Halloween For Real

Chapter One:

"Come on, mou hitori no boku!" Yugi tugged at his dark's arm, doing his best to give Yami his chibi-eyes. "Please, dress up for Halloween!"

Yami shook his head, trying to ignore that look. He liked to give his hikari whatever he wanted. But Yami would not dress up for that party. It wasn't like him. He couldn't imagine dressing up in a costume and eating candy and drinking soda to fakely scary music in dim lighting. If Yugi wanted to do that, fine, but it wasn't Yami's thing.

Yugi sighed and released his arm. One thing about his aibou: he knew when to give up. He didn't push things. And he forgave easily. That bright smile played over the beautiful face and the violet eyes gleamed. "Okay. But you will come, won't you?"

That Yami could do. After all, he could compromise, since Yugi was willing to. "Yes, Aibou. I'll be at your party."

Yugi threw his arms around Yami's neck, grinning. He was nearly the same height as Yami now. "Good. And after the party, I'll be sure to thank you. The proper way."

Yami swallowed as Yugi's voice turned low and throaty, his expression smouldering. He smiled, putting his arms around Yugi's slim waist and pulling the other up against him. Sometimes it still amazed him how much his light had changed, despite the fact that he'd known all along he had the power. Yugi was bolder, more aggressive, seductive and hypnotic, while still retaining the gentle, loving manner he'd always possessed. In short, his hikari had grown up.

"I look forward to that, Aibou."

Yugi kissed him, opening his mouth to Yami's tongue, then drew back. His expression turned vaguely worried and Yami knew something was coming.

"Um, mou hitori no boku, you know who's coming, right?"

"Joey and the gang."

"Yeah. And Mokuba and Kaiba--"

"Kaiba?!" Yami stared down at him in shock. "Seto Kaiba is coming to your party?"

"Mokuba's making him." Yugi's expression looked wickedly happy. "Though I don't think he'll dress up."

Yami smiled. No, he didn't think the uptight CEO would dress up. Though the idea of him doing so was amusing. He chuckled, which made Yugi giggle in response, his wicked expression growing.

"Maybe he could dress up as a Blue-Eyes..."

They broke into laughter, then Yugi sombered and Yami frowned. "All right, Aibou, who else is coming?"

"Ryou and Bakura."

"What?!" Yami held his hikari out at arm's length and frowned down at him. "You know how I feel about that tomb-robber."

"I don't like him either, but I do like Ryou and he is Ryou's dark. He's nothing like you, of course, but Ryou loves him for some reason, and that means he's invited. Ryou promises he'll make him behave."

Yami snorted, doubting that, but said nothing further. Yugi smiled, kissing him, and Yami happily forgot about his reservations for the moment.

******

The woman looked into her magic mirror, watching the figures displayed within, a wicked smile twisting her mouth. The ancient old hag limped to the shelves of her cabinet, drawing down some ingridents. She mixed them together in her seething cauldron, calling upon all her dark witch's powers, setting up her curse.

It was time for Halloween to get a little too real.

******

"Hey, Yami!"

The former Pharaoh smiled as Joey, Tristan, Duke, Tea, and Serenity all came in. They were all carrying bundles containing their costumes to change here at the Game Shop. Joey threw an arm around Yami's shoulders.

"Yug' tells me you're not dressing up. How come? 'Course, anything you wear is hot, but why not?"

Yami smiled at the compliment. "It's not my thing."

"Aw. All right, but wait until you see my costume. Then maybe you'll change your mind. Halloween's all about having fun, who cares how old you are?"

"Yeah," Tristan said. "Come on, let's get ready for Yugi's party. Yami, anything else left you need help on?"

Yami shook his head. "Aibou and I did most of it already. I'm just setting up the snack table." Yami shrugged his shoulders and the others went upstairs to use the bathrooms to change in, while Yugi changed in their shared bedroom.

