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His hand felt warm in yours as he led you down the street, footsteps echoing in your ears and peoples chatter filling your brain. Your cane tapped against the pavement to ensure you didn’t bump into anyone, though occasionally you did, still not quite used to relying on a metal pole as your guide. The walk was silent between you two, his voice only occasionally penetrating the hush to tell you that you were turning a corner or crossing a road. The gruff yet caring tones in his words caused a smile to quirk at your teal painted lips. His Australian accent only made your smile wider, the loud volume of his voice drawing attention from the locals to the foreign voice flooding their streets. It wasn’t too often you got people with different accents here – mostly the small seaside town was filled with either the Welsh locals or the English tourists, so new accents were fascinating to everyone. Especially when the person with said accent was so loud that you literally could not notice his presence.
You honestly have no idea where you are as you turn yet another corner, the floor uneven under your feet leading you to assume you were walking along a cobbled path.
“Karkat, where are we going?” You ask finally, you feet beginning to ache from the long walk. Karkat just grunted in return and you groaned, knowing that that was as much of an answer as you was going to get from the stubborn Australian. The suddenly he stops walking and you crash into his back, a small ‘oof’ bursting from your lips as you reach up to rub at your nose, accidentally bumping the tinted red shades that cover your eyes.
“Hey! Karkat tell me when you’re going to stop will you!” You shout at the boy, lips pulled forwards in a pout and arms crossing over your chest, cane dangling from your hand as you tap it against the floor. All you get in reply is the chiming of a bell, tinkling and sweet in your ears.
“We’re here.” Karkat says, voice softer than before, and all annoyance at his small bout of indecency leaves your body as he tugs you forward into the shop, and plethora of sweet aroma’s infiltrating your senses. Your cane is forgotten as Karkat guides you through the small shop, right into the centre, his fingers tangled with yours. You can hear him shuffling from foot to foot, his fingers fiddling with the hem of his oversized jumper.
“Karkat, what –?” He cuts you off, voice holding a nervous tinge.
“You’ve been so bummed lately, what with finding out that you can’t ever regain your sight and I guess... I guess I wanted to show you that it’s not all bad?” He pauses before coughing and continuing. “I mean, you’ve still got smell and that’s a pretty fucking awesome sense right? And so I thought I’d bring you here, to show you that.” He squeezes your hand, but you’re too shocked to squeeze it back. “Go ahead – I’ll buy you whatever you like the smell of.”
You open and close your mouth before silently letting go of his hand and lurching forwards, wrapping your arms around his neck and squeezing him tight. His hands hover in his shock, not quite sure what to do, until he eventually hugs you back, wrapping his hands around your waist and pulling you close.
He then pulls away and takes your hand again, leading you to every single display and letting you smell everything, slowly filling up a basket of sweets. He laughs and calls you a weirdo when he realises everything you’ve chosen is red and you just reply that you’ve decided strawberry flavoured things smell the best. You spend a long time in the small sweet shop, and when you leave you have at least two bags chock full of sweets.
The Welsh air is cold on your skin, blowing through your ginger hair when you step outside, and you smile, tapping your cane along the floor as you turn to face Karkat.
“Karkat?” You ask, and the boy looks down at you – well, at least you think he does. You grin and lean up, placing a soft, lingering kiss on his cheek, one hand resting on his shoulder. When you pull away, his fingers instantly go to touch the tingling patch where your lips were, a small smudge of teal lipstick staining his pale skin. “Thank you. This was... This was great.”
You slip your hand back into his and hear him chuckle softly.
“You sap.”
You punch him gently in the arm before taking his hand again, using your cane to establish your path as you lead him down the streets.
“Come on, we have some sweets to eat!” You cheer, and Karkat groans, causing you to laugh as he stumbles along behind you. His hand squeezes yours, like it did back when you first entered the sweet shop. Only this time.
This time you squeeze back.