#because I NEVR act on ANY feelings like that | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chasml · 7 years

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A lunch date with disaster (Blind!Ishimaru AU fic)

This is a story set in the Blind!Ishimaru AU that @unhealthydoctors came up with. It’ll probably make sense if you read this, this and this comic first if you haven’t already (plus you should just read those anyway because they’re awesome). It’s mostly mutual pining fluff from Mondo’s POV.

Summary: Mondo decides to take his friend Ishi out for lunch one weekend... just to make up for that time he punched the guy in the face! Not because he’s secretly got a crush on him or anything! But it might have gone better if Mondo knew the first thing about how to guide a blind person...

Word count is almost 15,000. (I thought it was going to be a short fic but then I started writing it...)

Mondo kicked his heels against the wall he was leaning against, wondering how much longer Ishi was gonna be with his schoolwork or detentions or whatever it was he was doing that meant he was staying late after school this time. There was always something, which was why the guy always ended up walking home by himself most of the time.

Or at least, he’d ended up walking home by himself, up until Mondo had realised he was blind, apologised for sucker punching him last year and found out that he was actually a pretty cool guy to hang out with. It had kind of weirded out most of the school, actually, the way they’d gone from being unable to do anything but yell at each other to talking about what a great guy the other was in less than a day. But they’d all got used to it eventually. Then he and Ishi had started calling each other bros, working together in classes and hanging out at lunchtimes. Mondo had started to find school work less-than-impossible and Ishi started to loosen up a little.

It was around that time that Mondo had started realising that he wanted to do more than just hang out with Ishi at lunchtime. He wasn’t sure exactly what is what about the guy that made him feel that way. Maybe it was the way he smiled, a joyous honest grin that always got just that little bit wider when he heard Mondo greeting him. Maybe it was the way he looked at Mondo… or didn’t look at him… or whatever, the fact that Ishi was always glad to be with him and acting like Mondo was a great guy and nevr judged him even if he looked on the shitty side, or whatever. Maybe it was the way he talked, always full of excitement about whatever news he’d heard on the radio or stuff he’d read about in the newest braille book in the library. Maybe it was ‘cause of that time he’d asked to feel what Mondo looked like and said he felt ‘very handsome’. Or maybe it was just all of that stuff along with pretty much everything else about the guy.

Whatever it was, it had led to him waiting around in the school hallways for Ishi, so he could nervously tell the guy he was walking him home. And then Ishi had almost tripped over and Mondo had ended up grabbing his arm to lead him the rest of the way back to his place.

That’d been cool until Mondo had made it kinda weird by not wanting to let go of his arm ‘cause he’d wanted to hold his hand but he hadn’t wanted to just grab his hand, he’d wanted Ishi to wanna hold his hand… or even just let him hold his hand, but there was no way Mondo coulda asked that and the closest he’d got was kinda brushing his hand against Ishi’s for a second before getting embarrassed and running off, thinking that was probably he last time he’d ever be walking Ishi home.

Only for Ishi to ask him the very next day if Mondo was going to be waiting for him after school again. Not that Ishi would have minded either way, he just wanted to know in advance so Mondo didn’t startle him by being there unexpectedly, again…

So now they had this thing where Mondo would wait for him after school every day, and they’d walk to Ishi’s place with Mondo’s hand gripping Ishi’s arm and never daring to get any closer to what he really wanted to do, ‘cause Ishi seemed cool with what they were doing at the moment and Mondo didn’t wanna fuck things up with him by suddenly asking to hold his hand or some shit like that outta nowhere.

But that was cool, any time spent with Ishi was a good time... which was why Mondo wanted more of it. And right now there was a huge chunk of time that he wasn’t getting to spend with his bro, so he was gonna do something to start fixing that!

At least, he’d start fixing it as soon as Ishi finished whatever shit was taking him so long… Which was why he was stood, impatiently scuffing the walls with the back of his shoes, occasionally leaning forward to check the clock on the other side of the lockers, only to irritably roll his head backwards onto the wall when he saw that hardly any time had passed whatsoever. Was the clock even working? Maybe he could take it off the wall and check the batteries, ‘cause there was no way it had been less than a minute since the last time he’d checked…

“Mondo? Are you there?” Finally, Mondo heard the sound of Ishi, shouting down the corridor so Mondo could let him know he was here waiting without startling him and getting a white cane in the face.

He turned to see the familiar form of his friend. He was shorter than Mondo, enough so that the top of his spiky black hair was barely in line with Mondo’s nose, but broad shouldered and muscular enough that his white, short-sleeved shirt was stretched tight over his pale skin. His large, red eyes were unfocused, like he was staring into space, but the rest of his face was scrunched slightly in alert focus as he listened for a response to his question, while feeling around for any obstacles in his path with the white, red-tipped cane he was steadily tapping against the floor, the noise of which formed a steady rhythm alongside the heavy steps of the knee-high black boots that he wore over the brown trousers that formed the lower half of the school uniform.

“Yeah, I’m here!” Mondo called back down, and the steady rhythm or the tapping cane and stomping boots paused briefly as Ishi smiled and skipped lightly at Mondo’s confirmation.

“Thank you for waiting, I’m sorry I kept you so long, but there were a rather ornery lot of freshmen in detention today…” Ishi’s grin faltered… those assholes had better not have caused him much trouble, if they knew what was good for ‘em… “I hope it’s not going to have interfered with your own plans for the evening!”

Hah! Like Mondo ever had plans, beyond maybe rounding up a few guys from the gang and messing around together… which was starting to lose its charm these days…

“Nah, it’s cool. Don’t worry about it…” Mondo told him, grabbing onto his arm, trying to ignore the way that still made his heart start thumping even though he’d been doing it for weeks now, and starting to pull him along the route to his house like usual. Then he swallowed his nerves and started following his carefully thought out plan… “But, speaking about plans… You got any for the weekend?”

“This weekend? Yes, I do!” Shit… that wasn’t part of Mondo’s plan! “I’ll be studying!”

Urg… never mind, if he had to wait for a weekend that Ishi wasn’t going to spend the entirety of studying he’d be retired before he asked his next question…

“Well…” …C’mon! He was Mondo Oowada! He could do this! “D’ya wanna go out for lunch somewhere?”

Ishi’s brows furrowed in thought at the question. “…You mean with you?”

Mondo could feel his body freeze at the question… this was it, if he answered this he’d be 100% committed to this plan… “Uhh… yeah!” Mondo spat out. “Just me, though!”

“Ah… I see.” Ishi let out a deep sigh… crap! Had that been too much to ask…? Maybe he should have asked if he wanted to include any of their friends from class…?

“…You ain’t gotta come or anything, I thought ya just might wanna break from studying or something, it’s not a big deal if ya’d rather not or if you’d rather…”

“It’s not that I don’t want to go! Eating lunch somewhere new together sounds like a wonderful bonding opportunity!” Ishi’s face seemed to glow at the thought, before his smile fell and it dimmed again… “It’s just, my financial situation…”

That the only reason he was saying no!? “I’ll pay for ya then!”

…The words had shot out of Mondo’s mouth before he even thought about how desperate they probably sounded.

“You would? Why?” And Ishi seemed to have picked up on that as well, his lips now pursed tightly as he probably thought about why Mondo might be so keen to eat with him…

Argh… Mondo needed to think quickly now! What reason, other than the truth which he was not gonna fucking admit to right now, could he give for being willing to pay for someone else’s lunch…?

“Uhh… ta say sorry!” Was the best he came up with, “For punching ya in the face!”

“But… you’ve already apologised for that!” Ishi’s face twisted into confusion.

“Well… yeah, I said sorry!” Mondo admitted, “But I never actually did anything ta make up for it, did I?”

“But… we came to an understanding about that!” Ishi was getting stubborn, “There’s no need for you to feel that you have to…”

“I know I don’t have to make it up to ya!” Mondo snapped back, “I just wanna, alright!?”

“Ah…!” Ishi tilted his head back in surprise… or maybe ‘cause Mondo have panicked and yelled and startled him… “I see… if it’s like that, then I accept your offer!”

He did!? Fuck yes! He had!

“So… where will we be going?” Ishi asked, “I’ll need to make sure I can get there by myself…”

…Crap! Mondo hadn’t actually planned what he’d do if Ishi actually said yes in that much detail…!

“Uhh… well… how’s about I pick ya up from your place…”

“I’m not riding your motorcycle!” Ishi habitually repeated for the hundredth time.

“I meant I’d walk ya there!” Mondo corrected him, “Then we can decide what we feel like on the day.” And Mondo would be able to scout out a few places in advance…

“Hmm… that… should work alright…” He seemed less sure about it than the rest of the plan so far though. “If you could come to pick me up at 11.45 on Sunday, that would work best, I think!”

11.45 on a Sunday? That was closer to Mondo’s idea of breakfast time… but whatever, so long as he got to hang out with Ishi… “Sure! I’ll meet ya then!”

“Wonderful!” Ishi’s face lit up like the sun, “My first lunch date!”

