#the few words she knew were in asl

[landosjpg]

risk | ln

lando norris x teammate!reader

the one where you find your crush with someone else.

word count: ~1.0k

warnings: just a little bit of angst with happy ending

note: based on this request. i haven’t written anything longer than 500 words in so long so bare with me please, i hope this is good enough :) reader is a driver but it doesn’t play a big role on the story/is only mentioned like once or twice!

you felt anxious, the nerves eating you alive as you lied in the darkness of your hotel room. you knew it was normal, in only a few hours you would be on your way to your first ever home race as a formula 1 driver.

but you also needed sleep, and as hard as you tried, nothing seemed to put your mind at ease, your mind just going back to making up every possible scenario of what would happen as you stepped in the car the very next day. the good, and also the bad.

after hours of tossing and turning around in bed, you desperately sighed: there was only one thing that could help you relax. someone.

cozied up in your pajamas you silently made your way out of your room and walked down the corridor to lando’s room. you knew he was, most likely, still awake despite of the late hour, well aware of his bad sleeping habits.

while most people thought your relationship was merely professional, during the previous months lando and you had grown extremely close to each other. too close, some would say.

countless nights, you had spent hours in each other’s rooms, trying your best not to wake up the whole building with your laughter. and most of those nights had finished with your limbs tangled with his under the thin blankets, whispered conversations and lingering touches lulling you to sleep.

you weren’t sure where your relationship really stood; every time you took a step forward, it seemed like you went back another three the next morning, the few moments of intimacy quickly forgotten as soon as the sun came up.

but he was the only person around who could make you forget about all your worries in just a few minutes, so you knocked on his door, hoping to not wake anyone up.

you heard his voice on the other side of the wall, but you couldn’t quite understand his words. only a few seconds later, the door swung open, a dishevelled lando standing before you.

“hey,” he greeted you in a whisper.

“hey,” you repeated, trying to catch on the undertone of his voice. normally, he would had pulled you inside already.

“i wasn’t expecting you to come.”

“i…” you started explaining, your words cut off by a figure walking out of the bathroom. your eyes widened and you took a step back. “oh my god, sorry. i didn’t know you were… i’m just gonna…” you said, slowly walking back.

you heard lando sigh and close the door as you made your way to your room again, your chest tightening at the realization. You had completely misunderstood your relationship with him, and now you felt stupid.

you crawled under your sheets with a heavy heart, and as much as you tried to think about something else, the image wouldn’t leave your mind.

the soft knock on your door only a few minutes later startled you and still with a blanket wrapped around your body, you made your way to open.

what you hadn’t expected was to find lando in front of you again, leaning against the doorframe.

“can I come in?” he straight up asked, his eyes analyzing your form.

“I thought you were…”

“she just left,” he cut you off, rising his eyebrow as if to ask you again to let him in. you stepped aside, inviting him inside and closing the door behind him.

“i’m really sorry, i didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” your voice was almost a whispered, embarrassed every time the scene played in your mind again.

“you didn’t,” he said, taking a sit on the edge of your bed. “you’ve been crying?”

no,” you quickly lied, shyly drying your cheeks with the back of your hand.

“your eyes are red,” he tried to ignore your gesture, but curiosity got the best of him.

“i’m just tired and can’t fall asleep,” you weren’t fully lying.

“mind if i..?” he mumbled, leaning back on the mattress.

He didn’t have to finish his sentence; you already knew what words followed: mind if i stay the night?

And normally, you would have giggled and told him that he didn’t even have to ask, but this time it felt different.

“i don’t think your girlfriend would like that,” you said before you could even think about your words.

an amused chuckled left his lips, “is that jealousy i hear?”

your cheeks heated up at his question, embarrassment growing inside you. and you couldn’t answer, too scared to mess up again.

“we didn’t do anything,” he explained, a softness in his eyes as he looked at you. “realized I would rather spend my time with someone else.”

your heart skipped a beat at the implications behind his words, silence falling hard between the two of you.

“really?” you finally managed to quietly ask.

he patted the spot next to him on the mattress, silently asking you to join him, “you’re that oblivious, huh?” he chuckled.

slowly, you made your way closer to him, his hands reaching for your body as soon as you were at arm’s length; his hands were hooked at your hips and he pulled you into him, standing in between his legs.

he looked up at you, a sly smile spread on his lips when your hands rested on his shoulders.

“you’re not just saying that, are you?” you questioned again, not completely sure of if he was just playing with you.

“don’t be silly,” he shook his head. “i’m actually crazy about you.”

your fingers found home in his curls, softly running a hand through his hair as your gaze met his, “what does this mean for us then?” your voice came out in a nervous whisper.

“i don’t know,” he answered in the same low tone. “but i’d really love to kiss you right now.”

your breath hitched at the statement, and you only could give him a slight nod of your head before he closed the gap between your lips, freeing you from all the worries that had been tormenting you for hours.

[vidals-harkness]

promises, lies (alice wu-gulliver)

summary: your big sister was everything you had, especially after lorna’s passing. what happens when she breaks the biggest promise she’s been making to you since you were little?

fic type: angst

pairings: alice wu-gulliver x deaf!sister!reader (family)

warnings: angst, mentions of ableism, kids being real bitchy, sadness, feelings of abandonment, major character death (alice), grief, heartbreak

word count: 1.3k

You lived in a world of silence until your third birthday, your third birthday was where you could hear the sound of your sister’s voice, your mother’s songs, the birds outside and the roaring sea.

Yet with the silence gone, it somehow remained. Where others made friends quite quickly, you were turned away from every social setting. Perhaps it was because of the way you spoke, the method of speaking—ASL?

You were six years old, in a new neighbourhood. Summer had just begun and you really wanted to play football with the others outside, since a few kids had invited you at school that day.

Alice, your 16 year old sister, watched as you ran outside excitedly, football in hand, going to the street outside where people played usually.

But nobody came.

You stood there on the empty street, with nothing but wilted lawns and blistering heat occupying you. You kicked the ball a few times, before giving up and sitting down on the curb, holding it in your hands. The shaking of your shoulders showed that you were crying, and it was an instant reaction from Alice to rush outside and tap your shoulder for your attention.

She put out her hand and smiled, helping you up.

“Play with me,” she signed to you, speaking at the same time. “You don’t need those kids, they’re probably really bad at football,”

You sniffled and nodded, feeling her thumbs brush over your cheeks, wiping your tears.

“We put the tears away, yes?” She asked, smiling down at you, making you grin.

You both spent the afternoon like that—playing football together in the empty street with nothing but wilted lawns and blistering heat to spectate.

A year later you came home angry, holding a pair of broken hearing aids in your hands.

“What happened?” Alice asked, tapping your head for your attention.

“Bullies,” You signed back, frowning.

The very next day, the same boys produced a new pair of hearing aids for you, sporting black eyes and busted lips.

The day was bleak—Lorna was dead. You knew she had died, but to keep you from spiralling, Alice tapped your shoulder and knelt to your height.

Her own eyes shining with unshed tears, she signed, smiling through it, “Let’s go for ice cream?”

You brightened and nodded, going to her car excitedly, sitting in the front seat.

“Britney?” She signed, grinning at you, making you nod.

So she turned on the radio, shouting off-key lyrics with you as she just drove, drove, drove.

Where trouble threatened to lay a hand on you, Alice fought it away. She was the one between you and the world. She was the one who kissed the scraped knees, the one who held your hand through everything. She never left your side, not once, for your whole life.

The Thursday evening was stressful for her. She had gotten fired again, and it was not any consolation that she’d been almost recruited in the infamous Agatha Harkness’ coven.

“Hi, Trouble,” she signed after tapping on your head, smiling.

“Hi,” you smiled and signed back, giggling as she tickled your sides gently.

You watched how her demeanour was sagging, and how she looked ready to cry.

“You’re okay?” You asked, head tilted. “Need something?”

She thought for a moment before nodding. “Hug me?”

You nodded with agreement, and did just that, squeezing her tightly as she hugged you, inhaling her pumpkin spice perfume, tucking your nose into her neck.

When she pulled back, she sighed and sat down in front of you, her eyes closed for a moment as if she was composing herself.

“Y/n,” she signed, speaking at the same time. “I have to leave for some time,”

Your eyes widened. “Leave? For how much time?”

“A week at most,” she admitted. “Maybe more, I’m not sure,”

You scowled, “Can I not come?”

She shook her head. “It wouldn’t be a good idea,”

“Why? Because of me being deaf?”

“I didn’t say that,”

She sighed. She knew this would be a hard conversation.

"Listen," she said. "If I go on this road, I can help you get your hearing back,"

That wasn't entirely true--what she wanted out of the road was answers, not solutions. But how else was she to convince her little sister that she had to go on this journey, like it or not?

You nodded slowly. "Is it full of danger?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Full of it,"

You nodded slowly, possibilities rushing through your head as she waited for your response.

"You're leaving me," you concluded. "But you promise to come back?"

She smiled and nodded holding up her pinky. "I promise,"

As you linked your fingers, she leaned forward to press a kiss to the knuckles, 'sealing' the promise.

And so you waited for her return, day in, day out, wondering where she was, how she was, what she was doing.

You were always in awe of your older sister. It was a fact. But one night, you had a dream--a flash of orange and purple, the sight of a bony face. Death.

Before you could think of anything, you grabbed your shoes and ran, your body tingling, your mSind heavy with the weight of something unfamiliar. You stumbled and tripped through the darkness, caring little about the branches in your face and hair.

On the Road, as Alice fell to the ground, you felt pain--white hot pain coursing through your veins, igniting your body with every passing second, making an agonised scream rip through your throat.

She appeared when you cried, when there was a river of sorrow, of grief, spilling down your cheeks.

Rio knelt, her hands in full view as she signed and spoke. "I'm sorry,"

"Sorry?" You signed shakily. "Sorry means nothing from you,"

She didn't flinch, didn't wince. While you weren't the first mortal to say this to her, it stung because there was the underlying tone of a broken promise.

"You took her from me!" You signed, sobbing. "She was my everything, and you took her!"

"It was her time," she replied simply.

"Flip the hourglass," you scowled. "Have you no mercy?"

"I showed mercy when I took her away,"

"You're a creature who is evil, evil and incapable of mercy,"

She looked down. As she had taken Alice to the afterlife, she was rambling over and over, "I promised, I promised, I promised,"

"She promised," you said, signing with trembling hands. "She promised she would come back, she wouldn't leave like this!"

"She died protecting someone--" she began but you gripped her hands tightly--the deaf equivalent to silencing someone.

"She died protecting someone? Someone she'd known only a few days? What about me? She was only supposed to protect me, I'm her sister!" You exclaimed, angry. "Why did she abandon me for someone she doesn't know?!"

Rio pulled you into her arms, nodding, able to feel your pain. It was nothing she hadn't seen before--only that two words made things worse.

She promised.

Promises were like the breeze--there one day, gone the next. But this promise bore the weight of a sunken ship, of a home burnt to the ground, of a bullet to the heart. Your pain was burning, it was bubbling, it was demanding to be felt in the worst possible way.

Because she promised.

You beat at Rio's chest with your fists, exclaiming curses and hateful words. You pushed at her, kicked at her, tried to do something, but her hold was heavy. Her arms were tight, and you couldn't escape it. But when she put her chin atop your head, the way Alice used to do, you broke--the tears not stopping, sobs making your throat go hoarse.

Your mind flashed with images, of her laughing, of her smiling. You thought of that summer afternoon, kicking around a ball and talking about the neighbourhood kids. You thought of the time you tried baking a cake on mother's day, only to make a pit stop at the baker's on your way to get flowers. You remembered the boys with their black eyes and the new hearing aids, you remembered all the times in the past, the good, the bad, the ugly.

There was always one thing in common--when everyone left, Alice always stayed. That was the fact.

But sometimes things change, people die, promises break.

You just wished it wasn't this one.

just a little idea i had :> i hope you liked it! let me know if it was good!

love, jaya

[lamentationsofalonelypotato]

Chapter 5: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Pairing: Soldier Boy x f!reader, Reader POV

Summary: When the reader left Payback 40 years ago after a falling out with her childhood best friend she never looked back, but when two men show up to her apartment and start asking her questions about the past, the reader begins to think those things can’t stay hidden and starts to question what’s real and what’s fantasy.  This is a re-telling of The Boys Season 3, where the reader is a supe who's known Soldier Boy since 1927. The chapters will fluctuate between past and present. This is chapter five of my "You Call It Madness But I Call It Love" series. (I'm so bad at summaries please forgive me!)

Word Count: 2.5K

Warnings: References to sex, Cursing (a few times), Drinking, Drug Use, Soldier Boy might be, is, really, absolutely, a little OOC, Possible spoilers for season three.

Note: This is told from Reader's perspective. Any references to the reader is made using you or your. There is minimal use of y/n. I tried my best to proofread, but nobody's perfect. Reader is described as "curvy" occasionally. If you don’t like, don’t read, but if you do like, you’re my favorite!

Internal Monologue is in first person and is in italics

Main Masterlist

Series Masterlist

Present Day

"Hey'ya Kitten!" Legend smiles wide when he opens the front door of his apartment. "Where have you been baby? How's retirement?" He leans forward for a kiss and you turn your cheek to the side.

Always the flirt.

"Exciting. Is it alright if I come in?"

"Of course! I always have time for my favorite hero." He ushers you into his home.

It was one day after Agent Butcher and Hughie had dropped by your apartment looking for information on Soldier Boy. One sleepless night later you realized that the only way you were going to find Countess was through Legend. And despite his flirtatious attitude, you liked your former handler.

The apartment looks the same as it always has. Memorabilia from what he thought was the good old days hangs on the walls, a black leather couch sags in the center of the living room, and a red faded high backed armchair stands in the corner like a silent guardian. The smell of old cologne, pot, and alcohol soaks through the air and into your nose as you turn to examine the inhabitant.

Legend looks decidedly older. Sometimes you forgot that you didn't age the same way other people did, but then you'd meet someone from the past and it would remind you all over again. He's wearing the same smoking jacket with patched elbows, sunglasses, and ascot, that you saw him wearing over ten years ago. But Legend was classic.

"You hurt my feelings by not calling." He breezes having a seat on one of the couches, and fluffing more of the offensive smell through your nose, but you don't make a face. "What's it been ten years?"

"Something like that." You smile tightly and sit down on the armchair.

It wasn't that you didn't like seeing Legend. He might have been a crazy son of a bitch, but he was a good handler. He knew everything about everyone and he helped you get through Ben's death, not to mention he helped you create your new life when you broke away from Payback.

"You want some?" Legend holds out a mirror where a single white line of cocaine sits. "Or are you still sober?"

"I never did cocaine. And yeah, I'm still trying to stay on the wagon."

"Don't know how you do it."

"Me either." You say it partly to yourself, because it was true. You didn't know how you got through the past 40 years without a drink. Before, it wasn't that you partied as hard as Ben or the others did. It was more the drinking than drugs you imbibed in. Yes, you'd smoked the occasional blunt, but you didn't want to lose control if you tried anything stronger. You didn't like losing control, you prided yourself on keeping it together.

Ben had lost control more than once, and each time he'd show up at your apartment just like he had when he was a kid and he was hiding from his father, falling asleep beside you like nothing had changed. You never understood how he could be so vulnerable when it was just the two of you, but when he was in public he was different. Sometimes you hated that, because in those quiet moments you saw the boy you fell in love with, but when you were out in public you saw the man he became.

You remember all the times he lost control. The worst was when he threw a car through a house when trying to stop some kids in the street and killed an older man. Ben hadn't gone to the funeral, but you had. You sat on the back pew and watched the family mourn. Only a little boy in the front row had noticed you, and you had offered a kind smile, before walking back through the streets and leaving an envelope of cash in the family's mailbox. You knew the money couldn't replace the person they lost, but you couldn't think of anything else to do.

"So, are you here because you want to come out of retirement?" Legend snorts the line on the mirror without looking up. "Might be a good thing."

You laugh to yourself. "I like retirement too much to go back to Vought. Too wild out there nowadays with the supervillains and all that Compound V bullshit." You lean back in the armchair, crossing your legs in front of you.

"I could make you a star!" He looks up at you. "You're still as sexy as ever."

"And you're still a dirty old man." You tease, rolling your eyes at him and earning a chortle from Legend.  "I don't think my powers are cutesy enough for television. I’m not like Starlight.” You snort thinking about the current blonde member of The Seven that had become America’s Sweetheart, a title that you were happy you never wore.

"Who said anything about your powers babe? It's all about the body."

"Legend-"

"Fine, fine." He shakes his head. "I saw your last art show, very nice. Bought something for the country house."

"That's very kind of you." You smile with pride. Your last show had been a series you titled "Moods of the Forest," which meant that you had camped out under the stars for a solid month up North drinking in the silence of the woods. It was a nice way for you to clear your head and catch up on your reading, but it had done little to ease the thoughts of the past. "Those were some of my favorites. It was hard to part with them."

"You're very talented." He compliments.

"Thank You. I'd hope so. I've been painting for almost 90 years." Your memory flashes back to when Ben gave you paint for your birthday and the months that followed as you practiced. All the days you spent painting in the park and along the streets of Philadelphia, sometimes with Ben following behind and teasing you, but you knew he loved how much you were painting, loved how much you enjoyed the gift. The happiness and warmth of the memories is doused by a bucket of cold water as you remember the last time you saw him. The echo of the last words you spoke to him and the words he shouted at you ringing in your ears.

The chill sobers you and makes you remember why you were here talking to Legend.

"I have something important to ask you." You look up at Legend. "Do you know where Crimson Countess is?"

Legend doesn't answer immediately. The spike of his pulse with the mention of Countess' name is loud in your ears. "Did you want a scotch? I think I need one." He avoids your gaze.

"Legend-"

He stands from the couch and moves over to the table in the corner that has a collection of multicolored bottles that you wish you could drink from, but you restrain yourself. You hear the sound of the glass being poured and as he turns he takes a sip as if rousing the courage to tell you.

"Y/n if this is you finally going after her, now might not be the best time." He swirls the glass in his hand, the amber liquid sloshing against the sides. "I thought you were past all that-"

"It's not like that I-“  Your lips press together in a tight line, considering your next words. "Some men came to my apartment the other day looking for me. They were asking me about Ben."

"You told them you were dead right? The story we came up with?" Legend looks worried.

"Yeah. Don't think they bought it." You shrug.

"Did they give you their names?"

"They said they were with the CIA. Agent Butcher and a guy named Hughie-"

"Butcher? Dark hair, British accent, asshole?" Legend's glass pauses half-way to his mouth.

"Yeah. How did you-"

Legend sighs. "He used to be with the CIA, was on a task force that was used to hunt down supes. I helped them find a few over the years."

"Hunt them down?"

"Butcher's got a bone to pick with supes. Homelander especially." Legend sits back on the couch nursing his scotch.

At the mention of Vought’s most popular hero you pause. You didn’t know too much about Homelander, just that he emerged as Vought’s Golden Boy a few years after Ben died and he was supposed to be indestructible. You wondered if he was as indestructible as you.

“Homelander?”

“Did something to his wife.” Legend waves a hand like it doesn’t matter. "But they were asking you about Soldier Boy?"

"Yeah, they wanted to know about the relationship I had with him and how he died-" You foot taps against the ground, fighting the urge to pour yourself a drink.

Legend looks worried. "Maybe you should get out of town for a few days-"

"What?"

Can Butcher really be that dangerous? He didn't seem like much the other day and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be able to handle me. Most supes couldn't.

"Not because of Butcher, he's a dick, but I mean everything with Soldier Boy." Legend takes a sip from the glass. "If you start thinking about him again, you're going to be in the same place you were last time."

Deep down you know he's right, ever since Butcher and Hughie showed up on your doorstep, Ben was all you thought about. The hole you dug yourself into when you and Ben fought and then he died was deep and dark, and it was already beginning to open under your feet.

You didn’t know if talking to Countess would help close it, but maybe you needed closure, maybe you needed to hear it from her how he died. The last thing you wanted was to go to Stan Edgar. He'd already shown up once, but you thought you had convinced him with your story. Occasionally he would show up to one of your art shows, browsing through the canvases, and asking you about the inspiration of them. You never liked when he showed up in your life, because after all these years he hadn't changed, he was still a snake obsessed with power and being on top.

"I know." You sigh, clutching your hands together in your lap. "But I want to talk to her. Maybe it's time. There was always something that unsettled me about how Ben died and she's the one who saw it. Plus Noir isn’t very talkative these days, Gunpowder is dead, and I’d rather drink cyanide than listen to those two TNT idiots.”

Learning that Gunpowder was dead was a shock. You'd lost contact with him, but you thought it was suspicious that he died so soon before Butcher and Hughie came to see you. You knew that Gunpowder was still doing his rounds in the gun expos and conventions, boasting about the good all days and preaching about the dangers of gun control.

It was ironic for him to be against it when you'd personally seen him kill several people who pissed him off and for no good reason.

If anything he shouldn't be allowed near a gun.

When you knew him he was still a kid, but even then he was already adopting the ridiculous macho attitude that Ben had.

Must have stuck.

"I still don’t think it's a good idea." Legend finishes his glass of Scotch. "But let me find it.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me kitten. I don't think I'm doing you a favor." He grunts moving through the apartment, while your eyes trace the photos. Several of them were of Ben at movie premieres, another showed the whole Payback team, and finally just Ben and Legend. He was wearing his ridiculous helmet, the one you used to tease him about. You always thought it was a shame that they covered up his handsome face.

