When Adia stood to leave for lunch, Quatre felt fur brush against his leg. Looking down, he saw a small friendly dog wearing a harness, with the leash in Adia's hand. The spaniel looked at him lopsidedly, then moved in front of the blind girl and led her to her locker. He smiled and knelt, stroking the obedient dog as she pulled her lunchbox from the top shelf, then stood and walked with her to the lunchroom.
"That's Sandy," she remarked as they strode down the hallway. "My guide-dog."
"She's sweet," he told her, turning into the canteen. She followed, but he suspected she'd followed the sound of his footsteps to find the doorway, rather than knowing where it was. He kept silent.
Adia sniffed at her slightly soggy sandwich, then bit into it. "Oh, great. Tuna. I hate tuna. What do you have?"
"My sisters packed me salad," he replied, placing it on the table. "But they seem to have forgotten the fork. I suppose I should be grateful to them, making my lunch for me."
"Why bother with a fork? Use your fingers. You'll only stab yourself." she told him absently, then blushed as she realised that she'd given him advice that applied only to her. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget I'm the only one."
"It's okay."
Sandy barked, pawing at Adia's leg, and was rewarded with a piece of meat from her lunchbox, packed for the loyal spaniel. "You know why I called her Sandy?"
"No," Quatre responded, smiling at the sight of the dog gnawing her jerky. "Why?"
"I got her just after the war," Adia said in carefully blank tones. "I thought Sandy was appropriate, after Gundam Sandrock." A slight twitch at the corner of her mouth told Quatre she knew exactly what she was talking about. Not that it mattered anymore, but he still didn't like it being spread around.
"That's…interesting," he remarked, frowning. She couldn't see his face, but his tone told her something had upset him.
"I'm sorry if I offended you," she stated, resting her head on one hand. "I often say things people don't want to hear. Comes of being blind. Lost all my tact."
"It's alright, I don't mind," he told her diplomatically, though his mind was skipping around. How had she known, and who would she tell? Why had she told him so lightly?
"Don't wrap me up in cotton wool, I'm not made of glass," she retorted, scowling. "Just because I've only got four senses doesn't mean I don't know I offended you."
Suddenly her face became softer, hesitant. "Could I…could I touch your face?" she hurriedly added, correctly guessing his surprise: "So I know what you look like. It's the only way I can get an image of people."
"Um…sure," he told her, eyes darting around in embarrassment as her fingers touched his skin softly. Some people glanced their way, but no one laughed. Maybe it was ordinary for her to do this with new pupils. Maybe it had happened with all of them.
"You're tense," she remarked, smoothing his forehead. "Don't worry, I won't dig my fingers through your skull and into your brain." She playfully made burrowing motions with her hands. Quatre grinned, and she smiled as she felt his expression change. "That's better. You know, your face is probably the most symmetrical I've found," she told him, voicing it matter-of-factly, in a perfectly everyday tone. "It's strange." She took her hands back, and grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry I had to do that, but I hate going around not having faces to match with the voices I hear."
"I know," he said distractedly, thinking of other things. Sometimes he forgot his spaceheart, and it crept up on him, like now.
"Uh-huh? Well, I guess that's another thing you won't want to talk about, being psychic and all," she teased, not knowing about his expression of bafflement. "Come on. It's biology next, and I like that."
^^^
Adia sat and listened, bored, to the disgusted sounds coming from the other students. They were dissecting rats, another activity she couldn't take a part in. ~ Well, at least I can't be grossed out like they are, ~ she thought, wrinkling her nose at the smell from Quatre's rat. He'd almost refused when the teacher told them what they'd be doing, but when she told him she'd need his results too, he'd consented unhappily. ~ Quatre's too kind, ~ she thought with a smile. ~ He's too gentle. ~
~ Why was she smiling? ~ Quatre wondered, scalpel neatly cutting away some more flesh from the rat's corpse. ~ She should be bored stupid. ~
"Why the smile?"
Adia jumped, then turned to face him, glasses perched back on her nose. It was another barrier between her and the world, but it also avoided undue stares at her mist-covered eyes. "I don't know," she told him, fingers crossing impulsively behind her back, out of sight as she thought, but just visible to Quatre from his seat at the desk. She didn't see the smile on his face as he looked at her.
^^^
"It feels big in here," she remarked, stepping into the hallway. Quatre had brought her home with him, to meet his sisters. Twenty of them were currently in residence, and the house was hectic but comfortable, all the same. She was right; it was big, but by no means the biggest room in the house. ~ How did she know that? ~
Adia cracked a smile, then pointed at her eyes. "Being blind just gives you extra sensitivity to these things." She could often guess what he was thinking.
He winced as she once again pointed out her deficiency. It didn't matter to him; to Quatre, she was just another person. A good person; his friend. The only one who really give him any sort of welcome at all, even after she found out just who he was.
