Acting Like This Is Normal

"Maybe this size will fit?" Anzu was having trouble finding the right fit. "I mean, he's nowhere near his original size. This would be easier if he just grew size by size, but no, I'm just trying to guess as best as possible."

Yuugi placed his hand on her shoulder. "It's fine. It's a small thing, Anzu."

"He was a little baby safely in our dimension and now he's six from another dimension, how is that a small thing?" Anzu kept looking. "I know. I should be happy he's even here, but we are having to play takeaway to get the boy that is actually ours." She watched him over from the corner. "Go beside him, Yuugi, don't let him get too far."

"He's not too far." Hikaru no doubt could even hear Anzu. "It'll be okay."

"Just two days. They are going to go so fast, Yuugi." He leaned against him. "Why can't he just stay here, where he belongs?"

"We will get him permanently. Right now, we have to play it this way." They didn't get a choice. "We can enjoy our time with him, and when we aren't, we'll be figuring out how to prepare our world more for him." More clothes. Fix a room for him.

Masika came back toward them with Silhouette. "She had to."

Silhouette went over toward Hikaru and hugged him. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," he said. "Do you want to help me find something?"

"I only have a little while," Masika stated. "How is your shopping going?"

"Oh. You know how it is." Anzu held up a little shirt. "Just shopping casually for a shirt for my son I have to give up in two days." Masika went over and hugged her. "I want to be happy, but I keep thinking . . . yeah, I know you are right."

Good. It looked like Masika was calming Anzu down again. Meanwhile, the kids weren't far. Yuugi heard Atem's voice.

"I have it this time," he insisted. "Come."

Masika went over toward Silhouette and took her away again.

Hikaru ended up getting some colorful clothes. Mainly yellow, with tiny amounts of color in the design or in the logo.

Everyone went back home, to put some new clothes on, and get their clothes washed. Most likely, they would have to put the same thing on before they left in two days.

"Oh, it looks so good on you, Hikaru." Anzu fixed the minor collar on the shirt. "That all looks really good on you."

"Thanks, Momma," he answered. Even knowing the truth, he still gave them their honorable names of Momma and Daddy.

"That's pretty, Hikaru." Silhouette came over really . . . really decked out.

So did Masika? Masika had a jacket draped over like a cape with a collar and similar leather bands.

Yuugi looked toward Atem. ///Yuugi: Neat threads?///

///Atem: They are better than neat. /// Atem seemed proud of them.

Silhouette had a collar on her neck, two leather bands around her arms, and a belt around her waist. She also had on some purple jacket hanging around her shoulders. Her and Masika both looked similar. ///Yuugi: You okay, Atem? Masika is dressed like Silhouette.///

///Atem: What is wrong with that?///

"Um. Neat outfit." Anzu didn't quite know how to take it either. ///Anzu: Why are you dressed like Atem, Masika?///

///Masika: I am letting him work out his own feelings about Silhouette. He is more disturbed by events than he lets on. Dressing us like this is making him feel better.///

///Anzu: I don't get why.///

///Masika: I just know it makes him feel better. I think Atem knows something else about Silhouette that he and Yugi aren't telling us.///

///Anzu: Oh, Yugi better not be hiding anything from me.///

They all went downstairs now to do the most normal home thing Yuugi could think of. No matter where they were from. "How about some games?"

Jounouchi and Mai came through the door with Mana.

"We aren't stopping long," Mai said to them. "Jounouchi said you called and had two days, oh my." She looked at them both. "If I forgot which was which, I couldn't now. Even Masika is all decked out?"

"You are Aunt Mai," Hikaru said to her. "That must be Mana."

"She is small." Silhouette came over to see her too. She ran back upstairs, then ran back down and showed her the dolly.

///Atem: Okay, we really need to stomp that running upstairs out./// "That isn't safe, Silhouette," Atem warned her. "Don't run in the house. You might hurt yourself."

She didn't answer as she was concentrating on little Mana.

///Yuugi: She'll get better at it. No one bothered her when she did it at breakfast time.///

Right. ///Atem: True. Keep the principles even.///

Masika helped by coming to her and knocking on her hand gently. She looked toward her. "Are you listening to Atem?"

Silhouette nodded. "Don't run in the house." She went back to looking at Mana though and held her little hand.

///Yuugi: She heard, she just didn't acknowledge it. She might not have a name for you yet, Atem. Did you tell her what to call you?///

///Atem: I don't prefer Dad or Daddy.///

///Yuugi: Then just tell her Atem. It's going to be hard to talk to someone without knowing what to say. She might not even want to try Daddy, with as strange and difficult as anything is anyhow.///

Atem went toward her. "Silhouette." She looked toward him. "You can call me Atem."

"Okay." Not a big deal to her. Mana was more of the center of her world. "Mana won't be able to play house anymore."

"Not for awhile," Mai agreed with her. "Were you good friends?"

Silhouette and Hikaru nodded.

"You'll meet other friends, and one day, Mana will grow up and you can play with her again," Anzu told them.

"What about Azure?" Hikaru asked. "Is she small too?"

"We don't know that one," Jounouchi told him. "Who's she?"

"Uncle Seto and Aunt Serenity's daughter."

"Kaiba never married anybody," Jounouchi replied. "So, sorry. No Azure for you to play with either."

"Kaiba married someone named Serenity?" Mai asked. "Interesting."

"Kaiba isn't the marrying kind. Can we kind of get off Kaiba?" Jounouchi complained. "Mana is a cute baby, let's focus back on that."

"His sister Shizuka is technically dating Seto Kaiba," Mai told them. "He's going to be a little iffy about that."