Yami went down to the basement, which generally held all the stock for the store. Grandpa had given them permission to haul everything up into the shop itself, his own bedroom, and Yugi's parents' room. His father had managed to get some time off work and so had taken his mother out for another honeymoon--something Yugi had been very happy to see. Yami knew Yugi worried about his father, who was almost constantly gone on business trips; Yugi had almost grown up without seeing him.

His grandpa had made plans to be gone all night, too, so that the kids would have the Game Shop and apartment all to themselves. Yugi's decorating scheme was three-fold. The basement was the main party room, with the lights changed to black lights--something Yami had been interested in seeing--with fake cobwebs, a dummy hanging by its neck from the ceiling in the corner, a grouping of jack-o-lanterns that would be soon lit sitting in another corner, and the third corner held a fake dismembered corpse sprayed with fake blood. It was morbid and disgusting. Yami's wasn't sure of the appeal of Halloween, but it was a famously popular tradition in America and Yugi had wanted to hold his own party. Yami had been happy to help him set up, but he still didn't like the simple gruesomeness of the holiday. Americans were weird.

Smiling, Yami finished setting up, then ascended back to the main floor and checked the second room, the living room. This was done up mostly in orange and black streamers, with a large folding table decorated with a black sheet and which would hold all the snacks for Yugi's party: chips and dip, soda, miscellaneous candy, and other such things, and a table filled with only Halloween drinks designed to look like blood, green slime, and an orange concotion that held green olives that looked like eyes. The TV would be used to play horror movies when the guests got tired of dancing downstairs.

Outside was the third section of the decorations. Yugi's backyard consisted of a wide alley and a tiny cement lot, with only one lonely tree valiantly growing in a section of soil left for it. Yugi had gotten around all that by setting up an enclosed haunted maze of sorts. Yami, Joey, and Tristan had helped him set this up, but Yugi had done all the planning and organization. Yami had to admit, Yugi had a knack for artistic flare that he'd never really shown before. The maze looked quite good now that it was finished. Made of cheap corral fencing and black-painted pegboard, it looped back and forth through the alley and the lot, with black lighting to add the spooky effect and bring out the special glow-in-the-dark paint that Yugi had used to stencil bats and other creatures on the insides. Yami and Joey had helped set up easy rig systems that would send things bumping against the walls, or a fake vampire monster lunging at a seemingly open section for special effects and Tristan had hung a fake body from the tree that thrashed and screamed with a trip button was pressed at the exit to the maze.

His Aibou had really gone all out. Yami knew how important this party was to him and he was more than happy to help him pull it off.

"Hey, Yami, come on, man, we've got our costumes on!" Joey called from the entrance hall.

Yami went to him. He paused to look Joey over appreciatively. The blond looked quite good in his chosen costume. He was a werewolf, but a good-looking one. He had attached triangular wolf's ears to his head, stuck long fangs in his mouth, and claws to his finger tips. His outfit consisted of a nicely torn dark green vest, and matching tight green pants that ended in tatters just above his knees. His feet were encased in soft rubber wolf paws, and he had added a new effect by adding a spiked dog collar around his neck with a broken chain leash dangling against his bare stomach. His brown eyes lit up as Yami came into the hall and he pretended to lunge with a snarl.

Yami didn't flinch and found himself swept up in a bear hug that had his feet leaving the ground before Joey set him back down, grinning.

"Yami, this little puppy could eat you up all night."

Yami smiled, raising a hand. "Sorry, Joey, but I'm Aibou's."

"Yeah, yeah."

"All right, cut it out, you two," Duke said as he descended the stairs. He had foregone his usual dice-punk outfit to dress up as a zombie. He had painted his face stark white, adding blood spatters down the side of his head from a gruesome fake head wound, attached a fake arm to his sleeve that made it look like his right arm was broken and missing some fingers, and wore a dirty, torn suit covered in blood spatters and grave dirt. Only his emerald eyes remained the same, gazing out of the bloodied face with amusement. Tristan was right behind him. He had dressed himself up as a clown, but a nasty looking one. His painted red mouth was done in a sneer, his eyes were rimmed with black makeup that made them into scowling triangles, and his curly red wig looked like it was dripping with blood, which also spattered his colorful suit, and he wielded a bloody kitchen knife in one hand and a noose in the other.

