Hello everyone! It's been a while. Sorry. So many things have taken priority over updating and...well...er...
Chapter four is up, however it's really not as spectacular as I had hoped. It's really rather mundane. Personally, I like chapter five better (It will be posted next week...maybe). More action-ey bits. Reviews of all kinds will be accepted and appreciated.
On with the story!
XxX
In the end, Sora managed to snag a job at some department store restocking shelves or whatever else they invented for him to do. His job was similar to Riku's; not fancy, but well paying. He had been working for about a week or so, and already he had made enough to cover a fair amount of the month's rent.
As for the boxes on the floor, Riku had come home every day to the monstrous pile without saying a word, but Sora could tell the slow progress of his moving was starting to ebb at his nerves.
He had tripped on a box of books, fallen on a can of car freshener, and banged into a radio hidden behind a hanging jacket all on his way from his bedroom to the kitchen. Sora apologized furiously, but Riku just nodded his head and dismissed the whole matter.
The two were getting along beautifully.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Sora asked again, as Riku hunted around the kitchen for the eighth day in a row for his coffee pot. It hadn't occurred to him that Sora would use the counter to house his collection of post cards.
"I'm fine." He muttered. "And you have no idea what happened to my coffee pot?"
Sora shook his head. In all actuality, he had a pretty good idea where it was, but the thought of digging through all of the piles of paper he had yet to store in the file cabinet in the livingroom, made him reluctant to mention it. "I'll have all of this out of your way by the time you get home tonight."
It was on his tongue to say "That's what you said yesterday," but Riku held back and sighed instead. "Alright. I'll just get something at work."
"I promise, I'll have it all cleaned up." Sora offered again. Riku dismissed him and headed for the door.
Sora waved, but as usual, Riku didn't look at him, and the whole gesture went unnoticed.
Sighing, he set himself down at the kitchen table and began shuffling papers around to give some order to the place. Riku struck Sora as the tidy type, and he knew all the clutter was driving him up the walls.
He intended to have the whole place spic and span.
He had the day off today, and could spend the entire day—minimum—putting the place back in the proper order.
Then again, there was that TV sitting all by itself in the livingroom...
Sora shook his head. No distractions. He was not about to have Riku coming home again to such a pile of wreckage.
The last thing he wanted to do was annoy his roommate—any further—so he set to work, putting coats in closets, books on shelves, and papers in drawers.
The kitchen itself was what Riku described quite eloquently as a "disaster area left behind after a lion riding a tornado reenacted World War One with a tiger sitting on a hurricane." Sora however, thought that the tiger should have been a rabbit and the Lion should have been kitten, but the tornado and Hurricane aspect of the analogy seemed fairly accurate.
Scooping up a pile of post cards, he heaved them into the file cabinet he brought along, and brought the whole thing into his room.
Suddenly, the counters were visible.
Something black and shiny was sticking out from a pile of envelopes and it caught Sora's attention. A smile worked it's way across his face, and he unearthed the object as if it were a fragile earthenware pot from the ancient fertile crescent. Holding it up so it caught the light, Sora's grin widened.
Where were his car keys?
XxX
Riku stood over a baking pan full of Profiteroles au chocolat, wondering where on earth he put the heavy cream, when the manager burst through the door.
"Hey, Riku, someone here wants to see you." He disappeared behind the door.
Riku sighed. Wherever that cream was, it would have to wait, he supposed. Dusting his hands off on his apron, he followed out the door to the front of the café.
Riku really didn't like the front of the café much. The small space and high concentration of people made him uncomfortable, and as usual, the place was crowded to almost maximum capacity. How he kept up with all of baking was a feat that Riku himself couldn't even understand. He scanned the small area closely, but couldn't find anyone he knew.
The manager, who was standing at the register, rolled his eyes. "He's at the counter."
Riku glanced at the counter, and there swinging his legs back and forth like a child at an amusement park...was Sora.
Riku was very close to smacking his head with his hand, however the curiosity for his visiting roommate thankfully distracted that notion and led him to walk over.
Sora was having a dandy time staring at the glass box of pastries. Never before had he seen such a wide variety of fancy sugar coated goods, and he made the decision right then and there to purchase something with chocolate.