…Did he just call it a DATE!? Okay, Mondo was sorta hoping it’d be a bit like a date, but he hadn’t been expecting Ishi ta think was like a date… and he’d said ‘lunch date’ like that was a specific thing and not just a date date, which he’d never had before either so if he’d meant it like a date date then he coulda just said ‘my first date’ instead of ‘my first lunch date’…

“Err… Mondo? Is something the matter?” Ishi asked, probably because Mondo had frozen in place while his brain stalled over a single four letter word...

“Err… yeah! It’s fine! It’s just… there were ducks crossing the path!” Mondo spat out the first lie he could think of… which was a bad idea ‘cause it was a fucking stupid lie…

“…I don’t hear any ducks…” A fucking stupid lie that even the blind guy could see through!

“Well, they’re really quiet ducks!” Mondo shouted over him in panic, “Anyway, they’re gone now, so let’s get going…!” He tugged at Ishi’s arm, speeding up his pace as if he could get away from how dumb he felt right now just by speed-walking…

“A-alright!” Ishi sped up his own pace to keep up, “But, can you slow down?”

Damnit… “Y-yeah.. sorry…” Mondo stammered, trying to force himself to slow down… He needed to calm down… whether it was a date or not didn’t matter. He was gonna have a nice lunch out with his bro! That’s all it boiled down to either way. And he could have lunch with someone easily, right? He was Mondo Oowada! The Mondo Oowada! Badass gang leader! He had this!

It was Sunday. It was eleven forty-ish. He was Mondo Oowada and…

…He didn’t have this.

He’d spent yesterday checking out nice cafés. He’d got up early, he’d showered, he’d made sure he was wearing some decent clothes and had styled his pomp extra-carefully, even though it was probably pointless ‘cause the only person whose opinion he gave two shits about wouldn’t see it anyway. Then he’d left early enough that he could drive here without speeding and risking pissing off a cop (Or screwing up his hair), parked up his bike outside Ishi’s house (and even paid for the meter), come up to the front door and was being thwarted by a goddamn doorbell!

What the fuck was wrong with him!? All he had to do was just reach out and press the damn thing! Then Ishi’d come out and they’d say hi to each other and then Mondo could ask what sorta food he wanted and then they’d start walking to the best place for that sorta food and then this ‘lunch date’ would be on! But instead, he was just staring at the thing, keenly aware that hitting it would summon Ishi to the door, and after that there’d be no backing out, or being able to run off home and change into something better looking, or ride to the shops to pick up flowers or something so he wasn’t turning up to pick up his maybe-a-date empty-handed…

…What the fuck was he even thinking? Flowers!? Ishi would just get bummed out ‘cause he couldn’t see ‘em! Or weirded out ‘cause Mondo had brought flowers to a friendly lunch. And even if he wouldn’t have, Mondo didn’t have time to head off anywhere now, if he did that he’d be late and Ishi would be pissed with him!

Besides, Mondo didn’t need to go make any last-minute calls! He’d prepared for this! Everything was gonna go great! And he wasn’t about to let some little doorbell stop him! He was a man! And men didn’t fuck about with doorbells, they just banged on the door like this!

BANG BANG BANG!

…Shit, maybe that was a bit hard… Hell, this door was so old he was lucky he hadn’t broken it! That woulda been a great start to the day, Mondo having to fix his front door up… Still, at least Ishi had heard it, judging from the movement shifting behind the small pane of glass at the top. And now the door handle was rattling slightly, and the door was slowly creaking open… Right… here we go! Time to breath deep and give Ishi his best-sounding greeting…!

“…We have a doorbell, you know.”

“H-uuhk!?” The breath Mondo had taken escaped somewhere between a choke and a squeak at the sight and sound of a man who was very definitely not Mondo’s bro…

Not that there weren’t similarities… there were plenty of things that were the same, but in a way that only showed how much difference there was between the two of them. They both had the red eyes, but while Ishi’s were soft, often unfocused and wandering off to the side, this guy’s eyes were cold and sharp as steel, his intense stare not letting up for a second. The both had comically large eyebrows, but Ishi’s were constantly moving as his face scrunched and stretched into different expressions, while this guy’s brows were sitting flat and steady, his face an impassive mask betraying only the slightest amount of annoyance. They both had short dark hair with a widow’s peak, but Ishi’s was a healthy black, rigorously cropped to extreme neatness, a complete contrast to the completely grey hair that looked like it had been roughly shaved out of convenience rather than pride…

Not that Mondo could fault him for that. From what Ishi had told him, it sounded like his father had enough shit to deal with, trying to pay off his grandfather’s debts, look after a family and pay for braille books and other resources that had helped Ishi do so well in school despite not being able to see, all on nothing but a lowly police detective’s salary.

“…You’re Mondo Oowada.” Officer Ishimaru observed dryly, making Mondo wished he’d done his hair differently or something, so he wouldn’t have been instantly recognised.

“Uhh… y-yeah…” Crap, what the hell was he supposed to say? He hadn’t planned on having the door opened by a cop! Sure, he knew Ishi’s dad was a cop, but he’d never seen the guy any of the other times he’d walked Ishi home! He’d just assumed he was out at work and kinda forgot that the guy must have to go home occasionally.

“…And you’re here to pick up my son.” Another blunt, expressionless observation, followed by him starting to glance over the area behind Mondo.

“Y-yeah…” Mondo choked out with a hasty nod. It’d help if he could get a read on this guy, but all his instincts were coming up with was that his wiry frame and haggard face made him look like one of those guys who’d make up for not being able to throw a heavy punch by not giving two shits about breaking a glass bottle over your face if it came to it… and Mondo had no idea if it would. Obviously he wasn’t happy a notorious gangster was here at his house, but if he was actually pissed off about it, he was doing a damn good job of hiding it.

“…Are you planning to take him on that?” Ishimaru’s eyes locked onto Mondo’s bike moments before the question shot out of his mouth.

But what kinda question was that? Had he not met his own son? “Ya think he’d actually get on it!?”

“No.” His eyes snapped back to Mondo’s. “But I didn’t think he’d go out for lunch with you either.”

He kinda had a point there… “Well… He still doesn’t wanna go on the bike, so I’m gonna be walking him there.”

“Hmm…” He almost looked like he didn’t know which was worse. “When was the…?”

“Father!?” Whatever Ishimaru had been planning to ask got cut off by a shout from his son, inside the house. “Are you still here? I wanted to ask you something…!”

The policeman continued glaring sideways at Mondo, even as he shouted back into the house. “I’m at the front door. Oowada’s here.”

“He is!?” Ishi’s startled cry and the stomps from his boots as he made his way towards the door seemed to reverberate through the house. “I didn’t hear the doorbell!”

Oops… Guess that’s why his Dad mentioned them having one. Ishi might have just assumed the banging was from the neighbours doing housework or something…

“That’s because he knocked.”

“Oh! I see!” Ishi’s voice was getting louder as he made his way through the house towards them. “Well… I believe I’m ready for lunch, now!”

Well, he certainly looked ready! He was wearing a smart, tightly-fitting white uniform with shining golden buttons and a medal along with the usual black boots and red armband. It almost made him look like a soldier… or a prince maybe… Was this his idea of dressing up for a date?

“…You’re wearing your old school uniform.” His father told him.

“Yes… I’m aware of that.” Ishi answered.

Wait, so… those were just some old clothes of his? Not something special? Less dressing up for a date and more like putting on old clothes for a messy job… Did he think Mondo was planning to take him into some grimy dive bar or something…?

“Alright then… what was it you wanted to ask me?” The officer asked him.

“…That’s not important!” Ishi told him, quickly. “We should probably get going now, right Mondo?”

“Uhh… yeah, sure!” Mondo agreed with him, not so much because they were on a time limit, but because it would be nice to get away from his old man...

“Well then… I hope your lunch goes well.” Ishimaru told him, as he moved out of the way of the door.

“Thank you! I’m sure it will!” Ishi smiled brilliantly as he stepped down the rickety wooden steps, “I’ve got Mondo to look after me!”

“I see…” The officer said, giving Mondo a look that clearly meant that Mondo had better look after him before closing the door.

Ishi’s shoulders relaxed a little once he heard the door close, and he breathed out heavily before speaking. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you that Father would be home. He would usually have been at work at this time, but he had a last minute shift change yesterday.”

“It’s alright… probably should have occurred to me that I’d end up talking ta him at some point…” Mondo admitted, as he grabbed Ishi’s wrist and started leading him towards the part of town he’d been checking out.

“You think…!?” Ishi sounded surprised, “Oh… well, I suppose if he ever has the time to make school events, or our graduation, you’d have met him then, wouldn’t you? I suppose that’s what you’re thinking of?”

“…Yeah. Summat like that.” Mondo had actually been thinking more along the lines of ‘when I start picking you up from home more often’ or ‘at your next birthday party’ or maybe even ‘when it gets to that point in our relationship’, but that sort of thing obviously wasn’t on Ishi’s mind at all.

“Well… I hope Father didn’t say anything… odd, when he answered the door…?” Ishi asked, anxiously.

“Nah… he just checked who I was and asked if we were going on the bike… Then you interrupted his next question.”

“Oh, good!” Ishi laughed, “I must admit, what could happen when you two saw each other has been on my mind all morning!”

