We Were Blind

-3-

Kaoru chuckled to himself, pocketing his phone after hanging up on his brother's obnoxious rambling. He sounded like he was under a great amount of distress, but he could only laugh at him.

He felt bad for the poor blind girl, but it did get Hikaru out of his hair for once. He couldn't believe how quiet the office and he was only gone for a day.

An interesting six months, Kaoru mused, and took a sip of his coffee, noting to himself again how peaceful it was.

Until someone slammed the door opened with a loud thud and would have spit his coffee all down the front of his shirt if he didn't just choke on it.

"Kaoru," his other announced from the doorway, ignoring her son's slated glare as he wiped his sleeve against his mouth. "Is Hikaru back yet? I have to ask him something."

He almost didn't want to answer that.

"You're almost as bad as Hikaru." He sat back, clearing his throat. "He's serving his community service remember? He won't be back for awhile."

"Oh," trained to not wrinkle her forehead, her lips puckered in her pout, but she recovered quickly, and and moved her hands behind her back to quietly shut the door. Liking this new source of fun gossip. "Right. And how is community service treating him? Is he crying to come home yet?"

Kaoru hesitated, thinking back on their phone call a few moments ago. His brother most definitely crying, if not close to it. "It's great," he grinned, pushing his chair back, kicking his feet up on the desk. "You know how he is, he's a people pleaser. He's trying his best to make a good impression."

Yazuha raised her brow skeptically Hikaru? A people pleaser?

"We'll... there's a first time for everything." She muttered. "It's a good for him to learn some responsibility, I guess, especially with the wedding coming up."

The mention of the wedding made Kaoru's face curl in a nasty scowl, but he spun his chair around, turning his back to her before she could see.

"I wonder why he chose service work instead of just paying the fine," she wondered out loud, pressing a long painted nail against her tinted pink cheek. "Could it be he really is trying to make a good impression?" Then, she gasped and Kaoru almost spilled his coffee a second time all over his sketchbook. "I knew he'd come around to this whole marriage thing. Mr. Tanaka was already so charmed by him."

He sighed. "I guess."

It didn't take long to charm a guy like Daishi Tanaka. All Hikaru had to do was buy him dinner, with credit, and flaunt just how many credit cards he had. Daishi was rich of course, to a certain degree, but his family wasn't anything impressive, and no history at all. He was a man who got lucky one day with the lottery, bought and sold a couple small businesses and labeled himself a wealthy business man. They were practically gold dust to him, and he drooled over a pretty hand full of cash, but they wouldn't benefit from someone like the Tanaka's, simply because they had nothing to offer, so Kaoru could only wonder why his mother would suggest such a fruitless marriage.

Then again, Hikaru was the idiot who agreed to it.

Kaoru looked up from his lashes, watching his mother twirl around his office, muttering about how great of an article this community service ordeal was going to make and how Hikaru's image after this was "going to sparkle."

"Oh, and Kaoru," Yazuha spun around as she swung the door open. "We're having the Tokoyami's over for dinner tonight. Wear something nice."

She disappeared behind the door before she could hear his inwardly groan before he threw himself into the back of his chair.

Fabulous. Tokoyami had three daughters his age, of course his mother wouldn't miss that opportunity.

At least Hikaru's having fun.

Hikaru wasn't having fun.

He shifted, and turned, then rolled over. A draft hit his bare shoulder and he pulled at the blankets, but then his feet were cold. He realized his nightmare was not yet over, when he opened is eyes and stared into the poorly textured ceiling, then, grudgidly turned over onto his other shoulder, ticking off everything little thing in his head that had personally offended him in the last twenty-four hours.

Namely the stupidly tiny couch.

He turned over again, stretching his arm out until it popped.

This was unfair punishment. He was totally suing.

He wasn't sure who he'd sue, but somebody was getting sued.

Hikaru closed his eyes again, but a sudden, familiar clanking sound of glass against wood made him sit up straight, but he didn't see anything, until he heard a hushed curse from behind him, and nearly threw himself over the head of the couch to see the other half of the tiny house. He was half expecting to see a giant mess of broken glass of the table, but there was only a slightly slipped, half empty cup of water. He eyes followed the shaking hand clutching the plastic water pitcher to a head of messy brown hair, sticking in all different directions.

