#rip to my partner who witnessed my distressed expression and wanted to know what caused it

[laadychat]

We might have screwed up

this is for @chatnoirinette , I’m sorry I took so long!! But happy birthday once again, my dear friend.

“No. way.”

Marinette groaned and buried her head in her arms. “Shut up.”

Chat Noir snorted, before throwing himself right next to her. “Seriously? You had to take care of someone’s pet toad?” His heard some strange things slip past the girl’s lips but this, this takes the cake.

“That’s not even the worse part! When Alya asked me the pet’s name, you know what I said?” She lifted her head and blew at her bangs. “I said ’It died. He’s dead, Alya.’”

Chat couldn’t help himself - he laughed. the story was too good, especially because he explicitly remembers the whole interaction. The way Marinette looked at Alya with such a blank expression, voice completely void of any emotion - it was hilarious.

“Stop laughing! She wouldn’t stop talking about the natural process of grief - ‘It’s okay to be sad, M, it’s the way of life.’ Do you know how many times I had to hear that today?”

Seven.

“Seven!”

He didn’t, in fact, stop laughing. Instead, it only fueled him to laugh louder. At one point during the school hours, Marinette snapped and it only caused Alya to smile and pat her shoulder. 'Good, you’re progressing. Anger means you’re moving on from denial and guilt.’

Seeing Marinette’s reaction to that made his day worth-while.

Flailing her arms around, she groaned. “I failed! I don’t even know what I was thinking. No one has a pet toad!”

He really wanted to ask her why, of all things she could have said to go home for lunch instead of eating with them, why come up with such an excuse? It didn’t make any sense(he couldn’t pay too much attention - there was an akuma to catch!) but he would wait for her to tell him on her own time.

“What would you named it if he was still alive?” he snickered and dodged the pillow thrown his way.

Gritting her teeth, Marinette simply flipped him off.

“I’m thinking Ferb, isn’t that such a wonderful name?” He grinned, enjoying himself a bit too much. Although, it did maybe get himself kicked out a bit earlier than usual.

-

“Ferb is dead.”

Chat Noir fell through the trap door, landing on the girl’s bed with a thud.

Marinette snorted, barely missing a beat with the sewing machine. “What’d you do this time?”

The cat hero groaned, shoving his face in her pillow. “You’re only going to laugh.”

-

Marinette was staring over her balcony when she heard the family sound of someone’s foot step.

“Chat,” she sighed, then grimaced. “Ferb is dead.”

He chuckled, standing right next to her.

“I absolutely embarrassed myself at school today.”

-

And just like that, it became their thing. Whenever they’ve done anything ridiculous that would make the other laugh, it was always started off with that phrase.

Ferb is dead.

At first, it was just when they did something ridiculous. Then it was used when other people did something(like the time they watched a girl across the street absolutely rip into a guy who thought she was too submissive).

So if it was a thing just between Marinette and Chat Noir, how did Adrien and Ladybug know it too?

-

The school day started fairly normal. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred and by lunch time, Marinette was expecting today to remain pretty chill. Lord knows how much she wanted a relaxing day. Maybe even watch a movie with a certain feline.

When she walked into the classroom after lunch, the scene in front of her was pretty amusing. Kim was clutching his stomach while an equally distressed Alix sat next to him. Raising an eyebrow, she turned to Alya. “What happened?”

“They had a contest-” she snorted. “to see who could eat the most amount of ice cream without getting a stomach ache.”

“Who won?”

“Me, obviously,” Kim hissed out and Marinette clicked her tongue.

“Kimie, you know you’re a bit sensitive to dairy, why would you do this?”

His only response was to bump his head on the desk and groan once again. He waved towards the girl next to him. “Dare.”

Alix whined. “I wasn’t expecting him to actually take up on the dare.”

Marinette rolled her eyes, amused by her friends, although a bit worried. She turned to the boys in front of her. Before she could speak up, Adrien turned to her.

“Ferb is dead.” He chuckled, turning back in his desk as if what he said was something normal. 

