#or will it seem i think people are stupid by explaining it (i do not think that)

[itsnesss]

Hii I have a request for sensei wolf. So at the beginning of season 6 pt 2, johnny (readers dad) and wolf are arguing over that piece of steak in the show, and the reader comes up and stops johnny from doing something stupid, and eventually the reader and wolf like sit down for dinner and start talking about different things and like at the end could u possibly do like wolf and reader kissing and johnny ends up seeing it? Sorry if it's so detailed but I appreciate it!

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐤 | sensei wolf × fem!reader

summary | johnny and wolf argue over steak, and you step in to stop the fight. later, you and wolf share a kiss, but johnny catches you

warnings | lawrence!reader, tension, arguing, mild violence (verbal), kissing, family conflict

wordcount | 1.0 k

author's note | it would help me a lot if you liked, commented and reposted so that more people read what I write and don't forget to follow me, thanks ᡣ𐭩

The noise in the hotel buffet surrounds you as you walk between tables, looking for something to eat. The atmosphere is full of voices, laughter, and clinking dishes. You stop when you see that your father, Johnny, is arguing with a man who looks just as tall as he is imposing. It’s easy to tell that something is about to explode.

Your eyes focus on the center of the argument. The last two pieces of steak are on the man’s plate, which he holds with a confident attitude. Johnny, with his usual defiant posture, points at the pieces of meat.

"Hey, buddy! One per customer!" Johnny shouts, crossing his arms while glaring at the scene.

The man turns around with a calm smile, showing no discomfort. "Excuse me?" he responds, as if he doesn't understand the problem.

"You took the last two steaks," Johnny says in a rougher voice than usual, stepping dangerously closer to him.

The man, despite the tense situation, responds without losing his composure. "I’m bringing one to a friend," he explains, moving the plate a little toward his side. "And if not, I have the right to take as many as I want."

Johnny isn’t willing to back down. "Oh yeah? And I have the right to stop you," he responds, his tone making it clear that he won’t back off easily.

The situation is about to escalate into a fight. The air tenses, and everything around you seems to fade as you watch your father, as stubborn as ever, challenge a man who clearly isn’t afraid to face him. You know that if you don’t do something, things could spiral out of control.

You step toward them, taking a deep breath, looking for a way to calm the situation before it gets out of hand. When you get close to your father, you place a hand on his arm, gently pushing him back.

"Johnny, stop," you say, your voice firm but calm. You don’t want things to get out of control.

Johnny looks at you in surprise, almost not understanding what just happened. "What’s the problem? It’s just meat!" he responds, but his hard gaze is still fixed on the man, who is now paying attention to you.

"It’s not worth it," you insist, keeping your tone controlled. "This isn’t the time for this."

Your father grumbles, but finally, it seems like he decides to relent. He takes a step back, still visibly annoyed, but says nothing more. The tension in the air begins to ease, but you still don’t know if the situation is truly resolved.

The man looks at you for a moment, evaluating the situation. His expression is calm, almost as if he hasn’t been disturbed in the slightest. He turns to you with a slight smile. "I apologize for the confusion," he says in a relaxed tone. "I didn’t mean to cause any trouble."

You feel a bit relieved, but also intrigued by the calm that emanates from him. "It’s fine," you respond, smiling slightly. "Johnny can be a bit… protective sometimes."

Wolf, as you later learn his name to be, laughs softly. "I’ve noticed," he says. "I don’t think I’m his favorite person right now."

The conversation shifts to more neutral topics. As Johnny walks away reluctantly, you stay with Wolf, who now watches you with a gentler expression now that the confrontation is over. There’s something about his demeanor that is intriguing, something about his calm that makes you feel a sort of curiosity.

You both decide to sit down at a nearby table. At first, the topic remains trivial, like the upcoming tournament and tensions between dojos, but soon, the conversation becomes more personal. You talk about life, goals, and the little moments that define people. Even though you don’t know each other, somehow everything feels very natural.

Wolf has that carefree attitude, but there’s an intensity in his words that you can’t ignore. It’s as if, in his presence, every conversation feels deeper, more real. You find yourself at ease, relaxed, and without realizing it, hours go by.