Whereas Mondo had just been worrying about what could happen when he saw Ishi… What if he turned up late and annoyed the guy right off the bat, or messed up so bad that Ishi never wanted to do this again, or Ishi wanted some weird food that none of the places he’d checked out actually did, or some other disaster…?

But he was Mondo Oowada, right? And he’d already coped with the biggest nasty surprise the day could possibly throw at him! He had this! “Well, ya ain’t gotta worry ‘bout it now! What sort of food are ya in the mood for?”

“I’d prefer something simple… like a nice sandwich, maybe.”

A sandwich? Hah! What had he been worrying about!? Everywhere did sandwiches! “Ya got a specific type in mind?”

“I was thinking I’d make my mind up once I saw what was available.”

“Alright… There was a nice place about twenty minutes’ walk from here that had a whole bunch of them, we can go there!” It had smelt good to, and had some low-key classical stuff on in the background. Ishi would probably appreciate that, right? This was gonna go great!

“That sounds wonderful! Thank you! I appreciate the effort you’ve put into this!” Ishi sounded like he was probably beaming at Mondo from behind him. And all he’d done was check out a few places to eat…

“It’s no problem…” Mondo mumbled, stopping himself before he added ‘you’re worth the effort’ or some other over-the-top nonsense that would give his feelings away…

They walked in their usual comfortable silence, with the only sound being the ever-present rhythmic tapping from Ishi’s cane, for around five minutes before the quiet old suburban street fed into the main road that would then lead to the centre of town and their destination. The peaceful quiet of before was soon taken over by a hubbub of car engines along with the chatter and footsteps coming from the groups of people lining the pavement.

Roads like these usually made Mondo thankful for his bike, as he sped past the throngs of ambling people and barely had time to notice how cramped the pavement looked before he was past them all anyway. But this time he stuck walking along with them all, having to keep stopping stopping and starting because idiots ahead of him had seen something in a window or whatever…

“Oof!” After one particularly sudden stop, Mondo was almost pushed forward as Ishi slammed into his back.

“Ah! What the hell, man!?” Mondo snapped irritably.

“I wasn’t aware we were stopping!” Ishi explained, irritably.

Crap… of course not, he couldn’t see the idiots around them… which meant Mondo was going to have to make sure they didn’t need to stop like that again!

“Right… Sorry, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again…” Mondo told him.

“Thank you…” Ishi nodded, “Let’s carry on then!”

Mondo moved forward again, keep a good grip on Ishi’s wrist as he scanned the groups of people ahead of him… he was going to have to make sure he noticed when people were stopping quickly enough to swerve around them… Like now, as there were two old ladies ahead of him, who he had to cut left around, pulling Ishi’s arm hard to drag him along with him while he did it. Then straight after that there was a mother with a couple of kids, so he had to dodge back right…

Except Ishi still thought they were going left, so he ended up getting spun around and stumbled forward with a yell. “Aargh! Mondo stop! You can’t just suddenly change direction like that either!”

Urggh… Obviously not, but what the hell was he supposed to do then!? It wasn’t like he could just make all of these idiots disappear!

But… there were less of ‘em on the other side of the road... and the traffic lights up the road were only just turning back to green, so if they headed across now…

“Right, sorry… we’re going this way now!” Mondo apologised and pulled Ishi out across the road.

“What…? Aaahhh!” Crap! Ishi hadn’t realised the edge of the kerb was there and had almost tripped again… and now he was dragging his feet, and the cars were moving a bit faster than he’d expected... “Mondo, you have to…!”

“Sorry! But we ain’t got time for that now, keep going!” Mondo yanked on his arm to speed him up…

“Why… wait… are we in the ROAD!?” There was an awful moment where it seemed like Ishi’s legs had frozen, but luckily he made up for it by dashing forward even faster once he got over it, and they managed to make their way onto the other pavement with nothing worse than some asshole beeping his horn at them just after they made it…

“Aargghh!” Ishi flinched and braced himself at the noise for a moment, before realising it wasn’t anything dangerous. “Ah… Mondo, what’s happening!?”

Shit… had he thought they were still in the road… no wonder that car horn scared the crap outta him… “We… we got to the other side of the road, we’re on the pavement now…” Mondo explained.

“We did?” Ishi let out a small laugh of relief, before turning in Mondo’s direction with a scowl on his face, “Well, we should count ourselves extremely lucky then! What were you thinking, running out into traffic like that!? You could have got us both killed!”

“Well… the traffic wasn’t a problem until you tripped and slowed down!”

“Well I only tripped and slowed down because I had no idea you were pulling me down the kerb and onto a busy road!” Ishi shouted, “Mondo, I need more time to work out what’s going on around me in situations like these… I honestly thought we were about to get run down just now!”

Fuck! He was right… that had been fucking stupid... This whole idea had been fucking stupid! Hell, how would Mondo feel if he had to shut his eyes and let himself be dragged through busy crowds of people? And they still had another ten minutes of this shit before they were anywhere close to that nice café…

But… all Ishi wanted was a sandwich, right? Everywhere did those! And as luck would have it, they were right outside a small place now… And alright, it was a bit… basic, but it’d be better than having to drag Ishi the rest of the way to the other one…

“Well… we’re here now!” Mondo told him, dragging him up to the door…

“Ah… that was quicker than I expected!” Ishi commented.

“Yeah… guess I assumed walking would take us longer than it did…” Mondo lied, “Anyway, lets go inside and get the ‘lunch’ part of this lunch date started, eh?”

“Yes!” Ishi seemed to glow with happiness as Mondo used his own wording for their little get-together… not that Mondo dared hope that meant anything. The guy did like his food after all…

And Ishi’s happiness disappeared in an instant once Mondo tried to pull him in through the door to the place, and he stumbled over the step into the place…

“Ahh…! A warning about that step would have helped!” Ishi told him pointedly, “Or you could have given me a chance to feel the area with my cane…”

So, in other words, not only was Mondo not looking out for Ishi properly, but he was actually making things worse than normal for the guy… He seriously needed to up his game here!

“Sorry! I’ll warn you next time there’s a step!” He promised.

“Thank you.” Ishi nodded, although he was still looking kinda pissed off... at least until he heard the waitress coming over to give them a table.

Luckily for Mondo, she was kind enough to give them a table that was right near the door, so Mondo only needed to lead Ishi a few steps over to it, instead of having to pull him around the few people who were sat drinking cheap smelling coffee already and risk accidentally making him bump into someone and get his uniform messed up.

“Right… here we go!” Mondo laughed anxiously as he left Ishi by the side of one chair and started pulling out the one on the other side for himself.

“Thank you…” Ishi muttered absently, as he tried to find the top of the chair with his left hand, while his right one was using his cane to feel up the legs of it…

Oh right, that chair was different to what he was used to at school, it was probably going to take him a while to figure out how best to pull it out. He’d probably appreciate some help, right?

“Uhh… lemme get that for you!” Mondo insisted, heading back over and quickly pulling the chair out. Then he gently pushed Ishi sideways so he was stood facing the table and then pushed the chair back forward so it would touch the back of Ishi’s knees and he’d know to sit down in it so Mondo could push him in properly, like a gentleman.

…At least, that’s what he’d thought he be doing. What actually happened was that Ishi was startled enough by the chair that he fell backwards onto it with a loud yelp, and then when Mondo tried to push him in, it ended up causing Ishi’s cane to get jammed between the table and his leg...

“Shit! Sorry!” Mondo quickly pulled his chair back out, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine! And I can manage from here! You just go sit and sort yourself out!” Ishi snapped, “And mind your language!”

Fuck! So much for being a gentleman… Now he’d just pissed off Ishi even more! The only date he was having right now was one with disaster… Especially as could tell that the few people in the café were all staring at him as he guiltily sat down and watched Ishi feel around the table before carefully leaning his cane against the it and then managing to pull his chair up to a comfortable position with no problems whatsoever. Then he started doing the whole ‘finger-eye’ thing of his to figure out exactly where the cutlery and napkin in front of him were.

Dammit… the guy really was better off by himself…

“Err… Mondo…?” Ishi suddenly frowned and looked up anxiously, “You are still there, aren’t you?”

“Uhh… yeah? Why the hell wouldn’t I be!?” What sort of asshole would ditch a blind guy without telling him!? Even if he was better off by himself…

“You were being unusually quiet! I thought perhaps you’d got annoyed with me…”

But… Mondo was the one pissing him off, wasn’t he? What had Ishi done?

“Wait… ya mean for telling me off for swearing?” Mondo guessed, “If I couldn’t deal with that I wouldn’t have offered you lunch!”

“Well… that’s true… but” Ishi started saying something, but then stopped as he heard the waitress coming over to the table with a couple of laminated menu cards in hand…

“Do you boys know what you want to drink?”

“I’ll have a pot of tea, please!” Ishi told her.

“Coffee for me…” Maybe Mondo would be causing less trouble if he was more awake… or maybe the coffee would just make him even more jittery than he already was. If that was even possible, anyway.

“Alright then.” She started putting the menu cards down, one in front of each of them, “I’ll go get those while you two look through the menu!”

