Bonds of the Soul

Groceries

"So who has the list?" Yugo asked as the four boys entered the grocery store. Yuya fished around in his jacket and pulled out the folded list. "Right here! Mom gave me 100,000 yen for the groceries, and she said we can buy some stuff that isn't on the list for ourselves with the money leftover, so someone needs to keep track of the prices."

"I'll do that," Yuri said. "I'm good with math."

"I hope the store has my favorite cotton candy bags today!" Yuya said, wiggling hopefully in the cart. "They don't always have them here. And we definitely need more baby lotion. I just bought a new bottle last week, and with you guys using it too, it's almost empty already. We should all get our own bottles so that we don't run out so fast."

Each of the four counterparts had always used cocoa butter baby lotion on their whole bodies after every bath or shower in their entire life, and all of their skin were as soft and sensitive as a newborn's. (It was part of the reason why they were all so unbelievably ticklish.) Yuto, Yuri, and Yugo had started using Yuya's lotion when they first defused, and with four people using it the bottle was running out a lot faster than Yuya was used to.

"Alright let's get the things on the list first, and then once we determine how much money is leftover we can look for some things for ourselves," Yuto said.

* * *

By the time the four boys had gotten everything on Yoko's list, Yuya was practically buried in groceries. Only his legs hanging over the top of the basket and the top half of his head were visible. But he appeared to be quite comfortable.

"Alright, that's everything on the list," Yuto said. "Which leaves us with... let me see..."

"15,000 yen," Yuri called out from the next aisle over. "Hey, Yuya? Is this the cotton candy you wanted?"

A bag came flying over the shelf, landing in the cart right in front of Yuya's face. The tomato lit up excitedly and unburied his head and arms. "Yes! That's exactly it!"

"Great! Head's up!" Yuri began tossing more bags of cotton candy over to the next aisle, grinning when he heard Yuya squeal, "Ack! Wait! Wait! Too much!"

"Last one!" Yuri tossed the last available bag of cotton candy over the shelf, before going back around to the aisle that Yuto, Yuya, and the cart were in. Yugo appeared a few moments later, holding four massive bottles of cocoa butter baby lotion. "Found the lotion! We're all still getting our own bottles, right?"

"Yep! We can afford it!" Yuri said with a pleased smile. Yugo grinned and placed the bottles into the cart before patting Yuya's head. "Still comfy?"

"Mhm!" Yuya snuggled down into the groceries contentedly. Yugo grinned and started re-burying the tomato.

Suddenly they four boys heard the sound of yelling from a few aisles down. Frowning, they made their way to the source of the yelling, which incidentally was the aisle where Yugo had found the baby lotion in. A couple of women were blocking the aisle with their carts, yelling at an employee. From the sounds of the yelling, it appeared that the employee had asked them to move their carts out of the way so she could stock some shelves and the women had taken offense to the very reasonable request and were berating the poor employee. Said employee was starting to break down into tears.

Yugo hated when people mistreated others that they believed were beneath them. Having been raised as a Common in the Synchro dimension, he'd been mistreated by the Tops all his life. But now he saw a chance to dish out a little justice. Slowly the blunana crept towards the two carts blocking the aisle, and grabbed one. Before the women could notice, he began pushing the cart away as fast as he could. By the time the two finally did see him stealing their cart, he was turning the corner and running as fast as he could.

"HEY! THAT'S MY CART!" screeched one of the women. The two of them ran after Yugo, leaving behind the other cart as they tried to catch up to him. Once they were out of sight, Yuri sauntered over to the second cart and casually began pushing it away.

The employee that the two women had been yelling at was surprised by the sudden turn of events, but it didn't take too long for her to find the situation amusing. She giggled as she wiped her tears away.

* * *

Yugo and Yuri met back up with Yuto and Yuya in the checkout aisles about twenty minutes later, having escaped the angry women, abandoned the stolen shopping carts, and grabbed a few items that they wanted to buy. Yuri had, in fact, swiped a few of his items from the shopping cart he had stolen.

"Well, that was fun!" Yugo said with a grin, placing a couple packs of wagyu beef jerky in the cart with Yuya. Yuri nodded in agreement, adding his swiped mochi snacks to the cart. Yuto had picked out some pocky for his snacks while Yugo and Yuri were up to their shenanigans. All four boys had grabbed a few other snacks and treats as well.

As the four boys checked out their groceries, they kept an eye on the price. To their delight the final price of the groceries was exactly 100,000 yen. They paid for their groceries and took them back to Yugo and Yuya's D-Wheels. Both of the vehicles had been temporarily fitted with a sidecar specifically so that they could carry the groceries home.

"I wanna ride with Yuya this time," Yuri said as the last of the groceries were placed in the side cars. Yuto gave a nod, "Alright." Yuya grinned and clambered back out of the cart. "Fine by me!"

And so the four boys headed back home, eager to tell Yusho and Yoko all about their very interesting grocery shopping experience.