Epilogue

Location: Jounouchi's house.

Target: Leftover Christmas decorations. Specifically, a lighted figure dressed in red and white connected to several deer-like things in the front yard. In addition to glowing cheerfully through the darkness, the old man's arm is mechanized so that he waves back and forth slowly.

I guess the whole setup was just too happy for Yami's liking, not that it doesn't considerably annoy me as well. I mean, who comes up with all these weird holiday icons anyway? People in this time period have rather odd imaginations.

Anyway… that, combined with the recent development that Yami feels he has to offend a large number of people instead of targeting one person with our little pranks, has lead us to the current scene. I've decided to simply sit back and be amused for the time being.

"Do you think they'll hear us?" Yami asks as we emerge from behind a couple of trees at the edge of Jounouchi's yard.

"Their music is pretty damn loud and most of the windows are covered with decorations, so I doubt it. They probably won't even notice until everyone starts to leave."

"It just seems like the thing is too close to the house." He says as we walk slowly through the snow, approaching the large, offensive decoration.

"This was your idea; you can't back out now, Yami." I tell him with a hushed voice.

"Right, right." We arrive in front of the fat man in the sleigh and Yami stops to glare at it for a second. "I've never liked this old man character anyway. Something about him just bothers me."

I laugh a bit under my breath. "Yeah, I've never understood the whole Santa thing either."

From inside his jacket, Yami pulls out a small container of black paint and a brush and then moves to where Santa's hand is slowly rocking back and forth. He dips the brush into the paint and tries to follow the hand as it moves. This, however, proves to be rather difficult for Yami as he attempts to haphazardly paint the moving target.

"Ah! Stupid thing!" I laugh at Yami's frustration, desperately trying to keep my voice down. Yami enjoys pulling pranks, but they can't be sloppy, they have to be done well.

Abandoning his current tactic, he grabs hold of Santa's arm and forces it to stay in place. He quickly begins to paint the first, ring, and pinky fingers of the waving hand.

The thought of seeing Santa flipping off Jounouchi's entire neighborhood makes me smirk as I watch Yami, that is, until I notice the arm jerk a bit, trying to resume its mechanical pattern of movement. The strain on that probably isn't very good and there is most likely a considerable amount of electricity going through this thing. My smirk drops from my face as I consider all that could possibly go wrong at this particular moment.

"Y-Yami…"

"Yes?"

"Do you know what you are doing?"

"What? You don't trust me?"

"Not with something like this!"

"You have so little faith."

"But you're going to set it and you on fire or something!"

"I'm almost finished!"

As if on cue, sparks begin to fly from Santa's elbow, causing both of us to jump back away from the thing. The waving arm slows to a halt and the entire setup flickers on and off.

I glare at Yami in a rather exasperated manner. He looks back at me and shrugs. "What? It's not like you're any better at this electrical stuff."

"Yeah, but at least I know when to stop before I create too much noise and get caught!"

"We're not going to get caught. You said so before that-" As he says this, I notice the front door open and Anzu steps out.

I immediately tackle Yami, throwing us both into a snow bank. He begins to protest, but I quickly cover his mouth with my hand.

"Quiet, you're going to give us away." I whisper to him.

I raise my head a bit, figuring that my hair will blend in better with the snow than Yami's and watch as Anzu notices the damaged display and hurries back inside, most likely to tell the others.

"Run." I drag Yami to his feet and we take off through the trees. We keep running until we are far out of the neighborhood. We stop to catch our breath in the local park that we frequent.

"You know, I'm sure that they've already figured out that it was us." I tell him.

"So. They can't do anything to us if they can't find where we are." He says with a sly grin.

"Somehow I don't think that's going to work forever." I sigh and cross my arms.

"Aw, you're not mad are you?" He asks in a sarcastic tone as he practically bear hugs me and nuzzles his head underneath my chin, shoving his damn hair in my face. "I know it didn't go as well as planned, but it was still fun. Right?"

"I'm not mad. It's just I don't want to be lectured by Anzu, because I'm always the one that gets lectured, even if you are the one that causes trouble… like I'm responsible or something." I shudder, remembering all the horror I have had to endure because of that girl. If only Yami would let me kill her once and for all.

"That's why this is so much fun, I have the perfect person to take the blame!"

"Bastard." I grumble.

He grins, but an idea visibly pops into his head, distracting him from whatever he was going to say next. He lets go of me and pushes up his coat sleeve to look at his watch.

"I almost forgot! If we don't hurry, we're going to miss the fireworks!" He grabs my hand and we start to walk at a fast pace.

"I don't think there's going to be any fireworks; look at the clouds."

"You always have to be so pessimistic…" He says.

"It's just habit."

Because of Yami's quick pace, we arrive in the area for the fireworks display early. There's hardly anyone around the main area. I'm sure everyone else assumed that the fireworks would be cancelled because of the weather. Even though, we still make our way slightly into the woods to find the same bench from last time.

