* Ryou hugs reviewers *





Bakura's Shopping Experience






Malik watched Ryou leave giving her a hug to calm her down. Malik watched as Ryou fumbled with the new piece of clothing that he knew he didn't appreciate too much. When Ryou complained, she told Ryou not to call attention to herself. When they left, Malik went to the kitchen.


"You should really go to the doctor for that," Marik told him.


"It's fine, Marik. It just needs some ice." Marik returned to Marik sitting on the couch. "What's with you staring at Ryou as if he was the first woman you've ever seen?"


Marik smiled and brushed his hair back. "Ryou's a "she" now, Malik. You must not have noticed."


Malik folded his arms. "Of course I noticed, but I did the compassionate thing and didn't call attention to his……her….changes. Ryou's sensitive about his looks."


"Hey, I can't help where my eyes go. I still love you, Malik, but I guess my eyes were just…"


"Oh, I know what your eyes were doing, yami."


Marik sighed and wrapped his arms around Malik. "I'm sorry, hikari. I guess I was just shocked."


"Next time, be more sensitive to Ryou." Malik put the ice pack on himself and put his legs up on the table.


"I promise." Marik leaned over and kissed Malik on the lips pinning him to the couch with the upper half of his body. Malik let Marik dominate the kiss as the yami's hand ran up the hikari's shirt rubbing his chest. Malik arched into the kiss as Marik's kisses trailed down his neck to his shoulder.


"Yami?"


Marik broke the kisses and his caresses at his hikari's interruption.


"Marik, I need to talk to you now."


"I told you I was sorry for undressing….I mean …staring at Ryou with my eyes."


"I don't blame you for looking at Ryou. In fact, what you want right now, I can't give you. That Ra-damned golf ball hurt me too much to do this now."


Marik whined and let his head fall on Malik's chest. Malik rubbed his yami's hair.


"I'm sorry, Marik. I'm too sore for this now. Forgive me?"


"I do forgive you, but the next time Anzu comes in here….I'm going to have to kick her ass."


Malik smiled. "Well, just don't break anything in here. The last time you fought her she broke my Osiris statue. You and Ryou rarely ever get to speak to one another. I suggest you use this opportunity to talk to Ryou. Spend some time and get to know him like I do."


Marik backed away. "Are you sure about this?"


"If I wasn't, I would not be suggesting it. Talk to Ryou, Marik. Get to know him. We lived together for a while and I've never seen either of you talk to each other. Ryou is going to need our help to get through this, Marik. He and Bakura won't do it alone. We have to be there for them."


Marik crossed his legs and leaned his head on his hand. "I will be there for them. I don't know. You know how your sister is like once a month. Can we handle two?"


Malik sighed. "There is more to this than just THAT, Marik. I suggest, to make this easier on Ryou, that you sit and talk to him…"


"Her."


"Ok. Her! Sit and talk to Ryou. Tell HER that you're sorry for staring at his.."


"HER!"


"Ok! HER! Tell HER that your sorry for staring at HER the way you did! If Ryou is going to get through this, we have to make…HER…feel loved. The first step is making Ryou feel loved and I think you need to talk together. Ryou's body may have changed, but he is still the person we care about. I know you won't admit your feelings for Ryou, but Ryou needs to feel special right now. That can only happen if we work together."


"Now you're sounding like Anzu."


Malik rolled his eyes. He wondered if anything he said sunk into the yami's brain. "Now let's figure out how and what caused Ryou to change."




************Meanwhile…..************


Bakura carried three shopping bags full of clothes. Ryou found very nice shirts, but he had to coordinate his colors. He found a purple tank top like Malik, but that did not go with blue pants, so he needed black jeans. Then he saw a hair accessory to go with his white hair, but it was red and red didn't go with purple or blue, so he needed a whole new outfit. Isis confessed to Ryou it was nice to go shopping with another woman for a change. Marik always tried to sneak into the changing rooms and Malik always tried to keep Marik away from her when she went inside. Ryou turned around to see Bakura struggling to carry the bags.


"Are you ladies done yet? Ryou, my shoulders are going to dislocate if I carry one more shirt!"


Ryou saw a nice dress in the window and pulled Isis in the store excitedly. Bakura could see Ryou was loosening up. Bakura sat outside bored to tears. While the women were in the store, Bakura sat on a bench outside. Bakura began to peek inside the bags. He saw Ryou had bought new perfume. New scents always made him feel better. New deodorant, brushes, combs, hair pieces, even some makeup were packed in one bag.


