Chapter twelve is up! That means there are two or so left to go! I don't own any of the characters, so please don't sue me.

Sora grinned as he woke up that morning. He had come up with a brilliant plan to help Riku. He wasn't sure Riku would agree to it completely, but he hoped that he would at least give it a try. Quickly getting dressed, he met him in the kitchen.

One hundred-percent-necessary cup of coffee in hand, Riku regarded Sora with an eyebrow raise. He proudly stomped in—fully dressed and ready to go—and announced that he was going to walk Riku to work.

He was slightly taken aback at the suggestion. He even asked him to repeat it just to make sure he heard it right. Sora gladly told him as much again, and even added more emphasis with a thumbs-up sign.

Sora was constantly contradicting his own sleep patterns, but Riku shrugged it off. He didn't have any immediate objections, as he wasn't one to be stopped anyway. So long as it didn't interfere with him getting to his job on time, Riku was perfectly fine with it.

In the back of his mind, he wondered what had sparked the sudden enthusiasm to follow him to the drab little café a few blocks away, but Riku had long ago decided not to assess the Sora Phenomenon with too much deliberation, as the whole process just made his head hurt.

Instead, he happily poured Sora a mug full of the remaining coffee and he even opened the door for him when they stepped outside.

Had he known that Sora was just using the walk as an early morning therapy session, he might have been a bit less hasty with agreeing to it.

Sora on the other hand was thrilled to get things rolling along. Riku was a clever one, and he had to be addressed tactfully. If Sora wanted this to work—and he very much so did—he would have to go about his presentation very carefully. "Riku, how are you feeling?" Sora started, sounding a bit unsure as the two of them stepped out onto the driveway.

"Fine, why?"

Sora looked down. "Um, are you in a good mood today?"

"...Yes..."

"Are you sure you feel okay?"

Riku rolled his eyes. "Yes Sora. I feel great. Do you want something?"

Sora frowned, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Well, I just wanted to...talk to you about something."

"What?"

"Well, I kind of had this idea, and I think it's a good one."

Riku frowned. "Does it involve me?"

"Yes."

"Does it have anything to do with why you decided to walk me to work today?"

"Yes."

Riku rolled his eyes, debating over whether or not he even wanted to know. "Sora..."

He drew out his most irresistible expression. "Please? Just hear me out?"

Riku found that he really didn't have a choice in the matter, as the both of them were already walking. Grimly, he nodded his head.

"Now," Sora explained, staring pointedly at the side of Riku's face. "This is what we're going to do. As I'm sure you've noticed, you're not the only one that uses this sidewalk in the morning." He paused to wave as an early morning jogger passed.

"Yeah...so?" He had had a vague idea of what Sora was hinting at, but he hoped that he was wrong.

"Well, I want you to look at each one of them and wave good morning."

Riku's jaw dropped. The suggestion was so ridiculous he was even surprised Sora was voicing it. "Sora, do you know how absurd that sounds? I'm not five."

Sora folded his arms. "I know, but it will help you. I'm sure if it."

Riku prodded his brain for some other objections. Sora proved to be one tenacious person, Riku observed. As far as he was concerned this idea involved some fairly humiliating, easier-said-than-done devices that he wasn't sure he wanted to be a part of. He was a fairly agreeable person, but even he had his limits. "I want you to really think about what you're suggesting here. I walk by these people every morning. If I start just talking to them out of the blue, they're going to think I've completely lost my mind."

"Well, maybe they'll think you've stopped being antisocial."

"I'm not antisocial."

"Great. Prove it to me and them."

Apparently he wasn't going to win that argument. Riku wasn't about to give up though. "Sora," he began again, this time a bit more seriously. "Forcing me to look at people isn't going to solve anything. Remember what happened before?"

"That's exactly why this is a good idea!" Sora grinned, and Riku felt nauseous for an entirely different reason. "The last time, we were sitting face to face on the couch, and it was a pretty intense environment. Now you're just watching people walk past you. The encounter will be brief, and if you don't get it the first time, you can just try again with the next person." Sora's grin turned into a smirk. "My plan's actually rather ingenious, don't you think?"

And that was how the whole thing started. Sora had tricked him. That was the plain and simple truth.

