A/N: Okay guys, here's a rundown of my situation. For those select few of you that keep up with me, I promised that I would upload a Christmas fic at 12 AM US East Coast time. Right when Christmas Eve transitions into Christmas day. For those of you on the east coast with me, it's much, much later than midnight. I apologize. After a windows update, my laptop crashed and deleted a majority of my word documents, including the Christmas fic that I was working on. I usually keep all of my fics on a flashdrive just for this specific reason, but I wanted to make sure that this specific one was fully complete and edited before I saved it. Now, it's gone. Honestly I was very disappointed. I'd been working on it since the beginning of November and it was supposed to be a YGO twist on The Polar Express, and I feel like I'd put my heart and soul into it. But instead of just saying fuck it and not uploading anything at all, I decided to fulfill at least half of my promise and give you guys some kind of Christmas fic. I wrote this in a couple of hours, and kinda edited but I'm a little too disheartened to make it perfect. Yami/Hikari. Hope you somewhat enjoy.

Tree, Snow, Ice

Tree

This was such an irritating holiday. In all honesty, Bakura hated it. It's an over-commercialized racket, this "Christmas" thing. People acted even more fake than the applause and laughter in television sitcoms – going from the rude, impatient, pushy bastards they are to these nauseatingly nice, polite…

People were a trip. That's all he was going to say about that.

Businesses used what was supposed to be a religious holiday and turned it into a way to make more money than they do all year; with their Black Friday sales and Christmas specials and whatnot.

The craziest thing though, was the was the music and decorations. Bakura couldn't count how many different versions of the same fucking song he'd heard while his stupid little light fluttered about putting up lights and bells and tinsel and mistletoe and whatever other bullshit went up at this time of year. Why spend all day decorating if the items put up are only going to be taken down after a couple of weeks? It was redundant.

And speaking of redundancy, if it was one think Bakura couldn't wrap his head around, it was the concept of wrapping presents. People spend money on fancy paper to tape around a worthless gift – apparently the gift is supposed to be some sort of surprise – only to tear off and throw away. Who came up with this shit?

The only thing that he could (but probably wouldn't) say he didn't mind about the holiday season was the joy that seemed to come with it. Not that he cared about people being happy – fuck them – but because it put Ryou in a good mood. Bakura wasn't obsessed with the boy's emotions, but he tired of seeing Ryou act in such a monotonous way due to the absence of his father. The moping around, the reclusiveness, the faked smiles and laughter; it all got old really quick. It was boring. So seeing him smile and hum along to that repetitive, God-awful music playing from his smartphone while he decorated the tree was somewhat entertaining. And – though he would never admit it and more than likely murder anyone who suggested it – Bakura cared a little bit. Only a little.

"Bakura?"

The yami turned his head away from the Christmas movie he'd been staring at but not really watching and looked back over his shoulder. Ryou was standing next to the tree with a Star of David in his hands, the final decoration before the tree would be considered complete. "Could you help? Please?"

Truth be told, he really didn't feel like getting up and walking across the room to put a fake star on top of a fake tree, but there was something in those doe-like eyes of his light and that small but emotion filled smile that made it impossible to object.

Okay, maybe he cared a lot.

Snow

This wasn't Malik's first Christmas. It wasn't his first snowfall. But it was still just as fascinating. Having spent a majority of his life underground and then in a part of the world that rarely saw rainfall, seeing snow falling from the heavens and caking onto the ground or rooftops or cars…

It was still a culture shock. But it was also beautiful.

However, just because Malik found the droplets of frozen water to be interesting, it didn't mean that he appreciated the conditions that caused it. Cold weather was unnatural. Looking out of the window at the children and teenagers outside made him sort of wonder just what he was missing out on by staying inside. It looked fun, but that cold wind blowing around out there was convincing enough to keep him inside.

He just wished that his yami understood that he didn't want to go out in the snow. Truthfully, he should've figured that Mariku was up to something when the crazy bastard asked him to try on a jacket, and then a pair of gloves. He didn't figure out what his darker half was doing until the older boy placed a beanie on his head, but by that time it was too late. Malik tried to run, but getting away from Mariku hadn't always been something he was particularly good at.

Needless to say, the second Malik took a step away from him, Mariku had taken the smaller boy into his arms and lifted him off of the ground, aiming to carry him out of the apartment and outside. Now, Mariku himself wasn't fond of the cold weather either, but he could see the longing in his light's eyes to go out and actually experience the weather going on around him.

And if Malik wanted it, well it was Mariku's job to make it happen.

Ice

Ice skating was probably the hardest thing that he'd ever done in his life, and Yami had done some difficult things. Saving the world and the entire human race on multiple occasions was not an easy feat, but giving a tossup between that and ice skating…

The latter had to take the cake on that one. For starters, the rink was in a cold building and Yami didn't do cold weather. Then the skates he had to rent didn't come in half sizes, so the former pharaoh had to choose between skates that were too small or too big. And the kicker was how it was nearly impossible to move on a block of frozen water with these awkward bladed shoes. Everyone around him made it look so easy, and here he was hugging the wall so he didn't end up falling flat on his face or busting his ass.

If it wasn't for Yuugi, Yami would not be here right now.

Although the smaller boy was standing on the other side of the rink laughing at his darker half. It was rather funny, really. To watch a former king slip and struggle – and even fall a few times – made his day. It was clear the older man was irritated, but the opportunity to watch the same person that usually aced everything he did with ease struggle over a leisurely task was humorous. It was especially funny when Yami stopped trying to skate and settled for holding onto the wall and glaring at Yuugi.

If it had been anyone else laughing at him, Yami probably would've been pissed off. But because it was Yuugi, it wasn't all that bad. After all, seeing the younger boy happy made him happy as well.

A/N: Again, I'm very disappointed in myself for not having a backup file of my original Christmas fic saved. But in other less disappointing news, the first chapter of the new fic that I'm dropping at the turn of the new year has been completely edited and saved. Currently halfway through the second chapter of that. And while we're on the subject of my new fic, I'd like to ask a question: which of the following would be best fit for facial hair; Yami, Bakura, Mariku, or Seto?

Happy Holidays.