Hikari: Okay, so everyone remember that last month I said one of my muses was moping? ((you guys and girls nod)) Well, he refused to stop moping until two days ago. Which is when I finally could get back to work on this chapter!
Yawi: You got the first scene done early in the month, though.
Hikari: ((nods)) Yup. I hope you guys have had a happy 2007 so far. As I promised, thanks to the anon. reviewer, fire Foxe, who was the only one who guessed correctly that CD was Charles Dickens, the author of A Christmas Carol. So please enjoy the first new chapter of the year!

Disclaimer: Hikari of the Moon does not own Yugioh. She also does not own Pokemon, or Kadaj, Yazoo, or Loz from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which are mentioned, nor does she own any alcohol. However, it might be debated that she wrote this under the influence-
Hikari: I DID NOT! ((smacks her disclaimer reader, who is Leon from September, aka her OC))
Leon: How do we know that?
Hikari: You trust me. NOW GET ON WITH THE FIC!

Ryou and Bakura were sprawled out on their couch, watching some DVD Bakura got from Marik for Christmas. Wrapping paper lay everywhere; a sign that Christmas had past recently and presents were opened with great vigor. It was currently the 28th and they were just now coming out of their post-present comas.

"Ryou?" Bakura groaned. He stood up and stretched.

"What, 'Kura?" Ryou mumbled his questions, his head buried under a throw pillow.

"Mokuba invited us to a New Year's party. On New Year's Eve. Can we go?"

Ryou yawned and threw the throw pillow off of him. And, completely on accident, at Bakura. "I guess so."

"Great." Bakura yawned as well and walked into the kitchen to fix some lunch.

Twenty minutes, one fire, and forty-two pieces of burned food later, Bakura and Ryou sat down for lunch. Both of them were finally awake enough to care that they hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday and ravenously ate their sandwiches.

"Bakura, what was it you were saying earlier about a party?" Ryou asked between bites.

"Waww, ish bean tuuun ah-"

"What?"

Bakura finished chewing and swallowed the mouthful of food he'd been trying to talk around. "I said, it's being thrown at the Kaiba's mansion. We're both invited and I think he said the Ishtars were too..." He thought for a little while more, then shrugged and continued. He snarled, "I think most of the Pharaoh's minions are coming too."

"Bakura, if we go, you have to be nice to everyone. Including Yami," Ryou added.

"I do?" Bakura stood up and grabbed his plate. "Fine, but I won't like it!"

"And promise you won't pull off any pranks while you're there!"

"WHAT? Then what's the point of going!"

"Promise."

Bakura glared at him and mumbled, "Promise." Then set his plate in the sink to be cleaned and started thinking of how he could get around his promise.

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Three days past in relative peace. Relative meaning about as much peace as there can be in their household. But the evening of the party arrived quickly and the two white-haired boys, both dressed in semi-casual clothing, meaning not totally destroyed or coated in leather, found themselves at the gate of the Kaiba mansion.

"We're here for Mokuba's party...Sir." Ryou stared up at one of the gate's guard, who looked at least twice his size. Bakura reached into his pocket to make sure Shawn was still there.

"Names?" The guard growled out.

"Ryou and Orbis Bakura."

"I hate my name," Bakura grumbled.

"All right, you two are on the list." He opened the gate and Ryou scurried down the driveway.

Bakura glared at him and smirked. "I could take you."

The guard smirked back. "I'd like to see you try, kid."

"Kid? I'm over three thousand years old! You're the kid!"

"BAKURA!"

A black blur streaked out from the steps of the mansion. In a few seconds, it tackled Bakura. He was barely standing, his thief's past giving him a better-than-average sense of balance. He looked down at it and smiled. "Hey Mokuba!"

The blur, aka Mokuba, looked up at him. "Come on inside! Everyone else is here already, you slow poke!"

"I am not a Pokémon!"

Mokuba stuck his tongue out at Bakura. They dragged each other back into the mansion, leaving the guard wondering exactly what kind of people the younger Mr. Kaiba hung out with. That was the second person claiming to be over three thousand that night!

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"Thief."

"Pharaoh."

"Uncivilized brat."

"Pompous jerk."

