Blind AU (in which Seijūrō loses his sight)

It was moments like this when it happened. It was almost like a veil was becoming more transparent and the shapes no longer revealed nothing of his surroundings and only required the smallest input of imagination to fill in the gaps. Seijūrō supposed that meant the doctor had been right; it had merely been a reaction to stress.

Well I've calmed down my entire life now, he thought. It had been six months already since he'd been left in darkness.

He turned to face where he knew Kōki was (the rustling of pages was quite a give-away) and relaxed his mind as much as possible, thinking of nothing but the movements he could sense him doing.

"What are you doing, Sei?"

Seijūrō blinked. "Nothing."

"Then stop facing me like that. It's creepy. You didn't stare at me like that before."

"You just didn't catch me. I stared all the time."

Kōki dropped what Seijūrō presumed to be the book and stammered as he scolded him.

He was so cute, Seijūrō thought desperately (feeling kind of ridiculous at the same time). He could just about see the outline of his body and the memories of when he'd seen Kōki flustered almost managed to fill in the gaps. He would be - no, he was - worrying his bottom lip with his teeth and alternating between looking at Seijūrō and looking down at the floor. The blush would be colouring his cheeks.

He wanted to see it.

And with that desperation, snatching at the ephemeral image, it was gone like a wisp of smoke and any contrast was lost. He couldn't even see Kōki any more.

His expression must have changed because Kōki was kissing his forehead and stroking his hair comfortingly. "Don't stress yourself out," he said softly.

"I'm not." With Kōki close, the tension in his neck and shoulders bled away. "I was just thinking about what I'm most annoyed about."

"Hmm?" He continued brushing Seijūrō's hair back.

Seijūrō sighed and smirked. "You could be walking around naked at any time and I just wouldn't know."

"Seijūrō!" That earned him a slap around the head and some half-hearted struggling when Seijūrō closed his arms around Kōki's waist.

"In fact I'll have to start checking your attire a lot more often."