I do not own YuGiOh. Nor do I own New Year. Stupid…

This is a sequel to my Halloween story 2005: Halloween Spirit.

New Year's promise

He was alone, just like two months ago. He was standing by the living room window, just like two months ago. This time though, the lights were out and Bakura's eyes were concentrated on the group outside. He could see his hikari send a worried glance at him every now and then, and for a good reason, Bakura guessed.

Precisely two months ago, on the Halloween night, Yami Bakura had been attacked. Ryo had found him in his spirit form, actually bleeding while flickering in and out of sight. After that Bakura had closed himself in his soul room for weeks and refused to even acknowledge Ryo's calls. By now everyone, of course, knew about what had happened. Or rather, they knew Ryo's side of the story. Yami Bakura had simply refused to talk about it. What would he have said anyway? That his own soul part in the form of his past self had… Forget it. After a while, even the Ishtars stopped asking.

Absentmindedly Bakura reached up and ran a finger along the scar on his neck. It wasn't fully healed, but it was doing well. Bakura glanced at the clock on the wall. I would soon be midnight. Outside, Ryo and his friends were already arguing over which rockets to fire first. Ryo tried one more time to get his yami to join the fun but Bakura answered by cutting off the link. The spirit could see Ryo looking at him from the yard, and he could guess that the worried frown on Ryo's face meant that he'd noticed Bakura stroking his scar. Jonouchi proved to be a perfect distraction as he shouted something to Ryo. The hikari turned and ran back to the others. Bakura also noticed the pharaoh in his spirit form staring at him for a while before turning to talk with his own midget hikari.

Suddenly Bakura felt a hand cover his own and move it away from the scar. A pair of lips pressed briefly against the healing wound before whispering:

"It's a waste of money, isn't it?" Bakura clenched his teeth together and felt his entire body tense, knowing fully well who it was.

"Buying rockets is like firing money to the sky," the voice continued. An arm draped itself around Bakura's waist to prevent the spirit from escaping. "They're nice to look at for one night and that's all… A complete waste of time if you ask me."

"No one's asking you," Bakura answered. He refused to take his eyes off the people outside. The arm around his waist tightened.

"A hurtful thing to say, considering how much fun we had last time," the visitor said. Bakura could hear the smirk in his voice. A tan hand grabbed the spirit's chin and forced him to turn his head and look into cold silvery blue eyes.

"Haven't you got anything to welcome me with?" the owner of those eyes demanded to know. Bakura stayed silent and let his gaze wander over the familiar face. Even now, when he knew who to expect, it unnerved him to see the cold eyes, the silver hair and the double T scar under the right eye.

"Like what you see?" The touzokuou, Akefia, teased. "You always have loved yourself." Bakura growled and tried to jerk away. He managed to free his face but the arm around his waist kept him firmly in place.

"I do not…" the spirit started to protest, but he trailed off when Akefia leaned dangerously close.

"Just admit it," Akefia whispered against Bakura's lips, sending shivers down the spirit's spine. "You enjoy this just as much as I do…" There was a slight tremble in Bakura's entire body when he turned his head back towards the window. Akefia could feel it. He could sense the slight fear and wounded pride and he enjoyed it fully as he buried his nose in the pure white hair at Bakura's neck and inhaled.

"Have you made your New Year's promise yet?" Akefia asked, lifting his face from the soft hair. He rested his chin on Bakura's shoulder and looked at the small group of friends outside. When Bakura didn't answer, the thief king continued:

"I've decided what my promise will be. I promise to stay here with you. Just for the fun of it." Bakura wasn't particularly thrilled about the promise. He felt cold and he couldn't stop his body from shivering. Akefia's reaction was to tighten his grip around the spirit's waist even further.

"What do you want from me?" Bakura asked. The touzokuou turned his head and sighed.

"I though it was obvious by now," he answered against the spirit's neck. The thief closed his eyes and started biting and nipping at the flesh. When he found a spot right by the scar that made Bakura gasp and try to jerk away he concentrated all his skill on that particular spot. The reaction was as he had expected. Bakura started fighting against him. The spirit tried to wrench his head away but Akefia used his free hand to grab the side of the neck he wasn't working on and managed to hold Bakura's head in place. He also steadied the grip he had on Bakura's waist.

At that moment Yami no Bakura truly hated the other part of his soul, and he hated himself for being too weak to fight Akefia. A gasp turned into a pained whimper when Akefia bit down harder than before. Hard enough to break the healing skin on the scar and draw blood. A moment later a loud bang drew both men's' attention.

It was midnight. The dark night sky was filled with rockets and explosions in different shimmering colors. Bakura watched the fireworks with mixed emotions. It was beautiful, and yet it was sad, seeing how quickly the sparks dimmed and died. Akefia also watched the fireworks in silence, though his eyes were thoughtful. Then he broke the peace:

"You know… In all this commotion, no one would probably hear you scream." Bakura felt Akefia let go of his neck, and then he heard the sound of a knife being pulled. The spirit closed his eyes. He didn't want to see the fireworks anymore.

Outside, Yami no Yugi couldn't help but cast a look towards the window. He wanted to see the tomb robber's reaction to the fireworks. But to Yami's dismay, the tomb robber was nowhere in sight. For a moment the tri-haired spirit thought he heard a sound, a shout, coming from the fellow yami's house, but it was covered by the next bang of an exploding rocket.

End.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Now with sequel: Midsumer End.