The weeks had sped by since he'd returned to school to graduate a year in the future, and it was getting ever closer to Christmas. He'd asked her what she wanted most in the world, and she'd smiled sadly. "What do you think I want?" she'd asked, the melancholy in her voice grabbing him by the heartstrings. "The one thing nobody can give me." She hadn't told him what that was, but let him come to his own conclusions. Sure, she wanted her vision back, but the one thing she wanted most was to see his face, to have a picture of the melodious voice she heard everyday.
Jamy, the eldest of his sisters, came out of the kitchen, and saw her little brother standing there with a girl in sunglasses. She knew immediately who it was; they'd managed to wheedle enough information from him as possible about school, and had jumped on him when he mentioned her. This had to be Adia- Quat's new friend.
"Hi! I'm Jamy, Quatre's sister," she announced, touching Adia's arm. The girl jumped and a slight scream escaped her lips; Adia hadn't heard Jamy coming, despite refined hearing, and her sight deficiency meant that the subsequent shock was larger. She coloured brightly when she realised her mistake, and her embarrassment was written on her face.
"It's alright, Dee," Quatre told her, forgetting how much she hated that nickname and laying his arm around her shoulders. "It's just my sister."
Adia shrugged it off, rejecting the small comfort. She ignored her slightly quickened breath at his touch and dismissed it as shock. "Don't call me that," she mumbled. "It's just this damn darkness…"
She shuddered, then stood straight again, a look on her face Quatre remembered all too well. She was going to ignore the whole incident, and pretend it never happened. ~ Just like her to be that stubborn, ~ he thought, rubbing his hand against his trouser leg. ~ She doesn't like people to know how vulnerable she feels. ~
"Well, come on," he told her, almost reproachfully, and she followed him into the sitting room where Jamy had already managed to get most of his sisters to come eye his new friend. Quatre groaned internally. They were probably seeing if she was 'suitable', he thought, grimacing at them. No matter that she was just his friend; they loved to play matchmaker. ~ No matter that we're just friends right now, ~ he thought, and scowled at himself. His youngest sister jumped, and he smiled carefully, trying to dispel any ideas they had.
"Um…Hi," Adia mumbled, looking towards the sofa. ~ She can probably hear them chatting, ~ Quatre thought, glancing at his friend. She looked nervous. ~ Probably still ratty over her scare, ~ he considered, then dismissed it as his sisters turned to look at Adia.
"Hi!" came a chorus of voices, and a lot of introductions she could never possibly hear against one another.
"Could you please be a bit quieter?" Adia asked loudly. "I have good hearing, and you don't have to shout!" The last part came at a yell, overpowering his sister's voices and turning the room to silence.
"You'll have to teach me to do that," Quatre whispered, and Adia grinned.
"Alright, I'm Adia…"
"We knew that!" the youngest piped up, immediately hushed by her sisters.
"And it's nice to meet you all…but don't expect me to learn all your names when I can't see you," she finished, blushing with humiliation. "I'm sorry," she whispered morosely, and sat down on a chair behind her, head in her hands. "I'm sorry…" she whispered even quieter, and pulled off her sunglasses, gripping them tightly, her knuckles turning white. Her sightless eyes glistened with unshed tears that she tried not to let go. A solitary drop ran down her cheek, and she wiped away with a swift movement of her sleeve. The embarrassment of meeting twenty people all at once that she couldn't tell apart was painful and it rubbed her face, yet again, in her inability to see the world around her.
Quatre could see that his sister's hearts go out to this 'poor, crippled girl,' as Jamy put it to another, sitting beside her. Adia's head snapped up, and the glare was vicious. Jamy hadn't been quiet enough.
"I'm NOT CRIPPLED!" she yelled. "I don't need your pity!" She stormed out, somehow finding the door and walking through, then towards the front entrance.
"Dee!" he called after her, hurrying into the hall.
"Don't call me that!" she screamed, fumbling desperately for the door handle - her means of escape from her embarrassment - and, unable to find it, lost control and kicked the white-painted wood violently. It shook under her onslaught. "Damn it! Damn that f***ing illness! Damn my bloody useless eyes!" she screamed in frustration and fell to sit on the floor, weeping into her quivering hands, emotion swelling inside until it couldn't stay in, pouring fluidly over her eyelids, and spilling onto the carpeted floor.
He sat next to her, awkwardly unable to do anything about it, numbly trying to think of something he could say.
She wiped her eyes, trying to stop the tears unsuccessfully. "Damn my stupid wistfullness," she said, trying to sound cheerful but failing miserably. "I just can't accept it. I have to accept it!" she retorted to herself. "It's never going to change!"
Quatre smiled weakly. "You don't know that," he told her. "They're always curing new things, aren't they?"
"So what?" she told him bitterly, nevertheless grinning lopsidedly. "There's something wrong with the surface of my eye. It's not like they can remove it."
