The Dreaded Friendship Hug

Seto leaned against the locker reading his history book. Joey Wheeler's locker was a mess and Seto ordered him to clean it "like the messsy puppy he was." Seto looked over as Joey pulled out a bag full of candy wrappers. Seto couldn't help but laugh.
"You are amazing, Joey. I didn't think you could eat all that candy," Seto said smiling at him.
"It's not all candy wrappers, Kaiba! There's also torn book covers, chip bags, pencil shavings, and graded papers in here I'll never need!" Seto laughed harder. "It's true, Kaiba, you wanna see for yourself?"
"I'm not laughing because I don't believe you. I'm laughing because there is a trash can that's been next to your locker and you've been putting your trash in your locker."
"I was gonna get rid of it. I planned to do this anyway."
"Joey, It's only the second week of school and your locker looks like my Blue Eyes White Dragon has been in there," Seto said returning to his book.
Joey stacked the books in his locker and threw the bag of wrappers in the trash can. "I forgot to tell you. Yugi talked to Bakura last night. Ryou's coming home today."
Seto heaved a heavy sigh of relief. He brushed back his brown hair and smiled. "I'm glad my money was of some use."
Joey packed his history book in his school bag. "That was nice of you to pay for Ryou's operation, Kaiba."
"Ryou had no chance without my help. He's a good friend."
Seto closed his book when he felt a pair of small hands on his arm. He looked down and saw Yugi Motou with Yami close behind carrying an armful of textbooks.
"Yami, that's a lot of homework you've got there," Seto said placing his book in his briefcase.
"This is for Ryou. His teachers wanted to make sure he didn't fall too far behind."
Joey leaned back to see the pile of books in Yami's arms. "Man, even surgery can't get you away from school," he sighed.
"We're going to Marik's place to drop these off. Wanna come, Kaiba?"
Seto nodded. "We'll walk. Joey and I walked to school since it was such a nice day."
The group walked down the hall as Yami felt arms wrap tightly around his waist squeezing him senseless.
Yami dropped the books on the floor with a crash and turned around hearing a squealing, piercing laugh.
"Yami! You waited for me all your life! My cute and cuddly yammy-wammy!!!!!"
The group turned around as Yami struggled to breathe. "Can't…..breathe………Anzu."
"Not breathing is like friendship!!!! Hugs and breaths are warm and comfy! YEAH FRIENDSHIP!"
The group rolled their eyes sighing.
Seto leaned over to Joey and whispered in his ear, "I wish I could afford to get rid of her forever."
"Nothing can get rid of her," Joey whispered back.
Seto, Yugi, and Joey pulled Anzu away from Yami. When Yami broke away with their help, he scowled at her and preceeded to pick up the textbooks.
"I had such a friendly day today, Yami-wammy!"
Yugi looked at Anzu's arm and saw tiny scratch marks. "Did you hurt yourself today?"
"I was hugging Fluffy and he was showing me how much he loves me."
"Fluffy pinched you?"
Anzu nodded and pulled out her crab from her dress. "I LOVE MY FRIENDLY CRABBIE!"
If crabs have any way of looking scared, this crab was terrified and everyone felt very sorry that the crab was Anzu's prized pet. "Fluffy reminds me of friendship!" The crab tried to scurry out of her hands.
"Your crab is trying to run away from you, not be your friend!"
The crab pinched her as it tried to scurry around her arm. "Friendship…*ouch …..is important because …..*ouch ……….it reminds us of……*ouch *…..friends…..*ouch * and love……*ouch * and puppies…*ouch *…." Anzu continued, but the group was ignoring her walking out of the school.
Anzu caught up to them and ran for Kaiba.
Kaiba turned quickly and ordered, "Don't hug me or I will send my Blue Eyes after you and let's see you make friends with that."
"Kaiba-waiba, I wuv you!" Anzu skipped around them stupidly singing. "Yami is like a puppy! I wuv puppies! He's cute! He's cuddly! He loves me! Friendship is like flowers and trees and bees…" Anzu saw a bee on a flower. "Friendly bee!" Like the intelligent person that she is (author rolls eyes) she tried to make friends with this huge bee on a yellow flower. Big surprise, it stung her and she still kept on singing about how bee stings were like friendship.
"Anzu, what isn't like friendship?"
