Chương 6: It's Time to Tell Them
Hi entered the apartment with Sil. It was the first time either of them had been there. It wasn't the first time they'd met the person who brought them though.
"See, not bad. Uncle Joey's got you covered." Uncle Joey. "Hey, hey, Mai. I got them here now."
Hi watched his Uncle Joey's wife, Mai come around the corner. She tried to wave politely. "Hey there again. Welcome. Our place is your place. Mana, come say hi."
A girl almost their age came over. She waved. "Hi, Hi. Hi, Sil."
Hi just gave a wave again. He didn't really know what to do. He looked toward Sil. She wasn't even waving back, she was in her own little world.
"So? You guys are welcome to stay here if you want," Uncle Joey said slowly, "for awhile. I mean. You see, we aren't exactly . . . swimming in the greatest finances here. We'll care for you a little while."
"There are some great people who offered to take you in," Mai said to them. "You kids are special, and taking care of you takes a special kind of person. You never got a birth certificate or anything, so you need to be home schooled too, right?"
Birth certificates? "Our Momma Masika taught us." Hi looked around briefly. It was definitely a different kind of place. It smelled different. Not bad, just different.
"We aren't pawning you off or anything, it's just that you two take some special care," Uncle Joey repeated. "You know. Like I always say when I see you? You two are like concrete gods, you know?"
Yeah. It wasn't the first time their Uncle Joey called them that. They had that nickname from him ever since he could remember.
"Anyhow, you've got a bunch of people willing to help out. We're going to be concentrating on figuring out which one fits you the best." Uncle Joey bent down toward Hi. "Lots of people care for you. Your Uncle Tristan, he's great. He's just got his wife and him, and he's always wanted kids. He makes good money, and that'd be great." He began his list. "There's also . . . your Uncle Seto and your Aunt Serenity. They could definitely take care of you too. You haven't met them as much. They got a kid about your age. Seto Kaiba isn't as close, but he's willing to take you too."
"Mokuba is also a great choice. He's a real nice guy too. He's just usually doing his own thing now."
"Yeah. Lots of people out there," their Uncle Joey said. "For now, it's great to have you."
Hi didn't know what to say. "Okay."
"Are you kids hungry?" Mai asked. "Did you wanna play? Mana, could you show your room to them?"
"Sure," Mana offered. "You wanna come play?"
Play. That was something he and Sil used to do a lot. A whole lot.
"Playing would be real good for you two," his Uncle Joey said. "Go ahead, go join Mana. I know that your dad would have . . ."
Uncle Joey didn't continue. Hi and Sil followed Mana to her room. She had a lot more girl stuff, but Sil didn't reach for anything.
Mana handed Hi a rubik's cube. "Here you go." She handed a doll to Silhouette. "This is my newest doll. She's my favorite. Her hair is blonde like mine. You have lots of pretty hair too, Sil."
Sil took the doll and Hi gave Mana the rubik's cube back. She seemed surprised he finished it that quick, but she took it back. She messed it back up and gave it to Sil. She tried to talk to her about her doll more, but Sil concentrated on the cube.
She finished it five seconds sooner than Hi had, and gave it back. "New record for moms."
"Moms?" Mana asked. "I thought you had a mom and dad?"
"We had two moms and a dad," Hi told her.
"But I thought-"
"Mana." Mai interrupted her, like she didn't want her daughter to finish that conversation. "Why don't you pull out a gameboard to play? These guys are really good at games. At least until your Uncle Tristan comes over. Should be soon."
"Hey, hey." The sound of Uncle Joey's voice filled the other room. "Tristan, good to see you. Make a good impression, okay? The kids are a little quieter than usual, no surprise there."
Hi watched as his Uncle Tristan came into view.
"Hey there, you two," his Uncle Tristan greeted him. "Remember me?"
Hi remembered him. His dad saw him too, but he didn't stop as often. His wife Miho showed up at the door beside him. Uncle Joey said she used to live in Japan, but her English was good.
"Oh." Miho looked delighted. "They are so sweet. Look at their hair, so many beautiful colors. Hello."