His sisters were watching the conversation from the doorway. Occasionally one of them would grin at another. Jamy turned to her closest sister.
"She'll do," she mouthed.
"That's Sandy," she remarked as they strode down the hallway. "My guide-dog."
"She's sweet," he told her, turning into the canteen. She followed, but he suspected she'd followed the sound of his footsteps to find the doorway, rather than knowing where it was. He kept silent.
Adia sniffed at her slightly soggy sandwich, then bit into it. "Oh, great. Tuna. I hate tuna. What do you have?"
"My sisters packed me salad," he replied, placing it on the table. "But they seem to have forgotten the fork. I suppose I should be grateful to them, making my lunch for me."
"Why bother with a fork? Use your fingers. You'll only stab yourself." she told him absently, then blushed as she realised that she'd given him advice that applied only to her. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget I'm the only one."
"It's okay."
Sandy barked, pawing at Adia's leg, and was rewarded with a piece of meat from her lunchbox, packed for the loyal spaniel. "You know why I called her Sandy?"
"No," Quatre responded, smiling at the sight of the dog gnawing her jerky. "Why?"
"I got her just after the war," Adia said in carefully blank tones. "I thought Sandy was appropriate, after Gundam Sandrock." A slight twitch at the corner of her mouth told Quatre she knew exactly what she was talking about. Not that it mattered anymore, but he still didn't like it being spread around.
"That's…interesting," he remarked, frowning. She couldn't see his face, but his tone told her something had upset him.
"I'm sorry if I offended you," she stated, resting her head on one hand. "I often say things people don't want to hear. Comes of being blind. Lost all my tact."
"It's alright, I don't mind," he told her diplomatically, though his mind was skipping around. How had she known, and who would she tell? Why had she told him so lightly?
"Don't wrap me up in cotton wool, I'm not made of glass," she retorted, scowling. "Just because I've only got four senses doesn't mean I don't know I offended you."
Suddenly her face became softer, hesitant. "Could I…could I touch your face?" she hurriedly added, correctly guessing his surprise: "So I know what you look like. It's the only way I can get an image of people."
"Um…sure," he told her, eyes darting around in embarrassment as her fingers touched his skin softly. Some people glanced their way, but no one laughed. Maybe it was ordinary for her to do this with new pupils. Maybe it had happened with all of them.
"You're tense," she remarked, smoothing his forehead. "Don't worry, I won't dig my fingers through your skull and into your brain." She playfully made burrowing motions with her hands. Quatre grinned, and she smiled as she felt his expression change. "That's better. You know, your face is probably the most symmetrical I've found," she told him, voicing it matter-of-factly, in a perfectly everyday tone. "It's strange." She took her hands back, and grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry I had to do that, but I hate going around not having faces to match with the voices I hear."
"I know," he said distractedly, thinking of other things. Sometimes he forgot his spaceheart, and it crept up on him, like now.
"Uh-huh? Well, I guess that's another thing you won't want to talk about, being psychic and all," she teased, not knowing about his expression of bafflement. "Come on. It's biology next, and I like that."
^^^
Adia sat and listened, bored, to the disgusted sounds coming from the other students. They were dissecting rats, another activity she couldn't take a part in. ~ Well, at least I can't be grossed out like they are, ~ she thought, wrinkling her nose at the smell from Quatre's rat. He'd almost refused when the teacher told them what they'd be doing, but when she told him she'd need his results too, he'd consented unhappily. ~ Quatre's too kind, ~ she thought with a smile. ~ He's too gentle. ~
~ Why was she smiling? ~ Quatre wondered, scalpel neatly cutting away some more flesh from the rat's corpse. ~ She should be bored stupid. ~
"Why the smile?"
Adia jumped, then turned to face him, glasses perched back on her nose. It was another barrier between her and the world, but it also avoided undue stares at her mist-covered eyes. "I don't know," she told him, fingers crossing impulsively behind her back, out of sight as she thought, but just visible to Quatre from his seat at the desk. She didn't see the smile on his face as he looked at her.
^^^
"It feels big in here," she remarked, stepping into the hallway. Quatre had brought her home with him, to meet his sisters. Twenty of them were currently in residence, and the house was hectic but comfortable, all the same. She was right; it was big, but by no means the biggest room in the house. ~ How did she know that? ~
Adia cracked a smile, then pointed at her eyes. "Being blind just gives you extra sensitivity to these things." She could often guess what he was thinking.
He winced as she once again pointed out her deficiency. It didn't matter to him; to Quatre, she was just another person. A good person; his friend. The only one who really give him any sort of welcome at all, even after she found out just who he was.