The girls joined them a moment later. Tea had dressed up in a rather skimpy black cat costume, which showed more of her body than was really necessary. Yami noticed her glance at him and he kept his face neutral, which wasn't hard. Tea did nothing for him, of course. She would have to learn that eventually. Overall, her costume was nice, just wasted on any male member of their group. Yami, Yugi, and Joey were homosexual, as everyone now knew, and Tristan and Duke had eyes only for Serenity.

Speaking of Serenity, she was a shock. The sweet-heart sister of Joey was showing a different side altogether--she looked like a hooker. Joey made a choked sort of yelp when he saw her. She wore a tight black skirt, red fishnet stockings, spiked black heels, a red halter top, and large black-and-red dangling earrings. Her face was done up in black shadow and red lipstick.

"Serenity?!" Joey yelled. "What do you think you're wearing?!"

Duke and Tristan didn't seem to mind. They were staring so hard Yami felt sure their eyes would soon leave their sockets. Amused, he hid a smile for Joey's sake as the blond tried to force Serenity back upstairs to change.

"Joey! I'm sixteen now!"

"And still too young for that. What would Mom say?"

"She'd tell me to have fun!"

"I doubt that. Change!"

"Aw, come on, man," Tristan began. "Let her--"

The rest of his sentence ended in a gurgle as Joey seized him and began to strangle him. Yami interceded, rescuing Tristan, calming Joey down, and finally the blond let Serenity keep her costume, with implicit instructions that Serenity not leave the house. The younger agreed, threw her arms around her brother, and nearly knocked off his wolf ears hugging him. That won Joey over even more and he was back to grinning broadly as he looked at Yami.

"By the way, wait until you see Yug's costume. He's gonna knock your socks off, Yami."

Yami swallowed, not missing the faintly dark look on Tea's face. Wondering what his Aibou could have come up with, Yami waited with the rest for the master host to come downstairs from his bedroom. The guests would be arriving in about fifteen minutes. According to Duke, more people had decided to show up. Lots of people from school had heard about Yugi's party and he had gladly invited them all to attend if they wanted to. Yami finally left to set up the snack table, knowing his hikari would come down when he felt the time was right.

Joey and the girls came to help him while Tristan and Duke went outside to recheck the maze for later that night. Yami noticed now that Joey's costume consisted of a tail. It was a realistic-looking furry thing that matched the ears, pinned to the seat of Joey's pants and it swayed with eerie realism when the blond walked. Tea, too, had a tail, but the long cat's tail didn't achieve the same effect. Joey looked weirdly authentic.

All the set-up had been accomplished and Yami went to the door as the bell rang, wondering why Yugi still hadn't come down. The guests to first arrive were no one Yami knew, but he welcomed them and sent them into the living room to start on the snacks while the rest came. People had dressed up in all manner of costumes, like dead cheerleaders, zombies, witches, and beasts Yami couldn't name.

Ryou and Bakura showed up about a half hour after the guests first began to arrive. Yami was surprised when he saw them. Bakura had dressed up--something that Yami struggled against showing his amusement about and was sure that Ryou had something to do with--and looked like a tough biker, complete with the leather outfit, fingerless gloves, and chains attached to his belt.

Ryou appeared to be a magician of sorts. He had not decided to wear a pointed hat like Yugi had explained American-style wizards wore, but wore heavy robes, carried a plastic staff in one hand, and had rings of different stones around each of his fingers.

"Hi, Yami!" Ryou greeted warmly. "Why aren't you dressed up?"

Seeing the half-irritated, half-provoking expression on Bakura's face, Yami just shrugged. "I wasn't going to wear one."

"Aww. That's too bad. I'll bet you could have come up with a good one."

Yami just smiled and directed them to the party. He greeted another half dozen or so guests, then Mokuba and Kaiba themselves. The younger brother had dressed up for the occasion, appearing to be a demon of sorts. His oufit was a black long-sleeved shirt and black jeans, but demon's horns stuck out of his long black hair, his fingers were tipped with black claws, and a black, whip-like tail was attached to his jeans.