"Sora?" Riku said studying the counter top. "What are you doing here?"
Sora grinned. "I had something to tell you, but right now I'm deciding which item with chocolate in it I want."
Riku sighed. "Well, there's plenty to choose from. Take your time."
...And he did. He carefully scanned each pastry until he nearly memorized every flaky, golden brown square inch, mentally calculating the amount of chocolate and sugar in each.
After a few moments, he finally decided, and turned toward Riku who was impatiently staring at an empty plate of eclairs.
"Hey, I think I want..." He stopped in mid sentence, noticing Riku had a smudge of white on his cheek, and several more covering his apron. His appearance was almost laughable, but since Sora was such a classy guy, he didn't so much as chuckle. Instead, he dead-panned "You're covered in flour."
Riku's mouth hung open in much the same way as when Sora had assumed he was blind: wide.
"Um Sora, I'm always covered in flour. I'm baking, which I might add, you caught me in the middle of. So, if you don't mind—"
"You BAKE?!" Sora's eyes widened. The image of a debonnaire waiter with a waistcoat and shiny black shoes was quickly erased from his mind into a cloud of mental chalk dust.
Riku figured he should take this nice and slow. He had learned in the few weeks that Sora was as slow on the uptake as he was cleaning up the living room.
"Yes."
"And you made...all of this?" He waved his hands in the general direction of the counter, which Riku took to mean the desserts.
"Yes."
"Wow." Sora kicked his feet even harder. "This is impressive."
Riku smiled. "Thank you. Now, what was it you wanted?"
"Oh, right." Sora rummaged around in a sack sitting on the floor. Lifting it up onto the counter, his eyes glinted mischievously. "Behold, I have found the lost treasure, the artifact that has kept man alive and kicking for thousands of years!"
Bemused, Riku crossed his arms. "Well?"
"Do not fear sir, for all will be revealed..." He paused for dramatic affect then crunched the sack around the object revealing it in all its sleek and shiny glory.
"I have found the missing coffee pot!" Sora bellowed, bringing attention to himself from surrounding patrons.
Riku wasn't sure how to react. He was grateful that his beloved coffee maker had been found, but perplexed as to why Sora would walk all the way down here with said coffee maker just to show it to him.
He settled on gratitude and left the rest to think on later for a little amusement while rolling out the filo dough.
"Thanks."
"No problem." Sora kicked his feet again, and jumped out of the chair. "I'll see you later."
"Yeah...bye."
Sora trotted out the door, and Riku was left shaking his head. Sora had such an interesting disposition. He almost wanted him to stay for a little while longer.
Then he realzed Sora hadn't actually purchased anything.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted his manager. He would be at him soon if he didn't get back to work, so he made his way to the kitchen and continued to hunt for that missing cream.
XxX
Twilight had set in, and the sky was a sort of muddled orange-purple. Riku was thankful as he headed down the sidewalk, that traffic had slowed down and the possibilities of getting run over had decreased.
He always preferred the walk home. It was quieter, more serene. If he were the brooding type, he would have had a field day.
The sidewalk ended and he crossed the street. He could see the apartment now. The lights were on, casting the dull white building in a warm yellow glow.
He headed to his room and opened the door, where he was surprised to see that he could open it, moreover he could actually walk across the livingroom without tripping and falling flat on his face.
It came as such a shock to him that he couldn't even speak. Sora was standing on the balcony watching from outside as Riku picked his way around like he had been transported to a different country. He finally came out to meet him when he thought Riku was going to start dancing.
"What do you think?" Sora asked casually, sitting himself down on the couch.
Riku stared at the floor in amazement. "It's...unbelievable. I never thought I'd see the carpet again."
Sora shrugged. "Yeah, well...hey! I told You I was going to clean it up!"
Riku chuckled. "I didn't believe you."
Sora grumbled in response, then noticed the small pile of papers sitting on the coffee table. "Oh, right, I got the mail." He handed Riku the majority of it, while keeping a letter from Kairi for himself.
Riku thumbed through the letters. There were some advertisements, a credit card bill, more advertisements and finally a letter.
He raised a silver eyebrow and turned the letter over in his hands. Silently, he read the return address.
He felt his stomach sink to the floor.