„Is there anything I own you haven't touched yet? I'm not sure," comes Adrian's voice from somewhere behind her, making Charlotte bristle slightly.
"Well excuse me, I'm just trying to know where I can and where I can't walk. I'm fucking blind, you know?"
She hears his footsteps shuffle nearer, and then one of his large hands grabs her smaller ones.
"Have you ever tried to rely on your other senses rather than touching everything?", he asks, and Charlotte snorts. What an utterly ridiculous idea.
"Yeah right, and what am I supposed to do? Smell my way to your living room?", she retorts and demonstratively inhales extra loudly. The only thing she smells is the slightly sweet, musky scent that all grim reapers share, and the underlying scent of something wooden that's just Adrian.
But the Silver Fox just laughs and finally lets go of her hands, only to lightly tap the scar that crosses both her eyelids.
"Why not? Learn to smell and hear more accurately. We Grim Reapers already have enhanced senses, you should make use of that."
For a second, Charlotte just stares at Adrian, completely dumbfounded. Adrian is uncharacteristically quiet, letting her work through that idea.
"Why ever the fuck not," she says slowly, absentmindedly fishing out a cigarette and, after remembering that she's inside, trying to feel her way to Adrian's balcony. He stops her after one uneasy step, taking her hands into his once again.
"Try to listen," he says, shaking her hands slightly.
"Tell me in which direction you think the balcony is. The door is open."
Charlotte sighs, but tries to do as she's told. If she strains really hard, she can hear Adrian's soft, even breathing directly in front of her, and slightly to her right she can hear the light steps of someone walking on the street that's next to Adrian's house. When she turns slightly to her right uncertainly, Adrian lets out an approving hum. Slightly bolder now, Charlotte takes a step forward and tries to let her hands hang loosely at her side instead of their by now usual spot in front of her stomach.
When she stumbles and nearly falls over a small step that suddenly appears before her feet, Adrian's hands immediately shoot out to steady her.
After a few more slow steps in what Charlotte thinks is the right direction, they actually step out on the small balcony.
"Now see, that wasn't too hard," gushes Adrian, sounding very much like a proud mother doting on her child. Charlotte had to suppress a snort.
Finally lighting her cigarette and inhaling a deep drag, she leans on the rails trying to ignore the way Adrian's hand instinctively curls around her waist to stop her from tipping over.
"I'm not gonna jump to my death at any given opportunity, relax," Charly griped, trying to extricate her midriff from Adrian's iron grip. His hand didn't budge.
"Well, the railings are rather lower than one might expect here," he answers evasively, even though his hand relaxes gradually until it is loosely draped across the iron bar behind her.
Charlotte takes one more drag before Adrian's hand creeps up and takes it from her, making her jump violently when his hand brushed hers by accident.
"Adrian!"
She doesn't get the cigarette back, only hearing her friend take one drag before he stubs it out with his shoe. For a moment, they stand on the balcony, both in their own world.
"You know, maybe we could train your senses until you can feel people," muses Adrian and Charlotte comes out of her thought-stream about whether she would have to procure new cigarettes soon or not, prompting her to stare in his direction searchingly.
"Adrian, let's go back inside."
Unsteadily, they make their way back inside, though they are a bit faster than on their way out. When they reach the small kitchen-area with its' table, Charlotte immediately takes a seat, silently relieved to be in somewhat familiar territory again.
For a few seconds, she just sits on the chair, listening to Adrian as he bustles around in the small kitchen area on her left.
Eventually, she turns away, angrily blinking tears out of her eyes that she doesn't even notice at first.
"Charly? Do you want your tea with milk or…" Adrian trails off uncertainly and Charlotte attempts to wipe her cheeks inconspicuously, but by Adrian's questioning silence she knows she's failing.
"What's wrong," he asks and long fingers cup her chin gently when she tries to look away from him. Not for the first time Charlotte curses Adrian's lack of personal space.
For a short moment they just stay like that, her tears continuing to fall silently, some of them landing on Adrian's hand.