Little by little, the words grow closer. The distance between you two diminishes without you noticing. The conversation softens, and the connection feels almost imperceptible, yet palpable. And yet, there’s something more in the air. A change you can’t identify right away.

At some point, after a long conversation about various topics, you realize just how close you are to him. You both share a glance, and it’s as if everything around you disappears. The soft music, the voices in the distance, everything seems to fade. And in that moment, Wolf leans in toward you, and without warning, his lips meet yours in a kiss.

It’s brief, unexpected, but intense. A spark jumps between you two, one you didn’t know existed but now seems to consume everything around you. When you part, the air feels heavy, charged with a new tension, one that makes you wonder what just happened.

Before you can react fully, you hear a familiar voice.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

You turn quickly, and there’s Johnny, standing at the door of the buffet, his eyes wide as saucers, completely stunned. His surprise is evident, and his face reflects a mixture of fury and confusion.

"Johnny…" you murmur, your voice nervous, not knowing what to say. The weight in your chest grows as discomfort takes over you.

Wolf, without losing his calm, slowly leans back in his chair, crossing his arms. "It’s not what it looks like," he says in a quiet tone, almost teasingly, as if this whole thing is just a game.

Johnny takes a step forward, his face turning red with anger. "What do you mean, it’s not what it looks like? You’re kissing my daughter!" His voice rises, and you know that right now, things are getting much more complicated.

You try to step toward Johnny, but the weight of the situation holds you back. "Johnny, calm down," you say, even though you know it won’t be easy. "It’s not what you think."

[scarrletmoon]

hey i want to address these tags because they are equating two situations that absolutely should not be

the difference is that this person lied repeatedly for months, even to their closest friends. you seem to think like we all just let them pretend, like we knew what they were doing and let them profit off it anyway. that we admired them for it. that it doesn’t matter what they did because they probably got away with it because this fandom doesn’t care about black people

and i have to tell you, it is not fucking comforting to say this as if atticus didn’t also lie to other POC and try to get close to them. so are we part of that fandom if blackfishing supporters? i must be stupid or self-hating because i fell for his lies despite having no evidence that he was lying?

you really did not have to do this. you could just share the information without turning it into a gotcha. when i talked to atticus, i thought i’d made another black friend in a fandom with vanishingly few of us. and i can’t explain to you have fucking upsetting it is to have that dismissed just to get in a quick dunk.

Sending out hugs to everyone who's been affected by all the stuff going on in the fandom regarding the race faking. I know this is fucking hard, we're all blindsided by it. Please remember that it's okay to grieve, be sad or angry, or whatever right now. Just take care of yourselves okay?

This kitten is me aggressively hugging you if you consent and need it <3

[altschmerzes]

🌹 anything related to being aro?

oh i love this one in particular. here's a clip from loneliness into loneliness, the two aces qpr fic, from the scene where jamie is basically asking dani to be in a qpr with him, though he doesn't use that specific word.

...

“I keep thinking that I just… I don’t want things to go back to the way they were before we got hurt,” he says. There’s a muffling static in his ears and his chest is tight. “You’re… You’re one of my very best friends, one of the best I’ve ever had, but I think I might want you to be more than that? Or, not more, more’s not it, just- different. I want to be something different.” It’s a weird and embarrassing thing to say and Jamie can feel his face heat up. He’s sure his cheeks and the tops of his ears and his neck are flaming red right now. This was a bad idea, he’s fucking this up, he’s just—

Dani doesn’t react like he’s said something insane. Instead, he just tilts his head to the side and is quiet for a moment. Then: “I thought you didn’t do that sort of thing?” he asks. “When you explained to us that you were aromantic,” he pronounces it carefully, an unfamiliar word he had learned because someone close to him had asked him to but that he still wasn’t quite sure he was using correctly, “you said it meant that you didn’t want to date?”