And before Marinette could fully comprehend what the blonde boy said, the akuma alert went off.

He couldn’t have possibly say what Marinette thought he did.

Right?

-

The akuma was a bit… weird, to put it nicely. It did seem like the battle would be a bit difficult, if the akuma wasn’t could actually gather its wit.

So there was Ladybug and Chat Noir, staring at the odd thing in front of them. It was going towards the school but for some reason, it would trip and whine before getting back up again. They weren’t even sure what their powers was yet.

Rolling his eyes, Chat leaped off the building and started walking towards their supposed enemy. “Hey, what’s your panties in a twist?”

The akuma roared and pointed a staff like item towards his face. “Wedgies are not something to laugh about!”

Chat simply blinked, not at all expecting that answer. He turned to face his partner, the question clear on his face. Confused herself, Ladybug landed next to him, her eyes never leaving the akuma. “They seem… harmless. Do you know what their powers is?”

“Besides being ridiculously clumsy, I have no idea.” He snorted, eyeing the akuma. “What happened?”

Instead of engaging in a battle with the hero, the akuma whined once again and threw up their hands. “I was so tired of people making fun of me being clumsy so I wanted them to feel how I understand!” They paused, then groaned as they tripped once again. “But me being the clumsy mess I am, I hit myself with the stupid beam!”

A pause.

Ladybug let out a short laugh before turning to her partner and without thinking-

“Ferb is dead.”

She didn’t realize she said it but after breaking the akumatized object, her partner hadn’t moved from his rooted spot. He stared at her and irked by the whole thing, Ladybug raised her fist in their celebratory gesture. He returned the gesture, but continued to give her that same look.

It wasn’t until she got home later, she realized why.

-

“Tikki, this is an absolute mess.”

The small creature hummed, barely paying any attention to her wielder. Tikki told her from the beginning that the more Chat Noir and her hung out, the reveal was bound to happen. So yeah, it might be a mess, but Tikki was done with the whole situation.

“Tikki, Adrien is Chat Noir- wait.” She whirled around, pointing a finger at the small goddess. “You knew! You knew!”

The spotted creature nodded, her attention hardly leaving from the cookie in front of her. “Yeah, which is why I said this was going to be a mess from the beginning.”

That was as far as they got in their conversation when they heard a 'thump’ from above them. Straightening up her shoulder, Marinette gritted her teeth. “I’m going to act like nothing happened. Yeah…” she muttered as she climbed up and opened the door.

“Princess.”

“Chat Noir.”

They stared at each other. And despite her earlier resolute, she cracked.

“So… uh, Ferb is dead?”

[rhysie-cakes314]

Day 8- Silence

I tried my best to be sensitive and accurate, but if I said anything offensive to the deaf community, PLEASE let me know. I never intend to harm, but I love including deaf Clint.

...................................................

In Wanda’s defense, she hadn’t meant it to be a spell.

“SILENCE!” she yelled into the chaos. The previous mix of yells, screams, crashes, laughter, and pounding music of Tony’s Halloween party was replaced by a deafening silence.  Wanda dropped the hands that she had been digging into her eyes and looked around the room. Everyone gaped at her, words caught in their throat. She was usually such a quiet spectator at their get togethers, that her outburst was a shock to even JARVIS, apparently.

At least, that was why she assumed no one spoke, as some of them even moved their mouths to speak, but remained speechless. The overwhelming migraine was finally bearable in the new quiet. With the pain subsiding, Wanda was overcome by sudden embarrassment. She had ruined everyone’s fun. Tears blurred her vision and her face was hot. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to the room before turning and fleeing. She normally prided herself on her self-control; she never lost her temper. Knowing it was too dangerous for someone with reality warping chaos magic like her own to lose control of their emotions, she spent years mastering meditation and emotional control.

