DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Text in bold is being emphasised.

IMAGE NOTE: Apparently one of the others had a camera and managed to take a photo of Bakura in his costume without him realising it. If you want to see it, it's up in my Deviant Art gallery. The link is on my bio page. Shh... don't tell Bakura!

"I still don't see why I have to go to this stupid party tonight." Bakura gave his light a sulky look from where he lay sprawled on his stomach on Ryou's bed. "Or why you'd even want to go."

Ryou's reply was muffled, due to his head being inside his wardrobe. "I think it will be fun. Going Trick or Treating with the others… You'll enjoy that. We get candy given to us. You like candy."

"I like the tricks we get to play on anyone who's stingy, even more." Bakura's dark eyes gleamed at the thought. "Yeah, I don't mind that part. It's the party afterwards that annoys me." He scowled. "Bad enough I have to put up with the Pharaoh while we're getting the candy, but to have to endure hours in his presence on top of that… I'd rather spend the night dueling at Kaibaland!"

"No, you wouldn't. Remember what happened the last time that you dueled there? You ended up being chased through the streets by a horde of screaming fangirls."

"My point exactly!" Bakura shuddered at the extremely unpleasant memory.

Ryou finally emerged from his closet, something white draped over his arm. He turned to his yami, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "Well, I suppose we could give the party a miss…" He waited a moment, watching as a smug smirk settled on Bakura's face, then he dropped the bombshell. "Of course, that would mean that you had failed your dare."

Bakura's smirk became a shocked gape. He stared at his light. "What? My… dare?" Suddenly, the tombrobber didn't look quite as confident as he normally looked. In fact, he looked rather nervous. "You don't mean that, right? I mean… Shadows Ryou, I wasn't serious about that! I was just joking!"

Ryou looked thoughtful, although a very slight hint of a smile touched his lips. "Odd… that's not how I remember it."

Two weeks earlier, at the Domino City Mall Costume Shop…

"Give up, Ryou. We won't find anything here. These costumes are just lame. Not even a small child would be scared by any of them!" Bakura scowled at a particularly annoying green tunic and tights set.

"Bakura!" Ryou's cheeks heated as he ducked his head, too embarrassed to look at the approaching salesgirl. He was afraid she had heard his yami's comments.

"Were you looking for anything in particular?"

If Ryou had been looking at the salesgirl instead of only listening to her, he might have missed the slight trace of annoyance in her voice. He winced. She had definitely heard Bakura's comments. He raised his head and gave her a small, embarrassed smile. "Yes, I'm trying to find…"

"I want something horrifying." Bakura interrupted. He glared at the salesgirl. "I don't mean scary, I mean something so frightening that it would make grown men run in mortal terror for their lives. Although… looking at these children's costumes, I suppose you wouldn't have anything like that."

As Bakura smirked, Ryou began to study a nearby fairy costume as though it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen. Of course, his attention could have been more on hiding the flaming colour in his cheeks than on choosing an outfit for Halloween.

The salesgirl glanced at Ryou before focusing on Bakura. She smiled politely. "Actually… I believe we have just the thing. It's something that no one has ever dared to even consider wearing while Trick or Treating. Something that would make you go pale and shaken at the very sight of it."

Ryou's head snapped around, his eyes wide as he blinked at her in shock. For a moment, Bakura's expression mirrored his light's, then his usual confident smirk returned. "If it really does have that effect on me, then I'll accept that dare! I won't just wear it Trick or Treating though. We're going to a Halloween party so I'll wear it there too! If it has that effect on me."

Ryou smiled slightly as his yami groaned and dropped his head down onto his arms. "You thought I had forgotten about it." His yami glanced up in confusion and Ryou's mouth twitched as he tried not to laugh. "I heard you thinking it through our link." Bakura groaned again. Then he thought of something.

He looked hopefully at his light. His kind, considerate, compassionate light. The one person in the world he could rely on, if he ever needed to rely on anyone. "You wouldn't really hold me to something like that, would you?"

Ryou's response reminded Bakura of the salesgirl from the costume shop. She'd had that same look on her face when they'd left her store. Smug satisfaction with a hint of wicked amusement at his expense.

"Hello everyone!"

Ryou's cheerful greeting caused the other teenagers to turn. Taking in his costume, their welcoming smiles became appreciative chuckles.

"Change of Heart. We should have guessed!" Yugi was still laughing as he caught sight of the figure standing in the shadows a short distance away. "Oh, is that Bakura?"

"Yes." Ryou smiled innocently, but there was one person present who noticed the gleam in his eyes.

"Bakura? Why are you standing all the way over there? Why don't you come and join us? Perhaps… you do not wish us to see your costume." There was a hint of challenge in Yami's voice.

A low growl came from the shadowed figure. "You want to see it? Fine!" Bakura stepped from the concealing shadows, his face as dark as a stormcloud. He put his hands on his hips and glared.

"The first person to laugh will have their soul sealed in the Shadow Realm for all eternity."

For a moment, there was complete silence as the startled teens took in Bakura's costume. Then, despite his threat, they all burst out laughing.

Bakura was wearing a strapless wedding dress in pale pink with white lace over it. There was a white ruffle at the top of the bodice and another around the hem of the floor-length skirt. If you could call it a skirt. The back was ordinary, but most of the front had been cut away, the sides curving up from the back to mid-thigh so the skirt revealed more than it concealed. For one thing, it revealed the fact that Bakura had the legs to pull off wearing white tights. For another, the pink and white garter belt around his right thigh was clearly visible. The small red rosette on the garter belt matched the ones decorating the straps of his pale pink shoes and the pink sash around his waist matched the headband on the white lace veil that fell in graceful folds to just below his waist.

Even Bakura's makeup looked the part, due to the red lipstick and matching eyeshadow that the evil salesgirl had so thoughtfully slipped in with the costume while he wasn't looking. A discovery his light had made with a happy sound that had left Bakura wondering if his light had always been evil or if it was just something that happened to usually sweet and kind lights at Halloween.

But the final touch on the costume was added when his light's cursed friends began to laugh at him.

A mix of rage and embarrassment flooded through Bakura, creating a predictable (and thoroughly unwelcome) physical reaction. He forced himself not to retreat into the shadows like a coward, continuing to glare at the laughing teenagers as he felt the heat rushing into his cheeks. But it didn't stop there.

As he felt his blush continue across the bridge of his nose, Bakura wondered just how angry his light would be with him if he sent every one of the laughing teenagers to the Shadow Realm…