You had a box of photos under your bed that held similar images, but most of yours were of Ben and you not wearing your supe suits. The ones from your childhood needed to be handled with care, but you enjoyed looking at them, before you saw the hardness in Ben's eyes and the set of his jaw. Those early photos showed you the boy you fell in love with.

"Here." He hands you a slip of paper that holds his untidy scrawl as you stand from the chair.

"Thank you." You turn to go, but stop. "Should I be worried about Butcher?"

"I'd stay out of his way. He kills supes for fun."

"But if Ben's already dead then what does he want?"

Legend shrugs. "Can't be good."

"Great."

"Just be careful." Legend puts his hand on your shoulder. "I know that everything that happened with Soldier Boy really threw you-"

"I know. But I have to know. I have to hear what she has to say." You sigh looking up at him. It touched your heart that he cared so much. Legend never got close to his clients in the past, but for some reason he was always more willing to help you. It was him that talked you out of the hole when Ben died.

"Okay."

"It was good to see you. Take care of yourself." You try not to see the weariness in his eyes, the way the wrinkles have grown and stretched over the years, how the gray of his hair has spread. One listen with your supe hearing meant that you could hear his blood pumping through his veins, but it wasn’t at the same vigor as it once was. It was difficult to see age on the people you knew, the day that you and Ben both figured out that you weren't aging anymore had been bittersweet. You were happy that Ben wouldn’t die either, but it meant you’d lose your family. However, Ben’s inability to age meant that you weren't alone.

You frown to yourself. Sometimes you’d thought that meant something, that the universe finally threw you a bone and it was some cosmic sign that you and Ben were supposed to be together-

What a crock of shit.

But despite his death the past few years you hadn't been alone even though you had expected it.

"Good to see you too kitten. Don't be a stranger."

When you finally make it to the street below, you kick your leg over your motorcycle, but pause.

I could just go home and work on my pieces for my next show. Go home and pretend those men never showed up and forget all about Ben. The guilt and anger that rises with his name is familiar, but you brush it away. This might be the only chance I have of finding out what happened to him. You think about Countess and the scrap of paper in your pocket. But it won't be easy.

Thank you so much for reading! Likes and reblogs are always appreciated, but not required. Please let me know if you'd like to be added to the taglist for this series :)

Taglist: @roseblue373 @anundyingfidelity @cheynovak @cassiecasluciluce @muhahaha303

@deans-spinster-witch @kayleighmeister

[steddieas-shegoes]

Request:hard of hearing Steve who realizes that the party are doing their best to accommodate him by learning ASL, using subtitles, etc and he is overwhelmed with joy about that bc nobody else seems to be doing it. Robin, Jonathan, Nancy, Eddie, Argyle & Wayne go to ASL classes with Steve. And just being supported the whole time

MY LOVE! This one's a bit on the shorter side because the struggle is real with words today. I still feel like it gets the emotions across that Steve feels about the party loving him and supporting him, which is what's most important. That post-vacation depression is hitting me so so hard. Enjoy! - Mickala ❤️

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The hearing in his left ear went first. It wasn’t a slow and steady loss of hearing so much as one day he could hear fine, the next sounded like water was blocking it, and the next he couldn’t hear at all.

No doctor could explain what happened, and they’d assumed it was just a delayed reaction to the head trauma he’s experienced.

They recommended he prepare for hearing loss in his other ear.

They said it so casually, like it was fine and something easy to handle. Like he wasn’t panicking at the fact that he wouldn’t be able to hear anything.

He started learning sign language, late nights sitting with Robin as she worked through VHS tapes from the library with him and Eddie.

He didn’t tell anyone else at first, didn’t want to scare them or make them feel like they had to treat him differently.

But they noticed.

They saw the way he turned a certain way when they were talking, leaning his head subtly so his right ear was facing towards conversations.

They saw his hands moving in fluid patterns when he thought they weren’t looking. El was the one who pointed it out, her own limited experience with sign language just enough to figure out he was practicing basic sentences.

They saw how he kept touching his left ear, like if he touched it, maybe his hearing would come back.

So they went to Robin, all of them, begging her to teach them sign language, begging her to keep it a secret from him.

But even Robin didn’t really know much, and all she knew was self taught, so they struggled after a few lessons.

Eventually, Steve had to tell them.

He could tell some of his hearing in his right ear was going, though at least it was happening much slower.

He sat them all down, Eddie next to him holding his hand, Robin on the other side with an unreadable expression on her face.

And when they all already knew, he felt Eddie squeeze his hand, felt tears run down his cheeks without his permission as everyone surrounded him in a group hug.

Within a week, they all signed up for ASL classes in Indy, Eddie and Nancy driving everyone, everyone chipping in for gas even though Eddie offered to pay for it.

As if that wasn’t overwhelming enough, knowing his chosen family all loved him enough to learn an entire language just to be able to communicate with him, they all started figuring out subtitles for movie nights.

Dustin, Eddie, and Jeff figured out a system that let Steve feel the actual note changes of Eddie’s guitar instead of just the same vibrations through the whole song.

They kept a whiteboard in every room, called it Steve Sharades (“for the alliteration!”), and used it as a message board when they weren’t sure of the signs for certain words or phrases.

He was thankful for that when he woke up one morning to near silence.

Just a slight buzzing in his right ear.

When Eddie said good morning, he only knew because he read his lips.

He cried, he felt lost, scared, alone.

But only for a little while.

His family had been preparing for this, had taught themselves how to still give Steve as much of “normal” as they could.

That night was dinner with Wayne, who had been warned about this possibly happening, and probably got a warning from Eddie while Steve was in the shower earlier.

When they arrived at his trailer, he pulled Steve into a hug, arms tightening until he could barely breathe.

He could feel Wayne’s heartbeat against his chest, felt ihs hands on his back, wide and strong, holding him together.

When he pulled away, he started signing as he spoke so Steve could read his hands or his lips.

All okay, son?

Steve sobbed, but nodded.

Wayne had learned sign language, too.

Steve turned to Eddie to hug him, knew he was the one responsible for teaching Wayne secretly.

Steve told them both he loved them, showed them in every way he could, too.

Just like they showed him.

[taro-pdf]

Humans are Space Oddities: Humanity, Diplomacy, and Disability in Space

---

“Has the translator arrived yet?” 

“Yes Ser, she’s sanitizing her clothing and then will go straight to the docking bay.”

“Good, make sure she’s on time. Ser Hei is here in three hours, and we can’t have anything going wrong.” The captain paced up and down the command room of the Yenna. The space fae, Hei, was coming for a diplomatic discussion about setting up a trade route through xir solar system. If this talk didn’t go well, their ship may very well not make it back. 

---

Three hours later, exactly on time, the dock bay doors opened with a hiss, and a short humanoid figure with brown skin and wild, weightless locs walked through. So this was Hei. Xir reputation preceded xir, and there was not another being so powerful within 1,000 light years. The captain hurriedly stepped forward, only to fall back as xi bared xir teeth towards them, then spoke in a foreign language.

“Uh,” they looked confusedly at the translator. Though translators would work in Hei’s tongue, xi preferred to hear xir own language, and who were they to deny xir?

“I don’t take kindly to your advances. I brought my beings, and will not have you within two meters of them,” she supplied. Behind Hei, a tall being ducked under the door, glowing faintly—a light alien. Holding to xir robe entered a female human with loose brown hair, wearing human attire: a T-shirt and shorts.

“Greetings Mg. Captain,” said the light alien. Then to Hei, “what a nice ship this is.” Hei smiled warmly, then dropped xir expression as xi turned toward the captain again.

“Guang and Fern will be exploring your ship as we talk.”

“Of course, Ser Hei, they will not be bothered. Now, shall we move to the conference room?”

---

While Hei went to discuss politics, the tall being and human went sightseeing. Guang reached out a hand to brush dust off the top of a parked ship. It preferred to keep things tidy, but few were tall enough to see the dust that it could. When it looked down, Fern was gone.

---

Kell was a human technician aboard the Yenna, a spacecraft specialized in human recreational transport. They knew most of the crew on board, and this one wasn’t one of them. She was obviously distressed, pacing up and down the narrow corridor and wringing her hands. 

Kell opened their watch to link their translator to the hers, but no connection appeared. Looking again, she wasn’t wearing any watch. Since Kell was deaf, they only signed. While they could read and write UIPL, it wouldn’t help if the human had nothing to read it on. But the person needed help now, so Kell decided to try ASL.

Hello, I’m K-E-L-L, Kell, they signed slowly. You, they pointed at her, OK? They connected their pointer and thumb in the universal non-ASLsymbol. Or the french chef hand sign among some groups of humans.

She was not facing them head on, but she apparently caught what they said. She started to hit her hands together, one in a thumbs up and one flat in a repeating: Help! 

Ok! Don’t worry, I’ll help you. Kell reached out to calm her frantic signing, but she flinched away.

As they drew back, vibrations distracted them; something large was approaching. They braced themselves and turned toward the corner, from which a dim light was gradually growing. The being that appeared was talking. Its words scrolled across Kell’s glasses in a live transcription.

“Fern, thank goodness!” The tension left Guang’s body as it saw her, but she didn’t stop signing help. “It will be ok. This will pass and we will rest and go back home.” 

Turning to Kell, it asked, “do you have a room where the lights can be a dim purple? With a speaker for music? I’m her guardian, Guang, it/its, light alien.”

Thankfully, this alien had a watch.

Kell, they/them, human. I don’t speak, so I’ll text. I can take you somewhere, Kell texted back.

“Alright, one moment.” Guang turned to the human, speaking to her in a low voice but never touching her. Then to Kell it said, “let’s go slowly.”

Kell led the tall alien, and it in turn led the human, who held onto its robe. Once safely in the room, Guang adjusted the lighting and thanked Kell for their assistance. It asked for their contact code, which Kell gave. Though they hoped that it was not going to report them for making the human cry. It didn’t seem the type, but Kell hadn’t seen its species before, so couldn’t read its body language. Guang thanked them for their help once more and closed the door.

---

The captain sank into their chair. The talk went fine—no one died, thank god—but afterwards… they lost about ten years of their lifespan in stress.

It started with Hei suddenly standing in the middle of a sentence, eyes looking through the left wall, hands clenched. The gravity in the room doubled with the weight of xir emotion.

“Ser Hei, what may I do for you?” the captain gasped out, glancing between Hei and the wall.

“I’ll be leaving in two hours. Prepare my ship.” Hei swept out of the room, not waiting for an answer.

“Of course, Ser,” they inhaled deeply, able to breath again. They ordered the preparations be made and hurried to the control room to see where Hei had gone and what needed to be done in order to avoid damages. 

To their surprise, camera footage showed Hei sitting in a dimly lit room, mouth moving in quiet song. Besides xir sat xir partner, the light alien, and in between them, rocking back and forth, their human. After two hours, her rocking slowed and the trio stood. Hei cloaked them in darkness as they walked back towards the docking bay.

The captain and interpreter were there when Hei arrived. Briefly stepping out of the shadows, Hei addressed them.

“Your request is not granted. We will be keeping our solar system quiet. Travel may pass within five light years of my sun, but any closer and you shall not be seeing that ship again.” 

The captain flinched at the electricity that crackled in the air. What was it that bothered Hei so? What happened with the human? Why was Hei sparing them if they did something wrong? They didn’t risk asking, and the fae, light alien, and human left without another word.

---

Working on a panel of wires, Kell clicked their tongue to the rhythm of their music’s vibrations. It was rare to come across another disabled human in space, and even rarer that that human had real support. How lucky Fern was, and how excited Kell was for the invitation that Guang had promised to send to them. A human who they could connect with, and a chance to visit the planet of a space fae? Few could say they’ve had the honor.

---

For your information:

Mg. is short for Mage, and is a gender neutral title for Mister or Miss. Idea courtesy of @apolloendymion (link). Ser is a gender neutral title for Sir or Miss.

As for language, unless otherwise specialized, communication is in the Universal Interplanetary Language (UIPL), the language of trade and international politics. 

Hei uses it/its (UIPL) and xi/xir (birth tounge) pronouns. It prefers it's birth tounge and beings often default to what it wants, which is why the captain uses xi/xir pronouns even when speaking UIPL.

[floydsglasses]

𝘼 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝘼 𝙔𝙚𝙡𝙡 - Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (A Quiet Place AU)

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x AFAB OC/ Valerie

SUMMARY: Society has fallen to ruin's where silence is key to survival in a world where most humans have been killed by blind but noise-sensitive creatures. Two unlikely survivors come across each and agree to stick together.

Tag's: Mention of blood/wounds, post apocalyptic setting, use of ASL, Alien creatures. Stranger's to Lover's, Angst, Swearing, Fluff, inacurate first aid, No Use of Y/N A/N: First Story on tumblr, I hope that I did this right and hopefully I didnt mess thing's up too much

WORD COUNT: 7,731

⏁⏁⏁

SOUND. What once was so common is now almost extinct as the human race. The birds no longer flew in the sky, car alarms didn't blast loudly with a touch of a button, soft chatter’s from conversation now replaced with howling of the wind. Everything before was so simple, it was so easy, she didn't have to worry about the sound of leaves crunching under her feet, closing a door too hard, letting out a breath too hard. Now one wrong move in this world, a person’s life is gone in less than a whisper.

Her hand’s trailed over the isles of abandoned goods, she used to love going to the supermarket, seeing people and having a nice conversation with the cashier, kind smile’s.

Now a trip into town is so dreaded, the world is so quiet and it’s almost insufferable to her. Though she would much rather prefer the silence of the world then the harsh darkness of death from the predator's who now ruled the world.

She looks down at her grocery list, written on the back of the brochure for a navel bar, The Hard Deck. Before day 1 of the end of the world, she worked at a cafeteria in a nursing home, after rough day’s she would sometime’s sit at the bar with a bottle of beer. At the moment she much preferred the sound of the man she could catch glimpses of the few night’s playing 60’s tune’s on the piano. She assumed anyone she once knew is gone now.

She slide’s the can of food into her messenger bag, making sure not to stock up too much on the cans, learning the hard way that too much noise will attract the monsters.

Her bare feet smack the ground of the white tiled floor as she turned onto the next aisle.

Food rations were running low for her, and it didn't help that nowhere was safe enough for her. Walking around a desolate San Diego without shoe’s also wasn't ideal. Pain killers, she thought .

A few weeks ago she tripped on the sidewalk, skidding her knee and thigh, not something she would recommend handling without pain killers.

The snap of glass pulls her out of her thought’s. The hair on her arm stood to attention as her heart pounded in her rib cage, eye’s widened fearfully. Her hand grazed her knife holster, gripping the ebony handle. She had never handled a weapon for the purpose of hurting another human, not before this new world began.

Her breath shake’s as she lightly step’s around the corner. Unsheathing the blade from her waist. Monster’s were not the only threat in the world, the people, rumors at least swirled of groups of people calling themselve’s Bandits ruled parts of the city. She had not ventured that far, she was hell bent on finding somewhere away from the city, anywhere that was safe.

She huffed, swinging her blade as she rounded the aisle corner. She panted, her head darting in each direction. All that remained were leaves blown in from the broken front door, a few item’s laid on the ground.

She shook her head. Paranoia much. She rolled her eye’s, putting her knife back into its holster. You know you are totally crazy. Her bare feet turned on the edge to go back to her original isle.

Her arm’s smack into a metal stand, it began to fall to the floor. She gasped quickly trying to stop its descent. Its pamphlet’s crashed with metallic bang. Her eyes widened in horror as her heart raced, blood drained from her face.

Oh God, she panicked. Roar’s in the distance began to cry out at the sound. She stood frozen in fear, panting as she desperately fought against her sense telling to hide.

She let out a gasp as she was brought to the floor. She expected to be met with darkness, her eye’s closed tight awaiting the pain from the sharp talon’s of the creature’s that ruled the quiet world.

Shhh. A voice whispered next to her ear, their hot breath sending shivers down her spine. Her heart pounded. Her back was held closely to something..someone.

Her arm’s radiated with warmth, mostly from fear. Could the stranger be holding her back so they can save their own skin, or did they have something else in mind.

No time can pass in her mind as clicking began to fill the supermarket. Footsteps heavy on the tile, a hissing sound filled the air. The stranger behind her shuddered at the sound’s, the two of them both equally fearful.

Click Click.

They sounded. The dark silhouette casted on the ceiling above them on the white bar’s. The stranger’s hand clamped over her mouth as her panting grew erratic, she stood still not daring to move, even with the tight grip around her body from the stranger.

The click’s began to get closer to them, the footsteps heavier with each step. Their dark gray skin tight as their gorilla like movement helps them traipse across the tile. Their flower-like head’s turn slowly in each direction. She guessed they were looking for any sound.

She gulped as she held her breath, restricting her air. Hoping it will limit any sound she may be making, even with the help of the person holding her. She was sure that she was louder then what she may be stopping.

On her spine, a light thump was against her back. Rhythmically repeating at a rapid pace, similar to her own.

The creature’s head twitched with each click from its mouth, searching for her. Its heavy footsteps thudded against the ground as it walked on all fours.

A single tear trailed down her cheek, the heat from the stranger’s hand made the pool of sweat on her forehead fall. With a final twitch of its head, it let out an inhuman, ear piercing roar. A swift move the monster ran out of the supermarket.

A sigh of relief left her lip’s. The calloused hand left her mouth, her shoulders relaxed briefly. Her eyes widened, she reached for the holster that held her knife. A tight grip on wrist stopped her. From the size of his hand, she could tell he was a man, one who worked with his hand’s from the vein’s that popped.

He held on tightly onto her wrist as he got to his feet. Her heartbeat had not stopped racing, adrenaline pumped through her veins. She snapped her head, she had been ready to throw insult’s in, her head at least.

She looked the man up and down. His dirty blonde hair, messy and short. His dark brown eyes scanned her, maybe he saw her as a threat. Though he clearly had a chance of overpowering her. Above his chapped lips laid a thin line of facial hair, she wondered how long it took him to grow it.

He released her hand, putting his hand’s up in surrender. “Who are you?” She signed to him frantically, he blinked at her panicked state. He shook his head.

“I'm not gonna hurt you.” He reassured her she scrunched her nose up.

“Did you follow me?” She signed slowly. He shook his head.

“I was here before you.” The man stated in sign. “Bullshit!” She signed, her brows furrowed in anger.

“I swear.” He swore. In their silent world, she was thankful that she had taken the time prior to learning ASL. She wouldn't have thought it would be useful in a post apocalyptic setting.

Her shoulders relaxed, her jaw remained clinched. “Listen, to me please.” He pleaded with her, she crossed her arms.

He bent down on his knees leaning over grabbing a blue and yellow pamphlet, the world's map of San Diego written in a white font.

He began to carefully unfold it, placing objects on the corner to keep it straightened out. He looks up at her. “Marker?” He signed.

She furrowed her brow, she shook her head no. “What are you doing?” She signed to the stranger.

“Showing you something.” He signed, he looked around at the old store, smirking. He lightly stepped across the tiled floor.

She noted the duct tape on his boot’s, tear’s and rip’s in the leather in each curve, she supposed he had placed the tape to absorb the sound, she hadnt even thought about it.

Beginning to make mark’s on the map, taking pauses to think. His lip’s formed a thin line, he looked at her.

“You see that?” He signed, she shook her head.

“The Circle’s?” She signed to him, even in sign language he could detect the sarcasm she laid on. He gesture’s with two finger’s for her to get down to his level. She bends down to her knees, getting a closer look.

“You see it now?” He signed, she shook her head. He gently grabbed her hand, using his index finger pointing to the center. A green and beige island in the ocean, half a mile from the North Island docks. Her brows furrowed.

“What is that?” She signed. He blinked. “Island, not far from the bay, safe.” He says in sign language, she shook her head.

“Nowhere is safe.” She says.

“You don't know that.” He says, he motioned in frustration. “And you do?” She pointed out.

“Come with me.” He signed, she shook her head at his offer. “No, I don't know you.” She says.

“So..we can help each other.” He tells her, she shook her head in disbelief.

“I don't need your help.” She reassured him, she had gotten pretty far into the two year’s they have been in the apocalypse. His jaw dropped slack.

“You sure?” He challenged, and she nodded her head.

“Look, I can see you don't trust me.” He signed, she shrugged in agreement.

“But If you want to not live in fear of making a noise.” He paused with his hand’s up, he breathed out quietly. Her heart skipped a beat, looking at the brown eye’s of the stranger.

“Then come with me and see if it’s true.” He says.

She crossed her arms over her chest. She eyed the broken object’s on each side of the isle’s. The man in front of her offered her safety, and it had been so long since she last talked with another human being. He had saved her from being alien bait.

“Okay.” She signed to him. He breathed in relief at agreeance.

“One condition.” She state’s, he nodded his head.

“If it turns out to be fake.” She start’s. His gaze on her softened.

“We go our separate ways.” She sign’s, he nods his head.

“Deal.” He signed. The both of them got to their feet, he shuffled, folding up the map and stuffing it away. She lightly picked up her fallen backpack, she still needed supplies.

His brown eyes watched her. Before the alien had crashed in he had caught glimpses of her through the broken shelves. Her hair tucked into a beanie, a windbreaker jacket and jeans, no shoes though. Her own survival tactic he guessed, she seemed focused on her objective of getting what she needed.