The problem was that lately she had been opening up. It was easy to control oneself when you remained mostly isolated and only showed your surface emotions. Other than with Pietro, Wanda had successfully remained emotionally distant from the world for the last several years. That was until Vision. He had wormed his way into her heart when she wasn’t looking, and now she felt volatile. She had never known love like this, and with it her walls came crumbling down all together. Suddenly she was an open book around all of the Avengers, laughing and crying with the smallest provocation. Vision had convinced her to let down her guard a little, that she could feel without destroying, but she had no practice with happy mediums.

So the sudden increase in drama in her life left her feeling raw. She felt like the wrong gentle breeze would set her off, and it kept her awake at night with worry, which had probably been the cause of her current migraine. She should’ve followed her gut tonight and begged out of the party invitation. Wanda knew she wasn’t feeling well this morning, and when Vision had had to go off on a mission and cancelled on the date, she should’ve cancelled on Tony. She had tried, she really had. But she had a soft spot for his big brown eyes.

“Oh please, please please, Wanda!” Tony begged that morning. “Steve will have my throat if you’re not there, he thinks I only invited you because of Vision. Which is categorically untrue, mind you,” he began his usual rambling. “I happen to like your company even if you are a bit of a wallflower, and your magic,” he shuddered involuntarily, “gives me the heebie-jeebies. I’m working on that, too, by the way. I’m trying to stop being uncomfortable around you and Strange, it’s just hard, what with the laws of physics that should govern existence going out the window and my own understanding of things being ripped out from under me everytime one of you does something…” he trailed off. “But! I want you there, the team loves you, especially Nat. She thinks your wit is a perfect ‘break from the boy’s club’ I think she called it.”

Tony’s voice was beginning to grate on her ears. Wanda rubbed her temple, holding a hand up. “Okay!” she stopped him. “Okay, I’ll come, Tony.” She gave him a small smile, trying to soften the harsh tone to her words. It was hardly the genius’ fault she had a headache. “Just, let me get some sleep, please. I have a migraine.”

Tony had the decency to look a little ashamed. “Right, yeah, sorry I know I can be loud and too verbose. I’ll just…” He pointed towards the door. “Be going. Feel better, um,” he rubbed the back of his head. “You don’t have to come if you’re still feeling bad,” he admitted. “Just… I would like you there if you’re up to it,” he finished awkwardly. And there they were. His big, brown, puppy-dog eyes. Wanda agreed with Steve that while everyone thought he was the one who had mastered looking like a puppy when he wanted something, it was really Tony who’s big eyes and wobbly lip could get him anything. The man was just adorable.

So Wanda had tried to ignore the headache, which did feel somewhat better after a nap. The tower had been too much, though. There were loud noises everywhere, and strobe lights in some rooms, and fog machines blasting. With no Vision there to calm her down when things felt like too much, it had been a perfect storm to her raw nerves. Wanda flopped onto her bed with a loud sigh. She hoped they’d all forgive her later. She closed her eyes, and drifted off to sweet, sweet silence. Tomorrow she’d apologize.

…

Everyone watched the Scarlet Witch leave in a flurry of tears. Tony felt a wave of guilt for pressuring her to come earlier. He had just wanted them all to have fun, and she had seemed so stressed lately, he thought it would cheer her up. It apparently had the opposite effect. “JARVIS, bring back the music,” Tony muttered into the silence Wanda had left behind. The rest of his friends could still have fun, even if he had to go fix his mistake.

At least, Tony tried to say that, but nothing broke the silence. Tony tried again, but his voice was gone completely. His lips moved uselessly. Now that he thought about it, no one had spoken since Wanda’s shout. He looked around in confusion, meeting fearful gazes from his party guests. The only one who seemed unconcerned was Clint. In fact, he looked confusedly at the distressed expressions surrounding him. “What’s wrong?” Tony read his lips.

“I’m not sure,” he tried, before grabbing his throat in frustration. Tony jerked in surprise when he saw Thor’s sudden movement in his periphery. The god threw a glass at the ground, where it shattered at Tony’s feet. Only, there was no sound to the shatter. It at least verified that something more than Tony’s voice being gone was going on. Had Tony suddenly gone deaf?

