✓ lights /styles au/

19 Useless

(A/n: There will be three intervals in this chapter to move plot along. Thank you for the patience. It's unedited at the moment, but I just really wanted to post it already. :))

you know more than you're putting on.

They were sitting in her living room across from each other.

Harry's glasses were pulled over his eyes, hair a tousled mess on his head. He looked tired, Josephine thought. She couldn't see his eyes, but the way he was sitting had her on edge.

His legs were open as he sat on the chair opposite her. His elbows were resting on his knees and she just watched him like she'd been watching him for the past two hours since he showed up.

She wanted to know why he came by if the last thing he assured her was that he'd come see her when she was ready. She wasn't quite sure if she was ready.

"Take your glasses off," she finally said, breaking through the thick silence and tinnitus. Her head was beginning to hurt.

"Jo," he said, exasperated. She didn't know why he hadn't taken them off by now. Part of her was worried what the reason was.

"Why are you hiding them?" She asked. She felt lucky that he couldn't see her face; afraid she'd overwhelm him with the apprehension she knew was showing there. Her eyebrows were drawn together in concern, fingers tapping anxiously at the arm rest.

"I'm not hiding my eyes," he said quietly. Just above a whisper. He was talking slower than usual.

Joey didn't understand why. "You are," she said, shifting in her seat. "Why?"

He sighed and brought his hand to the arm of his glasses, pulling them down and away from his face. She was slightly disappointed when she saw that his eyes were closed.

"What's wrong?"

"Hm?" He hummed

Jo settled her chin in the palm of her hand tiredly. "Why don't you open your eyes?"

"I went to see my doctor again yesterday."

Now pleased they were finally going somewhere in the conversation and he was finally trusting her in knowing what was going on in his life, she leaned in. "And how did it go?"

He rubbed at his eyes. "I'll be losing my eye color in a few years. Lack of light or something like that."

"How do you feel about that?"

"I don't know," he finally opened them and she watched as they were directed right at her, laid specifically on hers. The color was already light. It reminded her of water colors only instead of being put on paper, they were put in his eyes.

"You don't want to talk about it."

"I'm trying."

Josephine nodded before pushing her hair back. "I know. You're right, I'll wait," she got to her feet. "In the mean time, do you want to come to the gym with me? I'm a few minutes late for my session."

"You go to the gym?"

"Weekly. Come with me."

+++++

After she and Harry were geared up, Joey found herself adjacent to the boxing ring with her trainer who was strapping her gloves around her wrists. Harry found himself inside of the ring with one man who needed an opponent, and she'd been lying if she said she wasn't giving him too much attention to him. The red boxing gloves strapped onto his hands and the loosely fitting sweatpants around his waits took up most of her attention.