“What’s your name?” He ask’s her, she gulps hesitating. She lifts up her hand’s and begin’s to sign out her name.

“Valerie.” She mouthed to him. He smirked. “You?” She asks back.

He runs a hand through his hair, he raises up his hands, slowly signing out the letter’s of his name. “Bradley.”

⏁⏁⏁

THE NEXT FEW days the two survivors had grown close, well as close as two people can when they are only using sign language to communicate.He would fumble on his signing that she would have to guess what he had said.

Her legs ached on each side, they had been making their way out of the inner city, following the highway to the marina. If car’s didn't risk the chance of them being caught their trip would take twenty minutes, now it would be a three day trip on foot, not including them avoiding the creature’s.

Valerie sighed, the morning sun of december shined on the two of them. The sun was high enough she could guess it was eleven in the morning. Bradley and her would both take turns with a large machete, it was heavy in her hand’s that most of the time he was the one welding it.

She feel’s a tap on her shoulder, she turned her head at him. “Are you hungry?” Bradley signed, she shook her head. “No.” She signed.

“I have a fruit cocktail, if you do get hungry.” He signs, her lip’s forming a thin line, smiling softly at his chivalry. She brushed a piece of her hair from her face, the bitter air whipping at her cheeks.

“Thank you.” Valerie say’s. She had grown tired of their small talk;most conversations that had gotten out of one another were about if they were okay, how far they were from their location, and where they should stop to rest.

Not that she didn't appreciate his worry for her, they had to rely on each other if they wanted to make sure they would see the next sunrise. She crossed her arms in her windbreaker, the two walked past run down car’s. Nature had started to reclaim her own, the highway’s covered in greenage and rust set into the metal of the high rise.

“Hey.” She stops him, he turns to look at her, keeping the same pace. “What?” He wondered.

“Before this.” She start’s off, looking away thinking of a question to break the ice. “What did you do, your job?” She ask’s. He runs fingers through his blonde hair in though.

He point’s to the sky, using two finger’s to trace along the white cloud’s. She furrowed her brow trying to understand him. “You..worked in the sky?” She signed.

“A pilot?” Valerie signs, he nods his head. He point’s up again, using two finger’s as a gun.He shot in the sky, she thinks, her eye’s widening as she understands him now.

“Top..gun.” She signed slowly.

“Yeah, and you?” He ask’s, she shakes her head. His job was definitely more eventful than hers. She cleaned table’s, served plates out to elderly people, and sometimes she would deliver to room’s.

“I worked in a cafeteria.” She signed to him. “Kind of boring.” She tells him, he shook his head.

“That’s not boring, that's simple.” Bradley reassured her, she shook her head. “You got to fly in the sky..All I did was serve soup.” Valerie says to him

“I would have loved that.” He tells her. “There were times I just wanted thing’s to be slow.” He admitted to her, she furrowed her brow at his admittance.

“Why did you join then?” Valerie wondered. He sighed, her eye’s drifting down at the grass growing through the cracking line’s of the highway. He gulped as they continued to walk on.

“I just had to.” He says. She nodded her head, she guessed it was a story she had to hear by mouth, which she was sure she would never hear.

“Long story short?” She signed to him, he shrugged his shoulders. “How far are we?” Valerie wonder’s.

“We passed about two, maybe three gas stations.” He tells her, she scoff’s, she hadn't taken the time to note the landmark’s, only keeping in mind how long it will take to get to their destination.

“They all look the same.” She says.

“Everything does.” Bradley remark’s, his movement’s in his hands are slower. She noted that his signing was slower than hers, she guessed he wasn't as fluent or quick in ASL like she is.

“How far from the marina do you think we are?” Valerie asked him, his brow’s furrowed, he looked around at the street signs. He pulls the map from his bag, placing it lightly on a rundown car hood, bringing the red sharpie marking off on it.

“We were at Amo’s street and now we are on 163.” He signed to her. She stands close to him looking down at the map. He had taken the time to mark off on each site they passed.

“Okay and how much further?” She wonder’s. His brown eye’s look at the map. “Fourteen miles .” He guessed

“Seriously?” She ask’s, she dropped her hand’s at her side in frustration. ”I think you are pulling my boob.” She joke’s, he furrowed his brow at her signing, got to teach him some thing’s.

“It's only been a few day’s.” He point’s out, she rolled her eye’s. A few day’s in this world was a lifetime with how long it takes to travel.

“Feel’s longer.” She remarked.

“You can still get leave.” He reminds her, she sighed. He was right, she didn't have to stick with him, they could part way’s now and hope for the best.

Though it was nice to have someone to care about, knowing that when she woke up that someone was going to be waiting for her. In the world before she had thrown herself into her work, claiming it was her mistress. She hadn't given herself time for relationships, and frankly they never gave time to her either. No need to waste her energy in a world that seemed so bleak.

“We’ve gotten this far.” Valerie reminds him.

“We finish what we have started.” She signs to him. Her eye’s hardened with determination, he smirked at her ambition.

“If we keep walking we should get close enough to the bay area.” He summarized. “What about sleeping?” She asked him, his shoulder’s slump, as if to let out a sigh.

He put his hand in a salute looking at the skyline in front of them. Building’s once filled the sky high reflecting from the glass now covered in vine’s, some had crashed down. Slashed from the claw’s and talon’s of the sound seeking creature’s. She often wondered how it must have felt to watch from above seeing everyone going about their lives. They must have looked like ant’s compared to them.

“There.” He point’s

“You wanna go there?” Valerie asked him, he nodded his head.

“That’s far.” She mouthed to him, he furrowed his brow’s

“So is the marina.” He signs, he point’s to the top of the building. “If we get high enough we can see how far we are.” He tells her. Her heart thumped as it raced

“Can't we just go to a motel?” She wonder’s, he shook his head confused. “Thought you wanted to see how far we are?” He ask’s, she gulped.

“Just the height is intimidating.” Valerie tell’s him. He smirked amused at her fear. “The world has ended and you are afraid of heights?” He signed to her, she rolled her eyes.

“No, I'm afraid of a creature climbing a high rise to kill me.” She state’s.

“I won't let that happen.” He promised her, his signing in the end being wrong. She shook her head.

“Give me your hand.” She orders. He furrowed his brow. She guides his hands, moving them in the right motion’s, mouthing what they are. “That’s how you do it.” Valeria corrects him.

“Thank’s.” He signs. She smiled softly, she swung her backpack up further. “Come on.” She usher’s him, her heart pounding looking at the sun peaking through the two towers.

⏁⏁⏁

SHE HAD DECLARED it she hated height’s. Even more than before she climbed the eighteen floor’s of the forty one floors of the Pacific Gate. She had always wondered what it must have been like to stay in the extractive type hotels. She had grown up in Virginia, in a rural town mile’s from the urban city, she had come to Calafornia chasing a dream that sadly fell through.

Her fingers grazed the chipped paint on the wall, the pearl white had turned brown from the age and vine’s had grown in the hall’s into the room’s. They had luckily found a room that wasn't terribly covered in the reclaimed nature. Bradley had insisted that they stay close to each other, both taking a watch.

Though they doubted that anyone or anything would find them up there, unless they made a sound. He kept to himself mostly, she wondered before the end of the world had he been a social person, like her. She could see from his choice in wardrobe, a Hawaiian shirt underneath his black jacket that he certainly had a taste. His tan skin almost kissed by the sun herself, had he gotten it from all their walking, maybe he had it before the world went quiet.

Her feet step on the ripped up dark blue carpet. The sun had set on the city and the moon had shone over the window’s of the balcony. A warm orange glow lit the room from her lantern. He laid on the bed, white ear bed’s in each of his ears, plugged into an old IPod nano. His brown eyes focused on the world outside.

She stands next to the white unmade sheet’s. A buffalo plaid blanket laid on top, she had insisted that she take the couch on the other side. She had noticed he had been limping up the step’s, knowing that the fancy hotel probably had a mattress that would make him feel better. He refused, if she could she would have let out a frustrated yell.

She tap’s his shoulder, he shuddered at the touch from her, he snapped his head in surprise. His finger’s grazing the knife holster on his leg.

“Sorry.” He signed.

She shook her hand. “It's Okay.” Valerie take’s the seat spot next to him, keeping a distance between the both of them.

“How did you get that?” She asks, pointing at the old technology, he smirked looking down at the blue case, a smiley face sticker on the back that slowly chipped away.

“It’s mine.” He states, she nodded her head.

“It still works?” She asks curious, she hadn't used one in years, preferring streaming from her phone.

His pink chapped lips formed a thin line. “Yeah, all my music from college.” He tells her, his signing is still slow.

“Anything good?” Valerie wonder’s, he shrugged his shoulders. He handed it to her to look at, she held up the screen, beginning to scroll with the control’s, clicking with each movement of her thumb. His music taste ranged from almost every decade up until 2012. She was almost surprised with the variety of choices’ he had at the tip of his fingers’, she looked down sadly, she hadn't heard music in what felt like an eternity, she can't even recall the last thing she had listened to on day one of their new world order.

She stops scrolling. Her eyes widened at the song, Jerry Lee Lewis’s, Great Balls of Fire. A soft smile creased her cheek’s. Lonely nights in the bar were less lonely when everyone around her began to sing the sixtie’s jaunty tune. She brought her hand to her mouth.

His brows furrowed at her reaction. “What?” He signed. She shook her head.

“Nothing, it's just.” She stops looking down again, her thumb grazing the play button. “There was a guy at this bar.” He perked up, his brows furrowed.

“He played this on the piano.” She recall’s, smiling softly. His eyes widened, his lip’s parting as his thoughts raced.

“Yeah every saturday..guess he is gone now.” Valerie signed sadly, she brushed back a piece of her hair.

Bradley had finally realized something. In the store, he saw her through the broken isles and fallen objects. He could have swore it was his mind finally playing tricks on him, until he caught a glimpse of her face.

There were night’s he would go into the Hard Deck. She would sit in the same spot each night, order the same drink, she always seemed to have her mind on anything but where she was. He had been curious who she was, why was she always in her head. He did plan to talk to her, only any time he got the courage to talk to her, she would get up and leave before he could get a chance to speak.

He pulls one of the white ear buds out of his ear, handing it to her. She looked down at his hand, taking it from him, placing it in her ear, pressing the play button. She flinches at the sudden piano playing. He chuckled quietly.

She rolled her eyes playfully. She began bobbing her head slowly, trying not to move her head too much. The two of them doing different motion’s to the music, if she was alone she would be all over the place, dancing on the mattress belting her lung’s out. He bites his lips, closing his eyes, thinking of better times.

Valerie mouthed the lyrics, leaning her head back at the chorus. She shakes her shoulders leaning into him trying to get him to join in with her. Bradley smirked at her happiness, the two of them tried everything to bond. Seeing the other experiencing something other than fear made his heart flutter.

He begin’s tap with his finger’s the note’s of the piano. Recalling the filling of the key’s under his finger’s, each movement a phantom at his tip’s. Valerie hold’s her fist as a mock microphone as she mouthed the final lyrics.

An inhuman screech fills the air echoing off the city. Her heart raced, wiping her head to look at the balcony. She shook her head. Figure’s she thinks’. The world outside was still as bleak as ever. Her smile fell as she glanced down.

“I’ll take my first watch.” She signed to him. His brow’s furrowed. Her shoulders tensed as she stood to attention, pulling her jacket closer. She turns on her heels to walk.

“Wait”. she hears a faint whisper escape’s his lip’s. He reached out, taking her hand in his calloused one. Their eyes locked as his face softened.

“Stay.” He pleads

She gazed at him. He had before insisted that they stay in separate rooms so the other had the chance of escaping while the other could too. Now here he begged for her to not leave him alone. Was he really scared this time, did he need that comfort of knowing in the room he wasn't alone.

“Of course.” Valerie signed. He gulped, running his hand through his unkempt honey curls. He laid back down. Placing his headphones back in his ear, leaving one out one for her to hear the music he played.

Bradley stayed awake for as long as he could, fighting hard against the sleepiness in his body, losing in the end. Soft snoring escaping his lip’s. Valerie formed a soft grin at his peacefulness, the both had seen so much, so many things lost and so many stolen from each of them.

She leaned over him, pulling a navy blue blanket over his chest. He turns in sleep, not waking. Hopefully he dreamed, anywhere that wasn't there must be better. Her eyes grew heavier and heavier as she stared at the quiet city. She wiped away the feeling from her eye’s.

Desperately battling against her own body clock, she groaned softly, wiping her cheek’s. Just shut your eye’s for a moment, the last word’s she thinks before her head hits the pillow and the world becomes dark.

⏁⏁⏁

SHE SCRIBBLED THE WORD on the notepad. The two had grown bored on their adventure to the marina.  Valerie had been sneaking around the Pacific gate, and found a white board for Bradley to use to communicate.  Thinking it would make their communicating easier, as his ASL was slow, and now she could properly tease him. 

“A.” He signed, she smirked, shaking her head. They had started playing the game hangman in to past time, they weren't far from the marina, having woken up late didn't help the ground they would have to make up. 

He rolled his eyes as she drew another body part to the stick figure. She licked her lips as she waited for another guess. She had won the last five round’s of the game and him once, to be fair she didn't blame him for not being good at guessing games when there wasn't anyone to give hints verbally. 

“C.” He guessed, she nodded her head writing the letter on the white board. He pumped his fist, the machete in the other, his turn as her hands were preoccupied with the marker. 

“I hate this.” He signs, she smirks at him.  “You just suck.” She teased him, he pulls out a tiny notepad, writing down in big letters. He holds it up to her. 

“You have a lot of sass for a girl with no shoe’s.” It read, her eyes widened at the comeback. She uses her hoodie sleeve wiping off a bit of their game writing. 

“And who’s idea was that mustache?”She wondered. His lip’s parted agape. “You love it.” He signs, she shakes her head. “Fuck off no I dont.” She write’s down. He holds up his own notepad. 

“Everyone loves it, baby.” His read’s, she rolled her eye’s. “Not me.” She gesture’s. He scoffs silently. 

“Wanna find out why?” He challenged her, licking his chapped lips. She looked at the hair above his lip, his facial hair being a stand out to the rest of his features, other than his well built physique. His blonde hair is curly on the top and shaved on the neck, unkempt yet somehow it still made him look even more handsome. 

“No thanks.” She smiled softly.  She looks down at her whiteboard, wiping it off again. “Keep guessing.” She urged him. 

He runs his hand through his curl’s. “P” He sign’s. She looks at him disappointed, adding another limb to the stick man.

“That’s two arm’s.” Valerie point’s out. He shook his head. His step’s halt as he look’s up. “What?” She ask’s, her eye’s scan his sight seeing what he stopped for. Her heart stop’s in her throat as it began to race. 

Hundreds of boat’s laid out in front of them on the waterfront, docked in their areas. Some fell prey to nature while some still remained. 

Her breath shaked, she looked to the man next to her. Tears filled both their eyes, they had finally made it after so many long hours of walking, and dodging alien’s they reached their destination. 

“Come on.” Valerie urged him. 

She turned on her heels quickly scurrying to the stairs that lead down to the docks. He followed closely behind her as the both of them desperately raced for the nearest boat’s. Her feet pound against the wood as she stop panting looking around at their option for travel. 

“Which one?” She asked him. He put his hand on hips trying to catch his breath. 

“Anything with a cabin.” He writes on his notepad, she nods her head. 

She walked around each boat, checking each for a key. She doubted that any of them would be filled with gasoline, much less run. For the most part they were almost all sailboat’s, and small yachts. She had never been on a boat, well one as big as the one’s parked in the water. She had gone fishing before with her uncles in the past, though she knows a small boat wouldn't get them to the island they needed something better. 

The wood creaked as she stepped back down again.  Valerie walk’s back around to the other dock, he stood with his arms crossed irritated. 

“That bad.” She joke’s. 

“I'll check again.” She tells him. He shrugged. “Be my guest.” He signed to her. The dock creaked again as with the heavy step of her foot. She gasps as a sharp pain in his felt in her thigh. She snapped her head looking down, a long black stick stuck out of her, piercing through pant leg. 

A scream of anguish left her mouth as hot fire pain ran up and down her leg. She collapsed onto the dock groaning loudly, her eyes widened as her hot tears welled.

Bradley ran to her side, putting his hand over her mouth, muffling her scream. Valerie cried as she tried to pull the arrow out.

“Don't do that.” He whispered to her. She whimpered, leaning her head back. 

He grunt’s as a cold metal graze’s his neck. Her eyes widened as another man behind him held a knife to the blonde’s throat. Two men dressed in ragged clothes, walk slowly behind him and stand above her, her heart racing in fear. Bradley slowly get’s to his feet, lifting his hand’s up in surrender. The man nod’s his head at the two men. The grab Valerie under her arm’s bringing her to her feet, she groaned quietly. A woman walks around, forcing a bandana around her mouth silencing her, she walks around. 

Her cold eye’s analyzing both of them. No one dared to speak, she slowly paced around them. She removes a rope from around her waist, standing behind Bradley. She smirked, shooting dagger’s at Valerie. She grunt’s wrapping the rope around his neck, pulling it tightly. He gasped for air pulling at the rope that cut into his neck. He groaned as the man behind him forced him to turn around, beginning to drag him across the wooden dock. 

Valerie grunted against the two men’s arm’s, her heart raced as she watched him struggle, clawing at his captor.  The woman from before circle’s her, looking the restrained girl up and down, vulture to its prey.  She point’s with her knife at the end of the dock. 

She pant’s in fear, gritting her teeth. Her eye’s went to his kicking leg’s, a black leather strap on his leg laid a metallic flicker of the sun. Her brows furrowed as she understood what to do. She stomps on the wood. 

The woman in front of her raised her brow’s at her action. Bradley looked at her, she stomped again, gesturing to her leg. He grunted twisting around trying to slow the man behind him, he strained as he grunt’s pulling him closer to the water. Valerie stomp’s her foot again, slapping thigh again. 

His brown eyes darted to his own leg. The black leather sheath with his initials in the working laid his brown bowie handled knife. He reached with one hand, the other fighting the rope at his throat. His finger’s link through the hole in the handle, pulling it out. 

Valerie met the eye of the woman leader. She smirked as her confusion grew. She grit’s through her teeth, extending her leg kicking the woman in the face, she stumbled back falling over onto the dock. She huffed, grabbing the handle in her holster, unsheathing her blade plunging it into the man behind her groin. 

The man hollered out in pain. His scream echoing off the city. Screech and roar’s sound alert at the sudden disruption of their perfect world. The man with the rope looked up with wide eyes, his distraction end’s as a sharp cut is felt to his stomach. 

He released the rope. Bradley got to his feet, he grunted as he balled his fist and swung it into the man’s face. Valerie grabbed one of the men by their shoulders, plunging her blade into his chest, he groaned in agony. 

Shoving him away from her. Blood rushed through her ear’s as the creature’s cry’s began to get closer to them all. Valrie grunted limping, holding her thigh, crimson brown leaking through her jean’s onto the wood. She gritted her teeth trying to move as fast as her injury would let her get.  Behind her she could hear the clicking of the alien, as well as its talon slicing through a body. 

Bradley pulled the man against the dock post, pulling the rope tight as he fought against him.  

“Fuck you.” He whispered into the man’s ear, he jammed the knife into the killer's gut. He let out a cry of agony, the creature’s hollers cutting in with his. 

Valerie ducked out of the way, her head slamming hard into the wood. The former pilot dove into the water as the man was tackled into the bay water. 

Her vision blurred as she looked to the sky above. She gasped for breath, panting as hot flashes ran through her body. The world around faded in and out, eventually turning dark.

⏁⏁⏁

HER BODY ACHED. Never in her life had she felt this tired, each side of her felt like they were under rushing water, slowing her with fatigue and aches. Her eyes fluttered open as she took in her surroundings, the room around her rock back and forth, small and walled with dark oak. She groaned looking down at her leg. 

The arrow was gone, the pain lingered. Her pant leg was cut open, a part of her maroon brief’s visible. A white bandage wrapped around her thigh, a bit of blood stained brown on her leg. She pant’s as she looked all around her, she didn't recognize where she was at all. “Valerie, it's okay.” A deep voice spoke clearly, her heart skipped a beat. She whipped her head, he got to her side sitting on an ottoman close to the wall. His blonde hair dripped with water, though the rest of his clothes remained dry. 

She stuttered for a moment. “I got the arrow out but I had to dig around the tip.” Bradley inform’s her, crossing his hands over his lap. 

“You bled a lot, and you kept waking up each time I tried to remove it.” He says to her. The glow from the bedside lamp illuminated his features onto the oak of the room.  His brown eyes meet her widened one’s, he furrowed his brow. 

“Are you okay, what’s wrong?” He asked in concern. She shook her head.

“Nothing, it's just.” She gulp’s. 

“I haven't heard you speak before.” She admits, his gaze softened on her.  There were moments she could catch glimpses of his voice when he mouthed words, it was much deeper then what she had thought it was. 

“Where are we?” Valerie asks him. He gulps, clearing his throat.

“Couple mile’s out from the bay, the creature drowned itself so it didn't follow us.” He reassures her, she nods her head. 

“How far from the island are we?” She wonder’s, he shrugged his shoulders as though.

“About five miles, give or take.” He inform’s her, she listens hearing the sound of water slushing around, she was on a boat. 