"Idiotic slave."

"Murdering son of a jackal!"

Yami and Bakura glared at each other for a full two minutes.

"Thief."

"Pharaoh."

"Unci-"

"Okay!" Yugi grabbed Yami's elbow. "That's enough of talking to Bakura, how about we go say hi to Seto?"

Yami kept their glare up for a moment more before looking away. He mumbled, "He's a pompous jerk."

Bakura threw up his hands. "Now you know how I feel talking to you!"

Their eyes met for one more instant before Yugi pulled his dark away. Bakura sighed and walked over to the refreshment table. Marik stood behind the punch bowl, waving at everyone who passed by and giggling evilly every time someone took a cup of punch. Bakura raised his hand in greeting to his best friend and picked up a cup.

"Don't drink the punch," Marik whispered. Bakura blinked. "I said, don't drink the punch."

Bakura blinked again and looked down at the red liquid in his cup. "...Why?"

"Because!" Marik waited for Tristan to get his punch and leave. "I spiked it."

"You...put alcohol in the punch? At a party with," he looked around, "at least thirty people? And without my help?" Marik nodded rapidly. "...I'm impressed. How much?"

"Enough that they all should start acting crazy!"

Bakura dashed around the table to stand next to Marik. "You, my friend, are my ticket to having a good time tonight!" At Marik's confused look, he clarified. "Ryou made me promise to not prank anyone while I'm here. So this gets me around that!"

"Cool! Now we just wait an hour or so for the alcohol to kick in!"

-----------

An hour later, three bowls of spiked punch were drunk and a group of "heroes" set out on an epic quest for more ice. People were making random comments about stupid stuff; there was a fist-fight over whether or not Swiss cheese floats; Joey was singing on a table with Seto Kaiba, who had a little more punch than most; and Bakura and Marik decided to have a little fun with these people.

They descended from their perch on a balcony overlooking the ballroom the party was being held in. Bakura gracefully floated down from the balcony, his hair flowing out behind him. He gently landed on the ground. Marik...jumped off the railing and landed on Joey. Seto pushed Marik off of Joey and they continued to sing. Badly, I might add.

"Bakura! Joey was standing in my landing spot!" Marik complained.

Bakura looked back at him and smirked. "Then maybe you should've picked a different spot to land on!"

Marik blinked. "Yeah, maybe. So, what're we going to do to these people?"

"First, I want to get back at Yami."

"I want to tick off Yugi!"

Bakura nodded. "Fine. Then, we can just run amuck."

"Let's go to it then!"

Marik ran off to find Yugi and Bakura ran forward and closed the gap between himself and Yami. "HEY! PHARAOH!"

Yami turned around and smirked. "Hey 'Kura," he slurred, "How many woodpeepers can fit into a deck box?"

Bakura smiled at just how funny that sounded coming from Yami. "I have no idea! But I know that if your hair is on fire, you get three wishes from the fire lords!"

Yami swayed on his feet. "Really?"

Bakura nodded. "Yeah!"

"How'm I gonna get my hair to burst into flame?"

He resisted the urge to laugh manically. "Lucky for you, I have Shawn in my pocket!"

Yami blinked. "You have a guy named Shawn in your pocket?"

"Shawn is my lighter," Bakura said as he pulled his trusted lighter out of his pocket. "So, you want those three wishes?" Yami nodded. Bakura smirked, lit the flame, and lowered it to Yami's spiky hair. It sparked and started to burn.

Yami started to walk off. Feeling like he wanted a little more out of this, Bakura kicked him square in the back. He fell over and started singing drunkenly, "Burn, baby, burn. Disco inferno! Burn, baby, burn..."

Bakura laughed loudly. Until he looked over to his right and saw Yugi with his shirt tied around his ankles, his hair covered in jam, and "DORK" written in permanent marker on his chest.

Then Bakura fell to the ground, laughing hysterically.

-----------

"I see you like what I did to Yugi."

Bakura, having spent the last three full minutes laughing on the floor, looked up at Marik, who was smirking down at him. "That was possibly the stupidest thing I've ever seen!"

Marik sniffed. "You liked it that much?"

"Yes!"