Riku almost started whining when he felt himself losing the battle, but he remembered that he was in public—a point he hadn't paid much attention to until now— and his own pride wouldn't allow him to break down from a suggestion. Even though the idea had been rather simple, it seemed as though Sora had put a fair amount of thinking into the arguments for it. He would have patted Sora on the back if he hadn't been so against it. At this point, Riku was just grateful that the twenty minute walk to work was only twenty minutes.

But Riku ended up participating. It had been hard at first—it still was hard, but Sora seemed satisfied that he was at least giving it a try. The walk wasn't very long, and Riku found that Sora ended up spending the first seven minutes of it asking him (repeatedly) how he was feeling anyway. He found that he could tolerate it...to an extent. The two of them started this routine—though Riku had a lot less to do with the decision than Sora did.

"So, how are you feeling?" Sora asked, falling into step with Riku one morning. It had been a few days since they first started doing this, but Sora still felt compelled to assess Riku's mood.

"You just asked me that question three minutes ago." Riku responded in his usual manner, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Well, have you changed?"

"No. I'm still fine."

"Good." Sora smirked. "How about now?"

"I'm getting mildly irritated."

Sora paused. "And now?"

"Cut it out." Riku good-naturedly shoved his shoulder, sending a stumbling Sora a few feet ahead of him.

"I was just making sure," Sora chuckled, rubbing his nose.

"I'm not a china doll, Sora. I'm not going to break just because I'm walking to work."

"Yeah, well...you...look...like one?"

Riku rolled his eyes and sent a hand through his hair. "I'm going to have to ban you from walking me to work."

Sora shrugged, falling back into step with him. "You really can't stop me."

"That's wishful thinking on your part."

"Riku!"

Riku patted him on the head. "I was kidding, Sora."

"Yeah, well, you were awfully convincing."

"Yeah, well, you're awfully—"

Sora cut him off, nearly pulling his arm off in the process. "Look! Here comes someone!"

It was a woman jogging with her dogs. Her headphones were in, blaring some upbeat techno into her ears as her auburn ponytail bobbed up and down. Riku gulped, feeling a bit like a predator stalking prey as he watched her approach. She seemed to come in slow motion; her dogs jumping around her feet, her rubber shoes hitting the sidewalk with dull, rhythmic thumps.

He could feel his heart hammering against his ribs, Sora's eyes boring into him, and he really didn't want to disappoint him...again. The cold, nervous feeling returned, but the nausea wasn't as prevalent.

She glanced up at him and flashed a smile, nearly tripping over one of the leashes in the process. Riku bit down on the inside of his cheek to snap himself together. He managed a smile, and he briefly, very briefly flashed his eyes upward to meet hers.

The lady jogged on down the sidewalk, and Sora was slamming his hand onto Riku's shoulder blades, grinning like he'd just watched a whale being born at the city aquarium.

"Riku!" He squealed, slapping him across the back a few more times. "I'm so proud of you! You did it!"

"Yeah...um...thanks?" He couldn't help but blush. He felt a bit ashamed that he was glad over something so seemingly ridiculous, but Sora was acting like he had just scaled a mountain with nothing but a rubber band and his teeth.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"No, what is it?" Sora stopped patting him just before Riku thought he was starting to bruise.

"It's not really anything...I just...I don't know, I just feel kind of silly."

Sora scrunched his face up in disbelief. "Why on Earth would you feel silly?"

"You don't think it's a little strange to be happy you've done something normal people do everyday?"

"I don't have a problem being happy."

Riku smiled. "I know you don't, but I just think it's weird."

Sora's eyes softened a little. "Riku, you shouldn't minimize your problems like that."

"I'm not minimizing them, I'm just..."

"That's exactly what you're doing," Sora said matter-of-factly. "You can't gauge your problems with everyone else's, because they aren't you and you aren't them. Different things affect people different ways."

"I know, but...this is just silly." Riku sighed, rubbing the only slightly swollen area around his eye. It had heeled a lot, and it was now only faintly bluish. "I mean, I could see it if I couldn't swim, or get on an airplane or something, but I seriously can't look people in the eye. Doesn't that sound stupid?"

Sora frowned. "I don't think it sounds stupid at all."

"Of course you don't."

