Hey! This is Sen the Spectacular! Coming to you live from... wherever I'm coming to you from... That's classified information. I also have a special guest today! Can you guess who it is? Of course not! It's one of my favorite authors, Captain Mishiro! Say hi Cap'n!

CM: Hi Cap'n...

And this is the third chapter of "Romantics of Friendship", and you've all been waiting patiently, so here's your reward! (Although I didn't get as many reviews as I wanted...) I'm very sorry for the wait. So here it is!

"Get down, all of you! Now!" yelled the man. He held a gun high above his head and a bag at his side. Sora stood in a daze, unable to fully comprehend the situation. He ducked behind a counter before the man could see him. Sora managed to sneak a few peeks at the man while he was sidetracked with the others. He was a tall, lean man, wearing a black leather jacket and a ski mask of the same color. The mask muffled the man's voice , which made him even more frightening.

What do I do, Sora thought. He could feel his phone weighing down his pocket, but he wasn't sure he had enough time to call the police. The man was right toward where Sora was hiding. Sora gasped, and the man heard him. He lifted Sora up by the scruff of his neck and put him in front of the cash register.

"Open it," he commanded Sora. Sora had to stall. Somebody should have tried to call the police by now.

"I can't," Sora lied, "I don't know the security code ." The man pointed his gun at the center of Sora's head.

"Open it... now." The man seemed to be hesitating. "Come on. I don't want to hurt you, kid. Just open the damn register." Just then, Mr. Sukiyaki came from his office.

"What's all this rumpus?" he yelled. His eyes widened as he scoped out the situation. Sora was standing behind the cash register. A large man was holding a gun to his head. The customers, and the paying customers at that, were huddled on the floor in fear. Now some people handle situations differently. There are those who handle situations calmly, and those who panic and run around yelling whatever comes to mind. It turns out Mr. Sukiyaki was one of those people. He began frantically running around in circles.

"Oh! Oh! Oh my goodness!" he yelled. "A burglar! An armed burglar! Somebody! Quickly! Call the police! Call the military! Oh! Oh! Oh! What do we do? What do we d–" All of a sudden, a loud crack was heard, and Mr. Sukiyaki fell to the floor. A dark puddle began to form beneath him, and it grew larger and larger as each dreadful second passed.

"Mr. Sukiyaki!"Sora yelled. He lurched toward him, but stopped when the gun was pointed back in his face.

"Now ya see, kid?" the burglar asked. "I ain't messin' around. So open the god damn register!" The door to the coffee shop opened. Riku walked in.

"Hey Sora! I thought we'd get...lunch..." Riku's cheerful smile suddenly went blank. His eyes drifted from the burglar, to Sora, to poor Mr. Sukiyaki on the floor in a rapidly growing puddle, and then he understood.

"And just what the hell do you think you're doing?" the burglar yelled at Riku. He lunged toward Riku, his gun pointed at Riku's heart. I have to help Riku, thought Sora. As the burglar approached Riku, Sora came up behind him and attempted to put him in a chokehold, but failed miserably. Sora clung to the man's back with all his might, but was quickly thrown off. He slid across the floor into an elderly couple that was taking refuge under a table.

"Sora!" Riku yelled in worry. His anger grew with every breath he took as he watched Sora laying motionless on the floor. "You..." he spoke to the burglar, his rage finally at its peak. "You hurt...Sora. And that, I cannot forfive..."

WHAM!

Riku's fist plunged into the burglar's masked face, sending minuscule drops of blood flying through the air. The gun was thrown out of the burglar's hand, which gave Riku courage to know that the burglar did not have the upper hand. Punches and kicks were thrown from either man, and the hostages gasped every time their hero, meaning Riku, received a blow. Sora slowly regained consciousness and lifted his head to see Riku in some sort of brawl with another man. The memory of the current situation flushed back into Sora's mind. He felt a strange need to protect Riku. He couldn't explain why, but this need drilled itself into every fiber of his being, pulling him up from the floor, and pushing him toward his fate. His legs felt like jelly, and they wobbled awkwardly as he stumbled his way across the shop. He gained speed, and rammed himself into the burglar, driving him right into the path of Riku's power kick.

