Sometimes Takeda could still smell the pungent scent of the acid eating away at his own skin.

He could still remember, still almost feel the pain of it just before the acid dissolved his nerves- before the tight packing of snow against his face helped to take the heat off and numb whatever was left over. Before the adrenaline and the pure dread over the corruption of Earthrealm took priority and took his mind off of the constant throbbing that had filled his head.

Before it took his mind off of the blood and tissue that had leaked into and flooded his eye sockets.

Takeda couldn't remember much of running through the frozen forest though, fighting an Osh-Tekk ambush in order to get to the Jinsei Temple.

And he didn't remember much after the ordeal with Shinnok either.

But he did remember the broken ribs and the concussion that had come with trying to slow the Revenant down.

He and Jacqui were absolutely no match against them- but that was never the point of staying behind. By getting the shit kicked out of them, they had distracted the Revenant long enough; by the time the resurrected fighters made it into the Jinsei to assist Shinnok, the battle was already over.

Cassie and Kung Jin had aided Raiden in knocking the former Elder God off of his perch.

Takeda remembered lying on the tiles of the Jinsei Temple's courtyard- the taste of blood in his mouth and the chill in his bones as the rain came down on him.

Breathing hurt.

Moving hurt.

Just existing, being conscious and being well aware of his surroundings was a pain in of itself.

He remembered seeing the white light burst like lightning out of the top of the temple. He remembered watching it make contact with the corrupted clouds overhead, igniting a storm that rumbled in his chest and tugged at his loose ribs.

But after that, it was like someone flipped the light switch and everything went dark.

And as of now, an entire month after the battle for Earthrealm, things were still dark.

Takeda ran his fingertips along the wall, using it for balance and placement while he counted his footsteps till he reached the closed door of his bedroom. Pausing, he carefully moved a hand forward and brushed it against the door itself, before he guided his hand down to where the doorknob was. And he was careful with opening it this time, managing to avoid hitting himself with it, before he eased himself out through the doorway.

The air was different in the hallway- warmer.

He didn't realize just how cold his room had been until then.

Again, he counted his footsteps, kept the wall to his right before he felt it come to an end and then carefully eased himself around the abrupt corner.

The subtle creak of the floor underneath him, the feeling of cold tiles under his feet let him know that he had stepped out into part of the main room now.

"Hey, hey! Look who's up-"

A soft voice called out from somewhere in front of him, and Takeda instinctively looked up in the direction- although it was pointless given his predicament. He could hear the sound of a chair being pushed against hardwood, the sound of feet landing before they started to move towards him.

He still couldn't recognize footsteps just yet, but he had gotten better at picking out voices- which was harder than he originally thought it'd be.

"Jacqui," Takeda started, before he felt the usual rush of uncertainty come over him, "... right?"

"You're getting better," she teased.

Judging by the sound of her footsteps, she was getting closer to him- up until he felt himself almost jump as she touched a hand to his arm.

He was still getting accustomed to trying to use his other senses to figure out what was going on around him. It was a lot harder than he thought it'd be. Takeda guessed that there was some assumption that his sense of telepathy would give him an upper hand in this kind of situation; instead, it just felt like his senses were all over the place.

His control of telepathy fluctuated more than it was ever stable, which meant that he was usually more wrong than he was ever right.

He had gotten Cassie and Jacqui's footsteps mixed up so many times before that, there for awhile he just waited until one of them spoke before he made a guess. And once before, he thought they were both walking in sync but it ended up just being Kung Jin instead.

But Jacqui always made a point to physically let him know when she was around, when she was close to him.

And it was nice to have a helping hand from time to time, whenever he felt confident enough to move around on his own. He usually spent most of his time in one place so he didn't have to struggle with moving around from room to room. Which given his lifelong training up until now would seem like a moot point, but after having smashed his shin into the same table three times in one hour, he was fine with spending all day on the couch instead.

Takeda felt the way Jacqui gently squeezed his arm before she slowly moved in closer to him, wrapping her arms around him now. He could feel the heat from her body, the subtle tuck of her head against his neck; he heard the subtle hum from the back of her throat as she settled in against him.

Even after everything they had gone through, he still felt the heat rush to his face at the gesture.

He moved a hand to the back of her shoulder to get his bearings, before he slowly wrapped his arms around her just the same- finding an anchor in her steady form.

"Sleep well?"

"Maybe?" he replied as a question of his own. "I don't know, it's kind of hard to tell sometimes."