I brush off the snow from the bench with my sleeve and we sit down. Yami immediately snuggles close to me, but I can see the disappointment in his eyes as he stares up at the thick clouds. I put my arm around his shoulders and hold him tight. It's not too cold outside but it is still nice to have someone so warm next to me.

We sit in comfortable silence for a while, letting our adrenaline high wear off, until I notice a few snow flakes fall around me. More begin to fall, faster and faster until it becomes hard to see too far from us.

"It's snowing…" Yami mutters softly.

With no wind whatsoever, the snow silences all of the noise around us. The only thing I can hear is the dampened sound of the snowflakes as they hit the ground. It's funny, I can't even hear Yami breathing. He must be holding his breath as I am, enveloped in the uniform silence and yet hesitant to break it at the same time.

Startling me slightly, Yami jerks and takes in a quick breath. He sits up straight and looks at his watch once again and then to me.

"Happy New Year, Bakura."

"Happy New Year." He smiles and I run my hand along his cheek, drawing him closer to me so that I can kiss him.

It amazes me that after all this time such a simple and repeated act can still have a dramatic effect on me. The deafening silence around us roars in my ears as he pulls me closer and his warmth consumes me. It has become perfect this way. Neither of us needs to put into words the things that both of us lack the eloquence to do so elegantly. Instead, this accomplishes the same thing, we can just sense it and that is all either of us needs.

I never would have imagined that things would have turned out this way. It's only been a little over a year, but at the same time, it seems like much longer to me, long enough to think of being with Yami as a natural thing. We've both changed dramatically, but there are still aspects of our personalities that have endured for thousands of years. Although a lot has happened, I think we are both happy now, without any worries as to what has happened in the past.

After a time, we part, sitting back from each other. I look at Yami and can't help but smirk devilishly, causing Yami's eyes to get just a little bigger. I reach over and gently tug on the downwards pointing side of his bangs. The snow that had accumulated on the top of his bangs now falls over his face,

Yami pouts childishly. "That was mean."

"I know, that's why I did it." I tell him, not able to keep from laughing a bit. Feeling a little bad, I softly brush the snow from his cheeks and nose.

"There. Is that better?"

"No."

"Aw… Then how about now?" I lean down and begin to bite at his neck near the back of his jaw line.

"Ah! Okay, okay… stop, before I'm forced to jump you here in public!" I laugh a little louder as he shoves me away and stands up from the bench.

"It's not like anyone is out here to catch us anyway." I tell him as I stand up as well.

Yami turns and I notice that glint in his eyes that makes me shiver. He walks up to me and puts his hands on my chest, pressing his body against mine.

"Well then, I guess I shouldn't hold back." He whispers in a smooth tone. In one swift movement, he shoves me backwards as he sweeps his foot across my ankles, sending me down into a deep snow bank.

"Yami! You devious, little… Ah!" He promptly jumps on me, making me sink further into the snow. "Yami, you're going to pay for this later!"

"You know threats won't work on me." His arrogant smirk shows itself, knowing that he indeed has the upper hand. He reaches to unzip my jacket, making me just a little nervous.

"Yami, this really isn't the place for this. I was joking earlier and besides, it's a little cold out here." He can't be serious. A snow storm isn't exactly the best place for this sort of activity.

"I know you were, but I'm not."

"Yami-" Suddenly, Yami freezes and in the silence, I can vaguely hear voices.

"Where are they? I can hardly see with all this snow."

"I don't know. I thought I heard voices coming from over here."

"Hey! There they are!"

Yami smiles and quickly gets up off me. "Well, I guess we'll have to continue this at a later time!"

And he takes off running. The bastard. "Yami! Dammit, you could have helped me up at least!"

"But this way I get a head start. You are the faster runner after all!" He yells back at me. I struggle to pull myself out of the deep snow, but not before I am pelted by several large snowballs.

As I manage to get to my feet, one hits me in the head and I hear Yugi laughing. "That's what you get for ruining Jounouchi's decorations!"

I see Anzu, Jounouchi, and everyone else approaching me and I start running after Yami. "It wasn't me!"

Most of the snowballs fly past me, luckily, but they don't give up their chase too easily. Yami will have to pay for this later. And why won't they believe that it wasn't me? Oh well, I guess things will never change, will they?

The End.

Ah! The end! I can't believe I'm finished, although the fic was technically finished with the last chapter, but this is just a little extra fun. I really want to thank everyone who reviewed and supported me and bugged and nagged me to finish the next chapter. I'm surprised that so many people were interested in this fic, but I'm glad I had people that were annoyed when I didn't update for a while.

Anyways, I already have plans for another darkshipping fic that I want to write, but I have to venture into another fandom first.

So, I would really love to know what everyone thought of the fic as a whole, even though I look back at the first chapters and am amazed at how much my writing style changed, but that was quite some time ago. I hope to hear from all of you readers and thank you very much again!