Anzu stopped to think about it for a minute. The simple question almost made her brain implode. The wind blew through her empty skull and she finally answered, "Everything is like friendship!"
The group sighed and they finally arrived at Marik's home. Since Anzu had no sense of tact or manners, she burst right into the home startling Marik on the couch.
"Marik!!!! FRIENDSHIP HUG!!!!!!!" Anzu hugged Marik tightly throwing herself on him. Yugi and Yami ran upstairs not bothering to help the struggling yami on the couch. Seto and Joey watched with amazement as Marik let out a nice set of expletives to Anzu.
Upstairs, Ryou put a pill into his mouth and bakura gave him a glass of water. Ryou gripped the glass firmly and shifted his attention to the door where he saw Yugi and Yami slowly enter. Malik turned and smiled at the entering couple. Ryou gulped the last bit of water down and handed the glass back to Bakura.
"Yugi! Yami! You came to visit me!"
Yugi ran to Ryou and hugged his friend. A bouquet of flowers and roses beside Ryou's bed scented the room with delicate fragrances. Yami slowly placed Ryou's textbooks on his bureau. Seto and Joey climbed up the stairs and joined the others in Ryou's bedroom.
"Kaiba? You're here to see me, too? I thought you'd be busy with your company."
"Not all the time. We came to check up on you. Make sure everything was alright."
Joey sat on the bed and Seto beside him. "How you feeling, Ryou?"
Ryou smiled and took Bakura's hand. "Tired, but I can handle this. My yami makes a good nurse." Yami chuckled at the thought of Bakura in a nurse's outfit.
I'm fine as long as I don't stress myself out too much. I can resume my normal activities soon, but I still need to recover a little." Bakura ran his fingers through Ryou's hair.
They heard running up the stairs and Anzu burst into the room squealing loud enough to break bulletproof glass into a million pieces. Ryou gasped.
"Ryou!!!!!!!! HOW ARE YOU?? FRIENDSHIP HUG!"
Anzu pounced like lioness onto the bed clasping Ryou tightly making him scream.
"Anzu! Let go of him!" Malik struggled with Anzu as she elbowed him in the side. Bakura and Malik wrestled Anzu away from Ryou and he fell back on the bed clutching the sheets tightly.
"Anzu, you can't hug him tightly….come to think of it….don't hug him at all!" Bakura rubbed Ryou's shoulder as he gripped his chest. "Breathe, Ryou. It's Ok. Breathe."
Anzu's braindead gaze fell on Ryou's fish swimming in the fishbowl. Seto saw her looking at the fish and saw her twisted desire to take them out of their environment and hug them senselessly like Ryou.
"Friendly fishies are fun like friendship! I wanna hug the friendly fishies!"
Ryou clutched onto Bakura with his right arm. "Get….her ….out….of here. Please."
Seto grabbed Anzu and carried her over his shoulder as she ran to hug the fishies and show them how much she loved them. "Seto's being my friend!" Joey watched as she banged her head on the door. "Concussions are like friendship!"
Everybody was quiet allowing Ryou to calm down from the ordeal. When Seto returned, Malik turned to him. "Where did you put her?"
"Downstairs in the basement. She's fine. She's going on and on about how darkness is friendly."
Ryou's breathing returned to normal. "I can't take her screaming."
Bakura placed his hand over Ryou's heart and checked his watch. "We can't excite him too much."
Ryou held onto Bakura and Seto sat on the bed.
Joey broke out into laughter. "You missed it today, Ryou! Trsitan did a great impression of your math teacher!"
Ryou chuckled. "Washburn? Sorry I missed it. He makes even the simplest math equations long and boring. He'll have to come over and show me sometime. Where is he anyway?"
Joey rubbed the back of his head. "Well, the thing is, Washburn was the lunch moderator today. He's got detention for the next week."
"Two weeks," Seto corrected.
Downstairs they heard a crash and a cat's hiss. Marik screamed loudly as Ryou clasped onto Bakura again tightly.
"ANZU, PUT HIM DOWN!"
"I LOVE YOU, PRETTY KITTY! COME HERE, KITTLES!"
Malik jumped out of bed and ran out the door. "Anzu! It's a fake cat! Don't hurt my cat!"
"Malik has a cat?"