"Well, you've been in bed for like four hours, so that's a good starting point," Jacqui remarked, before she moved her head to prop her chin on his chest- and Takeda could feel her eyes on him now. "Which also means... you're up for another round on your eyes."

He gave out a long but mostly quiet groan.

Although the soft chuckle that escaped her let him know that it hadn't been all that quiet.

"Already?" Takeda questioned.

"I've been keeping a pretty meticulous track on it- and the doctor said you couldn't afford to skip a session if you want to stay on schedule," she reminded, as she lightly rocked side to side now- moving him with her as she did so. "And General Blade is trusting me to keep you on that schedule."

"Alright, alright."

Takeda felt her pull away, taking his hand with her as she did so.

Carefully following her, he didn't bother on counting his footsteps and instead made sure that he was in the same step that she was in. He listened to the continued creaks in the floorboards and felt the transition from hardwood to carpet once more as they made it to the front of the house now.

He felt his leg brush against the couch, which let him know that they had made it to the living room.

And as he stepped around the corner of couch, he felt Jacqui stop and turn- just before she pushed him down onto the cushions.

"Easy," Takeda teased, seemingly to her delight, before he heard her walking away.

Sighing now, knowing what was ahead of him, he tried to make himself comfortable at least; he moved about and straightened himself up, keeping the arm of the couch against his back and the cushions against his right shoulder. It would've been easier to do the medicine part of this in the kitchen, where at least with tiled flooring nothing would be stained. But the first couple of times they had done so resulted in the pain being so unbearable that he passed out from it.

Ever since then, Jacqui insisted that he be seated during the treatment.

Which honestly, assuming that he could stand and deal with the burning medication so soon out of the hospital was really not a smart move on his part.

Takeda hesitated, before he reached up and removed the blindfold he had been wearing- pulling it down to settle around his neck. Fingertips gently touched at the knotted tissue that was still bubbled around his eyes; he could still feel the subtle pockets between each knot, feeling where the skin had melted on top of itself. He kept his eyes closed, allowing him to feel the way the will-be scar tissues stretched around each one; he could feel how the scar tissue stretched across the bridge of his nose, and had even knotted itself down one of his cheeks.

When he finally did open his eyes and blink, he could feel the tugging of the tissue at each corner- feeling how the tightness was both painful and almost itchy at the same time.

He also took in the solid wall of darkness around him.

And that was the one thing he had underestimated about being blind.

It wasn't anything like simply closing your eyes, or hiding them behind something.

Even with closed eyelids, he could still see light coming through them.

But this...

There was nothing.

Just complete, utter blackness.

"Hey, come on- we're trying to keep those wounds sterilized," Jacqui spoke, announcing her presence as she returned from the kitchen.

"I know," Takeda assured, dropping his hands to his lap now, before he felt the couch shift with her added weight. "I just... it's still so surreal to me."

"Yeah, same here- I mean, not to the same extent you know, but just the... what are the odds?"

Takeda stayed as still as he could while Jacqui did her best to administer the eye drops. Luckily, the burning sensation from them had died down with each session- although he wasn't certain if that was a good thing or not. And Jacqui had gotten better with getting the drops actually in his eyes rather than all over his face. He still didn't like the sensation of it, but there wasn't much he could do about that.

As long as he didn't have to do those facial soaks anymore, he was absolutely fine.

"Okay, I think... those were good," Jacqui remarked, sounding somewhat confident in herself.

He blinked a few times to make sure that the medicine was in, before he carefully rubbed at one eye with the back of his hand. "Well, I can assure you that your aim is better than mine," Takeda replied.

He heard the quiet chuckle in her throat before he felt her hands against his face, gently trying to cup it without touching any of the knotted tissue. He felt the way she turned his head to one side and then the other in a quick way of examining his face.

"Does it... still look bad?" Takeda asked, finding that the question was harder to ask than he thought it'd be. He had no clue what he looked like, he only knew what he felt. And it seemed like all he could feel was mangled skin and growing scar tissue. He tried to convince himself that it was just a matter of the wound feeling like it was a bigger issue than it was; that it was just a mental trick because he couldn't see what had resulted from the injury itself.

Still... he couldn't help overthinking it.

Jacqui hummed this time, which seemed to be her way of buying herself time before she gave an answer. Coincidentally, it seemed to be a habit of Cassie's as well, not that the blonde did it often considering she seemed to have a lot to say at any given time.

"It looks bad," she finally answered, "- but everything looks bad before it heals. You should've seen me after one of my Kickboxing tournaments. My face was twice the size it should've been, and only on one side too, so my whole head looked lopsided. Dad called me the Elephant Man for three days before mom made him stop."