BAM!

The burglar's head received a powerful blow, and he fell to the ground.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" Sora asked in a surprised tone.

"Well I need something to do when I'm not taking classes. And so I thought karate would be a good thing to try." Riku said, rather impressed with himself. As the two boys talked, they had not realized that the burglar was still conscious. He scrambled across the floor while the boys were distracted and reached for his gun. From the floor, he silently aimed for the back of Sora's head. Riku saw the man just before he squeezed the trigger, but the only reaction he could make was to push Sora out of the way.

Now I am sorry to interrupt you during one of the most suspenseful parts of this fanfiction, but if you're as critical as I am– critical here meaning "judgmental and somewhat picky"– you might be asking yourself "Why would Riku do such a dangerous thing?" I, being the author, feel obligated to tell you exactly why. Ever since their childhood, Sora was the victim of bullying and humiliation. Riku was one of the more popular children, and it killed his reputation after he became friends with Sora. Riku had always stood up for Sora, through thick and thin, and since then, nothing has changed. Anyway, back to the story...

Riku pushed Sora aside before the trigger of the gun was pulled, but couldn't move himself out of the way before the bullet shot from the gun and pierced his chest through and through. Riku's eyes widened as he realized what had just occurred. What is this feeling? My body's growing cold, and when did I get on the floor? Questions raced through Riku's mind as his brain replayed the moment over and over again like a broken record. He could hear sirens off in the distance. Another loud crack, and the sirens grew louder. Sora was holding Riku in his arms, tears streaming down Sora's face.

"Riku! Riku! Can you hear me? Say something!" Sora's breathing became stifled between sobs. As difficult as it was, Riku managed to mutter a few words at a time.

"Stop crying. It's not a good look for you."

"Like I could possibly care about how I look right now," Sora said as he self-consciously wiped a few tears from his eyes.

"Where's the burglar?" Riku asked. Sora sighed, not wanting to think about him.

"He's on the floor. He committed suicide when he realized he couldn't get away once the police showed up."

"Police?" Riku questioned. He had been so focused on the searing pain in his chest, that he hadn't noticed the flood of authorities coming through the door. He turned his head and tried to sit up, but the pain retaliated against him and forced him to lay back down.

"Don't move," Sora pleaded. Riku's pain made Sora cry even more.

"Sora, there's something I need to tell you." Riku's chest began heaving as he struggled for breath.

"What Riku?"

"I... I'm..." But he couldn't finish his sentence. He drifted in and out of consciousness, and finally passed out in Sora's lap.

Beep!... Beep!... Beep!...

The steady beeping of the heart monitor continued in time with Riku's breathing as he slept on the hospital bed. Sora sat on a stool next to him. He whispered to Riku without waking him.

"Riku, there's something I need to get off my chest. I know you can't hear me, but I know, somehow, that my words will reach you. I've only just been noticing this, but earlier today proved my feelings to be true. I love you, Riku. " Tears started to flood back to Sora's eyes, so he decided to go. He got up from from the bedside stool and turned to leave, only to find that something was pulling on his shirt. Riku groggily looked up at Sora, not fully awake, but not unconcious either.

"S...Sora." Riku whimpered. "Stay. Don't leave me." Sora couldn't refuse. He sat back down and held Riku's hand.

"I won't leave you, Riku. I'll always be here."

AW! Wasn't that ending just adorable? I thought so. Again I say, I'm sorry for the wait of this chapter, but I just had a bunch of stuff going on, and I was being lazy about it. Excuses, excuses... Well, I hope you all enjoyed it. The next installment of: Romantics of Friendship will be up soon, and let me tell you, it's a good one! Ta ta for now my beloved readers!

~Sen the Spectacular