It looked like stingy attempt to try and prove that she could pour a glass of water herself. It only proved she couldn't, but he had to admit, she was persistent.

"What're you doing?" He grumbled groggily.

"Oh," Haruhi muttered, making sure to turn her back towards him. "You're still here."

"Obviously," he huffed. "Quit making a mess. You're cleaning that up yourself."

"I don't need you to tell me what to do."

Hikaru rolled his eyes, throwing off the flimsy blanket as he sat up. "Whatever. Go make me some coffee."

"Make you coffee?"

"Non-fat frappucchino, quad with extra whipped cream, vanilla and chocolate sauce."

Haruhi glared absently at the table, wondering what quad even meant. And what was the point of a non fat frappacchino with chocolate sauce? That was the coffee equivalent of ordering a large hamburger and a diet soda. Stupid rich people.

She hugged herself inside her large hoodie and huddled back the kotatsu blanket. "Get it yourself."

"It's the least you could do for all the trouble you caused me yesterday."

"Just die already."

Hikaru turned to look at her, silent until she moved to take a sip of her water. "I'm naked on your couch right now."

She started to choke.

She fought with herself. She felt that if she thought hard enough, the image she was trying to see, would be able to piece itself together in her mind. Everything was a guessing game, as she stumbled, lost in her own house. Not being able to know what she was grabbing on to, where she was stepping, which direction she was walking.

It was dark when her eyes were closed, and even darker when her eyes were open. The world was moving around her, but it felt her fumbling desperately in it's shadow. She could hear footsteps, and voices. She heard the wind rattle against the windows.

She held onto the memory of what everything used to look like and hoped it was still the same. She cowered away from anything unfamiliar, holding onto the fact that what you can't see can hurt you.

If it was up to her, she'd never leave her apartment. It's walls were silhouetted beyond her eyes. Every crack in the paint she caressed with her fingers made her feel secure. Anything further than her front door might as well be miles of raging infernos.

"Get up, we're going out."

Haruhi jumped, as there was a loud clap and almost dropped the book in her hand she could see.

She looked up. The amount of power she could muster into her scowl was impressive, despite not knowing what she was looking at. "We're what?"

Hikaru now stood in the doorway, tapping his foot. He was in the bathroom for almost an hour fixing his hair, and would have thought she'd at least be dressed presentably, but she was still in the last place he left her, in her baggy man hoodie and sweats. He thrust his finger towards her bedroom door. "I'm not taking you out looking like that. Go get dressed."

Haruhi snuggled stubbornly back under the blanket on the sofa, and closed her eyes. "I'm not going anywhere. Leave me alone."

He rolled his eyes so far back he almost saw the back of his head. Which would probably be a better view than her. "I'm not going to be trapped in here all day. We're going outside." He informed obnoxiously. "It's not going to kill you."

She rolled onto her side to face the couch. "Leave then. I'm staying here."

"I can't." He snapped in a groan. He'd lost count how many times he'd done that today, and it was only ten a.m. "Dear old dad said I'm not allowed to leave you home alone. Now... go get your pants on."

She ticked her tongue. Of course her father would be that paranoid. Being blind was serving to be more of a pain than she thought.

"If only I was deaf instead so I couldn't hear you talk."

"Oh no, I'm so offended. And I enjoy our conversations so much. You're such a joy."

"Whatever," she grumble and pulled the blankets over her head, hoping that If she ignored him, maybe he would go away. "I don't care what you do. I won't tell him. Anything that'll get you away from me for for an hour. Or better yet- don't come back."

Hikaru's stood tall over the couch, arms crossed tightly under his chest.. He was about to throw his arms up and say 'screw it'. He'd do anything for five minutes away from her, and to hell with what his social worker will say, until he heard a distinct sound that suspiciously sounded like a grumble, and it didn't come from her mouth.

Hikaru glared at the tiny lump in the blanket. "You didn't eat dinner last night, did you?"

