Chapter 01 :: Face the Fear
Water.
I have more phobias than I'd like to admit. Bodies of water larger than a tub are one of them. My sister knows this. My closest friends know this. Yet here I am, sitting by the pool.
It had taken the three of them hours to get me her. I had finally caved into their demands and tagged along with them. To this place. After that, it had taken them roughly thirty minutes to get me to where I'm sitting right now: on the edge of the pool with my feet on the second step down. In the water.
That may not sound like a very big deal, but to me it was. Not only am I generally scared of water but I'm also susceptible to panic attacks. The most recent attack occurring in this very spot only five minutes ago. I'm fine now though. Riku and Sora and Fai are pretty good at calming me down.
Well, okay, Riku's good at calming me down. Sora always freaks out when Fai or I have an attack and Fai, well, she starts to feel panicky with me.
Anyway, I'm pretty calm now, all things considered. My heart's beating rather fast but isn't that normal when you're faced with something you're scared of?
"Nyx, come on! The water's great!" My sister calls out to me from the deep end. She always calls me Nyx, like I always call her Fai. It's been like that ever since I can remember. She's my twin sister, a few minutes younger than I am. Her full name is Kadence Faithe Rae, everyone else just calls her Kade.
And me? My full name is Adelaide Phoenyx Rae. Most people just call me Adelaide. Riku's the exception. He calls me Addie instead. That probably makes us sound super close but we're not. I think we're probably just as close as he is with Sora and Fai.
"Come on, just a little bit further in, Addie. I won't let the water get you." The way Riku says it makes me blush a little, embarrassed, and I look down at my feet. The water comes up to just below my knees already, so I don't really want to go any deeper. I know they're going to keep bothering me about it but I can't help it. I just don't like water. Something like that doesn't just change, right?
Riku won't have any of that, though. Me sitting on the edge and paying them no mind. He moves closer to me and I look up at him wearily. I know he won't pull me in further or anything like that but I do know that he has some kind of plan in mind. And it's pretty obvious that it involves me and deeper water. I don't really like that look in his eyes...
"I'm right here, let's go." As he says that, he holds out a hand and a smirk forms on his lips. My heart skips but I don't make any move to grab at him. Instead, I just stare at him, and his hand, for a few seconds. That's when he gives me a disappointed look,
"Don't you trust me, Addie?" If hearts could really crack, mine would have. I don't normally care if people are disappointed with me for some reason but with Riku it's different.
Maybe it's because he's one of those few people that I care about and trust the most. Whatever the reason, I find myself reaching out to him. Even though I'm scared, I take his hand and stand up. And then I let him tug me until I'm forced to step down. Soon enough, I'm on the bottom step. The water's about half way between my knees and waist now and I feel my chest and throat tighten. I know my hands are shaking and, no doubt, he knows it too.
I take a deep breath, holding it in, and close my eyes. I think happy thoughts and take the next step all on my own. The tightness is even worse now and I feel like I'm drowning despite the water only being waist deep. I feel him gently squeeze my hand,
"Just breath, Addie." I hadn't even realized I'd been holding my breath the whole time and I inhale rather sharply.
When I open my eyes, I actually feel much better. If there is a specifically grand reason for that, it's the smile on Riku's face. After looking at him for quite a few seconds more than I'd have liked to (I sort of feel as if I was staring at him), I look towards the deep end of the pool. Fai and Sora are racing from side to side, splashing one another every chance they get, goofy grins on both of their faces. Seeing them like that makes me realize just how much fun I miss out on when they all go swimming or something together.
Riku must have noticed the somewhat sad and upset look in my eyes because all of a sudden I feel water splashing against my face. I won't lie, I jumped a little and actually yelped as I turned to look back at him. He didn't laugh but I knew he wanted to, I could see it in his eyes. I glare at him but, apparently, my glare isn't very intimidating because now he does actually let out a few chuckles.
I feel my face heating up again and, even though I don't mean it one bit, I mutter,
"Shut up!" It's a good thing he saw right through me (that, or he simply chose to ignore me) because if he had stopped laughing (or worse yet, stopped talking to me for a while) I would have felt rather disappointed, as well as a bit upset, at myself.
He continued to chuckle, though, for a few more seconds, which I was actually quite grateful for. Then he tugged on my hand again. I took another few steps, moving deeper and deeper into the water. I didn't find it quite as terrifying now but my heart was still pounding.
"Don't think about the water, just focus on me," he said. So that's what I try my best to do. I try to keep my eyes, as well as my thoughts, glued to him. Now, this is a bit more difficult for me than it would have been for most other girls. And it isn't really because of my fear, either. It has more to do with my submissive nature. I always find it hard to keep eye contact for longer than a few seconds.
The fact that his eyes always seem to draw me in does help me out a lot but even then, after a short while, I start to feel uncomfortable. And it's not very often at all that I feel uncomfortable with Riku.
Finally, I just can't take it anymore. Not only is my submissive nature starting to kick in but I can feel that the water has gotten really high. Up to my chest now. That tightness from earlier comes back tenfold and I have to focus really hard in order to keep breathing. Seconds later, both of my hands are in his and he goes to take a step back. The thing is, if he does that, I'll be pulled passed the yellow line and I won't have anything solid beneath my feet.
So, out of mostly instinct, I jerk back. I knew that Riku wouldn't let anything happen to me and he knew that I trusted him, too, because he chuckles again and steps a bit closer to me. I ask him,
"Do I really need to go out that far?"He just smiles.
"I can't teach you how to swim properly if you can touch the bottom." I had figured that was his plan all along. As much as he messes with me sometimes, he wouldn't risk me having a serious panic attack just to get me all soaked. Not only would that put him on my hit list, he'd have Fai to worry about. Plus he'd feel bad about it later and Sora would probably give him an earful too.
"Oh! You're going to let Riku teach you how to swim? That's awesome! Then you'd be able to come swimming with us all the time, Adelaide," Sora says excitedly.
"Don't get too ahead of yourself, Sora," Riku tells him.
"That's right, Sora. Even if she learns to swim now, Nyx probably wont come with us every time," Fai adds.
It was always nice when Fai spoke as though I wasn't there. But she was right, even if I learned to swim today, it'd take a bit longer to leave behind my aversion to water.
Sora looks really deflated to hear that, though, and I feel a bit bad about it. I sigh and say,
"If Riku teaches me how to swim, I'll come with you guys all the time." That's enough for Sora's goofy grin to come back to his face, for Fai to give me a big smile, and for Riku to smirk at me with a look that says
'You can't back out now.' Not that I want to back out or anything, anyway. I like the idea of having Riku teach me to swim and then being able to spend more time with my three best friends.
My little thing for Riku/Addie is growing larger.... Jez, I'm already thinking of these OCs as canons XD Anyways, I'm definitely making a sig/graphic of riku/addie some time....
