Ryou sat on the sofa with his bunny-slippered feet folded under him and a video game controller in his hands. The tip of a pink tongue poked between the pale lips as he pounded away on the buttons. Marik wandered out of the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee and sank onto the couch next to him.
"Did you get your shopping done yet?" Marik asked.
"Shopping for-" Ryou paused as another zombie head disappeared in a fine mist. "What?"
Marik sighed. "The secret Santa shopping. Did you do it?"
Bakura looked up from his laptop. "Bloody hell, is it time for the Christmas special again?"
"Fuck, I hate Christmas specials," a lump of blankets in the armchair said in Melvin's voice. "At least the ones that don't end with Joseph shooting Slenderman with a shotgun."
Ryou blinked. "Huh? Oh... no..." He killed a few more zombies. "I'm not... going... to the party..."
"That's an option?" Bakura blinked. "Marik never told me that was an option!"
"But presents, Ryou! And shiny lights!" Marik waved his hands in the air.
"Ugh." Ryou rolled his eyes and paused his game. "I get the same gift every year. I don't need a fourth electric teapot."
"But I had a very specific scheme and your participation is integral!" Marik protested.
"I'm not going to help you get the pharaoh sloshed so you can take videos and post them on youtube," Ryou said. "Get Bakura to spike the egg nog."
"They pat me and Bakura down at the door because of what happened at the second party," Marik whined. "They'd never suspect you."
"Get Melvin to spike the egg nog, then," Ryou said. "No one would dare to pat him down."
"Unless I'm spiking it with cyanide, I'm not going either," the blankets said. "Even then, fucking 4Kids would probably just fucking censor it."
"What about the fangirls?" Marik asked Ryou. "Think how disappointed they would be if you skipped out on the Christmas special."
"The fangirls want to see you and Bakura make-out under the misltoe. No one would notice if I wasn't there," Ryou said.
"What are you going to do instead?" Marik asked. "Sit on the couch playing video games?"
"I'm going to see Krampus," Ryou said.
"What's a Krampus?" Marik asked.
"It's that new Christmas horror film," Ryou said.
"There are Christmas horror movies?" An eye appeared through a hole in the pile of blankets.
"Oh, yes, quite a few," Ryou said. "Krampus is loosely based on a real, old European tradition, though. He was basically a demon that punished bad children for Saint Nicholas."
A spiky blond head appeared. "How?"
"Beating them with sticks, giving them coal instead of presents, wrapping them in chains and dragging them back to Hell with him..." Ryou rattled off the list as though trying to remember what he needed from the grocery store.
"Coal doesn't sound like much of a punishment," Bakura said.
"Don't look at me, I didn't make up the stories," Ryou shrugged. "Besides, I don't think the film is too concerned with being historically accurate."
Melvin frowned as he considered this. "It still sounds less lame than Kaiba's secret Santa party."
"I might be able to get another ticket if you want to play hooky with me," Ryou offered.
"Play what now?" Melvin eyed Ryou. "Are you hitting on me?"
Ryou blushed. "No, I... Playing hooky means-"
"Can you get two extra tickets?" Bakura interrupted.
"Well I don't see why-" Ryou started.
"No, no, no!" Marik stood up. "You are not ditching me, Bakura. We are going to the party, and we are getting Yami drunk, and it's going to be super-friggin hilarious."
"If they don't have to go, I don't have to go." Bakura crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
"But if you don't go, the fangirls will be angry and the Christmas special will get bad ratings," Marik whined. "If you won't do it for me, at least do it for our future as a web series!"
"Arg, fine! But I won't enjoy it," Bakura huffed.
"That's the spirit!" Marik crowed.