"So, if you guys want, you can come around my place and get something to eat with your Uncle Joey?" Uncle Tristan offered.
His Uncle Joey wanted them to visit the other places. To decide where to live now. "Okay." He looked at Sil. She had been stroking the hair on Mana's doll. "I'm not real hungry."
"That's fine. You don't have to eat any more than you want to," his Uncle Tristan offered. "Come on."
Hi mainly stared at his food as his Uncle Tristan acted nervous. He kept saying funny phrases, and his Uncle Joey would say 'don't say that' or 'don't ask that'. There was more than just his Uncle Tristan too.
His dad's friend Bakura had also been there. He hadn't said much of anything yet.
"The food is pretty good," his Uncle Tristan tried to convince him to eat.
"It's real good," his Uncle Joey said. "Best there is. Tristan's wife makes great food."
"Lovely," Bakura commented as he poked what was left of the food. "So? Hikaru. Silhouette."
Both Hi and Sil turned to look at him. No one called them by their full names except Momma Masika.
"I've visited your family on and off over the years," Bakura said. "You probably know me better than anyone here."
"Hey, I try to visit." That seemed to make Uncle Joey mad. "Yugi and them lived in frickin' New York and I live in Domino. I don't got money to hop on planes all the time unless some kind of money is involved."
"I didn't mean to offend you," Bakura apologized. "I just meant that I frequently stopped by to see them. I make enough that it wasn't much of a problem because we beta tested each other's games."
Hi poked the food. Bakura was right, he and Sil saw him the most. "Can you find them?" He did know them the best, maybe he had an idea of where they could be?
Everybody seemed to stop eating instantly when Hi asked Bakura that.
Silhouette waved a doll that Mana gave her for keeps. "Can you?"
Bakura didn't look like he knew how to talk back anymore. He looked at his plate, and then back toward them. "They can't come back."
Uncle Joey cleared his throat. "Damn it!"
"You can't keep it from them forever," Bakura seemed to say to Uncle Joey. His Uncle Tristan, Aunt Mai, and Aunt Miho all glared at him.
"It wasn't forever, but we wanted to give it some time," his Uncle Joey said to Bakura. "We've seen a lot of crazy things before. Maybe something with . . . Masika."
Something with their mother? "You found Momma Masika?" Hi asked.
"Momma Masika," Silhouette repeated after him.
Then why couldn't they go home if they found something about their mother?
"I think the fact that she of all people is gone, is a telling point that it is over." Bakura was firm with Uncle Joey. Bakura was a nice friend to Hi's dad and moms. His dad loved to play with him. Hi had never seen him upset before.
Mai put down her silverware. "I'm not hungry anymore. Mana, come with me. Let's go to the restroom."
Bakura looked back at Hi. He looked at Uncle Joey and Tristan. "Yugi wouldn't-"
"Nobody would know what or when Yugi would say something, 'cause he ain't here to tell us, is he?!" His Uncle Joey got real angry and stood up at the table. He slammed his hands down. "We were just going to have a nice dinner. Play with Mana. Just let them enjoy their day."
"Then when? Tomorrow?" Bakura asked. "Or will that be another nice day for them? Are you going to wait until they find out who they will be staying with permanently? I know they are young, but look at them." Bakura looked back at Hi and Sil. "All they know so far is their parents disappeared along with their pet cats. They don't know what to think or do, they are just following their Uncle Joey's lead."
"One day, I was gonna give 'em one day," Uncle Joey said. "I can't give them that day now." He was kind of quiet. "You kids finish eating what you can." He looked toward their plates. "Guess you haven't really wanted to eat, huh?"
"They can't start to even heal, until they know the truth," Bakura told him. He looked toward Hi with a bright smile like everything was fine. "After you talk to your Uncle Joey, know that I am also offering my home to you."
"I just wanna go home. Our home," Silhouette said as she squeezed her doll tighter.
Uncle Joey got up from the table. "Great grub, Tristan. We'll have to get together again sometime soon. Me and the troop are going to head out. Call me up later, okay?"
