Author's Notes

I'M SO SORRY! I'M SO VERY VERY SORRY!!! I PUT THE WRONG CHAPTER UP! INSTEAD I PUT UP THE SAME CHAPTER!!! I'm so careless at times. Anyway I'm trying to fast-forward the time so that Anzu and Yugi could be older like when they are in high school in the next chapter so… read and review!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -_-;; I hope I can get to the romance part soon.


Friendship is the First Step- Chapter 2

"AH! I'M LATE FOR SCHOOL!" The seven year-old boy shouted frantically when he looked at the alarm clock on the night stand near his bed. As soon as you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious he jumped out of his bed and ran to the closet. Changing to his school clothes, and headed to the bathroom tripping on one of his pants that had scattered all over his bedroom along the way. Quickly, he ran down the stairs putting his white shirt on while at the same time he had a toothbrush in his mouth.

"Grandpa, why didn't you wake me up?!" Yugi exclaimed to his grandfather after he finished brushing his teeth. As soon as he got out of the hospital his grandfather took him in after he found out about the death of his daughter and her husband. There was no doubt that Yugi inherited a lot from his father. But the habit of waking up late who knows how he got that habit but it was just an occasional incident that every other kid has done before right? It wasn't the boy's fault that he wanted a couple of Z's.

His grandpa came out of the living room holding a remote control from watching T.V. He looked queerly at the anxious boy running all over the place getting his books and homeworks that he left unfinished cramming it all in his bookbag, "Yugi, what in the world are you-"

"No TIME! GOTTA GO! BYE! JA NE! ADIOS! SAYRONARA! CHAO!" Yugi shouted in a rush to his grandfather as he grabbed his things. He then swung his bookbag over his shoulders as he headed toward the door.

"Ah wait Yugi!" His grandfather tried to stop him before Yugi opened the door but it was too late. Yugi opened the door and ran outside only to encounter face to face with heavy snow falling on him. The fallen snow on the ground reached up to couple of feet or three and since he wasn't very tall on account of he was just only seven years old it reached up to around his neck. Luckily the snow finished falling but he shivered tremendously since he didn't bother to wear his jacket.

"I tried to tell you," His grandpa said looking at the shivering lad at the doorway, "I was watching the news channel, it seems that all the schools are canceled from the snow today."

"I-it's c-c-c-c-co-ld!" Yugi stuttered from the cold. He went back into the game shop; his grandfather gave him a towel to wipe himself now that the snow on him melted into water.

"You better change into something warm," his grandpa suggested. As Yugi dried himself, he thought for a second.

"Grandpa, is it ok if I can go to Anzu's house?" Yugi asked. He knew where Anzu's house was so he could easily go there without trouble. When he was still at the hospital, Anzu did what she had promised and visited him every day whenever her father took her to the hospital to visit her mother. When he was finally released, he nonetheless kept contact with Anzu. Plus they both went to the same elementary school now that he lived with his grandfather. "Maybe Anzu and I could play outside in the snow at the park."

"I don't know…" his grandfather scratched his beard looking outside, "It might be dangerous if it snows outside again, especially on the road since there has been couple of accidents occurring during the blizzard."

"Please?" Yugi pleaded widening his puppy eyes, if that didn't do the trick nothing else will either.

"Well alright, fine but Anzu's parents better watch you both," his grandfather said in caution, "I don't want you to catch a cold."

"Thanks grandpa!!" the little boy shouted cheerily and ran back upstairs. Changing into a more suitable outfit for the weather before he walked to her house.

                                                    ~*~

"Anzu!"

"Huh?" the adolescent girl sat up on her bed, her eyes half opened and her short brown hair was utterly messed up. She gave out a feeble yawn, and went back to sleep thinking she was just hearing things. She laid back in her soft warm bed snuggling herself with her blanket. There was no way in her mind would she want to get out of her bed.

"Anzu! Hey Anzu wake up already!"

