The Blind Leading the Blonde
By Ruki Minamoto
Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN DIGIMON.
Chapter 2: Everything's Changed…
"TK…Kari's blind." Tai said in a shaky voice that was barely understandable to TK.
"What?" TK asked. Tai began to walk out. TK rose to his feet and reached out for Tai.
By this point, anyone who wasn't staring now was. "Tai! Tai! Come back! Tell me what happened! How did she end up blind? Tai! Please come back! I don't blame you for whatever happened!"
TK looked around as he realized that Tai wasn't coming back. Normally, he would've had a rude comment to use against the staring people, like the one he had used on the man in the airport toilets, but now his mind had gone blank.
He vaguely remembered that Kari had often been sick as a child, but what illness could have left her blind?
TK sank into his seat and picked up the menu. He tore it in half and crumpled both halves up. He aimed them at the bin and shot. They both landed in it perfectly.
The door opened again and TK looked up in the hopes that it was Tai, who had returned to tell him the story of how Kari ended up blind.
But it wasn't Tai at all. It was a brunette with waist-length light brown hair that waved down perfectly and was wearing sunglasses. She was wearing brand new jeans and a pastel pink skivvy and brand new white joggers.
But the thing that caught TK's eye was the white and red cane she moved in front of her skillfully as she made her way to his booth.
She stopped in front of the bench Tai had been sitting on earlier. She turned her head in the vague direction of TK.
"Anyone sitting there?" she asked. TK couldn't speak for several seconds, so simply shook his head before remembering that she couldn't see him.
"No." TK answered simply. "You can sit there."
She smiled at him sweetly and sat down cautiously. She folded her cane up and sat in on the table next to him.
"Your voice seems familiar," she said in quiet, gentle tones that TK remembered well.
It was the same voice he had heard in his heart for the last four years.
"I know you." TK said, as his old self shone through his drug induced high. "Kari Kamiya."
Kari whipped off her dark sunglasses and TK realized that her eyes looked the same, but different. They were sort of…they seemed to stare at you weirdly. TK blinked in surprise.
Kari seemed to register his surprise, because she put them back on.
"Well, only one person would recognize me that quickly even after eight years. Well, TK Takaishi, it's good to have you back here. So, how was New York City?" Kari asked as she leant forward and placed a soft hand on his own.
TK felt his cheeks turn red and looked out the window at the busy street outside.
"Uh…cool. I'm…uh…back here because mum's gotten remarried, and I can't stand her new husband."
Kari nodded understandingly and placed a hand on TK's cheek after moments of feeling around for it. She withdrew it quickly though as she felt the facial hair.
TK fell silent. He didn't know what to say. What did you say when, eight years after you had just seen someone, found out that they were now blind?
Kari sensed his uneasiness and easily found the source of it. She removed her hand from his.
"There's something wrong, TK." Kari said quietly. She fumbled around for her cane. She clasped the folded up cane tightly so her knuckles turned white. "It's because I'm blind, isn't it?"
"What?" TK demanded. "What do you mean?" The drugs in his system had thrown his emotions out from any control he had over them. "What do you mean it's because I'm blind'?"
Kari turned her head towards him and her smile was replaced by a frown.
"I thought you'd understand. I thought you wouldn't care that I was blind, but I was wrong. I thought you wouldn't treat me any different just because I couldn't see like I used to be able to."
TK clenched his fists and pounded the table angrily.
"What do you mean?" he shouted. "How did you want me to react? First, your brother runs out after telling me you're blind, and then you start yelling at me for no reason!"
"Yelling at you?" Kari cried. "You're the one doing the yelling. Forget this, I'm going."
Kari began to unfold her cane, hitting TK by accident on the very spot he had been injecting himself for years now. TK placed his hand there defensively and found his anger rising up to unhealthy levels.
"Fine! I'll be damned if I care what you do with your life!" he cried. "Go on, then! Leave! See if I care!"
Kari finished unfolding her cane and tried to leave, but accidentally stumbled and fell.
TK's anger faded away as his old self and his old friendship and love for Kari took over.
He bent down to help her to her feet, but Kari rolled onto her back and sat up. She swung at him blindly with her cane.
"TK, you've changed. I don't know what happened to you in New York, but just stay away!"
Kari crawled out from under him and began to leave. TK grabbed her shoulder and swung her around. Kari pushed him away, unaware of where he would land. TK fell backwards onto the floor.
"I said leave me alone!" Kari shouted and she left quickly, almost tripping over several things as she left.
TK climbed onto his knees and felt his body go into drug withdrawal. He fell forward and let his forehead rest on the floor. He began to cry heavily as the image of the old friendship he had had with Kari went up in smoke.
"It's all fallen apart," TK mumbled as he began to cuddle himself. "It's all fallen apart."
TK gathered his bag with tears falling down his cheeks and left. He wandered along the main street of Odaiba dismally. Any hopes of a wonderful reunion with Kari had been dashed. It was happening again.
Back in New York City, TK remembered how he had met the perfect girl, but she had left him. TK remembered how it had all fallen apart afterwards.
He forced it from his mind and began to head for his father's apartment. He made a mental note to go the Kamiya's apartment tomorrow.
This couldn't be the end for them. It just couldn't.
Things couldn't change that much, could they?