When I first watched Prince-Sama all those years ago, I legitimately thought the poor girl was blind until it was established that no, she was not XD. It was the style of her eyes that threw me off at that time. So, I decided to make an AU out of this old misconception of mine!
In the first episode, Haruka mentions to Shibuya Tomochika that she had poor health as a child. Seeing as she as young, in this AU she was born legally blind. Not completely blind, just... legally blind. This is probably not the reason she had poor health, but it certainly contributed to it.
At the beginning of the series, she has a Golden Retriever Seeing Eye Dog named Hayate; yes, named after her idol Hayato-Sama.
She also has a long white cane with a red bottom; this means she is not completely blind. However, it is usually folded up in a purse or pocket and she only takes it out if it is truly needed. She wears sunglasses on sunny days.
Some things will not be true to real life. But when is anime ever?
Episode 1 synopsis below! It’s mostly the same as the original episode with changes to account for Haruka’s blindness, but that is because we must set the stage! (Spoiler: The ending is very different!) Ready, go!
Episode 1 synopsis
When Haruka begs the guard's to let her in, Hayate sits there making puppy eyes at them. She doesn’t grab the guard, but people watching coo at Hayate, same with the guard behind the one talking to Haruka. The guard then asks why a blind girl would even bother taking such a test for a prodigious school. She tries to defend herself and this is where Otoya steps in.
When Otoya starts talking to her and sees her eyes for the first time, he blushes thinking they look cute. He reaches out to pet Hayate, but then sees his vest and pulls back.
Haruka helped the lost girl by taking her around town until they found the child’s mother and retracing the child’s steps. Hayate helped to calm the girl down enough to get her to work with them.
Ren says his whole spiel, but then adds that are famous composers who have created music even with disabilities like Beethoven, so why couldn’t she take the test?
Haruka took the test in a specialized room, with previously set accommodations. A dictator read her test out loud to her, and for passage questions, she was given a brail booklet.
She met Tomo after the test; they were both released around the same time and Tomo immediately latched onto Haruka. They met outside the school before term started.
She had to keep asking Tomo what was happening during the entrance ceremony, who was more than happy to with over-exaggerated hand movements and sounds.
When Otoya recognizes her in the classroom, Haruka says ‘Oh! Based on your voice... you’re the first boy that helped me, right? Thank you!’
She asks to ‘see’ his face by tracing it with her fingers. Otoya agrees with a blush and fidgets his hands while she traces his face. He becomes even more embarrassed when she asks if he is okay because his face is really hot.
When Shinomiya jumps to latch onto Haruka, Hayate growls in warning pulling her away while Masato grabs her hand at the same time, but because of the unbalance of Hayate pulling, is unable to knock Otori into her place... So Shinomiya faceplants into the desks.
When talking about Elizabeth, he finally notices Hayate and immediately starts petting him, saying he is just like ‘his Eli’ while Hayate growls at him. Otoya pulls him off, berating him while Haruka begs him not to do such a thing because he’s working. When Shinomiya becomes confused, Masato points out his seeing dog vest. Shinomiya has a sudden realization and apologizes profusely.
Haruka notices the classmates negative perception of them. She clenches Hayate’s lead and says she’s going to sit back down. The others look at her confused.
When Ringo-Sensei comes in, Haruka sees a blurry image of him and assumes from the long hair he is a woman, even with the masculine sounding voice. She still becomes shocked when Tomo tells her he’s actually a man.
When Ringo comes close and slams on her desk, before he can say much Hayate growls and barks at him. That’s when he realizes Haruka is his blind student and his reprimand becomes less harsh.
Ringo has automatically labeled Haruka as weaker in his mind. This is going to color both his interactions with her and her perception of him, as well as lower the classes perception of her. He also mentions that the headmaster wishes to see her after class.
Hayate growls at people that get too close too quickly. He especially growled at Tomo when they first met but mellowed out around her when he realized she wasn’t a threat.
When Haruka says that they do not have a TV in her house, she also offhandedly mentions that she doesn’t really enjoy it that much.
During lunch, Tomo reads out the options to Haruka, who can not read the small text.
When Shou catches her card for him, he asks, rather rudely, what was up with her eyes, then saw Hayate. This is when Ren comes in and reprimands him for being rude to a lady.
After lunch she’s led by a teacher to the headmaster’s office. Saotome mostly wanted to explain accommodations she would be getting at the school, in account of her... deformity.
Haruka decides that she does not rather like the headmaster.
She would be getting things like a brail copy of the menus, special rooms for tests, dictators, extra help every Friday, a permanent ‘hall pass’ so she could ‘take care’ of Hayate easily, among other accommodations.
Saotome sees her disability as a PR grab; they have a blind student whom they are helping to succeed. The press will love it! He doesn’t really care about Haruka as a person.
He tells her he will be seeing her at the end of every week on Saturday to discuss how things went during the week, for he is a gracious headmaster. This is non-negotiable, so she agrees.
Hayate doesn’t like Shining Saotome.
Haruka arrives back at the room late; mostly because she was forced to find her own way because there was no one to help her.
Tomo helps her put away her belongings.
When telling the story of the first time she heard Hayato, Tomo points out that Hayate’s name is very similar. Haruka then explains that she got Hayate shortly after this experience and named the dog after Hayato. Tomo deadpans.
After Tomo leaves to get them drinks, Haruka only notices the cat because of it’s meowing. The cat gets close enough to Haruka to allow her to pet him and feel his body shape, while he touches noses with Hayate, who is also curious of this cat who doesn’t smell like a cat.
When Haruka feels around his collar, he tries to get her to come with him by trying to pull her hand while it’s grasping his collar. This fails. Multiple times.
He then tries to steal her handkerchief to get her to leave the room. Hayate, who thinks the weird cat is playing, instead takes it back out of his mouth, wagging his tail and falling into a playing position. The cat tries again, multiple times. This also fails.
Hayate’s vest has been taken off, so now he wants to play.
Exasperated, the cat soon just gives up and stays with them for the night. Haruka wouldn’t be able to tell easily if he left, and he doesn’t want her confused and wondering about his health!