"Who said that?" She said looking around her room, obviously no one was there. The voice was actually coming from outside. Anzu got out of her bed and went to her window pushing the drapes to the side of the window and pulled the shutters up. She saw Yugi outside in the snow waving to where her window was. She was excited to see him again; Anzu opened her window despite of the chilly atmosphere outside.

"Hey Yugi! What are you doing here?" Anzu yelled out to him at her window, "You should come inside my house it's cold out!"

"Do you want to play in the snow at the park with me?" he cupped his hands to his mouth so when he shouted to her, she could hear him more clearly, "This might be the last snow storm till next year!"

Anzu whined in a playful fashion, "Yugi I'm tired and it's so freezing outside and the snow is couple of feet high!"

"Oh come on! Don't be lazy now!" He pouted. Knowing Anzu, she would probably play in the snow during the first snowing or so. Then later she would become sluggish and prefer being inside the whole time while the snow melts away. And it's not because she was too old, she was only seven and she should be energetic as he is right now. "This might be the last snow we get before spring! Don't you want to play it for one last time?"

"Hmm… I don't know," Anzu joked with her head on her hand. She enjoyed tagging him along like that. Pretending that she wasn't so fervent about the snow just as he.

"Please?"

"Ok then, meet me in the living room. I have to go change!"

"Ok!" He said enthusiastically and trudged through the heavy snow he reached to the porch of her house. He walked up to the door and knocked on the door waiting for someone to open the door. Someone did and it was Mr. Masaki himself.

"Hello Yugi," Mr. Masaki greeted seeing the little boy again. Since Yugi and his daughter had been friends for nearly three years being each other's playmate, it was natural for him to kind of welcome him into the family as if he was another member..

"Hi Mr. Masaki!" Yugi smiled cheerfully. "Is it ok for Anzu to play outside at the park with me?"

"I don't see any problem with that, of course she can," Mr. Masaki replied as an answer, "Come inside the house, it's warmer here than it is outside."

"Thanks," He went into the house to the living room where the fireplace was. It was already lit up, the flames crackled. He removed his jacket and scarf on the coat hanger and sat on one of the couches waiting for Anzu who was still upstairs changing into her clothes to play outside in the snow.

"I'm ready Yugi!" Anzu came down the stairs. Jumping down on the last step while adjusting her scarf.

"That was quick, Ok lets go," He got down from the couch and grabbed his coat and scarf and wore it back on him. Anzu went to the closet on the side of the living room and grabbed her sled.

"Will you both be ok?" Coming slowly downstairs was Mrs. Masaki, after couple months of rehabilitation she was able to resume to her normal life. Even though she missed a lot of Anzu's toddler years and all, she was glad she could still make up for it by spending more time with her. On some occasions however there were times when she suddenly fell ill. But she passed it off as a side effect or maybe some subsidiary that would come back to her after her coma couple years ago.

"Don't worry so much," Mr. Masaki assured to his wife, he grabbed his keys to his car, "I'll watched over them at the park so they'll be fine. Besides stress is the least thing you need for that blood pressure of yours."

Mrs. Masaki smiled calmly and went to get her coat, "I'll come just in case."

Yugi and Anzu went out of the house while waiting for her parents; they were busy doing what else but such childish things, common in their age, as they played outside.

Anzu stared at the frozen ice hanging from the windows and the edges around the roofs of the house. She picked one out and looked at the clear pointy ice candidly, "Hey Yugi what do you call this?"

Yugi looked at what she was referring to, "I think they called it an icicle."

"An ice cream?"

"No, an Icicle," he corrected, "Not a Popsicle."

"Can you eat this?" she looked carefully at the object that seemed to begin melt from her warm grasp, "I mean that's probably why they got the work Popsicle from."

"I don't know… I mean it could be poisonous."

"Why would it be poisonous? Its only made from ice," Anzu said in disagreement.

"Well I heard a man got food poisoning from eating sushi made from the poison blowfish."

"What does that have to do with snow?" she asked curiously.

