WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPPIE: USUAL SHOUENEN-AI, IMPLIED BAKURA X RYOU, IMPLIED MALIK X MARIK, IMPLIED YUGI X YAMI, SETO X JOEY—IMPLIED EVERYBODY WHY NOT?

NO LEMON IN THIS CHAPPIE.     

I WILL BE UPDATING SERVANT YAMIS TODAY BECAUSE PHILADELPHIA GOT POUNDED IN SNOW AND I’M OFF FROM WORK TODAY!!!  YEAHHHHHHHHHHH FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheesepuff: Glad you like the shirt.  I like it too. Cinetti comes back for more. Later.

0: Lemon chappie coming, people!  Just give me this chappie!  Then….onto the goodness that is Bakura x Ryou.

Ssjgoddesschico: Thankies for the review. Anzu bashing rocks.

Cat: I feel bad for what they go through too.  They really love each other, but it only proves how strong their bond is.

Anonymous: Thankies for the review.  I seem to have slot of people who like Seto x Joey, but I can throw in a little Mai, too.  He can dream about her or something.

X20Deepx:  Glad you like it.  Seto x Joey it is.

YugiCloset Fan: Here is the carnival.  I think I put in a nice amount of humor in this one to balance the sweetness.

Firedraygon97: Yes, Cinetti was an a**.  I actually relly hated him when I wrote his part. I thought he was a real creep.  One of my specialties is villains which are really really easy to hate.

Carnival

Ryou woke from his sleep with Bakura dozing next to him.  He looked up at his yami and poked him.  "Wake up."

Bakura stirred with a yawn.  He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched.  "Fell better, Ryou?"

"Yup. It's all thanks to you, yami!"  Ryou hugged Bakura.  "Let's call everybody to see if they want to come with us."

"Even the pharoah's lapdog?"

Ryou's eyes narrowed and pouted. "His name is Yugi and he is my friend.  Yes, I know he'll come.  Yami loves games.  Joey will lick the place clean of any food.  Malik and Marik will…..well….."

Bakura pulled Ryou on top of him gripping his bottom.  "I know you and Malik love rides," Bakura grinned.

Ryou giggled as he resumed hugging his yami.  "Come to think of it, you and Joey could wipe the place clean. You both have a bottomless pit for a stomach."  Ryou sat up and poked Bakura's stomach causing his yami to laugh.  "Who would have known that the vicious tomb robber's most ticklish spot was his belly?" 

"Stop!  Ryou!"

"What's the matter? *poke * Can't take it like a man? *poke *  Got a tickly belly, yami? *poke poke poke poke *"

"Ryou! I swear to Ra! I'll get you for this!"  Bakura tried to buck Ryou off of his hip and failed to turn around. 

"What are you *poke * going to do *poke *?  Gonna punish me? *poke * Send me to bed without my supper? *poke *" Bakura grabbed Ryou's shoulders and rolled him off of his hip. 

"Ryou, if you keep doing that, there will be no carnival for us tonight." 

Ryou turned red from laughing.  "O.K., yami. Ok. I'll call the gang.  Change your shirt and get rid of those old shirts that were torn or dirty.  We bought you new clothes today."  Ryou ran downstairs as Bakura made the bed.  Bakura took his old shirts and tore them up into strips.  He placed the shredded clothes in a box under Ryou's bed.  He wore his new white shirt with horizontal stripes, a new pair of blue jeans, and a blue solid shirt over the striped shirt.  The golden Millenium Ring sparkled around his neck.  He brushed his hair back.  Before he went downstairs he checked everything to make certain Ryou's night would be memorable: candles, chocolates, and he planned to win prizes for Ryou at the carnival.  Tonight was going to be perfect for him and Ryou. 

Bakura placed his dueling deck in his pocket just in case of trouble.  He regretted not taking his deck this afternoon and vowed to keep it with him.

 Ryou called to him from downstairs. "Yugi and Yami are in!  Tristan's bringing Serenity!

Joey's coming, too."

"Seto's not bringing him on a leash, is he?"

"Joey and Seto had a fight. I think he's going out with Mai for revenge."

"Hmm…never thought Joey would be like that.  Seto and him were inseparable.

