Dark Raven:  I’m glad you liked the lemon. Most people seemed to like it.  There will be more in the future, and I promise to give a good fair warning when these will come.  Mrs. Lemon?  It’s like my last name “Stoner”.  I can’t get away from the stigma associated with it.  Oh well.

Wow!  My review responses are really great!!  I need suggestions on how to continue “The Rose and Ryou”. Any suggestions?  Make them as angsty as you can get them, guys.  Wowwy pops for everybody.  Bakura, Hug our reviewers!

Bakura:*hugs* 

Ryou: Bakurasgirl’s professor liked her paper so far, so she will be nice to us in the next few chappies. 

THIS CHAPPIE CONTAINS NO LEMON, BUT DOES CONTAIN SHOUENEN-AI.  AWWW….KISSY-KISSY.  THIS ALSO CONTAINS MUCH USE OF THE F-WORD.  NO, NOT THAT ONE. IT’S F-R-I-E-N-D-S-H-I-P.

Shopping with Anzu

            Bakura pushed himself off the ground.  Ryou quickly went to his paid and brushed him off.  Bakura skinned his knees

and his palms.  “Anzu! What are you doing here?”  Bakura growled.  Anzu lifted her crab off the ground and kissed it.

“You tripped over my friendly crabbie!  Are you alright Mr. Crabbie-Wabbie?”

Bakura fumed, but Ryou covered his mouth with his hand to stop the string of curses ready to leave his mouth. 

“That could have really hurt Bakura, Anzu.”

“It did!” Bakura screamed.  Ryou unlocked the door and ran upstairs for the iodine.  Anzu cuddled her pointy crab,

not caring that it was tryingt o break free for dear life.    Bakura looked at the leash around its shell.

“What do you have on it? Is that a dog leash?”

“He’s my pet crab!  I call him “fluffy”.  Mommy told me to take him for a walk. It took a really long time to get here.  He’s slow. 

FLUFFY THE CRAB!  YEAH FLUFFY!”  Bakura rubbed his head from her cheer.  The skinned parts of his body were less painful. 

“He’s a crab. He’s hard.  Why call him Fluffy?”

“Fluffy is a friendly name!  It reminds me of clouds, sunshine, friends, and-friendship!”

“RYOU!  FOR THE LOVE OF RA! GET DOWN HERE NOW BEFORE I KILL MYSELF…………..AGAIN!”

Ryou ran down the steps with some cotton and rubbing alcohol.  He washed Bakura’s scrapes. “This may hurt a little.”

“OUCH! That hurt!”  Bakura yelled at him.

“Don’t complain! You’ve done worse to me before,” Ryou chided.

Bakura turned to Anzu. “How can you walk a crab?”  Ryou gave an annoyed look at Bakura.  Neither of the boys wanted to

know nor did they care. 

“Were you going to do friendly things?”

“Shopping.”  Bakura elbowed Ryou.

“SHOPPING? FLUFFY LOOOOOOOOVES SHOPPING!  FLUFFY! SHOPPING! FRIENDSHIP!”

 Ryou ran upstairs with the alcohol.  “Why did you tell her where we were going?”

“We can easily lose her if we go out.  If she stays here, she’ll be in place where she’s around us all the time.”

While they were upstairs, Anzu vaguely remembered her mother  say about twenty times that crabs belong in water, not on land.

 “He’ll need some cold water.  Since they are being meanie weenies, not letting me take Fluffy, I’ll leave him here.”

 Anzu put the crab on the couch.  “You be good little crabbie! I’ll be back!  Water is in the kitchen. Help yourself, little crabbie!” 

Ryou and Bakura ran back downstairs.  “You are not staying here,” Ryou said.

            Once again, the boys left the house and locked the front door.  Bakura took Ryou’s hand and they walked down the path

in front of the house.  Next door, Mr. Thomlin was trimming his hedge and he waved to them.  He was an older man who knew

Ryou’s dad for a long time. “You two boys staying out of trouble?”

“Yes, sir,” Ryou smiled.

“Any news from your father?”

“Not lately. He’s really busy.”