“They can't swim, and it’s raining right now, so it’s safe to talk.” He tells her. She groans as she holds her thigh sitting up. He gets to her side. “Hey Hey take it easy.” He soothed her. 

“I'm fine.” Valerie state’s, he shakes his head.  “You were shot with an arrow and lost a lot of blood.” He reminds her. 

“You said you were a fighter pilot, not a nurse.” She teased with a weak laugh. He rolled his eyes at her comments.  “Gonna take a lot more than an arrowhead to take me out.” She tells him. 

“Clearly.” He chuckled. “Listen, what happened back there.” She start’s, he holds up his hand for her to stop. “Dont..its okay, its over.” 

“No, I'm sorry.” Valerie say’s softly, shaking her head. His brows furrowed in confusion at her guilt.  “We didn't know they were there, it's fine.” He assured her. 

“No I meant I should have done more, I should have swallowed my pain and killed him.” She ranted, biting her lip as she thought about all of it. 

“It’s not your fault, none of that was your fault.” Bradley says to her. “They were gonna kill you.” Valerie stammer’s out, she wiped her eye’s. “And you saved me.” He reminded her, and she shook her head. 

“You did, I wouldn't have remembered my knife if you hadn't been there.” Bradley admit’s. He stands up, sitting on the gray sheets of the bed she laid on. His plaid shirt unbuttoned, underneath he wore a black shirt.  

“They would have drowned me, and killed you.” He tells her.

“Valerie you saved me, you did.” He declares strongly. He glanced down at her bare thigh. Shiver ran down her body as goosebumps painted her arms. Her heart skipped a beat. 

“Should probably change your bandage.” He whispered, rubbing the back of his neck. He cleared his throat. He stands up walking out of the cabin room.  A breath of relief left her lips. she hadn't realized it.  She missed human’s, conversation, touching, feeling, and experiencing. She joked before that she ghosted through everything, living only to work. Now she lived to survive, that wasn't living. 

He came back into the room with first aid supplies. He sat down in front of her on the floor, and began to unwrap the bandage from her leg. His fingertip’s grazed her thigh, her heart pounded in her ear’s loudly. “You're staring.” He mumbled. She cleared her throat leaning back on her hand’s.

“Sorry..uh just talk to me.please.” She pleaded with him, chuckling nervously. “Um..what was your word on the highway?” Bradley wonder’s, she scoffs. “Sore loser.” She grumbled, shaking her head. He rolled his eye’s as he soaked a cotton ball with alcohol. 

“It was cowboy.” Valerie tell’s him.  “What!?” He exclaimed, she chuckled, shaking her head. “See what I mean.” She teased him. She hissed through her teeth as hot pain stung her, she grit her teeth sitting up, gripping his arms. 

“Fuck motherfuc-agh.” The women swore holding him tightly. His brown eyes looked her up and down. 

“Little warning would have been nice.” Valerie mutter’s. 

“Sorry.” He breathed out. She shook her head letting go of his arms.

“Can I ask you something?” Valerie wonder’s, he nods his head. 

“Yeah sure.” Bradley say’s, he brings cold wet cloth, wiping away the dried blood that dye’s the white red. She glanced at his lips watching as he worked around the wound. She could see the outline of the arrowhead and where he had to cut around her thigh. 

“Did you ever visited the Hard Deck?” Valerie asked calmly. He licked his lips looking up from his spot on the floor.

“You said you were a pilot, and that was the popular spot for them.” She recall’s. 

“Did you ever go?” She repeats’. “I did.” He answers, she smirks. He place’s a white gauze on the wound, soaking up the blood, placing more around it. 

“So you must have seen me at some point right?” Valerie smiled softly. He bit his lip as heat arose to his cheek.  

“I did.” He says softly. Her heart pounded, the blonde stared up at her from the floor. His eyes glancing between the wound on her leg, his finger’s working delicately to not hurt her, and her face. 

His breath hot on the bare part of her skin, his focus didn't deter him from how close the two were getting. More than they have been since they began their journey. “Did you ever try to talk to me?” She wondered. He wrapped the bandage around her leg tightly.

“I wanted to, you always left before I could.” Bradley admit’s. Her breath hitched at his confession. 

“I saw you every Saturday, you alway ordered the same thing.” His brown eyes glanced at her.

“Pale Ale, with a garnish.” He recall’s, her dropped slightly agape. 

“And you always looked like you had so much on your mind.” His voice vibrated. Her brows furrowed as she began to rerun scenes from the world before. Every Saturday. She thought. It couldn't be him, could it. “I never got the confidence though, kind of mad at myself on that one.” He chuckled weakly, he shook his head. Her thoughts raced as she played everything back, she only caught glimpses from behind, his sunglasses always his eyes from her, and the crowd’s of civilians and armed forces. 

He turned around. “It was you wasn't it?” Valerie say’s, she sits up with her hand in her lap. His heart pounded, he 

“Great balls of Fire, every saturday…the piano.” She lists,their eyes not daring to look away. 

“Was that you?” She asks softly. He smiled warmly. His hand’s stopped wrapping, he taped it sealing her wound off. Her hand’s hold his on her bare thigh.

"Yes." He anwserd, he looked down at the floor. "That was me." He says.

She smiled, caressing his cheek, making him look her in the eye. The gap between the two of them began to get smaller As his hand slowly trailed to her waist. She holds the back of his neck pulling him in, inhaling deeply as their lips begin to move in sync.

His finger grazes across her skin, the warmth of them contrasting with her cold body. He leaned forward, hooking his hand under knee .

Her back pushed into the grey comforter, the both of them keeping the rhythm of lips . She wrapped her bare leg around his waist, while her other hand played with the hem of his plaid shirt.

She pulled away as sharp pain shot through her body. Valerie held her leg groaning in pain.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, his hot breath on her face. She smiled, their foreheads touching. "It's okay…should take it slow." She says softly.

"Not really my style." Bradley teases her, she could feel him smirk.

"Me neither." She agreed. Valerie untangled herself from, he pulled himself away from her. His blonde hair messy from her fingers.

"You should get some rest, I'll see how far we are." He tell's her. He adjusted his pant leg as he turned around. She smirked at her effect.

"You know if this isn't a rumor, then we won't have to worry about that." Valerie teased him. He bit his lip, turning around to face her.

"Are you good on that promise?" Bradley challenged her. She smirked looking him up and down.

" I might be." She smirked. He shook his head as his cheeks became hot. His brown eyes gazed on the injured girl.

"Get some rest." He says walking out of the cabin room. She sighed leaning her head back against the pillow. Groaning loudly as she closed her eyes as the ache in body remained. The boat slowly rocked her back to sleep.

A/N: AND THAT IS ALL SHE WROTE, God i hope this dosent flop because if it does I have to go down with. Anyway's, your favorite smart mouth guy is next.

Tagged: @cowboysandpilots @bobfloydssunnies @sugarcoated-lame @sorchathered @fairyheart @senawashere @swiftsgirlfriend @

[eddiemunsonsmum]

Aftermath | Chapter 11 | Eddie Munson

Eddie Munson x Female OC | E.M x Karmen Jones

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 Chapter 15.

Chapter Summary: The worst nurse on the ward makes a decision for Eddie that he isn't comfortable with. Karmen thinks about her family and then her compatibility with Eddie while giving up a Saturday morning sleep-in.

Story Summary: Eddie wakes up in the Upside Down after 'dying' in Dustin's arms. He wakes up again in the hospital and is reunited with his loved ones. This story covers Eddie's time in the hospital and overall physical recovery after the Upside Down.

This fic is part of the She Feels Like Home series. It sits between Boxing Day and Drop Out.

Chapter Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort , Fluff, ASL, (American Sign Language), ASD !Eddie, Autistic Eddie, Non-verbal Eddie, , Healing, Getting Better, Season 4 Spoilers, Found Family, Family Acceptance, Lore Drop, Mentions of kinks, Specifically Mommy!Dom Kink, Mentions of past relationship trauma/cheating/trust issues, patient abuse, medical abuse, talk of murder, past child abuse, mental health issues, panic attacks, suicidal ideation.

Words: 8k

~~

People don’t forget. Nothing gets forgiven.

Eddie remembered someone saying that once. He couldn’t remember who, just that it had resonated with him in an unexpected way.

The quote had burrowed itself into his subconscious and sprung forth again after Chrissy’s death. When he was hiding alone at Rick’s place before the Gang found him. Before he knew about The Upside Down and Vecna. It had become a mantra in his mind. A repeating phrase that promised him no hope.

After defeating the mysterious Dark Wizard, when his life was saved and his name was cleared. He thought that the words would stop swirling in his head and finally let him rest. That things would feel normal again and he could believe if only for a little while that even if people didn’t forget, that they would forgive.

But deep down Eddie knew better than that. That whatever wise man had spoken that truth to him was correct and he was fucked, plain and simple. 

People wouldn’t forget what he ‘did’ and they wouldn’t forgive him for it either. If his treatment from the staff at Hawkins Memorial Hospital was any indication of how Eddie was to live the rest of his life interacting with other people. The general public. Then he wasn’t really sure he wanted to get better and go home.

He hated the staff that worked whatever floor of the Godforsaken place he’d landed his sorry ass on. They were cold, rude and most of the time just downright nasty.

He’d gotten to know most of the nurses names by now. Recognizing them as they entered his room and gauging how his day was going to be based on the quality of care he could expect from the person that was assigned to him.

They were all terrible he’d decided before he had conversed with Nurse Jo. She had changed his mind about hoping that the whole ward burned down with all of the staff inside. 

He’d let her leave with the other patients before he lit his match.

But the others could all go to hell. He ranked them in his mind from awful to atrocious and changed their places weekly based on how horrible they’d been to him.

But there was one person on the leaderboard whose place had never wavered. The top spot for number one most hated Nurse in all of Hawkins, went to Sally.

Nurse Sally had a special place in his heart. 

The place he liked to keep every person that had ever wronged him in his young life. A place akin to hell where he could use them to warm his chest at the thought of them burning alive.

If being recently dismissed of a murder charge wasn’t a memory he had to sober him, he sincerely worried that Nurse Sally would finally push him over the edge.

He’d never met another person in his life that induced such a rage in him with as few words as Nurse Sally was able to.

She wasn’t even trying.

He didn’t think.

She was just… Like that.

The raggedy old bitch was only in her 60s according to intel he’d acquired while partaking in his new favorite pastime. Which was honestly just eavesdropping but he liked it better when he pretended he was watching the Hawkins spinoff of General Hospital.

Eddie had a hunch that Nurse Sally had lied on her resume and her formal medical training consisted of putting leeches on patients during the smallpox pandemic. 

She was a horrible woman. The meanest by far. He felt that he knew deep down in his soul that it wasn’t even personal. It didn’t matter who he was or what people had thought he’d done. She didn’t discriminate. She hated everyone equally. 

He wished he could have asked Steve about it when he’d visited. No doubt he had to deal with her as well, being on the same floor.

He could just tell she was the type of person that chastised new Mothers for not putting socks on their baby when it was 90 degrees out. The type that would watch a news story about the rise of rent prices and then call the generations after hers lazy. 

She definitely drove twenty miles an hour under the speed limit and then honked at people for overtaking her. 

He hated everything about her from the sting of the cold rings she refused to take off to the stench of cigarettes that followed her around. He usually loved a good cigarette but after not having them for a few weeks, the withdrawals were finally over. So if the rotten smell that brought on waves of nausea wasn’t enough to convince him that this woman was a Reptilian in disguise; The fact that her rings never warmed to what should be the natural temperature of her hands, would have him sure. 

He hated her more than he hated Maureen and Eustace from a few trailers over and they had always been at the top of his mortal enemies list, just above Principal Higgins and Karmen’s neighbor Margrette.

Yes a lot of his mortal enemies were elderly women but to his defense they tended to be the demographic that hated someone like him most. Older men hated him too but their hate tended to blossom into indifference and then they left him the fuck alone. It was the women like Sally that couldn’t keep their mouth shut about his appearance or the hobbies he held.

Despite all of the flaws Nurse Sally exhibited, the decidedly worst part of her existence was that she always worked the morning shift. He had never seen her after midday and while that should be a fact that brought him comfort once she was gone. He found it extremely unnerving in the middle of the night when his painkillers were starting to wear off and his body refused to rest, that there was a chance she would be the one to come stomping through the doorway in the morning when he was at his worst and really just needed someone to take pity on him. 

This particular morning she’d arrived twenty seven minutes later than usual to give him his cocktail of medicines. He understood the staff were busy and things didn’t always run smoothly in a hospital. But this was spiteful. It had been a quiet morning. 

She’d rolled her eyes at his un-finished breakfast while he struggled not to writhe in pain. It had taken all the strength he had not to flip the tray table over in response to her grumbles about the cereal he couldn’t stomach, going soggy. 

It would have only hurt him in the end. The strength he needed to do something so wild would drain what was left of his determination when she left him to rot in wet, milk blankets until shift change.

Instead he had closed his eyes and fantasized about running into her when he was finally free of this hellhole. 

Physically. 

With his car.

He wondered where she liked to take her lunch break while he shivered and gagged through the awful ordeal of swallowing his pills. Having finally graduated from morphine in the IV to oral medications.

He never thought he’d miss the icy feeling of medicine being injected directly into his bloodstream but not only did he now have to force himself to actually eat a little so he could swallow the tablets but he had to be awake and make the conscious decision to take them instead of the brief reprieves where they would inject into his IV while he slept.

He was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to do that. Probably were supposed to wake him every time but some of them just didn’t want to be forced to talk to him.

He wasn’t one to complain about going to sleep and then waking up again relatively pain free. He would have rathered it that way every time if he had the choice.

The oral medicine had nothing but drawbacks. It didn’t work anywhere near as fast and he wasn’t careful his stomach would reject them. The nurses refused to give anymore if he threw them up. He knew that technically they weren’t allowed to for safety reasons but he couldn’t help but feel that they took a little too much pleasure in reminding him of that fact.

He’d realized pretty quickly that it was important to take them as soon as he was able to have another dose. Because he would start to feel the pain again long before he was allowed to have more and if he pushed it back any further than the allotted 6 hours, there was a risk that not only would it become severe enough that it would feel like the medicine barely did anything but it would be bad enough to have him vomiting which rendered the oral medication useless anyway.

It was a horrible catch twenty two that repeated in cycles until he was lucky enough to accidentally stumble upon the combination of actions that would settle his belly and let him keep the medicine down despite the pain.

Usually the correct action was to have a few bites of food, swallow the pills as soon as he got them with as little water as possible and then lay incredibly still for several hours. Sleep if he could. But the staff was still insisting on doing his vitals every few hours and it had been long enough now that talk of Physical Therapy had started to amp up.

They wanted to get him walking again. They, being Owens men. Probably the hospital staff too but only so they could finally tell him to walk his ass out of there.

He wasn’t complaining about that part. He couldn’t wait to get out. But he was not looking forward to being yelled at by the Therapist for not walking far enough or long enough. Not trying hard enough. Despite his injuries being entirely unique to any other case they would have ever seen.

They didn’t know that and he couldn’t tell them.

He’d finished taking his pills, putting the little paper cup back down on the table hard like he’d just taken a shot. Water dripped from his lips as he took in several shaky breaths and pushed the tray away with an equally shaky hand.

He’d gotten them down. It was time to lie still now.

Except Nurse Sally had other plans for him. She’d been grunting at him for weeks now that he was an absolute mess. That even being in the hospital, not being able to walk and only having one thorough sponge bath in that timeframe was not an excuse to give up on one’s appearance.

Eddie wasn’t sure why she cared. She seemed like the type of pearl clutching witch to condemn him based on his fashion choices alone. He didn’t miss the irony that even if he did try to make an effort, she wouldn’t be happy with what he looked like. They had two entirely different ideas of what ‘presentable’ meant and only one of them was reasonable.

“-A matted rats nest!” 

Eddie tuned back into her ranting mid sentence and tried to figure out what she was on about as he slowly slipped back down the bed. Intending to slide under the covers and pretend like he was in a coffin until around lunchtime when the painkillers would actually start to kick in. About 45 minutes before he was due for another dose. 

He jolted away as he felt cool metal on his upper arm. Those damn rings just about giving him frostbite where she had tried to still him with her grasp.

He felt an overwhelming urge to hiss at her in response. Swat her over the head a couple of times, no claws and hope she was weirded out enough to not come back.

He didn’t.

But it was the closest he’d ever come to giving into that particular fantasy.

Instead he stared up at her with barely concealed fury. Paused in the middle of sliding down the mattress, his shaky arms barely holding himself up as she motioned for him to sit back up and snapped her fingers at him when he didn’t immediately move.

‘It’s just not in his nature.’

Wayne had told Nancy.

Good Lord Nurse Sally was starting to make him ponder if Wayne was wrong all along.

“I won’t have it for a second longer.” She continued, Eddie unsure what the hell she wasn’t having anymore as she practically yanked him back up the bed by the arm. 

She pulled a groan from deep in his stomach where his medication was still deciding if it wanted to play nice with the spoonful of cornflakes from earlier. 

She had some unexpected strength behind her wiry frame. Either that or Eddie had lost more of his bodyweight and muscle tone than he had realized while recovering. 

The bats alone were generous enough to relieve him of that extra 2 pounds people were always trying to lose in magazines. 

Eddie’s body protested as he shifted to get comfortable. He hadn’t wanted to sit up at all but had to, to take the pills. He’d learnt the hard way that he couldn’t dry swallow them lying down. 

His wounds didn’t ache all the time for no reason anymore like they used to. But they did randomly flare up now and again even when he hadn’t overexerted himself. It was a strange sensation unlike anything he’d ever felt before. Kind of half way between a burn and a sting. They throbbed like an ant bite but the pain was also sharp and pointy like a wasp sting. The difference was that it wasn’t focused on just one small point. It was the entire wound and the baseline of pain was consistent like a burn but amped up in waves depending on how he moved. 

When this happened it was like that for every wound at the same time. Even the ones that had started to heal really well. Even the small cuts on his hands and face that were all but gone. 

If he didn’t know any better he would think that all of them were still infected and he was feeling the effects of that. 

He couldn’t explain it to the doctors. All he could do was answer yes or no questions about pain levels that ranged on a number scale. He had no idea if this was normal or not for the type of wounds he had.

Even if it was normal, what was the ‘normal’ they were comparing it to? Burns like his cover story? Being mauled by an animal? Because they knew deep down these were bites and not anything else? 

Even if they knew exactly what happened to him that meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. They didn’t know anything about Demon bats from another dimension. It wasn’t like they had been extensively studied like every other animals on the planet.

For all he knew, their little fangs contained some sort of venom that would torture him for years to come like a stinging nettle.

Karmen had told him once about the colloquially known Gympie-Gympie plant from the state she grew up in. The most painful plant in the world. The kids were taught about it in early schooling because it left unsuspecting victims that accidentally touched it with a sting so painful it had driven grown men to suicide and it lasted weeks… Sometimes even months.

Was that what was happening to him?

It was a terrifying thought. That the pain might not actually ever go away. That he might be stuck like this for months… 

If not forever.

That he could potentially spend the rest of his life in sporadic agony with no one understanding why or believing that he was actually still in pain. Being labeled a drug addict and blacklisted from all hospitals as a med seeker.

The train of thought he was on made his throat feel like it was going to close up. His breath came short and sharp as he realized he had spiraled himself into a panic attack out of nothing.

“Calm down.” Sally directed flatly as Eddie’s chest heaved with the shallow breaths he was taking. His wide eyes watering as he looked around the room desperately to try and find something to ground himself. Anything else to think about to distract his brain and bring him back from thoughts of a lifetime of suffering.

“Ah!” He yelped in surprise as his head was jerked backwards. The shock of the motion forcing air out of his lungs with the cry and affording him the chance to take air back in without stuttering.

That’ll do it…

A long gasping breath was inhaled and held inside him for a long few seconds before he was struck again against the back of the head and it was forced out in a way that left his lungs completely empty.

He finally took a relatively normal breath. Tears in his eyes as he turned to look at Nurse Sally with fear clouding his brown orbs.

Did she just... h-hit me?

He asked himself, surprised by how fearful he sounded inside his own mind. His stutter was brought forth without even speaking. All thoughts of running her down in his van had vanished and suddenly he was again that scared little boy that had been struck over the head for not talking fast enough.

He was that kid, trapped in a room with an adult that didn’t care that he was afraid.

Tears spilled over and down his hot cheeks as he blinked at her. Realizing as he did so that she hadn’t been hitting him over the head to try and stop his panic attack.

She may as well have though, considering his body’s reaction to the touch he wasn’t ready for. It had triggered him in a way he hadn’t been expecting.

His eyes fell to the object in her hand. He looked between it and her frustrated face as his fear started to simmer down and was replaced with anger. The tears continued all the same as he glared at her with as much hatred as he could possibly muster in a vulnerable moment.

You fucking bitch.

~

Saturday morning was Karmen’s least favorite day of the week to wake up early. Every day it was a slog, no matter how she looked at it. But Saturdays used to be her reprieve. Friday nights were fun to look forward to even without plans and knowing she had nowhere to be in the morning was a kind of freedom she rarely chose to give up.

Which is why it was so damn hard to be walking through the hospital doors just after 9am on the one morning of the week she usually enjoyed.

She had afforded herself a little extra window of sleep this morning and while she felt a little more rested than usual, she had wrestled with whether or not it was worth it for the amount of guilt she held in her belly over making Eddie spend the beginning of his weekend alone.

