When All Hell Breaks Loose

Week Six: Sharing With Your Partner - Ryusei

As it turned out, Ryusei's eyes were shit.

He was kind of shocked. He didn't really think much of it, but by the end of the eye exam, he had an entirely new professional masking his displeased surprise of his behaviour and being very tactful in explaining how disappointed he was in him.

Ryusei's eyes had been perfect his entire life. He'd never struggled. He'd never even thought about it. In his teens, he fell asleep without washing off his makeup more often than not, washed his face with cheap bar soap, and never got a single stye or infection. He'd never felt like he couldn't see. His eyes were just there, looking at shit, and he'd never had any soccer club doctor say anything about it.

But vision can change with injury, apparently.

"Your prescription isn't intense," the doctor told him. "Though you definitely have one. You'd benefit from glasses either way. But I'm surprised you're not experiencing more issues. You have quite a high astigmatism."

Ryusei didn't know what that meant, but he'd had enough terrifying medical words thrown at him over the past year and a bit that he was conditioned to assume the worst.

"Am I going to go blind?" he asked. "Or lose my eyes?"

"From...astigmatism?" The doctor looked shocked, and Ryusei started to feel better. "Um, no. It just means your eyes aren't quite shaped right."

"Nobody ever said anything before," Ryusei said.

"Well, it can develop after injury," the eye doctor said.

Ah, well that explained it. Lots could fly off the rails after an injury. Eyesight, relationships, life in general.

"I'm surprised this doesn't bother you," the doctor said again. "Especially at night."

"Well, I can't see shit at night," Ryusei said. "But nobody can. That's when it's dark out. Duh. Things just get all fucked up and blurry."

The doctor just watched him, struggling with there to go with that.

"Right?" Ryusei asked.

The doctor just stared at him for a few seconds before saying, "They don't have to."

"Oh," Ryusei said, trying to fight the embarrassment that summoned.

Normally, not knowing things didn't have such power, but when it came to things he felt he genuinely should have learned in his twenty six years of living and had every opportunity to, he was starting to feel downright sick about it. It was a new development.

"Well, I guess that's why you're the doctor," he tried to joke through it.

The doctor did not laugh. "And you mentioned your headaches. That's probably largely related to the injury, not much we can really do about that. But after you get used to your glasses, it might help. If not in frequency, at least in severity. If your eyes aren't straining to see, it would help."

"Can't say I'd hate that," Ryusei said.

The doctor finally smiled. Which signalled to Ryusei easily enough that this appointment was over. He handed him the prescription.

"Enjoy the rest of your day, Mr. Itoshi," he said.

A slap in the face of a new variety. It felt like a sick joke all the same.

Still, Ryusei swallowed his pride and embarrassment and impulse and went out into the main area of the office where the walls of glasses sat. Another thing he hadn't any experience with and never had much thought to. But at least this part could be fun. This part was just fashion, right? He could handle that.