Sumiko: Hello, there! I'm Tsukuda Sumiko, and I'm known by many of my friends as someone that can never finish a story... for good reason. But never mind that. I hope you enjoy, and please leave suggestions as to how I can improve!

Phobophobia is a fear of phobias, or a fear of fears, by the way.

The reason I'm writing this story is partly because I (so far) haven't really seen any CanonxOC pairings in which the OC was human. She always seemed to be full or part demon, or, less commonly, an exorcist-in-training. So...yeah.

Please tell me if you think the characters are being at all OOC, and if so, why! (Though I do know they're probably OOC).

Another thing - this story is rather AU, as in, it takes place in an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. So, while Rin is still half demon, and nothing about what's happened in the anime or anything like that has changed, I CAN'T TELL THE FUTURE. Therefore, I don't know what will happen in the upcoming episodes of Ao no Exorcist. This story takes place in their third year, so I'll be making up a BUNCH of things, but I WILL try to make it as logical as possible (or as logical as demons and blue flames can be), 'kay? I may later on rewrite this to make it more accurate, but for now... I'll just make do with the information I have. ...Sorry about that.

Of course, if, at any time, you think I'm taking it TOO far, please let me know. A review or even a private message will do nicely. Thank you.

Now, enough of my ramblings, please enjoy!

Phobophobia

Chapter 1 - Anthropophobia

It was stupid. Just, plain stupid. What was stupid you ask?

...Well, that wasn't important at the moment. Just know that it was stupid, and Okura Midori didn't have time to explain just what exactly was driving her ABSOLUTELY INSANE on that lovely (cruel), sunny (stormy - with thunder and lightning and EARTHQUAKES AND ERUPTING VOLCANOES - never mind) day at True Cross Academy.

Because she was late. Again.

Damn it, she didn't have time to explain! Hashimoto-sensei might not be a strict teacher, but he sure as heck wasn't going to let her off easy if she missed more than half of his class!

Oh, please don't get the wrong idea, she wasn't usually this irritable - she was actually very timid and shy normally, it was just that -

Darn it all!

She hated alarm clocks. Hated it with a burning passion. Weren't they just so completely useless? Waking you up FIVE HOURS TOO EARLY one day, and NOT WORKING AT ALL the next. JUST. SO. USELESS. And stupid. Alarm clocks were just so stupid - they couldn't even wake people up on time! Seriously, COME ON! It was the only damn thing they needed to do. (Besides telling time, of course, but Midori was in a bit of a mood right now, and it was not recommended to remind her of this particular fact while she was in such a mood).

Rounding a corner and speeding down the hallway as though her life depended on it (to her, it did), Midori slowed to a stop as she realized something.

She was lost.

It wasn't her fault the building's design was so confusing! The doors and the overall interior of the building itself was all very similar, and... and most students had to memorize their way to class or were guided by the buildings they could see outside the windows next to their class.

Looking out the window through panicked brown eyes, the third-year could see the general store on her left (which she shouldn't be seeing at all if she had been going the right way) and many other buildings she had seen before, but had never known what they were used for.

Yup, she was lost. Very, very lost.

A familiar panic rose in her chest, and even though she wanted to, Midori didn't cry. She couldn't, couldn't cry, because if she did-

Ah, right. She couldn't cry. Kimiko would be really, really upset with her if she found her crying again. She was a senior now, wasn't she? She couldn't just start tearing up over such small things.

With a determined nod that caused her thin, silver-rimmed glasses to tilt slightly, Midori began to run back the way she came. It was a little more than half an hour before first period finished, and maybe if she found her class quickly enough, her teacher might not mind as much...

Five minutes of aimless running around later, Midori was sure she was going to start hyperventilating soon.

By now, a normal person might have gone into a classroom to ask for directions, but not her. And there was a perfectly understandable explanation why.

She was afraid of people.

It wasn't to the extent that she couldn't even attend school, but... Her teachers didn't call on her because her stuttering made it almost impossible to understand what she was trying to say, and her peers stopped trying to talk to her because of her tendency to run away (not literally, but...) from anyone that tried to approach her, and she only had Kimiko as a friend (and cousin, but family could be counted as friends too, right?)...

See, it wasn't too bad.

Slowing again, Midori stopped beside the tall brown door of one of the classrooms and hesitantly reached out toward the gold handle. The voices from the inside confirmed that yes, there were students inside, and yes, she would be stared at if she just waltzed in and asked for directions.

Impossible.

But... She walked closer to the looming door, a pained look on her face. If she didn't want to be even more late...

Just as her fingers brushed the handle, she heard loud, rushed footsteps, and an angry male voice that she knew she had heard somewhere before... It wasn't far away...

"Damn that Yukio!" she heard, followed by various curses.

Another student.

