And now for some Nellshipping! (Amane Bakura x Noa Kaiba)

"Amane-chan? Amane? Okay, you won...I can't find you."

Noa turned in a big circle in the middle of his living room. He was trying to stop himself from smiling because this really wasn't something to be cheerful about, but he couldn't help it. He just imagined the tiny Amane crouched in some little nook with her hands over her mouth and shoulders shaking with quiet, muffled giggles, and it brought a smile to his face.

Still, that smile wasn't going to last if he couldn't find Amane before his father got home, which was probably going to be any moment now.

"Amane...Amane, you win at hide-and-seek. Can we play something else now? Like maybe outside at the park? If my father knows you snuck in here..."

Tiny giggles erupted from from corner of the room for a split second and then cut off. He glanced over. No, she wouldn't have...

The absolutely giant Christmas tree sat in the corner, twinkling with the most expensive and gaudy ornaments his father had been able to find. The branches were thick and full, especially around the base – she wasn't...was she? Well, she had been quite enamored with it when she had seen it...Noa had seen her own Christmas tree and it was much, much smaller, decorated with cheap plastic ornaments, real candy canes, and sloppy ornaments that Amane herself had made out of clothespins and Hershey's kisses. Privately, Noa liked Amane's tree better. It seemed...more approachable. His own tree felt like something out of a museum that he wasn't allowed to get too close to without setting of an alarm. That's why he couldn't understand if Amane had really...

"Amane-chan?" he said, sneaking closer to the Christmas tree. "Come on, I said I give up."

"You didn't say olley-olley-oxen-free," Amane's voice drifted up from under the Christmas tree. "You have to say it if you give up."

"Found you!"

He had ducked his head under the tree branches while she was talking. She shrieked and fell over against the tree trunk. Noa's throat went dry when one ornament fell off and shattered.

"Oh no..." he said.

Amane went pale.

"I – I'm sorry, Noa-kun...but you scared me..."

Noa knew it was mostly his fault, but why had she had to hide under the tree?

"My father's going to kill me," he moaned.

He ducked out from under the tree to inspect the damage. Only one ornament had fallen...and it was a generic red sphere so maybe his father wouldn't notice it he cleaned up the damage...oh, who was he kidding, his father noticed everything.

Amane crawled out from under the tree. She looked mortified.

"I'm so, so, so sorry Noa-kun," she said. She looked on the verge of tears, her bottom lip wobbling. "I shouldn't have hid under there. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Amane-chan," Noa said, patting her on the shoulder. "It's not your fault..."

But he felt a terrible pit growing in his stomach and he thought he was going to be sick. Maybe his father wouldn't notice. Maybe he wouldn't notice.

"Let's pick it up," he said. "I'll get the broom."

"Kay," Amane said.

And then her eyes lit up.

"Wait! Noa-kun, I have an idea so you won't get in trouble!"

And she leapt to her feet and bolted from the room.

"Amane-chan! Where –"

But then he heard the sliding door in the room over opening up and the crunch of her feet as she ran outside into the snow.

"Amane..." Noa said. Why had she left?

Feeling even sicker, he ran to get a broom and back into the living room. Most of the pieces were big enough to just pick up and put into the trash can, but it was taking him a little while to pick up the smaller ones. The broom wasn't working well on the carpet, and he knew he didn't have the time or strength to go lift the vacuum cleaner out of the maid's cabinet downstairs.

He heard a door slam far away and felt his face drain of color.

Father was home.

And he sounded like he wasn't happy today; maybe Christmas sales weren't doing so well, because he was yelling at one of the maids for being too slow to come get his coat. Noa hid the broom quickly, and tucked the garbage can back in its spot. But what about the open space on the tree? Maybe he wouldn't notice. Maybe he wouldn't notice...

"Noa-kun!"

Amane's voice hissed at him from somewhere behind him and he jumped. Her face was poking out from under the tree – how had she gotten across the room without being noticed like that? She was some kind of ninja.

"Here! Noa-kun!" Amane said.

And her hand came out from under the tree and pushed a red, spherical ornament at him.

"Where did you..."

"From my tree! At home! I thought it looked a little like it! Is it good enough?"

She looked really worried. Noa took the orb. It was definitely of a much cheaper make than the delicate one that had been on the tree previously – also Amane's name and birthday was scrawled along the back, but maybe it would stand up to casual inspection if he turned it right...just until he could sneak a spare out of the basement...

Noa could hear his father's footsteps clomping down the hall.

"Thank you," he said to Amane. "Now quick, go before father knows you were here."

"I'll see you tomorrow?" she whispered.

"Yes, of course, just go, okay?"

"Merry Christmas, Noa-kun," Amane said, and she disappeared under the tree. He tried to look around the room for where she might be using the furniture to sneak back outside, but he didn't see her until the flip of her white hair disappeared around the corner, down the hall towards the back sliding door.

He quickly replaced the ornament on the tree, and ran across the room. He hopped on the couch and grabbed his book, opening to a random page in the middle so that it would look like he had read most of it – hopefully the summaries he had read on the Internet earlier would be enough to fool his father into believing he had spent the last three hours reading, and not playing hide-and-seek with the girl from down the street.

Gozaburo tromped into the room. Noa looked up, pretending to have been engrossed in his book.

"Welcome home, father," he said.

Gozaburo glanced around the room – he seemed suspicious for some reason, but that could just be because he was in a bad mood, and he was suspicious of everything when he was angry. His eyes grazed the tree and Noa's heart rate picked up.

Then he shook his head.

"Have you almost finished that?" he asked, nodding at the book.

"Yes, father. It's very engrossing."

"Good. I'll want to hear your analysis over dinner."

And then he was gone. Noa breathed a huge sigh of relief, letting the book fall back into his lap.

"Thanks, Amane," he whispered.

Then he closed his eyes, and imagined decorating a much smaller tree with less fragile ornaments, in a small room like Amane's living room, with Amane giggling beside him and hanging up sloppy ornaments made of Hershey's kisses and clothespins...