Sorry! It took far longer than expected…stupid job applications…

Sora spent the majority of the day after that particularly horrible nightmare avoiding any and all contact with both Riku and Tsura. He'd stayed up for the rest of the night after the initial awakening, even after Tsura had gone to bed. Despite the fact that Tsura believed that he forgot her being there for him every night, he remembered all of the times he'd woken up and she was there. He also remembered that, last night, Riku had been there as well. And, that he'd rejected Riku's touch twice after he'd awoken. Thus the avoidance. At about 9:30 AM, Sora had left the house and started on his way to Aerith's house, it would take him maybe two and a half hours to get there on foot. He knew the brunette woman would be up by the time he got there. Aerith was one of his close friends, though she had already graduated from College the year before. He'd met her a few times on the College campus while waiting for Riku, they'd hit it off in a friendly way and had become good friends.

But despite her being older than him by several years, Sora knew that he could trust her to keep his visit a secret and not to mother him. She helped him with problems, but she never tried to control his decisions or tell Tsura about what he told her, only offer advice and a friendly ear as well as confidentiality. Aerith would only ask him what was wrong once, and he usually gave in and told her almost immediately. However, she wouldn't press for details if he stopped in the middle of telling her something. She would wait for him to speak about it. Something that not even Riku did very often. And he could trust that his silver haired lover and/or Tsura wouldn't show up at the house without warning because he knew Aerith's place was the last place either of them would look for him, since he had never told them that he went to her with his troubles.

As the brunette reached the gate to the Flower girl's house, he let out a deep sigh. Already, he felt better, even though he had not even spoken to Aerith yet. Her house, even the area outside the actual grounds, had that effect on him. It was surrounded by yellow and white lilies, as well as a variety of other flowers he couldn't identify. She'd named all of them for him once, but she'd lost him after the third kind. Though it hadn't helped that she was using their technical names and he was about as good at remembering stuff like that that as he was at Physics. As the boy wandered up closer to the front gate, he noticed that it was slightly ajar. That wasn't uncommon for Aerith's house, though, she always had people coming in to just to look around.

Aerith's property was rather large and spacious and very beautiful with the numerous types of flowers, shrubs, bushes, trees and the various ornaments and fountains, and thus it was something of a beacon for tourists. She often opened the main floor of the, rather large, house and the garden as a sort of free 'escape from the city' for the townspeople and tourists to the Islands. She'd informed Sora once, after he'd voiced a concern about theft, that everything valuable and all her personal items were behind the locked door to the upper floor. The people that came didn't always shut the gate. However, it was far too early for her to be opening up the house and grounds for visitors, and the gate being ajar like this unnerved Sora. Aerith wasn't careless, if she had left, she would have closed and locked the gate.

Ignoring the buzzer Aerith had installed so she knew when people were coming in, Sora walked into Aerith's yard quickly, glancing around the grounds quickly. Sora's unease increased when he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Things seemed a bit to quiet to him and the world was far too still for his comfort, even though it was only eight thirty in the morning. Taking a few more steps into the garden, Sora continued to look around, looking for any sign of the optimistic flower girl.

"Aerith? Aerith!" the petit brunette called as he continued to wander through the other's garden at a swift pace. "Aerith where--" As he turned a corner, Sora spotted the person he was looking for, cutting off his sentence abruptly. There she was, perfectly safe in her perfectly safe garden amidst the most unthreatening flowers you'd ever seen; though she had her back turned and was conversing with a gloomy-looking blond man. Sora cocked his head to the side slightly, watching the two for a moment before hastily looking away when the aforementioned blond seemed to notice him standing there and gestured, saying something to Aerith, before walking away as Aerith turned in Sora's direction.

"I'm sorry. Did I, ah, interrupt something?" The brunette asked quietly, a sudden wave of guilt washing over him as the flower girl approached him, her usual smile in place.

"Hmm? Oh no, Sora! We were just finishing up our conversation when Cloud pointed you out. You didn't interrupt anything, don't worry." Aerith replied, catching Sora's hand as she moved past him, leading him over to the decorative bench nearby. "Now, it's been quite awhile since you've visited me with that face. What's wrong?" she asked her voice as soft as it usually was when she asked him to tell her things.

Thinking back, Sora couldn't remember a time when he'd seen Aerith upset or angry. Ever since he'd known her, he had never, ever heard her raise her voice above the soft, soothing tone she used when speaking to him like this, or the cheerful, upbeat tone she used when speaking to everyone, including him, on a regular basis. He had never seen her show any fear, sadness or anger at anything. Vaguely, he wondered whether she was even capable of such emotions before coming back to reality and proceeding to tell his friend exactly what was troubling him and why he was avoiding both his mother and lover.

"And…and I don't know what to do about it Aerith! Riku…he…he's probably angry with me for doing that to him!" Sora said quietly. He could only imagine what kind of hurt he was putting Riku through by first flinching away from him and then avoiding him completely. And, what kinds of feelings were bubbling under that hurt. The brunette teen was convinced that Riku would hate him.

