Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Cat of the Lilac Eyes ❯ Chapter 16: August ( Chapter 16 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Shiro: I can't believe how long it took me to get this chapter written! I'm so disappointed in myself! I expected to have at least five chapters all ready for you guys to read. Instead I just barely got three typed up. (sighs) So disappointed. Oh well, the next chapter will be out pretty soon though.

Disclaimer: If you still think that I own Yu-Gi-Oh by this point in the story, then that's a sad sad thing. I do own all OC's in this story and the plot.

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It’s now August and the Ishtars and Ashling have been in Domino for a little over a month now. Ashling gets along fairly well with the rest of the group, although something about Duke grates on her nerves. She has yet to meet the Kaiba brothers, who are off in California discussing the Duelist Academy thing with Pegasus. (He is the creator of Duel Monsters, after all.)

Yume and Bakura’s daughter has been born and they named her Yasu Hathor Khalid. She’s roughly a week old now.

Today Tama and Ryou are going over wedding plans with the help of Yugi and Yami. Suma is sitting nearby playing with some soft clocks, Kuriboh plushy, and her Dark Magician Girl plushy.

“I want something simple yet nice. And Gardenia’s are too expensive, Yugi.” Tama says, looking over the choices of flowers.

“What about roses?” Yugi suggests. “I know they’re pretty common, but that just makes them classics.”

Tama looks thoughtfully at the pictures of the many varieties of roses. “What do you think, Ryou? Red and white roses as a possibility?”

“That sounds fine to me, Tama.” Ryou replies, going over the edited and re-edited gust list. “I hope we haven’t forgotten anyone…”

Tama smiles and kisses Ryou on the cheek. “We sent the invitations out weeks ago after going over the list for nearly the entire summer. We have everyone on there.”

-Ding dong!-

Tama jumps up and walks down the hall to the door, easily beating Yume who’s upstiars with Bakura and Yasu.

“Hello?” She asks, opening the door.

“SURPRISE!!!”

Tama squeals loudly when she sees her dad, Kiba, and Damian standing at the door with grins on their faces. She then promptly pulls them down into a group hug and then drags them inside and shuts the door behind them.

Damian laughs and pats her on the head. “Nice to see you too, munchkin.”

Tama rolls her eyes and smacks Damian’s hand away. “Knock it off. I’m taller than your pal Ashling.”

Damian just continues grinning. “Yeah, that’s why she’s the shrimp now. She’s shorter than both you and Yugi! She’s only five foot three.”

“You shouldn’t make fun of short people.” Tama comments. “You’re shorter than the other guys, except for Yugi and Yami of course.”

“I’m taller than Ryou.” Damian defends, much to Kiba’s amusement.

Tama smirks. “Just by a teeny, tiny bit. It’s not noticeable.”

“Now, now, you two.” Tama and Kiba’s dad, Kojiro, says. “It’s not the time for fighting. It’s the time for celebration!”

“That and we heard that Yume had a baby girl!” Kiba says excitably. “I want to see if she looks like a Muto!”

“Ow! Suma!” Yami cries from the living room. “Come now, let go of daddy’s hair, Suma.”

Tama looks sheepishly at her dad and brother when they give her questioning glances. “Yume and Bakura aren’t the only parents here at the moment.”

“Did Yugi and Yami adopt a child?” Kojiro inquires, looking down the hall in hopes of catching a glimpse of the yami and hikari pair.

Tama exchanges a glance with Damian, knowing he’s already aware of the entire fiasco. “Well, you see, they didn’t adopt.” She says, looking away from her dad and brother.

“Didn’t adopt?” Kiba repeats in confusion. “Then how do they have a kid?”

Tama bites her lip. “Things have been really weird around here for a while.”

“Weirder than usual weird.” Damian fills in, trying to help her.

Tama nods. “Yeah. And one of the weird things had to do withManaturningYugiintoagirlbecausesheoverheardYugiandYamitalkingaboutchild ren.”

Blink. Blink.

“What!?” Kojiro and Kiba exclaim.

Tama takes a deep breath and goes into full detail over the whole thing.

“I think I need to sit down.” Kiba mutters when his sister is finished, closing his eyes for a moment.

“Living room is on the right, kitchen is on the left.” Tama tells her dad and brother, hearing her dad mutter something about needing a drink. “Yugi, Yami, Suma, and Ryou are in the living room.”

Kojiro helps his son down the hall to the living room, feeling lightheaded himself. However, after about a minute he walks across the hall to the kitchen in search of the much needed drink.

“Well that went well.” Damian comments with the grin still on his face.

Tama sighs. “It went better than I thought it would.”

-Ding dong!-

“I wonder if I can talk Ryou into letting the yami’s tamper with the stupid doorbell…” Tama grumbles under her breath before opening the door. “Malik! Ashling! Hello!”