She had told him the day before that she wasn’t getting up at the crack of dawn today. That she was burnt out and needed a couple of hours after work to focus on herself before a solid 8 hours of sleep. She had framed work as the issue and while it was technically the crux of it. Not spending more than an hour most days on her own basic needs and neglecting the miscellaneous ones was weighing her down in a way she hadn’t been ready for.

She’d practically spent the whole week Eddie was missing in bed but not a second of it was restful and since he’d come back she’d given it her all to make sure he had a reason to stick around.

He’d understood when she said she needed a sleep-in. Lord knew Eddie wasn’t a stranger to an all day lounge-about to recover from a shitty week. But she knew inside that he was sad about it and would never say because he loved her and wanted her to be happy too.

She had tried not to let it get to her. Even Wayne had stopped her as they left together the night before and told her that he thought it was great she was taking a moment for herself. He knew better than anyone how full on Eddie could be and she knew he felt the same weight on his chest that she did every time he had to leave the hospital. 

He had tried to convince her it was okay to take the whole weekend. That Eddie would be fine if she just didn’t show up again until Monday lunchtime. She knew that wasn’t true but she appreciated him for trying. At the very least he had convinced her that sleeping in was an okay thing to enjoy.

That he didn’t judge her for it.

But that fact hadn’t stopped her from dragging herself out of bed at 8:30am and eating her toast in the car on her drive across town.

Granted, 8:30am was still a sleep-in for her. But it wasn’t exactly the one she had in mind when she’d gone to bed purposefully without setting an alarm in the hopes her body clock would forgo waking her in a cold sweat, thinking that she was late for work.

She hadn’t bothered to get ready to leave the house in any capacity. Her unwashed hair still in a bun from the day before and the oversized shirt she’d worn to bed was ruffled by the whoosh of the automatic doors.

She couldn’t remember who’s shirt it was at this point. Just that it had been too big for them and it was the most comfortable ‘dress’ she’d ever worn in her life. She’d had it for a long time. It was one of her favorites that never usually left the house with her. No matter how comfortable it was, it wasn’t exactly a full outfit on its own and usually, she tried at least a little to seem put together with the way she dressed.  

She looked down at it as she waited in the elevator. A cartoon galah wearing sunglasses, surrounded by palm trees on a lavender background.

Oh, it was Bradie’s. 

She realized. Remembering suddenly that it could only belong to her older brother. The rose-breasted cockatoo was an Australian animal. The irony of that fact being that despite currently residing in Australia he hadn’t purchased the shirt there but in a gift shop in Thailand 5 years before he moved across the ocean back to the country they were born in.

She thought about him briefly as she headed towards Eddie’s room. Wondering what he would make of all this if she called him up and told him the story she had and tried to act as though it wasn’t fishy as hell.

No doubt he already had opinions but there was no way she was hearing them any time soon. 

She could pretty much guarantee that her Mother had barred him from calling her or asking about it if he did. Bradie was opinionated and pig-headed but if he liked you he’d give you the world. He was also fun-loving and laid back but it varied person to person if they had ever seen that side of him.

He hadn’t met Eddie yet but he’d gotten an earful about how fantastic he was a couple of months earlier. Strangely, not from Karmen. 

Karmen’s Mother Carla, had loved Eddie when they’d visited. 

She was one of the first after Wayne to tell her that there was no way Eddie did the things he was being accused of. She’d only met him a few times but she knew and she was an ‘amazing’ judge of character…

The fact that her Mother had immediately said that Eddie was innocent should have worked in his favor but if anything, it hindered his case. Her mother was a lovely, gorgeous hearted woman that trusted blindly.

In other words, she was gullible and prone to being hoodwinked by nefarious people.

But she certainly did have her moments. She tended to be right about people more often than she was wrong. It was just that when she was wrong, it was always a doozy.

‘Doozy’ didn’t exactly describe the magnitude of how wrong she would be if she was wrong about Eddie... 

But Karmen had overlooked it all the same. Said ‘thank you’ and decided to believe that Mum was right because she was just as gullible but only when it came to love.

Yes, Carla had loved Eddie.

He was exactly the type of boy that she wanted Karmen to find. Kind, polite, funny, a little bit silly and:

“So, so handsome!” She had cooed, her fingers pinching both of Eddie’s cheeks as he looked down at her with stars in his eyes.

He was her new favorite! She had proclaimed, slurring her words after several wines at the first dinner they’d shared.

Eddie blushing and kicking his feet as Carla’s other son Parker sat across the table, mouth agape.

He had traveled across the country to be there. Not to meet Eddie but to alleviate the guilt he felt that his Mother was ‘alone’ and ‘lonely’ since he, her last baby, had left home.

He’d only been living in L.A for a few months at that point.

Karmen knew her Mum hadn’t meant it the way it came out but she silently understood why Parker had bought a return ticket for only two days after his arrival and Bradie hadn’t visited in years.

Speaking of Braide, she was glad he hadn’t heard it. He was petty like her. Petty enough to renounce his citizenship just so he had an excuse not to come back for Christmas.

Parker had just rolled his eyes and written it down in a notepad when he thought no one was looking. 

He’d take the hit to have more material for his musical comedy.

He’d drink about it when he got back to L.A.

Besides, he liked Eddie. He already knew him vaguely from school. 

Karmen wondered what he thought about it all. Not that she really cared for his opinion. He was a worse judge of character than her Mum.

Their Mum who had just been trying to make Eddie feel welcome. 

She had succeeded. 

He hadn’t shut up about how much he loved Carla for several weeks afterwards. 

Karmen was happy with that result, if not a little worried that he’d leave her for the mature model of herself with better cooking skills. 

There was a small part of her though that found Eddie’s excitement at being accepted profoundly sad. Knowing Eddie had never really had a Mother figure in his life. He’d certainly never had one that outright said they liked him. 

The man had Mommy issues but not in the way she was used to. Most men she had dated that showed their hand early and ticked Mommy Issues off the list off Red Flags were total Momma’s boys but liked to pretend they hated every second of her doting on them. 

It was to the point that Karmen played second fiddle to Mother and put up with behavior she shouldn’t have from the in-laws that were just ‘protecting their baby’ from the mean lady that he asked to date him.

Eddie’s issues were very different. He hadn’t had a Mother to dote on him. He’d never been doted on before, period. He’d never really been taken care of before outside of basic needs and the kind of strained and stunted emotional talk that Wayne could offer.

Affection before Karmen was sparse and often came from inappropriate places and people. Like the Elementary School teacher that he latched onto because they were a little too nice when he was struggling to make friends or the person he had a crush on because they didn’t tell him to go away the first time he spoke to them.

Just two examples of the many people that were kind to him in the past that he went on to develop a strange parasocial relationship with.Thinking he meant more to them than he actually did. It always ended in the reality crashing down on him before he got too comfortable.

A big reason he had been surprised when Karmen actually turned up at the Hideout on that fateful Saturday night. He hadn’t misconstrued her general friendliness for affection or imagined the connection they shared.

She cared for him in a way he didn’t truly know he needed until he had it and Eddie liked being cared for. 

He liked it a lot.

That was what it came down to. It was something he’d only just begun to really open up to her about before everything went down. He’d had no problem sharing his tastes early on but a few weeks before he’d gone missing the can of worms had been pried open and emptied out all over the bed.

Just another checkbox at this point for why exactly she knew in her heart of hearts that Eddie was innocent. 

No one really knew him like she did. What he was really like behind closed doors. 

He wasn’t scary, macho or self-assured.

If anything he was timid, gentle and soft. 

He wasn’t capable of snuffing the life out of someone.

Also, despite not being able to tell her with his words, she knew there was nothing between him and Chrissy.

She had worried at first. Having been mistreated in the past there was always that deep seated fear of it happening again. Of being so gullible that she had not been able to see the signs. That fear of being blindsided by someone you trust, again. 

But after having time to sit with the information she had, she knew he was telling the truth about that at least.

There was just no way a barely legal highschool girl was worth giving up what he had found in her. 

Not in a conceited way. She didn’t believe she was hot shit or the best thing to ever happen to him simply because she was great and he couldn’t do better. 

But in the way of the deep understanding she had for who he was and why. What he liked. His personal tastes when it came to sex as well as everyday life.

Their shared predilections inside the bedroom and out.

She was happy to indulge any and all of his fantasies as he was her. There was no reason for him to stray when he’d already confessed his most awkward desires and she’d responded with enthusiasm. 

What would be the point of starting again with someone else? Even Eddie on Ketamine knew that was a frivolous endeavor.  

She worried sometimes that she had accidentally melded the inexperienced man she’d met into her ideal partner. Someone that catered to her specific tastes without regard for his own. 

But she checked in on that regularly. Every time the anxiety creeped in she’d revisit the idea with him and he was never anything but enthusiastic and excited. Telling her she was being silly and to forget the idea that she had somehow tricked him into wanting the things she wanted.

It hadn’t taken him too long to feel comfortable expressing some of his own kinks and the more he divulged, the less she worried. Each erotic fantasy had an anecdote or explanation attached that pre-dated her involvement in his life by at least 5 years.

The man knew what he liked, what he wanted and most surprisingly, why. 

He was incredibly self-aware in that regard and she envied the confidence he held in his desires. The ability he had to explain to someone that was basically a stranger how and when he’d realized that he wanted to be coddled by a maternalistic Dom.

There had only been a few times over the year where one of them hadn’t felt up to what the other had proposed. Eddie had no trouble voicing that with her and she’d happily compromised on something else, as he did for her.

Good sex certainly wasn’t everything she looked for in a relationship. To be honest it wasn’t even on her top 5 list of things that a partnership needed to be successful.

But accidentally stumbling across someone so compatible was rare. Someone that took her wants and needs into consideration during the act. Someone that not only shared kinks but outside of that was kind, compassionate, funny, just plain fun and:L

“So, so handsome!” 

Her Mother’s voice echoed in her head.

It was basically unheard of.

Eddie was an enigma in the best way possible. Even if he turned around the next day and said he never wanted to do anything along the sexual vein again she would be okay with it.

She could go without. She had always been happy to take care of herself.

Eddie had so much more to offer her than shared bedroom preferences. She felt she’d hit the jackpot with this man and she was willing to put up with just about anything to keep him around. 

The only thing she had to think twice about was giving up her Saturday mornings. But when faced with the prospect of getting to sleep until noon but waking up alone forever, the choice was easy.

Loving Eddie was easy. Even on the hard days.

She thought maybe she should tell him that, in those words. That he’d probably like to hear it.

But it would have to wait as she’d just arrived outside his room and her eyes twitched as all thoughts and emotions outside of anger disappeared into the abyss.

She wondered sometimes when rage at a sense of injustice overtook her, if the fury washed over her brain and made it smooth like a river rock. Only one thought allowed at a time when she was so mad that she wanted to cry.

Right now the single thought was Nurse Sally being flattened by her sedan. Unaware that she and Eddie had yet another fantasy in common. She exhaled a shaky breath as she watched Eddie wince at every rough tug of his scalp. 

His nose was scrunched and his jaw set in a way that told her it was taking everything he had left to keep his own anger and hurt inside. However it may present when released, she had no idea. 

It was ironic that he thrived on routine but had become extremely unpredictable of late.

Judging by the redness of his eyes, she was pretty sure he’d already let something out and it had been ignored. She could see if not tangibly feel the barely restrained furor that was bubbling in his gut at every unsolicited touch from that vile woman. 

Karmen rushed forwards as the dull thunk of the hair brush hitting against Eddie’s scalp bounced off the walls of the room. She held back her snarl just barely as she stepped into Nurse Sally’s view and held out her hand in a way that demanded attention.

Eddie startled at the sight of her. The way she had bustled into the room not giving him time to adjust to the intrusion, even though he was grateful to see her. 

He’d never been great with surprises but watching him get startled now was heartbreaking.

Karmen softened, realizing she had frightened him. Feeling bad for how she had approached even if it was because she was jumping to his aide. She should have been more mindful of how skittish he was at the moment.

“I’ll take care of it.” She ground out curtly, gesturing at her outstretched hand and waiting for the brush. Sally looked at her with condescending eyes and for a brief moment Karmen actually thought she was going to argue. To which she definitely would have shouted. Scaring Eddie again and getting herself kicked out without the chance to comfort him.

The other woman wrinkled her bumpy flesh as she smiled in a wholly unfriendly way before placing the head of the hairbrush a little too firmly into Karmen’s palm. 

Karmen suppressed the urge to wince as the bristles dug into her hand. Instead, staring down the older woman silently as she made a show of lingering to clean up things that didn't need to be cleaned before leaving the room just to see if Karmen broke her resolve.

She didn’t. Not saying a word or easing up on her glare until the old hag was completely out of earshot. Eddie watched his girl warily, knowing what she was doing and wishing he had the emotional energy to be proud of her.

She turned and watched as he moved his gaze to his hands. Unable to make eye contact when she finally put her attention on him fully.

“Hey.” She greeted him softly. 

He nodded to acknowledge her, not looking up as she put a gentle hand on his knee. 

“I was going to help you do this.” She said as she took a piece of his matted hair in her fingers. She had been wanting to tackle it since she saw it for the first time. Knowing on a personal level how hard curls were to maintain and how quickly it could get to the point of a buzzcut if they weren’t taken care of.

Eddie’s gorgeous curls were anything but taken care of at this point. Basically just a few matted dreadlocks in the back and a few free stands she had managed to conspicuously wrangle under the guise of giving him a nice little head pat while he was sleeping.

His bangs were relatively untouched and looked as normal as ever. The only issue with that being that they were in his eyes constantly and desperately needed a trim. Eddie wasn’t exactly a barber shop kind of guy. He’d cut his own bangs in the mirror 3 years ago and made peace with what they were. Before her, they were often uneven due to the fact that the only time they ever got a trim was when he got sick of blowing them out of his face while he was trying to do delicate painting or writing at a desk.

Giving into the 3am urge to say ‘fuck it’ and cut chunks off them in the bathroom of his trailer.

Karmen liked them anyway. But she had become his unofficial hairdresser in the time they’d been dating. She’d watched in horror one night as he had growled in frustration and stood up from where he’d been sitting at his desk, taking some random stationary scissors from his drawer and leaning into his mirror to snip them straight across in one go.

If Uncle Wayne had a job with regular hours he probably would have burst into the room to find out what she was screaming about as she jumped up to take the scissors away and offered to do it for him properly.

Not that she knew anything about cutting hair really. But she’d spent enough time at the salon in her early 20s to emulate what they did to a better standard than Eddie was used to.

Eddie nodded at her again, still staring down at his lap as he pressed his lips together in an effort to stop himself from spiraling again. 

“Eddie.” She cooed, dropping the piece of hair and sliding her palm underneath his locks and across his back. He leaned his side against her. Resting his cheek against her chest as she put the brush down on the bed and brought her hand up to run her fingers through his long bangs.

Why are they all so mean?

His voice sounded small, even though it was just inside his head. It was tired and weak, just like the rest of him.

He knew deep down of course why and that he didn’t do it. But it didn’t stop him from getting to the point on days like this where he started to question whether or not he truly deserved it.

There seemed to only be a select few people that thought he didn’t.

He never wanted Sally to do his hair. Never asked for it or consented at all. In retrospect she might have told him what she was planning but she certainly didn’t care if he was listening or not. Didn’t wait for his okay to touch him.

He didn’t want to be touched by anyone else. Least of all that horrible bitch or any of the assholes that chittered and chuckled in his direction all day long as if he couldn’t hear or see them. 

Just because he couldn’t talk right now didn’t mean he was stupid. 

That he didn’t understand how much they hated him.

They didn’t care if he got better. They cared about him looking better so they could get him out of there one way or another. Luckily, they cared if they lost their jobs. Eddie shuddered to think what someone might do to him if they thought they could get away with it. If Wayne and Karmen weren’t a constant around here to attest to the fact that he was getting better. 

If he didn’t have people to kick up a stick and ask questions if his health suddenly declined or worse.

“Can I help you with this today?” Karmen asked quietly. Knowing deep down that he had not asked for or wanted the nurses to do it for him. “It’s alright to say no.” She reminded him when he hesitated a moment. Thinking about the answer.

His stomach was doing flips and he was still in a lot of pain. It was a miracle that he hadn’t thrown up thus far. Cold sweat beading on his forehead at the reminder that it was a possibility. His body taking the thought as its queue to remind him that the painkillers still hadn’t fully kicked in and this might be as good as it got if he pushed himself far enough to vomit.

The thought of someone tugging at his scalp for hours on end was enough to make him gag.

Soon?

He asked, moving his hand in a sign and looking up to her with worried eyes. He had been studying that book religiously and learning rapidly but he was pretty sure she didn’t have time to do the same.

She didn’t understand the sign but knew that it wasn’t a simple yes or no all the same.

“Maybe?” She asked, copying the sign with her hand as Eddie shook his head in response.

“S…” He tried, stuttering out a hiss for the beginning of the word as he moved his palm away from his body in a pushing kind of motion.

“Soon?” She asked, quickly. Catching on fast. She’d played a lot of charades in her time and for her 26th Birthday in June the year before, John had bought her Pictionary. To his dismay, she and Eddie were a well oiled machine at silently communicating. Often guessing each other’s pictures first try or with just a glance to tell the other how to pivot their guesses.

Eddie nodded happily. Bringing a hand up to his face and signing:

Sleep.

He didn’t actually want to sleep, having woken up not too long before. But it was the only way he knew to convey that he wanted to lie down. 

She understood. Disengaging from him and giving him the room to move as he needed to.

“Hey.” She said again as he settled himself on his back. Catching his attention and making him look at her curiously. “I’ll be right back.” She assured him as she pointed towards the open door. “I’m just going to make a phone call.”

~~

The phone by Eddie’s bed only called one way. People could call him if they had the direct line but he wasn’t able to make his own calls on the hospital's dime.

Not that he really had anyone to call anyway. Not that he could speak to them even if he wanted to.

But it meant that when Karmen needed to make a call she had to play nice with the nurses at their station so they would let her use the one patient phone on the floor.

She had come back not long after leaving without elaborating. Eddie had actually started to doze off and only noticed that she was back when the dip of the mattress under her weight alerted him.

She laid with him for a long while. Both of them fell in and out of a light sleep as Eddie’s painkillers finally managed to do their job and some of the tension left his body at the relief coupled with the feeling of a warm body next to him.

Karmen finally got her sleep-in as they were woken up by the lunch delivery. Eddie was surprised to find that he wasn’t in anywhere near as much pain as he usually was around this time of day. Maybe the late tablets meant that they were still working strong or maybe he had been overreacting earlier and actually getting a good rest next to a loved one would help him heal faster than he thought once he left the hospital.

He had griped over the food and Karmen didn’t blame him. Soggy peas mixed into lumpy mash and a questionable source of protein that they silently argued over the origin of until things got out of hand. 

Karmen was convinced it was beef while Eddie insisted on pork. 

Neither of them wanted to try it.

Eddie had gotten frustrated at her not understanding him and started snorting like a pig to which Karmen mooed at him repeatedly in response. 

A nurse had walked in at that moment with his next dose of medicine, both of them falling silent and watching her as she picked up his chart and wrote something down before leaving again without a word.

They waited until she was gone before bursting into laughter. Karmen smiling from ear to ear at the sound of Eddie’s chortling. She had missed the sound.

She promised him that when Wayne arrived soon she would go and get him some proper food from the cafeteria.

She made good on her promise. Disappearing to buy everyone coffee and Eddie a bowl of pasta shells in a red sauce that the lady behind the counter heated for her in the microwave.

She had hoped they would have pigs in a blanket on offer but she never got lucky enough to be that funny.

Eddie ate more of the pasta than she was expecting. She made a mental note to bring him some food and snacks from home during the week so he was eating at least one meal a day.

After he’d finished, Wayne produced the plastic bag he’d brought with him and Karmen handed him some money in return. Wayne had tried to refuse it but she’d forcefully stuffed it in his fist. He’d taken it but winked at Eddie behind her back as he slipped it into her handbag.

Karmen looked through the purchases and that was the moment Eddie realized that she had called Wayne earlier, asking him to bring her things on his way over so that she didn’t have to leave him.

He was grateful. 

She started placing things on the table beside his bed and he sighed deeply, recognizing them as haircare products and resigning himself to just getting it out of the way.

“I know.” She’d said, without looking up. “But I want this to be as quick and painless as possible and I only want to do it once.”

~~

A/N: I know I'm probably repeating myself a little in this chapter and will continue to do so in the coming chapters. I just really want to drive home how in his own head Eddie is at the moment and how frustrating it is for him to not have an outlet for that other than thinking about it and spiralling himself. Sorry if that's boring, but it's intentional.

Eddie is everyone's parents favorite child except his own 😂 @wheels-of-despair has an amazing series where Eddie is reader's Mom's fave as well. High recommend this fic that features this dynamic. 🥰

Part 12 will be linked here when it's finished. In the meantime...

Read the rest of the series here :)

This series is so personal to me, so it means the world to me when someone let’s me know they enjoy a work from this series. If you guys liked this please pleaseee consider letting me know via comment, reblog, message, anon ask etc.  

