Harry Tate: Little Harry Bath Time

((sorry it's late, been playing Guild Wars 2, which I got for Christmas))

Chasing a four year old around the house was not the way that Eva particularly wanted to spend her evening, considering she was still a little bruised from the fight she’d been involved in earlier in the day, but if she wanted to get her adopted son to take a bath tonight it was a necessary evil.

“Need a hand?” Nale chuckled as the messy haired child darted underneath his legs and ran down the corridor, wearing only his boxer shorts.

“That would be nice.” Eva growled, pushing past her friend and following the giggling.

Nale smirked and followed, it was always entertaining to watch the immortal bargain with her son.

According to Jin the boy had actually had a bath willingly yesterday, but only because he’d been helping her in the garden and if Eva had managed to teach him anything it was ‘if you’re covered in mud, you have to wash before dinner’.

The day before yesterday it had taken the promise of an ice cream to get him to take a bath, after which the four year old had required another bath, just to get the ice cream out of all the interesting places it had managed to get. Nale had never seen anyone get ice cream in their ears before…

“Now where did he go?” Eva muttered, looking at all the open doors and starting towards the most obvious one, her son’s bedroom.

“I believe this is yours.” Orion stepped out of the study with a rather put out looking four year old in his arms, looking a little exasperated.

“You’d be right.” Eva snorted, amused by both Orion and her son, “Harry, how many times have I told you not to disturb Orion while he’s working?” She tutted at the boy, taking him from Orion and giving the huge man an apologetic look before heading back towards the bathroom.

“He wun’t working!” Harry protested.

“Wasn’t not wun’t, Harry.” Eva gently chided, “He wasn’t using his computer was he?”

“No.” Harry looked scornful for just a second, realised where she was heading and tried to squirm out of her grip.

“For…” Eva bit off what she was going to say, thoroughly sick of arguing with her son every day about the dreaded b word, but not willing to swear at a child, “Harry, remember what I told you about baths?”

“If I didn’t have a bath every day, a monster would come and eat me.” Harry nodded.

“So why won’t you have a bath?”

“Because you and Auntie Jin beat monsters up.” Harry explained patiently, in the exact tone of voice she’d often heard Jin using on her during one of her denser moments.

Ok, so while the fact Harry had seen the pair of them taking down a triad of monstrous creatures this morning, all of whom had been unlike anything Eva had seen before, and likely having originated from the home of the ‘Lord of Darkness’ that Eva had taken down on the behest of her Boss around lunch time (hence the bruising), had effectively ruined that strategy of getting Harry to bathe, it had been rather therapeutic, considering that it had been a while since Eva had been able to pound on anything without having to worry about holding back and motherhood was stressful.

“Fine, if you don’t take baths every day, I’ll stop buying chocolate milkshake.” Eva threatened.

“Uh uh.” Harry shook his head, “Auntie Jin makes the shopping list.”

“I’ll tell Auntie Jin not to put it on.” Eva warned the boy, who watched Nale pretend to sulk, and giggled, only to cause Eva to shut the bathroom door, effectively trapping in the bathroom and stopping Nale from continuing to be a bad influence.

For now at least.

“I don’t wanna bath.” Harry glowered. “I don’t, I don’t, I don’t…” The four year old trailed off at the look on his mother’s face, knowing the look all to well.

“Bath or no milkshake before bed.”

“But…” Harry sulked.

“No buts.”

“Fine.” And now Harry sounded like Nale when Jin dragged him off to help her with the shopping, as he finally got into the bath. “But it had better be a big one.”

Eva chuckled, causing her son to give her an indignant look, “You’ll get the same size milkshake as you always do. Now close your eyes, I’m gonna wash your hair.”

Harry Potter and the Tales of the Past

Or why Shadow-Touched Duellists shouldn't play with time based cards. 

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‘Cub.’ Harry groaned as Wolf’s voice echoed around his head, amplifying the headache that threatened to split his head in two. ‘Wake up Cub.’

“Five more minutes.” Harry groaned, hoping that another five minutes in bed would help shift his headache.

‘No, not five more minutes. Now.’ Wolf disagreed, as Harry shifted, only for his waking mind to finally register that he wasn’t led in bed. In place of a soft, comfortable mattress, there was a hard floor covered in tiny little stones. He groaned as he sat up, confusion obvious as he tried to take in his surroundings only to realise that he had lost his glasses. ‘Well this is a fine mess.’

“What happened and where are we?” Harry asked his Deck Leader as he fumbled around, trying to find out where his glasses had gone and hoping they were in reach.

‘You don’t remember?’ Wolf asked, concern in his tone as Harry located the golden blur that was his Deck Leader as the Duel Monster in question nudged the item in question towards his Duellist.