Okura Midori had a decision to make: Embarrass herself in front of an entire class, or kindly ask just one person for directions to her class.

...

...The second was the 'logical' choice, of course.

...But, he sounded like a delinquent... Would he hurt her for making him even more late to class...?

Maybe she should just look for her class on her own... It was the more tempting option, honestly, but Midori knew that with all of the classrooms the academy had in only one building, it could take hours before she found her class...

The student ran past her (from what she could see, he really did look like a delinquent...) and without thinking, Midori called out to him.

"U-Um!" Yes, in the language of Okura Midori, this was calling out to a person. "E-Excuse me!" Despite the fact that her voice was hardly more than a whisper, the boy skidded to a stop just before he made a turn into another hallway and turned in her direction.

Dark blue hair that might be considered a black, depending on the lighting, and blue eyes that could only belong to one person - Okumura Rin. He was in her class, she knew, because one (especially someone like Midori) could never overlook such a scary-looking student in such a high-class school like True Cross Academy.

Wah... Of all the people she could have run into...!

She really should just run away...

He was twitching, and she mistook his rush to get to class as anger that she had stopped him for an unimportant thing like directions to class. Anger directed toward her.

The girl wasn't known for her perceptiveness, you know.

"Are you...lost?" he sounded slightly confused and a tad impatient. After all, Midori was one of, if not the, the shortest students in her class, with a round face and almost child-like features, thus looking like she belonged in the middle school division. Her somewhat terrified expression only emphasized that idea.

Then again, she was wearing the uniform reserved only for the high school students and she sat near him in class, but Rin wasn't known for his perceptiveness either.

"A...A bit," Midori replied weakly. She did her best to not shuffle away from him. Which took a lot of self-control. "Our class... Um... Class 346... is it nearby...?" She shut her eyes, afraid he was going to punch her or something just as painful.

"...Yeah..." He stared at her. What was wrong with this girl? She looked almost... "Make a left turn after that hallway," he pointed to the one he was going to turn into before she stopped him, "and it'll be the third door on the right..." ...Or something like that. Wait. 346... "...That's my-" He suddenly swore, causing Midori to flinch.

He was even more late now! His brother was so going to get it later...

The petite girl could only let out a sigh of relief when he suddenly dashed off.

She got the directions, and her classmate hadn't beat her up! How lucky was she?

"And then he just ran off? Without laying a finger on you?" Kimiko asked during lunch that day. Midori simply nodded. "Hmm..."

"I wish... you hadn't skipped class today..." she told her from the opposite side of the table, giving her a sad look. They were in the cafeteria, eating at their table in the corner, where no one dared to intrude upon their space in fear of the great Nozaki Kimiko's wrath. It was perfectly fine with Midori, of course. Kimiko only waved the girl off.

"Doesn't matter, does it? It's not like you could have told me during class, being the nerd you are... Who is this guy, anyway?" Kimiko raised an eyebrow. "Was it Aachi? Dazai? Iseki?" Kimiko began to name some of the delinquents of the school (some of them were friends of hers, what with Kimiko being a rebel herself) between mouthfuls of her lunch. Not exactly proper behavior for the heir to her parents' company.

"Oh... um... I don't know, actually..." Midori lied (badly), drinking her chocolate milk so that she didn't have to meet Kimiko's eyes. Kimiko, who had not heard her cousin, continued over her voice.

"Kanegawa? Okumu- Ah, never mind that one." Kimiko's eyes narrowed the tiniest bit in disgust of the name she almost said, and Midori laughed nervously.

"I really don't remember, Kimiko-san..."

There was absolutely no chance she would tell her cousin, who hated their fellow third-year. Kimiko had told her that, back in their sophomore year, the two had gotten into an enormous fight one day, and it was a miracle neither had needed to go to the infirmary. In Kimiko's words, it had been a disappointment that one of the freshmen girls had notified the teachers before she could knock him out. Since then, Okumura Rin was a taboo name around the red-haired (dyed, of course - her parents had been furious) girl.

"Well, that's fine. Anyways, I think you should befriend him. Most of the guys look scary, but they're huge softies after you get to know them. It's disgusting. You would all get along fine if you weren't so... you, Midori." Kimiko looked her in the eye, her dark brown eyes blazing with emotion that the other girl knew well.

She wanted her to make friends. With the one delinquent Kimiko could not stand. Except she didn't know. How ironic.

"You need to get over your... aversion... to people. I won't always be here, you know." Midori only looked at her friend painfully. She had been given this speech many, many times before.

"I know... I'm sorry, Kimiko-san..." The addressed girl scowled.

"And another thing you need to do... stop it with that 'Kimiko-san, Kimiko-san' thing. It's irritating. Friends that have known each other their entire lives don't use -san." One more thing she was constantly being lectured about.

