New Years at Wammy's

The orphanage was buzzing when Yugi woke up on the morning of New Year's Eve. She sat up and looked around a bit dazed for a moment.

"What are you doing sleeping the day away?" Yugi turned to the door to see her roommate, Maki Nikaido, or Ted as Roger insisted that she be called (although she strongly refused). She was busy tying part of her short, dark hair back into a small ponytail. "Come on, Yugi, up and at 'em. It's New Year's Eve and Roger wants everyone to help decorate for the party tonight."

Yugi huffed and rubbed the leftover sleep from her eyes. "I never thought Mr. Roger was the type to plan parties," she muttered, her voice raspy with a case of Morning Voice.

Maki laughed. "No, but I heard he got a message from Watari telling him to do it."

"I like Watari," Yugi stated, getting up and changing into a clean set of clothes for the day. "He makes me think of a really nice grandpa."

Once the two were ready for the day, they left their room to join the hussle of the home for geniuses.

"Ted, go into the kitchen and help with the food. Yugi, go help decorate the main hall."

Yugi went to do what she was told, moving quickly to get the the main hall. She wasn't paying attention to where she was going and suddenly ran into someone. "Oof!"

"Hey, watch it Cabbage Head!" Of course it was Mello. "I'm walking here!"

Yugi took this opportunity to say something she had been working on telling the angsty blonde. She gave Mello a smirk and said, "Oh, I'm sorry your royal highness!" She took a step back with a sarcasitc bow. "By all means, Ladies first."

Mello gave Yugi a sour look, but still walked ahead of Yugi, apparently also going to help decorate the main hall. "How lovely," she muttered.

"Yo, if it isn't my bestest buddy and my sweet little daffodil," Matt popped up in between us the moment they entered the hall.

"Hi Matt," Mello muttered.

Yugi rolled her eyes, a smile still on her face. "Mattie, how many times do I have to tell you that I'm not your little daffodil?"

"As many times as I've said it, fluffy." Matt put an arm around Yugi's shoulder and nuzzled her a bit.

"Matt, are you drunk or something?" she asked.

"Nah, I just love cuddling with ya that's all," he said. "And don't deny it. I know you like it."

Yugi sighed. It was true, she did love a good cuddle...she was sure it was because of the wolf genetics, but not entirely certain. "Yeah, whatever. Don't you have work to do?"

Matt pulled away with a pout. "I guess so, but we'll continue this later."

Mello made a loud gagging noise as Matt walked off to go hang some streamers. "You guys disgust me."

"Jealous?" Yugi asked. "You know Matt can roll the other way too if you know what I mean." Mello's face turned red, from embarassment or rage, she didn't know. "Unless, you're more into the animalistic type."

"Shut up, dirt-for-brains," Mello growled as he stomped off.

"At least I have a brain!" Yugi called out to him. He ignored her as he began helping out with the decorations. "Hey don't you want revenge for the last time I whooped your ass? Don't ignore me princess!"

Mello stopped what he was doing and glanced back at Yugi, a fire in his eyes that was all too familiar. "What?" His voice was stiff and brittle. Yugi knew she hit a nerve.

"You heard me, Mells."

Matt noticed the sudden tension when everyone stopped to watch the two glare at each other. Mello turned to go run at her, but was stopped by Matt who had grabbed his arm to hold him back. "Come on, guys, can't you just cool it for one day? We don't want a repeat of Christmas now, do we?"

At the mention of the holiday the whole room seemed to shudder. The west wing was still under repair from when Yugi and Mello were in an epic battle of life and death which resulted in that part of the orphanage to spontaneously burst into flames.

Mello let out a deep sigh and went back to decorating, albeit with a grumpy attitude. Matt tried to cheer him up. "Hey, look at the bright side. At least Near isn't around."

There was a sneeze and Yugi looked next to her to see the white haired child standing with his hand tangled in his hair like usual. "Sorry I'm late...I was just finishing a puzzle I started last night."

Mello turned to glare at Matt, who slowly backed away at the icy look. "Sorry I spoke too soon."