The weeks had sped by since he'd returned to school to graduate a year in the future, and it was getting ever closer to Christmas. He'd asked her what she wanted most in the world, and she'd smiled sadly. "What do you think I want?" she'd asked, the melancholy in her voice grabbing him by the heartstrings. "The one thing nobody can give me." She hadn't told him what that was, but let him come to his own conclusions. Sure, she wanted her vision back, but the one thing she wanted most was to see his face, to have a picture of the melodious voice she heard everyday.
Jamy, the eldest of his sisters, came out of the kitchen, and saw her little brother standing there with a girl in sunglasses. She knew immediately who it was; they'd managed to wheedle enough information from him as possible about school, and had jumped on him when he mentioned her. This had to be Adia- Quat's new friend.
"Hi! I'm Jamy, Quatre's sister," she announced, touching Adia's arm. The girl jumped and a slight scream escaped her lips; Adia hadn't heard Jamy coming, despite refined hearing, and her sight deficiency meant that the subsequent shock was larger. She coloured brightly when she realised her mistake, and her embarrassment was written on her face.
"It's alright, Dee," Quatre told her, forgetting how much she hated that nickname and laying his arm around her shoulders. "It's just my sister."
Adia shrugged it off, rejecting the small comfort. She ignored her slightly quickened breath at his touch and dismissed it as shock. "Don't call me that," she mumbled. "It's just this damn darkness…"
She shuddered, then stood straight again, a look on her face Quatre remembered all too well. She was going to ignore the whole incident, and pretend it never happened. ~ Just like her to be that stubborn, ~ he thought, rubbing his hand against his trouser leg. ~ She doesn't like people to know how vulnerable she feels. ~
"Well, come on," he told her, almost reproachfully, and she followed him into the sitting room where Jamy had already managed to get most of his sisters to come eye his new friend. Quatre groaned internally. They were probably seeing if she was 'suitable', he thought, grimacing at them. No matter that she was just his friend; they loved to play matchmaker. ~ No matter that we're just friends right now, ~ he thought, and scowled at himself. His youngest sister jumped, and he smiled carefully, trying to dispel any ideas they had.
"Um…Hi," Adia mumbled, looking towards the sofa. ~ She can probably hear them chatting, ~ Quatre thought, glancing at his friend. She looked nervous. ~ Probably still ratty over her scare, ~ he considered, then dismissed it as his sisters turned to look at Adia.
"Hi!" came a chorus of voices, and a lot of introductions she could never possibly hear against one another.
"Could you please be a bit quieter?" Adia asked loudly. "I have good hearing, and you don't have to shout!" The last part came at a yell, overpowering his sister's voices and turning the room to silence.
"You'll have to teach me to do that," Quatre whispered, and Adia grinned.
"Alright, I'm Adia…"
"We knew that!" the youngest piped up, immediately hushed by her sisters.
"And it's nice to meet you all…but don't expect me to learn all your names when I can't see you," she finished, blushing with humiliation. "I'm sorry," she whispered morosely, and sat down on a chair behind her, head in her hands. "I'm sorry…" she whispered even quieter, and pulled off her sunglasses, gripping them tightly, her knuckles turning white. Her sightless eyes glistened with unshed tears that she tried not to let go. A solitary drop ran down her cheek, and she wiped away with a swift movement of her sleeve. The embarrassment of meeting twenty people all at once that she couldn't tell apart was painful and it rubbed her face, yet again, in her inability to see the world around her.
Quatre could see that his sister's hearts go out to this 'poor, crippled girl,' as Jamy put it to another, sitting beside her. Adia's head snapped up, and the glare was vicious. Jamy hadn't been quiet enough.
"I'm NOT CRIPPLED!" she yelled. "I don't need your pity!" She stormed out, somehow finding the door and walking through, then towards the front entrance.
"Dee!" he called after her, hurrying into the hall.
"Don't call me that!" she screamed, fumbling desperately for the door handle - her means of escape from her embarrassment - and, unable to find it, lost control and kicked the white-painted wood violently. It shook under her onslaught. "Damn it! Damn that f***ing illness! Damn my bloody useless eyes!" she screamed in frustration and fell to sit on the floor, weeping into her quivering hands, emotion swelling inside until it couldn't stay in, pouring fluidly over her eyelids, and spilling onto the carpeted floor.
He sat next to her, awkwardly unable to do anything about it, numbly trying to think of something he could say.
She wiped her eyes, trying to stop the tears unsuccessfully. "Damn my stupid wistfullness," she said, trying to sound cheerful but failing miserably. "I just can't accept it. I have to accept it!" she retorted to herself. "It's never going to change!"
Quatre smiled weakly. "You don't know that," he told her. "They're always curing new things, aren't they?"
"So what?" she told him bitterly, nevertheless grinning lopsidedly. "There's something wrong with the surface of my eye. It's not like they can remove it."
His sisters were watching the conversation from the doorway. Occasionally one of them would grin at another. Jamy turned to her closest sister.
"She'll do," she mouthed.