~12/24/12~

o/`And we are in love
o/`With the way that the soft snowflakes kiss us
o/`From far above
o/`The blustery breeze

"I already stole an apple so don't worry about me having breakfast."

Bakura was there. Just sitting at the kitchen table, wearing the same blue and white striped shirt and blue jeans he had worn yesterday. His coat and boots and gloves were on or by the couch.

The window was open.

"Lemme guess," Marik said, still sounding slightly asleep. "You came in through the window?"

"Guilty as charged. Now have breakfast. I want to go somewhere."

Marik quickly complied and got dressed, then suited up for the snow. They left, as per Bakura's request, through the window. They closed it as much as they could from the outside then carefully climbed down.

Marik knew the town well, and knew the perfect place to go. He led Bakura there.

A huge snowy field.

.

The two sat on a random huge rock, watching the snow fall.

Marik looked at Bakura, and noticed the snowflakes gently settling in his white hair and blending into it.

Curiously, Marik removed one of his gloves and reached his hand up to Bakura's hair. "Marik," Bakura said when he noticed. "What are you doing?"

Marik didn't answer. He just kept moving his hand until it touched the cold, wet, white hair. "The snowflakes in your hair... They don't melt. Why not?"

Bakura blushed slightly. "Well... Don't make fun of me... But my hair is so fluffy that the top of it isn't close enough to my head to be warm. But it acts as insulation. Which is why I never wear a hat."

As Bakura asked, Marik didn't make fun of his fluffy hair or try to pet it or call him a kitty or anything ridiculous like that, which people almost always did when they found out how fluffy his hair was. But he did say... "Hm... I guess people bother you about it a lot, huh? Call you Fluffy or a kitty cat and bullcrap like that?"

Bakura nodded.

"Well I won't. I promise. But I do like the fact that it doubles as a hat... And as a snow collector!" Marik quickly brushed Bakura's hair with his hand and gathered up all of the snow that had built up there. Bakura flailed around for a moment trying to escape. Then Marik took a few steps away, held out a miniature snowball, and threw it right at Bakura.

He dodged and it missed. He smirked at Marik. "My first reaction would be to start and all-out snowball fight with you that you couldn't survive, but I'll let this slide..." He quickly made a mini-snowball as well and threw it at Marik, purposefully just missing his face. "For now."

Marik smiled and shook his head and sat back down next to him. "So your hair and skin are as white as snow... Must be nice to blend in out here."

"Haha," Bakura said sarcastically. "Very funny..."

Marik didn't hear. "Snow-kissed..." he mumbled.

Bakura heard. And he thought about it. Then he smiled. "Marik..."

"Hm?"

"You're snow-kisseed too," he said with a blush that wasn't due to the cold.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean this." Bakura wrapped his arms around Marik's shoulders and pulled them closer together. Their lips and noses met.

Marik blinked in surprise for a moment, but then closed his eyes and kissed back.

Their lips and tongues embraced the warmth of the other's mouth and absorbed it. Their noses, red and cold, tried to steal what little warmth there was in the other.

After a minute or two, they separated. They gazed into the other's eyes lovingly for a moment, then turned away and watched the snowflakes falling. Marik's hand still lacked the glove he had removed and Bakura's hand had lost its glove during the kiss. But it was okay because those two bare hands were now intertwined and keeping each other warm.

o/`I don't have anyone at home
o/`To talk to
o/`And you don't have anything
o/`To do

"White brown blond purple," he murmured.

"What?"

"Oh um... Just the colors of our hair and eyes."

"Actually my eyes aren't brown. They're actually violet brown. Or red brown. One of those. My eyes used to be violet, kinda like yours."

"Really? What happened? You got contacts?"

"No... I got a body."

"?"

"Well..." How was he going to explain this? The only way he could, that's how. He unbuttoned his coat and pulled the Millenium Ring out from under his shirt. "I used to inhabit this."

"Oh my gosh you have the Millenium Ring!"

"Y-... You know of this?"

"Um... A little secret... I'm a former tombkeeper. I know all this stuff already."

"Oh okay then..." Bakura chose to wait until another time to ask about his past and the tombkeeper thing. "So long story short: this thing somehow gave me my own separate body and my former host let me keep the Ring. But when I was in my original body millenia ago, my eyes were purple like yours are."

"So that's why you're all alone..."