There was a brief moment of silence as Ishi didn’t react to the waitress’ statement, and Mondo tried his best not to…

“Umm! That is… I mean...” The waitress started turning red and stammering as she either noticed Mondo getting tense or her brain caught up with her mouth.

“Don’t worry about it! It doesn’t bother me!” Ishi tried to assure her, “And my friend can read the menu for me!”

“Ah… alright…” The red glow on her cheeks lessened slightly as she headed off to the kitchen, leaving him alone with Ishi who was staring in his direction.

“Guess I best start reading, then…” Mondo realised and picked up the menu, feeling slightly relieved that it was so small, else they’d be there all day with Mondo’s reading speed… “Well… for starters, they’ve got... soup of the day… prawn cocktail…”

“Ah… I’ll probably just have a sandwich, thank you!” Ishi reminded him.

“Oh right, sure!” Mondo checked the different titles on the card until he found the right one… “They’ve got ham, cheese, ham and cheese and tuna mayo…” Mondo read, please with how quick that had ended up being…

“…Is that all?” It was safe to say that Ishi looked significantly less pleased.

“…Do you not like any of them?” It seemed like a pretty sensible selection of sandwiches to Mondo.

“It’s not that… it was just, when you said this place did ‘a bunch of’ sandwiches, I was expecting more than four…” Ishi explained, looking pretty put out…

Which was fair, because the place Mondo had been planning to take him did have a bunch of sandwiches… they’d had a whole page of different ones to choose from!

“Uhh… Well…” Shit! How the hell was he gonna explain this, without admitting he’d just shoved Ishi into the first place they reached!?

“Well… It’s not important! A ham sandwich should be filling enough!” Mondo thanked what little luck he’d had today that Ishi didn’t decide to press on the point. “And it’ll be nice just to talk with you!”

“Yeah, it will…” Mondo admitted gruffly. Now if only he could think of something to talk about…

“Does it look nice in here?” Ishi was the one to break the oncoming awkward silence.

“Well…” Mondo looked around, actually paying attention to the place for the first time…

It was a typical cheap café, designed more with practicality in mind than anything else. The walls were a kind of dark beige colour, the table tops were made of that cheap white wipeable plastic, with metal legs holding them up. There were a few small photos on the wall and a vase of fake flowers on every table, presumably someone had done a half-assed job of making the place look nice at some point, but…

“Not really, no.” Mondo admitted, “It’s a sorta typical cheap diner place… Lot’s of white plastic…”

“Hmm…I see…” Ishi commented, opening his watch face up so he could feel the time. Probably wondering how much of his studying opportunity Mondo had wasted with this shitty attempt at taking him to lunch… “Mondo… Ah… that’s the waitress coming back, isn’t it?”

Mondo looked up to find that the waitress was indeed on her way back with their drinks. Guess Ishi could hear her shoes on the tiled floor. “Yeah, it is.”

“Here’s your tea… and your coffee…” She put the drinks down in front of each of them, “Do you know what you’re having to eat?"

“A ham sandwich, please.”

Crap! Mondo hadn’t actually looked through the menu himself... “…Same for me… please!”

“Alright! Two ham sandwiches!” She wrote it down and took the menus back. “Enjoy your drinks!”

“Thank you!” Ishi nodded as she left, while Mondo picked his already lukewarm coffee up… He hoped Ishi’s tea wasn’t the same way…

“Hmm… Mondo…? Would you mind…?” Ishi had one hand out and an embarrassed expression on his face, “I can’t tell where she put the tea…”

“Oh, right!” Mondo cried, putting his own cup down. He should have realised Ishi wouldn’t know where it was… his friends always put his drinks in a certain spot on his left side, but the waitress had put it right in front of him, “I’ll get it for you!”

Surely he couldn’t screw this up! All he had to do was pick up the tea with one hand, and use the other to turn Ishi’s palm sideways so he could press the tea into his hand… and try not to pay too much attention to how nice and warm it was with his hands now sorta cupping one of Ishi’s… Actually, it kinda getting too hot... Oh shit! That was the tea! He’d just pressed a boiling hot cup into Ishi’s hand!

“ARGH!” Ishi yelled and jerked his hand backwards out of Mondo’s grip, just as Mondo was realising what a fucking idiot he was… but then that meant he ended up pulling the cup of tea out of Mondo’s hands…

“Crap! Look out!” Mondo tried to warn him as the cup landed on the table pointing towards him and its contents splashed out in his direction…

“For what!?” Ishi asked, moments before some of the tea landed on his leg. “Ahhh! Quick! The serviette!”

Serviette…!? Oh, he meant the napkins… “Right!” Mondo agreed, picking up his own and using it to mop up the tea closest to the edge of the table while Ishi grimaced and tried to dry the patch that had landed on him with his… and then luckily the waitress rushed back with a proper cloth to dry the rest of it off of the table…

“Thank you…” Ishi briefly turned to her, before turning to Mondo with a pissed off expression. “…Mondo, that is not how you help a blind person find their tea!”

Well, Mondo knew that now! But… “Fuck..! I’m sorry! But I’ve never done any of this shit before!”

“…Hmm…” Ishi just huffed in response, then turned towards the waitress, who was now cleaning the tabletop. “Excuse me, ma’am? Could you please cancel those two sandwiches? We’re not going to be eating here after all…”

“What!?” Crap! That must have been the last straw and now he’d decided to leave!

“…My friend will pay for the drinks.” Ishi ignored him and picked up his cane, before pushing his chair back out and standing up rigidly. “The door is directly behind me, correct?”

“Umm… yes!” The waitress told him.

“Thank you.” Ishi nodded and turned smartly before starting to walk out, tapping away with his cane as he went.

“Wait… Ishi…!” Mondo cried after him, only to be ignored as Ishi felt around the doorstep with his cane and then carefully stepped over it… Shit, he really was leaving without a second thought! Damnit! Mondo needed to try and apologise to him, but if he headed off before Mondo got a chance to talk to him…

“Uhh… here!” Mondo grabbed his wallet out of his pocket and threw enough money on the table to pay for about five drinks, before getting up and rushing out of the door…

…To find that Ishi was patiently stood just next to it, with his back against the wall and brushing at the tea stain on his leg that Mondo had caused… he certainly didn’t look like he was trying to go anywhere, or even call for a lift home…

“…You’re waiting for me!?” Mondo asked.

“Ah! Mondo!?” Ishi jumped at the sound of his voice, “You were supposed to pay for the drinks!” He complained.

“I did!” Mondo told him.

“But… that wasn’t even enough time to ask for the bill, let alone pay for it and get change…”

“I didn’t bother with that shit! I just gave her enough money to cover the drinks and a tip!” Mondo told him, “You really thought I’d sit around waiting for change while you were walking off home by yourself!?”

“You… thought I’d be able to walk home by myself!? Even though I’m not familiar with this part of town and you didn’t give me any opportunity to feel where we were going on the way here!?” Ishi asked incredulously. “…You don’t know the first thing about guiding a blind person, do you?”

“Well, how would I!? You’ve never needed my help with any of this shit before!” Mondo pointed out in his defence.

“…I thought you might have asked Makoto for advice…” Ishi said, with a small amount of disappointment creeping into his voice.

Well… that seemed fucking obvious now! It would have taken all of five minutes to ask the guy who guided Ishi around the school, on the rare occasions he needed it, for advice! Why had he spent so much time worrying about different cafes and how his fucking hair looked, but it hadn’t even occurred to him to think that Ishi being blind might affect how things went!? Well… other than the fact that it had never really affected things before…

“Sorry… You usually… I dunno… it doesn’t seem to be a problem for ya, most of the time, so I didn’t think about it at all…” Mondo tried to explain, which seemed to cheer him up slightly. “Do ya want me to call him up so he can come help?”

“What!? NO!” Ishi snapped.

Well, that was fair enough… “Yeah, I guess you’d rather I just take ya straight back home…”

“No! That’s not it either! I want you to take me to the place you originally intended to!” Ishi insisted.

Looked like he’d figured out Mondo’s change in plan… “But… it’s another ten minutes walk, and it’ll be even busier in town than before…”

“And that’s why I’m going to teach you how to guide me properly!” Ishi said sternly, holding his left arm up…

So Ishi was giving him another chance? “Alright! Let’s go!” Mondo grabbed his wrist…

“Not like that!” Ishi scolded him, holding his cane up warningly, “I’m holding my arm out so you can touch it with yours, which will let me know where you are.”

“…Sorry.” Mondo let his wrist go and held his hand where it was, “Like this?”

“Well, that’ll do for now…” Ishi moved his arm backwards until Mondo’s fingers were brushing over the back of his hand, then he traced up the side of Mondo’s hand and rested there for a moment. “But ideally you’d put your hand near mine, like this, so it’s easier for me to do this…” He then started moving his hand again, over the top of Mondo’s forearm, across his elbow and then up to his upper arm where he then snaked it around Mondo’s bicep, stepping in close to Mondo’s side as he did it.