Clint watched the glass shattered, and noticed what was happening immediately. Waving his hands around wildly until everyone was looking at him, he addressed the room. ROOM SILENT, CORRECT? He signed, mouthing ‘Am I right in assuming you all hear silence?’ Clint had opted out of his hearing aids for the day, so he hadn’t noticed the unnatural quiet. When everyone looked so concerned and lacked a reaction to the shattered glass, he thought about Wanda’s shout. She must’ve mistakenly cast a spell on everyone there. Chaos magic had been known to do stranger. When everyone nodded in response he continued. W-A-N-D-A CAST SPELL US ACCIDENT, he gestured from the elevator to the group of people. ‘Wanda cast a spell on us. Presumably, by accident.’

Steve agreed. It was the simplest explanation to the sudden deafness they were all experience. He wondered idly how long they all might have spent trying to figure it out if Clint hadn’t been there. Steve wouldn’t even know sign language if he hadn’t learned it for Clint. Clint had laughed at them all when he walked in on JARVIS’ lessons, telling them it was silly. He could read lips well enough, plus when he wore Stark’s improved hearing aid designs, he could hear nearly as well as he used to. Tony had waved Clint away, annoyed. “Just let us try to do something nice, birdbrain!”

Steve smiled at the memory. Well, this debacle could be a good thing, he decided. They could go to Wanda right now and get her to fix it, but Steve had a much better idea. L-E-T-S-W-A-I-T-U-N-T-I-L-M-O-N-D-A-Y-T-O-T-E-L-L-W-A-N-D-A. Steve still hadn’t mastered signing beyond fingerspelling.

Tony rolled his eyes. He made a few hand motions that made a large holographic screen show up and a keyboard at his hands. Steve, it’s Friday, that’s ridiculous. They watched the words appear on the screen. Tony made another motion and pointed to each of them in the room, making keyboards for each of them.

When did you make hand-signal commands for JARVIS? - Bruce typed. His name usefully appeared with a colon before the sentence on the screen. Why had Tony even created this in-person chatroom type thing in the first place?

Tony made a face. It doesn’t matter. Steve, I’m going to fly to Wanda and Vision’s place if you don’t give me a good reason not to in the next five minutes.

Steve: Okay, hear me out. And Clint, tell me if I’m being offensive.

Clint just laughed silently, signing I NOT EASY OFFEND.

Steve looked back to his keyboard. I thought this could be a team building exercise. We could spend the weekend experiencing what deafness is like.

Tony shook his head hurriedly when he saw that the others actually seemed to be contemplating the stupid idea. What, and just hope the Avengers aren’t needed!? Ridiculous

Agent Boring: What, can’t handle a little hurdle like designing a new comm system for this? Coulson smirked, then frowned when he saw his ‘name’ on the screen.

Tony squinted at the man. Oh, you’re all on. Tony made a swiping motion through the air, and all of the interactive holograms disappeared. Tony walked over to stand face to face to Steve. BUT YOU BEST BE READY FOR REAL DEAF EXPERIENCE, he signed. NO TECH HELP UNLESS EMERGENCY. Tony looked far too smug, probably thinking about Steve’s finger-spelling earlier. Only Tony would somehow take a good idea and make it a personal challenge. Steve scowled after him as he left for his lab.

PARTY OVER? Thor signed to whoever was looking.

Clint shrugged. DON’T SEE WHY WE CAN’T KEEP GOING, he grinned, dragging Coulson onto their makeshift dance floor. Clint signed towards the ceiling to turn the music back on. Coulson took his partner’s lead, dancing to the vibrations they could feel despite the silence. The party continued a bit awkwardly after that, everyone unsure of how the weekend would go. Bruce felt a little annoyed that Steve and Tony seemed to make a unilateral decision without anyone else’s input, but who was he to talk? They were the team leaders.

 …

Most of them hadn’t slept well, and Tony not at all. Steve had never realized how much he likes the white noise of the tower when he was going to bed. It had already been difficult at first to adjust to falling asleep in the tower. Steve had still felt used to his tiny brooklyn apartment where he heard all the noise of New York through his thin walls. Stark tower had seemed deafeningly quiet in comparison. Turns out Steve didn’t know quiet at all until now.

