Hi guys! So, here it is! The last chapter of NBC. It's been a bumpy ride but I hope you guys enjoyed it. Hope to see you guys in my other stories. Till then!

Chapter 10: Forever

Yugi bit into the gag, trying as hard as he could to force the intruding object out of his mouth. He struggled against the chains that were holding his hands above his head, trying all the while not to look down at the boiling pit of lava that was bubbling at his feet. Exhaling a sigh of desperation, Yugi glanced at the older man beside him and flashed Santa Claus a sympathetic look. Things were not looking bright.

It was at the moment that Oogie chose to re-enter the room, and Yugi immediately started his struggles all over again until finally he managed to loosen the cloth around his mouth, spitting the gag out of his mouth the second he had the chance.

"You wait till Yami hears about this!" Yugi hissed, partly because of the pain that was gnawing at his wrists. "By the time he's through with you, you'll be lucky if—"

"Yami!" Oogie laughed. "That skeleton is nothing but a pile of bones by now. Didn't you see? He was shot out of the sky!"

Yugi looked like he was struggling for words. "Yes but…he's fine, I know he is…he just—"

The creature released another roar of laughter, and if Yugi hadn't been keeping tabs on his emotions than surely he would have broken down into tears at the thought that Yami might not be coming home to him.

Yami burst through the forest, coming out to a clearing in the graveyard of Halloween Town. "Come on, Zero!" he said, not even bothering to keep the urgency out of his voice. "Christmas isn't over yet. There's still time."

Zero barked and that was the only signal that Yami needed before he took off across the cemetery, his strides fast, his steps hard. It wasn't all about Christmas anymore. Because, at the moment, Yami's stomach was turning with anxiety and his hands were sweating with determination. It was then that he knew that something was wrong with Yugi. And that alone sent him over the edge.

He didn't have to stop at the city square and ask around to find out where Yugi was. Knowing the smaller doll, he probably would already be two steps ahead of him and be searching for a way to fix this disaster. The same one that Yugi had warned him about so many times before.

And if the two thought anything alike, which Yami knew they did, then Yugi would have went to go look for Sandy Claws. And Yami knew just the place to look.

Slipping across the bridge that led to Oogie's mansion, Yami pointedly ignored when Jou ran past him, screaming at the top of his lungs, Bakura and Marik hot on his trail. Luckily, they didn't take notice of him or they might have stalled his mission to save Yugi. And that would have just been bad.

It had taken him a few minutes but he had eventually reached the front entrance to the tall building and he nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Yugi's beautiful yet terrifying scream.

In an instant, he had snuck into the room where the shrieks had resonated from, just in time to see his arch rival pulling at a lever that, from what he could see, was flipping over a table that currently Yugi and Sandy Claws were attached to. He could have snapped Oogie's neck that very moment.

"Hmmm, one more roll ought to do it," Oogie cackled, tossing a pair of dice in the sockets of an old skeleton only for the two squares to fly out of the mouth. Oogie stared at the dice and growled. "What? Snake eyes!" He punched the table, hard enough so that the dice jumped and fell over onto different sides. He grinned triumphantly. "Eleven! It's looks like I've hit the jackpot!"

"You won't get away with this!" Yugi yelled and Yami had to restrain himself from sprinting to his love to keep from blowing his cover.

Oogie only smiled. "I think I already did, ragdoll."

And so, with another laugh, Oogie pulled at the lever, making the platform Yugi and Santa were on completely vertical, before walking over to the side of the room and pressing the button that released the restraints on his two captives' wrists. He grinned, eager to hear the screams of the two other occupants only to frown when none came.

"What the—"

He ran back over to the platform and pulled it towards him only to jump back in shock when Yami's blazing ruby eyes met his empty sockets.

"Hello, Oogie," Yami hissed, slowly pulling himself off of the table. His movements were threatening, quick, and alert.

"Y-Yami!" Oogie greeted, fear etching itself onto his words. "I thought you were dead…" he looked down and grinned before lashing out and pressing a button behind his shoulder. "Well, we can fix that, can't we?"