“…Kinda feels like you’re hugging my arm…” Mondo failed to keep his first thought inside his head. He did manage to stop himself from added that it felt nice and warm and almost like Ishi was cuddled up close to him…

“Is that a problem?” Ishi asked, anxiously. “Normally I’d hang slightly further back, but it’ll be easier for me to read your movements if we’re closer…”

“It’s fine! Great even!” Mondo assured him, probably a little too hard. “So… we just walk around like this?”

“Almost! But there are a few things you need to make note of!” Ishi told him, “Firstly, any time there’s a change in level, such as a set of stairs or we need to step down the kerb, you need to stop and let me move to your side, so I know where it is, then you step up or down.”

“That sounds fair…”

“Also, I’ll need advance warning of any changes in direction, or if we’re about to stop.”

“Well… if I know it’s gonna happen…”

“…Which you hopefully will, because you need to walk more slowly that you were earlier!” Ishi insisted, “Ideally, the speed you usually walk at!”

By which, he meant the speed Mondo walked at when he wasn’t getting nervous about being on a ‘lunch date’ with the guy he liked…

“Alright!” Mondo wasn’t going to screw this up again! “Might take us longer to get there than I thought, though…” He realised.

“…Is that a problem?” Ishi asked, after momentarily biting his lower lip. “I can do most things that everyone else can, it just… takes me longer, sometimes… And I realise that can be frustrating at times, but if we’re going to be spending more time together…”

Wait… was he worried that Mondo was going to start ditching him to being slow? “Hey! I ain’t gonna start complaining about getting to spend more time with you!” He would have patted Ishi on the back, but his arm was being held tight so he settled for tapping Ishi’s side with the back of his hand. “Especially not after all that time you’ve spent explaining maths to me!”

“Thank you!” Ishi smiled, and gripped his arm slightly tighter, “Now then, I’m ready to start moving!”

“…Right.” Mondo managed to get out gruffly, while trying to ignore the extra warmth being squeezed into his bicep. “Uhh… so, we’re going start walking now…?” He warned Ishi, before slowly setting off… “Oh! And then we’re going turn right in a bit…” He added.

“Thank you!” Ishi smiled, tapping around the area with his cane as the pair of the managed to turn the corner in synch, “That was good…!”

Guiding Ishi was surprisingly easy, once Mondo kept his advice in mind. Having Ishi by his side was a bit like having a sidecar on the bike, whereas before it had been more like trying to awkwardly drag a trailer behind him. He had to keep in mind the extra width, but once he got used to that, it was much easier to gently manoeuvre him through the crowds… especially as most of the people around them now had more time to hear the Mondo giving guiding instructions, spot Ishi’s white cane, realise he was blind and move aside for him.

Not that there were no problems whatsoever. There were a couple of times where the pavement dipped and Mondo didn’t realise he was supposed to mention it because it had been a gradual thing, plus a couple of times where he just outright forgot to mention an upcoming turn or bend and Ishi ended up stumbling slightly. But he just accepted Mondo’s apologies each time and smiled at him for trying regardless, sending butterflies racing around Mondo stomach…

There main problem was people walking out in front of them with no warning, meaning Mondo didn’t have a chance tell Ishi he was about to stop dead, but even after that happened a few times, Ishi somehow started picking up on when it was happening and stopping with him…

“It’s the way you tense up when you’re startled!” Ishi explained, when Mondo asked how the hell he was doing it, “That’s why it helps for me to be close to you! I can feel your body language that way!”

Feel his body language? That sounded like some sort of superhero shit… “Is that some kinda special extra sense ya get ‘cause you’re blind?”

“No… I don’t have any extra senses… anyone can learn to do that!” Ishi told him, “I understand dancers do it to lead each other, for example.”

“Really?” It still sounded almost impossible to Mondo… in fact, he couldn’t really imagine being able to do half the stuff Ishi managed, if he couldn’t see… But he didn’t have time to get into that now, because… “Well… we’re here now! It’s just through the door on the left… there’s a step up into it…”

“Thank you!” Ishi grinned as he turned to the door and tapped around the step, then stepped up it easily. “It certainly smells nicer than the other place! And is that Vivaldi I can hear…?”

“If ya say so…?” Mondo assumed Ishi would be right about that sort of thing, it wasn’t like he knew fuck all about classical music… “And it looks better this time as well! It’s got this nice wooden panelling that matches the chairs and tables, which have red checked tablecloths on them. And there’s a fireplace in the back with a fancy looking mirror and the owner must collect dog figurines, ‘cause the things are dotted around all over the place, like on top of the fireplace and in some of the bookshelves… oh right, yeah, they’ve got some bookshelves at the side, kinda like the school library and…” Mondo realised he was starting to ramble, “Is this making sense?”

“Yes! It sounds lovely!” Ishi smiled fondly as his eyes stared into the distance, “Are there many people here? It sounds like there are…”

“Yeah… about twenty, maybe… it’s mostly older couples, but there’s a few families and the odd person by themselves… But it’s a pretty big place, so there’s still some tables left! We just gotta wait for the waitress to come over…”

“Understood!” Ishi confirmed, standing up slightly straighter and loosening his grip on Mondo’s arm a little…

The hell was that about? Was he embarrassed about being seen clinging onto Mondo’s arm, or was he just more relaxed now that they were actually in the café?

If it was the second one, he was going to get a bit of a shock once they got allocated a table, as all of the ones closest to the door were already taken…

In the end, the waitress just told them to sit at any free table, ‘…if that’s alright?’

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Ishi asked.

“Well… the seats closest to us are taken, and the aisles are kinda narrow…” Mondo explained, “There won’t really be space for me to guide you properly.”

“Ah, that shouldn’t be a problem! Just guide me to a clear path and then tell me how many tables I need to walk past to get to it, and I’ll be fine!” Ishi insisted.

“Okay… In that case…” Mondo scanned the aisles, and luckily one of the woman sat down had heard Ishi and had the sense to move some bags she’d had out in the aisle out of the way… “We’re just gonna go two steps to the right and then you’ll need to walk past three tables, and then there’s one on the left.”

“Thank you!” Ishi nodded and ran his cane along the floor until it hit the leg of a chair that was pushed into the side of the first table. “Could you tell me what my cane’s touching?”

“The leg of the chair that’s pushed into the side of the table to your right.” Mondo explained.

“I see… And is there only one such chair on each table?” Ishi asked as he felt around the area until he hit the next leg of the chair.

“Yeah…” Mondo nodded.

“Perfect! I should be fine from here! Sorry about that…” Ishi added the last part as an aside to the old couple who were sat at the table he was next to. The guy muttered something in response, and Ishi then nodded and carried on walking, nodding to himself as he hit each of the chair legs until he got to the fourth table… “This one?”

Mondo was just about opening his mouth to confirm that he’d got the right one when a couple on a table nearby started clapping, and then several of the young kids started joining in for the fun of it…

Ishi quickly turned with a scowl on his face in the general direction of the first pair. “All I did was walk to a table! It doesn’t warrant that sort of reaction!”

The sound of clapping died and was replaced with awkward silence as the couple froze in guilty confusion and the kids were hushed by their parents.

“Err… I mean… I have to do this sort of thing all the time!” Ishi added anxiously, sensing the tension in the air, “It’d be awkward if everyone clapped every time I did it…”

Half the room was still staring at him, and he seemed to have noticed it somehow. Maybe a joke to ease the atmosphere…

“You guys should see his maths tests!” Mondo announced to the room at large as he headed over and slung an arm around Ishi’s shoulders, “Now they’re worth clapping over!”

Okay, it was a lame joke, and a couple of the little kids actually clapped for a bit, but it resulted in a bit of half-hearted laughter from most of the people there, before everyone turned back to their own conversations…

“Thank you…” Ishi muttered quietly, relaxing slightly as he heard the general murmur of conversation start up again. “Now, could you put my hand on the back of the chair, and describe its shape to me?”

“Sure…” Mondo grabbed his left wrist and pulled it so it was resting on the chair, as he’d asked. “It’s a got four legs in a square shape, with no armrests and a straight back… is that what you mean?”

“Yes.” Ishi nodded as he used his right hand to feel where the table was, then he moved slightly to the side and pulled out the chair far enough for him to sit on, used his cane to feel how high off the ground the actual seat was and then sat down on it and pulled himself up to the table and placed his cane to the side and started feeling around as he had done at the first place.

“The menu’s been put in front of us, and there’s some salt and sauces and stuff in the middle of the table as well…” Mondo pointed out, as Ishi hadn’t moved his hands far enough forward to catch those.

“I see… Would you mind reading me the sandwich section?”

“No problem...” Mondo answered, picking up the menu and flipping to the correct section…

As it was, there was one slight problem, namely Mondo’s slow reading speed combined with the large number of choices with multiple ingredients listed out. By the time he’d got through the list and Ishi had made a decision, the pair of hot drinks they’d ordered had arrived…

But at least this time, Mondo had seen a breakfast sandwich halfway through the list so he wasn’t scrambling to make a decision when the drinks came up…

“Ah… Mondo?” Ishi brightly caught his attention, “I need help finding my tea…”

“So… How am I supposed to do this, then?” Mondo asked, not wanting a repeat of last time.

“Just take may hand and gently place it so my fingers are resting on the outside of the cup, at the top.” Ishi explained, holding his hand out.

