Noa was living in a state of shock.   The day that followed the night at her internship passed in a blur; if she were to be asked, she would never be able to recount what she did, or who she spoke to. It was a miracle that she made it without any accidents; she had no real recollections of anything, with her mind being too stuck on the past. She was pulled back to the present, however, as her next shift at Safeway came along; suddenly all that she could think of was who would be there, and what would happen in those few hours that she would spend there.   Her heart was already racing – with what, excitement? It couldn’t be excitement – when she walked into the store for her next shift. She scanned the front but he was nowhere to be found, giving her a free path to the breakroom to clock in, or so she thought; she had just reached the end of the ice cream aisle when the receiving doors swung open at the back and Hikaru emerged, his right arm free of its sling and his left hand pulling a pallet of bread behind him. His eyes landed on her and he stopped completely in his tracks, though the pallet didn’t; it rolled right into the back of his legs, causing his face to screw up as he cussed aloud in pain. Noa took this moment of distraction to leave, heading quickly to the back to clock in and compose herself. Just the sight of him brought the memory back to her mind and her lips; she took a minute longer than usual and calm down before she went back out, making her way tentatively back up to her register.   She spent five hours with as much of her back turned to the store as she could manage, focusing only on her customers and what was in front of her. She assumed that Hikaru was avoiding her, as well; she didn’t catch another glimpse of him for the duration of her shift. She supposed that it was for the best that way; for her sanity, she didn’t really need to see him. It was towards the end of her shift when Owen came to her register, to inform her of the items that were close to the sell by date in the break room; he always gave employees the chance to buy them at 75 percent off before they were donated or thrown out.   “Are you allowed to do that?” she inquired of him, frowning curiously.   “What they don’t know won’t hurt them,” he said with a shrug. “Besides, there’s all kinds of people in need; you should see how much stuff Hikaru is buying.” Owen paused, glancing around before leaning closer to her. “Actually, can you help them take some of that stuff home? He insists on working, but I would feel better if he had some help carrying it.”   This was not something that Noa could disagree with. She didn’t like the fact that Hikaru was disobeying doctor’s orders and working; would she really let him risk causing more injury to himself, just because of what was going on? They would have to face each other eventually, she supposed.   She found him in the breakroom, attempting to carry eight bags of groceries in one hand.   “What on earth did you buy?” she questioned immediately, forgetting about the tension between them in the wake of this ridiculous sight. Hikaru froze, glancing back at her and then away again quickly.   “Food,” he responded gruffly, fussing with his bags again. “It was practically free.”   “So that means you buy it all?”   “Look, I’m not on a meal plan, alright?” Hikaru snapped. “Mind your business.” Noa sighed, shaking her head as she walked over to him.   “Give me some of those.” She reached for the bags and he retreated from her, alarmed. “Do you want to wreck your other arm, too?” Noa demanded. “Let me help!” After a while he relented, letting her take half of the bags from him; she noted that he made it a point to keep the heavier bags with him and rolled her eyes. “See? Now how hard was that?”   “…Shut up.” They left together, Noa following Hikaru’s lead as he took them on his usual route home, embarking on the ten-minute walk from Safeway to the bus stop on De Haro Street. Their commute was silent, for the most part; they stood on opposite sides of the walkway at the front of the bus and avoided gazes for twenty minutes, only coming back together when the bus let them off at the corner of 7th and Market Street. The last walking leg of their trip was marginally shorter than the first; they moved steadily through Tenderloin, until the six story building with the convenience store on the base came into view.   Already, the scent of Hikaru’s apartment was familiar to Noa, because it was him; masculine and smoky, but not enough to repulse her, as smokers usually did. They set the bags down on the floor in the kitchen area and she immediately began putting things up, using intuition to figure out his cabinets and tiny pantry space.   “Don’t you have something else to do?” Hikaru demanded of her suddenly; she glanced over her shoulder to find that he had taken a seat at the island-slash-dining table, his brow furrowed as he watched her. Noa smirked.   “Nope,” she responded, turning back to her task. “I’m done with everything for the day, so I’m free to keep you from doing too much.”   “I can put up my own groceries.”   “I’m sure you can, but you don’t have to.” Hikaru kissed his teeth.   “…Put the bread in the freezer.”   In no time the groceries were put in their proper places; Noa finished with the bags and turned to him, placing her hands on her hips.   “I would ask if you needed anything else, but you would just bite my head off.” Hikaru rolled his eyes.   “There isn’t anything else, anyway.”   “You work tonight?” Hikaru nodded. “I’ll let you get some sleep, then.”   “Noa.” Noa stopped on her way out as she had done before, turning to look at him; he stood from his seat, walking over to her. “Thanks,” he said begrudgingly, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. “You didn’t have to do this.” Noa smirked.   “Quit being a baby; it’s fine.” They stood quietly for a moment, facing each other, as the elephant in the room grew larger.