"No, I really don't think it sounds stupid. I think it's really unfair. You don't get to look at other people the way everyone else does. You can tell a lot about a person from their eyes; if they're happy, sad, bored, tired. I think it's sad that you've missed out on such an important way of communicating, and it's all because your dad robbed you of it when you were little."

Riku could only grunt in reply. He supposed there was a lot more to Sora than not being able to do household chores. What he lacked in skills and logistics, he more than made up for with heart. He supposed that he could start giving him more credit than he had been so far, after all, Sora had been putting a lot of effort into helping him. Sora didn't have to do it; he probably had much better things to do with his time. Riku couldn't imagine why he even wanted to, yet here he was, walking Riku to work every morning, pointing out people for him to wave at.

And the most astounding part of it all was that it was actually working.

"Oooh! Riku, look!" Sora grabbed his arm again, and Riku was met with the sensation that his shoulder was being jerked out of place. Along with the bruises, this walk was starting to feel like a fist fight. "Ow, Sora."

"Look, look, look! Here comes someone else!"

A little boy clutching a toy car in one hand and his mother's paint-stained fingertips in the other approached them. He attempted to pull his thumb into his mouth, but since both hands were occupied, he decided against it.

Sora was grinning encouragingly from Riku's right as the two approached. He felt a wave of nausea but he tried his best to settle it. If he could make it past this, he would break his old record of two people.

The woman seemed to have paint stains on her shirt and denim shorts as well, and Riku briefly wondered if she was an artist or simply a mom that liked to help her son with finger paint.

She smiled warmly at the two of them, and nudged her son to do the same.

"Say 'good morning,' sweetie."

Sora smiled and offered a wave, while Riku was already starting to feel drained. If this kept up, he doubted he would be in the mood to work. He sighed, wondering if breaking the record was really worth it, and decided that perhaps looking at the child would be easier than the adult.

Glancing downward, he regarded the boy with a quick flick of his gaze and a small smile.

Riku felt a little proud of himself, and he felt a twinge guilty for feeling that way. The child's eyes were big and round, almost like Sora's though not nearly as blue. It felt odd, being able to compare the two. He hadn't seen many eyes in his lifetime, so he was thrilled that he was able to remember some.

But then...

The child dropped his car.

The toy rolled a few inches and only stopped after ramming into the rubber of Riku's shoe and getting hooked in the loop of his laces.

"Oh, you're always dropping that thing," the child's mother scolded. "Maybe you should let mommy hold onto it for a while." With an apologetic smile, she held out her hand.

Riku grimaced as he knelt down to retrieve the object. He knew what was coming next. He'd have to place it in her hand...and look her in the eye.

He could already feel the color drain out of his face as he let the toy slip from his fingers into her outstretched palm.

Sora was holding his breath at this point, and, had be been sitting down, he would have been at the edge of his seat.

Riku didn't want to disappoint him, but he really didn't think he could do this again today. He was already tired and slightly queasy.

But he wasn't a quitter. It was just one more woman, one more person. Sora would be so thrilled, and Riku himself would have been happy that he broke the record from the previous day. He chewed the inside of his cheek again to focus himself, and forced his eyes upward.

The woman nudged her child. "What do we say to the nice man?"

The boy let out an incoherent string of words that Riku took to mean 'thank you,' and the two of them headed off around the corner.

As soon as they were out of sight, Sora jumped into the air, clipping a tree as he did so. "Riku! You did it! That was amazing!"

Riku tried to quell his rolling stomach. "It wasn't amazing Sora." He smiled a little anyway.

"Sure it was! You're this close to conquering your biggest fear!" He gestured with his fingers to add emphasis. "I can't imagine anything more amazing than that."

"Well...um..."

Sora was back grabbing his arm and swatting him on the back, and Riku found himself just a little glad that Sora had walked him to work that morning.

"Riku," Sora started a few moments later, crossing his arms behind his head as he walked. They could both see the roof of the café behind the swell of the hill. "Can I ask you something?"

"I told you, I feel fine."

"No, something different."

Riku shrugged. "Sure, what is it?"

"I'm just curious. You don't have to answer me if you don't want to, but I was just kind of wondering..."

"What Sora?"

"Well, I want to be able to help you better, and I think I may be able to understand your problem a little more if you kind of...told me what goes through your mind when you look at those people. I mean, do you feel like the world is going to swallow you up, or...I don't know, like they're going to eat you?"

