Ribbons and Mistletoe

Warning: Contains Shrimpshipping (Haga and Ryuzaki), and Yaoi. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! cause if I did, this wouldn't be a fanfic now would it?

In Domino City, the Christmas spirit had been spreading throughout town ever since December began. The number of wide smiles on angelic children's faces, and busy parents wrapping presents, were immensely increased on December 24. From the Mutoh's to the Kaiba's, everyone was excited about giving presents to loved ones and family. Many stories were being made on this joyous day, but this story focuses on two characters who are often pushed aside.

The two teenage boys arrived at Ryuzaki's house, drenched from head to toe with wet, slushy snow. Somehow, even at Christmas, Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki never got a break.

"Man, that was a brutal walk to AND from the supermarket," said Ryuzaki, as he tried not to get his floor slippery. He took off his winter coat and boots.

"Well, I'm the only one who had to go," replied Haga, doing the same. "Your mother said she needed some more milk, and since you guys let me stay here, I was trying to be polite." He glared at his friend. "If you didn't come with me, they probably wouldn't have recognized me and they'd have left me alone!"

Ryuzaki glared back at his aqua-haired friend as he took off his damp hat. "If I hadn't come, you would've been dead! I blocked most of their hard blows." The two collapsed on the couch. "Besides, you kinda had to stay at my place this Christmas."

Haga raised an eyebrow. "Had to? I could've stayed at my house-"

"N-O. Your parents went on that cruise thing. I'm not letting my best friend spend Christmas alone."

"You…consider me your best friend?" Haga's cheeks began to go red.

Ryuzaki's did the same. "W-well, yeah, no duh. You've been with me for what? Three years now?"

"Two and a half," Haga corrected. He figured he didn't remember.

"And we've done a lot together. We plotted plans to steal Yugi's God cards,"

"Failed miserably."

"We stowed away on that airplane to America together,"

"Immensely freezing."

"Heck, we even got our souls taken away at the same time twice."

They both shuddered at the memories of the Shadow Realm and the Seal of Orichalos. Such horrid memories.

Haga spotted the piece of paper on the table in front of them. "Ryuzaki, note for you."

"No duh, genius. My name's written on the front."

"Thank you for admitting my intelligence is superior to yours." He smirked as he heard Ryuzaki curse under his breath before reading the note out loud.

"Dear Ryu-kun,"

Haga couldn't help but laugh. His friend smacked his head and continued to read.

"Sorry, but your grandpa demanded I go visit him. It might be a few days, but there's food in the house for you guys. I took the present from you with me, thank you in advance!

Love, Mom.

P.S: Make sure you and your cute friend don't get caught under the mistletoe! Hee hee!

MISTLETOE! Why'd she hang that horrid stuff up in our house?"

They both inspected the ceiling thoroughly. The plant hung right next to the Christmas tree, which was laden with tinsel and lights, and had four presents under it. Two from Ryuzaki's mother, and one from each other.

"Mental note," Haga said quietly. "When Christmas morning comes, make sure we grab the presents from the other side of the tree." Ryuzaki nodded in agreement.

It started to get late, so they decided to check out what was left behind for them. They weren't too hungry, so they shared a bag of chips while watching Christmas movies on the T.V. One of the commercials caught their eye. It was Seto Kaiba, in-a-dog-suit, with Jounouchi, also in-a-dog-suit.

"I'm not doing this," Seto mumbled. They figured it was live.

"Oh, yes, you are! This is payback for all the mutt comments you gave me!"

"Fine, but just for this commercial." Seto's voice was flat. "This Christmas be sure to spend it with-OH NO! Yami! You let Yugi get to the sugar cookies!"

"Sorry! I thought I had him restrained!" said the Pharaoh spirit's voice in the background.

"WEE! Banana pot pie on a chocolate marshmallow!" Crashes were heard afterwards.

"MOKUBA! STOP THE CAMERA!"

"For the love of card games, Yugi! Get away from those wires! AHH-" The screen went black, and then changed to another Christmas commercial.

Haga and Ryuzaki looked at one another, then began laughing.

"BWAH! Even I know sugar makes the twerp crazy!"

"Yeah, wonder how many people viewed THAT?"

They were laughing so much they rolled off the couch with tears coming out of their eyes. Eventually, their laughter died down and they realized that they were around a foot away from the mistletoe.

They moved FAR away. They would do anything to keep away from that silly plant. It wasn't like they didn't want to kiss each other; they'd been crushing on one another for a long time now. But they dealt with the problem the many people did; they were afraid of being honest, because they liked their comfortable relationship as it was.

Haga was desperate to avert a discussion about the mistletoe. He scanned the room until he saw something peculiar in front of the fireplace. Milk, cookies, and two stockings with their names on them.

"You still believe in Santa?" Ryuzaki glanced at the fireplace, then at his crush.