There’s another lurch in Jamie’s chest, another spike of cold fear down his spine. Of course Dani thinks that’s what he’s asking. How could he think it was anything else? This isn’t— Jamie doesn’t know how to do this. Nobody ever showed him how, it weren’t like there were movies or pop songs about this sort of shit. There’s never a part of the story where one person says to another I want to do most of the things people think of when they think about dating with you but not in a dating way. Maybe that’s a sign he shouldn’t be getting his interpersonal advice from stories, but it’s not like he’d ever seen anyone he knew do that either, so regardless he’s shit out of luck. “Oh, I mean, I don’t— It’s not— It’s not like that, it’s like…” Fuck, why did he think he could do this? Jamie’s chest feels all weird and narrow still, and he half wants to say never mind and hope they could both forget the whole thing. Except… Except that he still fucking wants this, don’t he? That’s the kicker. He still wants this, and apparently he wants it bad enough to try to figure out how to ask for it, even if he looks insane or stupid in the process. “It’s not like I’ve got those kinds of feelings for you or for anyone but there are like… There’s other kinds of relationships, I think. I’ve been reading more, right, and I think it’s possible to be together without… being together if that makes sense. I don’t know how to explain this.” As Jamie talks himself in circles, Dani is still watching him with curious, attentive eyes, and he doesn’t look like he hates what he’s hearing. What Jamie is saying doesn’t seem to be making him want to get up and run, or shut the conversation down, or… Or anything else, really. He’s just listening, waiting for what’s coming next. This is just encouraging enough that Jamie goes on in a sudden rush, the words nearly tripping over each other on the way out. “I mean, only if you think you’re interested in that sort of thing, I just— The way things have been since I came to stay here is like— I think this is the happiest I’ve ever been, in a weird sort of way.” It feels like something Jamie wasn’t supposed to admit, even though it’s true. He heaves a short, hard breath and knots his fingers together, hoping he’s making at least some kind of sense. Even if he isn’t, he has to keep talking. If he doesn’t “Here, with you. Living with you, being with you all the time, doing, just. Doing life together with you. Sleeping with you.” Jamie cringes at the way it sounds, and says, “I mean, not like, I mean— you know what I mean.”

[project-sekai-takes]

I find that Toya's father and Mafuyu's mother are both misunderstood by the general fandom

Project SEKAI's main writing gimmick is that is takes characters based on general tropes (egotistical leader, attractive airhead, loner tomboy, joyous goofball with a Past, sheltered teen, etc.) And goes beyond them. No character is just a trope or one singular thing, they have more depth and as such come off as more realistic and human. This is usually done well and makes for an insanely lovable cast.

However, it doesn't stop at the main characters. NPCs like Ken, Taiga, Seriyuuin, Futaba, Yuki, Mai, etc. Were written to be more than what what you see at a glance.

Toya's Father and Mafuyu's Mother are written in the same way.

If you take these characters and distill them into being nothing more than just abusive parents to put in a woodchipper or whatever you lose the depth the writers intended for them.

Toya's father was written with a 'tough love' idea in mind, except the tough overwhelms the love. He's a shitty person sure but he also does genuinely care for Toya and isn't someone who is irredeemable by all accounts. His actions shouldn't be justified or forgotten by the plot, and the attempt of apparently trying to make him seem more sympathetic by having street artists be mean to him in his past was stupid (if it went differently in this update pls forgive me I am an en player going off unreliable retellings), but he is more than just someone who pushed too far and wouldn't let go. In Toya4 him being honest with Toya for once is genuinely the most affective thing the game could've done as a sign of redemption.

Mafuyu's mom is slightly more complicated. Her showing of love towards Mafuyu was deciding what was best for her and deluding herself into thinking that Mafuyu's will was the same as her own. In flashbacks Mafuyu has shown to have been rather delicate as a kid, with there being multiple mentions of her being sick one can assume that she might've had a weaker immune system as a child. It's possible that Mafuyu's mother saw her manipulation and treatment of Mafuyu as a means of protection, left over instincts from when Mafuyu actually needed to be protected. Signs of her actions being explained in the future were shown in Kana5, and I think if done better than Toya's father it could genuinely be one of the most interesting arcs in the game.