Riku stopped mid step.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be nosy or anything. You don't have to—"

"No, it's okay. I'm just thinking." He frowned, looking at the ground. Actually, the sensations were rather hard to explain. When he was little, he thought he was going to get yelled at; perhaps hit with the butt of a flyaway beer bottle. That was what started the whole thing in the first place. Now that he was older, he knew that wasn't going to happen. but he just couldn't shake this unexplainable, completely irrational fear of people seeing his eyes. He knew it wasn't his fault that he and his mother had the same blue irises, the same lids and dark lashes. He even knew it was wrong of his father to compare the two of them like that.

Even still, a cold chill would run up his spine, he'd lose his breath, and his stomach would twist and turn like it was trying to get rid of things he'd eaten months ago. He'd get light headed and dizzy and hypersensitive of everything around him, and the corners of his vision would go dark. He would come just short of passing out, and he really didn't know why. What was he so afraid of? He knew nothing was going to happen to him. Maybe he was afraid of...

Sora tilted his head to the side, studying Riku furiously. At first he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to ask that question, but from the pensive look on Riku's face, he was starting to change his mind. Maybe it was good for him to sort through this. Apparently he hadn't given it much thought up until now.

Then he became slightly concerned, as Riku wasn't making an attempt to say anything. He looked confused, possibly upset. Then a look of denial crossed his features and lingered a few moments before quickly changing to confusion again.

Sora had gotten to know Riku pretty well, and he could tell just by watching his expressions that the answer was something he didn't want to accept.

Sora patted him gently on the back, stirring Riku from his thoughts suddenly. "I think I know what you're afraid of," he said quietly, choosing not to look up.

Riku closed his eyes.

"You're afraid of rejection."

XxX

Sora headed back down the sidewalk with his hands stuffed in his pockets. The weather had gotten cloudy again—he had previously thought it was dark because it was so early—but it didn't look like it was going to rain anytime soon. Never the less, Sora was heading back home to get his umbrella and a jacket.

He hadn't meant for their walk that morning to get so serious, especially since he was trying to make this whole thing as easy for Riku as possible. As it turned out, he had discovered the root of the problem, which he originally thought was simply a lack in closure from his father. It seemed that solving Riku was going to be difficult task at best. He wasn't discouraged at all, though. In fact, he was enthused. He had just made more progress in twenty minutes than he thought possible, and he really didn't have that far left to go. Sora was thrilled; a little overwhelmed, but thrilled none the less.

He tucked this new information in the back of his mind to sort through later. Today was shopping day and it was his job to get the groceries.

He popped into the apartment to get his coat and umbrella, as well as his car keys, and then left at a near jog to get to his car. It was parked in the back the complex in the last space on the left. He didn't particularly like it sitting all the way back there, but it was pretty much the only spot guaranteed to him every time he needed a space. He sat inside and buckled his seat belt, feeling a bit excited as he drove down the road to the nearby grocery store.

Sora actually liked grocery shopping. He had done it multiple times at home for his parents, and unlike taking out the trash, the process was pretty much the same no matter where he was. He had only done it a few times since he had moved away—originally he had traded laundry duty for shopping, but he hadn't really been diligent about it lately—Riku had ended up doing the laundry and the shopping on more than one occasion. He supposed that since he was off work today, and he wanted to alleviate at least some of the stress from his roommate, that this would be a productive way to spend the afternoon. He heaved a cart out of the cart corral and pushed it towards the automatic doors.

He was greeted with the scent of bread, citrus and laundry detergents, and couldn't help but smile. This was a chore that he could do without much trouble. The familiar scents and bright lights made him happy for some reason, and he was eager to get started. He fished around in his pocket for the grocery list.

Sora's eyes widened.

Then he grimaced. He remembered all too clearly walking in the apartment and grabbing his jacket, keys and umbrella. That meant the list was probably still stuck to the refrigerator with a magnet. He let out a groan that could be heard all the way to the dairy section and slowly pushed the basket along. He wasn't about to drive all the way home just to get a piece of paper. Though it was fairly important for this trip, he figured he could remember at least some of the items off the top of his head.

