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VAV

V

He heard the cup of coffee being set down on the table with the distinctive sound of paperboard meeting a covered fiberboard counter and gave the same wordless nod of thanks he did every other time. For him, his regular visits to the Stardust Shop were exclusively about caffeine and the smell of coffee. Ever since the Scottish girl had memorized his order he had taken to stop talking entirely, the better to enjoy his time even as he made sure to hand over the precise change and tip. Focusing on the source of the noise and feeling for the heat of his drink, he reached out for the cup only to freeze as his hand touched warm flesh instead of a warm cardboard sleeve.

Whoever had set the cup down still held on to it, heels clicking on the tile as smooth skin shifted under his hand. Hearing the chair across from him get pulled out, he shifted just enough so that he could let his eyes settle on the newcomer. Not that it helped, but people complained when he didn't. As they let go of his cup, a second was rested on the table and his guest settled themself in. Who knows, maybe he was winning another staring contest on accident.

"Hey." A girl's voice, his age at best guess, mixed accent of western France and southeast England. Almost definitely a city girl judging by the shoes and knuckles, but that wasn't much to judge off of.

"Greetings."

Apparently he was supposed to have said something else as the silence stretched between them. That at least gave him the opportunity to actually take a sip from his drink. Sputtering a little as the girl spoke up. "You have to be the only guy I've met who prefers to stare at our pastries rather than a beautiful young lady."

Shit, too far to the right, he needed to re-angle his face and blinked a few times to avoid staring too much. "Better?"

"You know I'm here each time you visit and this is the first time you've even looked at me."

At least he remembered where he recognized her voice. She ran the register every now and then, but most of the time he heard her making the drinks. Bad habit of critiquing outfits, she had been just another voice to filter out until now. "Sorry, still haven't. Cataracts in the eyes." He pointed to his white eyes to stress the point.

She didn't stumble over that part, no misplaced apologies or statements of concerns. "Here I was just getting jealous of those pastries you were staring at."

"It's certainly one of the more ironic parts about being blind. I stare at everything and nothing. So unless the pastries can talk, I wouldn't be too worried."

"Well, my name's Coco."

"Fox, Fox Alistair. Nice to meet you."

"So this must be your little brother."

His mouth twitched into a short smile as he responded to the joke. "Mouse, shake." The weight on his foot sitting up as his companion sat up to lift a paw, bringing Coco forward as she shook with the Border Collie mix-breed. "And sister actually."

"Either way she's adorable. Even has your hair."

Mouse settled her chin on his lap so that he could scratch her head rather than lay back down. She didn't like the coffee shop as much as he did, too many people she had to ignore instead of say hi to, but so far her puppy eyes had a losing battle in the face of his need for caffeine. "Shouldn't you be working?'

"Oh I'm on break. No need to get rid of me."

"I'm not, this just seems a little out of nowhere. We're a month into the semester and this is the first time you've come up to me."

"Well I tried flirting with you delicately, but that wasn't working. Seemed time to take a more direct approach."

"I have a hard time believing you do anything subtle."

"Oh I don't. Which is why I'm almost impressed you didn't jump me after I switched with Velvet to talk to you. The fact you couldn't see my outfit certainly explains some of that."

"I think most people would be concerned to have a guy like me vaulting the register; especially if Mouse came with. She doesn't bite, but I'm told she gives people the evil eye."

"More like puppy eyes right now. She certainly has me beat."

"Fine, fine. You win Mouse. Here, give her one of these." Fox reached into his pack, pulling out the bag of treats she had been pawing for since Coco came over. "Just another one of her conquests. You know that right? She isn't even trying and she's winning you over."

"It must be genetic."

Wait. "You actually are flirting with me." Huh.

"Really? What was the first hint? Cause most people catch on when the stranger walks up to them in the coffee-shop, but I thought saying I was flirting would be clear enough."

"I know, but honestly I can't think of a time when someone was actually flirting with me instead of just playing around. Flirting is a very broad word."

"Don't get me wrong, I could tease you all day until that glorious ass is burning from all the attention, but Velvet was getting sick of me ogling you back there."

"So I have her to blame?"

"Don't play the victim here. Just because you might be blind, doesn't mean I didn't catch you smiling."

"What can I say? You have a nice voice."

"Trust me, you're missing out if all you got is my voice."

"Well unfortunately Mouse is a biased source when it comes to checking out chicks. She tries to set me up with anyone and everyone who feeds her."

"Coco, have you asked him yet?" The Scottish girl, Velvet apparently, was calling from behind the counter. The optimism and innocence in her lilt a far cry from the husky, almost sultry confidence that his new guest emanated in each syllable.

"Sorry, but I don't date girls I just met. "

"One sec!" Coco called back before her voice faced him again. "You are making it really hard for me to turn this into fair play, giving me eye-candy for so little in return. But for now we were wondering if you were looking for off-campus housing. We share a townhouse, but one of our housemates just bailed and left us with the rent. We noticed your little sister here can't live in the dorms, so we thought you might be interested."

Mouse's ears perked up at the word house. The last month of commuting had frayed her nerves, but freshman had a hard enough time getting pet-friendly housing on campus without his last-minute entry. "Who else lives there?"

"Just me, Velvet, and her boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"You're the only one who speaks his language. Anyways, the rates reasonable and we'd be able to work most things out for you two since you'd be doing us a favor. One issue is Velvet's rabbit, but he lives upstairs and Mouse seems gentle."

"As long as she doesn't get too bored, but if one of us was supervising she won't act up."

"So is that a yes?"