Bakura sighed. He hadn't thought that the conversation might turn in this direction. He didn't really like talking about this, but he did anyway because he was talking to Marik and he wanted to tell someone. "Sort of. I had some elaborate plan to get revenge on someone, but that plan lost meaning and purpose long ago. Now I'm literally just a wandering soul with no purpose. All I do in my spare time, meaning all the time, is steal and cheat my way through life. And check on my host once in a while."

"Oh, so he's your 'relative' who gives you money that you don't bother using?"

"Exactly. His father sends him money occasionally and he gives me half or 25%, depending on how happy he is with me. But that money usually is gone within two or three weeks."

"What do you spend it on?"

He shrugged. "Just things."

"When was the last time you actually bought something?" As he talked, Marik started re-buttoning Bakura's coat for him. "Besides the cake, I mean."

"I think it was a cream puff. For him."

"Hm... You sure do talk about him a lot. You don't ever do anything with him?"

Bakura laughed. "Of course not. When we shared a body, I treated him like total crap. He says I abused his soul... which I did. We didn't care about each other at all. He only helps me because he feels sorry for me and I only help him- if ever- because I'm bribing him. Win win."

"But you're still bored?"

"Yup." He side-glanced at Marik and smiled, then put an arm around him. "But not anymore."

Marik smiled too and did the same.

They sat there silently for a while longer. Then they silently decided to head home.

As they walked, Marik talked. "I suppose I should tell you some of my back story since you told me some of yours..."

"Go right ahead."

"The thing is... I used to be a tombkeeper, but I didn't want that kind of life. I rejected it. Um well actually..." Marik hadn't actually thought this over. "Well the thing is some complicated stuff happened which I would rather not talk about. Yet. But the thing is that I made up for what I did and I moved here. Ishizu stayed in Egypt because she works there. She rarely has the time to visit, but she always sends me money and gifts and cards and stuff like that. Sometimes I visit her. But for the most part she isn't part of my life here. However, the fireplace is a big reminder of her for me which is why I always light a fire in it at least once every week in December and January. Yesterday was that day this week."

"You're Egyptian..."

"No... Really?!" Marik said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes. "How could you tell?"

"Oh shut up... What I meant was that if you're Egyptian... Do you celebrate or practice Christmas?"

"Wait what? What's the difference?"

"Celebrating is when people decorate a tree and tell stories about Santa and buy presents and all that whatever crap. Practicing is actually lighting some kind of wreath and some prayer... What I'm asking is do you celebrate Christmas because you're Christian? Or for the hell of it?"

"Oh... Because I can."

"That's what I thought. Because I know that Egypt has it's own gods and all that stuff."

"Oh I gave up on the Egyptian Gods long ago."

"Really?"

"Yup. They gave up on me. So I gave up on them. Sort of."

"I know how you feel. I always felt like they gave up on me, too. So I don't even care anymore."

"Yeah... So all I do is just decorate the tree because I have nothing else to do."

By this time, they had reached the building. Bakura held the door open for Marik, then Marik opened the inside door.

"So you just bought boring white lights?"

"Yup. No one else is going to see it so why bother?"

"Hm... Lights..." Bakura mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Oh I just remembered! I had the most random urge to buy colored replacement light bulbs a few days ago. Now I know why!" Because fate was having fun with us...

"What?"

"I'll go get them." He pressed the button to call the elevator. "Well actually we'll just both stop by and pick them up."

"Okay."

They entered the elevator. Bakura pressed the 5.

"Wait why are you doing that?" Marik asked. "Don't you live on the 6th floor?"

"I left them with someone else. He lives on the floor below me."

"Oh, okay then."

They stood there silently and waited. The door opened on the fifth floor and they exited.

Bakura led Marik to Ryou's apartment. Marik unzipped his coat and took off his gloves and hat while they walked. Bakura did the same. Then he sent a tiny alert to Ryou that he was coming.

He stopped in front of Ryou's door.

"Wait a sec... Why did we stop here?" Marik asked.

"Because he lives here."

"Are you sure?"

Bakura rang the bell. "Of course I'm sure. Why else would I have led you here?"

"But this is-"

The door opened. Ryou stood in the doorway, wearing clothes similar to Bakura's. "Hi Bakura," he greeted shyly.

"Ryou," Bakura said with a nod of acknowledgement.

"Bakura! So Ryou is..." Marik was too stunned to finish his sentence.

Ryou caught sight of his second visitor. His eyes widened. "Marik? What are you doing here?"

Now it was Bakura's turn to be surprised. "Wait... You two know each other?!"

"Yeah," Ryou answered. "We go to the same school and share a few classes. But we're not that close."

