 8:30, when he ushered the kid off to bed. Yami read the last few chapters of The Little Hero and Friends picture book, glancing off to the side occasionally to check if his boy had fallen asleep. No luck. Yugi was wide awake and pawing at his favorite illustrations in the book up until the end.
"'With Dark Magician Girl and the rest of his friends' help, Little Hero defeated the evil wizard and the whole town cheered. They threw a party to celebrate. Afterwards, Little Hero went to his room and told his friends, 'That was a good adventure! But now it's time to rest so we can have another one tomorrow. Goodnight!'" Yami let Yugi look at the picture before closing the book and putting it back on the shelf.
"Read another one?" Yugi asked, sitting up and squeezing his Kuriboh plush tightly.
Yami walked over to the bed and gently pushed Yugi to lie back down. "No, one story is enough and it's time for you to sleep," he said and tucked the blankets around Yugi closer.
"But I'm not tired!" Yugi protested. "I can't sleep if I'm not tired."
"Try," Yami said and kissed him on the forehead. "Just close your eyes and pretend you're going on an adventure with everyone. You'll fall asleep in no time."
He ignored the small grumble as he flipped off the light. Yugi's little star night light turned on and painted the room in a faint yellow glow as he closed the door. Rummaging around the kitchen, he poured himself a small glass of bourbon over ice and flopped on the couch. There was so much he needed to get done before he could call it a night, but he wanted a small break. Sipping the spicy spirit, Yami's eyes glazed over at the lit Christmas tree in the corner. The tree was new, but most of the ornaments were old and he remembered helping Grandpa and his mother decorate the tree every year with them. Even back then, some of the baubles were old. The gold star and glass globes were passed down from his great-grandma to Solomon to Mrs. Mutou and, finally, to him.
Every year they added a few more ornaments to their collection, which made it difficult to put all of them on the tree. So, while few favorites were routinely put up, the rest were admired from their aging boxes. This year, his friends bought Yugi several Little Hero and Duel Monsters-themed ornaments that Yugi decorated the bottom half of the tree with and Yami added a few of the older, fragile things higher up. It was a nice mix of old and new that pulled him back to when he was eight and his little trains were the latest addition to the Mutou collection. Recalling the year he tried to connect the tiny cars to make one, continuous train, he heard Yugi's door creak open.
Looking down at his phone, he saw that half an hour had passed. Yugi lasted longer than he thought. Yami half expected the boy to come out ten minutes after he'd left, complaining that he couldn't sleep. He stayed silent as Yugi pushed the door to his room open and he took another sip, eventually seeing the outline of a distorted Yugi among the multi-colored lights in the glass's reflection. As he put his drink down, Yugi quietly climbed up on the couch and slipped under Yami's arm.
"I can't sleep, I really tried." He whispered. He was less energized than before, but not nearly enough.
"Thank you for trying," Yami said softly and gave him a squeeze. "Stay put, I know something that will help." Getting up from the couch, he walked over to the fridge. He pulled out the milk and shook it, making a note to get more later. Leaving it near the stove, he took out a saucepan and the dark chocolate bar he hid in the pantry. In a few minutes, he had two mugs filled with hot cocoa and he poured the rest of his bourbon, sans ice, into the larger black mug.
He took the drinks back over to the couch and found Yugi curled up in his spot, entranced by the flickering lights. Yami passed him the blue mug with two handles and grabbed a blanket from the nearby basket. Putting his mug on the ground, he hopped onto the window sill and patted his lap. Yugi carefully wiggled off the couch and ambled over, letting himself be picked up and covered in the blanket. They watched the snow falling from the window and sipped their hot cocoa until Yugi drifted off. Putting the empty mugs back on the ground, Yami sat for a little longer, following the snowflakes' silent path under a street light.
When he felt he was beginning to nod off, he carefully moved Yugi around to carry him back to his room. After he was back in bed and curled around his Marshmallon and Kuriboh, Yami went to work. He dumped out the milk they had left out for Santa and took a bite of one of the cookies. Opening his closet, he pulled the few hidden boxes off the top shelf and placed them under the tree. Once everything was cleaned up, he yawned, flicked out all the lights, and went to bed.