"Well, it looks like a real cat, but it's a toy. Malik's had that since he was a baby. It means a lot to him," Bakura explained. Malik returned carrying the toy brown and white cat in his arms hugging it.
"Marik was keeping my cat away from her. My Bes isn't hurt!"
"You named it Bes?"
Malik smiled and nodded. "This was my favorite toy as a kid." Malik hugged his toy.
Ryou turned to Yugi. "Has the cafeteria food changed?"
"It's the same."
"I don't know which I would like better: hospital food or the cafeteria food. I think the hospital food was better."
"The food's not that bad," Joey protested. "I like the food in the caf."
Ryou laughed. "Joey, you'll eat anything."
"At least I eat. You could afford to gain a few pounds, Ryou."
Ryou shook his head. "No I can't. I can't afford to gain any weight. It would put too much of a strain on my heart." Ryou laid back in the bed and yawned.
Yami retreated to the fishbowl and Bakura followed him while Yugi, Malik, Ryou, Joey, and Seto became involved in their own conversation.
"You've been doing a great job keeping the fishbowl clean, Yami," Bakura chuckled.
"I can't believe you named the algae eater after me."
"He's a good fish, Yami."
Yami looked from the fishbowl back to Bakura. "I can see the resemblance between you and that fish, tomb robber."
Bakura's eyes narrowed. "We are not going to fight in front of Ryou. He needs his rest." They looked at the other boys laughing and Ryou trying to keep his eyes open.
"It's a miracle, Bakura."
"I know. I doubted I was able to save him. I don't know who sent us the money for that operation, but it allowed Ryou to live. He's all that matters to me."
Yugi hugged Ryou.
"My aibou was worried. Now at least things can return to normal. Let's go, aibou. Ryou needs to rest."
Yugi and Yami left. Ryou yawned again and slipped back further into bed.
"We should go, Joey. Come, boy."
"For the last time today, quit it!"
Seto turned to Ryou. "Glad to see everything went smoothly."
"Welcome back to us, Ryou," Joey said hugging Ryou gently.
Malik put the cat on the bed and helped Bakura pull the covers over Ryou. Ryou turned to his left grabbing onto Malik and shifted his body close to the other hikari. Malik looked down at Ryou.
"I guess he won't let me leave."
Bakura smiled and ran his hands along Ryou's white hair. "I'd feel better if someone stays with him anyways."
Malik slipped under the sheets with Bakura's help and pulled Ryou close to him. Bakura leaned down and kissed Malik's ear. "Thank you, Malik."
Bakura went downstairs when Marik closed the door.
"Anzu's gone. I told her to make friends with the fire hydrant outside."
Outside, her shrill voice echoed painfully sharp. "I love friendly fire hydrants! So cute!" Bakura shook his head in pity. Marik and Bakura returned to the couch.
"Where's Malik?"
"Ryou fell asleep and held onto him. I don't have the heart to tear them apart. Besides, I want someone with Ryou now. I stayed awake with Ryou this morning. We can't deny Malik his chance to be with Ryou."
Marik smiled. He enjoyed seeing their lights together. Both of them were so delicate and so beautiful. Marik put his arm around Bakura. "What do you want to do?"
"We have to go to the pharmacy and get the rest of Ryou's medicine. The only pills we got for him are his blood thinners. Besides we have to get food in this place. Ryou and Malik are upstairs, so we should do what has to be done before they wake up."
Marik removed his arm. "That's it? Pharmacy and food shopping? Our lights are upstairs sleeping completely ignorant of what we are up to and you want to go to the pharmacy?"
"That's all, Marik. We have to start dinner when we get back so we can feed Malik and Ryou."
Marik moaned in disappointment. "Do we have to?"
"It's a nice day and the store is only down the block. We won't be gone long. I have to get money from my room."
Bakura ran upstairs leaving a whining Marik on the couch. Bakura slowly opened the door and Malik turned his head.
"Marik and I are going to the store and to get Ryou's medicine."
"Ok. I'll stay here with Ryou." Malik held Ryou closer.
"Thank you, Malik."
Bakura leaned over and kissed Ryou on the cheek. "Sleep well, my love. You'll need your rest." Bakura went to Malik's side of the bed and kissed Malik's cheek. "Thank you." Bakura left the room quickly and quietly closing the door behind him. Malik held Ryou beside him and smiled at the steady rythym beating against his chest.