Of course she didn't, he answered himself. He should have known that last night when she didn't come out of her room. It left a familiar knot in his stomach, that Kaoru would sometimes call 'guilt', and leaving the very blind girl he was supposed to be taking care of to starve was admittedly not something a good care taker would do, but he didn't see how that was his fault. It wasn't his responsibility to feed it, too.

...Was it?

It didn't take him long to realize that it probably was.

Oh no, I forgot to feed it.

"You really do need help." He sighed, and when no further sounds came from the lump, he prodded it with his foot, before leaning over with his hands on his knees, whispering to the lump as if it were a puppy. "If you're good, I'll give you a treat-"

Which only resulted in a foot flying out of the blanket and swiftly kicking him in the stomach.

But he didn't give himself time to cry about it, as he quickly grabbed her ankle and jerked her out from under the blanket, almost pulling her out onto the floor. She gasped and tried to kick him away but he grabbed a hold of both her feet and pulled her close against him, until she was straddling his waist.

Haruhi winced, feeling him press into her.

"Rule number four," he growled under his breath, leaning in close to he r face as she tried to turn away. "No hitting."

In all the things she wish she could see, she mused, as she felt his warm breath brush across her lips, she was glad she couldn't see him.

She twisted, and tried to turn away, but his hands moved from her feet to her wrists and trapped her beneath him. The more she struggled,the more he tightened his grip.

"Let go," She hissed.

"Listen, girl," he clenched his jaw, trying fruitlessly to hold eye-contact, to establish dominance, until he realized that was pointless, as she stared coldly into his chest. "I've tried to be nice-"

She scoffed. "Tried?"

"And I'm not getting a bad mark because little miss attitude wants to be independent," he continued. "You're blind, so I'm in charge. And we can either do this the easy way, where you do what I say, or the hard way, where I tell your father you're too difficult to live with and too incapable to live on your own."

"So go brush your hair." Hikaru added, getting a sick kind of thrill watching her flinch from his words. "Because I doubt you want to live in a special facility where they keep someone like you."

"He wouldn't believe you." She muttered, defensively. "He knows I'm fine on my-"

"If he thought you were fine, would he have called for someone take care of you?" he whispered close to her face, feeling her chest rise against his as she held her breath. "I bet you you can't even tie your own shoes. Is that why you don't want to go? You've been in the same clothes since I got here, you probably can't even dress yourself."

She went quiet.

She wanted to argue, that of course she could, she just didn't feel like it, but that sounded like more of an excuse to not do it, than anything else and probably wouldn't sound very believable. She said nothing, with her tongue in her cheek, as she recoiled against him, and he started to laugh, knowing he was right again.

Hikaru dipped his face close to hers again, taking too delicate fingers to lift her chin until her eyes could find his. "If you're having trouble, I could help you."

Her face turned ten different shades of pink before it settled on a pretty tint of red and he laughed again.

"I-...I'm not!" She shouted, flustered, trying to kick him away.

"Are you having lewd thoughts?" he teased thoughtfully, smirking as she scrambled onto her feet. "Don't get excited, I'm not attracted to girls like you."

There it was again. "Like you" said like as if she was some type of animal, He was disgusted by her, and thought by humiliating her, he was somehow doing her a favor.

"I'll consider myself lucky," she spat.

He just shrugged.

"What is that?"

Haruhi twitched, hearing his stupid voice again, as she held onto the door frame. She made a note to buy herself some earplugs. She submitted into going out, in hopes he'd shut up, but he obviously wasn't capable of that.

"What?" she snapped.

He gave her an irritated glance, turning his lip up at her offensive choice of clothes. Her baggy shirt and faded capris practically looked like rags compared to his tailored coat and pants, and perhaps he could have ignored it, but Hikaru being Hikaru, he wasn't about to not have an opinion.

"That." he threw his hand towards her, gestured to nothing in particular. "It's embarrassing. And you didn't even brush your hair. Were you just dawdling for the last fifteen minutes?"

"Whatever, just get out of my way."

"I'm not even by you."

