Small Note

Sakura: Honestly took me forever to get this chapter right, but I finally got it to go the way I wanted it to. I'm also in a Christmas mood, so I decided to add a little Christmas in this chapter.

Chapter 10

Winter Ball

A special time to spend with friends and family

Winter snow of about two inches covered Vampire city over night and with it a rather cold wind. The human citizens of the city bundled up in warm clothes just to go outside, while the vampires wore what they wanted. The cold did not affect them at all.

Frost glisten on the window of all the house including the house belonging to Yuugi. The curtains were open for the living room downstairs so it was easy to see the owner of the house in the house curled up on the couch. He had a blanket wrapped around him as he laid on the couch and two tan arms wrapped around his waist.

A sigh escape Yuugi's mouth before he yawned and slowly opened his eyes. The first site that met his line of blurry vision was the TV that was currently still on and showing the ten o'clock news. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes before trying to sit up.

The arms around his waist stopped him in his tracks, so he turned his head to see the sleeping face of his boyfriend. It was easy to tell the King was asleep because he was wearing the bandages that day and the one eye that was seen was closed. That and his breaths were nice and even, plus he was rather relaxed.

A smile found its way onto Yuugi's face as he remembered last night. He had invited Yami over to his place for the first time for a nice dinner. After dinner they had dessert and watched a Christmas movie that happened to be on. Seems they both fall asleep within the late hour.

Yuugi looked up toward the door when he realized there was someone knocking on the door. That must have been what woke him up. He carefully moved Yami's arms before getting up and stumbling over the blanket toward the door.

When he opened it he was surprised to find Jason, Ethan, and Taylor on his door step. They all covered their mouths, and Yuugi was sure they were trying not to laugh.

"Rough night Yuugi," Taylor asked with a slight chuckle.

Yuugi looked down and blushed when he realized his clothes were a mess. His white shirt was untucked and the buttons were undone midway. His pants were falling off his hips a little since he wasn't wearing a belt. He was also sure his hair looked like a tangled mess.

"Shut up!" Yuugi exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around himself. A breeze blew into the house causing a shiver.

Ethan noticed the shiver, so instead of taking up too much of Yuugi's time he got right to the point. "We came to see if you had seen our father. He did not come down to breakfast and we check his room."

Yuugi took a glance at the couch, before shaking his head. "Sorry no I have not. He left right after dinner with me, so maybe this morning he went out on an early stroll thru the town." He said with a straight face. There was no way he was going to let them know Yami spent the night. It would only give them another reason to tease him.

The three brothers sighed, before Jason spoke up next. "Let us know if you see him."

Yuugi agreed and nodded his head before closing the door. He waited a few minutes before going over to the window and seeing the three boys walked down the street talking. Letting out a sigh of his own Yuugi closed the curtains, before returning to Yami.

He gently shook his boyfriend awake, who was definitely not a morning person. Yami grumbled something about five more minutes then fell back asleep. Yuugi sat down on the couch he thought for a minute until an idea hit him.

With a slight smirk on his face, Yuugi leaned down and lightly kissed his lover. Once Yami started to kiss back did Yuugi pull away to see a very awake vampire.

Yami let out a yawn before sitting up. He rubbed the back of his head and looked around the room. "Where am I?"

Yuugi let out a giggle and snuggled up next to Yami. "We must have fallen asleep during the movie, because you are still at my house." He answered wrapping his arms around Yami's neck.

Yami seemed happy with that answer; because he leaned down and gave Yuugi a rather long good morning kiss.

When they finally broke for air, Yuugi explained to him that his sons were looking for him. "I told them that you were probably taking a stroll around town. I did not want them to know you had spent the night."

Yami let out a chuckle and started teasing Yuugi with light kisses. "Embarrassed for them to know we might have done something last night."

A bright red blush colored Yuugi's cheeks at those words. "We did nothing of the sort and yes I did not want their minds to go straight to the gutter." He shot back while punching his boyfriend in the arm.

"I think you are the one with the mind in the gutter." Yami replied with a sly smirk.

Rolling his eyes Yuugi pulled himself away from Yami and stood up. "Anyway you should probably be heading home before they call a search party for you."

Yami sighed and stood up as well. He was still dressed in his clothes from yesterday which was a pair of black jeans and a brown t-shirt. "I am beginning to wonder if they are the parents and I'm the child."