Bakura popped a few more chocolate covered cherries into his mouth.  "Let's get some pizza!"

"Tonight is going to be fun," Ryou smiled.

"It's going to be more fun than you know," Bakura winked and they left for the  pizza place.

                Ryou watched Bakura eat his pizza as if he hadn't eaten in 5000 years.  Ryou was only on his first piece while Bakura was on his third.

"Are you going to save some room for later?"

Bakura gulped. "You eat too slow, Ryou." Ryou sipped his soda.

"What are we going to do first?"

"We'll do the rides last. Let's play the games first.  I'm sure the pharoah will want to play."

Ryou looked up from his dinner.  "You promised to behave around him."

"I will behave.  We've patched up our differences, but that still doesn't mean we see eye to eye completely yet."

"I just want a good time with my friends."

"I will behave."

The couple finished the entire pizza compliments of Bakura's ferocious appetite and went to Yugi's. 

Yami opened the door dressed in his usual leather and buckles ensemble (authoress drools).  Yugi brushed past his yami looking like an identical, yet smaller twin.  "Ryou! You made it!"  Yugi hugged Ryou.

"Ready for tonight, Bakura?" Yugi asked innocently.  Bakura nodded in response, the two yamis staring at each other eye to eye tensely.

Yami pointed to Bakura. "Are you ready to crumble beneath my mighty gaming prowess, Bakura?"

"Dream on!  You know I can beat you any day of the week."

"Then what happened in Duelist Kingdom? I beat you then!"

Bakura crossed his arms unintimidated.  "Are you going to win your aibou a dolly?  How cute!"

"Are you mocking me?"

"……You were the ruler of Egypt and you can't tell sarcasm when you hear it?"

Yugi pulled Yami inside.  He was letting all the cold air out of the shop.  Ryou greeted Tristan and Serenity.  "I called Joey. He's going to meet us there at the carnival gates.  Yugi closed the shop after telling his Grandpa where he was going.  They met Joey and Seto at the gates.  Yami, Bakura, Tristan, and Joey bought the tickets.  Yami and Bakura dragged their hikaris to the water gun games.  Each of them aimed their water pistol at the target.  As they hit the target, their balloons expanded, Yami's finally popping first.  Yami burst into laughter. "I beat you, Bakura!"  Bakura folded his arms and rolled his eyes.

The man at the counter gave Yami a little stuffed dog with a little heart in its mouth.  Seto won Joey a little puppy dog,too.  He thought it was so appropriate.  Yami gave it to Yugi and Yugi hugged him.  Bakura tugged Ryou over to a ring game.  One of the prizes was a pair of stuffed bears kissing.  It was obvious that Ryou was eyeing it, so Bakura gave the man two dollars and he got five rings.  He had to throw the ring over one bottle, but there were so many, it would take great skill to get all of the rings over a bottle.  Bakura was getting ready to throw when he heard a squeal and he felt arms around his waist crushing him in a hug once again. 

"Anzu, get off of him!" Ryou said trying to separate Bakura again.    "He's trying to concentrate."

Yami and Joey snickered at her shirt.  "What? This is a friendly shirt!  Laughing is like friendship!"

Bakura was surprised to find Ryou growling at the back of his throat.  Bakura threw one ring and got it over the bottleneck.  Anzu grabbed Yugi's animal.  "IT'S SOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!!"

"Give that back," Yami said pulling it away from her.  Anzu grabbed onto him in a tight hug and kissed his face frantically.  "Let's go on the ferris wheel and the tunnel of love!!!! That's like a friendly ride!"

"I am not going on that ride with you!  You are a sick person."  Anzu looked blankly at him which means her tiny brain was processing his sentence to decipher it's simple, flat meaning.  "I'm not sick!  I LOVE YOU, YAMI!"

"That sounds pretty disgustin' to me," Joey said revolted. 

"Yeah, that's a really sick thought," Tristan nodded in agreement.

"I love carnivals!!! YEAH!"

Bakura turned furiously. "Anzu, I'm trying to concentrate here, you ditz!"

Bakura threw the rest of the rings and won the kissing bears for Ryou.  "What made you so good at this?" Yami asked him.

"Well, it took a lot of skill to dodge your guards.  It wasn't easy, King Yami."