These characters were made to be instantly hated when first seen, but by adding depth over time they went from "evil monsters" to "deeply flawed people." And while it's totally fine to hate them still, they are abusers afterall, I think it's important to acknowledge the depth that was at least intended for them.

Also even if these characters are both made to be sympathetic that still does not mean that Toya and Mafuyu do/would forgive them, and also doesn't mean that you are supposed forgive them either. It's not justification but an explanation, keep that in mind.

.

[chmyri]

OH MY FUCKING GOD I THOUGHT FOR SURE ICE ADOLESCENCE WAS CANNED, THIS IS LITERALLY CRUMBS BUT I'LL FUCKING TAKE IT, look i watched yuri on ice when it was airing, i was 11 and it fucking changed my life, it's a very important show to me personally I'VE WAITED 7 YEARS AND I'M PREPARED TO WAIT MORE, I DON'T CARE IF EVERYBODY ELSE GAVE UP ON THIS MOVIE RELEASING I DON'T CARE THAT NOT THAT MANY PEOPLE CARE FOR THE FRANCHISE ANYMORE I DON'T FUCKING CARE!! I'M PUTTING MY FULL FAITH INTO THIS MOVIE UNTIL IT RELEASES OR IT'S OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED TO BE DEAD

[puppppppppy]

footnotes arent enough I need you to talk to me like im fucking Amelia Bedelia

[red-dyed-sarumane]

sorry i never got into yamete kudasai dissection before. i really looked at it and went ohhhhh yeah no girl u cant be doing that. like ur right it SUCKS but yeah no thats how u die forever. rip <3 shes like my second favorite series character tho shes so real for saying all that. i dont care if shes clearly not the most reliable narrator shes not the only one saying these types of things theres some truth to it.

[maeshelix]

gonna change gears from bothering our friends in discord about this and instead im gonna scream into the void about it here.

but jesus fuck does the duviri paradox come across as so fucking plural to us its fucking crazy.

like duviri is just a giant headspace. its literally just a supercharged headspace whos crafting components and shit is made tangible through void magic and we cannot see it any other fucking way.

the fucking cutscenes from the main story showing scenes from the operators life, originally made vague due to the drifter not knowing what the fuck is happening, the fact that duviri is so fucking dreamlike and easily changed by the mood of whatever fictive is in co-con with thrax at the time, the fact that 'tales of duviri' is a real fucking thing in universe. its a real fucking book in universe used to teach tools for emotional regulation (in the event of void exposure. which yeah makes sense if youre raising child soldiers to use void shit)

literally everything the fucking courtiers say reads as some plural fucking shit. the ways they interact with the drifter and the shit they say when giving the a job, the shit they say when they turn into orowyrms. hell the fact they each represents a specific emotion actually speaks to me personally since im basically the de facto fucking anger response of the system, so seeing a bunch of fictive ass motherfuckers consumed by one emotion is pretty fucking nice to see.

like fucking. christ its just so fucking obvious to us how plural the fucking operator is. how plural the drifter is. how plural they all fucking are.

[leatherbookmark]

Doing a JLPT N1 workbook -- not because I have any plans of taking the exam, I just got worried about forgetting all the Japanese I know -- and of course they'd do this thing where the subchapter introducing particular phrases gives rather typical, predictable examples of their use, but the general comprehension check test has examples where the phrases are used in a way that's just. Weird. >:/

[albonium]

getting the sunday scaries on what could be called saturday night still (it's 2 in the morning)

[polyamoryprincess]

Idk shit about Oppenheimer and there’s apparently some back and forth between people who think Oppenheimer is some flavor of propaganda/erasure and people who think they’re being unnecessarily obtuse or missing the point, and like idk one of the sides is using this as an opportunity to point out all the damage that the US still brushes over in relation to the atomic bomb and the the lead up to it and the other is convinced that biopics are actually based in reality and have any merit lmao

[running-in-the-dark]

I feel like my brain isn't able to absorb any new information/remember new things, and it really sucks. I have to work things out all over again every time (mostly it's silly things like I'll realise I like a certain food prepared a certain way, and the next time I make it I don't remember that at all. I have to ask my husband which chips I like or if I've tried a flavour of something before. I can't remember how to turn on the dishwasher because after a couple days it's like I've never seen it before.)