"You bet Joey," Uncle Tristan said to him. "You need any help?"
"Nah. Nah, just let me deal with it," Uncle Joey insisted.
When they got home, Mai and Mana went to her room to play.
Their Uncle Joey looked at them. He had a really strange and telling look in his eyes.
Hi hadn't been told anything. Silhouette hadn't been told anything. Neither could keep from crying though. It was pretty obvious from that look. They both were trying to ignore it. They were only six, so all the adults were just acting really nice and not telling them anything helpful.
Their Uncle Joey hugged them. "They aren't gonna come back. You can decide whether you want to go to the funerals or not."
Hi and Sil cried on him for awhile. He stayed really strong. There were a couple of times he wiped his eyes, but he held them and supported them. Their world was broke like glass, but Uncle Joey seemed to be like a steel beam.
They didn't want to move from him. Eventually, night time came and he helped them both to bed.
They spent days just trying to find something normal in their life. They were getting used to playing with Mana and with the apartment of Uncle Joey.
At the end of the month though, their Uncle Joey really wanted to know where they wanted to go. He'd have to take them somewhere. They both asked to just stay with him, but he reminded them that things were tight. It'd be bad on them, on all of them, to handle another two kids.
"Where do we go?" Sil asked him. She was holding onto a doll that Mana agreed she could have. She was really squeezing.
"Uncle Joey doesn't like Uncle Seto, but Aunt Serenity is nice." Hi tried to think. None of them seemed right.
"Not Uncle Tristan. He's weird around us," Sil said to him as she grabbed a play brush to brush her doll's hair. "He keeps dwelling on our cats, and I don't like that."
Yeah, Uncle Tristan felt weird. Uncle Joey always had to hold him back. They met the Uncle Seto Kaiba man with their Aunt Serenity. Their daughter Azure was nice, but Uncle Joey said their dads were always in a fight, and he might say something mean about their dad.
They didn't want that.
"Bakura," Silhouette said to Hi as she put the brush back down. "Daddy played with him a lot."
"Uncle Joey won't like that." Bakura made Uncle Joey tell them the news faster. Uncle Joey wanted them to pick Uncle Tristan. They kept telling them that Uncle Tristan wanted kids, he had a great job and could take care of them with it, and that he could pay for teaching and stuff. Uncle Tristan was their Uncle Joey's best friend too.
"Not Uncle Tristan. Bakura," Silhouette said firmly.
"Not Bakura." Uncle Joey showed up by Mana's door. "Guys, not Bakura. What are you not understanding? Your Uncle Tristan is the best choice."
"He's weird." Hi called him out. "He treats us weird."
"He doesn't know you that well, but I've tried to take you over plenty to get to know him." Their Uncle Joey wasn't happy. "If you go with your Uncle Tristan, he'll get better with you. He really does care for you, and then I'll visit you even more than before. I'll live right here in Domino with you now. I can see you more often."
"Bakura," Silhouette said again.
"Joey?" Their Aunt Mai came around the corner. "Honey. Yugi and them probably didn't see Tristan as much. Bakura was a game player like their dad, they probably saw him a lot more. I think you should let them choose him if that's who they want."
"I remember Yugi being angry about the whole kid thing with him," Uncle Joey said to Mai. "He didn't want Bakura."
"That was jealousy, Joseph." Aunt Mai rubbed his back. "When he was there for them. He can't be here. I'm sure he wouldn't feel that way now."
"It still feels like a disservice to Yugi." Uncle Joey rubbed his forehead. "There's always Kaiba. Azure's a good playmate. Serenity would be good for them."
"Seto Kaiba was one of the worst enemies of Yugi," Aunt Mai said to Uncle Joey.
"Yeah but Serenity is top notch, and she'd keep him in line? I don't know. I can't think." Uncle Joey rubbed his hair. "Come on, you two. Let's go for a walk. I need to clear my head."
Hi and Sil followed their Uncle Joey out the door.
They followed their Uncle Joey out down the sidewalk.
Then, Uncle Joey was gone.
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