“Tell him  I said Hello if you hear from him.”  Ryou nodded and they left.  To some people, the sight of the two

holding hands was strange, but few who knew Ryou since he was an infant just wanted him happy. They ignored

everybody’s stares as they walked down the block.

 Anzu ran circles around them cheering annoyingly as if they were deaf and she had to yell to speak to them. “Come on, Ryou!

I wanna see fluffy bunnies!”

“If you don’t knock it off, I’ll make you see stars. How’s that?”

“Yeah! Play Spaceman!” Anzu pretended she was walking on the moon.  Then she broke into her old circling since she realized

in her tiny brain that they walked quickly to try to lose her.  “Let’s go see puppies!  I would looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove to

see puppies!  Puppies are like friendship!  Shopping is like friendship!  Friendship is like friendship!”

Bakura turned calmly to Ryou. “Ryou, if you love me, you will kill mein the most painful ways possible.”

 Ryou held his hand tighter as Bakura turned to him.  “I love you,” he mouthed sliently.  Bakura smiled at him. 

Anzu looked at them smiling.  “You are friends!  Yeah!”

Both boys chuckled at the clueless and pointless observation made by the braindead girl.  Anzu grabbed Ryou’s hand.

 “This is friendship!” Ryou screamed out as Anzu gripped his hand too tightly.  “Let go!” Ryou pulled his hand away. 

“You can’t touch me, Anzu! Ever!”

Ryou clenched his hand.  Luckily Anzu didn’t hurt him.

            They came across some small clothing stores mixed with a phone store, another Game Shop, and the arcade. 

Ryou led Bakura inside with Anzu close behind.  Anzu ran to the girl’s section and brought back a pink shirt with “Best Friends”

 embroidered on it with Precious Moments.

“I am not wearing that.” Bakura said. “I told you before that boys don’t wear that stuff!  No pink!”

“But it has Friendship in it!” 

Ryou brought over several shirts with stripes and solid shirts to match.”Let’s just get them and get out of here, Ryou.”

“No. You have to try them on,” Ryou winked at him with a grin.  Bakura’s eyes narrowed and a grin crossed his face.

“I think I need pants,too.”  Bakura pulled Ryou to the jeans.  “Just pick a size and let’s go,” he said impatiently.

“Where’s the friendship shirts?”

“Go to girls, idiot.”

Anzu ran off and Ryou took Bakura to the changing rooms.  Bakura locked the door as Ryou brought him into a furious kiss

pinning his yami against the wall.  It was only a matter of time before Bakura turned and pinned his hikari against the wall. 

Bakura wrapped his leg around Ryou as Ryou pulled his yami’s shirt over his head.

“Is this the only way you could get me to go shopping?”

“It worked, didn’t it?”  Ryou placed one of the new shirts over Bakura’s head and stepped back. “Not bad.  Not too tight?”

Bakura pulled the shirt off and crashed Ryou against the wall lifting Ryou’s shirt placing frenzied kisses over Ryou’s chest. 

Ryou arched his back as Bakura kissed his way to Ryou’s belly button.  “Bakura,” he whispered trying not to draw

attention to their activities and their little session. 

“You are so beautiful, Ryou,”his yami whispered as he delighted in Ryou’s warm skin gripping Ryou’s sides and rubbing them gently.

Anzu’s head peaked under the door to find Bakura kissing Ryou’s abdomen.  Ryou’s head was down watching his

yami kiss and nip the sensitive skin when he saw her watching.  “ANZU!”  Ryou quickly pulled his shirt down and Bakura

growled unfulfilled and unsatisfied.  How dare she interrupt his fun!

            Bakura quickly put his shirt on and grabbed the clothes he wanted.  Ryou opened the door blushing.  Anzu held up another shirt.

“I found a friendly shirt!  It’s pink and its sparkly like friendship!”  Anzu held up the shirt for them to see.

 Bakura and Ryou nodded agreeing with the shirt’s message.  “BITCH” was written in sparkles and outlined in a thick black heavy line. 

“I think that shirt is you.  Get it.”

“I got no money,” she said sadly. “No friendship.”