That got a laugh out of Yuugi while he pushed Yami toward the door. "You need to get going now and I'll talk to you later alright."

Just before Yami walked out the door, he stole a quick kiss and then left. Yuugi watched Yami walked down the street for a few minutes, before closing the door and leading against it with a dreamy smile on his face. Life was good for now.

As the month of December went by the snow did not let up. It was even heard on the local morning news that there was a prediction for even more snow on Christmas. So sadly enough five days before Christmas found Yuugi inside his shop going over inventory, while trying to stay warm from the cold snow outside. He planned on working up until the twenty third and then taking off until the twenty seventh. As he formed his vacation plan he figured not many people would want to come to his shop on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. One landed on a Friday and the other on a Saturday, so he planned to go ahead and take that Sunday off to do some cleaning around his house.

Hearing the bell above the door ring, Yuugi stood up from his position sitting on the floor behind a self to greet the costumer. He was rather surprised to find that instead of a costumer it was his charming boyfriend.

Yami offered him a smile and went to lean against the front counter. As Yuugi took in his appearance he could tell Yami was not dressed for winter. He wore no shoes, tan pants, a crimson polo shirt with the first two buttons of the three undone, and the normal bandages around his face. Ever since they started to date, Yami had been wearing the bandages more and the mask less. In a way Yuugi liked it, because the mask still creeped him out a bit.

Yuugi moved from behind the self and approached Yami. Instead of going into his boyfriend's waiting arms, he moved passed him and went behind the counter. Putting his clipboard away he jumped up on his stool and stared at Yami across the counter.

"So what do I owe this fine visit?" He asked with a curious look on his face.

"I thought I'd drop in and say hi. Maybe take you out to lunch. Is it so bad for me to come visit you at work?" Yami replied with this fake look of hurt on his face.

Yuugi sighed. "What am I going to do with you?" He mumbled to himself, but said out loud. "I like the lunch idea, but isn't it a little cold to be getting out to go eat. I would not have mind you bringing me something."

"I could go do that." Yami stood up. "Honestly to a vampire like me the snow feels nice, but then again I forget you are human and the cold is a little harder on you."

Yuugi shook his head. "No that is alright. I've been doing inventory all morning and it might be nice to get out for an hour or two." He picked his coat and scarf up off hook behind the counter and put it on.

Once Yuugi was wrapped up in his warm clothes the two headed out into the winter weather to look for a place to eat, after Yuugi locked up the shop.

The two found themselves at a nice vampire/human restaurant just up the street and were seated quicker than normal people would have been seated during the lunch rush. A shy waitress took their drink and food order, before leaving them to themselves.

Yuugi watched the young girl walk away. "Either one of us is cute or she is scared of you…" He pointed out after noticing how she had trouble talking to them.

Yami let out a chuckle. "I hope she is scared of me, because there is going to be a fight if she comes onto you. I can't have someone thinking they can come onto my lovely, beautiful, adorable, lover."

Yuugi could not stop the blush that covered his cheeks. "Stop it you are embarrassing me…"

The waitress came back with their drinks before disappearing again.

After she was gone, Yami reached across the table and grabbed one of Yugi's soft hands in his. "Yuugi, there was one main reason why I wanted to come see you today."

Yuugi took in Yami's serious face and listened up.

"I was wondering if you would be so kind as to join me as my date to the coming up winter ball." He asked with a gentle smile on his face.

Yuugi was confused. "Winter ball…?"

"It's an event held at my palace every year on Christmas day night. People who have lived here for a while all know about it, but for those who just moved here we send invites to their houses to let them know about it. I did not have yours mailed because I wanted to invite you personally."

Yuugi let out a smile. "That is so sweet of you. Instead of just assuming I would go with you because we were dating you asked me. I know a good few people who would never think of doing that."

Yami kissed the hand he held. "So is that a yes or no?"

"That's a yes." Yuugi said as he lean across the table and gave Yami a quick kiss.

It seemed the week went by quickly after that and before long it was Saturday December twenty fifth the day of the Winter Ball. The Thursday of the twenty third, Yuugi and Yami spent the day out shopping looking for the perfect outfit for Yuugi. The event was a formal event, but the people could wear casual if they wanted to. Since Yami was going to be dressed up Yuugi wanted to look good next to him. He was sure by now everyone knew he was dating the King, but Yuugi wanted to make sure he did not embarrass Yami.

