He was that at the appointment that Seamus was given his diagnosis.
No, wait. Maybe that’s not the best way to describe. It’s not like Seamus is dying and he’s kind of always known that he’s needed them, but he still denied it for as long as possible.
“Seamus, I think you need glasses.”, his doctor says. She’s a nice lady with her own glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. She’s pretty and knows her shit. Aleks has a decent amount of respect for her.
“Nah, thanks. I’m good.”, Seamus replies. He actually breaks contact with Aleks hand to hold his own out in refusal. Aleks looks over at him. He didn’t even know Seamus had trouble seeing. Granted, it’s probably inevitable with their line of work that consists of staring at screens for a good portion of the day. Aleks’ recording in a dark room with the only light being a TV screen probably fucked with his vision more than he thinks.
“Seamus, I’ve been telling you for multiple appointments now. I think it’s time you bite the bullet and get them.”
He shakes again, his long grown out curls moving with his head. Aleks likes when Seamus grows his hair out, especially now since it’s longer than his usual cutting point is. He enjoys running his fingers through it any chance that he and Seamus are intimate.
Seamus’ doctor looks to Aleks for a bit of help, her eyes pleading with him to change Seamus’ mind. His lip twitches up as he meets her eyes. He can do that for her; definitely.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
“Hey Seamus, look for some place for us to eat on those highway signs.”, Aleks says as he pulls onto the freeway.
Seamus shrugs with disinterest and Aleks can see out of the corner of his eye that he’s squinting out the window. Seamus didn’t do great on his eye test at the doctor’s, starting to say numbers at some point as opposed to letters. Aleks had no trouble seeing them from where he stood just off to Seamus’ side.
They pass by a sign and Aleks quickly looks over just to see what’s on it before turning his head straight again. “You see anything on there?”
Seamus freezes up. “Uh… I don’t think so. Keep going.”, he stammers out, squinting harder, eyes trained for the next highway sign.
It goes on like that for another three signs, each time Aleks asks him the same question and he gets a decent amount of variety in Seamus’ response.
“I blinked and missed it, sorry.”
“It was all gas stations. Keep going.”
“There was a deer blocking the sign. Hope there isn’t one at the next one.”
Aleks bites the inside of his cheek, trying to keep himself from chuckling at Seamus’ attempts. They pass by the exit that takes them home, Aleks continuing on just to carry on with his game with Seamus. In his defence, he’s doing this for Seamus’ own good.
They go for another five signs, Seamus giving a creative response as to why he couldn’t see what’s on the signs before Aleks pulls onto the side of the road, letting the car engine idle.
Seamus sighs as Aleks turns to him.
“Seamus?”
“Yes?”
“You need glasses.”
Seamus sighs. “Yeah, I know.”
“Why are you so avoidant in getting them?”, Aleks slings his arm over to Seamus’ seat, letting his hand touch the back side.
“You’ll think it’s a dumb reason.”
“I asked you out by putting McDonald’s french fries together on your desk. I think I’m the dumb one in this relationship.”, Aleks points out. He grins a bit when he sees Seamus lips quirk up.
“It was very you.”, Seamus replies.
“Stop avoiding the question.”
Seamus sighs deeply. “I didn’t want you to think differently of me. Cause I used to have glasses back in school and despite it being the fucking 21st century, I was still treated like a freak. I know it’s dumb, but I thought maybe you’d think the same way.”
“Seamus, I love you. I won’t think differently of you just cause you got glasses. It’s different now. The worst you have to worry about now is Youtube comments in Hub and facecam videos.”
Seamus grimaces at the thought having already gotten a ton of shit for his choice in hair length.
“But unlike high school, there’s a beautiful feature called the ‘block’ button.”, Aleks grins. His hand reaches out, stroking across Seamus shoulder in a loving fashion. They sit in silence for a while as Seamus considers his options. “I want you to be able to see, Seamus. Can you do this for me?”
Reluctantly, Seamus nods. Despite the seat belt cutting into what feels like every part of Aleks’ body, he leans in kiss Seamus’ cheek.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
A week after their talk in the car, Seamus walks into Aleks’ office without knocking. He’s the only one who can get away with that. James does it too just to piss him off as well as within their shared apartment, but at most points, Aleks gets tired of telling him to fuck off.
He’s editing another session of Gmod with Kevin and James when Seamus walks in which is mostly why he doesn’t look up. His earbuds are in his ears, blasting dubstep into his ear drums.
Seamus reaches over and pulls one bud out of Aleks’ ear, bringing Aleks into awareness. He jerks up in surprise, twisting around and looking to Seamus.
“Hey.”, his voice is loud so he can hear himself over the dubstep.
“Why the hell is it so dark in here?”, Seamus asks.
“Cause I’m not as fortunate as Jordan or Dan to have an office with a window and I like the creepy lighting.”, Aleks replies, trying to untangle himself from his own headphones. He eventually gets them off, setting them to the side of his mouse, his music still audible because of how loud it is.
“And you say I’m going blind.”, Seamus mutters. “Can I turn on the light? I wanna show you something.”
“Yeah sure.”
Seamus moves closer to the door, flicking on the light switch to the side of the doorframe. Aleks flinches as light fills the room, squinting his eyes shut as Seamus laughs. “Calm down, Dracula. It’s just light.”
“I’ve been sitting in the dark for like three hours now. Excuse me for being human.”, he blinks his eyes into focus, Seamus’ blurry form becoming clear.
Seamus stands in front of him, hands sheepishly in the pockets of his Twitch hoodie with rectangle lense glasses perched on his nose. He no longer squints while staring, looking at ease with his own vision. Aleks likes them on him; finds it attractive actually.
“You like them?”, Seamus asks and Aleks sees his subtle sways going side to side to show his nervousness.
“I like you a lot better with them. You were never a very attractive squinter.”
“Funny.”