I don't know what the point of this was (I can't remember). Basically I just feel like I can't think anymore and it sucks.

[krsonmar]

They also don't seem to realize that if the cashier records an amount of money that the customer is going to give them into the register's point-of-sale system, and the customer then changes their mind and tries to give them a different amount (usually they'll try to give closer to exact change and then say, "oh gosh, I'm low on quarters, here's a bigger bill and you can just give me change") the reason that creates a problem is not that the cashier is unwilling or unable to recalculate how much change to give the customer, the problem is that the previous amount the customer was going to give the cashier has already been recorded by the register, and now if the cashier deposits a different amount into the drawer, the drawer count will be off at the end of the day and that can cause all kinds of problems. Sometimes overriding this in order to record the new amount requires a manager override.

This has nothing to do with the cashier (or whatever generational cohort they belong to)'s ability to do math or their work ethic; it has to do with the retail company being obsessed with the possibility their employees might steal from them or make enough mistakes that it could I guess make a significant dent in their profits. The cashier knows their employer has low expectations of them already and insulting them is not going to help produce any desired effect.

Things I have explained to my parents when they start getting mad over small things as customers.

- the cashier scanning your groceries is not being careless or bad at her job, this store times the cashiers so she is clearly trying to stay on time and not get in trouble. This blew their minds that someone would be timed at a "no skill" job (their words not mine)

- the drive thru employee is not trying to be rude or annoying by greeting you too soon: they are required to greet you within a few seconds of your car setting off the sensor.

- the employees at this retail store are not trying to be pushy: they are required to greet you within a few seconds of you entering the store

- the cashier is required to ask you every single question they ask. And they hate it more than you do.

- the cashier is not dumb or "doesn't know how to X" because they had to call a manager for it. Every place I've worked for the past 5 years has been rolling back what employees are authorized to do, and they HAVE to call a manager. They know exactly how to do the thing, they are not allowed to and the computer likely will require a managers code to unlock that function. This confused them.

- the cashier knows the line is long, you don't need to tell them that. If they could call up another cashier they would have already.

- and a more work/life balance related one: my dad scheduled a family thing and assumed i could get the time off. What shocked him was that 1. It wasn't paid time off, and 2. It was denied, so I couldn't come til after work and thus was late. He has worked a job with generous PTO and accrued vacation days that schedules 6 months ahead for the past nearly 30 years. He absolutely was horrified to find out that I have to ask permission for unpaid time off and still couldn't be approved.

- funny followup to my dad's shock: I had been at my most recent job nearly a year and he was asking why they haven't promoted me yet. I was thrown off because why would they. He apparently assumed that since i 1. Showed up on time/early to every shift. 2. Had received positive verbal feedback wrt my performance from managers. And 3. Hadn't quit. That they would automatically start to move me up the ladder. It hurt my heart to shatter his wholesome view of how workplaces work now.

I feel like much of this is common knowledge for all of us, and yet my parents and many customers who haven't worked in the service industry in the past 10-20 years have no idea how this stuff works now.

On the positive side, my parents have slowly been becoming more patient with service workers, and complain to managers or anecdotally much less often. Baby steps!

[autism-corner]

goddamn

[xoxojisu]

"WE'RE NOT DATING!"

synopsis: the 1a girls have a lot to say about you and katsuki's not-relationship.

a/n: hahahaha more pre-relationship just friends trope (do not tell me i do this trope too much it brings me joy) also a lot of people asked for a pt two to my unofficalbf!katsuki hcs and this isnt quiiiite that bc there's not a whole lotta interaction w katsuki but uhm its smth. i have more wips abt this tho so theres a LOTTT more where that came from!

"even if we don't talk about anything important, i want to force it to be about romance!" mina exclaimed as ochako floated off in embarrassment at being questioned about deku.