Anzu danced around them like an idiot.  "These are happy friendship bears!"  The group tried to run away from her , but since the crowds were not there yet, it wasn't easy to lose her. 

Seto and Joey ran over to another game and played the wheels.  Everybody put down fifty cents.  “Let’s see you win at this, King of Games! This is merely a game of chance.”

“I’ve had worse odds against you.”

The wheel landed on Seto’s number, but on black and he bet on white.  A strong of colorful metaphors left Seto’s lips until Yami slapped him upside the head. 

“Don’t curse in front of my aibou!”

“Oh come on, Yami, that is the least you should worry about with him.”

Joey stepped between them.  “Knock it off, Seto!  We’re not here to fight or talk about the Duelist Kingdom.”  Joey went over to a vender and bought a Blue Eyes White Dragon with a big smile on its face-kina corny, but Seto managed to calm down.

They caught Malik and Marik waiting for the Bumper cars with a wad of tickets in their hands.  They joined the pair in line.  Anzu pouted. "It's not nice to bump people!"

"That's the point of the entire game," Marik said with a grin winking at Malik. 

"Why are you even here?" Malik asked.

"To have fun with my friends!" Anzu hugged Malik and Marik together. 

"Knock it off with the hugging!" Marik threatened poking her with the Millenium Rod.

Malik and Marik grabbed separate cars.  Ryou and Bakura grabbed one car as well as Yami and Yugi.  Joey and his date also grabbed separate cars. 

                The ride started and Anzu kept getting rammed by Yami and bakura who laughed almost sadistically.  Marik kept hitting Malik in the back of his car, causing a playful growl in the hikari.  Ryou held onto the side and front of his car since Bakura wanted to drive.  He was now convinced that if Bakura ever really did drive a car, he would have lost his license in five minutes.  Bakura loved to play rough and his driving the bumper car was fun, but he enjoyed ramming into Anzu who laughed it off as being friendly.  Ryou laughed and looked at Bakura.  It was a long time since he heard his yami enjoy himself like this.  Ryou could tell his yami was enjoying himself being a little careless.  Bakura chased Yami and Yugi with a big grin. Ryou was glad to see he still liked the thrill of the chase.  "Here I come, King of Games!  Let's play a game of my own!" 

Yami banged into Anzu and Bakura banged into Yami and Yugi sending a loud cheer and chuckle from him.  Tristan and Serenity banged into Bakura.  Joey banged into Yami and Yugi.  When the ride was done, Anzu staggered out of her car with a backache from everyone hitting her.  "There's nothing like friendship to give you a nice backache!  YEAH FRIENDSHIP!"

The group decided to get something to eat.  Seto and Joey split a funnel cake and liked the powder off of each others fingers.  Yami bought Yugi some popcorn and once in a while, Yami would slowly pop one into Yugi's waiting mouth.  Anzu got some funnel cake because she thought it was real cake and was really disappointed when it wasn't birthday cake because birthday cake reminded her of friendship.  Anzu ran away for a while much to everyone's relief.  Malik and Marik bought peanuts. Tristan and Serenity shared an ice cream cone.  Bakura and Ryou shared cotton candy from a cone.  Bakura bought an extra bag to take home since it was so sweet. 

Ryou watched as Yami put a piece of popcorn on his tongue and kissed Yugi.  Tristan and Serenity were kissing the ice cream off of each other's lips.  Malik and Marik did the same with their peanuts. Bakura and Ryou watched the couples kiss. Bakura and Ryou turned around, so no one would see them.  "Should we?  After this afternoon…" Ryou trailed off.  Bakura was kissing Ryou already sharing the piece of cotton candy he placed on his tongue. 

Anzu returned unexpectedly to see her friends.  She bought herself an inflatable crayon and she jabbed it into Yami's back making him break his kiss with Yugi.  "I'm drawing on you!"  Anzu moved the crayon around Yami's back. 

"Will you quit it?"

Anzu jabbed Serenity with it.  "You know what happens when you kiss?"  Serenity pushed the crayon away from her. 

"Nobody cares, Anzu!" Yugi shouted as he returned to kissing Yami. 

"You're making babies!!!"

Yami rolled his eyes and pushed Anzu away.  "You can't make babies by kissing! Now go away!"