A few products of immediate need flashed through his mind, and he figured he could jog the rest of his memory when he wandered through the aisles. He walked casually down the bread and grain aisle, stopping a few feet from the wall of pastries, loaves and crackers. It was here that he found another reason that leaving the list at home was not a smart thing to do.

Each week, Riku had painstakingly taken inventory of the items in the kitchen. Not only did he write down what they needed and the quantity, he also wrote down the type. Sora couldn't be expected to do such things. As he had explained to Riku on more than one occasion, minor details were simply not in his nature to remember. Perhaps he should have trained himself to care a bit more.

Before him sat seventeen different types of bread, all of which were in similar packaging. He knew he had seen this wall of bread before. He had never been overwhelmed before, simply because he had that reliable little compass; that reassuring piece of paper tucked neatly in the child safety seat. Now he was completely lost. There were about three different brands of white, the same amount for wheat, a half a dozen brands of potato and egg breads, and then a whole wall of specialty grain breads that Sora could barely pronounce. He supposed he remembered all of their bread being white, but he wasn't sure about which brand to buy. In the end, he just closed his eyes and selected two the first brand he touched.

Setting it in the basket and moving on without looking back, Sora wiped his hand over his brow. Hopefully everything else wouldn't be this difficult. How many types of milk could there be?

As it turned out, there were more types of milk than there were types of bread. The glass freezer full made his head spin. He would have laughed at the ridiculousness of it all if he hadn't been so panicked. Who on Earth needed to have milk packaged in so many ways? If all of it came in the plastic jug he was used to buying, he was certain a large percentage of his confusion would have been reduced. He was happy that he at least remembered the packaging, and that he was able to disregard all of the cartons, glass containers and funky shaped single serving bottles.

As he feared, there were still several types of milk to pick from. All along he thought he had been drinking plain and simple milk from a cow, but apparently, he had only been drinking some mystery liquid where only a small percentage of it was actually what he thought it was. Here, he utilized the same tactic as he had with the bread, and simply closed his eyes and pulled.

He faintly wondered, as he headed down the produce aisle, what Riku would think of his guess-and-hope method of shopping. If he ended up grabbing the wrong types, would Riku still be able to prepare his meals? He hoped his roommate would be able to improvise.

Just in case, he bought a half a dozen apples and a few packages of processed deli meat.

With his roommate on his mind, Sora couldn't help but hope that he felt better. When he left him earlier that morning, Riku looked thoughtful and a little on the depressed side. It occurred to him that he could have been a tad on the embarrassed side as well. He would make time to have a long talk with him when he got home.

With more fruit in the bottom of his basket, he headed to the household items aisle for soap.

Sora adored the soap aisle, and he didn't find it to be one of his feminine qualities either. He just found a personal thrill in being clean, and just liked the option of what he would smell like when he came out of the shower. Perhaps it was one of his feminine qualities after all...

Either way, he headed down the aisle, sniffing the spring rains and the floral peaches. In the end, he decided on the Irish mist and morning dew, because they seemed to be the least offensive to his masculinity.

He settled the items in his shopping cart and finished the rest of his shopping.

In the end, Sora had managed to rack up a fairly hefty bill, and was kind of dreading showing it to Riku when he returned home. A bit of explaining and some carefully planted compliments would have to be utilized. He strung the bags on his arms and denied help from the bagging boy. Quickly, he headed to the car, deposited his packages and drove back home.

It had only started to sprinkle as Sora scurried to the door of the apartment. Apparently he hadn't needed his umbrella or jacket at all. Rather than dwell on how much it angered him, he slid all of the items into their respective cabinets. This was also something he had struggled a bit with, as he couldn't recall where things were supposed to go. Frustrated, he simply guessed, and decided to take a well-deserved nap until Riku got home.

A lot of this story is told from personal experience cough Sora's parts cough I enjoy sniffing different types of soap, laundry detergent and the like, though I like the girly ones too. I'm very forgetful, and yes, (as mentioned in chapter one) I've dribbled gas on the outside of the car. I'm also prone to being ridiculous. I don't get overwhelmed with the products in the store (I love almost all types of bread), but I do find it confounding as to why there are so many different brands. Um, if there are two brands, both for the same type of bread (ie: white), nine times out of ten I'm going to buy the cheaper one. Meh. As for my cabinets, it seems they're arranged differently every time I open them. I have no idea where anything goes anymore. XD