She wanted more than we could give her. She wanted to go to the mall and spend her whole paycheck on a pair of shoes. She wanted to show us that she wouldn't tolerate us if we didn't do things her way, so she hit us across the face with whatever was accessible to her. She didn't want to love us; she wanted our money, even though we didn't have a lot to give. We couldn't eat without her permission, otherwise, she would make us spit it out and rake her fake nails down our throats, leaving nasty red marks.

When she started to scream at our daddy, we would band together and hide from the ugly sounds in our shared room. Valon would plug his ears and shove his head under his pillow. I turned on the radio and placed it between our bodies, playing it loud enough to turn their screaming into a dull background noise. Sometime during it all, I would rock myself into a fitful sleep.

During the slow mornings of the fall season, she would toss us from our covers and tell us to get to work. She wanted us to gather all the leaves in the yard, but we didn't have a rake, so we used the brooms to get the job done. Other times she would snag either Valon or me and tell us to go make her sweet tea. She liked it a certain way: not a lot of ice, half of it sweet and half not, and a lemon to top it off. A lot of times we didn't have any lemons. She would scream at us and kick our rears, yelling, "Don't bother coming back until you've got a full bag of them!" We told her that we didn't have any money to buy them. She would spit and say, "Then steal them you dumb bastards."

We stole a lot of things that she wanted. Our daddy used to get arrested for stealing jewelry and other valuables when he was young like us. We wanted to be like him; be sneaky and silent. Valon and me would practice creeping around our house when Mei wasn't looking to tan our hides. We'd spy on her in the mornings when she powdered her face and covered her lips in red goop. She never caught us watching her. If she had then she would have punished us by making us carry a heavy wooden chair around the yard until she told us to stop.

Our favorite days were when she left to hang out with her girlfriends. Her highest heels would be gone from her closet, and we knew that she would more than likely come back drunk on whiskey. Valon and me tore through the yard on those days. We cheered and danced in circles, singing songs that didn't make any sense. On very rare occasions our daddy would come out with us. He'd scoop us up into his arms and swing us until we were red in the face.

"Sing to me kiddo's," he'd say.

We chirped and howled until our throats were raw and our voices were strangled. We wanted to impress him, show him how good we were. Valon climbed onto daddy's back and played with his thick silvery hair, pretending to be a bird searching for food. I grabbed onto his leg and rubbed my face against it, acting like a human starved of contact. When the sun started to dip in the sky, we smothered him with hugs and kisses, because we knew he needed them as much as we needed to sing to him.

One chilly morning, Mei grabbed my arm and dragged me out into the hall. Valon let out an angry mewl. He stuck his hand out as if he could pull me back, shivering now that my body was no longer warming his. Mei glared and spat in his face. Her brown hair was pulled up into a messy bun and she smelled strongly of coffee. She took me into the kitchen and shoved a box of brownie mix into my hands.

"Bake that for your birthday," she snapped. "Then get your brother and go get some ice cream."

She bumped past me and left without another word. I didn't want to make her any angrier than she already was, so I tore the box open and dumped it into a random bowl. I stared at it for a good five minutes, unsure of what to do next. My daddy stumbled through the front door just then. He looked at me and then he looked at the small mess I had managed to make. A look of shock fell over his face and his hand went up to his forehead.

"Shit, I forgot," he said, horrified. "I'm sorry baby, I swear I forgot."

I approached him like he was an injured animal and wrapped my arms around his toned shoulders, holding him tight. "I don't mind, daddy. It's okay, I don't even care." He shook against me and I suddenly had tears in my eyes. Daddy was so tired and stressed, I couldn't ever blame him for forgetting. He had more important things to deal with; he didn't need to worry about my turning another year older.

We clung to each other until our arms started to strain and it started to get too hot. Daddy reached into the back of his dirty jeans and pulled out his wallet. He rifled through it until he came up with a twenty dollar bill. He smiled sadly and slapped it into my hand, telling me to spend it on whatever I wanted. Then he ruffled my hair and left without another word, leaving me with the bowl of brownie mix and his gift. The one gift I could not accept.

I slipped the tattered bill into his emergency money jar, and then I left.

Grocery day was Thursday. Mei dragged Valon and me to the Kroger down the street and shoved a cart at us. She told us to pick up everything on the list she gave us before she left to go to the clothing store next door. Valon waited until she was out of sight before he went to the end of the cart and stood on it. I laughed and pushed him through the aisles. We were making a ruckus and running into displays, but we didn't care. We were free for the moment and nothing was going to stop us from having a good time.

"I'm the king of this damn store!" Valon proclaimed, grabbing a can of whipped cream and spraying it into his mouth. "Bow down to me all you scum!"

I swiped the can from his hands and sprayed it all over his face, chanting, "Death to the king!"

"Fucking traitor!"

He slapped me across the face and I ran away from him. We chased each other throughout the store, forgetting our groceries by the dairy section. Valon kept saying stuff like "I'm the king!" and "Off with your damn ugly head!". He ran out of breath before I did and paused by the sample station, eyes widening as he took in all the cheese cubes that were stuck with toothpicks.

"Who the fuck turned my gold into peasant food?" he cried in mock outrage, shaking the sample stand with vigor.

We laughed and slung our arms around each other's shoulders, gasping for breath until our stomachs felt like they would rip apart. One of the workers behind the glass watched us with a raised eyebrow, probably unsure if he should ask us to leave or not. We hardly paid him or anyone else any attention, even when the manager finally came out and asked us to leave for disturbing the peace.

"Hell," Valon said once we were sitting outside the store. "I think that guy just took over my throne."

I smirked and shoved him off to the side, ready to make a smart ass comment. Mei interrupted us before I could. She looked between us, her eyes obviously searching for the grocery bags. When she saw none, she screeched and kicked us both in the guts.

"Why are you two so fucked up?" she asked, not expecting an answer.

We cried out and dropped to our bellies, raking our hands over her feet. "You made us like this!" "Us poor unfortunate souls!" "Why, why, why!"

Mei looked at us with a look of pure disgust, her cheeks growing hot. Just a few feet away, a small crowd stopped to watch us. They whispered to each other and stared at Mei, judging her. We laughed at her expense and grabbed her arms, Valon taking her left and me taking her right.

"We are what you make of us!" Valon yelled.

We pulled her side to side, like a teeter totter, until she finally had enough. She ripped her limbs away from our grabby hands and pushed us to the ground, cussing up a storm. Valon and I cackled and fell against each other, too drunk off her embarrassment to do anything else. Mei stormed away without another word, and we howled like we had won something big.

"Hail to us!" Valon cried out. "The fucking kings of this fucking sidewalk!"

We shook hands and bowed to each other in a job well done.

A/N - In case you're confused, the narrator of this story is Yugi. And yeah, he lives in a very dysfunctional family. His stepmother is a mean moocher, his dad (who is Akefia if you haven't guessed) is constantly working to keep them afloat, and Yugi and Valon are kind of picking up all their bad habits as they grow up.

The mobiumshipping will start in chapter 2. I just wanted you to get an idea of Yugi's life in this first chapter. I'm thinking this story is only going to be either 2 or 3 chapters long, unless I decide otherwise.

The idea and style of this story came from the book We the Animals by Justin Torres.