Takeda laughed at the recalled story, glad to have something to break up his mood.

With how protective Jacqui's father was with her, he found it hard to believe that Jax would also tease her when she probably least needed him to.

"I mean, I can tell you what it looks like, but you're not going to be happy about it."

"I could make a good guess," he offered, as he pulled back and out of her hold, before he rubbed at the tight pull of skin at the corners of his eyes again. It didn't take long before he felt Jacqui bat his hands away from his face though. He knew she had good reason to keep him from touching the healing wounds, but it still felt like the skin itched and burned in the process- and it was a very hard sensation to ignore.

Takeda moved to prop his right arm against the back cushion of the couch, before he settled his head into his palm for support- and to keep at least one hand preoccupied as he tried once more to make himself comfortable.

"It looks exactly like how my dad's scars look."

"Almost like, spot on," Jacqui confirmed, "- with the exception that your left cheek is going to scar too."

He rubbed his fingertips against the spot she mentioned, feeling where some of the skin had previously been eaten down to the bone.

"I guess it's kind of obvious how you figured that one out," she continued.

"Dad doesn't take his blindfold off often since most lights hurt his eyes, but I've seen his scars enough times to know what they look like," Takeda remarked. "And they look like how these ones feel." He paused, fighting the urge to touch at the healing wounds once more, before he continued. "It's not exactly the same method, but it's kind of odd that we both ended up with the same results."

Jacqui didn't reply, but he could feel the sense of uneasiness in her thoughts.

'Uneasy' wasn't the right word, but he couldn't think of anything more accurate.

"Also General Blade told me that we looked the same," Takeda finished.

The subtle break in the morosity was enough to garner a quiet laugh from Jacqui. "I should've figured," she mused. "Aunt Blade doesn't exactly mince words- even when she should maybe consider it. Which, given how long she's known your dad for, now I understand why she gave me some tips before she let me take time off to keep an eye on you. She told me I should be glad that you're not a runaway risk."

"I could try, but I'm not going to get far."

Takeda felt the brush of Jacqui's leg against his own, before he felt the way she propped both of them in his lap. She seemed to be making herself comfortable too, as though knowing that he had already settled on this spot being his resting place for the next few hours.

"You feeling okay?"

The question might've seemed out of the left field, but he figured he wasn't exactly doing his best to pretend like he had accepted the situation. There were a lot of things going on in his head, most of which he just tried to ignore- but the worst part of it was that he had plenty of time to think on it. To think on all of it, even when he didn't want to.

But with really nothing else better to do, he didn't have a choice.

"Doing better," Takeda answered, "just got a lot of things to think on."

"Like what?"

He gave a shrug, not entirely sure if he wanted to really get into it- but he felt the subtle press of her foot against his stomach in response, which told him that she wouldn't accept his shrug for an answer. "I know the whole blindness thing isn't a permanent, and honestly, just knowing that alone is probably the only thing keeping me sane right now. I mean, after just a few days of dealing with it, I thought I was going to go crazy. And it's just, the longer I think about it, the more I come to accept that this is just something I'm going to have to deal with in the meantime, the harder it is to believe that this is what my dad's been dealing with for almost three decades now."

It wasn't often that he talked about Kenshi.

They had their fights, their differences, both of them seeing different sides to the same story.

Their relationship was complicated, but... they had been working on fixing it.

The more Takeda had come to understand the man- who he was and what he was- the more he could understand why the past happened the way it did. It didn't excuse anything, but it gave him some sense of reasoning that he could use as a viewpoint, as an 'outside looking in' sort of thing.

"It's crazy how in a single moment, everything's just gone," Takeda continued. "One little action can change everything. At least I have days that I can count down on, you know? I have something to look forward to. But he's never had that; he just had to accept it and move on. I don't know how he hasn't gone crazy from this."

"Some people would argue that," Jacqui offered.

"Well yeah, but he's more mellow these days, so."

"I guess some things really do just boil down to a change in perspective," she followed up. "But he has Sento, doesn't he?"

"Sento doesn't give him eyesight- not in the way people think it does," Takeda corrected. "I don't know how Sento works honestly, and dad's vague in giving descriptions about it. Best I can figure is that Sento allows him to see in more of a... like an outline of energy. He can't see details or anything specific, but he can read people and 'see' what they are. But I mean, if you gave him a piece of paper, he wouldn't be able to read it."

"Not even if it had braille on it?"