"Uh… actually I don't know," He said scratching his head in wonder why he just said that and received a sweatdrop coming from her, "But he got poison from eating it. I value my life so I don't try to eat anything fishy."

"But you just ate fish yesterday with me at lunch yesterday."

"Its an expression or art-artic-acrticu–la-tion," He tried to pronounce the big word. For a seven year old that was a pretty big vocabulary he had for someone so young.

"Yugi," she groaned, "It's a snow day! I don't want to think of anything that involves with school!"

"Fine," Yugi said crossing his arms, "Its not my fault that you're so lazy in school."

"I'm not lazy! I'm just tired since we have to wake up so early in the morning!" Anzu glared.

Before Yugi could say anything, Anzu's parents came outside. Her father starting the car and her mother came also. "Anzu! Yugi! Get in the car, you both want to go to the park right?"

"Hai!" both of them said at the same time and got into the car.

                                                    ~*~

"CATCH UP TO ME IF YOU CAN YUGI!" Anzu shouted to Yugi behind her as she ran quickly through the snow. Right after they came to the park, her parents watched them occasionally and decided to take a stroll around. Leaving both Yugi and Anzu doing whatever their rascally mind could think of.

"Hey that's not FAIR!" he shouted out as he chased after her, "You took a head start!"

"Nayh nah!" she laughed out loud. "You'll never be able to catch up to me!"

"We'll see who gets the last laugh Anzu Masaki!" He shouted as they ran through the park. The pure white snow that covered the ice on the bottom of the ground seemed to roll like waves of water or undulations of sand dunes. The trees stood dead as they were stripped off of their leaves to this dead like season. A season that appears to represent death in the cycle of life, as each season represented the stages of our lives.

She ran to the forest, passing the trees and kept her balanced as she noticed that the ground was becoming steep down. She controlled herself as she ran making sure she wouldn't fall. However Yugi didn't so he ran faster and was able to catch up to her. As the moment was right he grabbed her pinning her to the ground. Because of the hill being steep, they ended up rolling down together. As soon as they reached to the bottom, Yugi found himself lying on the snow with Anzu on topped of him. She got up and laughed helping Yugi to get up too.

"You won, you finally caught me," she smiled.

"I always win!" He boasted humorously receiving a slight slap on his shoulder.

"Nobody likes a bragger," she teased and pulled Yugi's hat down to cover his eyes.

Yugi pulled the hat off his eyes and placed it back into proper place scratched the back of his head with a laugh. They went back up and grabbed her sled she brought with them and went to the highest hill.

He placed the sled on the ground and had the sled tipped slightly on the edge. He went on the front and Anzu went on the back getting ready to race down the hill.

"Hold on Anzu!" Yugi called out behind him; with his legs he pushed them and the sled down the hill as they raced to the end.

Anzu slipping her hands on his waist hugged tightly as they descended down the huge mount. Feeling the gust of wind blowing at their faces till they finally reached to the end. However the sled didn't stop and they were heading toward a big mount of snow. Piled up by the snow trucks dumping the snow on the road to this certain area.

"Yugi! Make this crazy thing stop!!!"

"I can't!!" He screamed. "I can't steer this thing!!"

Anzu pressed her face to his back ready as they hit the snow pile in an impact. Yugi had half his body covered in snow as he sat up, he looked around for any sight of Anzu but it was no avail.

"ANZU!!" Yugi shouted, "WHERE ARE YOU!??"

"I'm here!" a muffled was heard behind him so he turned, Anzu popped up from the snow. Her legs were dangling out of the snow he realized that she was upside-down as she tried to get out of the snow pile.

They both looked at each other and laughed.

"That was fun!" Anzu giggled.

"I never expected that to happen!"

"Remind me when we're older that I should stay away from you when you learn to drive."

After they got bored with riding the sled Yugi spread his arms and legs lying on the snowy prominence creating a petit snow angel. While the mischievous Anzu gathered up a small amount of snow on the ground and rolled it all up into a small ball. It wasn't something she would call perfect but it was just enough.