"oh! speaking of! how long have you and bakugo been dating, y/n?"

you froze. "huh?"

"i don't know how you handle him! you're so sweet and cute and he's all 'die! go to hell! i am the king explosion murder lord!' y'know?" she added.

"he's not really like that with her, though. he's always a lot quieter she's around. you can see the way his eyes soften." tsu commented thoughtfully.

they all stared at you expectantly, waiting for you to answer the question, and you could feel blood rushing to your cheeks. "uh.. katsuki and i.. aren't dating?"

a beat passed. then another.

"WHAT?!"

"no way! i thought you two were dating for sure! he's always holding your hand and grabbing at you and acting all soft with you! wait, i literally saw him carry you to his room! how are you not dating?" hagakure burst out.

"yeah! and during our movie night last week, you were laying your head on his shoulder and he had his arms around you!" mina chimed in. "we all just assumed you two were dating like a given! what do you mean, 'you're not dating?!'"

"i mean, we're not dating! we're close friends, sure, but katsuki's never, like, asked me to be his girlfriend or anything! we're just tight childhood friends, that's all! he probably thinks of me as a little sister with the way he looks out for me, or something." you explained, waving your hands in the air frantically.

"y/n, i love you, but you're being as stupid as kaminari! no boy, but especially not bakugo, would ever act like that with a girl he wasn't interested in." jirou sighed. "there really isn't such thing as 'platonic cuddling' or 'platonic handholding' between boys and girls."

"well, it's normal for kids, you know? and katsuki and i grew up together, so it just kinda stuck!" you said, making a noble attempt at justifying you and katsuki's we-are-definitely-not-just-friends behavior. they all looked at you unamused.

the girls continued to bombard you with questions, each one getting bolder than the last.

"seriously, though, y/n," mina said, her grin wide, "how do you keep it together around him? you two are always so… cozy."

"cozy?" you blinked, trying to avoid their intense stares. "what do you mean 'cozy'?"

"oh, come on," she teased, nudging you. "you hold hands, sit waaaay too close, and don’t even get me started on the whole ‘sleeping on and cuddling with him’ thing. also, i swear i saw him give you a kiss on the forehead!"

"i mean, that’s just how we are!" you said, exasperated. "we’ve been friends forever! it’s not a big deal!"

jirou raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms. "i don’t know, y/n. most guys don’t carry their girl friends to their rooms when they’re tired."

you froze. the memories flashed in your mind, and you couldn’t help the nervous laugh that escaped your lips. "i told you, he was just being—"

"overprotective?" yaomomo interrupted, practically reading your mind. "yeah, that’s what we thought, too. but i don’t know, seems a little… extra for a friend."

you groaned, burying your face in your hands. “this is ridiculous. we’re not dating! he’s not like that with me.”

they all stared at you for a long moment, clearly unconvinced, when suddenly, the door to the room swung open.

katsuki stood in the doorway, his signature scowl immediately visible, with kirishima and kaminari not far behind. "..what the hell are you all looking like that at me for? you got a problem?"

the girls didn’t miss a beat. mina jumped up, eyes practically sparkling. "we were just discussing how you and a certain girl over here are totally a secret item!"

you froze. oh no.

katsuki's eyes widened then narrowed as he stared at her, his eyes a mixture of grumpiness and fluster. "the hell?" was all he said.

“you’re always carrying her, holding hands, and let’s not forget you cuddling with her sleeping on you during that movie last week. with how comfortable you guys were with it, i'll bet it was far from the first time you guys have done stuff like that, too! you two are practically made for each other!”

katsuki glared at her, his fists clenching. "i don’t give a shit what you idiots think." his voice was sharp, dismissive, and he turned his gaze toward you for a moment, his usual annoyance evident.

you let out a nervous laugh, relieved that he wasn’t actually acknowledging any of the weird feelings the group was pushing on you two.

the girls looked between you and katsuki, still skeptical, but he wasn’t having it. he gave a quick, sharp glare to the group before glancing back at you. you failed to see the way his sharp glare softened ever-so-slightly when he did so.