"He can't read braille," he remarked. "He never learned to in the beginning and he doesn't see a point in reading it now. Plus I don't think he'd be able to read it with his gloves on, and he doesn't like to take them off because his hands get cold."

Not only was he learning important lessons from his father, mainly garnered around their shared sense of telepathy, but he was also learning about the man himself. And given his father's knack for standing out in a crowd, and seemingly being on thin ice with everyone around him, there was a lot to learn.

"Wow," Jacqui chuckled. "Then again, he works so close with Aunt Blade, he gets everything he needs to know straight from her. Regarding that thought though, I guess that just makes everything Kenshi's done up until now pretty impressive."

"I don't know how he does half the things he does now," Takeda shrugged. "He can do hand-to-hand combat with ease, he escorts General Blade anywhere she needs to go- Hell, least week he broke the Grandmaster's nose in a sparring match. Meanwhile, I ran into the same table three times yesterday."

"Didn't you say that he used to run into doors all the time when he was at home?"

"He did- being blind and being tall isn't a great combination," he nodded. "But also I left those doors opened, so I guess part of that was on me."

He could still recall watching Kenshi, the same man who was capable of using telekinetic power to pick up his opponents and fling them like trash, the same man who was capable of outmaneuvering and outsmarting Grandmaster Hanzo just enough to overpower him in one move, walk straight into an opened door with sheer confidence.

Takeda had damn near choked from laughing so hard.

"I guess I'm just starting to think that I... I never really gave him much credit for the things he's done."

Between passing out and waking up in the Special Forces hospital, Takeda didn't remember anything that would connect the two. All he knew was that when he woke up, he couldn't see- and that he was lucky the doctor got to him before the panic did. He recalled having to be physically stopped from pulling the bandages off of his face.

It was only temporary.

It would only be two months before his eyesight would come back- maybe three if there were further complications.

The acid did a lot of damage, but Jacqui had luckily managed to wash most of it out. Double luck was on his side too since the component Jacqui had used was something General Blade had given her just before their departure. The General had a lot of experience with Outworld and knew a lot about the wildlife; she knew a lot about Reptile and the type of acid that he liked to shoot.

Call it blind luck, but General Blade must've figured they would cross paths with Reptile and had advised Jacqui to carry the serum with her- just in case one of them got bit or hit by the acid shot.

It was the only thing that saved him really, given that it broke down the acid before it could continue to ravage what was left of his nerves and face.

Packing the snow against his skin to tone down the heat had also helped to slow things down, and was also credited for saving his eyesight in the long run of things.

He had stayed in the hospital for two weeks, dealing with painful facial soaks to help reduce the equally painful swelling around his eyes. The smell of the medication used was still burned in his memory, as well as the stench of the pus and fluid that would drain out of his skin every few days.

The eye drops in the hospital had mostly been there to help with the pain, although it didn't feel like they contributed much to the cause.

The ones he had now were to help encourage healing and to keep his eyes from forming the milky look to them.

The physical pain was managed well enough.

But it was really the psychological pain that continued to haunt him from time to time.

As miserable as it had been in the moment, smelling like burnt flesh, decay, and vomit, nothing could've prepared him for his father's reaction to the news.

Takeda couldn't see Kenshi's response, but he didn't have to.

He felt it- and it was almost just as painful.

General Blade had been proactive in getting to Kenshi first and catching him up on the doctor's diagnosis before she even let him into the hospital room. Which meant that the pain Takeda had felt through him wasn't his initial reaction- which meant it might've been more devastating before.

Even the Grandmaster remarked that he had never seen his father cave the way he did then.

Takeda remembered the way his father gripped his hand, firm but careful, and told him that everything was going to be okay. He could pick up the sense of reserve in the man's voice, in his overall energy, but he had been too exhausted to try and look through it.

He just squeezed his hand back, to return the reassurance that things would be okay.

They weren't, not right now anyways.

But they would be.

"Is it weird that you're staying here instead of with your dad?" Jacqui questioned, breaking him from his elongated thoughts. "I mean, he obviously knows a lot about what it's like to be blind. He could give you some pointers."

"Sure, he could, but then it's just you know, the blind leading the blind," Takeda replied.

"Ah, yes, of course."

He chuckled at her admitted response. "Besides, how could I pass up on the opportunity of you being so adamant about taking care of me?"

"Shut up," she teased, as she nudged at his stomach with her foot once more. "Aunt Blade said I was the most responsible one, and she trusted me."

He made a playful motion to push her legs off of him, only to feel her reposition them so that he was scissored between them now. And given her kickboxing trophies, he knew he wasn't going to be able to escape her grasp- as loose as it was at the moment.