Yami growled, steadying himself when the ground below his feet started to rotate like a circle around the room. His skin immediately vanished into thin air and Yugi almost yelped in surprise from his hiding spot at seeing Yami's true form.

Quickly, Yami turned around and jumped, narrowly avoiding the swords that were being thrown his way from the six feet tall playing cards that were protruding from the ground around him.

"Well, come on!" Oogie antagonized from his safe spot across the room.

Yami merely glared before he expertly slid out of the swords' way with grace and almost no effort. Within a second, Oogie turned and pressed another button, and Yugi almost shrieked when he heard a round of gunfire. He peeked out to notice Yami—or at least, Yami's skeleton—avoiding every single one of the bullets, never stopping in his tracks to reach Oogie.

And Yugi wasn't the only one who realized that, at this point, Yami was unstoppable. Oogie must have realized this as well because he turned to his left and immediately tried to flee, latching on to a chain hanging above him and pushing himself over to the middle of the room, completely oblivious that he was now hanging directly over the boiling pool of lava that he had tried to incinerate Yugi in only minutes ago. "So long, Yami!" Oogie grinned as the chain started to pull him upwards in the direction of a hole in the ceiling.

Yami smiled at his increasing luck and Oogie's increasing stupidity.

Reaching out, the skeleton grabbed a hold of a loose thread that was hanging from Oogie's arm, his skin quickly regenerating itself so that he looked like his old handsome self again.

"How dare you treat Sandy Claws this way," Yami growled, pulling at the thread which had now caused Oogie's arm to split open, a sea of insects falling out of the hole in clumps and right into the pit of fire. Yugi immediately turned away from the disturbing sight though Yami's next words had him feeling fuzzy on the inside.

"How dare you treat Yugi like this! You should have known, Oogie, how much he means to me! I think you did know, though. But what you don't seem to understand," Yami whispered dangerously, his eyes narrowed into slits, "is that no one ever lays a finger on him and gets away with it. No one."

With a final yank, Oogie entire skin came falling off, leaving nothing but a crumpling form of insects behind which screeched and shrieked as they fell into the lava and burned into oblivion.

Yami didn't even stop to look at the scene, instead pivoting on his heel and walking over to Yugi and Santa who were both out of their hiding place and standing upright, staring at him with expectation.

"Forgive me, Mr. Claus," Yami sighed the second he was within reach of the two, Yugi's eyes lighting up when he heard the correct pronunciation of the older man's name for the first time. "I'm afraid I've made a terrible mess of your holiday."

Santa reached out to take back his hat which Yami had taken out of his pocket. "Bumpy sleigh ride, Yami?" Santa snapped, rubbing his temples in agitation. "The next time you get the urge to take over somebody else's holiday, I'd listen to him!" the old man said, pointing to Yugi. "He's the only one that makes any sense around this insane asylum."

Yami flashed Yugi a small smile before glancing back to Santa who was putting back on his hat and stalking away, mumbling something about 'skeletons'.

"I hope there's still time!" Yami called out after him.

Santa paused in his tracks and turned his head to look over his shoulder. "To save Christmas? Of course, there is! I'm Santa Claus!"

Yami opened his mouth to respond by the time he blinked, Santa Claus had already left. Yugi watched Yami's still form for a moment longer before walking up to him and offering him a smile. "Don't worry, Yami. He'll fix things. He knows what to do."

Yami turned to look at Yugi, the scarlet orbs soft and affectionate. "How did you get down here, Yugi?"

Yugi looked taken aback by the question before quickly looking down at his hands. "I…um, I guess…you know…I wanted—"

"To help me?" Yami suggested.

Yugi looked up and smiled. "Yeah."

Yami had to blink a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing all the love and concern shining so vibrantly in Yugi's beautiful eyes. He wanted to hit himself when after the third blink, it was still there, bright as ever.

"Oh, Yugi," Yami murmured, wrapping his arms around the other's waist and pulling him close. Yugi's cheeks flushed a lovely shade of pink when Yami cupped his face and held it only a few inches away from his own. "I can't believe that I never realized—"

"Yami!"