Clint waltzed into the kitchen cheerfully. He poured himself a mug of coffee while he took in Steve, Natasha, and Bruce who were already seated there. He couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped his lips. Their tired looks reminded him of when he had first lost his hearing. People didn’t realize that they actually liked some level of noise. True silence could be disconcerting when you weren’t used to it. He had been entirely unable to sleep without his hearing aids in the first night, which his doctor had expressly advised against.

TROUBLE SLEEPING? He signed at them.

Natasha flipped him off while Steve only nodded. Bruce hadn’t seen Clint sign, so he looked back and forth confused by Natasha and Steve’s responses. I MISS SOMETHING? He asked.

Clint made sure the scientist was looking at him this time. I ASK SUPPOSE/WHAT IF YOU HAD TROUBLE SLEEPING?

Bruce had to think through JARVIS’ lessons for a moment to understand what Clint was saying. He remembered that there was one sign that meant either ‘suppose’ or ‘what if’ depending on the context. There were actually a lot of signs that had multiple meanings. There had been a whole lesson on just those signs. Bruce signed YES in response to the question.

T-H-O-R ASLEEP? Steve asked.

Everyone shrugged. Normally JARVIS would’ve answered, but Tony had probably forbidden him from using text to speak to them. Speak of the devil, Tony entered the room ignoring all of them. He went straight to the coffee pot, drained it, then started another. While it was brewing, he turned to face the abnormally crowded kitchen.

No one spoke, and the silence felt suffocating to Steve. He had never noticed how much noise there usually was even when people weren’t talking. He should be hearing the stream of coffee brewing, the breathing sounds of his teammates, the light banter between Natasha and Clint that usually formed, the clinking of mugs being set back down on the counter… Steve was going to have a newfound gratefulness for the tiny sounds when this little exercise was over.

YOU WANT PLAY FIGHT? Steve asked Natasha. He didn’t know if there was a sign for sparring, but he mouthed the words ‘Do you want to spar today?’ He was determined to try out as many of their usual activities as possible while trapped in the silence.

YES, she signed. NOW.

Tony watched them go, walking over to sit next to Bruce. He placed a hand on his best bud’s shoulder, and Bruce nearly fell out of his seat in surprise. He had been staring at the tea in his hands, and hadn’t seen Tony approach. Not hearing things was hard.

‘Sorry,’ Tony formed the word with his lips. Bruce could almost pretend he could hear a voice to accompany the movement, and it made him feel a little better. Tony smiled when some of the clear tension left his friend’s shoulders. Maybe Bruce was more comfortable lip-reading than signing. ‘Want to join me in the lab? I’ll show you my prototype comms.’

Bruce smiled back at Tony. ‘Sure, let’s go.’

Clint watched his teammates all interacting differently with a warm fondness. It was actually kind of a fun idea, and Clint was happy Steve had thought of it. Not that Clint wished deafness on anyone, although he knew plenty of the community preferred it over hearing, but it was kind of nice to see his friends take a walk in the life of perpetual silence. Sure, Clint was only 80% deaf according to his ENT, but those first few weeks after the fight with Crossfire that had damaged his eardrums, he had heard nothing.

Phil came into the kitchen to find his partner smiling to himself around a cup of coffee. Phil hugged the archer, letting Clint tip some of his coffee into Phil’s mouth. He watched Clint carefully, trying to read what the man was thinking about, before he snagged a kiss and pulled away. He began making their usual breakfast. Clint and Phil had found their preferred combination of breakfast foods years ago while stuck in a safehouse together for months, and the two had an unspoken agreement to alternate days making breakfast. Natasha said that the breakfast thing was when they started officially dating, though Clint hadn’t confessed his feelings until three months after that mission.

‘Enjoying the Cap’s little experiment?’ Phil asked wryly. He knew Clint probably found this all immensely amusing.