Was that it? This shit really wouldn’t have taken Makoto long to explain… “Alright then…” Mondo took hold of Ishi’s wrist…

“You’ll have better control if you hold my hand…” Ishi piped up, “…Not that you have to! It’d just be easier…”

Mondo thanked whatever gods existed that Ishi couldn’t see the blush that was starting to creep into his cheeks… He was asking Mondo to hold his hand? That had been what Mondo had secretly been hoping for…

But Mondo couldn’t go letting himself get excited over this! It was just because he needed help finding his tea without spilling it over, right? It wasn’t like it meant anything… it was just a bro asking for help from his friend, nothing more…

“S-sure…” Mondo still stammered regardless as he lightly gripped Ishi’s hand between his fingers and thumb, unconsciously pausing for a second to marvel at how soft Ishi’s skin felt against his own callouses before remembering that he had a job to do and moving the hand across to the tea cup as he’d been told to, going agonisingly slow in the worry that his might screw up and burn the guy’s hand again…

“Perfect, thank you!” Ishi’s face lit up into that huge, wonderful grin as his fingers hit the cup and Mondo let go of him, feeling his heart hammering in his chest. “You were a lot gentler than I was expecting!”

Mondo felt his heart speed up and his face burn at those words. Was that a good thing? Or did he just think it was funny that the badass gang leader could be careful? Did he notice it because being gentle was important to Ishi, or had he just been able to tell how Mondo felt about him? Was he hoping Mondo would elaborate on why he’d been gentle, or was Mondo just supposed to respond to the first part of what Ishi had said…?

“…You’re welcome.” He finally thought to mutter.

Ishi barely nodded at the response, seeming to be more concerned with carefully gripping the handle on his tea cup and moving it to a specific spot by his side than the emotional turmoil he was unintentionally putting Mondo through.

“There!” He nodded happily once he’d put the tea down, “Now we can talk!”

“…Yeah.” Mondo agreed, but once again coming up with nothing that he wanted to talk about… or, at least, nothing that he dared actually say out loud. “Got anything in mind?”

“Well… there is one thing, if you don’t mind me asking a personal question!”

A personal question? That’d probably just be some shit about his family, right? Or how he earnt money and how much? Or maybe Ishi was about to ask about Mondo’s political or religious views, as if he had any that he wouldn’t have dropped in a second in favour of whatever Ishi thought…

“Sure, go ahead!” Talking about that sort of crap would help Mondo calm down from the hand holding, and maybe get rid of the red tint that he was sure he could still feel on his cheeks…

“Alright…” Ishi nodded. “What colour are you?”

“What kind of question is that!?” Shit! Had Ishi somehow realised that he was blushing!? Was he going to start demanding to know when Mondo had started blushing, or how doing something as simple as touch his hand for ten seconds had made him turn bright red, or why this question had made him go even redder…!?

“I’m sorry… I realise it’s an odd question to ask of someone…” Ishi sighed remorsefully. “And obviously it doesn’t really matter! But… It would help me imagine what you look like…”

Wait… “You mean; what skin tone am I? Like, white, black, whatever…”

“Yes…” Ishi blinked, probably surprised Mondo hadn’t realised that straight away. “What did you think I mea…?”

“That doesn’t matter!” Mondo interrupted him, “How come you don’t already know? I mean… ya never asked Makoto or anyone to describe me?”

“Oh, I did! He told me you have a healthy, golden tan!” Ishi grinned and Mondo made a mental note to thank the kid for that… “But he also told me that your hair looks like a giant piece of corn, mixed with a baguette, so I don’t really trust him!”

‘Corn mixed with a baguette’!? What kind of way was that to describe his kickass pompadour!? “Didn’t ya try to ask anyone else?”

“I did… but Makoto seemed to have got them all in on the joke!” Ishi groused, “No matter who or how many times I asked, they all insisted you style your hair like that! They claimed it’s a type of pompadour…”

…He’d thought they were all joking about Mondo having a pompadour!? Even though they were being honest… although they could have come up with a better way to describe it! But that must have been awkward as hell, especially if Ishi got really stubborn about asking them, like he could do… “Actually… That is how I style my hair. It’s blond, about a foot long and goes to a point at the end.”

“A foot long!? And it really does look like an ear of corn!?” Ishi stared through him in mild horror, “…It sounds ridiculous… a big bright yellow thing on top of your head… Is the middle balanced over your head, so you have a bit sticking out either side of you…?”

“It’ ain’t like that! It’s a dark blond, for starters, not bright yellow! And it starts at the back and the point only sticks out at the front…” Mondo could see Ishi just looked more confused… But how the heck could he explain this without Ishi being able to see…? “…D’ya wanna feel it?”

“That would probably help me figure out what you mean…” Ishi admitted, holding his hand up, “May I…?”

“I wouldn’t have suggested it if ya couldn’t…” Mondo muttered, leaning across the table so the tip of his pomp was touching Ishi’s fingertips, “That the tip, at the front…”

“Huh…” Ishi’s brows furrowed as he gingerly stroked over the hair with both hands, slowly brushing his fingers over the slight bumps as he made his way backwards towards Mondo’s scalp. “It’s very… crispy!”

“Oh… that’s ‘cause I used extra hairspray on it today…” Mondo admitted. He’d wanted it to look nice… it hadn’t occurred to him that Ishi would care more about how it felt. But then again, why the hell would it have occurred to him that the day might involve Ishi touching up his hair!? They must look like a right pair of whack-jobs to everyone else in the place…

“And it’s a dark yellow colour?” Ishi checked again, “It’s more like onion loaf than corn! Ahahaha!”

“The hell…?” Mondo muttered out loud.

“Ah… sorry, I’m sure it doesn’t really look like that!” Ishi apologised quickly, “It was just a joke because other people have compared it to food and…”

“No, I don’t give a crap about that!” Mondo told him, “What the hell is onion loaf?”

“Oh? You’ve never head that?” Ishi sounded surprised, “It seems like the sort of thing you’d like… It’s like a cuboid of onion rings which are fried in batter and then baked… I think it was about the size of my head, when we were last able to order it…” He added, wistfully.

“So… like a big pile of onion rings…?” Mondo tried to imagine it.

“Hmm… I think the batter is lighter than an onion ring is, less greasy anyway…” Ishi muttered, as his hands continued making their way over the top of Mondo’s head, “And they’re all packed in solidly together, so it’s like a dense block, as opposed to a pile… You have to pull the bits of onion off of it to eat it.”

“Sounds pretty nice…” Mondo admitted. “Wonder if they do it here…”

“It would be nice to have it again!” Ishi agreed, “Could you check the menu?”

“Sure… once ya finish feeling my hair, anyway…” It wasn’t like he could easily look at the menu with his head bent down towards the table like this…

“Ah! Of course!” It kind of sounded like Ishi had jumped in surprise, and his hand started moving down the back of Mondo’s head a bit faster than they had a second ago, until he reached the brown tufts of hair at the back of his head… “Ah! This part feels a lot nicer than the rest of it!”

It felt NICE!? “Y-yeah! That’s… I don’t style that bit…” Mondo stammered out an explanation, “It’s just my normal hair…”

“That’s a shame…” Ishi sighed, rubbing it between his fingers… and accidentally rubbing up and down the back of Mondo’s neck as he did it. “I’m sure you’d have a whole head of lovely hair if you didn’t style it like that…”

Lovely hair!? Aarrgh… this was too much now! Mondo could feel himself getting so hot it wouldn’t surprise him if there was steam coming out of his ears!

“Well… d’ya get the point about how my hair looks now!?” Mondo asked, losing some control over his volume.

“Ah… yes! It certainly is an odd style!” Ishi finally let go of him and let him sit back upright… and hopefully start cooling down as well. “Why do you have it like that?”

“Well… It’s just what all my gang do…” Mondo told him, “Although mine’s bigger than everyone else’s!”

“But… don’t your gang all ride motorcycles?” Ishi looked concerned, “How do you wear your helmets...?”

“…Well…” They didn’t, but it probably wasn’t the best plan to tell Ishi that. But it wasn’t like he could suddenly change the topic without seeming suspicious… Unless there was something around the place he could point out… But there was nothing except a waitress heading towards the tables with two sandwiches in hand…

Hang on… “Hey! I think our sandwiches are about to come up!” …And thank crap for that!

“Marvellous!” Ishi straightened up even more than he already had been, turning his head side to side in expectant happiness until the waitress got close enough from him to hone in on her.

“Alright, it’s one hot beef sandwich…” Ishi put his hand up like he did when answering questions in school and she put the plate in front of him, “And one breakfast sandwich!”

“Thanks…” Mondo nodded, licking his lips… Two hash browns, two sausages, two rashers of crispy bacon, a fried egg and, once he’d added it, a little brown sauce, all layered between two slices of hot, slightly buttered, toast…

“Well… bon appétit!” Ishi smiled and slowly ran his fingertips across the table until his hand touched the plate, then ran his fingers across the plate until he felt the sandwich, at which point he meticulously picked up the first half and bit into it, somehow managing to avoid letting any of the beef or gravy fall out…

Mondo, meanwhile, was pretty sure his chin and the sides of his mouth were probably shining from the sheer amount of grease that had spilled out of his sandwich as soon as he’d picked it up and taken a huge bite out of it. It was probably a good thing Ishi couldn’t see the sheer mess he was making…

“Is your sandwich good?” Ishi asked, once he’d finished the first half and was searching his plate for the second, “It certainly sounds like you’re enjoying it!”