Both tri-colored haired youths winced and looked away when a blinding light was shined in their eyes. Yami had to use his hand as a visor so that he could look up and see the person who had called out for him. He was surprised when he saw Serenity, Bakura, and Marik standing at the doorway, Jou and Kaiba in front of the pack.

"See! He's alive!" Jou said excitedly.

"Just like we told you," Bakura lied but it went unnoticed.

"Well, what are we still doing here?" Kaiba muttered, relieved at finding Yami in one piece. "We need to let everyone know."

Yugi smiled as he watched Bakura and Marik practically drag Yami out of the house before Jou came to his side and ruffled his hair.

"I'm glad you're okay, man," the ghoul murmured.

Yugi nodded, his eyes following Yami's form. "Yeah, Jou, me too. Me too."

--

"Yami's okay!" Anzu cheered along with the dozens of other citizens that greeted the Mayor and highly-missed pumpkin king.

"And he's back!" Mai added, the witch's voice getting drowned out by the loud clapping that circulated through the city square.

A group of kids, consisting of corpses and mummies, pulled at Yami's legs and laughed. "Yami is back now, everyone sing! In our town of Halloween!"

"It's great to be home!" Yami shouted over the crowd, his attention drifting towards the sky when he heard a familiar voice. The first thing he noticed was Santa's sled crossing the full moon. The next thing was the small balls of white that were falling down towards the ground gently.

"Happy Halloween!"

Yami heard Santa's echoing words and smiled. "Merry Christmas!" he yelled back, waving at the old man until he flew out of view. He looked back down to realize that everybody was staring at the snow with a curious glint in their eyes.

"What's this?" Ryou murmured.

"I haven't got a clue." Jou replied

"Hmm," Malik said, sticking out his tongue, his face lighting up like a Christmas tree when the cold snowflakes brushed his tongue. "This is completely new!"

One of the corpse children titled their head and scrutinized the flakes with suspicion. "Must be a Christmas thing."

Kaiba nodded absent-mindedly. "It's really very strange."

Yami grinned as he watched everyone get acquainted with the beautiful wonder that was Christmas, his eyes scanning the crowd as they basked in the unfamiliar feeling that ran through their spines. In one corner, Bakura had tackled Ryou to the ground and Malik had aimed a snowball right at Marik's face. He stifled a chuckle when he saw Jou pounce on Kaiba's unsuspecting form while serenity just sat back and laughed.

His gaze eventually landed on Yugi, who was standing there smiling at everyone. He watched as the doll bent down and picked a dead flower from the ground before turning on his heel and making his way towards the graveyard.

Yami smiled slightly before following the little doll, leaving everybody who wasn't Yugi behind in his wake.

He got there just in time to see Yugi plop himself down at the top of the hill, the small fingers picking at the petals of the flower softly.

Yugi was so involved in his thoughts that he didn't hear Yami following him. So much had happened over the past few weeks. Stumbling into Halloween Town, making a whole bunch of new friends, meeting Yami.

Yugi smiled at that last thought. And it was at that moment that Yugi realized that, no matter what happened, he could never leave Halloween Town. He could never leave Yami. Because Yami completed him and he would do anything to be by Yami's side forever.

Yugi nearly jumped in surprise when he heard a footstep not that far behind him, and he quickly turned his neck only to smile when his eyes met Yami's. Before he could say a word though, Yami beat him to it.

"My dearest friend, if you don't mind, I'd like to join you by your side."

Yugi's smile outshined the moon as he continued to watch Yami approach him. He didn't even realize that he had stood up and that he was now standing on his feet, his eyes never leaving the crimson ones that he loved so much.

"Where we can gaze into the stars," Yami whispered, reaching out to clasp Yugi's hand within his own. "And sit together."

"Now and forever," Yugi murmured, standing on his tiptoes so that Yami's breath mingled with his own.

Yami smiled, moving his arms until they rested protectively around Yugi's frail little waist. "For it is plain as anyone can see…"

"…we're simply meant to be."

And with that, Yami leaned down to press a soft kiss against Yugi's lips. And it was then that he knew that no longer what obstacles he faced and no matter what happened in his life, Yugi would always by his side and he would always be by Yugi's...

Now and forever.

End

Reviews/comments appreciated as always.