Tag List: @3ddi3-daydreamer @micheledawn1975 @munson-blurbs @wheels-of-despair @browneyes528 @stevemunsons

[wheresmymilliondollarman]

reader x xander Hawthorne please 🥺

xander hawthorne x fem!reader

hcs about meeting & dating xander hawthorne

a/n: HI IM BACK! & tysm for the request!! xander is so underrated 👎 thats my bae fr🫶 currently working on other stuff but wanted to do this request bc i immediately had ideas for this!! i still don't completely get how school worked in the books, so if there's any wrong info please bare w me. if this wasn't what you had in mind feel free to send a specific request! again, this is kinda fic like but still calling it hcs.

word count: 7.3k

warnings: long backstory again, mentions of death, sexual themes. (pls lmk if you see anything else that should be labeled as a warning)

you’ve always lived on the middle side class of things. you were, thankfully, never poor, but also never rich enough where you could afford the more luxurious things in life.

your mother owned a small bakery 3 blocks away from your home, while your father worked for an electrician company. both jobs were stable enough to provide for necessities and both your parents enjoyed their occupations.

your parents always told you to never worry about money, but it still made you reluctant to ask them for things you wanted in fear they couldn't afford it. which is why you always tried to fix your problems yourself.

if you ever needed money, you would work for your mother at her bakery in exchange. while it was still your mom giving you the money, it made you feel better that you earned the cash. 

you later found yourself working at the bakery even without needing money. you liked working with your mom, and it was fun to learn how to make different types of sweets. 

at school, you were always a studious person. you worked hard to get a's and never anything below. you wanted to make your parents proud and feel as if their hard work toward the family wasn't for nothing. 

you knew it would be practically impossible for your family to afford your college career without going into debt. so you always looked at scholarships and what they looked for in students, so you tried to make yourself appear well-rounded. 

you joined student council, mathletes (although math wasn't your forte),library club, chess club,art club, film club, yearbook, culinary club, asl club, and a few others over the years. to say your schedule after school was always booked was a major understatement.

although your favorite was always the art club. you never even knew you had an artistic side until you joined. you explored it more with your membership and soon became quite good. 

during your freshman year you took your first art class. you were excited to learn under a professional for the first time. 

after a few lessons, your first major assignment was realism project; draw somebody in your everyday life. 

you were both excited and a bit nervous. you had drawn people before, but never someone you knew, and you wanted to make a great first impression on your teacher. 

you ended up choosing your mother as your muse; your father could never stay still enough to be drawn. it took a lot of long nights when your mother wasn't working to finish your drawing. you could've just taken a photo of her and drawn that, but you pushed for the extra mile of drawing her from real life.

you were satisfied when you finished, and your parents were in awe by your work - telling you over and over how talented you were and your teacher would surely be impressed. still, you were anxious about turning it in the next day in class. 

your assignment was a big hit with your teacher, you got a perfect A+. she commented on your beautiful handiwork, noting that your drew from real life. she also advised how you should consider switching to an advanced class since it was obvious you were already beyond a beginner course. 

you wanted to decline at first, being intimidated by the thought of being in a class with others who were just as good or better than you - but your gut instinct told you it was the right choice to make. 

it proved to be right because by the spring you were already one of the best in your art class. you expanded into all types of art: abstract, realism, expressionism, digital, etc. your favorite and most notable works tended to be the realistic ones of people, place, and objects. art had become a part of your life in the best way. 

you entered a numerous amount of competitions and always come back on top; it got to the paint your shelfs had all been filled to the brim. you parents of course were elated with your success and were never prouder. 

you soon were able to make some money with your art skills as well. you got commissioned for mainly portraits of family and friends, mostly to give as gifts or to have in their household. it made you feel proud someone out there had a piece of your art and that people loved your work enough to want you to paint their family. 

the biggest commission you've ever taken was a 40x30 portrait of an older man. the request was anonymous, so you weren't sure who the man was or if the request was for himself or another person. 

the project took a few weeks due to your work load and having to paint such fine details on a huge canvas. you were happy with the outcome and were astonished to find out the anonymous buyer had given you 10k for your work. it was way over your normal pay grade.

your success didn't end there. in the summer before your sophomore year, you received a fancy envelope in the mail. it was addressed to you and sent from heights country day school. 

at first, you were confused as to why they would send you anything. everyone in texas knew of heights country day, it was one of the best private schools in the state. almost all parents want their kids to be a student there, but the tuition was awfully expensive, so if you weren't rich you were most likely not getting in. 

you didn't wait to tell your parents before your ripped open the envelop in anticipation. you unfolded the letter inside and skimmed over the introductions.

you were shocked to find out you were being awarded a full paid scholarship to attend heights country day school for the rest of highschool. 

your first thought was to assume it was a prank, or a scammer trying to get your info. but you examined the letter further; the seal of the school and the dean signature did look quite authentic. then you noticed the number listed on the bottom of the page. 

you figured you should just call and check for confirmation. you told yourself the worst case scenario would be they laugh at your face and tell you the letter isn't real. 

you definitely did not want to inform your parents until you made the call, that way if it wasn't real, their hopes wouldn't be crushed and they would never even know about it. 

it took an hour of pacing in your room to finally work up the courage to make the call. you kept tour expectations low to avoid disappointment. 

the secretary of the school was quick to pick up after two rings, and you briefly explained the letter you received. you held your breath for a second until she told you to "please hold for a moment." 

when she returned she informed you you were being transferred to the dean's phone. your nerves were through the roof at this point. you wanted to believe it was a good sign the dean wanted to talk to you, but maybe he wanted to tell you himself the letter was unfortunately a phony and they do not give scholarships to art students.

the dean finally picked up the call and you both exchanged greetings. from there he explained how the letter was, in fact, very real.

the school had seen a work of yours and dug deeper into your portfolio and academic career. they were very impressed with your achievement, especially given your age. the board was all unanimous in agreeing to offer you the scholarship because of your artistic talents and would love for you to become a part of their school. 

the rest of the call was a blur to you. when the call ended you stood stunned in your room for a minute. you had to pinch yourself to remind yourself this was real and happening. 

once you snapped out of it, you were jumping up and down in joy. you truly were elated to possibly be a student at one of the top private schools in texas or even the country. 

you wasted no more time informing your parents when they arrived home. they also thought you were just pulling their leg, but after you told them you had confirmation - you swear their jaws hit the floor. 

your parents were just as excited for you. your mother took the liberty of baking all your favorites in celebration, even lemon scones, which were your favorite.

before you knew it, summer was over, and it was time to get back into school. you spent the rest of your break prepping to attend heights - gathering books, supplies, and a uniform (which was mostly paid by the school). 

this was your first time wearing a uniform, and you were a bit delighted to wear it. it was a burgundy blazer with a navy crest embossed, with the school motto in latin, a white dress shirt, and a pleated plaid skirt. 

it screamed, "i go to a really expensive private school."

it was nerve-wracking that you were now going to school with some of the richest and elite children in america. you'd hope it wouldn't be obvious where your social class stood, or if it was, they wouldn't think of you any less for it.

you did your best to stray from stereotypical assumptions, but then again you've never interacted with people of a such higher social class - you really had no idea what to expect. 

nonetheless, you wanted to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, so you held your head up high when the first day came around. 

the school in no way looked like a regular public school, it shared way more similar qualities with college campuses. it was beautifully constructed, and you had a feeling the inside was even more stunning.

your parents dropped you off in front of the twin archways of the school, wishing you a good first day, and they were only a call away if you needed anything. you responded with your goodbyes and now stood on the pavement of heights day.

a part of you was glad your parents left so soon; you loved them to death, but their older modeled car stood out amongst the other deluxe cars parked and driving into school grounds. the last thing you wanted on your first day was to stick out like a sore thumb.

you took a deep breath before you took your strides through the front door.

you were happy to see no one gave you obvious looks and stares when you walked through, like those of a movie. everyone seemed preoccupied with their own things. you were silently thankful for that.

you made your way to the office on your own; luckily it was very near the front entrance with a big sign that said 'office of registrar'. making it very easy for you to find it without having to awkwardly ask another peer.

you walked to a desk of who you assumed was a secretary and gave her your name and stated your business. she instantly recognized your name and made a swift move to hand you your schedule.

the secretary informed you about the school's modular scheduling, which means they operate on a six-day cycle, and classes meet anywhere from three to five times a cycle. you were free to fit in lunch where you saw fit. you honestly didn't quite grasp it, but you figured you'd just learn along the way.

she also let you know another student had been assigned to show you around school. that's how you ended up meeting rebecca laughlin.

rebecca was a shy and a bit nervous girl, but seemed sweet nonetheless. you briefly got to know her as she showed you the different rooms; the archive room, the reflector (basically the cafeteria you realized), gym, the art center etc.

she was in the same grade as you, and had a twin sister named emily also in the school. from the small mention of her sister you sensed it was likely a sore subject. you took over from there talking a bit about yourself and your interests.

rebecca mentioned she was also new this year, having moved to texas just recently with her family but frequently visiting before that. she was able to go on a private tour with her sister over the summer, which is why she knew the place quite well already.

you two chatted a bit more until the tour ended. the last stop was the art center, and you were more than thrilled to go inside and check it out. rebecca was about to enter along with you before she saw her twin sister and people who you assume were her friends , a boy and a girl.

you turned around to glance at them and saw they were waving her over. you could tell rebecca was hesitant to just leave you for them, but you reassured her she provided an excellent tour. she reluctantly went off toward her friends, not before giving you her number and letting you know if you had any questions you could reach her.

you took a peak back at where rebecca and her friends were walking away. they all look straight out of a teen vogue catalog. emily was identical to rebecca, same red hair, eyes, and face. you could tell emily was more confident than rebecca however. there was another girl, dark eyes and even darker brown wavy hair - she was so beautiful it felt unreal. and lastly with them was a boy, he was quite tall, dark-skinned with light honey brown eyes, and a head full of curly hair. he was handsome and easily fit in with the rest of the model-looking girls.

you must've looked a second too long because he turned his head in your direction and you both made eye contact.

you quickly snapped your head away,not waiting for his reaction, and made your way to the arts center. you cursed yourself for being caught looking a bit, and now you were slightly embarrassed.

when you reached the arts center, you were amazed. it was a big building with different rooms, it was decorated as if was a museum, marble floors and pillars, archways, etc. and everything about it was engaging.

you took the time to explore the whole place; you found several different art rooms you assumed were open to students, different supply closest, classrooms for teaching, and even a few soundproof rooms. at some point you ran into a few teachers and got to know them and what they taught. you had a few of them in your schedule, so it was great to know where their classes were.

before you knew it, it was time for your first class and then eventually to your last of the day. for lunch you had opted to eat what you brought from home in the archive because you didn't feel like going through the anxiety of finding somewhere alone to sit in the refectory.

it ended up being ironic because you made a friend in there who was also eating lunch. you were sitting alone at small table when a blonde haired girl with her lunch approached you.

her name was mia, and you both instantly clicked. mia had noticed you eating at the table alone and thought she'd introduce herself since she hadn't since you on campus before. she was also a sophomore, seventeen, and she was part of height country day dance team.

she has almost always eaten in the archive since her freshman year; she enjoyed the quiet and privacy since few students ever ate or hung out there too long - you both had that in common.

after that great first meeting, the two of you became best friends. you would occasionally have a class or two with her depending on the schedule, but you both always made time to see each other throughout the day and eat lunch in the archive room.

she later on introduced you to a few of her other friends, that were now your friends as well. they were all pretty wealthy, but it didn't change the fact they were all genuine and friendly people. the fear of making friends at your new school was gone by the end of your first week.

that's set up the rest of your fantastic first year at heights country day school.

you fit in immediately with the art center and other art peers. you all carried the same passions, and it was very fun to learn from others. of course, you all intimidated to be around people so advanced and mostly rich, but it only pushed you to work even harder.

your teachers were all so great. they were also tough critiques, being professionals and all, but you took any critique you got with stride- making you a better artist.

your non-art-related classes were more difficult and work-loaded than you were use to, but you were quick to catch up with the rest of the class.

a few kids at school were stuck up and pretentious, but mostly the students weren't too far off from normal teenagers. and like high school there were cliques and popular people. you never bothered yourself with any of that, yet you always heard three reoccurring last names - hawthorne, laughlin, and calligaris.

you knew laughlin meant rebecca and emily, and it didn't take you long to figure out the other last names must belong to the other two people she was with during your first day. it made sense to you they were well-known, just their looks alone made you feel like they're superior to you.

you could've asked mia or literally paid attention to gossip around you if you wanted to know the first names of the boy & girl with the laughlins, but it honestly slipped your mind. frankly, you were too occupied with navigating your new school life to really care too much about it.

the most shocking event to happen that year was the dead of emily laughlin.

you weren't close friends with rebecca - you two did have a few chats and texts here and there; she once or twice joined mia and you in the archive. but you still felt horrible her sister died and felt the need to reach out.

you gave her your condolences when you saw her back at school, and let her know you were there for anything. she thanked you, but you could tell she needed space to grieve.

you still felt the need to do something, so you came up with the idea to make her a portrait and gifted it to her wrapped. you didn't see her reaction to it (she opened it when she got home), but she let you know she deeply appreciated it.

after that the rest of your year was quick to come and go. and before you knew it, it was summer again.

your summer stayed uneventful, but fun. you worked almost full-time with your mom in her bakery and spent time with your friends.

one afternoon, you were working the counter and you saw a familiar face walk in - a certain handsome, honey-eyed, curly-haired guy.

you greeted him as you normally did customers and asked for his order. he replied, asking for blueberry scones.

you nodded and went to get the scones from your display. that's when he spoke up again, commenting on how he'd seen you from school.

you were taken aback he’d remembered you but you nodded agreeing and replied you were new sophomore year.

"what happens to be your name, baker girl?"

"y/n. and what happens to be yours, new customer?"

he gave a dramatic offended look, hand over his heart - "you mean your telling me you don't know the name of the most dashing man at heights country day school?"

you shrugged, "i suppose not."

"when then i ought to fix that, the name is xander, milady," bowing down to give a kiss on the dorsal side of your hand.

oh he was charming alright. 

to hide your blushing face you busied yourself with packing his scones into a paper bag and rang him up to the register. 

"very serious question...how do you feel about blueberry scones?"

"they're good, but i think the lemon ones are better." 

you've never seen someone look so taken aback as xander did in that moment. he looked as if he'd just got the news his favorite boy band broke up. 

"are you alright-"

"what do you mean you prefer the lemon ones!"

xander then went into a tagent on blueberry scones stomp the lemon ones any day, and only psychos favored the lemons. you countered his claims, defending your favorite treat. you both were going back and forth until a bell rang throughout the bakery, signaling a customer has entered. 

"i suppose that's my sign to take my leave, but trust this debate is not over."

you rolled your eyes playfully, but you fought back a smile at the implication you two would speak again. 

he handed his black card to pay, and you tried not to look astonished at his casual display of the card. as you were swiping his card, he pulled a scone out of his brown bag and laid it on the counter in front of you. 

"here, it's my treat. this is the start of my fool-proof plan to convince you blueberry scones are far more superior." 

you tried to decline or offer him a refund for that scone, but ever the gentleman, he wouldn't allow it. he was out the door before you could protest anymore. leaving with a, "until we meet again," and a wink. 

you hated yourself for liking his annoying handsome beautiful smirk. 

as he requested, you did eat the scone. you admit blueberry is delicious, but nothing compared to the citrus of your lemon ones. plus, you found a new motivation to keep favoring them. 

that was the first of xander's many visits to the bakery that summer. always the same order, and always leaving one for you to eat. he really was on a mission to change your mind. 

sometimes out of spite you'd slip in a lemon scone into his bag to rile him up when he opened it. it always resulted in xander coming back the next day throwing a dramatic hissy fit. you kinda found it cute. 

you two continued your light banter about scones, but ventured into different topics such as school, hobbies, and exploding robots (his favorite topic). even as you worked behind the counter aiding customers, he was there talking your ear off. not that you minded at all, it was nice to have someone other than your mom to talk to. 

you found out xander was very smart; he builds replicas of star wars droids and was a three-time world champion at building machines. you'd never known someone with such intellect. whenever you brought it up, however, he'd brush it off saying it's a family thing and his brothers are much wiser. 

you briefly got a synopsis of his family, and it was quite intriguing. he had four half-brother; nash, grayson, and jameson - all sharing the same mother, but none of the boys' fathers seemed to be in the picture. all of them were basically raised by their grandfather, tobias hawthorne, who was obsessed with riddles and games. he sounded like an interesting man to say the least. 

you opened up to him a bit about your family and getting a scholarship into the school. which now looked not as impressive talking to a genius yet, xander was amazed at this, asking to see some of your work. 

you were suddenly self-conscious about your art. you thought a rich guy like himself probably had seen hundreds of artworks better than yours and done by people younger than your age. 

so, you lied and said you didn't have any pictures, and that you'll show him another time. you're gonna stall that as much as possible.

you guys later exchanged numbers, now being able to communicate outside your bakery hours during the week.

xander favorite thing was to spam you with pictures of himself eating blueberry scones, and you swore you were gonna block him everytime.

summer went by in a flash, and the school went back into session; you were entering your junior year. 

xander and you continued to hang out all the time, even more than you did with your own friends. he was always the one to find you around school, no matter the schedule you had that day.

he loved to sneak up on you and jump scare you, making your heart leap out your chest everytime. you would hit his arm in retaliation everytime and swore you were gonna unfriend him if he didn’t stop. you never actually did though.

xander made sure to pull you out your comfort zone. he sometimes dragged you (sometimes physically) to the refectory to go and eat with him. occasionally, his friends would join as well. rebecca was easy to talk to since you already knew her, and thea was…. complicated, but she had her good parts once she warmed up to you. 

you then demanded xander eat lunch with you and mia to compensate for eating at the refectory every now and then.

he obliged, but you told him it was better if he didn’t after he got kicked out the archive for talking loudly. he swore the archive keeper had it out for him.

he continued the ritual of giving you a blueberry muffin made by the chefs of his home. sometimes you'd bring your own lemon scone and give it to him, negotiating that you'll eat your scone if he eats his.

he'd always agree, but eat it begrudgingly. you swore he was warming up to the scone.

you two took your hangouts to after school. if you worked, it'd be at the bakery and if not, you'd go to the park and just walk.

you invited him over to your house one day after school, xander excitedly accepted. you were a bit nervous he'd think poorly of your home since you were sure he lived in a glorious mansion.

you introduced him to both of your parents, and they greeted him kindly, but your mom embarrassingly asked if he was your boyfriend.

you were quick to make a joke to cover your pink cheeks, "mom, we'd never work out we have complete different tastes in scones."

xander cut in, "well, you know what they say, opposites do attract."

was he flirting with you, or were you reading into it? and why did you like it.

xander ended up really enjoying your house; he even once said he found it more peaceful than his own. so, you guys now frequently hung out at your house after school to talk, banter, study, and or even help each other with projects.

even though you tried to avoid it, xander ending up seeing your art.

it was unintentional; you were seated at a table in an art space working on a sketch, of whatever came to mind, with your earphones in. you didn't hear xander walk in and call your name.

you noticed his presence when he swiped your drawing book. you quickly took out your earphones and tried to reach for it back, but he'd already seen your drawing. and to make matters worse it was a sketch of him.

you were mortified, but he just looked at it in admiration.

he asked if you made it, and you shyly said you had.

"can't believe you were trying to hide your talent from me. now, as an apology ur going to let me keep this."

you immediately said no, and went to take it out of his hand. but xander was quicker and took the page from the journal and held it above his head, out of reach.

after a lot of jumping to reach it, which was required because he's very tall, you gave up and let him have it. xander was pleased with that, and has carried it everywhere in his wallet since then.

he now always pestered you about your art, wanting to see it or wanting you to make a piece for him. you had to admit, you found it flattering.

to make it fair, you wanted to see him in action working on something. he was delighted to show you his robots, and some of his process making them.

you were amazed at his talent, but he could be careless at times.

for instance, you two were in the lab room and you were watching him working on a new formula to fuel his robots. he turned on bunsen burner and before you knew it, it exploded.

he ended up with a missing eyebrow, and you were laughing hysterically. you still have pictures of him without it much to xander's dismay.

you knew you'd grown a crush on the charismatic guy, but you were too scared to admit it.

you weren't sure if he felt the same way, and a part of you felt silly for even thinking he would.

you confided in mia about it, and she was convinced xander was head over heels for you. but you still weren't quite sure, and you didn't want to damage a really good friendship.

in middle of october, xander's grandfather, tobias hawthorne passed away.

he wasn't at school that day, but you assumed he was out sick or doing something important. it wasn't until you heard the news from peers talking about it did you put it together.

you immediately sent him a text sending your condolences and asked if he needed anything.

you didn't hear from him for the rest of the week, which worried you - but you knew, like rebecca, people tend to want their space when loved ones pass.

it was a friday night, you were studying for an upcoming test in your world history class on monday, when you hear a sound from your window.

you ignored it at first thinking it was a wondering animal or just trees against each other. but then you heard it repeatedly, and you realized it was sounding more like a tap against the glass.

you carefully slid your curtains from the window and took a peak outside. you then came face to face with the boy you hadn't seen all week.

it took you a moment to register it was him, you yelped at the first sight of someone outside. but then he started motioning for you to open the window and then you noticed it was xander hawthorne.

you unlatched the lock on your window and slide it open enough he could fit through. but it didn't stop him from tripping on your window still and falling onto the ground with a 'thud'.

"shh! my parents might've heard that!"