Mondo cringed at that… it hadn’t occurred to him that Ishi would hear him scarfing the thing down. But just because he couldn’t see Mondo’s crappy table habits, didn’t mean he was completely unaware of them… “…Yeah. It’s really good.” He muttered.

“Alright…?” Ishi looked a bit confused by his response, but quickly cheered up again soon after. “Mine’s very tasty as well! Thank you for getting it for me!”

“Hey, It’s no problem! Besides, I owe ya, remember?” Mondo reminded him.

“I’d say you don’t!” Ishi insisted, as he picked up the sandwich, “But I’m certainly not going to complain if you insist on buying me lunch!”

So… did that mean he’d be alright with it if Mondo suggested they do this again…?

They carried on eating their sandwiches in silence from that point, with Mondo making an attempt to be a bit more careful about how he ate his, until after a short while both their plates were completely empty, aside from the odd smear of sauce or gravy…

“That was good…” Mondo leant back, satisfied at the feeling of a full belly.

“It certainly was!” Ishi agreed, nodding as he dabbed at his lips with the serviette. “Do I have any sauce on my face?”

“Nah, you’re good!” Mondo told him.

“Thank you!” Ishi slowly folded the serviette up and put it down by the side of his plate, before reaching down to pick up his cup of tea again. “Was there anything you wanted to ask me?”

“…Why’d you ask?” Mondo asked him, guardedly. Did Ishi think this whole lunch date had been leading up to him asking something? Had he realised how Mondo felt and thought perhaps Mondo was about to ask him out? Could he ask Ishi out, or would that just be a spectacularly bad idea…?

“I was just thinking that I’d managed to ask you something about you that I’ve been curious about, so I thought it would be fair to give you the chance to ask me anything that’s been concerning you!” Ishi gave a perfectly sensible explanation. Mondo really had to quit over-thinking this shit…

“Right… well…” Mondo looked around as he tried to think of something to ask about. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to get to know Ishi, but there weren’t any specific questions that had been burning at him either. He just wanted to know everything about the guy… but it wasn’t like he could just out and say that while the guy was just casually sipping at his tea and waiting for a questions like ‘Do you prefer cats or dogs…?’

Wait… Hang on a sec… “How come ya didn’t need me to show ya where your tea was after the first time I did it?”

“Hmm? Well, because I… knew where I’d put it down…” Ishi said slowly, the same way he spoke when he wasn’t quite sure he was giving the right answer in class.

“But how? I mean, ya can’t see it, so how’d you know where it is before you touch it?”

“Because I knew where my arm was when I put the tea down, so I can move I back there when I need to pick it back up.”

He knew where his arm was…? “Is that another special sense ya get ‘cause you’re blind?”

“What!? No! I told you earlier, I don’t have special ‘blind senses’!” Ishi huffed, “It’s just the ability to sense your own body… I believe it’s called proprioception!”

“Say what now!?” He’d never even heard of that shit! “Pretty sure I ain’t ever… pro…cepted… anything in my life!”

“Haven’t you ever been asked by the police to touch your nose with your eyes closed?” Ishi asked, “I was under the impression it was the standard test for sobriety…”

“Yeah… I’ve done it a couple of times…” Woulda been more, except he’d hightailed it outta there before getting caught…

“Well, how did you know where your nose was, if you couldn’t see it?” Ishi asked, “That’s the sort of thing I’m talking about!”

“But… It’s my nose! It’s attached to me!” Mondo pointed out, “Be kinda hard ta lose track of it!”

“Alright… let’s try this. Close your eyes!”

“Alright…” Mondo sighed and did as he was asked.

“Now, with your eyes closed, pick up your fork and put it down somewhere on the middle of the table…”

“Okay…?” Mondo moved his right hand to where he’d left the fork and picked it up, then stretched his arm out and placed it on the table. “Done.”

“Good. Now, with your other hand, pick it back up and put it where it was in the first place.”

The hell was the point of this…? Mondo moved his left hand over to the spot he’d just dropped the fork, then picked it up and put it back on the plate… “Done.”

“And, unless you cheated, you did it very quickly as well!” Ishi sounded like he was smirking.

“Why the hell would I cheat when you’re trying ta explain something to me!?” Mondo snapped.

“I didn’t expect you to! But as you just confirmed that you really did have your eyes shut the whole time… How did you know where the fork was?”

“Well… I… uhh…” …How had he known where it was…? “…Muscle memory? I mean, I put it on my plate with my right hand and picked it up with that hand, like I always do…”

“But then I told you to pick it back up from the centre with the other hand, so that doesn’t explain how you did the second step!” Ishi pointed out, “That was because your body can sense where it is, so you knew where you put the fork down, the same way that I can sense where I left my tea!”

“Huh…” That was pretty cool! And it made sense, it just… hadn’t occurred to Mondo to ever try moving stuff around with his eyes shut before.

“Was everything alright for you…?”

“AHH!” Mondo jumped at the sudden voice of the waitress coming from his right side, and snapped his eyes open to see that she’d come over at some point to pick up the plates…

“You didn’t realise she was there?” Ishi asked.

“You didn’t tell me I could open my eyes again!” Mondo explained, grouchily… “But yeah, the food was great…” He muttered to the waitress, whose smile was way to close to a smirk for Mondo’s liking as she picked up the plates and left…

“I suppose that’s our cue to pay up and leave…” Ishi sighed, as he finished the last of his tea.

“Well… unless ya want dessert?” Mondo suggested, hoping to spend more time with him…

“Hmm…” Ishi clicked open his watch face and felt the time again, his face contorting into shock at the answer… “I’d best not… I think my father will probably start to get worried about me if I’m out too much longer…”

“Alright then… Let’s get going.” Mondo agreed forlornly as the waitress brought the bill over for him to pay far too quickly. If he did this again, he was gonna find a place that had slower service… Assuming Ishi let him do this again… “That’s everything sorted.” He let Ishi know, once he’d finished paying.

“Thank you very much! It’s been lovely, even if we didn’t get dessert…” Ishi smiled wistfully, “Perhaps…”

“…Perhaps what?” Mondo asked, after Ishi stopped mid-sentence and it became apparent that he wasn’t about to finish it…

“Ah… never mind! Let’s just go!” Ishi side-stepped the question, “Is the path I took before still clear?”

“Yeah, it is… but…” What the hell had he been about to say!? Was it about dessert? Meeting up later? Had he been thinking they could do another of these ‘lunch dates’?

“Thank you!” Whatever it was, seemed like Ishi intended to keep it hidden, as he quickly stood up and did a one-eighty before starting to count his way back up to the entranceway. And when Mondo caught up with him, Ishi went straight back into ‘guiding mode’ shooting his arm back up in Mondo’s fact so he had to let Ishi know where his own was and then let him wrap his arm around him again.

And then the walk back home involved too many directions and warnings for Mondo to bring up what Ishi had wanted… at least, until they turned off of the main road and back onto the long stretch of street that Ishi was familiar with… Now they could talk properly…

“So…”

“Ah… You know, it’s usually Makoto who does this for me, a lot of the time!” Ishi suddenly mentioned.

“Yeah… I know… But…” Mondo tried to get back to what he wanted to ask.

“And he’s shorter than you!” Ishi carried on.

“Yeah, he is…” Mondo sighed… Ishi was really bad at changing topics, if that was the best he could come up with!

“Which means I’m not used to having my arm up this high for such an extended period of time!” Ishi finally made a point that wasn’t obvious, “Would you mind stopping for a moment so I can lower my arm?”

“…Alright?” Why hadn’t he just slid it down Mondo’s arm a bit, if that was all he wanted? Still, stopping meant he’d spend a little extra time with the guy… Like, a whole ten seconds! Mondo really had it bad if he was being thankful for shit like that! “Sure… we’ll stop now!”

“Thank you!” Ishi nodded anxiously as they pulled to a stop, before starting to stroke Mondo’s arm slide his hand down Mondo’s arm over his elbow, past his lower arm, across his wrist and finally stopping at the palm of his… his…

“That’s my hand…” Mondo muttered stupidly as his brain stalled. “I mean… if ya have it there, I’d have ta hold onto your hand…” He quickly said something that didn’t sound stupid.

“…Would that be a problem?” Ishi asked, staring ahead with quiet concern etched over his face… Did he… want Mondo to hold his hand…?

“N-no! It’s fine! I just didn’t wanna grab ya hand outta nowhere and freak you out!” Mondo lied as he gently closed his fingers and thumb around Ishi’s, noticing once again how soft the skin felt, and also how hard he could feel his own pulse hammering through his fingers… He just hoped Ishi couldn’t feel that…

“Of course…” Ishi smiled lightly and adjusted his fingers, tightening the grip and making heat spread all the way up from Mondo’s hand to his face again. “We can carry on again, now!”