Yuugi currently stood in front of his floor to ceiling length mirror in his bedroom looking at himself in his outfit. It was four o'clock and he had an hour to finish getting ready before he had to leave.

"I almost look like a girl." Yuugi said with a sigh. "But I guess it will have to do sense Yami picked it out. I would hate to upset him by not wearing it."

The clothes he had on was a beautiful one piece cloak type outfit. The bottom of the outfit flared out like bell bottoms around his feet and from the waist up to keep the outfit closed were belt buckles of a silver color. There was a black belt around his waist to give the outfit some color since his slippers were also white. He also wore a black tank top underneath since the top of the outfit was in the form of a small V-neck.

Yuugi pulled his hair back into a low spikey ponytail, so his bangs framed his face more. Black eyeliner was then used on his eyes to make the amethyst in his eyes stand out more. He then put on his rose necklace that Yami gave him and he wore every day.

Lastly before leaving his room Yuugi put the hood of the outfit over his head, but not enough to cover his face.

The wait downstairs on the couch was not long because with in twenty minutes someone came knocking on his door. When he answered the door he found Taylor on his door step in a cheesy butler outfit.

"Good evening sir, your limo awaits…" Taylor said with a bow.

Yuugi had to try and hid his giggle, before stepping out of the house and locking the door. Taylor took him by the hand and led him toward a long limo. He opened the door and helped Yuugi in before going all the way to the front and getting in the driver seat. After he got the limo started the two were off to the ball, like an old fashion fairy tale.

The King was in the foyer with his children when Yuugi arrived. They waited on Taylor to get changed and it gave Yuugi time to take in what everyone was wearing.

Ethan was wearing a pair of black dress shoes, black dress pants, and a green polo shirt with the first button of third undone.

Jiro wore a pair of black dress shoes, tan dress pants, and a black turtle neck shirt. His hair was pulled back into a low ponytail.

Jason wore a pair of brown dress shoes, tan dress pants, and a dark brown dress shirt with a black vest.

Kotaro wore a cute little suit that was navy blue with a white shirt and black dress shoes.

Chan wore a cute pink sun dress that went to her knees with a white collar and white slippers. Her hair was pulled into two pig tails with pink ribbon.

Yami was dressed in black dress shoes, black dress pants, and a long sleeve black button up shirt with a white vest. He also wore his mask on that night.

Taylor came back before long wearing the same thing as Ethan, but wore a navy blue polo shirt, instead of green.

Once everyone was together they walked down the long hallway and toward two large double doors. Inside music could be heard playing and a lot of chatter.

Yami knock on the door and after a minute everything went quiet. The two doors opened slowly and Taylor and Ethan were the first to walk in. Two guards that stood on either side announced their arrival, before they walked down some stairs into the main ball room. This went the same for all the children and before long it was Yuugi and Yami's turn.

The two stood at the top of the stairs and Yuugi looked down into a huge crowd of people. He gulped and could feel sweat begin to run down the back of his neck. Everyone's attention was on them which made Yuugi really nervous.

One of the guards announced them, before Yami led Yuugi down the stairs and when they got to the bottom the crowd of people divided on either side of a long red carpet that led to a large golden throne.

As they walked by all the people Yuugi could feel all kinds of eyes on him. He did not know if that was a good thing or bad. But he felt some relief when they reached the throne. Beside it was a large pillow big enough for someone to sit comfortable on it, along with other pillows around it. Yami helped Yuugi to sit down on it, before taking his seat on his throne.

"Begin the festivity!" Yami announced in a loud blooming voice so everyone could hear him.

The party started up again with the music and some people started to mingle and talk. Large groups of people in mostly black travelled into another room on the right side, while a mix of people travelled into a different room on the left.

Yuugi reached up and tapped Yami on the arm. The King turned his attention to his lover.

"What are those two rooms?" He asked while pointing them out.

The King looked to where Yuugi had pointed, before smiling down at Yuugi. "The one to the left is only for humans, no vampires allowed. The room to the right is for vampires only, no humans allowed. The room we are in allows vampires and humans to mingle together if they do not mind each other's company."

"Oh…" Was Yuugi's only reply since he probably could have figured that out on his own and with that question out of the way, Yuugi took the time to actually notice the style of the room.

The whole room was like an Egyptian throne room with hieroglyphs all over the walls. The only thing different was all the Christmas decorations put up and the tree that was not far from them on Yami's right side.