As soon as he got up, something hit him in the back causing for him to fall face down to the snow. You could actually see the face print in the pallid snow. He got up to see the little impish perpetrator as she laughed closing her eyes swelling with tears at the snow-covered Yugi.

An evil grin was plastered on his face and he too gathered an amount of snow in to a ball and threw it at her. She stopped laughing and dodged the snow thrown at her. At the same time she rolled and scooped up a chunk of snow and threw it at him back.

"Ah!" As on target it aimed at him right at the chest. He fell down from the impact and sluggishly got up; Anzu crossed her arms in triumph looking at him with a smile.

"Yugi you may be the King of games but I'm the Queen of all snowball fights!"

Now he may not do a lot of snowball fights as usual compare to this young brunette but still he can beat her at her own game. He never lost to a game so he was, of course, the King of Games. He grabbed his scarf on the snowy ground and wrapped it around his neck, "Not when I'm done with you!"

She looked at him with an amused shock, "Yugi is that a challenge I hear? You against me?"

"So? Do you accept?"

Anzu said gleefully as she rolled another snowball and threw it at him, "Bring it on!"

So the Snowball Fight Began!

It seemed to continue endlessly! Ignoring how cold he was becoming Yugi constantly pelted snowballs at her in his newly made snow wall to block her snowballs however his snow wall began to weaken from each of the snowballs she threw. She dodged and darted to a nearby tree to impede the raining snowballs. His third throw managed to hit her barely on the shoulder. She rolled up another ball and threw at him seeing that his snow barricade was no more. He tried to move but one of his feet got caught in a small hole in the ground tripping him and he fell on his butt.

Not willing to pass this advantage she buried her glove-covered hands into the snow and threw it at him again hitting at his spiked head and directly at his face. Furious Yugi grabbed a bundle of snowballs and charged at her, "YOU'RE GONNA GET IT NOW!"

Anzu stopped giggling and gulped seeing him charging at her with snowballs. She turned around and ran away from him as fast as she could, 'Great Anzu you're really gonna get it now!'

Yugi was not going to let her out so easily on this one, he wanted revenge and he was going to get it now. Since he knew where she was heading, unknowing to her, he could slowed down if he wanted. Intending she would soon be at the mercy of his snowballs.

Not knowing his plans, she thought she was finally too fast for him to catch on. Thinking she was reaching to the exit of the park. She instead found herself headed toward a pond, which was frozen into ice. As both her boots touched the icy surface of the pond, she felt herself slipping from the lack of balance and fell flat on her stomach. Her body slid farther from the edge of the pond.

She moaned and rolled on her back. Only to face a certain purpled-eyed boy with grin on his face that practically scared the living daylights out of her. "Y-yugi?"

"Here! You left this!" Yugi planted a snowball right on her face.

They both laughed and continued for hours, not on the icy pond mind you. Their fun did not end for a long time.

Tiredly in the midst of their laughter Yugi fell on his back on the snow. He grabbed Anzu causing her to fall with him. Despite that they were on the ground they still went on with their merriment. They plowed snow at each other until they both were too tired to lift their arms. Footprints and snowball scatterings were all over the park just when it was once freshly untouched.

"So," her laughter began to diminish into suppressed giggles as she continued, "Who won?"

"I guess no one," he said resting on the ground next to her as they looked up at the sky, they both became tired from their fun and just stayed where they were thinking who knows what but they would know. It became sunny so sooner or later the snow would be melting in couple of days or more depending on the further weather.

"Hey Yugi?" She bashfully asked.

"Yeah?"

"H-have you ever thought about what you want to be when you grow up?"

He turned his head slightly to her, "Not really, I haven't thought a lot about it."

"Well I have," she said dreamily. She lay back on the snowy ground with her arms rested behind her head, "When I grow up… I want to study in America and become a dancer. America is a really far away place but it has a great school there. Since I love dancing so much maybe I should put it to use, some people don't get the opportunity to become what they want but I want to be able to."

