Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters.

Author's Notes: This was slightly inspired by a scene from Hikaru no Go.  If you've never heard of it, don't worry.  This is completely based in the Yu-Gi-Oh! world.  This has some R/B, Y/YY, and possibly R/Y if you feel like interpreting it that way.  This was written to cure my writer's block, but I'm pretty sure it's pretty good.

Warnings: Shounen ai (guy/guy feelings), some angst, and fluffiness.  Also, depending on your interpretation, it could be considered a deathfic, though it's not meant to be.

~Frozen Tears~

"It's too bad we couldn't celebrate New Years with Ryou and Bakura," Yugi commented to Yami as they worked in the kitchen.  It had been three years since Battle City, and since that time both Yugi's yami and Ryou's yami had gained the power to form a solid, lifelike body separate from that of their hikaris.  Yugi was baking a cake while Yami made the icing.

Yami smiled and flicked his finger lightly in the icing he was making before popping the sweet substance into his mouth.  He enjoyed the sugary flavor; it was nice to have a body again.  "I can't believe the tomb robber is actually nice to his hikari now," Yami commented as he washed his hands before going back to mixing the icing.  "What do you think?" he asked as he held the bowl towards his aibou.

Yugi used a spoon to get some of the icing and licked it experimentally.  His smile grew wider.  "This is really good, Yami!  It's much better than that stuff they sell in stores."  He grinned happily at his darker half and began to pour the cake batter into a pan.  "You'd better cover it with something so it doesn't harden while the cake bakes," he instructed.  "And you shouldn't be so cynical about Bakura.  He's really changed, you know."

"I know, Aibou," Yami chuckled as he did as Yugi said.  "I just can't help it.  Are we going to be the only ones here tonight?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Yes," said Yugi with a nod.  "Ryou and Bakura are with Ryou's father in England, Seto is holding a party for his company, and Mokuba is with Seto.  Jounouchi and Shizuka went to New York with their mother, and everyone else is celebrating with their families."  He did not mention his Grandpa; he had died a year ago.  He felt a momentary flash of grief that he quickly repressed.

"Then why are we making a cake?"

"The sugar will keep us up until midnight."

Yami laughed.  "That makes perfect sense.  Why don't we do something else to keep awake while we're at it?"

Yugi blushed.  "Y-Yami!"

"I just meant a game, Aibou."  He gave Yugi an innocent look, but his eyes gleamed.  "What did you think I meant?"

Yugi's blush increased.  "Nothing."  He opened the oven and slid the pan in while his blush faded.  "So, what game do you want to play?

****

"I win!" Yugi said as he looked at the board between himself and Yami.  They had decided upon Go, a game where two people placed stones, usually white or black, on the intersections of lines.  Surrounding at stone with stones of its opposing color could capture that stone.  The object was to have 'control' of the most squares, or kifu, at the end of the game.

"Then I guess you're the 'King of Games' now," the former pharaoh said playfully as he cleared away the game and put the stones back in their containers.

Yugi grinned with a twinkle in his eyes.  "Really?  Does that mean I can tell you to do whatever I want?"

There was a muttered curse in Egyptian, and Yami grabbed a pillow off the sofa and chucked it at Yugi's head.  He ducked and grabbed a pillow from the chair next to him, and a full-fledged pillow fight erupted between them.

It ended when Yami got behind Yugi.  "You lost this time," he said, and began to tickle the hikari mercilessly.  It turned the pillow fight into a tickle fight, and it lasted until both of them were breathless from giggling and laughing.  They relaxed on their backs on the fuzzy, dark blue carpet, facing the TV.

"I call it a tie," Yugi said as he panted for air.  Yami nodded in breathless agreement and rolled onto his stomach to watch the screen.  He placed a quick kiss on Yugi's forehead.

"Look," he said, "it's almost midnight."

It was true.  The clock on the screen showed ten second left.  Nine.  Eight.  Seven.  Six.  Five.  Four.  Three.  Two.  Yami and Yugi smiled at each other.  Two.

One.  Yami looked towards the window and saw a large white owl staring at him with haunting yellow eyes.

The grandfather clock rang; it was midnight.

********

Bakura's eyes gleamed as he looked at the boxes of fireworks.  "This will be great," he said with a predatory smile.  He looked to his side, where Ryou was.  "Can we start now?  Please?"  He gave his hikari the closest thing to 'puppy eyes' that he could muster.  A while ago, such behavior would have been unthinkable for him.  Now he was more carefree, having realized that he was the weak one for ever hurting his aibou.  Now they were best friends, perhaps even closer than best friends.

Ryou laughed.  "Just a minute.  I promised Father that we wouldn't start until nine o'clock."  Even as he spoke, the watch on his wrist beeped to mark the hour.  He grinned sheepishly.  "I guess we can start."

"Yes!"  Bakura pulled out his lighter and flicked it once.  A small flame burst up, slowly lighting the punk that was supposed to be use to light the fireworks.  In Bakura's opinion, the lighter would have been more efficient, and more fun, but he yielded to his hikari's request once again.  He took out a handful of bottle rockets and lit them while still holding them loosely in his hands.  They went off and exploded above the English farm where they were staying.  The adults were all away at a party, but Ryou's father had bought a lot of fireworks for both Ryou and Bakura to use.  Of course, he was the only one in England who knew about Bakura's existence.