"Well Well Well what have we here…?"

Yuugi turned his head to see Yumi standing near them with a smirk on her face. Her fire red hair was pushed back by a black headband and two black hoops hung from her ears. Her outfit was a pair of black high heels, black dress pants, a crimson button down shirt, and a black vest.

Beside her was a beautiful young lady about a head shorter than Yumi close to Yuugi's height. She wore the same outfit as Yumi but her shirt was a dark purple. Her skin color was slightly paler than normal people which really looked good with her dark violet eyes. Her hair was raven black that went down to her waist and dark purple bangs that framed her face.

Yami rolled his eyes at his sister. "What do you want Yumi?"

Yumi faked hurt. "Dear brother I just wanted to see how you are doing this fine evening?"

The lady next to her reached out and popped Yumi upside the head. "Honey, stop lying to your brother and be nice."

Yumi nursed her poor head with a glare at her lover. "Bite me…" She mumbled with this pissed off look.

The woman beside her ignored it and turned to Yuugi with a sweet smile. "Excuse my 'lovely' wife, Yumi. She can be a hand full some times." She reached out her hand to Yuugi. "My name is Sakura Atemu."

Yuugi shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, my name is Yuugi Mutou."

Sakura let out a giggle and turned to the King. "You have caught yourself quite the looker, Yami. I'd hold on to him." She winked at him, before dragging Yumi off to the dance floor.

Yuugi sat there for a moment not sure what just happened.

"That was my half-sister Yumi and her wife Sakura. They are a rather odd couple, but for some reason go so well together." Yami explained.

"I met Yumi on my first day to the city while having dinner with the children, but this is my first time meeting Sakura." Yuugi said, while looking up at Yami.

Yami stood up and held out his hand for Yuugi, who took it and stood up. "There are some other people who I would like you to meet that you have not yet. It might be good for you to meet some of my friends since we are dating. They have been asking about you."

They walked away from the throne and into the crowd.

An hour into the party Yuugi had met quite a few good friends of Yami's. There was Bakura and his husband Ryou, both vampires. They both had white hair that went to their shoulders, but Bakura's was much wilder. Bakura had brown looking crimson eyes and tan skin, while Ryou had brown eyes and pale skin.

The next people he met were Marik and Malik, both vampire and married. It was nice to meet Malik and he even told him that his sister had helped him out a lot. Both were tan with dark violet eyes and dirty blonde hair that went to their shoulders. Marik had more spikey hair than Malik.

Then Yuugi met Seth and Kisara, another married vampire couple. Seth reminded Yuugi of his best friend's boyfriend Seto. He had shaggy dark brown hair and icy blue eyes, but unlike Seto he had tan skin and also was nicer to people. Kisara was a petite female about only a head taller than Yuugi, with mid back long white hair and icy blue eyes, along with pale skin.

Before meeting everyone else Yami wanted him to meet, Yuugi excused himself from Yami's side to get to the refreshment table. He looked at the selection and found a good amount of finger food on one long table. Grabbing a plate Yuugi grabbed a few pieces of sliced fruit and some chicken nuggets. Just as he was about to grab a thing of punch, a hand blocked his path.

Looking up Yuugi found a rather tall looking male smiling down at him. He had long dark green hair and bright golden eyes. If the eyes did not give it away Yugi was sure the fangs would that this guy was a vampire.

"What a lovely being I just spotted…" He spoke in what he must have thought was a sexy voice.

Yuugi cleared his throat and reached for a different cup of punch. "Excuse me…"

However before he could grab the cup a hand grabbed his wrist. "Why don't you and I find a nice dark corner to spend some quality time in?" He leaned closer to Yuugi's face causing Yuugi to lean his head back to get away. His hood on his outfit fell because of how far he leaned back.

"I really must be getting back to my date…" Yuugi said in a hopefully sounding brave voice while pulling for his wrist to be free.

"Don't be that way… I'm sure I'm…"

The guy was interrupted however by a hand grabbing his wrist and breaking it. The vampire let go with a yelp and held his broken wrist close to him.

Ryou looked at the vampire with cold dark eyes that would send a chill down anyone's back. "I suggest you leave, before the King finds out you were messing with his lover."

Kisara and Malik were behind him with cold eyes looking at him to.

The green hair vampire growled before walking away. He knew a losing battle when he saw it.

