Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Family Bonds ❯ Chapter 8: Problems in Paradise ( Chapter 8 )

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

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, however I do own all of the Original Characters except for three and they belong to my friend. (They'll be mentioned later)

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September 4, 1999 (The weekend after Ryou’s birthday)

“Ryou-kun, are you sure you don’t want to spend the night?” Tama asks.

Ryou hesitates for a moment as he reaches for his coat. “I don’t know… my dad’s suppose to be coming home today. He promised.”

“But otou-san has been checking all day and he hasn’t seen any cards pull up in your driveway.” Tama says. “Please stay, Ryou-kun. We haven’t fully celebrated.”

Ryou lets his hand fall to his side. “You’ve already done enough. The surprise party and all of the wonderful gifts were more than enough.”

“Don’t be silly! You deserve a special day just for you!” Tama exclaims. “And what better way to finish celebrating than to sleepover here and watch silly movies with us all night!”

Ryou caves in. “Alright…”

“Yay!” Tama cheers. “Lets go get everything set up and then you can pick what movie’s to watch!”

Ryou allows himself to be pulled to the living room, ignoring the more rational side of his mind.

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Ryou heads home the next day after eating brunch with his friends. He has declined their offers of helping him carry home his presents, and regrets it once he gets to the backdoor to his house and finds that he’ll have to set some things down so he can get out the key and unlock it and then open it. Just as he’s getting ready to do so, the door slides open.

Yaten Bakura stands there with a worried look on his face. When he sees that it’s his son he sighs in relief and stands back to let Ryou in. Ryou silently enters, making sure to slip off his shoes at the door and put on the blue slippers Tama gave him.

“Ryou, where have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?” Mr. Bakura demands.

“I was over at a friends’ house…” Ryou softly says. “They threw me a surprise party and invited me to spend the night.”

“You knew I was coming come for your birthday.” Mr. Bakura says. “Why didn’t you leave a note to tell me where you were? What if I thought you’d been kidnapped and called the police?”

“I’m sorry…” Ryou whispers, lowering his gaze to the floor.

“Room, now.” Mr. Bakura says. “You’re grounded until further notice.”

“Yes, father.” Ryou murmurs, obediently going straight to his room.

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“Otou-san, otou-san, otou-san!” Tama yells as she runs through the house in search of her dad. She finds him in his room sitting at his small desk.

Kojiro sets aside the book he was reading and turns in his chair to look at Tama. “What’s wrong?”

“Otou-san, Ryou-kun’s dad grounded him for sleeping over here on his birthday.” She says sadly. “And it’s all my fault! I begged him to spend the night when he wanted to go home!” Tears spring up in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to get Ryou-kun in trouble, otou-san. I just wanted him to have fun like we always have for birthday parties! It’s not fair… it was his birthday…”

Kojiro stands up and walks across the room t hug his daughter. “Don’t worry, Tama. I’ll go explain to Mr. Bakura. I’ve been wanting to meet him anyway. You go on outside with the others. I thought you all were going to play Red Light, Green Light.”

Tama nods. “Yeah, but we wanted Ryou-kun to play too.”

“I’ll see what I can do. For now, you go play with the others and have fun.” Kojiro says as he stands back up.

“Okay, otou-san.” Tama replies. She dries her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt and then she heads to the backyard to play with the boys.

Kojiro sighs and runs a hand through his hair, something he does whenever he’s frustrated or upset about something. He grabs his coat off of the doorknob and then sets off to the house next door.

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Kojiro has no luck with talking to Mr. Bakura, in fact he feels as if he’s made things worse by trying to talk to the other father. Then there’s the phone call from the school that he’s received…

The front door loudly slams shut and Mokuba, Malik, Seto, Tama, and Kiba look up from the board game they’ve just pulled out. (They got tired of Red Light, Green Light.)

“Tama, Kiba, and Seto, come in this hall now!” Kojiro yells.

The three exchange startled looks and then scramble to their feet and quickly go to the hall where their dad is standing.

“Otou-san? Daijoubu desu-ka?” (1) Tama asks.

Kojiro sighs heavily and runs a hand through his hair for the second time that day. “I’m fine. I did just get an interesting phone call from the main office secretary. It turns out that the three of you have gotten into more fights and someone nearly put someone in the hospital.”

“Oops…” Kiba mutters, mentally berating himself for not being more careful.

Kojiro gives Kiba a look. “The teachers are tired of having to break up these fights, so before things get too out of hand, and since you’ll have plenty of free time, I’ve decided to teach you all a few things. We’ll start out with basic defense and go from there. Where’s Malik and Mokuba at?”

“In the living room setting up a game.” Seto says.

“Put up the game and meet me in the backyard. Tama, you and Mokuba need to tie back your hair so it doesn’t get in the way. Seto and Kiba, you two can come with me and we’ll get started on exercises.”

The kids do as their dad says. Kiba and Seto go with him to the backyard while Tama goes to tell Malik and Mokuba and get the board game put up. Malik volunteers to tie back their hair and braids Mokuba’s first. Once the board game is put up and Malik has braided both Mokuba and Tama’s hair they head out to the backyard and join the others in doing warm-up exercises.