“Good afternoon, Tama.” Ashling greets with Allan in her arms.

“Ashy!” Damian exclaims happily, moving forward to hug his blonde friend.

“Code purple! Code purple!” Allan yells, jumping down from Ashling’s arms before Damian pulls Bastet’s chosen into a hug.

Tama and Malik both sweat drop.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” Ashling exclaims, reaching up to pat Damian’s for once plain black hair. “Why are you here?”

“Mine and Ryou’s wedding.” Tama tells her. “Come on, Ashling. I want you to meet my dad and brother.”

Ashling smiles and follows Tama to the living room shortly followed by Malik and Damian. Ashling is quickly introduced to the last of the Muto’s and Kojiro, having returned from his trip to the kitchen, happily asks her to call him ‘Uncle Kojiro’.

(“He’s asked almost everyone to call him that. Don’t worry about it.” Malik tells Ashling.)

Once everyone has calmed down somewhat and are sitting down, Damian stands up. “Okay, I got some stuff to say.” He says. “First off, I didn’t get into the college with Riley-dearest, which is a disappointment, but I do have a job with the wonderful and fabulous Muto Gaming Company as Kiba’s assistant!”

“That’s great, Damian!” Tama exclaims. “But wait… that means we’re rivals now! Guess I finally have some decent competition, huh?”

“Rivals?” Ashling quietly questions.

“Tama works at Kaiba Corp as Mokuba Kaiba’s assistant.” Malik explains. “Kaiba Corp is a gaming company well known for its association with Duel Monsters. Muto Gaming Company is a lot smaller but is climbing its way up.”

“Our game shop is a small division of it.” Yugi says, taking Suma from Yami before the baby has a chance to grab the ex-spirit’s hair again.

Ashling takes in all the information and then nods. “Okay, I think I understand better now. But Tama, what do you do as an assistant?”

Tama just smiles mysteriously. “Assistant stuff.”

Ashling looks at little disappointed at the reply, so Ryou leans over toward her and whispers, “That’s all we’ve ever gotten out of her too, so don’t feel bad.”

“I wasn’t done with my good news.” Damian says before anyone else can say anything. “I have a girlfriend now and you know her, Ashy.”

Ashling gasps, her eyes going wide. “Riley?” When Damian nods she jumps up with a squeal and hugs him. “I’m so happy for both of you! Ri must be so happy! She’s had a crush on you for ages!”

Damian coughs, pulling Ashling’s arm away from his neck. “Yeah, she said something along those lines.”

The black-haired boy is congratulated a few more times and teased mercilessly by Ashling and Tama.

After fifteen minutes Ryou takes pity on Damian and turns the topic to were the three guys are staying. This starts a debate between the brother and sister, as Tama wants them to stay at the house with her, Ryou, Yume, Yasu, and Bakura and the three boys have already rented a decent apartment.

The two siblings don’t even pause when the phone rings and Ryou excuses himself to go get it.

Suma is, surprisingly, sleeping through the entire argument while her fathers as well as Kojiro and Malik, watch the two argue. Damian and Ashling get into a conversation on the goings on back home during this. Apparently Damian has left most of the running of the Shadow Café to Jiro and Max, trusting the two to do a good job. (Kaylie, Riley, and Holly only work there part-time now.)

“Tama.” Ryou’s voice cuts through the argument and Tama looks up. Noticing her fiancé looks paler than normal she looks at him in worry and asks, “Ryou, what’s wrong?”

“We forgot someone.”

Tama looks a little relieved at this statement. “Is that all? Who did we forget?”

“My dad.”

Tama pales. “Shit.”

Yugi gasps and covers Suma’s ears. “Tama!” He hisses. “Not in front of Suma!”

Basically everyone else in the room sweat drops.

Soon after this, Malik and Ashling take their leave having promised Ishizu they’d be home before dinner. That and they promised her they wouldn’t leave her alone with Marik for too long.

Less than half of the walk is spend in silence until Ashling breaks it by stopping in front of one of the park entrances. “Malik, lets go through here.”

Allan takes one look at the park and backs up a step. “Lass, is that wise? What if there’s some rabid creature in there that I can’t protect you from?”

Ashling rolls her eyes. “Allan, there are no rabid creatures in parks.”

“What’d he say this time?” Malik asks, only hearing the gentle mewing noise.

Ashling looks up at Malik with a grin on her face. “It’s nothing really. He’s just afraid of the ‘rabid creatures’ dwelling in the park.”

Malik raises an eyebrow. “Rabid creatures.” He repeats. “Unless the squirrels are rabid, we’ll be fine.”

The three turn into the park (Allan grumbling about insensitive humans) and walk a little ways into it until they come to the duck pond where they stop.

Malik turns to Ashling, knowing the reason she had wanted to get off the road. “What do you want to talk about?”