Bakura looked at Marik for confirmation even though he knew Ryou was telling the truth.

Marik turned to Ryou. "Ryou... You were his..." He lowered his voice. "You were his... host?"

"Ahem... Marik he prefers the term 'hikari'," Bakura said with a smirk. "It's easier to deal with and it doesn't make sound like I was a parasite to him."

"Well you were..." Marik pointed out quietly.

"Oh shut up, Bakura! What do you want?" Realizing that he was shouting, Ryou closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Oh I'm sorry... Marik you can come in if you want... Bakura you can't."

Bakura rolled his eyes and leaned against the doorway. "Don't be such a little bitch, Ry."

"You two are adorable..." Marik said, shaking his head. He walked over to Bakura and grabbed his hand. "And be nice Bakura. Ryou, can Bakura come in too?"

Ryou saw the hand and was curious. And he was going to let them in anyway. He stepped aside. "Come in," he said to them.

Marik let go of Bakura's hand and walked in.

Bakura followed, sticking his tongue at Ryou as he passed.

"Hmph," Ryou responded as he closed the door. "By the way, Marik, happy belated birthday."

"Thanks."

"So what did you need?"

"Something something something, Christmas tree lights," Marik answered.

"Oh those!" Ryou exclaimed as he realized what Bakura wanted. "Okay! Good thing I didn't need them." Ryou walked to a closet and rummaged around in it for a few moments. Then he walked out holding three small boxes of tiny light bulbs. He handed them to Marik, who was sitting on the couch. "Here you go."

"You know, since I asked for them it would make more sense to hand them to me," Bakura said from where he sat on the other couch.

"He doesn't like you!" Marik said with a smile.

Bakura responded by sticking out his tongue.

"What's with the tongue?" Marik asked jokingly. "You want me to bite it off or something?"

Bakura shook his head a bit, then purposefully looked at Ryou. He was warning Marik not to talk like that.

Ryou caught the meaning of the gesture before Marik did. "Oh speaking of which..." He wandered over to Bakura and put his elbows on the arm of the chair, then rested his head on his hands. He looked at Bakura and smiled a small, cute little grin. "When did this happen...?" He asked innocently, yet tauntingly.

"When did what happen?"

"Don't play dumb... How did you and Marik meet?" As he talked, he slowly moved his face closer to Bakura's.

"Get away!" Bakura tried to push his face away. "Aren't you supposed to be pissed off at me or something?"

"Teeellll?"

"No!"

"Baku~~..."

Bakura leaned away from Ryou and gave Marik a pleading look. "Marik please get this annoying cream puff away from me."

"I don't mind if you tell him."

"I mind."

Ryou finally stood up and moved away. "Okay. I'll leave you alone... For now."

"Ugh... Marik can we go now? Please? I have what I came for!"

"He can stay if he wants. Marik do you want anything to eat or drink?"

"No thanks. I think we should get going. Before Bakura hurts someone."

"Alright. Nice to see you outside of school. Make sure you keep him on a tight leash!" Then his eyes widened, his expression turned disgusted and he shook his head. "Um... Make sure you keep him in line."

"Uh..." The way he said it bothered and confused Marik a bit. But he decided not to ask him about it and just ignored it for the moment. "Okay... See you some other time Ryou."

"Right. Bye Bakura! Don't come back unless you wanna talk."

"Hmph."

Ryou found a bag to put the lights in and opened the door for them. He waved as they exited, smiling at Marik and pouting at Bakura. Bakura just 'hmphed' again.

The door closed softly behind them and they heard it being locked.

"What was that?" Marik asked. "That thing about keeping you on a tight leash? He seemed flustered or embarrassed when he said it. Do you know what happened with that?"

Bakura chuckled. "Oh nothing..." he replied with a smirk. "I just corrupted his innocent and ignorant mind, that's all. And he knows it."

"Corrupted?" Marik repeated with a raised eyebrow. "What was he thinking?"

"Maybe I'll tell you when your older."

"I already turned older yesterday! And I know what he thought. I just wanted to hear it from you."

"Yeah yeah that's nice. I'm just glad he didn't put a cat joke in there. Now let's get out of here before he comes back to bother me." Bakura raced to the elevator. Marik sighed and rolled his eyes and followed.

"I take it that this is why you rarely spend time with him?" Marik asked once they had entered the elevator. He pressed the 7.