“We’ll buy it for you.  You just have to promise to wear it all the time everywhere you go.”

Anzu smiled, “YEAH FRIENDSHIP!”

Bakura and Ryou bought the shirt for her.  Without any kind of social tact or common sense, she changed her shirt

 in broad daylight eliciting violent stomach churning for every man in a five mile radius.  Ryou covered his mouth (I love when he does that). 

“Can we please not see that again?  Ever?  Seriously.”  Proudly wearing her “BITCH” shirt because it reminded her of friendship,

she followed them to their next destination: the pet shop.

“PUPPIES!!! I WANNA LOOK AT THE PUPPIES!!!”

“You look at the puppies.  We’re going to the candy store.  I’m out of chocolate,” Bakura said excitedly.

“Actually, yami, can I go in?  I promise we can go to the candy store after.” Ryou looked at Bakura glassy-eyed.

“Fin.” Bakura sighed.  He wasn’t going to be able to ditch Anzu anytime soon.  Ryou pulled him inside to the dogs.

 Ryou smiled and pointed to a golden retriever about one year old.

“Wouldn’t he be great?”

“You planned this, didn’t you?”

“He’d make a great companion for you when I’m at school.”

“Ryou, I’m in the Ring when you are at school.  We can’t afford this dog. Talk it over with your dad first.”

“He’s never home.”  Bakura put his hand around Ryou’s shoulder.

“Your birthday is nearly here.  Let’s think about it.”

The sounds of squeals and hissing pythons came from the back of the store along with “I WUV HAMSTERS!

COME HERE LITTLE FUZZY SNAKIE! OOOOHH! FUZZY BUNNY!!!!!” 

A woman strolled up to them, “Please get your friend out of this store.”

Ryou and Bakura left with Anzu trailing behind upset because she couldn’t pet the “cuddly, friendly” snakes.

 The man at the candy store saw his familiar customer enter. 

“Not you again.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you have the best chocolate covered cherries and butter creams around!  Two pounds of each!

That will get us at least until tomorrow.”

“You always come here, yet you never gain an ounce,” the man shook his head. 

Bakura couldn’t say dead people don’t gain weight, but he told Ryou to look at some cookies across the shop. 

Bakura leaned over the counter and whispered, “Gimme a pound of chocolate covered marshmallows, too.

Ryou loves those things.”  The man shifted his gaze uncomfortably from Ryou to Bakura. 

“What are you looking at?”  Bakura said roughly.

The man returned Bakura’s evil stare.  Ryou was oblivious to the contest by the cash register between Bakura and the candy man. 

“There is no need to look at me like that,” Bakura said grabbing his bag of candy.  “I can always take my business

 elsewhere if you don’t want my patronage.”

“Nothing is stopping you.”

Ryou looked up at the tone of his yami’s angry growl.  Bakura gripped the bag tightly.  “I am a paying customer! 

I deserve some respect, you baka!”

“Don’t make me kick you out…..sir.”

“I wouldn’t stay here if my afterlife depended on it.”  Bakura paid the man and turned to see Ryou by the

 chocolate chips looking at him afraid.  He knew his yami’s anger and it wasn’t a good idea to get him upset.

Bakura opened the door to the shop.  “Let’s go, Ryou. We don’t want the chocolate to melt.  We should go home.”

Bakura gripped the bag of chocolates tightly and gripped Ryou’s hand again.  “Are you Ok, Bakura?”

“I’ve gotta find another candy store.” 

Ryou gripped Bakura’s hand tighter.  “I heard what he said and it wasn’t fair.  Some people can’t accept other people

 for who they are. They just judge people by what they see.”

Bakura stopped, “What do you see?”

“Me? I see the only one I could ever love, Bakura.  I wouldn’t want you any other way.”

Bakura smiled.  “Let’s get these candies home before they melt.”

Much to their dismay, Anzu followed them. 

Next Chappie: Anzu gets too nosey for her own good.  SHOUENEN-AI, BUT NO LEMON NEXT CHAPPIE….SOON, MY PRETTIES, SOON.  . IT SHOULD BE TWO CHAPPIES AWAY FROM THIS ONE.