"Lucky for us," Marik winked to his hikari.

"Yeah, We would have fathered an entire army by now." Marik and Malik laughed. 

Anzu poked Bakura on the back of his head with the crayon where Cinetti threw him into the metal fence.  "Will you please…….go……away?"

Anzu jumped around with the crayon. 

"Let's go to the Carousel and the Ferris Wheel."

The hikaris pulled their yamis to the Merry go Round.  Tristen and Serenity shared a brown horse.  Bakura chose a black horse with a large feather on its head.  Ryou sat beside him on a white horse.  Yami also chose a white horse.  Yugi chose a white horse, too. "This was my horse's color back in Egypt.  All the Pharaohs had white horses.  No wonder the thief chose black."

"Now, Yami, Bakura's trying to be good.  Let's give him some credit."

"I never would have guess that only a year ago, he was beating the living snot out of Ryou and now they've become so close."

"Bakura loves him. Ryou is much happier, too."

Yugi and Yami watched Bakura actually laughing at Ryou trying to get his horse to go faster.  Malik and Marik leaned on their black horses talking quietly to one another.  Yami thought it was best not to know what that pair was talking about. 

Anzu sat on her horse beside Malik trying to make it go faster. "COME ON LITTLE HORSEY! THIS IS LIKE MARY POPPINS!  I WANT TO DANCE WITH THE PENGUINS! YEAH!!!!! I WANT TO WIN THE HORSERACE!!!  COME ON, HORSIE!!!"  Of course, Anzu's horse didn't go up and down.  It stayed there. It didn't move at all.  When the ride was done, the hikari's took their yamis to the Ferris wheel.  Malik and Marik went first. Ryou and Bakura went next. Yami and Yugi went next, then Tristan and Serenity, then Joey and Seto.

Yugi and Ryou rested their heads on their yamis' shoulders and took their hands.  The happy couples watched the stars sparkle like diamonds in the night sky.  Yami and Bakura remembered their lives before their hikaris' births.  The cycle of life was a funny thing.  Civilizations were born, built, and turned to dust since they were first trapped in their items.  For one perfect moment, hikari and yami felt complete. 

Bakura looked over at the smaller boy on his shoulder.  "Do you feel better now that you had a nap today?"

"Thank you for staying with me, yami."

"Don't let anyone tell you what to do or what to think, Ryou.  I don't think I protected you enough this afternoon."

Ryou looked up at Bakura.  "You were hurt, yami. I didn't want you to be hurt."

"Oh Marik!" came a voice from above them. 

"Can you two lovebirds keep it down up there?"

"Marik, you're making the chair swing!"

"I thought you liked rocking!"

"I said knock it off!" Bakura yelled above him.  Bakura looked at the bears he won Ryou.  He ran his fingers over them gently to feel their soft fur.  Ryou took Bakura's hand and kissed his yami's neck sucking and playfully nipping.  Bakura moved his hair so it wouldn't get in Ryou's path of passion.  "You are so sweet, Bakura.  You still taste like cotton candy."

Bakura ran his fingers through Ryou's cottony hair feeling each strand melt under his carress.  Ryou ran his hands under Bakura's smooth chest.  Bakura looked up at the sky and praised each one of those stars for giving him such an exquisite angel.  What was it that gave birth to this boy so full of passion, love, and sweet intensity?  How did destiny bring them so close?  Or was it fate?  Bakura didn't care what had brought the two lovers together. 

As Ryou ran his sweet lips over Bakura's neck as if claiming him for his own.  Bakura vowed to protect this life beside him, this fragile life.  Seeing Ryou gasp for breath and holding his side this afternoon revealed how fragile he was.  "You are everything to me, Ryou.  I don't know how you could love me."

Ryou pulled back from Bakura's neck and whispered in his ear. "I do, yami.  I really do.  You are everything to me. I could never love anybody else.  I gave my heart to you alone, Bakura.  I won't ever give that up."  Bakura hugged Ryou tightly as they looked into the stars knowing this starry night, the gods were looking fondly on the couple and that for one brief moment, the universe and everything in it just seemed to twinkle all the more brighter.

NEXT CHAPPIE:  CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRIES + BAKURA= LEMON NEXT CHAPPIE!!!!