Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ When Time Wizard Backfires ❯ Chapter 3

When Joey awoke the next morning, he found the bed's occupants had multiplied sometime during the night. Snuggled firmly against his stomach was Yugi. Then Yami, who was sleeping on his belly. Then a small mop of brown hair peeking out from the covers beside Tristan.

Joey pulled the sheets back and had to bite his tongue to keep from making any noise. There was Seto, lost in blissful slumber, with his thumb hanging slightly from his mouth.

`Oh, man.. Da times I wish I had a camera!'

Tristan's eyes fluttered open slightly and he yawned. Joey put a finger to his lips quickly to keep him quiet before pointing down at the sleeping figures. He looked down and he too had to stifle his laughter at Seto.

He very carefully slipped out of the bed to go use the bathroom. The movements elicited a soft murmur from Yami as he rolled his head over to the other side.

The sound of the toilet flushing woke up Yugi. Two sparkling, violet orbs opened and rolled up sleepily to look at Joey. He gave a yawn and rubbed at his little eyes before a smile crept upon his cherub face.

"Hey there, squirt. What brings ya ta this neck of da woods?"

"Got scawed.. Yami an' me twied to fin' you an' Seto di'n't want to be by hi'self."

Tristan returned and gave a stretch. "So, are we going to get some breakfast?"

"I was going ta wait until da other two pipsqueaks woke up."

Yugi's belly gave a rumble and he giggled shyly. Joey grinned.

"Well, why don't ya take Yug and get something ta eat then? And then ya don't have ta worry about Mokuba flipping out when he can't find his brother. I'll just catch up once these two are up."

Tristan picked up his little friend to grab some food. Joey waited until Seto finally was awake. He started complaining he was hungry too, but Joey wanted to wait until Yami was ready to go as well. The brunette was going to have nothing of this and roughly shook the sleeping child.

Yami began to protest and whined loudly as he was disturbed. Before Joey could intervene, the small spirit smacked the other boy squarely in the face. In mere moments, World War III had begun right before the blonde's eyes.

After a short struggle of hair pulls and flailing limbs, Joey managed to pry the two apart.

"Okay, ya two. Ya can kill one another some other time."

With a little push, the two boys got moving while he walked behind as they made their way to the kitchen. Tristan was finishing some toast while Mokuba and Yugi were munching away on some cereal.

Yugi had a bit of an angry pout upon his face as he ate. He had been the same way during dinner since he was forced to use a high chair. Joey honestly felt bad for him. They had tried a booster chair, but he was still too short to see over the table. Nevertheless, they had to slip a few books underneath the booster for Yami to reach as well.

Joey lifted the two up into their chairs before he poured some cereal into three bowls and placed them in front of the boys. He took his own and began eating hungrily as he stood over them.

"Took you long enough to get down here, Joey. I never knew you would go so long with the chance to eat." Mokuba took another bite.

"I just didn't want ta leave these two by themselves. It's a good thing too. Looks like we're going ta have to keep an eye on them or they'll ring each other's necks. They got inta a fight upstairs."

Mokuba gasped slightly. "They did? What did you do?"

"Eh, I just pulled them apart and brought them down here. But we should probably do something about their fighting."

The dark haired youth turned up his nose. "My brother used to make me sit in 'time out'. Maybe I should get him back while I can."

Joey gave a slight smirk. "You're enjoying yourself too much, but I think that would be good." He looked down at the two sets of curious eyes. "Ya hear that ya two? Ya get a time out for 10 minutes after breakfast."

Yami gave an angry pout as well as Seto.

"But he started it!" the tiny, ancient spirit pointed accusingly at the shrunken CEO.

"You hit me!" Seto snapped back.

"You woked me up!"

"It's your fault!"

"Yours!"

"Yours!"

"YOURS!"

Joey let his empty bowl clunk down upon the table between them before he put his hands upon their shoulders. "Alright! Alright! Ya just went up ta 20 minutes for that. I'd start eatin' and quit fighting unless ya want ta make it longer."

With that, they finished up quietly. After, Joey took them into the living room and sat them on either end of the large couch, he took a seat on one of the nearby chairs and flipped through a magazine while he waited.

He checked his watch to make sure when time was up, then herded the boys through the house until he found Mokuba and Tristan again. Yugi was plopped down in front of the television watching cartoons beside Mokuba.

"Well, what are we going to do today, Joey?" Tristan asked, sounding slightly bored.

"We should probably just hang around here. I don't really want an encore of yesterday," the blonde grumbled and sat down near his friend.

They tried to pay attention to the screen, but lost interest quickly and began to fall asleep. It was Tristan's cell phone ringing that brought them back.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Tristan! I'm glad I finally reached someone. I called Yugi, but I'm afraid he hasn't been home. Is everything alright over there?" came Ryou's cheerful voice.

Tristan leapt from the couch, "RYOU! It's you!!"

Everyone turned their head back at the sudden outburst. It was Joey and Mokuba that jumped to their feet and ran to Tristan's side though.

Ryou's voice sounded hesitant as he chuckled nervously. "Y-yes?.. I was only calling to see if everything was doing well. I.. I take it something is wrong?"

Joey, who had his ear pressed against the other side of the phone, ripped it away. "Damn right somethin' is wrong! You and Bakura need ta get back here with da Millennium Ring!"

"The Millennium Ring? Why do you need the ring?"

Tristan grabbed his phone back and shoved Joey away roughly. "You better sit down for this, Ryou.. You're not going to believe it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Tristan finished retelling what happened, they could all hear a maniacal laughter upon the other end. Obviously, Bakura had been listening in the background. It was his voice they heard next.

"Oh, please tell me this isn't a joke.." he continued to snicker darkly.

The blonde once again tore the phone away. "Shut da hell up, Bakura! This isn't funny!"

Tristan wrestled the device away and shoved Joey roughly back onto the couch. "Bakura, this isn't a joke. We really need your and Ryou's help. We thought that you may be able to do something with your Millennium Ring."

"Oh, I'll come back all right, but only to see the pharaoh in his 'delicate condition'."

Ryou's voice was in the background and something came over the mouthpiece to muffle the conversation. Bakura yelled something back as an argument commenced before Ryou was on the phone again.

"We will be happy to help you any way we can. It will take us a few days to return on such short notice, however."

The brunette teen breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, thanks so much, Ryou. I think we'll be alright for a couple more days. Just be careful getting back."

"You're quite welcome, Tristan. And thank you. I should go now to begin our arrangements."

Once they had bid their goodbyes and hung up the phone, Joey jumped up to celebrate.

"Yes!! I told ya they'd help us!"

A three little heads were turned as they watched with wide eyes. Joey came over, lifted Seto right off the floor, and spun him around in a circle. The boy let out a slight squeak, worried about falling.

"We're gonna get ya all changed back! I never thought I'd see da day that I missed da old, you!"

Seto wriggled nervously. "Down! I want down!"

Mokuba ran over and scooped his brother up into his arms. "It's okay, Seto.. You have to calm down, Joey, or you're going to hurt somebody."

The blonde chuckled sheepishly. "Oops, sorry about that. Guess I got a little too excited."