The two of them had fun, lighting off the fireworks one by one.  Some were good-sized mortars that left brilliant sparkling colors in the sky.  Others were simply loud, noisy firecrackers that made Ryou jump when Bakura lit them without warning.  It was all simply fun.

****

Eventually they ran out of fireworks, and they sat on the ground together, Ryou leaning against Bakura whilst the yami put an arm around his shoulder.  They listened to the radio until it announced that it was a minute until midnight.  Thirty seconds.  Ten.  Then five…four…three…two…and finally one.

A white owl landed silently in front of Ryou and Bakura.  It seemed to glow softly in the moon- and starlight.  It turned its burning golden eyes to Bakura as the radio announced the New Year had come.  Bakura felt suddenly powerless, and he began to disappear.

********

"Yami!" cried Yugi in shock and despair as the spirit turned translucent.  "What's happening?"

In the background, the grandfather clock began to ring its twelve tones.

Yami looked at his aibou with tears running down his face.  "I believe my time is up, Aibou."

"But…why now?"

"Shh."  He ran a ghostly hand through Yugi's hair.  "I've been alive far too long already."

"But… But I " Yami began to glow softly.

Desperately, he called, "Aibou, I'll always love you.  I'll always be a part of you."

The tears on Yugi's face glowed like pearl's in the yami's divine light.  "Yami, I love you, too."  The clock rang its twelfth time, and Yami and the owl vanished.  "Yami?"

The lonely, desolate cry rang through the house.  "YAMI!"

********

Ryou collapsed on the ground, sobbing.  "Yami…  Why did you leave me alone?"  He wrapped his arms around himself, shivering.  "I promise I'll never be weak anymore…just come back…please…" A painful sob tore past the lump in his throat.  "Please…Come back…"

He remembered what his dark side had said just before he disappeared.  "Ryou, my aibou, I'll always be a part of you."  He had kissed Ryou's tearstained cheeks gently.  "I love you."

"I love you, Yami," he cried, holding the ground like he might be torn from the earth and fall into the sky.  "I love you…"

********

A year later…

Yugi sat still on the bench in the park.  It was New Year's Eve, yes, but it was still evening.  He still had some time before he would be alone in his misery in the darkness of his house to mourn the death of the one that had been bonded to his soul.

Footsteps echoed lightly on the paved path.  He looked up to see Ryou, nineteen years old and also alone.  Framed against the barren trees, he looked like an angel… Just like Yami had looked like a solemn angel, right before he disappeared.  Yugi smiled brokenly while tears stung his eyes.  He noticed that neither of them were wearing their Millennium Items.  One tear escaped and ran down his face.

Silently, Ryou sat next to Yugi.  He himself was holding back tears.  He let his hair cover his face while he cried silently.  'It's been a year,' he thought.  'A year, and we have all changed so much.  We're in college now, though Yugi is staying close to home so that he can run the shop in his free time.  Anzu received the scholarship to the dance school in America, and Jou and Honda are going to a college in Tokyo, partly thanks to help from Seto.  The group has split apart… most of us rarely see each other now.  But here we are, Yugi and I, drawn back to the place where so much happened to us… where we spent so much time with… with our yamis.'  A soft, silent sob wracked his body.

He was slightly surprised to hear Yugi speak.  "I've been thinking, Ryou, this past year," he said while looking at the ground.  "Y-Yami said, before he left, that he would always be a part of me.  And lately… I've changed, I really have…" He lapsed into silence for a minute as a cold breeze blew through the leafless trees, bending a few branches and stirring up the fallen leaves.  "The most obvious thing is my increased height."  Ryou looked at Yugi, noticing for the first time that the little one was now as tall as Yami had been.  "On top of that, I've suddenly become a better Duelist… just like Y- just like he was.  I'm not the same person that I was only a year ago."  But his bitterness and sadness at his loss were still apparent in his voice.

Ryou nodded slowly, understandingly.  "I know how you feel, but I still don't feel…I don't feel strong.  Yugi, I feel weak, alone, and helpless, like I could disappear like my yami or your yami and no one would care.  Sometimes I wish I could… Disappear, I mean, because the pain…"

He was startled when Yugi impulsively embraced him.  "Don't wish that!  We're still alive; we can still remember them.  We are them, in a way.  If you or I disappear, then it will be us who truly killed them."

"Yugi…" Ryou didn't know what to say.

"Don't you get it?"  Yugi was crying again, truly in tears now.  "I felt exactly the same way you do now before Yami came!  I was alone, without friends… I had nothing.  Then I finished the Puzzle, and it all came together.  I made friends, I was truly happy, and then… Then I had Yami."  His eyes shone, and it was from fond memories and not tears.

Ryou's voice broke.  "But… How can you stand it now, being alone?"  He looked up as the tears continued to run down.  "It hurts…It hurts so much."

Yugi's finger light traced his face and wiped his tears away.  "I know… But can't we be strong together?"

Their eyes met, and even through tears, Ryou realized that he would never have to be alone again.  Gently, he caught one of Yugi's hands in his.  "Yes.  Together, we can fight the pain…and maybe," he said, his voice tinged with wonder, "maybe even be happy again."

Two ghostly white owls watched the two boys kiss from a distance.  They spread their wings and vanished as snow began to fall, pure and white from the sky like frozen tears.

~*Owari*~