“you’re all so damn nosy,” he muttered, turning to leave. "get a life."

he marched off grumpily, kirishima and kaminari now excitedly talking to him about assumedly the same topic. he slammed the door in their faces, but they were quick to scramble after him.

you let out a sigh of relief once they left, but before you could even speak, mina burst into laughter. "there it is! classic bakugo. totally in denial!"

"totally!" ochako giggled.

"mhm!" hagakure agreed.

"ugh," you groaned, face in your hands. "please just drop it already!"

the girls kept their grins, but the teasing finally slowed down. "alright, alright," mina said with a wink. "we’ll let you off the hook for now."

you exhaled in relief as the group slowly started to branch off into different topics, the heat finally off of you. you excused yourself for some water so you could get some air, and began heading back to the dorm rooms.

to your surprise, katsuki was already waiting for you outside the common area. when he saw you, he gave you a gruff nod of acknowledgement.

"kats! i thought you were going to bed!" you chirped, unaware of how your demeanor instantly brightened when it was just the two of you.

"i am," was all he offered before grabbing your hand and dragging you to presumably his dorm room to cuddle and hangout.

as you rambled and chatted with katsuki, hand-in-hand, on your way to hang out in his dorm alone, the words of your friends came back to you, causing a pink hue to rise to your cheeks.

..yeah. you two were definitely not "just friends."

[quotesfrommyreading]

When I’m out with Deaf friends, I put my hearing aid in my purse. It removes any ability to hear, but far more importantly, it removes the ambiguity that often haunts me.

In a restaurant, we point to the menu and gesture with the wait staff. The servers taking the order respond with gestures too. They pantomime “drinks?” and tell us they learned a bit of signs in kindergarten. Looking a little embarrassed, they sign “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day” in the middle of asking our salad dressing choice. We smile and gently redirect them to the menu. My friends are pros at this routine and ordering is easy ― delightful even. The contrast with how it feels to be out with my hearing husband is stunning.

Once my friends and I have ordered, we sign up a storm, talking about everything and shy about nothing. What would be the point? People are staring anyway. Our language is lavish, our faces alive. My friends discuss the food, but for me, the food is unimportant. I’m feasting on the smorgasbord of communication ― the luxury of chatting in a language that I not only understand 100% but that is a pleasure in and of itself. Taking nothing for granted, I bask in it all, and everything goes swimmingly.

Until I accidentally say the word “soup” out loud.

Pointing at the menu, I let the word slip out to the server. And our delightful meal goes straight downhill. Suddenly, the wait staff’s mouths start flapping; the beautiful, reaching, visual parts of their brains go dead, as if switched off.

“Whadda payu dictorom danu?” the server’s mouth seems to say. “Buddica taluca mariney?”

“No, I’m Deaf,” I say. A friend taps the server and, pointing to her coffee, pantomimes milking a cow. But the damage is done. The server has moved to stand next to me and, with laser-focus, looks only at me. Her pen at the ready, her mouth moves like a fish. With stunning speed, the beauty of the previous interactions ― the pantomiming, the pointing, the cooperative taking of our order ― has disappeared. “Duwanaa disser wida coffee anmik? Or widabeeaw fayuh-mow?”

Austin “Awti” Andrews (who’s a child of Deaf adults, often written as CODA) describes a similar situation.

“Everything was going so well,” he says. “The waiter was gesturing, it was terrific. And then I just said one word, and pow!! It’s like a bullet of stupidity shot straight into the waiter’s head,” he explains by signing a bullet in slow motion, zipping through the air and hitting the waiter’s forehead. Powwwww.

Hearing people might be shocked by this, but Deaf people laugh uproariously, cathartically.

“Damn! All I did was say one word!” I say to my friends. “But why do you do that?” they ask, looking at me with consternation and pity. “Why don’t you just turn your voice off, for once and for all?” they say.

Hearing people would probably think I’m the lucky one ― the success story ― because I can talk. But I agree with my friends.

  —  I'm Deaf And I Have 'Perfect' Speech. Here's Why It's Actually A Nightmare.