A Light in the Darkness
by Alexis (Lexarose)

Pairing: it's a surprise! ^_~
Rating: PG, I guess.
Warnings: Angst, Sap
Word Count: 498
Notes: response to my challenge in [info]tenipuri500, isn't it amazing? I actually answered one of my challenges!



Darkness. It was something one could get used to with time, he supposed, but after taking his sight for granted for 30 years, it was a hard thing to give up. There would be no more friendly games of tennis on the weekends, and though he was relearning how to make sushi purely from feel alone, he'd have to hire someone else to help with the family business. He'd never be able to serve fugu again, unless the new chef was qualified to make it, like he once was.

Oh he was thankful; the car accident could have ended up a lot worse than it had. When the truck forced him off the road, his only thought was that he was glad that he was alone in the car.

When he woke up in the hospital, there were bandages swathed around his head, covering his eyes. They thought the blindness would only be temporary, pressure against the optical nerves caused from hitting his head against the steering column when the car flipped over. It's been six months now, with no sign of improvement, and what small hope there is left dwindling by the day.

It was funny how accidents could bring people together. He hadn't seen many of the members of the Seigaku tennis team in years; time and responsibility making many of them drift apart. Within the first few days of his accident, he received visits from all of them while he was still in the hospital.

Tezuka (and Fuji as well, of course) flew in from America, where he was part of the professional tennis circuit. Oishi and Eiji also showed up, Golden Pair still together after all these years. Oishi was his usual worrying self, still the mother of Seigaku, even so many years later. Inui, Kaidou and Momoshiro visited as well, and Inui offered to concoct a new juice guaranteed to bring back his eyesight. The offer was, of course, refused.

There was one other visitor, though you couldn't really call them that. By his bedside the other stayed throughout his hospital stay, was there for him each time he awoke, disoriented, not remembering his loss of sight.

If he had ever doubted the love and devotion that one person felt for him, he couldn't doubt it any longer. Through his hardest trials, the support and love was unwavering. When he fell into depression, the other's snarky humor was able to pull him out of the doldrums. And though he could not see their face, it visited him every night in his dreams.

Rolling over towards the bright beacon of light that will always lead him through the darkness, Taka reached out, pulling them close. Pressing a light kiss against the temple of one who would probably never be a morning person, he could almost see the sleepy smile that he knew was there.

"Good morning, my light."

His eyesight may never return, but with Ryoma in his life, it would always be bright.