A/N: I hadn't written anything for Joey in a long time, and I wanted to write something about New Year's resolutions, so late at night, when I was supposed to be working on a big essay, I came up with this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh. And if you really needed me to tell you that, Joey's looking for a duel.

Resolutions:

Joey stared down at the blank sheet of paper. He scratched his head.

"Making New Year's resolutions is really important," Yugi had said. "Let's all write down ten thing we want to do differently in the new year."

So here he was, sitting on his bed, racking his brain. What kind of stuff was he supposed to put? "Next year I'm gonna…" He grinned. He grabbed the pencil and scribbled down the first one.

1. Kick Rich Boy's butt!

He enjoyed picturing Kaiba's humiliating defeat for a moment, chuckling to himself. Then he turned back to his list. What next? he thought. "How 'bout.."

2. Stop stealing Tristan's pizza. Or at least not so much.

Joey sighed glumly. He guessed he could live with that. And while he was on that note, he supposed he'd better add...

3. Stop borrowing Tristan's money and not paying him back

And probably…

4. Stop borrowing Tea's money and not paying her back

And…

5. Stop borrowing Yug's money and not paying him back

He tapped his pencil against his chin. What else? After some reflection, he added:

6. Try to stick with just 3 pizzas at every meal.

He patted his belly. His stomach would thank him for that one. He could remember that time at Tristan's birthday party…well, let's just say it wasn't a pretty picture.

He paused, trying to think of what else to add. What had he done—or hadn't done--this past year that he wanted to change? He thought about all the crazy stuff that'd happened. Well, he didn't wanna have to save the world again. But if the world happened to get back into danger somehow, he couldn't exactly just say "Nah, too busy today." So that was out. Hmmm. Hah! He had it.

7. Check out everybody who suddenly wants to be our friend, to make sure they're not really some psycho trying to take over the world.

He pondered again. What else had he done wrong?

8. Not let anyone challenge me to a game of wits or any other game I don't know real well. From now on I stick to Duel Monsters and my fists!

He scratched his scalp. There had to be more. Oh yeah! He cringed when he remembered the fiasco this November. Hoo boy, that wasn't happening again! He wrote:

9. REMEMBER SERENITY'S BIRTHDAY!!!

Man, that had been a mess. He shook his head remembering. Then, subtly, his thoughts turned to the other girl born on November 20. His brown eyes softened. Then he sighed. He couldn't seem to do anything right by her. Everything always came out, somehow. He thought back to the duel they'd had. It still scared him how close he' come to losing her, forever, all because he was too much of a moron to realize how bad she was feeling. All because she didn't know how much he cared.

He closed his eyes. He kept chasing after her, trying to help her out, but somehow he failed to do what she needed more than anything. It wasn't like he didn't want to, or anything. It's just, every time he even thought about her, his tongue sort of flapped around uselessly and his brain went dead. And it always came out wrong. So she still didn't know. He opened his eyes and looked down at his list with determination. This year, he was finally going to set things right. This year, he was finally going to do it. He put his pencil to the paper.

10. Some way, somehow, screw up the courage to look her in the eyes and say: "I love you, Mai."