"YEAH SHOPPING!"


Bakura held his breath. Dear Ra…..not again. Anzu walked up to Bakura with Fluffy in her hands.


"How is Malik? Is he still feeling our friendship?"


"I don't know, but Marik's not going to be feeling it for a while."


"I went to the puppy store! YEAH PUPPIES! I went to the toy store and bought a dolly! Dollies are like friendship! Then I bought a new outfit for Fluffy!" Bakura looked with pity at the crab dressed in a sailor outfit.


"How can you dress a crab as a sailor? That's dumb, Anzu."


Isis and Ryou came out of the store and stopped seeing Anzu by Bakura. She looked up at them and smiled. "Isis!!!!!"


Isis sighed with Ryou. So much for the fun part. "Bakura, we got a nice new dress! There's one more stop I have to make," Ryou said brushed her hands behind Bakura's neck teasingly.


Bakura picked up the bags and followed Ryou and Isis to the lingerie store. Ryou expected to hear a complaint come from Bakura.


Understandably, Bakura had no objections. Anzu followed them into the lingerie store.


"Why do you want to come in here, Ryou?" Isis asked.


"Isis, I'm afraid Bakura won't like me the way I am. I have to buy something nice to surprise him."


"Bakura will love you no matter what, Ryou."


"I have to do this for him, Isis," Ryou said pulling out an emerald green silk lingerie. It was strapless and flowed nicely. "This is perfect!"


Anzu brought Isis a lingerie. "I want to wear this so I can show people about how revealing friendship is!"


Ryou coughed. "Please don't wear that, Anzu. For all that is holy, do not wear lingerie!"


"But this is revealing like friendship! Soft like friendship!"


Isis and Ryou exchanged glances. "This was a bad idea to bring her in here, Ryou," Isis sighed.


"Anzu, Bakura needs to hear about how lingerie is like friendship. Go out and tell him all about the power of friendship," Ryou said. Anzu ran outside and in no time, Ryou could hear Bakura growl through the mindlink. Ryou took the green lingerie and held it against her body. Isis smiled and nodded her head.


"It looks nice on you, Ryou. You should get it."


Bakura ran into the store with Anzu in tow. Bakura grabbed Ryou's arm. "Ryou, I have to go now before I take a life!"


"Let me pay for this and we'll go."


Anzu ran up to them with another pair of pink silky sleepwear. "This is sooooooo cute!! Like friendship!"


Ryou pushed Anzu away, his eyes suddenly fueled with anger that made even Bakura step back. "Just go away! Nobody cares about your stupid friendship speeches! What would you know about friendship? You hurt Malik! I hate you! I hate you! Just go away!" Ryou stormed out of the store and Bakura followed after. Ryou sat on a bench in tears.


Bakura ran to her and put his arms around Ryou. "Ryou, what was that all about?"


Ryou whimpered into his shoulders. "I'm scared, my love. I'm afraid. This body…..so different."


"I know it is, Ryou. Hopefully Malik and Marik are at home working on the problem and not getting involved in……um…extracurricular activities."


"I want my old body back."


Bakura looked Ryou in the eyes. "Ryou, see yourself for the beautiful person that you are. Because you are that to me. Man or woman, I will always love you, stand by, and protect you."


Bakura kissed Ryou gently and held her close. "I want you to get used to this body, Ryou, before we do something drastic. Ok."


"Drastic?"


Bakura looked into Ryou's shining eyes. "Yeah. Drastic. Who knows what the future holds for us. You could be turned back into a man tomorrow, and maybe never again."


Ryou looked down at the floor. "Well, I guess we'll have to see what happens. Maybe this isn't so bad, Bakura. Maybe….maybe this is a blessing in disguise."


"I'm not sure what kind of blessing it would be, but I just want you happy."


"You've made me very happy, yami, and I promise to be the best wife you ever had!"


Isis returned to them with Anzu behind her squealing loudly about a puppy she saw in the window of a pet shop.


"Does Yami have enough food, Bakura?"


"Even as a fish, he eats too much," Bakura groaned.


"Hold on, Isis. I have to get our fish some food." Ryou ran over to the pet shop and returned with the fish food. Anzu's screams could be heard around the mall as she screamed how Fluffy and lizards were friendly.


Ryou got thirsty so she and Bakura shared a soda. Bakura carried the bags. "Ryou, tell me you've got enough clothes!"


"I'm almost done, Bakura. You want me to look pretty, don't you?"