"Probably, I wouldn't expect any issues in theory. I've been looking for my own place close by, but no one wants to rent to a college student with a pet."

"Here, hand me your phone and I can put in my number. You can call to confirm."

"Or we can email since you already have my name."

"Social engineering here, if I let you stop talking now who knows what will happen."

"Probably finish my coffee, go to class, come back next Monday like I have the last four Fridays."

"No need to add that layer of risk, Come on, here boy."

Mouse gave him a puzzled look, probably wondering which of them the crazy lady was talking to since she wasn't a boy. Or she just wanted to complain that he paused in his scratching. Neither of the siblings seemed all too happy as he handed over the phone. "Just because I'm named after a canine does not mean you can command me around."

"Are you always this stubborn?"

"I'm told I had a young start, and that I kick in my sleep so yes."

"Because it's such a pain to get a hot girl's phone number."

"Because it is a pain to have a nice voice walk away and never hear it again."

Her chair slid back over the tile, marked by the metal feet moving over ceramic rims, and her heels were moving again. Circling the table as her hand trailed along the glass, riding up his cup to caress his knuckles calloused from the gym with a strength that seem out of place with that voice. Warm breath a breeze through his un-brushed hair until it resonated with his ear, "That's not an option."

Returning back to her normal speaking voice as she released his hand, Coco finished the conversation. "For now, Velvet needs me back there. Give me a call sometime, preferably soon."

He wanted to smile and wave, but caught himself instead wondering who he was even waving to. A hand on his drink, a flirting sentence from across the table, heeled shoes. As much as he hated to admit it, his blindness changed his outlook on life more than he cared to admit. Colors alone were a foreign concept to him, provoking endless confusion and more than once tripping up a conversation. Sound was his friend, he could tell the tuning of an f# bell and the d-string of a violin. With a touch he could feel the pores of his skin, the fiber of his cup's sleeve and the segregated edge of paper. But here in this moment, all he wanted was to see her, even if it was only as she walked away.

"Come on Mouse, we need to get to class."

VAV

Yet he didn't call her that weekend. He should have, it would have been more pleasant than grinding away on his math homework. Between that and teaching private lessons at the gym, its not like he had a lot of time to talk but he could have used a reason to smile. Which was weird when he stopped to think about it, logically he couldn't see expressions and accordingly ignored them as a outside facet of society just like he did color. Preferring to keep his own face neutral unless he actually found a reason not to. And she was a reason, weird as it felt to say that. All that did was make it worse when he didn't call for those two days.

Its one of the first things you learn in martial arts: getting your hopes up hurts more than playing it safe. Perhaps not the lesson it want's to teach, but after taking a punch to the head it was only instinctive to cover up your defenses rather than leave yourself open for the follow-up attacks. No matter how much you listen to that instinct and prove it right, there's always that moment of hindsight where you realize you could have broken through the opening that came with the punch.

In the end it was easy to just put the issue off over the weekend, but as he handed in his homework that Monday morning and took the three flights of stairs down to the university's Stardust, he had no real answers to offer. Walking into a fight blind in body and mind, lacking the clarity that guided him when Mouse could not. He hated this feeling.

Walking up to the register, he heard the same Scottish lilt as before. "It's Velvet, right?"

"Yep. Hi Fox! Your usual?"

"Can you make it Irish?" She was here; he could smell her perfume underneath the layers of coffee, and no matter what he came up with as a response felt wrong.

"Nope! Not at a coffee shop. I'll send Coco over in a second." He handed the money over anyways. The two girls were communicating silently behind the counter, the delay in getting his change and the scratching of the marker on his cup a touch longer than normal. But they weren't speaking to him, letting him and Mouse head over to his preferred table. Three minutes, what should he say?

"You never called." He didn't turn his head to pretend to look at her this time, no matter how rude it looked it felt like a lie each time he did it. This time the cup was set down with more force, followed by the chair being slid out with same frustration that tinged her voice.

"No, I didn't. Sorry."

"What? No excuses, no sarcasm?"

"I screwed up. Wasn't sure what I should say, figured I'd have an answer when we next met."

"That plan sounds like crap."

"Didn't work either."

"Why don't you start by giving me a straight answer?"

Right. "Well I can pay come Wednesday, but I couldn't actually move in until Friday after classes."

Her face probably didn't slip, Coco seemed like the kind of girl who could maintain her poise anywhere, but her voice lacked that same level of control; anger shifting to show a hint of sadness. Not her fault that he ignored the more… emotional, unasked question. "See, was that so hard? 2 minute phone call."

"Some things are more difficult than they look. Ever tried a salmon ladder pull-up."

"Well, at least that problem is solved. Should tell Velvet we have more eye-candy for around the house."

"And who knows. Maybe we can solve the other in time."

Fox reached out, resting his hand in the middle of the table. Nothing like a blind jab in a fight to try and find an answer. Yet as her hand rested atop his and a foot shifted to tap his boot from underneath the table, her response came back with a touch more of her confidence. "Two birds, one shell."

V

"Hey Coco?"

"Hm?"

"I though Velvet said you don't serve…"

"I came prepared with Bailey's in case you screwed up. Don't tell her."

"Thanks. For the vote of confidence that is."

"Don't make me regret sharing my stash."

"I'll pay you back."

"Mmm. Really?"

He couldn't see, but that sounded distinctively like a smirk.

VAV

V

I said I would go back and edit. I've read through this more times than I can count, and I think it's fine, but please tell me if it still needs work. We'll see how long it takes for Chap 2 to get the same treatment.