"Sora, I can't speak for Riku and say that he isn't angry. Though I can't see why he would be. But, instead of coming here to avoid him, you should be talking to him, don't you think? Explain what happened. Apologize to him if he is angry." Aerith suggested leaning over the side of the bench to fix a flower arrangement nearby. The teen nodded absently, thinking about the other's advice for a few moments. He should be getting back, and he should be talking to Riku but…he was still so worried. Looking up, he noticed that it was roughly noon, meaning he still had the majority of the day to think about what to say to Riku. Looking back at the flower girl after a moment, Sora stood and flashed an almost real smile.

"Thanks, Aerith. I should be getting back, Tsura will start to worry. See you." He said, waving as he made his way through the garden and back onto the street. He wasn't going to go straight back. He had a bit of munny on him, so he'd decided to hang around the town for a little while, think about what he should be doing.

In his wanderings, the brunette teen came across several of his friends from school; he stayed with them for a few hours, until they decided to go into a local club. That was something Sora absolutely refused to do, despite his age. Clubs just made him…awkward. Seeing a stand close by, the teen pulled out his remaining munny and counted it, smiling just a bit as he figured out that he had enough for Sea Salt Ice Cream. After buying the snack, Sora continued to wander, finding a grassy patch by a Paopu tree, the boy sat, finishing his ice cream. Lying back on the grass, Sora sighed a little closing his eyes, enjoying the waning sunlight as it played over his face. He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he remembered was feeling a foot nudging his side lightly.

"Hn? What is it?" the boy asked in the voice of someone who was still half-asleep as he opened his eyes, squinting at the person above him. "Kairi?" he asked sitting up fully and looking at his boyfriend's sister.

"Hey, lazy bum. I've been trying to wake you up for about twenty minutes now. The sun's gone down, I figured I should." The redhead replied, flashing a smile as she extended a hand to help him up. The brunette accepted her hand and pulled himself up. At his full height like this, he stood at least a head taller than Kairi.

"Your mother has been fretting all day because she couldn't find you anywhere, she's worried sick. She called your friend, Aerith, and then sent Riku and I out looking for you when you didn't come home for dinner. Whatever you're trying to avoid, you can't dodge it forever. C'mon, I'll walk you home." Kairi said, tugging on his hand in the direction of home. Sora followed reluctantly, though he knew she was right. He couldn't avoid Tsura and Riku forever. Silently, the two teens walked home, and Sora was acutely aware that her hand never left his. Whether or not this was because she was afraid he'd run away if she did or for some other reason, was beyond him.

As the reached their street, Kairi slowed her pace a bit and Sora was reminded greatly of the last time he had walked home with Riku, after their dinner with Roxas. Shaking his head a bit, the boy took the lead, so that he was leading Kairi instead of the other way around. As they reached Sora's driveway, he released her hand, turning to say goodbye. However, his farewell was cut off as the redhead abruptly leaned up and kissed him.

The brunette blinked a couple times, and returned her kiss out of habit, and he really had to admit, that it was nice. Then, suddenly, a flash of silver caught his attention and he snapped back to reality as his eyes focused on where the flash had come from, a second later, Riku stepped into the open, causing Kairi to pull back and look down, shamefaced. His aquamarine eyes were as cold and hard as stone they mirrored as they glared, first at Kairi, and then at Sora where they lingered, his lips were a solid line across his face.

"Riku I—" Kairi started, but Riku held up a hand to his sister, stopping her speech.

"Go inside, Kairi."

"But I—"

"Go." Riku growled at Kairi, who flashed an apologetic look at Sora before rushing passed her brother into the house. Riku's stony gaze was still upon Sora, who was now shaking in a mixture of fear and shame as he looked away from his lover. The look he had was almost an exact mirror of what it had been in his dream the night before. Immediately, tears welled in the brunette's eyes as Riku moved towards him, eyes still cold and hard.

"Riku—" Sora started, taking a step forward, intending to explain things but he was stopped as Riku moved away and raised his hand, in the same gesture he'd used to stop Kairi's explanation.

"Sora."

"Yes?" Sora replied his trembling stopped as his blood turned to ice at Riku's detached tone. He obviously wasn't interested in whatever Sora had to say, which was a virtual first for him, because, even if he wasn't interested, he still listened.

"Go home."

That was all Riku said before spinning and stalking away from both Sora and his own house, leaving Sora standing alone in his dark driveway, torn between following him to try and explain, and going inside to reassure Tsura that he was fine.

There we go! That actually took a whole lot longer than I expected it to… and this chapter doesn't have a lot of Riku in it…and where it did, I think he was a little Ooc, same with Kairi…but the next one will have lots of Riku! Promise!

If it isn't very good, or starts off boring let me know, the majority of the second half was written between 3:00 and 5:00 am…so if that part is better, I'll try to write stuff in that time frame.

Reviews/Suggestion on what I should do next=love/cookies

Constructive Criticism=cookies

Till next time

--Star