“...Sure.” Mondo managed to nod and start walking in a straight line again… it was a good thing there was no need to tell Ishi what was going on at this point of the journey, because all Mondo was aware of now was the feeling of Ishi’s smooth hand and how perfectly it seemed to nestle against his own… it felt so nice, it was all Mondo could do to fight the urge to run his thumb back and forth over his skin, just to marvel at how flawless it was… if he did something weird like that, he was sure to make Ishi let go of him, and the comfort of the weight in his hand was too nice to ruin like that…

“…You’re very quiet.” Ishi’s voice suddenly intruded on Mondo’s thoughts, making him realise he had to say something…

“Sorry… Just…This is nice… comfortable…” His mouth ended up stammering out a garbled version of his thoughts, much to his horror once his brain caught up and realised he’d just admitted to enjoying holding Ishi’s hand!

He slowly looked over to Ishi’s face, trying to work out what his reaction was, only to find his lips pursed and his brows furrowed… “…Do you… you mean the silence?” He finally asked, a small smile twitched at his lips. “That comfortable silence that only the best of friends are able to share…?”

“Y…yeah!” Mondo agreed, glad that Ishi had misunderstood what he’d been talking about.

“Ah, yes! I also enjoy these quiet walks of ours!” He grinned, “It’s nice not to have to worry about constantly having something appropriate to talk about!”

“Yeah…” Mondo agreed… it was nice, just walking out in the quiet and getting to appreciate being this close to ishi, and having the warmth of his hand in his…

Plus, not speaking meant Mondo was less likely to blurt out something stupid…

But all too soon the silence was broken by the metallic clang of Ishi’s cane on the special post that signified that they had arrived outside of his house again…

“Ah… already?” Ishi muttered, “I suppose time does fly when you’re having fun…”

“Yeah… this was fun… Once I stopped screwing it all up, anyway…” Mondo admitted. And, if Ishi had enjoyed the whole thing regardless… “Maybe we can do it again, sometime…”

“I’d like that!” Ishi smiled, and tilted his head as he thought about it. “If I start saving up now, then I should be able to afford another meal out in a couple of months…”

Two months!? “Tch… Don’t worry about that! I’ll pay for ya!”

“You will!?” Ishi exclaimed, “Why? You’ve already apologised...”

Crap… he’d just blurted it out without thinking again… “…Well… I got tea on your clothes!” Mondo suddenly remembered, “So I owe ya for that, right!?”

“But… this is just on old uniform! I’m probably about to get rid of it anyway!” Ishi countered, “You don’t need to worry about paying me back for that!”

“Well… Even if that’s the case, I still wanna!” Mondo insisted, “You’re worth the money!”

“…I beg your pardon?” Ishi was blinking at him in surprise, which was fair ‘cause this time he hadn’t stopped himself saying the dumb corny thing that had been going through his head…

“I mean… You’re my bro…” Mondo tried to downplay what he’d meant, “And I like hanging out with you! Even if it does mean I have ta walk slower than I’m used to, or fix a few extra fences ta pay for your lunch…”

“Oh! So that’s how you were able to afford it!” Ishi smiled proudly at him, “See! Your hard work’s already paying off!”

“Yeah… I owe ya for that!” Mondo admitted. If Ishi hadn’t been encouraging him, he probably wouldn’t have bothered trying to earn money doing odd-jobs for people… “So there’s another reason for me to pay for lunch, next time!”

“Well… if you’re that insistent, I suppose it would be rude of me not to accept!” Ishi laughed, “Perhaps we could do the same thing again in… two weeks’ time...?”

Mondo had to suppress a chuckle at how worried Ishi had looked at suggesting that timeframe… Mondo would have been willing to pay for lunch every week… or every day if that’s what Ishi wanted… But he’d already said too much cheesy crap on this walk home… “Sound’s good to me!”

“Alright then! We can discuss it in more detail closer to the time!” Ishi suggested, “I’d best go inside and let Father know I’m back, now…”

“Yeah…” Mondo sighed, “Guess I’ll see ya in school tomorrow…”

“Yes…! So you can let go of my hand now…” Ishi prompted.

What…? Oh… Mondo hadn’t let go of it… He’d just got used to how… right it felt there. And now he didn’t want to let go of it…

But he had to… not like they could spend their whole lives stuck together, no matter how good that sounded to Mondo right now…

“Sorry ‘bout that… sorta forgot it was there…” He admitted, swallowing his disappointment as he let go and felt a chill as cold air hit his palm.

“Yes… it felt quite natural, holding hands like that!” Ishi agreed, cheerfully. “Like it was just… right!”

“Hah… yeah!” Mondo forced himself to laugh… Ishi thought it felt right as well? So… did that mean he liked Mondo the same way Mondo liked him!? Or did he just like holding hands!? It was probably just the latter, right? After all, he was just pretty big on social interaction and physical bonding, Mondo really shouldn’t be letting himself get so worked up over dumb little comments like that… “I guess you’ll be off inside, then…? Unless ya want me to guide you up the steps…”

Not that there was a chance Ishi would need help with that… He never had before, so…

“Well… it would be once last bit of practise for you!” Ishi agreed, happily holding his arm out…

…It probably didn’t mean anything, did it? Especially as Ishi went back to putting his arm around Mondo’s bicep instead of holding his hand again. It really was just one more bit of practise from ishi’s point of view…

Not that telling himself that helped Mondo’s heart beat any slower as he carefully guided Ishi up the steps that he could probably have navigated in his sleep, or make his hands shake less when Ishi asked him to help guide the key to the lock so he could open it, or make him any less tempted to pull Ishi into a hug or kiss when he shook his hand and thanked him for lunch, or make the disappointment any less bitter when Ishi opened the door and headed through without another word.

And then all Mondo was left with was a sense of relief as he realised that Ishi was gone and he no longer had to worry about screwing up so badly that Ishi would never want anything to do with him again… Even though it had probably been pretty touch-and-go at some points there…

Oh hell, he really had fucked up at some points there… And all of a sudden the flood of memories and self-criticisms that rush through him turned his legs into jelly, and he found himself sliding down the wall of Ishi’s house as he thought about all the stupid shit he’d done that day and how it was all going to happen again in two weeks’ time… assuming Ishi didn’t happen to come back out and ask why the hell Mondo was squatting outside his front door instead of driving home like a normal person…

“…Kiyotaka? Is that you!?” Mondo flinched at the sound of the older Ishimaru shouting from inside the house he was currently crouched in front of… “…Why were you being so quiet!?”

“Ah… Father! I…”

“And what happened to your leg!? Is that a tea stain?” Urrgghhh… Had Ishi been hoping to sneak upstairs and change, so his old man wouldn’t know how badly Mondo had fucked up? After all, if he thought Mondo couldn’t look after Ishi’s properly, he probably wouldn’t let him take him out for lunch next fortnight! “Is that why you wore your old uniform? Because you expected he would make a mess of you?”

“It wasn’t like that! I just dropped the tea because it was served unnaturally hot!” Ishi… well, it was half of the truth. He probably wouldn’t have dropped it if it had been lukewarm like Mondo’s coffee… “And I wore my old uniform because my classmates at school have said it looked smarter than Hope’s Peak’s one…”

“So… you were trying to dress up…?”

“I… thought it was appropriate to dress smartly for a… a lunch date!” Ishi sounded slightly embarrassed as he explained himself, “But now I’m wondering if that was the case or not…”

“Well... he looked as if he’d attempted to look… neater than usual, in his own way...” His old man told him, “There wasn’t a hair out of place in that ridiculous pompadour…”

“Ah… He said he used extra hair spray on it today! It didn’t occur to me that it might have been for me…” Was it just Mondo’s imagination, or did Ishi sound happy about that…? “I suppose it’ll be appropriate for me to dress nicely again next fortnight!”

“…You’re doing this again…? You said this was just an apology for him hitting you…”

“Well… that’s what he said before! But then he said he likes spending time with me… and I was worth the money…”

“...This is going to be a regular thing, isn’t it?” Officer Ishimaru said, blankly.

“I hope so!” Ishi answered, determinedly.

“…Well… I hope he’s able to help you around some new places, at least…” His old man sighed, “Now you’d better change into some clean clothes and I’ll see if I can get that tea out of your trousers…”

Mondo strained to hear as two pairs of feet gradually lessened, then hurriedly ran back to his bike before either of them got back and realised he’d been listening to their whole conversation, all the while wishing he had any idea what to make of it… Ishi really had dressed up… but did he mean that he’d done it for Mondo or just because they’d been on a ‘lunch date’? Had he really been glad Mondo had tried to dress up for him, or was he just pleased he’d read the social situation correctly? Was he hoping this would be a regular thing because he liked Mondo or just free food…?

Mondo had no idea, and there was no way he dared to ask. All he knew was that he’d managed to have a lunch date with Ishi and secured the chance for several more to come…

So, not much of a date with disaster after all…

#Ishimondo #Kiyotaka Ishimaru #Mondo Oowada #Blind!Ishimaru #Dangan Ronpa #takaaki ishimaru #My fics #unhealthydoctors #Mondo is a dork

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