Once he was gone Ryou turned gentle eyes to Yuugi and held his wrist. "He did not hurt you did he?"

Yuugi looked at his wrist that had a slight bruise forming. "Besides holding my wrist too tightly that was about it."

Kisara took a moment to look at Yuugi's wrist and patted his shoulder. "It will heal in a day or two with some ice. I would suggest you do not let Yami see it or he will have a fit."

Ryou tore the short sleeve of his white dress and wrapped the cloth around Yuugi's bruising wrist. "Keep this on it until you get home and keep your sleeves down. The King is having a good time tonight and I would hate for him to ruin his own party with a vampire hunt."

"One scent of another vampire on Yuugi that isn't one of us will have him on a vampire hunt." Malik pointed out.

Kisara pulled out some perfume and sprayed some on Yuugi. "There that will mask the scent for the time being until Yuugi can get a shower."

Yuugi smiled at each one of them. "Thanks so much for helping me out."

Ryou grinned at him. "Any friend of Yami's is a friend of ours."

In a way that lifted Yuugi's heart to know that after living for four months in this city that he had such a large group of friends who would look after him.

When eight o'clock rolled around everyone started to file out of the palace. Servants stored away food that had not been eaten while others cleaned up the rooms the best they could until they could do better cleaning in the morning.

Yuugi and Yami with the children stood in the foyer seeing people out until they were all gone. That took about an hour and then the children went off to bed.

When it was just Yuugi and Yami in the foyer, Yuugi wrapped his arms around Yami's neck. "I had a wonderful time. Thank you for inviting me."

Besides the little incident with the vampire at the refreshment table, Yuugi had no other problems that night and really did have a good time.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself so much. I'll be sure to invite you to any other ball we have."

The two stood like that for a while, before Yuugi let go of Yami. "So do I get a good night kiss, before you take me home?"

Yami nodded and turned to leave. "Give me a minute to change." But before Yami could leave Yuugi grabbed his hand.

"Wait…" He said and waited until he got Yami's full attention. "Why won't you just lift up the mask and kiss me?"

Yami sighed and turned to Yuugi. "I can't Yuugi. Please try and understand."

Yuugi stomped his foot and crossed his arms. "I've tried to understand. I know you haven't really opened up about your past, but why can't I at least see the real you. We have been dating for three months now and I think it would be nice to see what you look like."

Yami turned his head away from Yuugi, which caused Yuugi to frown.

"Fine, take me home and we can forget the kiss. I thought we would not keep secrets from each other. I've tried to be patience and let you decide when the right time is, but this is too long. What is it going to be a year into our relationship before I get to see your face?" Yuugi squeezed Yami's hand. "I promise I won't say a thing to anyone…"

Yami looked at him. "You really want to know?"

Yuugi nodded and before he could say anything, he was in Yami's arms bridal style and being carried off at a fast pace to Yami's chambers.

After they arrived there Yami opened the door, went in then closed the door with his foot. Yuugi was amazed by Yami's room, it huge with a gothic theme to it. He would have taken a better look around if Yami had not placed him on the huge bed built for ten people and quickly went to lock the door.

Yuugi turned his full attention to Yami when he returned and placed a hand on his mask. "Promise this will not change our relationship?"

"I promise Yami, I've fallen in love with you without seeing your face for this long. I do not think that will change." Yuugi said with a smile to reassure Yami.

With a sigh Yami carefully removed his mask and held it away from his face.

To say Yuugi was speechless was very true at that moment. Before him was a beautiful handsome face of the man he fell in love with. In his honest opinion he did not see a reason for Yami to hide his face. Then again they would need to look pass the many scars that littered Yami's would be perfect face.

His left eye had a long scar over it starting from just above his eyebrow to a little below his eye. Over his right cheek an x shape scar and across his nose was another scar. The left eye was a little cloudy looking in the pupil so either his sight was poor in that eye or he was blind.

Yami looked down at his feet after a minute. "This is the face of a monster…"

Sakura: The truth has been bought out!

Yumi: There was not much about his past…

Sakura: Uh… That all did not fit in so I changed it for next chapter. At least everyone gets to know what was behind the mask.

Yumi: That is true, plus Yuugi got some new friends and he got to meet your psycho butt

Sakura: Watch it or I'll do something even more embarrassing to you

Yumi: (sigh) Review!