"That's really great Anzu," Yugi smiled. However he then started to frown after he remembered reading the atlas during history class. Yes America was a far away place… it was overseas. He began to shift anxiously but he didn't want her to notice how perturbed he felt about it. Despite how happy he was for her. It was perceptibly written all over his face and deep in his eyes, "But it's so far away, if you go away what if I don't see you again or worse… what if we forget about each other when we grow up?"

Anzu began to notice his uneasiness about her plan to go to America even though he tried to hide it. She felt guilt coming over her as she realized that if she left she would leave him too, her best friend; despite that it was a dream that she wanted to accomplish. Sure she was just seven and on that age, children, like her, hope to become whatever their greatest imaginations came to be. Like becoming a doctor or an astronaut or anything from their wildest dreams. Who knows if she wanted to change her mind about it or not. But no matter what it was doing something that would hurt him in anyway was the last thing she could ever think of doing.

"Yugi… we've been friends for a long time and nothing is going to ruin it," Anzu slowly sat up and placed her hand on his, "Even if I do want to go I still want your friendship, nothing matters to me more than you… you're like a brother to me."

Yugi smiled knowing that she was sincere of her words. He was of how long they have obtained their friendship for so long and how she felt about him because he too felt the same way. He was like a brother to her and she was like a sister to him. They always look out for each other so… how can such a strong bond they held be broken by something that seemed to be so petty and small.

"…Thanks," Yugi responded steadily and without thought he leaned his head on her shoulder. She didn't react to his action that much so he thought it was ok. He closed his eyes not wanting to move from there. Hearing her steady breathing and feeling the slight warmth of hers regardless of the frosty cold that seemed to withheld on that point. "Anzu?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm really glad that I met you back in that hospital years ago, before you came along I felt I was helpless and lost after I found out what had happened to my parents. I felt something shattered inside me but when you came along… I felt like the pieces was mended back into place and became whole again," He said in a small voice but barely a whisper, "If you do still want to be a dancer later when we're older, you don't have to worry about me. I'm happy as long as you're happy and that's all that really matters to me… I mean it's not like we'll never see each other."

"Yeah, besides it's not going to happen to me for a long time I mean we're still little so lets just make the best of what we have," she indicated to him. Then a bright idea suddenly came up to her. "How about we make a pinky promise?"

"A pinky promise?" Yugi lifted his head. "What's that?"

"It's when you make a big promise that you can't break it," she said. "Each of us have to use our pinky and sort of hook it together."

"Ok"

Anzu held up her pinky to him, he looked at her for a while and nodded as he did the same also and entwined his pinky with hers.

"Ok, lets promise that no matter what happens and no matter what obstacles that come in our way, we will always be friends forever," He stated out loud as they shook on it.

"Always friends forever," She said in agreement and that was a promise that both cannot break since was meant so special.

"This is one that I'll never regret promising," Yugi said with a bright smile.

"I love you," Anzu said to him as she hugged him not gripped tightly but like a bear hug. She meant those words with care and honesty. The love that they both expressed to each other wasn't that kind that some had feared or some who wanted later in their life. It wasn't a love of two beings who promise to stay together as one for time without end…no it wasn't. It was a love that can never break between two individuals. Two best friends who share their secrets with each other, and know each other inside out. No… it is not that lustful kind but a love as innocent as a newborn, a love that you give to your family and your friends… it is the purest of all.

"I love you too," Yugi answered back and put his arms around her as they both watched over the snowy hills and the glacial, frosty landscape… a moment that none of them wanted to end for eternity…

A Promise to keep is so special especially if it has a meaning, as it intertwines with the most innocent love of all…



I'm sorry for not updating all my stories recently, it's not because of writer's block but… something happened and well… *sighs* Anyway I know, I know the whole winter season is over but since I live in the eastern coast of USA we still have winter and because of the blizzard we still have snow now so I can still play outside!!!