"Well, it's possible, and it adds a special Christmas touch to the house."

Haga stared at him. "Like it isn't Christmas-y here already?"

"What makes you say that? There's no other decorations other than the tree and mistletoe up."

Haga blushed. He wanted to say that it was the fact that Ryuzaki was pleasant and joyful like Christmas, but of course he couldn't. He yawned instead.

Ryuzaki couldn't help but smile. "Is the little guy tired or what?"

Another blush stained Haga's cheeks. "Shut up, it's late. Besides, the sooner we sleep, the sooner it's Christmas morning."

Smiles came across their faces. They were both eager to see the other open their presents.

Morning came sooner than expected. Ryuzaki opened his eyes. He guessed that they'd fallen asleep on the floor. He looked down, and blushed madly. Placed beside him, still sleeping, was Haga. His glasses were by his side, and without them he looked exactly like a child, very innocent.

He wished that he could see him like this a little longer, but the realization of the day came.

"Haga," he whispered softly, while shaking him, "it's morning and you should probably-OH MY GOD!"

The sudden outburst caused him to jump and hit his head against his waker's.

"Ryuzaki! Why the heck-"

"The tree! LOOK AT IT!"

He did as asked, and his blue eyes widened. Underneath the pine tree, the four presents before had gained five duplicate boxes beside them, and who would've guessed it, the milk and cookies were gone.

"What the?! How-who-?!"

"I don't know, and I don't care!" On cue, they jumped and unwrapped the gifts like every other child would. They got the basics, cards, candy canes, cards, some sweaters from mom, and yeah, cards.

"Hah…" Ryuzaki sighed, as he fell in the masses of wrapping paper. "Well, the fun ends eventually."

"Not quite," he giggled, "There's still the presents we got for each other…" His friend already caught on and pushed the present he'd wrapped in his face.

"Open it. Open it. Open-"

"I get it! I'll open it, Ryuzaki!"

Haga took the gift from the excited teen. It was wrapped nicely, plain green wrapping paper with a blue ribbon tied into a bow. The blue was the same color as his eyes. He carefully unwrapped it, and opened the box inside to find a velvet handmade teddy bear. It looked handmade for sure, one ear was slightly bigger than the other, and the button eyes were sewn on, but it gave it that well made look to it. Ryuzaki seemed nervous.

"W-well it's not the best thing, I tried to make a butterfly or something but it looked too horrible. A-and I didn't make it all by myself, my mom helped with the sewing. So if you don't like it-"

"I love it."

He looked up, surprised by his friend, and joyful at his smile. Haga held it close. "You must've put a lot of heart into it, so I'll treasure it forever."

Ryuzagi was relieved and happy as his cheeks blushed slightly. "Um…do you know that story of a teddy bear's birthday?"

He nodded. "Yes, the day you tie a ribbon on it, and give it a name is its birthday." He began tying the blue ribbon from his gift around the bears neck as he spoke. "And if you name it after the giver, the two would be together forever so," he glanced up at his friend with joyful eyes. "I'll name it Ryuzaki."

He couldn't believe what he heard. Was that a confession? Was his love finally mutual? Haga pushed his gift he'd wrapped to the ever so blushing brunet. "Please open it."

"Ah, right." Like before, he took off the violet wrapping paper and the soft purple ribbon off carefully, to find a handmade plushie of a dinosaur. The hand-sewn eyes gave it a sweet look.

Haga's cheeks grew red. "It's not the best, but I really tried my hardest, honest! You can't do the same birthday thing to it since it's not a teddy bear-"

He was cut off by Ryuzaki grabbing the ribbon and tying it around his plushie's neck. "Haga," he said smiling. "I'll name it after the person I like the most and…" He placed the teddy bear on top of his crush's head. "…I'll keep it forever." Haga smiled and looked up at his gift, and then blushed and smiled some more.

"Don't tell me, let me guess." Ryuzaki looked up as well. "Figures we're sitting under the mistletoe."

They both laughed and looked each other in the eyes. They moved closer to one another. Ryuzaki placed his hand on his love's chin, and the other on his hip.

"Do you want to follow tradition?"

Haga nodded slowly. "More than anything."

That was all he needed. The non-direct way of a confession from the person he loved with all his heart. He placed his lips on his lover's softly, then pulled away, slightly nervous.

"How was it?" he asked. "It was my first so…"

"It felt weird in a way…but warm, and nice. A feeling I want to feel again."

They pulled into another kiss, deeper than before. It stayed for what felt like forever, but really was two minutes. After pulling away again slowly, they welcomed each other's embrace.

On December 25th, in Domino City, kids were gladly playing with their new toys all day. For these two, they spent the day telling each other how much they loved one another, with stuffed toys at their sides, under their mistletoe.

A/N: Yay! First time at a fanfic...mercy? Happy Holidays BTW! Shrimpshipping FTW! I used fluff...YAY FLUFF!