Princess in the Gutter

First day

Baby to the right is Gabriella

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The cry of an infant rang throughout the house in the dead of night. A sound Atem was sure the people at the end of the street could hear. 

Having had no experience with kids before, the young man had called up an old friend, Tea Gardner. Who was quite eager to help, since her constant travel life didn't allow her to start a family of her own. She immediately came over with bottles, blankets, baby clothes, diapers and other baby necessities. 

The brunette was at his doorstep in ten minutes flat, the mountain of child care items seemingly weighing nothing to her with her bright grinning face. After letting her in he showed her the young infant, who only cried at the sight of a stranger. Surprisingly Tea was unaffected by this, and proceeded to lecture Atem about some kids not liking new people while rocking the baby girl back to sleep. 

The blue-eyed woman demonstrated the basics of childcare. All the while young Gabriella seemed to be warming up to her. Which put some relief on Atem, as he could tell he was going to need help more often. 

Now he was trudging across the house a mere hour before he should get up for work, a crying toddler in his arms. Placing a bottle in the microwave he tried calming the girl down, which worked but only slightly. 

Taking a glance at the clock, he sighed, 

'I'm going to be tired as all hell, but no point in going back to sleep now,' he thought, 

A beep rang through his ears, signaling the microwave had done it's job. To his relief Gabriella had gone quiet and was asleep once again once the bottle had been emptied. 

He made his way to the living room where a swinging chair, courtesy of Tea, was placed close enough to the kitchen so he could keep an eye on her. The girl fidgeted in her sleep when she no longer felt the warmth of her caretaker. Though she quickly fell back into a deep slumber when a blanket was wrapped around her. 

Atem let out a sigh, silence filling the house once again. Something that was quite welcome. 

He headed back into the kitchen, and with the extra time that had been unfortunately provided for him, he had enough time to make something decent to eat. 

Not bothering to turn on the light for fear it might wake the girl in the other room. Atem made himself a cup of coffee before something hit him: 

Who would take care of Gabriella? 

Tea was busy today, Yugi was running the game shop and he didn't want to trouble his brother with a child, and Joey and Tristan were out of town for a while. He couldn't think of anyone else he would trust enough. 

Atem slumped against the counter with an exasperated sigh, 'Looks like I'll be taking her with me,' he thought. It couldn't be too much trouble right? Only an infant who doesn't like strangers, gets very clingy, and is always hungry, in an environment full of people rushing around to take calls and deal with other people's problems. 

"I'm going to regret this. . ." 

And regret it he did. 

Phones rang. Papers flew everywhere. The computer constantly beeped, only drowning out the sound of crying for a split second at a time. True chaos. 

A phone rested between Atem's shoulder and ear as he tried to focus on the ramblings on the other end while flipping through papers at a sonic speed. His words were slightly slurred when he tried to respond, while his newfound little bundle of joy screamed in the background, forcing him to ask his client to repeat them-self again and again.