"I'm sorry, Kimiko-san..." And one more piece of advice Midori would never listen to. Kimiko gave her a faked exasperated look, before her eyes softened almost imperceptibly.

"But seriously, Midori... This guy you told me about... I know ALL of the delinquents - and wannabe delinquents, but, as I've always told you, they're the same thing at this school - and from what I've heard from you, you were just too scared to see that this guy was not going to hurt you. I mean, all the rebels know you're my cousin, and anyone that messes with my family will get a nice, long stick shoved up their-"

"Kimiko-san!" Midori's expression was horrified. Sometimes her cousin... really...

"Oh, you know I'm only joking..." Kimiko waved her off again. Then her eyes narrowed again. "Naturally, if you really were being bullied, he would have to be castrated and-"

"Kimiko-san!" A few heads turned at the normally-silent girl's sudden (almost) outburst, causing Midori to flush.

"Sorry, sorry..." the red-head grinned. "Back to the matter at hand... It sounds like you didn't even thank the guy - well, from the sound of it, he hadn't given you the time to, but... ANYWAYS!" Midori gave her a small smile. Kimiko was always getting sidetracked. "It doesn't even matter if it's this guy or one of those stupid, giggling, spoiled fan girls that can't tell left from right," here, Midori wisely chose not to mention that they were both rather spoiled, not that she ever would, "you need to make new friends. Please."

Please, she said.

Midori almost choked on her soup in shock.

Nozaki Kimiko, self-proclaimed delinquent of all delinquents in True Cross Academy, had just said please.

Dear Kami-sama, it must be the beginning of the apocalypse.

Did she really want her to have other friends that badly? Midori knew that it wasn't because the girl was sick of her - she was too blunt, and therefore would have long ago told Midori straightly that she didn't want to hang out with her anymore - but...

"This..." Kimiko began, pushing her curry from one side of her plate to the other, "this is the first time you started a conversation - even though it wasn't really a conversation - with another person - let alone a guy, and a supposed rebel - in a long time, isn't it..." It wasn't a question, obviously.

Now she was making her feel guilty. Her family member, and only friend, was worried about her. Okura Kimiko was worried about someone. Cared for someone else's well-being other than her own, despite constantly mocking other people for being 'softies'...

"...Lunch... is almost over..." Midori said, closing her eyes for a moment and standing up. Kimiko gave her a hard look.

"One week." Kimiko took both their trays to toss their half-eaten lunches. Her voice was completely casual, but Midori knew better. "One week to make a friend. It can be anyone - guy, girl, delinquent, or nerd like you, I don't care. But you have one week starting now to befriend someone, or you won't have any friends." She started walking away, and Midori, worried and surprised, caught up to her quickly. A few people were staring, but the anti-social girl couldn't be bothered by that right now.

"But, Kimiko-san, I kind of haven't ever really spoken to anyone much, besides you... What if-"

"If, somehow, everyone rejects you - and believe me, it won't happen, there'll be a lot of sticks that are gonna get shoved up-"

"Kimiko-san..." Another disapproving look.

Kimiko sighed. "That won't happen. You're pretty enough, you've got more than enough brains, and you're too damn nice for you're own good..." She started to mumble, "Always told you you needed to be more selfish, more mean, but did you listen? Clearly not," she rolled her eyes at the thought of Midori being mean, "You'll do fine. Sure people are gonna be surprised that you really aren't mute and that you really don't have an incurable case of anthropophobia - that's what you called it, right? - but the people in this school aren't cruel." Another sigh, as though talking this much was some sort of draining exercise. "One friend, Midori. I'm not asking you to get a boyfriend or become super popular by tomorrow... Though the former would be extremely amusing..." Another terrified look from Midori. "God, I'm joking." She looked down at the brunette. "Just one friend, okay?"

Midori bit her lip, but nodded anyway.

Just one week. Just one friend.

God, help her.

Sumiko: Anthrophobia is the fear of people or society.

So, I was advised to keep my chapters to 2000 words... EPIC FAIL. This was, I think, 3,000, not counting the author's note.

What would you guys prefer? Just wondering.

My friend said that you should keep it to about 2000 or else the readers will get bored, which I get, but I just... keep... typing... So I had to split my original first chapter into two.

So how was it?

Please let me know if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes. This hasn't exactly been beta'ed yet...

I know from personal experience - reviews means there's less of a chance that I'll give up on a story. So... please?

Also, just a question out of curiosity - Who're your favorite characters from Ao no Exorcist?

For me, personally, I don't really have one. Except, maybe, Shima (I don't really know why - maybe he just amuses me) and Rin, naturally.

I just HAD to rewrite this... I feel like I got my own OC out of character. You don't have to reread this if you've already read it though. I don't think there are too many changes...

~Sumiko