"wow, instead of helping a poor fallen man up, you scold him. what ever happened to warm hospitality?"

you ignored him and held your hand out to help him up. once he was stood up, you waited for him to explain why he was here.

he went on to say he didn't have a specific reason, he just needed to get out of his mansion home. "the first place i thought of to go was here, with you."

you swore your heart leaped when he said that. you were praying to whoever was listening that your face wasn't a tomato. how do you even respond to such a heartfelt statement?

luckily, you didn't need to respond to that because he was quick to follow up his words.

"actually, you seem to be the first person i think about every day. no matter what i'm doing, I'll start to think of what'd you be saying if you were there. anytime i see the sunset, my thought shifts to what it look like if you painted it. hell, i've even found myself eating, yes eating, lemons scones because they bring me reminiscence of you."

xander crept closer as his words flowed out. and you were frozen to your spot. heart pounding louder as he took another step closer to you - leaving less than a foot of space between the two of you.

unsure of how to react you said the first thing that came to mind.

"well, uh, maybe you should think about inflation that usually keeps my mind busy." idiot. why do you open your big mouth.

xander gives you a grin, obviously amused at your nervous rambling like the little jerk he is. he was so close to you, you were embarrassed at the possibility he could he your heart pounding.

he moves his right hand to the side of your face, brushing his thumb over your cheek - eyes never leaving yours. you didn't have the strength to look away or even move, as if he was a vampire who compelled you to stay still.

"i've never known someone to get red so easily as you."

you then realized how much of your face was burning, and then after that statement it heated up even further. stupid nervous system.

"i didn't think your face could get a deeper scarlet than it was a moment ago," he laughs, "it's quite adorable honestly."

oh, god. this guy had your heart fluttering at after calling you adorable.

"i wonder how red you'll get when i kiss you."

you did not have a moment to process what xander utter because at the next second his collided his lips upon yours.

nothing prepared you for how exhilarating kissing him felt. your knees gave out a little, and xander was quick to keep you steady. you weren't even ashamed, stuck in a trance by the kiss. it was as if a scene from a jane austen novel had come to life.

boy, was he a good kisser. it was unfair really, how perfect he could he at anything he wants.

when the two of you pulled away, he was the first to speak up.

"you're about as red as crayon right now."

that was enough to bring you back to reality and shove him.

immediately after that night, the two of you began dating.

at first you thought it was unsaid that the both of you were now dating, but you should've known better than to believe xander hawthorne would take the subtle way.

the following monday you were in the refectory waiting on xander, who'd ask you to meet him there. however, you hadn't seen him yet, so you just sat down at an open table.

suddenly, you hear some sort of a mechanical noises coming from behind you. you turned you heard toward it and nothing could have prepared you to see a life sized R2-D2 robot gliding straight towards you - holding flowers in its utility arm.

what the hell was in your breakfast that morning?

when it made it way in front of you, you were completely stunned. you could feel the gazes of people in the room also witnessing this. the robot look scarily realistic to the ones in the star wars movies, xander really was a genius.

the robot extended another arm to reveal a small envelope. you took it in your own hand, along with the flowers.

WILL YOU BE MY GIRLFRIEND?

a. yes

b. a

c. kiss me

you rolled your eyes at his antics, maybe genius was an overstatement. then you noticed some scribble at the bottom.

p.s. NUTR NUAORD

at first sight of the words - you thought you were having a stroke, but then you figured out you had to unscrambled it to reveal the words 'TURN AROUND'.

of course, xander was always one for puzzles.

you follow the directions of the note and saw the man himself standing before you with a basket full of both lemon and blueberry scones.

"a tough choice, i know. personally, option c is the most appealing."

you wanted to smack the smugness of out him, but instead you opted to answer with letter c.

dating xander was chaotic to say the least, but you wouldn't have it any other way.

you two were never allowed to go on ordinary dates, xander always made sure they were memorable.

for your first date he took you to an escape room, but reserved the whole thing just for the two of you. xander was obviously a pro at the game, but you were quick to figure things out as well. the two of you got the quickest escape time.

at the end of it, he gifted you gold chained necklace with an 'x' and a golden key. you wore it all the time after.

another time you were taken to a amusement park, also reserved for the two of you. you clung on to xander on the scariest rides, much to his enjoyment. it wasn't until the end you saw how there had been pictures taken of you both while on the rides - your expression being fear on almost all of them while your arm was tight grabbing xander's. of course his face was just his charming giant grin of excitement.

he made sure to keep them all and put it as had lock screen despite how much you told him not to.

xander was now way more lenient about the lemon scone thing, and you can proudly say he even enjoys them now. nonetheless, the tradition at lunch is still on-going.

the most nerve wracking part of your relationship was meeting his family.

you learned just how rich xander and his family are. you knew he came from a lot of money, but you were never informed he was related to a billionaire. you couldn't comprehend how having that much money was possible, but xander, of course, acted nonchalant about the whole thing. rich people.

his brothers were all pleasant to meet. nash was the nicest, similar to his brother, he was a charmer with a country accent. grayson was more closed off, and didn't say a lot, but greeted you nicely. jameson, was a wild card, he was a bit drunk, but everyone collectively chose to remain obvious to it. he was also very flirty with you, but you knew it was mainly to annoy xander.

apparently it worked because the following day jameson was found with green hair.

you were introduced to his aunt and mother. his aunt was also pleasant, keeping greeting formal. his mother was.... interesting... the interaction was small, but based on some remarks and backhanded compliments; she looked down on your lower status. xander was quick to defend you and apologize after.

you later were asked to open the front door with a jumble of keys that all looked the same. you assumed this was suppose to be a test of some sort, but you weren't a mastermind at puzzles games like the other hawthornes.

instead, you found a big rock near the front entrance and smashed it against the door locks until they broke.

the brothers looked all bewildered at your action. xander was the first to burst out laughing, come around you to wrap and arm on your shoulder and kiss your forehead.

"that's my girl. who needs logic when you have big rocks."

xander was your biggest supporter in everything. he loved every piece of art you made, and never let you scrap or throw any of it anyway. anything you ever drew or painted him, he would keep it framed and hung in a section of his room dedicated to your work.

he shows up to every art show you have, bragging to people around how his amazing girlfriend painted the work. you always blush in embarrassment, but it never failed to make you happy.

you showed the same support for his activities as well. you cheered him on at my robotic competitions and you were his assistant in helping with small tasks during his building and experiments.

xander made robots were mainly made for doing simple things in overly complicated ways. he also occasionally gifted you robots for small annoying tasks you would offhandedly mention to him.

for instance, xander was walking you to your next class, carrying your backpack as he always insisted it was his job to do. you joked about how you wished he was always around to carry your stuff so your arms wouldn't be so tired.

a few weeks later he gave you a small robot designed to carrying items such as a backup and books. he even gave it wheels so it could follow you around the school like a puppy.

with xanders extroverted personality, it shouldn't surprised you he is not opposed to any PDA. which thea always gags to in the background if she's there to witness it.

he always has his arm around you, preferably your waist, or interlocks your hands together. he loves to gives you random kisses on the forehead or cheek. xander's favorite thing is to surprise you with a kiss on the lips in public, just so he can see you blush.

your first time with xander was very romantic and he made sure it would be. there were candles all over his bedroom and rose petals scattered on the ground. 

although xander was known for being a bit cocky, he was just as nervous as you that night, wanting to make everything special just for you. 

once he made sure you were comfortable - it was like a switch flipped - his cocky persona was back ten fold. 

let’s just say the next day you couldn’t feel your legs, nor could you hide the multiple purple marks left on you. 

of course, ever the gentlemen he was - he made you breakfast in bed the next morning. 

you were even more shocked to find out that was his first time. why is he miraculously good at everything?  

you hung out a lot more at the hawthorne mansion, xander showed you different passages around it. the house was so huge it felt like you've only ever seen 50% of it.

you grew closer to the other hawthorne brothers, taking part in family game night. you after a game of their version of chutes and ladders, you were quick to turn down some offers to play a game.

you also became good friends with avery grambs, you had first met her at the will reading, xander inviting you for moral support. you related to how out of place her and her sister felt around highly rich people.

the events of the will were shocking, but you were happy to find out she'd be sticking around. her moving into the mansion made it easier to hang out with her. you helped her adjust to heights country day and became close.

you and xander both helped avery with what you could in solving the clues his grandather left behind for avery and the hawthornes. although, you kept quiet about the fact xander knew a lot more than he was telling.

however, xander was reluctant to let you join them on anymore research after almost getting shot at when you went along with avery and jameson.

you’d never seen him so mad at his brother, cursing him up and down for putting you in that situation.

xander was insistent for you to stay behind from then on, but you relented and kept tagging along with the others on their little scavenger hunts. xander realized he couldn’t stop you, so he forbid you from going on any clue hunts without him by your side.

it was cute how protective he was, but a little annoying too.

one day you were walking around the mansion with xander looking for jameson, who had wondered off to who knew where. you came across an unfamiliar office. you had asked xander who it belonged to and he informed you it was his grandfathers, now technically avery's.

the two of you entered the office space, you figured xander was curious if anything had changed since his grandfather's passing or if he had maybe left another clue behind.

you were looking around until you eyes came across something behind his desk - a large portrait of who you assumed was tobias hawthorne. upon further inspection, you came to realize another thing.

you painted this portrait.

"holy shit."

even beyond the grave tobias hawthorne keeps on spurring surprises.

[doudouneverte]

A family of three...and more

a/n: where are the Maya Lopez fics?

*not my GIF*

Pairing: Maya Lopez x Fem!reader

Summary: you propose to your girlfriend with something on your mind

Type: Fluff

warning: nothing

word count: 2551

note: bold=ASL, this take place before Hawkeye

------------

Maya put her phone back in her pocket while she was looking for cheese. A few minutes later, she was on her way to the cashier when two people blocked her way. They were visibly arguing, but she didn't have time for that. She just wanted to walk away, but one of them was blocking the way through the cashier.

Maya: I'm at the grocery store do you want anything?

You: just some cheese. i want to make pizza tonight

Maya: 👍

You: love you, i have to go now but i'll be home around 7pm

You: and please be careful on the road

Maya: like usual 🙄

Any other person would choose another cashier, but for her, it was not an option. Not for Maya, at least. It was the only member of staff who knew ASL and cared to communicate with her.

She sighed and decided to make another lap in the grocery store while the people finished what they were doing. Only two minutes later, she finally made her way to the cashier.

'Hello, Maya.' Sophie, the cashier said signed. Earning a smile from the other woman.

'Hello' Maya signed back. They 'talked' for a moment before your girlfriend needed to leave.

Maya took a detour home before she had to return to work. At work, things seemed better than at the grocery store, but even there, people seemed to argue about something she didn't care about. But even like that, two of her men caught her attention. The way their hands were moving made her look at them, even if she knew that neither of them used ASL.

It's something she has developed since she started falling for you. Every time you were rambling (even if you knew she couldn't hear you), your hands moved frenetically. At first, Maya found it disturbing because she really wanted to understand what you were signing, but your movements were incoherent. But as time passed, she started to like it because it was like your body was trying to tell her a story that you were completely unaware of.

"Guys, what are you doing here?" Kazi asked, making the two men stop.

"We were trying to know what we should order between sushi and tacos." One of them said making the man roll his eyes.

"And we thought that we should ask the boss because she's responsible here." the other man said.

"Does it seem that she's listening to you?" Kazi asked, and the three looked to Maya, who was smiling on her phone.

Maya was pouting before Kazi caught her attention. 'Are you okay?' she nodded. 'Do you want sushi or tacos?'

You: i'm bored right now

Maya: and what should i do?

You: i don't know i just want to be with you right now

You: do you think about me?

Maya: i always think about you 🙄

You: ther's a customer i need go

Maya: okay i love you

You: me too 😍

'Whatever' she brushed it off.

The rest of her day was like usual, except that you didn't text her frequently. Back at home, the boss of the tracksuit mafia was trying to distract herself while she was waiting for you. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait too long before the front door opened.

You: I'm home

Sensing her phone vibrating next to her, she looked at the text before rushing to the front door. You were getting rid of your shoes when you felt two arms wrap around you. Maya pushed her head on your shoulder, and you could feel her smile. She didn't waste time before spinning you and landing small pecks on your face.

'Hello'

'I missed you' You rolled your eyes at your girlfriend but smiled again.

Maya always acted differently when you were home, she switched from her bossy personality to a more bubbly one (even if she didn't like when you told her that the first time). She was a little clingy, but always there to help you with anything.

'How was your day?' She followed you into the kitchen.

'Cool' she nodded and laid against the counter while you were starting to make dinner. Maya stayed there on her phone, checking that everything was okay, before you caught her attention.

Your hands were shaking a little, and your throat was a little sore, but you gathered your courage and started to sign.

'You. Me. Marriage? Her eyes get wide open, and her mouth opened and closed a few times without sound. She was visibly stunned.

'What?'

"I know that we didn't talk about it, but I thought about it, and also today at work, I…" You were rambling and started to pace in front of your girlfriend while your hands were trying to translate everything.

After a few seconds and with your lungs almost totally empty, you looked at Maya, who was lost in her thoughts. Her eyes were on you like usual, but you knew that she was not there.

"Maya?" You signed while you shot her name. She didn't respond, so you placed your hand on her cheek, drifting her back into reality. 'Are you okay?'

'Wait.' She laid a hand on your shoulder and looked at you. 'Can you repeat, please?'

'I want to marry you' It was not the first time you talked about marriage and stuff, but now it was different. She could feel that. Your eyes were not leaving hers; you were shy but fully determined, and despite your scared/stressed expression, she could see the little spark in your eyes and the anticipation in your gaze.

'Are you proposing?'

'Well. Yes, but I don't have a ring. At least not yet.'

'Then find one and I'll give you my answer.' she replied with a cocky smile.

Later that night, you were lying on your bed watching a movie (with subtitles) when Maya thought about something. She slapped your arm a few times to gain your attention, making you look at her a little confused.

'Can I ask you why you proposed? I love you, and you love me, but we both know that's not the only reason.' You sighed and took a moment to decide if you should tell her the truth, but you really want to marry her, and you don't want to start your new life on a lie.

'Okay, it's a little long. Let me write it to you.'

~~~~

The previous week

It was a Tuesday like any other; you were at work in your library. It was the moment of your week when you would close earlier because you made a deal with an orphanage in the city, which made you spend an afternoon reading books to the children.

However, this day you noticed a new addition in the little orphan's library. A baby girl, she was only two months old, and she focused her attention on the children and the people who were surrounding her.

When you started to read, her eyes almost immediately searched for the origin of the new voice, and she giggled a little when she saw you. Hearing that, you raised your eyes to the infant to see her beaming a toothless smile at you.

It was not a surprise that you wanted kids at some point in your life, and Maya was aware of that. You talked a lot about that, even though you knew she was a little unsure if she was able to raise a child properly.

Your wish for a kid was one of the reasons that you spent every Tuesday afternoon reading books to those children. The other one, was that you were also an orphan after losing your parents when the Avengers fought Ultron in Sokovia.

Before leaving, you asked for more information about the baby. You learned that her name was Zoe. Her mother died in a car accident, and her father gave up every rights on her a week after his wife's death.

You came back on Saturday to spend more time with the children while your girlfriend was doing her usual missions. Then you asked if there was a chance for you to adopt Zoe. Nina, a woman working there, told you that she would need to talk to the caregiver about that, and she would organize a meet-up with them for your next visit.

Earlier that day.

After reading the last book of the day, you had your meeting with the caregiver. You prepared a solid file over the weekend and were a little nervous when they consulted it.

After they rode that, they told you that every member of the orphanage talked good about you and about how your reading time was the favorite moment of the kids in the week. The only thing that they were a little reserved about was your situation.

"Listen, Ms. Y/l/n, I'm sure that you would be one of the best people to adopt the little Zoe; you seem to be a really good person, and I'm sure you will be a good mother. But unfortunately, I'm not the one who can approve that alone. We will need to send your request to the children's court. They will examine your files again, and if anything seems alright, that will send a representative to check everything." You nodded while mentally noting every piece of information.

"And I don't think it will change a thing, but I know that they usually tend to be more relaxed when it's a married couple who makes the request." They explained.

"Well, you mean that there is a chance that they won't validate my request if I'm not married?"

"Honestly, there is a chance that they will refuse your request even if you're married, but I know that it helped some people. But of course I don't want to force anything."

"No it's okay. Thank you for letting me know. I'll try my best to make them accept that. See you next week." You said before leaving the office.

~~~~

'I see' Maya signed before opening her arms to give you a hug.

'But you don't have to accept if you don't want to have a child.' You said after you pulled away.

'No, I want that. Yes, I found it a little surprising to potentially be mom right now, but yeah, I want that with you.' Her statement eased your mind, but it also reminded you of the little age gap between you. Of course, it's not a big one, but it's just enough to have different visions of things sometimes. 'Do you think we have time to organize everything before they actually send your file? Because I want to marry you before that.'

You gave a big smile and crashed your lips against hers. The rest of the night was filled with…intimate moments, and Maya definitely deserved that.

After a talk with your friends and the tracksuit mafia, you decided to get married only two months later, so you could have time to organize everything. Much to your surprise, Maya was very implied in that. It was not uncommon for you to come back with a sleepy Maya on some wedding dress catalogs.

The D-day was perfect. Not having a lot of family members you were close with made this more 'easier'. Your best friend Julia was the one who escorted you to the altar, while Maya was escorted by Wilson Fisk. With Kazi as a priest (which, by the way, doesn't really fit him very well), things couldn't be better. You exchanged vows, you kissed, and you cried, which made your newlywed wife cry too.

Two weeks later, you were back from your honeymoon, and you brought Maya with you to the orphanage the next Tuesday afternoon. The boss of the mafia spent all her time with Zoe after she met her. Something that didn't go unnoticed by the director.

After a moment, they invited you two into their office to announce to you that the judge had accepted your request, and now the next step was to prove to whoever they'd send to you that you could be the best parents for her.

The date was given a few days later; you'd meet them in the next two weeks, which gave you just enough time to finish the nursery room with the help of Maya and the whole tracksuit. Some of them gave you some furniture their kids didn't use anymore; some even gave you a book about 'how to raise a child for the noobs' that made you laugh, but not your wife.

With the time this group became a second family to you, they always had your wife back and made sure that she didn't overwork and always came back safe in your arms. You liked them, and it was reciprocal; they called you the boss' wife, or Mrs. Lopez, even before you and May talked about plans for the future.

So when they learned that you were about to potentially become a mom, they helped you move all the stuff for the nursery and hide almost all the guns in the process.

When Maria, who worked for the child protection services, finally met you and Maya, it was like everything finally became real.

It took three visits from Maria and almost six months before you reached your last steps. A trial with the judge.

Of course, being the man he is, Wilson tried to pay the judge, but you convinced him to give up. If you couldn't convince them to let you two adopt Zoe, then maybe you didn't deserve to be a mom.

It's needless to say that the D-day you were more than stressed. You had this bad feeling in your stomach—a feeling that you tried to push away by making out with Maya in the car before steeping in the court. Despite her surprise, your wife didn't push you and complied with the kisses until you were ready.

The whole trial was like a big mission for Maya, a mission that she knew she couldn't miss because it was for your both happiness. But you were not alone there. There was the gang, Wilson, the kids, and the staff of the orphanage. Everyone was there to support you, which helped ease your mind.

Five hours. It took you five hours before the judge could give you their verdict. And the entire court exploded with cheer when they announced that they had accepted your request and that you would finally be officially the little Zoe's parents.

Back at home with your now-eighty-month-old daughter, nothing could match the joy and excitement you both felt.

'It's finally over' Maya signed before crashing on the couch.

"Yeah, finally," you repeated. You watched as Zoe yawned, visibly tired of the previous. Seeing this, your wife took her from your hand and headed to the nursery, but before she could let her on the crib, you grabbed the end of her shirt, making her look at you a little confused.

'Let her sleep in the bed with us just today.' You signed and pouted to try to convict her.

Maya just smiled and nodded.

You ended up taking a nap with your new daughter between you and Maya. You both had a wide smile, and you preyed that thing could stay like that forever.

[sl-ut]

i'd love to see your take on abby having a crush on a deaf or hoh girl, if you could ever write that!

more college!abby

abby's not the type of girl to be more or less interested in someone just because they were born a certain way. she recognised that she was born into a life with a lot of privilege that a lot of people cannot afford; she was pretty, white, rich, and was smart enough that she would probably end up curing cancer some day. a lot of people thought very highly of her because of this, very few people were willing to opt out of the oppression olympics, but abby didn't think she needed to be rewarded for being a decent fucking human being.

when she met y/n, she didn't initially recognise that she was hoh. the girl had her hood up, protecting herself from the light drizzle that had been falling all morning. abby knew her from around campus, and remembered seeing her around with nora from time to time, not to mention that she made poor abby's heart just about leap out of her chest. after taking a few moments to break out her gaydar, she decided to strike up a conversation.

at first, she felt dejected at the lack of response. maybe she had read her wrong? abby didn't like to gloat, but she had a pretty good gaydar, and most girls were dying to get a chance with her.

she left her alone, thankfully not seeing her again for a few days after nursing her bruised ego. the next time that she did see her, she decided that it was best to ask nora about her, not so discreetly asking whether or not she liked girls. nora laughed at her, saying that the two would make a perfect pair with how blind abby must have been; she could be y/n's ears while y/n could be her eyes.

the joke was a tad insensitive, but it was then that abby noticed the small device tucked into the girl's ear. everything suddenly made sense, the girl hadn't been ignoring her, she simply hadn't heard her!

so abby tried again, this time approaching her from the front so that she could make her presence known. she took note of the little habits that y/n had, watching the shape of her mouth as she spoke, so she made sure to really sound out her words and avoid slang as much as possible to make sure that she could really understand her. she even had a small understanding of asl, and would break it out if needed (though she was a bit rusty, and probably ended up calling her a screwdriver or something while she was trying to flirt with her).

once things get rolling, she reached out to her dad, asking him what kinds of things she could do to help ease through the communication barrier, and will definitely ask y/n directly to teach her asl. she's not gonna let a hearing impairment get in the way of her getting the girl of her dreams.