Clint grinned. Phil always saw through him. ‘I’m more excited to see Tony’s idea for comms. Could be useful for covert missions. But yeah, I may be enjoying their awkwardness just a bit,’ Clint admitted. Hearing people often thought they could imagine life in silence, but they were usually pretty far off. There was just things one never thought about when they didn’t have to. Like he was fairly certain Thor was probably going to sleep well into the day, because the god had probably not thought about his alarm not working. Thor was always a deep sleeper, and depended on the loud blaring to get him up at a reasonable hour.

Phil chuckled knowingly. MORE THAN LITTLE, he signed as they sat to their breakfast.

…

Steve and Natasha were learning a lot. Neither of them had ever noticed that they used their hearing so much to avoid attacks. Both were dodging far less than usual, and it only validated to Steve that this was a good idea. Natasha caught his eye when Steve smiled proudly to himself. ‘Happy with yourself?’ she mouthed, one eyebrow quirked.

Steve nodded, throwing out another jab. ‘I’m learning new things,’ he replied.

Natasha got an opening and flipped Steve onto the mat. WHO PAST-KNOW W-A-N-D-A CHAOS MAGIC ACCIDENTS USEFUL SOMETIMES? She signed.

Steve was happy Natasha could see the merit in the weekend of silence he had thrust upon the team. EXACTLY. Steve stretched, done sparring for the day. He was curious to see how Tony was doing, since the man was easily the loudest personality he knew.

Steve entered his keycode to the lab, seeing Tony immediately. Tony was facing away from the door. Not wanting to startle the genius and get a repulsor blast to the face, he took his phone and flashed his flashlight until Tony noticed.

Tony turned to see the source of light, and was happy to see Steve standing their. He recognized the flashlight for the makeshift warning system it was. THANKS, he signed, ‘for not sneaking up on me.’ He motioned for Steve to come see what he was doing.

Steve walked over to the work table, looking over the engineer’s shoulder. A couple comm units with some weird extension was sitting on the table, black outer shell still removed so the inner workings were visible. It could have been anything as far as Steve could tell, but he was sure it was probably brilliant. Tony screwed the casings back onto the pieces, and handed one to Steve. His facial expression was adorably eager.

‘Like this,’ he mouthed, placing the familiar part of the comm in his ear as usual. Steve could see where the extension went now, and followed Tony’s lead. The comm had an arm that ran around the ear and stopped at the temple, where it was attached to a little white rectangle piece that hung in front of the eyebrow. Tony turned away so Steve was facing the comm unit in his friend’s ear, before making an exaggerated movement to press a small button on the temple. A small screen appeared in front of Tony’s eye, and it reminded Steve vaguely of google glasses.

Steve tried the same, and when Tony mouthed another phrase, instead of Steve needing to read his lips, the words appeared before his eye. The screen was only holographic, and he could still see the outside world beyond the glowing blue words. What do you think? It said.

Steve was blown away. He spun slowly, making sure he could still see the rest of the lab as well as the glowing words. It’s brilliant, Tony. He felt himself speak the words, but there was still no sound. His own words appeared before him in a different font, and it was so perfect. This had so many applications in the field!

Tony removed his comm and Steve’s, beaming at the blond. THANKS, I TRY. he signed proudly.

YOU SUCCEED, Steve responded happily. OTHERS WILL LOVE IT.

Tony nodded in agreement, before signing something to JARVIS. Steve didn’t recognize any of the signs, but he supposed he had never learned any technical terms in sign language because he had no need for them. It wasn’t so different from the usual not being able to understand half of what Tony said. It came with the territory of loving a genius.

JARVIS manufactured the rest of the comms in no time, and Tony brought them to the table at dinner. After being showered in praise, he took them back and put them in a labeled suitcase, explaining that they’d be kept in his lab for missions when they’d be appropriate. Clint met Steve’s eyes. ‘Thank you for this,’ he mouthed across the room. Steve felt himself blush, but he was glad Clint liked their weekend. Silence wasn’t so bad, though he could admit he was impatient for Monday.