For the rest of the day, taking a long break for lunch, Kojiro teaches them basic defense and how to fight properly so they don’t hurt themselves.

“We’ll do this again tomorrow for a while and then I’ll get you all started on acting.” Kojiro says as they all head inside.

“Acting?” Mokuba asks.

“Yes, acting. Believe it or not, it is very useful. To be able to mask your expressions so your opponent won’t know what you’re thinking, to be able to hold back your anger so it doesn’t blind you in a fight; it’s all very important.” Kojiro smiles. “But anyway, training time is over. Who wants pizza?”

“Me!” All of the kids shout.

“Alright! Name your toppings.”

“Meat-lovers!” Tama and Kiba immediately yell, shortly followed by Mokuba and Seto.

“What about you, Malik?” Kojiro asks. “Should I get us ‘Veggie lovers’?” (2)

Malik smiles. “Okay.”

“Alright! One meat-lovers and one ‘veggie lovers’!” Kojiro enthusiastically says. “I’ll order, Tama gets the trays, Kiba gets the paper plates, Mokuba gets the paper cups, Malik chooses the drink, and Seto chooses the movie!”

“Who’ll get the napkins?” Mokuba asks, knowing they’ll need them for something or another.

“Who wants to volunteer?” Kojiro asks, almost surprised when none of them do so. Grinning, he raises his hand. “Me then.”

Cheerfully, the family gathers up everything they’ll need for pizza and Kojiro makes a call to Pizza Hut. Soon the pizza arrives and they settle down in the living room to watch Jumanji. The movie is paused once for them to clean up and get ready for bed. After dragging blankets and pillows out onto the living room floor, they un-pause the movie. Everyone except for Kojiro falls asleep before the end of the movie and at some point or another they moved closer to one another so now all the kids are cuddled up together.

Kohiro finds it utterly adorable and heart-warming. He sits and watches them for a few minutes while the video rewinds, a smile gracing his face as Malik snuggles deeper into the blankets and moves closer to Tama while Mokuba rolls over so he’s right next to Seto and closer to Kiba, who’s on the other side of Seto.

The VCR (3) clicks, signaling the video has rewound all the way and Kojiro gets up to eject the video and turn off the VCR. After putting the video back in it’s box and then on the shelf, he heads toward his bedroom. He glances at his children to make sure everything’s alright and then turns out the light.

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(1) Daijoubu desu-ka: Are you alright?

(2) I have no idea if this is an actual pizza or not. It just sounds like something Malik would like with him being a vegitarian.

(3) Ah, the days of just having the VCR... I wonder what happened to ours. I think we may still have it but it's just... lost in the abyss of our basement. No, seriously, there's a sea of boxes down there and it's about impossible to find anything. I'd rather not find it, but it would be nice to watch some of the old videos we have. (.(Like Dragon Heart.).) And since I've mentioned the VCR I may now include the old Nintendo and Sega Genesis game systems. Now those I wouldn't mind digging up from the abyss of our basement. I miss playing Super Mario 3 and the X-men game we had. Okay, no more rambling!

0-0-0-0

Damian: (reads the above message) You play video games, Shiro?

Shiro: Of course I do! What's wrong, you think a girl can't play video games?

Damian: Of course not! I'm sure you're very good at them too.

Keitaro: (mutters) Suck up...

Shiro: Hush, you're just angry because I kicked your butt in the ATV offroad fury game along with the JetX2O game, the Inuyasha feudal combat game, and the Yu Yu Hakusho dark tournament game.

Keitaro: ... No comment.

Damian: (snickering)

Bast: (rolls her eyes)

Kitsune: I'm surrounded by losers... No wonder none of you can appreciate a good book. You're too busy playing violent video games and spending hours on the computer.

Shiro: Aww... but it's fun wrecking into things and kicking Kei-kun's butt. As for the computer, I finally found some Yugioh episodes in Japanese with subtitles! Yay! It's so much better than the dub. Especially Yami Malik's voice.

Bast: You only watched one episode.

Shiro: So? I still think it's better! And Ryou's still the most adorable of them all! (squeals)

Bast: Great... she's gone into 'rabid Ryou-fangirl mode'. Again.

Shiro: But he's so cute!

Bast: And then you see Malik and can't decide which one's cuter.

Shiro: I do not! Okay, maybe I do.... but I have finally come to a solution!

Bast: And that would be...?

Shiro: Ryou's the most cutest, sweet boy in the entire show and I wanna hug him!

Bast: ......

Shiro: What?

Bast: 'Most cutest'? Time to get you some food, omote.

Shiro: Do I have to?

Bast: Well, when you start calling Ryou the 'most cutest' then I know it's time to get you food. Now stop typing and get downstairs and eat!

Shiro: So cruel...

Bast: I give up... (disappears)

Shiro: (blinks) Where'd she g-

Bast: (takes over Shiro's body) Ha ha! I've finally learned how to do that properly. Now to get some food...

NEXT CHAPTER: A visit, sneaking about, and a sleepover.