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: A short one-shot that's just a bit of fun. I hope you enjoy it!

Snow Play
By Shadow's Mirror

Bakura was irritable.

Not that there was anything new in that. He'd been irritable all week, ever since the first snowflakes had started falling and he and Ryou had been forced to remain inside the house.

A little snow didn't worry either of them, of course, but the series of heavy snowstorms that had wracked the whole city for five days straight were another matter entirely. Aside from the deep snow that had quickly blanketed the city, the biting wind had been strong enough to tear branches off trees and bitterly cold. It would have buffeted Ryou's slight form badly enough to cause him physical harm. As a result, Ryou and Bakura had been stuck inside for the duration of the storms with only each other for company.

Even Bakura had a limit as to how much dueling he and Ryou could do without it becoming dull.

Apparently that limit was three days and one hundred and seventy eight straight wins.

Ryou's limit for tolerating his bored yami's constant grumbling had lasted another two days, but it was quite likely that he would have snapped if they hadn't managed to get outside that day.

Fortunately for both of them, and what precious shreds of their sanity remained intact, the storms had finally eased off. Although the weather forecaster had said they'd return that afternoon, they would at least have enough time to walk to the shops and restock their supplies before the next series of storms hit.

But getting outside was only the first step in maintaining any sort of peace in the house, Ryou knew. If Bakura was still irritable by the time they returned home, it wouldn't take very much to set him off. He'd flared up a few times the day before. What Bakura needed was a distraction. Something to get his mind off his boredom and make him forget that they were stuck inside again. Better still, something to tire him out enough to make him want to curl up and sleep for a while.

Preferably in his soulroom.

Ryou sighed to himself. During the first snowstorm, Bakura had used his spell for taking on physical form. Ryou had no idea why his yami had decided to do it, or why he had then chosen to remain in that form throughout the storms, but he was both happy and frustrated over it. While it had been nice to be able to duel with him at the kitchen table instead of in one of their soulrooms, and doing some jigsaw puzzles together had been a lot of fun, having Bakura constantly around in a physical body had begun to wear at Ryou's nerves.

As a spirit, Bakura got in Ryou's way a lot less when cleaning up or cooking.

Ryou sighed again and firmly returned his thoughts to their original track. He needed a distraction for Bakura. Something that would occupy the yami for at least a few hours.

He was so busy thinking that he failed to notice when the subject of his thoughts began to gradually fall back a little, moving from walking beside him to following a few steps behind.

Ryou also failed to notice Bakura gathering up a handful of fresh snow as he passed one of the deep drifts that had formed on the side of the road where they were walking.

He was not, however, so deep in thought that he failed to notice when Bakura suddenly shoved that handful of snow down the collar of his jacket.

"Oh!" Ryou gasped, his back arching in reaction to the sudden cold. Bakura's aim had been a little too good. He'd managed to push the snow beneath Ryou's sweater and shirt, not just beneath his collar. Already, the snow had begun to melt from his body's heat and run in icy cold rivulets down his back. It was not only shockingly cold, but also quite uncomfortable.

Bakura smirked, obviously pleased with the reaction his action had caused. "What's wrong, my Light? Feeling a little chilly? Here, let me warm you up again."

As he spoke, the yami slipped his arms around Ryou from behind and started to draw him closer.

Ryou was still startled by the sudden cold, so he almost missed hearing the note of smug satisfaction in his dark half's voice. But even if he had, the echo of that emotion was coming quite strongly through their link.

Normally, Ryou would have blushed and wiggled a bit in token protest before leaning back into his yami's welcome warmth for at least as long as it took his cheeks to heat to the level of blushiness that only a Light could easily achieve. But five days of being confined in a house with a bored yami who had continually either demanded that he duel with him or cook him a meal or just grumbled about the situation, had left him more than a little worn around the mental and emotional edges.

The realisation that his yami had deliberately stuck snow down his shirt and made him wet, cold and uncomfortable in the street just so he could sneak a chance to hold him, despite having just had five days when he could have held him in the privacy of their warm and cosy home, was all it took to push Ryou over those edges.

A few moments later, Ryou found that there was something oddly satisfying in seeing Bakura blinking up at him in shock from where the yami lay sprawled on his back in a snowdrift.

The irony of the fact that Bakura had been the one to teach Ryou the self-defence move he had used was not lost on either of them.

The End