Shadow: Ack…I'm so behind now with these it just isn't funny.

Shipping: Puzzleshipping – Yami no Yugi x Yugi Mouto

Little Gifts

13) Santa Philosophy

Yami frowned. "Aibou, that has to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

"…That coming from a five thousand-odd year-old spirit of an Egyptian pharaoh sitting on a Kuriboh-patterned beanbag eating all my marshmallows?" Yugi snatched said bowl of treats out of his yami's hands, ignoring the other's protests and hopping up onto the living room sofa, sitting cross-legged. A thoughtful pause. "…Did you eat all the pink ones?"

"Of course I didn't eat all the pink ones…" Yami defended his integrity. Yugi held up the noticeably quite white- orientated bowl at him. "…Okay, so maybe I did."

"I don't why you can't just eat a mixture." Yugi pouted, poking a marshmallow mournfully. "I like the pink ones too, y'know."

"My apologies…" Yami slid off his beanbag, crossing the floor to wrap his arms around Yugi's waist, laying his head in his hikari's lap when Yugi shifted the bowl. "But I still say your story's ridiculous."

His lighter half looked somewhat miffed. "I was brought up to believe in it, Yami. Many children are."

"But…flying reindeer? A fat man dressed in red capable of fitting down any chimney – regardless of whether each particular house has a chimney or not? Aibou…" Yami looked up at his boyfriend, red eyes amused, "think about it logically. How could anyone ever possibly believe…?"

"…Hypocrite." Yugi huffed. "You realise you're beginning to sound like Kaiba?"

"Urgh, no thankyou." Yami wrinkled his nose. "He's too arrogant."

"And you're not?" Yugi smiled at his partner's expression. "Stop dismissing my childhood beliefs. What's wrong with believing in Santa?"

"It's just…" Yami smiled in return, "it's just so twee. Like those fairytales you told me. Elves and workshops, toys and snow, all the good boys and girls of the world…"

"Yami, you're doing it again."

"Sorry…" Yami tried to divert the topic. "Can I have another marshmallow?"

Flatly: "You ate all the pink ones."

"Oh…yeah…."

Yugi laughed. "Tell you what…shall we melt some chocolate and dip the last of the marshmallows in it?"

Yami's response was to leap to his feet, and drag Yugi immediately to the kitchen.

Breaking some chocolate up into lumps and melting it carefully in a pot over the oven Yugi smiled when Yami came to stand behind him, wrapping arms around his waist and propping his chin on Yugi's shoulder.

"Aibou…" Yami kissed the other's neck softly, "when did you stop believing in Santa?"

"When…I was….eight, I think." Yugi continued to stir the chocolate, making sure to adjust the heat so it wouldn't burn.

"Why did you stop believing?"

"Some children at school…they made fun of me for still believing." Yugi hmmed as Yami laid another kiss just behind his ear. "I stayed up on Christmas Eve, determined I was going to prove them wrong but…my parents…"

"You found out it was they who left you your gifts?"

"Aa…" Yugi sighed, noting the chocolate was ready and switching off the heat. "I was heartbroken."

"I'm…sorry to hear that." Yami let go of his hikari, fetching a bowl to pour the chocolate into. Together, with Yugi, he took the bowl back into the living-room, settling down on the sofa with Yugi curled up against his side. "Aibou…" He started, hesitating.

"What?" Yugi dipped a white marshmallow into the melted chocolate, finishing the treat before looking up.

"You…you know I wasn't making fun of your beliefs exactly…right?"

Yugi smiled. "It's alright, mon hitorou no boku." He dipped another marshmallow in the chocolate, holding this up for his darker half to eat. "I'm long over Santa; now…now it's just a fond memory of when I was little. Most children go through something like it; it's part of growing up."

"Hmm..." Yami bent his head slightly to take the proffered sweet. "As long as you're alright."

Yugi snuggled a little closer into his side. "…Never better."

"Truly?"

"Yes, truly." Conviction. "Though…there is one thing."

"What?" Yami looked vaguely alarmed at the very thought something was wrong. "Aibou, what is it?"

"…Just…" Yugi's smile was teasing, his hand brushing one of Yami's dangling bangs off his face, "I wish you hadn't finished all the pink marshmallows. I liked those."