Ashling sits down on the grass and gestures for Malik to do the same. Allan hops up into her lap and purrs when she begins petting him.

“You guys are hiding something, I know it.” The blonde girl says, frustration laced in her voice.

Malik gives her a what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about? look to which Ashling replies with a look she learned from Riley that says I-know-you-know-what-I’m-talking-about-and-you’re-going-to-tell -me-now.

Malik curses in his head. “What do you think we’re hiding?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. All I know is that you all are hiding something and it’s something important.” Ashling replies. “I’ve heard all sorts of slip-ups and there’s a lot of things that just don’t make any sense. First of all, I find it hard to believe that Yugi and Yami aren’t related. Then there’s the whole ‘twin sibling’ thing. I’ve had conversations abruptly stop when I walk into a room, but I have a distinct feeling they ain’t talking ‘bout me.” She glares at Malik, her eyes a strange mix of crystal blue and golden-green. “I want an explanation now. I don’t particularly like being left in the dark you know.”

Malik relaxes slightly. ‘Hopefully that’s all she’s noticed.’

“And don’t think that’s all I’ve noticed Malik Ishtar! Those are just the obvious things.” Ashling growls, having sensed Malik relaxing slightly.

Malik, again, curses in his mind, now completely convinced the gods are out to get him. Then he sighs, resigned to the fact he’ll have to tell her now. “Lets go home. Ishizu and Marik can help me explain.”

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Several hours and one extremely confused Ashling later…

“So let me get this straight. Yume, Bakura, Marik, and Yami are all from Ancient Egypt and Yami was trapped in this Millennium Puzzle while Bakura was trapped in the Millennium Ring thingy.”

Ishizu nods. So far so good.

“Yume was trapped in the dragon pendant thingy while Marik actually came back from the dead inside Malik’s mind.”

“Something like that.” Marik says.

Ashling frowns, a little more confused by the next part. “Tama, Ryou, Malik, and Yugi are their ‘other halves’ and were thus able to set them free. Yume, Bakura, Marik, and Yami are the ‘darker halves’ which you all have shortened to ‘Darks’ and ‘yami’s’. (That last one’s very confusing by the way.) And then Tama, Ryou, Malik, and Yugi are the ‘lighter halves’ and you guys have shortened that to ‘Lights’ and ‘hikari’s’.” She pauses to think all that over. “Umm… the whole ‘Shadow Realm’ thing really confuses me.”

“I’ll sum it up for you.” Malik says. “Basically, those chosen by the Millennium Items and the gods are able to draw upon the powers of the Shadow Realm. If it goes unused, the Shadow Realm becomes too strong and unbalanced and could kill us all.”

“Gee, ain’t that pleasant.” Ashling grumblings, before something Malik said hits her. “Wait a second, I’m not going to have to learn too, am I?”

Malik looks to his sister for the answer to that question.

“I believe you may, Ashling. However, we will have to wait and see if you show signs before I can say for sure.” Ishizu replies.

Ashling’s head drops and she looks glumly at the floor. “Great… just, peachy.”

Marik grins his usual insane little grin and pats Ashling on the back. “Don’t worry, kitty-pretty. You’ll be taught by the pro’s!”

Ashling casts a worried look at Malik and mouths, ‘Kitty-pretty?’. Malik rolls his eyes and mouths back, ‘Don’t ask.’

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Shiro: And Ashling's finally told!

Bast: (glancing at Shiro's notes) Hey, hikari, I though you weren't going to do that until the next chapter?

Shiro: I was, but then I discovered this chapter would be way too short and so had to put it at the end. Besides, it doesn't screw up my plans at all.

Kaze: (sarcastically) Yes, because we wouldn't want to screw up your plans, now would we?

Shiro: (nonchalantly lights Kaze on fire) Haven't done this for a while.

Kitsune: Some advice, Shiro?

Shiro: Yeah?

Kitsune: Run.

Shiro: (grins) Thanks! (jumps up and flies off)

Kaze: (summons wind and flies after Shiro)

-CRAAAAAACK!- -SMASH!-

Bast: And there goes the roof...

Kyle: (looks up) Wow... those two sure can do some damage.

Keitaro: That had to hurt...

Kitsune: (sweatdrops) (thinking) 'Am I the only sane one?' (holds up sign to reviewers)

Sign: SAVE ME!

NEXT CHAPTER- Chapter 17: Trials

Ashling's trials as Bastet's chosen have just begun and then she makes "friends" with Seto. Also, Ryou and Tama's wedding with problems from Ryou's dear father. Then there's the return of the Millennium Key... with Joey as its chosen?! And then the Millennium Necklace choses its new owner. And finally, Yugi, Seto, and Joey discover Ashling's gift when they take a trip to the zoo when volunteering for Mokuba's class trip.