Haruhi ignored him, and Hikaru sulkingly shoved his hands into his pockets and waited for her to grab her ugly hoodie. Kaoru always teased him for how impatient he could be, but Hikaru never really noticed until he had to wait up for someone every five steps. Everything he did took Haruhi twice as long. The taxi arrived before she even found her way out the door and down the steps, (because there was no way he was sleeping on a couch and riding a subway all in the same day) and almost shouted at her again for taking so long to get into the car.

She stumbled getting out of the car and stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, and had fallen so far behind him, he had to jog back and and reluctantly decided just to grab her hand and walk with her until they finally reached the tiny door of the cafe, despite her complaining and tugging at her hand the entire way.

Hikaru took one look at it's red and white striped canopy door and wanted to turn back around, but decided he would rather eat cheap common food than deal with Haruhi's short legs again.

After he realized no one was going to show him to a table, he led Haruhi to the one furthest from everyone else, and after she carefully slid into the bench in front of him, he snapped open the menu with a critical stare, then sat it back on the table, deeming it useless.

"Order whatever you want," he said, "I wasn't given an allowance for you, so I'll just keep the receipts. You can pay me back later."

"I don't need you to pay for me," Haruhi huffed. "I'd rather not be indebted to you."

He looked up as Haruhi fumbled through her purse he just then realized she had, and after a few moments of staring into it completely lost, she finally pulled out a small brown wallet, and sat a thousand yen on the table.

"Where did you get money?"

"I had a job," she said quietly. Two in fact, she wanted to add, but didn't.

"Had a job?"

"I was fired."

He scoffed. "Why am I not surprised."

"Yeah, you're kind of useless in the kitchen and waiting tables when you can't fucking see."

"Valid point."

She opened her mouth to argue back, but someone else's voice came out instead.

"May I take your order?"

The waitress , pulling out her note pad, licking her lips as he turned to him. "What will you have, sir?"

Hikaru looked up, natural insitnicts kicking in as he winked at the waitress. "Grande Chai caremel macchiato, extra-whip and a pinch cinnamon. No foam. And a Steak Au Poivre. Medium rare. Hold the pepper."

The girl blinked, suddenly feeling a lot less attracted to him. "...A milked coffee... and a cheeseburger?"

He frowned. Confused.

She turned to Haruhi. "And you?"

Haruhi hadn't even bothered opening the menu or looking towards the waitress. It would have been pointless anyway. "Just an iced tea." She muttered.

"Tea isn't food." Hikaru scolded suddenly.

"I'm not hungry." She retorted.

"She'll have whatever... that is." He said, ignoring her as he pointed to the first thing on the menu cover, and the waitress started to hesitantly jolt it down.

"Alright-"

"If I wanted something, I would have said something." Haruhi growled.

"Just do what I say." He groaned again. "Why are you being so unpleasant?"

"If you weren't so bossy-"

"You guys make sure a cute couple." The waitress murmured sarcastically, to which they both started to sputter in horror.

"We- we're not!" Hikaru gasped.

"I would never date him." Haruhi said firmly as if the idea was outrageously disgusting.

"I'll uh..." the waitress started to back away awkwardly, "I'll be right back then. If you're... finished."

"Never? And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Why are you suddenly offended?"

"For your information, every girl in Japan wants to date me. You have no idea what a privilege it is for you to even be sitting next to me right now. Much less live with me."

"A privilege? You couldn't pay me to live with you. Willingly." She added bitterly.

"You're the one who'd made this an absolute nightmare."

"Nightmare would be an understatement."

The door opened, and one by one, with a rough hand, they were both shoved out of the cafe.

"And stay out." The owner barked. The bell on the door ringing cheerily as he slammed it shut.

Hikaru gasped, appalled. Never had he been kicked out of anywhere before, he thought, as he dusted off his jacket. His mother would be so upset to hear how he was just grabbed. She'd totally sue.

He turned to Haruhi in a huff. "This is your fault."

This story was an impulse publish, and I can't believe this is my most viewed story right now Haha. Thank you for reading!

This is meant to be a short story, so expect faster upsets for this one, as I get my muse back for some of my longer stories.

#TeamHaruhi xD (sorry Hikaru).