"Yes, but you don't need five bags of clothes to be pretty for me."


Ryou smiled. "I promise we are almost done." Bakura saw the candy store and told Ryou to go get him some chocolate covered cherries. Isis followed Ryou inside.


Ryou was eyeing the candy when she heard footsteps behind her.


"Hello, beautiful."


Ryou lifted her head and jumped back…..It was Timothy…..Timothy Cinetti. "What do you want?"


"You're the sweetest piece of candy in here, you know that?"


"I….I have nothing to say to you. Go away!" Ryou stammered at Tim. Ryou turned to the cashier. "Two pounds of chocolate covered cherries and one-half pound of butter creams."


"What's a sweet thing like you doing with so much chocolate tonight?"


"Isis, I'm almost done here. I want to leave."


Isis heard the edge in Ryou's voice and stood by Ryou's side. "I suggest you leave," she said to Tim strictly. "This is no place…for little boys….like yourself."


"I'm not little, lady. If you ladies need help finishing that candy, I would be honored to help you out."


Bakura ran through the door with the parcels after hearing Ryou's panicked call through the mindlink.


Bakura stood in front of the women. "Move along, little boy. These women only like REAL men. Go away."


"Find your own babes, man. These two are mine!"


"They are mine. I suggest that if you value your body, you will remove it from this store and away from these ladies before it gets injured or broken."


"Sure I can't have the one with the beautiful dark hair," the boy said pointing to Isis.


Bakura growled and grabbed the Millenium Ring around his neck. The boy froze in place not able to move. "This will hold you a good ten minutes. I wouldn't recommend trying to move anything. It will be rather…..uncomfortable."


The boy stood frozen to the floor unable to move or speak. Bakura led Ryou out of the shop.


"Thank you, yami. I was hoping he wouldn't recognize me."


Bakura grabbed the chocolate and took Ryou's hand. "Maybe he thought you were your sister."


Isis turned to the frozen boy. "Ra forbid if my brother and his yami were here. You wouldn't have left this shop alive." Isis left with Bakura.


The yami was more alert when he left the shop with the two women. "Are almost done yet? Ryou, it always took you only one hour to shop. Now we're going on three hours!"


"Well, I have to try things on and make sure it matches with everything else I got. I'm too skinny! Some of the clothes hang off of me."


Bakura chuckled across their mindlink. "Well, we better get some weight on you. You know what the doctors said."


"Yes, the doctor said I need to gain a pound, but I can't gain too much, yami."


"We'll work it off," Bakura winked.


Isis sighed. "Now you're acting like Malik and Marik."


Ryou blushed red. "Sorry, Isis."


"No we aren't done yet, Bakura. One more stop."


"Fine. I'll come in this time. I can hurry you both up a bit."


"No, Bakura. This is…..personal between Ryou and myself."


Ryou kissed Bakura and followed Isis to the feminine hygiene section. "Ryou, have you had…um…health class yet?"


Ryou shook her head. "No. I have it this year, but all we are doing is anatomy right now. Nothing in depth. Isis, can we sit down? My back hurts."


"Ryou, now that you are a woman….you must learn about….women's stuff. You do know about women's…..um..biology, right?"


Ryou gave her a blank stare. "Besides the obvious right now, I know very little. I never had my mom and I lived with my aunts and uncles."


"Did your aunts ever….act strange at certain times?"


"My one aunt cursed a lot sometimes."


Isis nodded. "Well, Ryou, now that you are a woman, your body will begin to change."


Ryou's eyes lit up. "You mean I'll change back into a boy again?"


"No, Ryou. You're going to find out, if you are a woman long enough, that you may have headaches or cramps."


Ryou's eyes widened. "What are you talking about, Isis?"


"Well, Ryou, let's just say you are going to need some of these."


Ryou picked up a box. "Tampons?"


"You have a choice, Ryou." Isis held up two boxes.


"What am I choosing for? I don't understand. I don't even know what this stuff is for."


Isis sighed. A public store was not the best place to explain this to someone completely new to being a woman. "This is not the place for that discussion, Ryou. I will tell you later." Isis picked up a box and a bottle of Tylenol. "After all, Ryou. You'll find out soon enough."


Ryou returned to Bakura outside the store while Isis picked up some other items.


"What's the big secret?"


"I don't know, but I feel like I'll find out eventually."




Next Chappie: Ryou shocks his friends with his transformation. How will they react? Marik has a heart-to-heart with Ryou.