It seemed like he had closed his eyes for a few hours when his phone's alarm chimed at 8:45 am. A little surprised that Yugi hadn't busted in to wake him up at dawn, Yami got ready for the day and threw on a clean pair of pajamas. Peaking into the living room and finding it empty, he decided to let Yugi sleep in and spend a few extra hours alone. Brewing himself a cup of coffee, he read the news on his phone and then turned on the Xbox to play a puzzle adventure game. He was stuck on one of the later levels when his phone started to go off and he responded to his friend's holiday wishes in kind.
Yami paused his game and put the controller down when Yugi stumbled into the room. Marshmallon in one hand and rubbing his eye with the other, Yugi mumbled a faint "Good morning."
"Good morning, honey. Merry Christmas." Yami said warmly.
Once the words clicked, Yugi's face brightened and he became instantly more excited. He rushed off to the tree in delight and saw the plate of half-eaten cookies. "Santa came!"
Chuckling at Yugi's enthusiasm, Yami nodded, "he did! It looks like you were a good boy this year too. What did he bring you?"
That was all the invitation Yugi needed to tear into the presents under the tree. It seemed like Yami had chosen right from his list. His son was delighted with all the games he got and was very excited about the quilt his grandma made for him. They called her to wish her a Merry Christmas and thank her for the gifts. When they got off the phone, Yugi was curled underneath the blanket, Marshmallon in his arms, and watching the tutorial for his new Lego video game.
"Do you want to play too? The box said we can play together!" Yugi asked, but he was too cozy to get up and grab the other controller.
"No thanks, bud, I'm going to go cook breakfast. You have fun." Yami ruffled his hair and moved to get off the couch.
"Oh! Wait, wait, wait! I forgot!" Yugi jumped up and crawled under the tree. Yami sat back down and raised an eyebrow. The kid came back with a poorly wrapped gift and a giddy smile.
"This is for you! Surprise! I wasn't looking for presents last night, I was hiding this. Did I fool you?" Yugi hopped in place and patted his hands against Yami's knees, teeming with extra energy.
Yami pulled Yugi up on the couch and wrapped an arm around him, hoping to help him simmer down."Yes, you fooled me. What's this?"
"It's your present, silly. I think your letter got lost in the mail so this is from me and Santa, open it!"
Inside was a piece of paper folded and colored to look like a booster pack of Duel Monsters cards. Carefully opening the pack, he found pictures Yugi had drawn and glued to thin pieces of cardboard. Yugi imitated Industrial Illusion's template to turn their family and friends into cards. Yami chuckled at his mother being a spell card that gave the player an additional 1000 life points and at the Téa trap card which forced the opponent's monsters to dance with her and lose 500 attack and defense points.
The two that he loved the most, though, were the cards of them. Yugi's was a level 10 monster card with a picture of Yugi raising his hands up, ready to hold someone's hand. When the player used it, they could make one of their opponent's monsters Yugi's "friend" and take control of it for the rest of the duel. His card had 13 stars and 50000 attack and defense points. The picture was of him smirking like he always had during his matches and its description read, "If you have a Yugi card on the field, you win. Beats Exodia."
After going through each card and having Yugi read his creatively spelled descriptions and titles, Yami was left speechless. Yugi might not have had the words to say what he felt, but Yami understood loud and clear from these drawings. It inflated his ego a little, but it mostly filled his heart with more sentiment than he thought possible and he felt himself tear up a bit.
"Do you like it?" Yugi misinterpreted his silence for disappointment and his eyebrows knitted together as he reached for the cards. "I can draw different ones."
Yami put his gift down on the coffee table, out of Yugi's reach, and drew him in for an extra long hug. "I love them, they're going to go where I can see them every day. I love you too, baby, you're the best present I could've asked for."
Yugi, happy that his dad understood, returned the hug. "Merry Christmas, Daddy!"