Takeda had no doubts that General Blade had allowed Jacqui to keep an eye on him due to her greater sense of responsibility and trustworthiness. But he also knew that Jacqui had pushed pretty hard to be allowed to due to her own guilt over the situation.

He had overheard her speaking with General Blade about what had happened and how it happened.

And he heard Jacqui tell the General that if she had been stronger in fighting off Reptile herself, he wouldn't have felt the need to assist her- and wouldn't have gotten hit with the acid in the first place.

Misguided guilt, but guilt nonetheless- no matter how General Blade tried to convince her otherwise.

No matter how many times he tried to skirt the issue himself without admitting that he had overheard the discussion.

It wasn't his battle though.

He wanted it to be- but even he had to admit that he couldn't fight them all.

"Plus, my dad said with you being blind now, he doesn't feel like he has to worry about you around me as much," Jacqui finished. "I didn't want to remind him about how your dad acts around Aunt Blade though-"

"I don't know how she puts up with his shit," Takeda laughed, as he moved a hand to run through his hair, ruffling it up some before he pushed it back. "I just... think at this point, after everything that's happened, we all just need some time away from each other to figure things out."

"Yeah?" she offered. "Because some of us are figuring out more things than others."

"I get it."

Jacqui used her legs to squeeze him once more, before he felt the couch shift as she scooted closer to him. Takeda offered his forearm, which she used as leverage to pull herself in closer- until it felt like she was almost in his lap. He felt the cushion under his elbow shift as she tucked her arm against it too, seemingly mimicking his position.

"You know, if you want to, we could figure some more things out on our own."

"Yeah?" he questioned. "I don't know, the whole shower thing was pretty awkward enough."

"Okay well, that's not exactly what I was thinking of, but that part also doesn't matter because that had to happen," Jacqui replied, seemingly laughing to herself at the memory.

"I'm glad you found so much amusement in it."

Takeda felt her hands on his face once more, cupping it again, before he felt the warmth of her breath as she leaned into him- and then felt the equally warm press of her lips against his own.

"Oh-"

Jacqui held him to her while he moved a hand to loosely touch against her shoulder once more- which might've been an awkward placement, but he wanted something to use as a place-marker for him. Also he wasn't quite confident that he could get his hand to the back of her neck without hitting something else along the way. Like he had before.

It was still something to get used to.

All he had was his sense of touch to guide him, and when she kissed him like this, she was the only thing he felt; she became like his whole world, his whole focus.

He felt her pull away and found himself wanting to go with her- only to have her pull him back in anyways.

This time though, he felt her hands move to his hair just long enough for her fingers to tangle in the loose locks, before she slipped one arm behind his neck, anchoring him to her now. It was a comforting embrace, one he fell into immediately as she provided the full sense of support he felt he needed. Her remaining hand eventually dropped to his chest, her fingers teasing the scooped neckline of his shirt.

"Wait, is this what you were referring to earlier?" Takeda interrupted.

"Yeah," she answered- and no one could fault her for her brute honestly. "I mean, if you don't want to, that's fine- I figured I could at least shoot my shot on it though."

"Well, you certainly... did not fail to impress on that part," he remarked, unable to fight the heat that rushed to his face again. "Is that- is that really something you want to do?"

"I mean, it's really your answer that makes that decision," Jacqui reminded, as she moved to drape both of her arms over his shoulders now.

Takeda could feel his heart almost racing now at the thought.

Sure, they had fooled around before, before the whole acid-in-the-eyes trick anyways, but they were still in the stage of trying to figure everything out. They were still trying to figure out what worked for both of them, what they liked, what they didn't like- although the greater struggle had always been scheduling, since they both worked at different places at different hours.

With the both of them having the community house to themselves for the most part, with Cassie and Kung Jin both dealing with familial issues in the background, they seemed to have been offered the opportunity of doing it whenever they wanted to.

But the whole blind thing was a bit of drawback.

"You don't have to give me an answer right now," Jacqui replied. "I just thought I'd throw it out there and let you think on it a bit."

"I mean, I'm not saying no to it," Takeda started. "I just uh, I don't know, I fumble enough with my eyesight, so..."

"We'll figure it out," she assured.

He hated to admit that it was... tempting.

Well, he didn't hate it, he was just concerned- maybe self-conscious about the act.

"It wouldn't hurt to try," he finally admitted. "Just like, if something happens, please don't hold it over my head."

"Don't worry, I'm not like Aunt Blade- I'm not going to harass a blind man."

"Ha ha."