He reached a hand up and Marik pulled him off the floor. "So what now?"

"We go crazy on the rest of these poor souls."

Marik giggled insanely. "Yippie!"

---------

Bakura and Marik smiled, gazing up at the giant clock face Mokuba had dragged into the room during the beginning of the party. It was almost midnight, which meant it was almost the new year. Marik ran to the wall, unplugged the countless electronic stuff, and started to run up the many flights of stairs that led to their balcony perch. Bakura, using his Omni-Cool-Thief-Skills (patent pending), jumped up to it with a megaphone in hand.

"ATTENTION FOOLISH MORTALS! THIS IS YOUR FUTURE RULER SPEAKING!"

Everyone looked up at him in various states of confusion. He smirked. "It is almost the new year! And, as my hikari has told me, it is tradition to kiss your girlfriend or boyfriend at exactly midnight! Why you do, I don't know. But, if you have a girlfriend or want one, guys, find that girl! AND NO ONE BETTER GET NEAR RYOU!"

Marik finally burst out from the curtain behind him. "Why would someone get near Ryou?"

Bakura lowered the megaphone. "Some idiots keep calling him a girl. Just want to make sure no one does anything stupid."

"...Isn't that normally our plan? To do stupid stuff?"

"Yes, but would you want some drunk guy getting within three feet of Malik when I just told them to kis--"

Marik snatched the megaphone away from Bakura and shouted through it, "IF ANYONE TOUCHES MALIK, YOU'LL BE SENT INTO THE SHADOW REALM COVERED IN BLACKBERRY JAM!" He handed it back to Bakura, who smirked at him.

"Just because you have an irrational fear of blackberry jam doesn't mean everyone else does."

"It's not irrational and you know it!"

"FIVE!"

"Wow," Bakura said to Marik, "I didn't think-"

"FOUR!"

"-they had enough-"

"THREE!"

"-brain power left to count."

"TWO!"

"I guess." Marik replied.

"ONE!"

They shrugged and joined in the screaming. "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Moments later, they looked down over the railing and watched their "subjects" celebrate. Marik held up a camera. "Hey, I'll set a timer on this, so we can get a picture of us being social!" Bakura nodded to him with a smile and jumped down. Marik set the timer for five minutes and couldn't hold back his own smile. He jumped down as well and joined in the fun.

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Hours later, they collapsed on the ground with some of the passed-out guests. Sweaty from dancing, but thoroughly pleased with the night and morning's work. Marik looked over at his partner in crime and whispered, "What's your resolution this year?"

"Hmmm..." Bakura stared at the ceiling for a moment. "I...guess to make peace with Ryou. He's going to be leaving this fall for university or something. So, I should be friends with him." He smiled. "And to balance that, I'd like to torture the Pharaoh more. What about you?"

"That's easy. To get posters of Yazoo and Loz to keep Kadaj company!"

"That makes sense."

Marik nodded. "G'night, Bakura. Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year."

-------------

The next morning, Ryou woke up with a massive headache and lipstick stains on his collar. He stood up shakily and looked around the room. He quickly found the other pair of white hair and staggered over to his yami. His head pounded more with every step and frankly, he didn't want to know why it did. He fell to his knees beside Bakura and smacked him. "YOU SAID NO PRANKS!" He quickly regretted the action.

Bakura opened his eyes and smirked at him. "I didn't. Marik spiked the punch."

"He spiked the...Oh why was I doomed to know you?"

"I don't know, but I bet it has something to do with Egypt."

Ryou groaned and buried his head in his arms.

"Happy New Year, hikari!"

In the thoughts of Ryou Bakura: "YEAH RIGHT!"

Hikari: Well, we've only got three more chapters after this!
Yawi: And if you're quick, you can be apart of the fun! In your review, tell us your favourite Yugioh character who is at least a semi-main one in this fanfiction and a small gift or two for the guy.
Hikari: Or girl if it's Mokuba.
Yawi: Ha ha. Submit those requests by February 5th, aka next Monday. So, review or Hikari will make all the chapters as bad as this one! ((Hikari smacks Yawi; Yawi smacks Hikari back; Leon reminds you to review while they fight))