"Hey," he murmurs, "everything's gonna be alright. You're gonna learn how to see again. We'll go outside for a bit later, okay? That'll cheer you up."
Charlotte lets out a heaving breath and clutches Adrian's hand between hers.
"Why are you helping me? I mean, I mean, why do you care so, so much about what happens to me," she blurts out and immediately shrinks into the chair, fearing her friends judgment. He's silent for a few seconds before gently tugging his hand out of her grasp and cupping her cheek instead. Charlotte flinches away from the touch the first time, but he's stubbornly insistent, so she lets him after his second try.
"Come on, let's go outside now. I know a place," he says calmly, and Charlotte just stares at him.
"That is your answer? A non-answer? Really?"
She wants to shout, but it comes out as a hoarse whisper instead. Charlotte wants to say more, but Adrian shushes her.
"Come on," he just says, and she lets herself be dragged to wherever he wants to go.
They walk a short way outside of the dispatch's perimeter, and Adrian leads her to what seems to be a field of some sort.
"Take a breath," he says right next to her ear, already uncomfortably close again.
"Tell me what you feel right now. What you smell and hear." Adrian steps away from her slightly and lets go of her hand, and Charlotte takes a deep breath.
"Flowers," she starts uncertainly, earning an approving hum from her friend.
"Grass whispering, I think, uh, a few birds," she adds after a few more seconds, still unsure where he's going with this.
"And what do you smell?" Adrian is nudging her elbow with his gently, his voice sounding like a calm river when compared to her own inner turmoil.
"Uh, you, I guess," Charlotte says and ignores the quiet, acknowledging noise Adrian makes.
"I suppose it rained sometime earlier, it smells rainy. Also, I don't know, maybe this sounds weird, but I also smell the air," she adds questioningly, and Adrian steps next to her again.
"And what do you feel?" He takes her hands in his larger ones again and begins rubbing a thumb over the heel of her hand.
"What kinda weird question is that?" By now, Charlotte is feeling completely ridiculous, not really understanding why they are standing in the middle of a field, surrounded by nothing.
Adrian just tightens his hands around hers, and she sighs, realizing that she must seem like a petulant child right now.
"Your hands, I guess," she says finally when she realizes that he really expects an answer from her. He lets out a sigh of his own and lets go of her hands.
"Sit down with me."
Fumbling slightly, Charlotte sits down and notices with a small bout of envy that she doesn't hear Adrian as he sits down. Must be nice to actually see where you're supposed to sit, she thinks sarcastically.
"Now listen to me. Just because you lost your eyes doesn't mean you lost your other senses as well. You can still smell. You can still hear. You can still feel. You still have your life. A life worth living."
When Charlotte lets out a quiet sound of disbelieve, Adrian pats her cheek gently.
"No. Look at me, Charlotte. That kind of thinking is something you have to get rid of. Don't you think wasting your life away with alcohol and cigarettes and not doing anything is such a shame to you and who you were before? Now, I like you and I think we could become really good friends, already are on our way there, and as your friend I really want you to become happy again. I wanna see you laugh, Charly. You know, I think that laughter is one of the forces that keeps the whole world going as it is. Without laughter, the world would be such a gray place. And I believe I could be able to help you laugh again. You'll just have to accept a bit of help. It's no shame to be helpless sometimes, you know?"
Adrian shifts next to her and Charlotte instinctively knows that he's facing her.
"Will you let me help you?" he whispers, and she's never heard him be so serious.
"...Yes." Charlotte whispers back, and for a few minutes they sit in comfortable silence.
"you know," Adrian says after a while, and she can practically hear the mirth in his voice,"a wise man once said: 'how sad it would be, should laughter disappear'"
Charlotte snorts.
"Who said that?"
"I said that."
"Oh. Wow. What a wise man you are," Charlotte retorts and elbows him, but her tone is completely serious and she means it wholeheartedly.
They sit on the field a few paces away from the dispatch for the rest of the evening, talking about everything and nothing at once.