Nervous hands fumbled with the box of bland looking mini-wheats as he put it back on the shelf, opting instead for the strawberry flavored ones a section over. Grocery shopping was a familiar practice but the setting was anything but. Ever since he and his wife had moved to Destiny City, he was still slowly growing more acquainted to the neighborhood of the small home they’d taken residence in.
Thankfully, the neighborhood was only a block or so away from a quaint little grocery store, leaving him to only have to deal with roughly four hundred and thirty-seven steps to get to the shop’s front door, then however many it took to go through the aisles as he fished around for various food items to pick from.
Usually grocery shopping happened as a pair, where he could clutch to the shopping cart and keep within a close distance to his other half, or vice versa. Lydia Kingsley was a security blanket in human form - he immediately felt relief in her presence but it was like an invisible tether. Once she left his sight, his chest would seize up and his breath would get caught in his throat. Palms grew clammy, thoughts went crazy - panic was an understatement, as far as he was concerned.
It hadn’t always been like that but ever since the accident… well, Riley hadn’t been the same.
But he was trying his best to branch out, to make things a little more challenging for him day after day. Push himself a little further each time, force himself out of his comfort zone in an attempt to return to being the carefree, fun-loving young man that he used to be.
At least, the man he thought he remembered.
Biting his bottom lip, he glanced around at the various shapes of pasta that sat on the shelf in front of him. Who in the world would bother making twenty different shapes - wasn’t one or two enough, as it was? Spirals, little pinwheels, corkscrews… they all had fancy italian names but as far as he was concerned, a noodle was a noodle.
Grabbing the nearest box, he added it to the pile as he mentally checked off his list for what he would need for a spaghetti dinner. Maybe Lydia would enjoy an italian evening. Garlic bread, meat sauce, noodles. He’d add in a bit of his favorite cheese mix for the heck of it, maybe a salad to go with…
Teal eyes paused when he was leaving one aisle to escape into another, nervous, quick thoughts pausing themselves as he spotted a flash of gold from in front of him. The grocery store’s small floral department had a display up that he hadn’t noticed the last time he and Lyds had gone shopping. There was a handmade sign -- something about raising money for DCU --- and in the small bucket were single red roses with gold gilding around the edge of every petal.
It enamored him, how pretty they glistened.
Without a second thought, he plucked one up from the bucket and brought it up to his nose. It smelled as lovely as a normal rose but the gold added a little bit of… difference to it. Pretty. Pretty and different.
Smiling quietly, he held on to it with one hand as he quickly scurried to finish his shopping - perhaps Lydia would enjoy a special little present. A rose for the beautiful flower that graced his life.
If not… well. He’d simply have to enjoy it, himself.
(But he really hoped she’d like it.)
(....But what if she didn’t???)
To Lydia:
Nuxaz