Kaiba, of course, was dressed as usual, in his black outfit, white trenchcoat, and multitude of buckles. The usual disdainful expression was on his handsome face as he looked down at Yami. The icy blue eyes snapped with barely controlled anger as Yami greeted them, more Mokuba than Kaiba, and directed them to the living room.

"Where's Yugi?" Mokuba asked as Yami shut the door. He was sure everyone had shown up who was going to.

In answer to Mokuba's question, he nodded towards the stairs. "In the bedroom. I think he's waiting until everyone's here to come down."

/Right, mou hitori no boku,/ Yugi said suddenly. /I want to make an entrance./ His mental voice grew a shade uncertain. /I hope my costume's all right./

//Aibou, whatever you decided to be will be fine. You need to be confident.//

/Right. I'm coming down now./

Yami waited, relaying to Joey that Yugi was on his way down. A few seconds later, Yugi stepped into the doorway leading to the living room. A hushed murmur ran through the crowd and Yami felt frozen to the spot.

His hikari was...indescribable.

From the feet up, his aibou had dressed in his usual black boots, then tight black pants that hugged Yugi's slim legs and narrow hips even more so than his usual pants. His torso was covered in a buttoned and buckled black leather vest that hid his flat stomach and leanly muscled chest, but displayed his arms and collarbone in a subtle eroticism. The hem of the vest and the waistband of the pants were an inch apart, revealing a tiny bit of the smooth tan skin. His slender neck was bare of any belt, but each wrist was buckled with a leather cuff. His hair had been dyed all black, except for the very tips of his bangs and spikes, which were blood red. His face had been lightly painted, so that his eyelids were darkened charcoal, while his skin was paler than usual. He smiled at the crowd--nervously, Yami knew--revealing slender fangs attached to his teeth.

His aibou was a vampire. And an incredibly sexy one at that.

Yugi stepped into the living room. Yami could sense the nervousness in his hikari; he knew that appearing in such a provocative outfit was unusual for his lover, but Yugi didn't back out. Yami sent him some encouragement through their link. He smiled more brightly at all the people, revealing the fangs more.

"Welcome, everyone," Yugi said. "I hope you enjoy my party. Now that everyone's here, we can go downstairs where my friends and I have set up a dance floor. This way."

Yugi turned and headed for the basement stairs. Everyone followed him, except Kaiba, who stubbornly remained standing in a corner. Mokuba tried to coax him to come, but the narrowing of blue eyes made him give up and join everyone else with a huff. Yami followed right behind his hikari as Yugi led everyone down to the basement. The black lights were on, making the whites of people's outfits light up eeriely. Yugi turned on the stereo. A deep, evil chuckle emanated from the speakers before dance music began. Couples paired off and the floor was soon filled with dancing bodies.

Yugi came back to where Yami and Joey stood near the doorway. Joey looked Yugi over and wolf-whistled, making Yugi blush so that even the soft covering of powder couldn't hide the redness.

"Damn, Yug'. I know vampires are supposed to be sexy, but you are the king of the night."

Despite the blush, Yugi looked quite pleased. He met Yami's eyes and Yami nodded slowly.

//He is quite right, Aibou. I'm disappointed you have to be here to host this gathering. I'd like to go upstairs and be the 'king of the night's' first victim.//

Yugi's cheeks reddened further while his eyes darkened. /Yami, stop that, or I'll have to go hide and calm down./

Yami smiled, but did stop. Yugi had spent a great deal of time and money on this party and Yami didn't want to ruin it. He just stood and watched as his light wandered through the crowd, talking to some of the people he knew, making sure everything was going all right. Joey stood with him for a bit, then excused himself.

"I'm going to go attack the snack table before anyone else does," Joey said with a grin that revealed the fangs.

Yami smiled back, shaking his head a little. Typical Joey, the blond was always starving. "I'll let Aibou know."

Joey nodded, then left.