“Thanks.” Harry put the glasses on, grimacing slightly when he had to take them off and clean them before he could see properly. Even then one of the lenses had cracked, leaving him with a huge crack right in the middle of his vision. “No, I don’t...” Harry paused as he tried to tug on his bond to the Puzzle and get the attention of the Mutous, only to hit a mental wall. He poked it, scowling as he did so. He recognised the block, Yugi had to have taken off the Puzzle, that didn’t mean he liked being cut off from his friends without warning. “I can’t reach Yugi.”

‘Try and remember what happened, Cub.’ Wolf suggested as Harry staggered to his feet and tried to work out what was going on. ‘Trust me, it’ll explain everything.’

Harry frowned and leaned against the wall. The last thing he remembered he had been on Duellist Kingdom, leaving with his friends for a job with the Japanese Ministry. No, that wasn’t right... he shook his head, memories of chasing someone down this alley flickering through his mind.

The guy he had been chasing had been one of the Ring Leaders for a group of Shadow-Touched thieves who had been raiding shops all over Japan. While Yami and the others had kept the main group busy, Harry had spotted the guy fleeing at speed with some magical trinkets. He had given chase, Wolf helping him in the hunt.

He had pursued the guy down the streets and into the narrow corridor between buildings only to find the guy was summoning something. As what it was registered in his mind he let out a stream of expletives.

“Time Wizard. That thief summoned a Time Wizard.” Harry growled finally, “Why the hell would he summon a Time Wizard?” Harry’s eyes widened as he looked around, searching their surroundings for any signs of the thief.

‘He’s not here.’ Wolf informed him, ‘I can’t catch his scent either, so he hasn’t just run off.’

“Great, so not only do I have to worry about whenI am, I have to worry where he went off to.” Harry scowled, “What more can go wrong?”

“Hey! Get back here!”

Harry blinked as he heard Yugi’s voice yelling from further up the alley. He turned to look, only to see a robed figure just in time for the figure to go barrelling into him. The pair tumbled to the ground, causing the man to drop what he was carrying.

Wolf let out a furious snarl as the Millennium Puzzle tumbled to a stop at his feet, a piece of the golden artefact falling out as it did so.

“My Puzzle!” Harry did a double take as Yugi came into view. It wasn’t the Yugi he remembered and the high pitched squeak of his panicked voice just drove the point home further. This Yugi was shorter than he was used to and his voice hadn’t broken yet. In fact Harry had a horrible feeling that this Yugi might be the same age as him, or worse, younger, which meant he had travelled back at least eight years, if not more.

“It’s here.” Harry reached for the Puzzle, only for the hooded thief to barge him out of the way, snatching up the majority of the Puzzle. He didn’t get too far before Wolf was on him, using the robes to dragging him down. “Petrificus Totalus!” Harry snapped, his wand trained on the thief as he recovered the item and handed it back to Yugi.

The boy in question was staring at the man in question, whose hood had fallen off as the spell had taken effect. Harry didn’t need to hear Yugi’s startled gasp to know who he was. He featured in some of his friend’s most important memories involving Duellist Kingdom. The man before them was...

“Bandit Keith?” Yugi gasped, still staring at the man even as he clicked the puzzle piece back into place. “Why...?”

Harry felt a surge of Shadows and dragged Yugi back as it broke down his petrification spell, putting himself between Yugi and the man even as he felt the bond between himself and his link partners reignite.

“Stand aside.” Keith growled in a tone that was not anything like what Harry had heard in Yugi’s memories.

“No.” Harry shook his head as Wolf snapped and snarled, leaping between his Duellist and the enemy, forming yet another line he had to get through to get to Yugi and the Puzzle, “In fact hell no. I won’t let you get away with the Puzzle.”

“You will move or I will make you.” Keith snarled, the echo in his tone more obvious, revealing a second voice, one Harry recognised from one too many of Yugi’s nightmares.

“Marik.” Harry let out a low growl, actually happy about this. Now he knew what was going on, he knew when he was. With a collection of Shadow Mages moving into Domino shortly, there was no way one of them wouldn’t know how to get him back to his own time.

“You know me?” The voice sounded surprised. “How?”

“None of your business, but I won’t let you hurt Yugi.” Harry snapped, “Now leave. He’s under my protection.”

“And who are you?” Marik asked, sounding frustrated.

“The name’s Harry.” Harry replied, “And that’s all you need to know.”

“Well, ‘Harry,’ you can’t be around forever. I’ll get what I want soon enough.” Marik snapped at him, through his Mind Slave. “Oh and Yugi?” Keith looked to the teen who was still behind two lines of defences, “I’ll see you later.”

With that Keith fled.

‘Should I chase?’ Wolf asked, growling as he watched the huge man run away.

“No, it’s not worth it.” Harry shook his head, turning to Yugi, “Are you alright?” He mentally winced as he realised it was ruby red eyes watching him carefully, not amethyst purple.

“Who are you?” Yami demanded, watching him warily, “And why I can read your thoughts and emotions?”

“Well...” Harry looked sheepish, “You see it’s kind of a long story...”