achromatopsia

14: a start

"Damn it, Yuna, just look into my eyes."

I gasped taken aback by the determined tone of his voice. A shiver ran down my spine when he called me by my name. My gaze shot up and our eyes met.

Dark chocolate brown eyes.

No, a deep brown, troubled sea I was drowning in. Washed over by waves and slowly sinking, but it almost felt like floating. I felt padded, and safe.

I let out a sigh and took a deep breath. It was similar to the feeling of getting a taste of fresh air after being stuck in a stinky lecture hall for over a day. Like finally going home.

This time it was different. The colours didn't flare up all at once like last time. This time the colour slowly spread from his eyes and coloured my vision like a paper tissue soaking up coloured water.

It was as stunning as the first time. I wanted to look away and devour the range of colours offered to me solely with my eyes, even though there weren't even any gaudy colours in the studio, but I held back. If I averted my gaze, the magical moment would be gone.

"Can we stay like this for a while?", he asked quietly, breaking the silence.

"Yes", I whispered, the proximity of his face to mine long forgotten. Even his breath slightly stroking my skin didn't bother me.

If someone saw us right now being in this position, it would probably look pretty weird. But it was fine for us.

The longer I gazed into his eyes, the more details I seemed to notice. Like the small swirls of a slightly brighter brown or the almost black streaks adorning his iris.

But then something distracted me. He stuck out the tip of his tongue and licked his fuller lower lip.

Unintentionally, my glance fell on his pink lips. Only for a split second, but the moment was over.

Everything was back to black and white. Except my cheeks, they were surely as bright red as a traffic light. Good thing he couldn't see it in colour, but he probably noticed that my skin tone turned into a darker shade of grey.

He groaned and leaned back on his chair moving a bit away from me.

"Why did you look away?", he asked annoyed, "like this it's never going to work out."

"I'm sorry", I said embarrassed, "I'm having problems with focusing properly due to the late effects of my concussion."

Maybe I just imagined it, but I thought I spotted a hint of guilt on his face when I mentioned my injury.

"You should ask Serena what to do about that", he gave me his wise advice. Note the sarcasm. As if I hadn't already talked to her about that. "I don't want to waste my time."

"Me neither", I said irritated, "you're not the only one who has to attend to their duties."

"What are you working as?", he asked a little out of the blue. I knew he was just trying to converse but it caught me off guard since I expected him to talk back.

"Oh... uh I'm a fourth semester student of media psychology", I answered perplexed. He arched his left eyebrow.

"I know you're probably thinking that I should've probably chosen something different because it's too difficult for a colour-blind person to do proper empirical surveys and all that...", I explained, "but I really wanted to do it. It's tough, but I'm pretty sure that I can make it."

"First of all I didn't think that", he said shifting his weight to the left armrest of the office chair, "and secondly, there's nothing you can't do just because you're colour-blind. You're perfectly able to do anything you want to."

"Was that just a twisted compliment?", I asked, smiling slightly.

"No, it was a remark", he crushed my small moment of delight in an instant, "I really wanted to become a singer so I did."

"Okay, whatever", I snorted falling back on the couch. I really thought we were connecting there for a moment.

I pulled out my phone and checked the time. It was actually about time for me to leave.

"I should get going", I informed him about to get up, "I don't want to bother you any longer."

"Actually- I have some more free time", he told me before I could move, "so if you can stay a little longer we could try again."

"Um, yea sure", I agreed blinking surprised. I thought he'd rather want me to leave.

"You know there's one thing I wanted to try ever since that moment back in the meeting room a week ago, when the colours suddenly became so vibrant", he explained, coming closer in his chair.

That. I knew what he meant and I was glad he had perceived it as well, but it made me a little nervous.

"But you have to trust me a bit for that", he said focusing his gaze on me.

"Trust you? You're asking a lot of me", I said quietly because I didn't trust him -at all', "but I'm willing to try."

"Okay", he said coming so close that our knees almost touched, "give me your hand."

Now I caught on to what he was on about. I didn't find the connection yet but he seemed to think, that the last time the colours grew so intense, it was because we had skin contact while locking eyes.

I hesitated.

I didn't trust him because I barely knew him and I still think he'd stab me with a knife in the back if he got the chance.

But something told me that he'd never let anything bad happen to me when he could prevent it. That was probably the soulmate bond talking.

So I reached out my hand and let him take it, enclosing it with his much bigger hands.

He looked up at me but my eyes were fixed on our touching hands. I was too immersed in the feeling of his skin on mine and too shy to meet his eyes.

"Yuna, look at me", he said, almost appellatively.

I hated it when he said that. It always caused this knot in my stomach which then unties and turns into thousands of tiny butterflies flapping around making me feel a tingle throughout my whole body.

But I ignored that feeling and made eye contact anyway.

This time I was prepared for a huge explosion of colours, but...

But nothing happened.

Another short update. I swear they're going to get longer hahah

And also thank you for all the interesting replies on the question I asked at the end of the chapter.

Should I ask questions like that more often?