"Oh. Everything's so different," Hikaru had to say. "You are still married to him though?" He pointed at Jounouchi.

"Ooh!"

"No, what?"

"Ooh! Another version of you made marriage work," Jounouchi said excitedly.

"No way. That me is definitely not me."

"How long she been married to me?" Jounouchi asked them.

"You have pretty wedding pictures in the house. Mana is in it." Silhouette pointed to her. "She looks like that."

"These kids are way older, Mai. That means we were married for years."

"So? Seto Kaiba married someone completely different. The worlds aren't the same," Mai said.

"But they are similar." Yuugi didn't want to go in that direction. "Similar enough to figure things out, guys. Really."

"The basics are really the same. Maybe not some relationships, but we are similar," Anzu added.

"Yeah, real similar." Jounouchi was getting the hint. "Real similar to their world, Mai, because these kids need to feel more comfortable in this one for better success?"

"Oh." Mai realized her mistake. "My faux-pas. Sorry."

"Right." Still, Hikaru didn't look as comfortable. "Did Uncle Tristan still marry Miho?"

"I don't know a Tristan," Jounouchi said. "You know, the worlds are similar, but like the six year time gap is probably what is making them the most different. You've only been missing three months and you were a baby. Now you're six. Now. Now, I have no idea what I'm saying, I can see Anzu shake her head, looking bad, messing up, we should go."

"Yes, please." Anzu wasn't happy at all. "Time differences don't matter either, Hikaru is still my son!"

"Right, yep, got it, going. See you." Jounouchi moved out with Mai and Mana.

"I don't think he meant to hurt the situation," Yuugi said to her. "He was just trying to help by explaining why there was differences. I think it's more than just time though."

"I don't care about differences! Who cares about differences?" Anzu went toward Hikaru. "We don't need to worry about such tiny differences. How about a game now?"

"The games are the same, Hikaru." Silhouette went over and pointed to a Connect Four that was never far away. "It's like the old game shop."

"I still had the Game Shop?" Yuugi asked. "Or? Is . . ." Was grandpa still alive over in the other dimension?

"You mainly visit with momma now. We used to visit a lot when Grandpa was alive," Hikaru revealed.

Alive. The kids grew up knowing Grandpa. That made Yuugi feel warmer inside. "He was one of the greatest."

"What kind of games can real young kids play?" Anzu was looking around for games. "Six. Not going to be the best at counting and spelling. Might know numbers up to ten."

The kids were looking around.

"The place has games, but they are kind of different," Hikaru admitted.

"We can figure it out," Anzu insisted. "Let's just find a simple game, okay? Super easy games for kids are just right over here. Not that one." She scooted away Connect Four that Silhouette picked up.

They played a couple of simple games with the kids. It was nice, but it wasn't something they should do all day. ///Yuugi: Maybe a walk? Think about lunch?///

///Atem: Walking might do them some good. Maybe we could take them to a capsule monster machine. A lot of . . . kids . . . hang out around there.///

Stellar idea! "They would probably enjoy that. Anzu, do you want to go for a walk with them? Afterwards, we could stop for something to eat." Homey. "We could stop at Burger World?"

Anzu almost glared, until she thought about why. "I think it closed down, Yuugi."

"Again?"

"Yeah. Again."

Oh. "Uuh."

"If we want to keep it similar, then pick a fast food american shop. It'll have some things familiar to them."

Good point. There was something on the other side of town that would work. "Have you guys ever played with capsule monsters?"

"We know the game," Hikaru answered.

Good. "Did you ever get one fresh from a capsule monster machine?" No. Dang.

"Can we see one?" Hikaru asked.

It'd be different, but if he wanted to? "Then, we'll go check those out, and then go out to eat."

"As long as you can keep your food in the mouth and off yourself?" Masika looked at Silhouette.

Silhouette just shrugged.

"You must try."

"I will try," Silhouette said.

"That didn't sound very confident." Masika looked at Anzu. Anzu glared. They were definitely speaking to each other. "Fine, we will try it then. I will bring extra napkins just in case," Masika agreed.

 ---

Afterlife . . .

///Yuugi: I have never been bored of a game before. Not this bored. This is new.///

///Atem: Yes, and I hate it too.///

Neither of them were happy with their last opponent's helpful 'support' of who to challenge next. This player was meticulous, patient and slow. Much slower than anyone they ever knew. This god Ảri . . . even though time didn't technically exist to gods, he really acted like it didn't exist.

They started the game what had to be days ago, and he'd only made one move. One.

Bes interrupted the game. "So you actually tried him, huh? Well, he's got some creative powers and could probably help out, but unless you want those kids to be full blown adults or dead before the game is over, I recommend playing with someone else as well."

Good idea. "How do we say that?"

"Hey, Ảri!" Bes yelled at him, making him look up for the game. "We are taking off for a couple of decades, we'll see you soon."

He just nodded. "I will call back when it is their turn."

"Like that," Bes answered. "I've got someone way better to play for you."

"This is Tjenmyt," Bes said as he gestured to a woman playing a game on something that looked like a graph board. "She is awesome. She created God's Brew."

Tjenmyt looked toward him. "Bes? Hello. Care for a game?"

"These guys would like one," Bes said. "They got stuck playing with Ảri, so I guess they need a little guidance."

"We'll learn whatever ancient game you want to play," Yugi encouraged her. "We are eager to learn." Then they would challenge her.

"No, I want to learn a game you know," she said. "I like collecting new games to play."

Oh! Oh, yes. They had a real player on their hands this time. Maybe with this one they could earn more than a couple of days?