Once the decorating and cooking was done the party started. It was more like a massive birthday party rather than a New Year's Eve Party to Mello. Unlike the other kids who danced and binge ate the last few hours of the year, he sat and moped in a corner, not feeling very festive.

Matt walked over to him with a glass of punch in his hand. "Dude, what's with the gloom?"

Mello just shrugged. Matt nudged the glass of punch into his direction. "Here, I heard one of the older kids spiked it when Roger wasn't looking."

"How do you know if it's actually spiked?" Mello asked as he looked into the reddish-orange liquid.

Matt simply smirked and nodded toward the dance floor. Mello turned around to look and saw Near and Yugi dancing like there's no tomorrow. He couldn't help but give out a small laugh. "I guess you're right. Near would have to be pretty drunk to get out there like that."

Matt laughed. "Yep, the both of them have got to be completely hammered. Although I honestly think it's kind of cute, too."

They both watched as the top two kids in Wammy's had their drunken fun with everyone else. Mello's tiny smirk of amusement fell into a grimace of disgust when Yugi looked deeply into Near's eyes and began to make out with him. "Ugh."

Matt's eyes widened in shock. "Holy cow, I gotta get me some of that action!" He then jumped up and ran toward the two. Mello just looked away again, subconsciously taking a gulp of the abandoned punch that Matt left behind.

Meanwhile, Matt had pulled Yugi aside as Near went to go dance with Maki, who knew for certain that the punch was spiked and elected not to have any.

"Where we going, Mattie?" Yugi asked, her words a bit slurred. Apparently, she was only buzzed.

"I told you we were gonna cuddle later didn't I?"

"Oh yeah..."

Matt lead Yugi away from the party and up to the roof of the orphanage. The waning Gibbous moon shone brightly along with the stars as they climbed onto the balcony. They sat down and Yugi instinctively leaned into Matt as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder once again.

"Pretty moon," she acknowleged as Matt began to play with one of her ears.

Matt wanted to tell her something. Something he's wanted to tell her the moment he met her. "Yugi, I..."

Yugi looked at him curiously. "What is it?"

Matt suddenly grew nervous and glanced at his watch. "Uh...I-it's thirty seconds until Midnight."

Yugi gasped in shock. "Already?" She then straightened up and closed her eyes tightly, mentally counting down the final seconds of the year.

"What are you doing?" Matt asked, unsure of the strange behavior.

"Making my resolution. Rue and I would do this every year," Yugi explained with her eyes still closed. "We would close our eyes in the final seconds of the new year, keeping our resolution in mind, and then when the clock strikes midnight, we'd open them again."

"Oh," Matt said. He's heard her mention Rue several times since he's known her and assumed that he was a boyfriend or something like that. "What about the traditional New Year's Kiss?"

Yugi shook her head. "Never had one, really. Rue and I were pretty close, but...we had our limits."

Matt glanced at his watch again. "Fifteen seconds left..."

Yugi grabbed his arm, eyes still closed. "Count down with me."

Matt smirked. "Ten..."

"Nine..." Yugi followed.

"Eight..."

"Seven..."

"Six..."

"Five..."

"Four..."

"Three..." A smile formed onto Yugi's face as Matt sneakily moved closer.

"Two..." He whispered into her ear.

"One."

Yugi suddenly felt pressure on her lips as Matt pressed his own to them. She was shocked and she suddenly opened her eyes, a tint of pink on her cheeks, although barely visible in the moonlight.

Matt was blushing too. Much more than Yugi. "H-happy New Year, Yugi."

"Happy New Year, Matt."

The two returned to the Main Hall to find people cheering and throwing balloons at each other. Even Mello was having more fun now, probably because of the spiked drink.

"So, what was your resolution?" Matt asked Yugi.

Yugi smirked. "Can't tell you until it's done."

"I thought that was wishes."

"Same difference...Unless you tell me yours."

Matt simply shook his head and smiled. "I've already got mine."

((Author's Note)) Just a quick one-shot I whipped up literally minutes before the new year for all of you to enjoy. I thought it would be kind of cute.

Disclaimer: Death Note and its characters are property of Tsugumi Obha and Takeshi Obata. I only own the Character Yugi and the plot of this story. Any relations to people living or not is highly coincidential.