"Yup," was the simple and obvious answer. "We cannot spend more than five minutes in the same room without us getting into an argument, one of us pissing the other off, as you just saw, or me scaring him shitless. I prefer those days when I do the third one because at least I'd be enjoying myself."

"...You're evil."

"I know. I was wondering when you would figure it out."

"I figured it out when you tried to mug me."

"Again!" Bakura cried out in exasperation. "That was an accident! And besides, criminals aren't necessarily evil. They're just bad. I'm actually evil. Should I go into detail about my revenge plan that failed and left me with no purpose in life?" The doors opened and they walked out. "Or about the dark being that I was working for?"

"Another time. I don't want to ruin the mood."

"What mood?"

"The festive mood!" Marik shouted cheerfully. "What are you going to do with these lights?"

"Make your tree interesting."

"You gonna replace all of the lights or some of them?"

"Don't know yet. Usually I don't care. The only time I ever do anything festive for any holiday is when Ryou pays me to help him."

"Why bother getting your own place? Why not stay with him?"

Bakura raised an eyebrow and glared at him. The look said 'why do you think?'

"Point taken."

"Besides, he would be bothering me about cleaning and we would fight over the bathroom and a bunch of other stuff I don't want to deal with. He would not last a week before pissing me off and making me hurt him."

"Wow... You two... I don't even know."

"Let's not talk about him any more."

"Agreed."

They had reached Marik's door. Marik unlocked the door and entered, put his coat in the closet. The first thing he did was close the window. Bakura followed, but stopped in the doorway. He looked around in wonder. "Whoa! This is amazing!"

"What?" Marik turned around to find Bakura looking around in amazement like an idiot. "What are you doing? You've been here before."

"Yes. But I've never used the door before!"

Marik laughed. "Oh shut up and stop being and idiot!" He ran over an dragged Bakura inside by the arm. Bakura dropped his coat on the floor. "Move your ass already!" Marik backtracked to pick it up and put it in the closet as well.

Bakura stopped pretending to be amazed and grinned. "But I'm not kidding. I never used the door. Only the window. We even left through the window this morning."

"Well don't make a habit of it." They sat down and took off their boots. Marik put his by the door. Bakura threw his next to the door and his perfect aim made them land right next to Marik's. "If you're going to be visiting often I'd rather open the door for you, not the window."

"What do you expect? I'm a thief. I don't know how to enter people's homes through the door."

"Well you'd better not steal anything from me."

"Why would I? I can just ask... Wait a sec..."

"What? What is it?"

Bakura stood up and looked around. He put a hand on the Millenium Ring that hung from his neck. Marik watched as it glowed and a few of the points stood up on end. "Wha-"

"Shut up." Bakura walked in the direction the Ring pointed. He was walking towards Marik's room.

"Hey where are you going?" Marik shouted after him, but made no move to stop him.

Moments later, Bakura reemerged waving a golden rod.

"Look! I found the Millenium Rod. You never told me."

"Put that back!"

"How about no? And I just got the best idea ever." Bakura stole a chair from the kitchen table and dragged it over to the fake evergreen tree. He stood on the chair and unsheathed the hidden blade of the Millenium Rod. "Catch," he told Marik, and threw the bottom part at him. He caught it easily, but glared at him and wondered how he knew about it. Bakura started messing with the top of the tree. Marik tried to see what he was doing, but Bakura's hair was blocking his view.

A minute or two later, he finished and stepped off of the chair. While he put it back in the kitchen, Marik looked at the tree.

He had tied the Millenium Ring and Rod together and to the top of the tree. The Ring was upside-down.

"Interesting thing you did there," he remarked.

"Interesting? It's brilliant!"

"Suuurrreeeee Mr. I Dont Use Doors."

"Why do you never let things go? I bet that a year from now you'll say to me 'hey remember that time when you didn't use the door?' and I'll just laugh and say yes."

"Hey Bakura!"

"Yes Marik?"

"Remember that time when you didn't use the door?"

"Shut up Marik."

.

There was still some firewood that Marik hadn't used yet, so they set it up and lit it.

They spent the rest of the night talking. They opened up to each other. Marik, about his sister. But nothing about his past in detail. Bakura, a little bit about his life before the Millenium Ring and why he wanted revenge, not necessarily how or what the revenge was.

In the later hours, Marik started dozing off. He fell asleep leaning against Bakura, using his fluffy white hair as a pillow. After a while, Bakura picked him up and carried him to bed.

Just before he left the room, Bakura planted a kiss on Marik's forehead and whispered "Good night, Marik. Merry Christmas and happy birthday."