[onepiece-asl-lover]

Reader my au x ASL Trio

Part 6 "Confess the truth and a new family member"

TW:TRAUMA AS ALWAYS, Passing out, cussing but is seriously just "hell", becoming shorter than your younger siblings, confessing the truth, (slavery, human branding, only explanations not actually happening here)

You were walking, hoping to see where Ace, Sabo and Luffy was. You kept walking and walking, exhaustion coming over you as you kept walking.

You heard some shouting in the distance, as you crepted closer and closer you recognized the voices..Ace and Luffy. You kept walking until you could see them. They were banging heads together arguing as Sabo looked from the side.

Sabo turned around and when he saw you his eyes widen.

"Y/N!" Sabo shouted catching the attention of Luffy and Ace.

"Damn it.." Ace whispered as he ran over to where you were standing, Sabo supporting you.

"Y/N are you okay what happened!" Luffy cried.

"Of course she's not okay look at her, idiot" Ace argued.

You had cuts and bruises all over your body your dress ripped in half (You have pants underneath) and burn marks all over your body from the ink.

You barely smiled as you saw all three of them.

"Hey you're all alright, glad you're all safe-* exhaustion washed over your body like a bullet hitting your head as you slumped over, Ace getting a hold of you before you fell.

"This is bad..Sabo help me treat her, Luffy stay aside"

30 minutes later

You woke up, as you opened your eyes. You were laying in the grass, bandages all over your body. You saw that the chains and collars came off, probably because of the ink. You sat up to look around to see what happened.

"Last I remember I was talking to Ace,Sabo and Luffy." You thought.

Suddenly you felt something crash into you from behind.

"Y/N! I thought you were dead!" You knew that voice, it was Luffy now he was just crying on your shoulder.

"Hey Y/N, your okay! How do you feel?" you heard from behind. You turned around and saw Sabo running towards you.

You then saw Ace who was behind Sabo with and relief-panicked look. They all sat in front of you except Luffy who kept hugging you, looking at you.

"I'm alright, just got tired that's all." You said to them.

...they all look at each other and nod.

"Alright what gives, what happened back there, why did you look so diffrent" Ace said in a stern tone.

Your breath hitched as you took a deep breath, this is where all the confusion starts.

"It is my devil fruit, the ink ink beast fruit. I can make diffrent objects, and many other things, I haven't learned to control yet, that's why I made you guys leave"

"...."

You pulled up your dress that's basically just a shirt now. There was the Celestial Dragon branding on your back.

"Celestial dragons..." Sabo mumbled.

"Yes, I use to be a slave since I was 6 when I've got my devil fruit powers, I was brought as a slave when my father abandoned me thinking I was a threat. Staying with the Celestial Dragons and having a devil fruit wasn't fair." You choked on your words as you try to keep your composure. "They did diffrent experiments and made go through challenges that will "help" me". "I haven't been able to use my fruit due to the "doctors" restricting it, so today I used it because I wasn't able to control it"...."I told you guys to leave because..because..I was scared that I'll hurt you guys or you guys will leave me for dead, and at the moment you left, I lost control...and in the moment It felt like..I was already dead."... "I-im sorry that I-" Ace cuts you off.

"Idiot, don't apoligize it's not your fault this happened"

"Ace is right, and whatever it is we will always still be your friends not matter what happens" Sabo added.

"Ya!" Luffy shouted.

You nodded as you looked down tears falling down you cheek as you choked on your words.

"T-thank you.."

Luffy stretched his arm out and grab Ace and Sabo and pulled them into a group hug with you. Ace trying to get out the hug.

"GROUP HUG!"

"Oi, let me go!"

After a few seconds he joined in, but mostly just hugged you.

Luffy chuckled as he wrapped his rubbery arms around you all. You smiled..a real smiled. You wiped your eyes with your sleeves,looking around, seeing Sabo, Ace, and Luffy but something felt off. Luffy letting go of all of you guys giggling. Ace letting go of the hug but still holding your hand.

"In case you forgot, Bluejam and his buddies are bound to come looking for us after what happened. Like Ace said he doesn't care if were children he'll still kill us" Sabo spoke up.

"Yeah" Ace said

"This forest I've been living in is too close to the Bluejam hideout, what if I one day I'm to tired, sleep a little too hard and they find me" Sabo questioned.

"You're dead" Ace replied in a netural tone, you and Luffy nod.

"Definitely" you added.

"Yes, so I need your help"

Sabo gestured for you all to stand up for a group circle. You all stood up and when you turned to Ace you weren't looking down to look at him, instead you were looking up..you were shorter than him now.

Luffy turned to look at you only to see you were his hight.

"Eh! Y/N when were you short!" Luffy exlaimed.

"Luffy what ar- what the" Ace said.

"That's weird, how did Y/N become smaller." Sabo asked.

"..its probably the side effects of my powers when it looses control."

"Probably" ace said.

"Such a weird side effect" Sabo confessed.

You nodded.

"Ok, we need to have a plan about Bluejam and where I'm suppose to go."

You guys go into a group circle talk.

"I have a idea" Sabo spoke. As you all listened to him.

Next morning

All the Mountain Bandits look at the four sleeping kids in front of the.

"What is with all the bandages have they been fighting bears or somthing" one of the Motain Bandits spoke up.

"That isn't the problem" Mogara says.

"Hey boss come quick, this isn't good" one of the Mountain Bandits shouted.

"Give me a second its early" she replied.

...

"Uh! What have these brats been up to now!

She started head counting you four.

"1-2-3 huh?, 1-2-3 huh? Hold on a second. Ace,Luffy,Y/N huh? Ace,Luffy,Y/N huh?" "Ok, ok let's figure this out. Ace,Luffy,Y/N huh? Ace,Luffy,Y/N huh? Ace,Luffy,Y/N huh?

"Ace, Luffy, Y/N who is that new kid with you!" Dadan shouted.

"Who what?" Luffy sat up just only to slump down again.

"Come on, it's early, quite down will you? Ace also sat up just to slump down again.

"Who now?" You said, just to slump down like the others.

Sabo also sat up just to slump down like everyone one of you guys.

"Three brats is already to many. Who the hell are you!"

Sabo stands up scratching the back of his head.

"You mean me? Oh right I'm Sabo." Sabo replies

"Ace friends I see"

"Oh good, it's like I'm already living here, you must be Dadan, hi ya"

"Living here? Listen up kid nobody said you could live here"

Sabo farts

"Dont answer me with a fart!"

Farts again

"Hey suit farting in my house! You just as worthless as those other three lowlife mooching off me!

"Oh yeah, I heard you were a worthless hag yourself" Sabo farts AGAIN

The Moutain Bandits falls over due to disbelief.

"Who you pull that one more time, you're out of here. Actually you're out anyways, I'm not watching and more brats!"

"I also heard you're a nice old hag that wouldn't leave a kid like me to die in the forest"

"Huh?!"

"And you're a tough hag too, so I'll be sure to mind my manners (total lie)"

"Okay the tough part is true, but stop calling me a hag,you stupid brat."

Sabo giggles as he looks at Dadan.

Dadan grits her teeth but eventually retreats and sighs.

"Luffy, Ace, Y/N , Sabo, there aren't any free rides here so you better pull your part around here and be grateful"

"You got it, thank you"

Sabo nods as Dadan storms off with the other Mountain Bandits.

AN: I'll make a part 7 on Wednesday so stay tuned

[creative-caramel-coffee]

The Bear ch 5

Pairings: Wanda x R

Word count: 3.9K

Summary: You join your uncle tony in the avengers, it wasn’t your original plan but you never planned for your powers either so here you are. Now your at the avengers tower and falling for the girl of your dreams. With a haunting past and interesting abilities can you navigate your way through the challenges of being a hero? After a mission gone wrong and a cruel twist of fate the team starts digging for answers. Can tony keep them from finding out the truth?

TW: none really, canon typical violence (I guess?)

A/n Sorry this took so long im already working on chapters 6 and 7

PART 1 || PART 2 || PART 3 || PART 4 || PART 5 || PART 6 || PART 7

You stood with Nat and Wanda at the front of the meeting room. Eyes downcast you fidgeted with your fingers only stopping when nat took your hand to hold it in order to stop you. Nat begun to explain squeezing your hand as your eyes were trained on your shoes. Wanda and nat carefully studied the face around the table. Taking note of the different reactions for later.

Steve just looked confused. Clint looked happy that he had someone else to sign with. Tony looked proud. Sam looked unbothered. Bruce looked excited about something new to study. Thor looked busy with his pop tarts. Peter smiled at you softly which you didn’t see. He was kind and understanding. Bucky looked sympathetic knowing how it felt to not be able to talk due to his own past with hydra torture. Wanda looked protective and nat just looked slightly exhausted.

After she finished explaining there was a brief silence in which peter shot you a thumbs up which you responded with the same thing still not wanting to talk.

“So is she nonverbal right now?” Steve asked not fully understanding and you nodded. “So how does she communicate then?” He asked and you signed a quick joke about Steve being old and confused to Clint who laughed. “Oh she does the hand thing too?” Steve said having seen Natasha and Clint signing before in the past.

“Yes the ‘hand thing’” Nat said “or sign language is what she uses when she doesn’t want to talk”

“So she doesn’t want to or cant talk?” Steve said.

“Depends.” Nat shrugged.

There were a few more questions mainly from Steve and some from Bruce as he wanted to make sure he had all the medical or mental accomodations he could have there for you if you needed them. Peter was eager to learn sign language now and had already started to bother tony into getting him a tutor. Bucky was now explaining it again to Steve who was still confused and tony and Bruce were now discussing alternate methods for coms now it was more than just Clint that needed a new method. While the team was engaged in their own little conversations about you and the new topic, Wanda noticed you starting to struggle under all the attention. It wasn’t bad but you simply hadn’t expected such a kind reaction and acceptance to come so easily.

When she saw tears gathering in your eyes she assumed the worst. Unable to know how grateful you were. Gently she took your hand and motioned for nat to follow as she broke off her ASL conversation with Clint. Carefully Wanda led you from the room with nat in tow. The two women led you back to the room and Wanda grabbed you sketchbook while you sat on the bed. They knew what you needed and you drew while snuggled in Wanda’s arms. Wanda lifted your chin gently to look at her.

“Are you ok my love? Was that too much?” She asked concerned at the tears still glossing your eyes. Without responding you held up the drawing. It was the team in the meeting room. But instead of seeing anything bad Wanda saw the looked of love on the faces you had drawn.

“Never expected them to be so kind about it.” You whispered and Wanda pulled you into her.

“Always my love. Always. We are your family and we love you.” She kissed the top of your head as she felt your small tears dot her sleeves.

the rest of the day you stayed in your room with Wanda. nat went to go brainstorm with tony how to tell the team about your past.

You were sat on your bed cuddling with Wanda and watching some sit com, but you weren’t really paying much attention. You were curling Wanda’s red hair around your finger and fiddling with the strands, she didn’t mind she quite liked it really. You were laid against Wanda side with your head resting on her chest.

“I love you Wanda.” You said. After a moment you realised what you said. “Shit sorry that just kinda slipped out. I get its a bit early and I-“ you started rambling but Wanda quietened you with a chaste kiss to the lips. She placed a hand on the back of your head and pulled the rest of your body so you were now laid on top of her looking into her eyes with your chin resting in her middle chest.

“I love you too Y/n/n” she said and placed another kiss on your nose which responded with a twitch that was like a bunny. Wanda grinned at the cuteness and proceeded to pepper your face with small kisses. You squealed and buried your face in her neck feeling her chest vibrate with her laughter. Playfully you lightly slapped her arm which one encouraged her laughter you were bright red now when Wanda peeled you away from her neck and cooed at the redness in your cheeks.

“I love you pumpkin.” She said and you squealed when she flipped you over and began tickling your sides.

“I y-yield. I-I yield.” You said through a fit of laughter. Wanda pulled you in and kissed your forehead.

Once more you found yourself in the crook of her arm after you formed a truce and you were dozing lightly in her arms when there was a knock on the door. Wanda frowned as she saw you rub your eyes with your fist.

“Come in.” You said. The door opened and Nat walked in. “Hi Natty.” You smiled and Nat greeted you and Wanda.

“So i spoke to tony.” She said and you groaned.

“Nothing good ever follows the words ‘I spoke to tony’” you whined and Wanda giggled. Nat rolled her eyes.

“Well he wants you to stay in the compound or with someone at all times. He’s worried now hydra knows your alive they’ll attack and try to get you back.” Wanda felt you stiffen against her when Nat said hydra and she hugged you tighter to ground you.

“T-thank you Nat.” You said neither of them missed your nervous stutter. Nat placed a soothing hand on your thigh and used her thumb to rub up and down to calm you.

“It’ll be ok Y/n/n Wanda or I will be with you at all times. Your safe here.” Nat said and you gave them a weak watery smile. “Alright enough sadness who wants to train with me?” Nat asked standing.

“I could use some training.” You said.

“Me too.” Wanda echoed the sentiment.

“Alright I’ll meet you both down there in fifteen.” Nat said smiling and closing the door behind her as she left.

“Are you sure your up for training?” Wanda asked.

“I need to use my powers it’s been a while and I hate not using them regularly especially the shifting. It’s comforting to be able to hide in small places as small animals or feel safe being a bigger thing like a bear.” You admitted and Wanda nodded.

“You know you can take whatever form you want around me or the team we don’t mind.” She said.

“Really?” You asked perking up.

“Of course. Is that why you haven’t been using your powers more? You though we wouldn’t accept you?” Wanda asked mildly concerned.

“A little yeah. Its also force of habit. You know, trying not to draw attention to yourself and all that. Lately I’ve been teleporting more than shifting.”

“Im curious can you teleport while shifted?” Wanda asked.

“Yeah but it takes a lot of concentration to stay as an animal when i teleport. I often end up human again mid jump.”

“We can work on that.” Wanda said. “Right we should probably get up and dressed.”

After changing into active gear you stood by Wanda.

“Hey wands wanna try something?” You grinned.

“Oh god I’m scared. What?” She asked eyeing you.

“Take my hand and find out.” You said extending an arm palm up.

“You better not kill me.” She said and once her hand was in yours you grinned and teleported you both down to the training room surprising Nat.

Wanda stumbled and you held her upright.

“That was cool and all but next time a little warning would be nice.” Wanda said and you shrugged.

“Wheres the fun in that.”

“Nice to see you two made it. Neat trick Y/n/n I imagine you can play some pretty great pranks with that.” Nat smiled and you grinned.

“Could. Have. Same thing.” You said and winked at Wanda.

“Right lets start. First I wanna spar with Y/n to see where your at before we get into some drills.” Nat said stepping into the ring. Wanda stretched and sat on the bench to watch she was also curious of how well you could fight especially against Nat.

“Y/n before we start i want to say this isn’t like hydra training. You can tap out at any time if somethings triggering or too much for you. No maiming or grievous injuries. I’ve seen you fight in Tony’s tapes of your earlier missions.”

“He showed you those?” You asked.

“He did.” Nat nodded.

Wanda stayed silent she also knew about your time doing missions with Tony pre avengers and you had shared your history with her and Nat plus Tony already knew.

After your fight with nat you had impressed both her and Wanda with you. Abilities. You were an avid fighter with good technique and pose. You didn’t rely on your powers to fight but when you used them they bled seamlessly into your tactics.

After a hour of so of training the three of you were hot and sweaty and exhausted. You had been using your powers with Wanda, mainly teleporting which could be draining if used too much. As the three of you left the gym and got in the elevator yo steadied yourself against the wall. Nat shot you a worried look.

“You ok there L/n?” She asked.

“Peachy.” You responded.

“And how are you really?” She asked again.

“Fine just a bit dizzy, sometimes if i use my powers too much this happens. But I’m fine.” You waved off her concern and once the three of you reached you shared floor Wanda steadied you and walked you back to your room.

After a quick shower to get rid of the sweat you and Wanda went back down to the kitchen where you ran into nat who was going through the cupboards like a raccoon.

“Dammit. Friday add peanut butter to the shopping list.” She said sighing and running a hand through her hair.

“I can make you something if you want?” Wanda said and nat spun around looking sheepish.

“Thanks wands.” She said.

“You and Y/n/n go sit at the counter and I’ll whip something up.” Nat and you did as you were told taking seats next to each-other at the bar on the island kitchen counter.

“So Y/n earlier you said you like being shifted and you haven’t had much chance to.” Wanda said as she pulled out some pans. You squirmed in your seat glancing at nat and relaxing as she looked unbothered.

“Yeah.” You said a bit flatly.

“If you want its just us. And I’ll tell you a secret Natty’s a big softy for animals.” She said and nat glared at her with no real heat behind it.

“Really now?” You asked and nat turned to glare at you. A second later you turned into a small black and white ferret and crawled into her lap taking her by surprise. Nat looked down at you in shock before relaxing and cautiously lifting a hand to scratch behind your little ears. You made a happy squeaking noise and nuzzled into her stomach and nat couldn’t hold back her grin. Wanda watched amused and excited to cuddle with you later. Turning back to her cooking nat began to play with your little paws as you curled up and began to doze in her lap. She cooed at how cute you were and tony walked into the kitchen.

“Um have you guys seen Y/n Friday said she was here?” He said looking around and Wanda wordlessly pointed to Nat’s lap. Tony broke out into a grin.

“I love when she does that.” He said and went over to scratch by your ears as you stayed half asleep. You let out a tiny yawn and nat tried hard not to squeal at how cute you were being. Tony chuckled at Nat’s expression and patted your head softly.

“Just tell her for me that me and the team have to go on a mission for a few days. We leave tomorrow. You, her and Wanda are staying here.” Tony said and nat nodded watching him retreat back to his lab.

“She really is adorable like that.” Wanda said and you stretched yawning again. You lifted your paws and placed them on Nat’s chest so you were almost upright and squeaked.

“What do you want y/n/n?” Nat asked and Wanda chuckled.

“I think she wants you to pick her up.” Wanda said before turning and flipping the pancakes.

nat carefully placed each hand under your front legs and lifted you at arms length from her. You cocked you head and she wiggled you side to side chuckling at how your limp body wiggled like it had no bones. After a second your tiny nose twitched and you let out a small sneeze. Wanda cooed and you squirmed and crawled up Nat’s arm and curled around her shoulders and began to doze again. When Wanda finished the pancakes you jumped back to your seat and shifted back.

“You make a very cute ferret like that.” Nat said and you smiled at her.

“Its fun and relaxing.” You said.

“Good you should do it more often I’m sure Nat and I would love to have cuddles with more soft tint creatures.” Wanda said and you blushed slightly and ducked your head to keep eating.

Nat chuckled and the three of you ate together. When you were done Wanda used her magic to clean the kitchen and nat posed the idea of watching a movie together. You hopped up.

“Race you guys.” You said before seamlessly shifting into a wolf cub and bounding around the corner and out of the kitchen. Wanda chuckled.

“That was too cute.” She said and followed you with nat trailing behind. When she entered the lounge she couldn’t see you until her eyes fell on a small prickly ball curled up on a pillow.

“Is that what I think it is?” Nat asked.

“Yep. Y/n/ns a hedgehog.” Wanda laughed. And Nat pouted.

“I wanted something fury.” She said and you squeaked and shifted into a ferret again knowing it was Nat’s favourite based on her reaction earlier. You ran up and down the length of the couch before settling on the pillow. Nat and Wanda came and sat next to you and you got up and crawled over into Wanda’s lap chittering and walking in circles on her thighs before settling into a small puddle.

Wanda ran a hand through your soft fur as nat scrolled through Netflix to find something to watch. You started to doze again and Wanda chuckled.

“She sure does sleep a lot when she’s a ferret.” Wanda said.

“Yeah but its cute though so i’ll allow it.” Nat said and Wanda laughed again.

After picking something and settling down the three of you curled up together and you moved between the two of them over the course of the movie so they could both have turns to pat you. You knew it was therapeutic for them both as much as it was calming to have their hands running through your fur. When the movie finished Wanda picked you up carefully as you were sleeping and told nat she was going to go to be bed so you could take a nap while she read. Nat nodded and began looking for something else to watch. After Wanda left she got into bed and set you down on her chest as she picked up her book and started to read.

It had been maybe half an hour when she began to feel you twitch on her chest. Looking down she felt your breathing speed up as you began panting against her. She carefully ran a hand through your fur and you seemed to still before relaxing. After a moment you settled and sent back to a calm sleep.

Another fifteen minutes later you woke up a and Wanda smiled down at you. You crawled off her and shifted before burning your face in her arm and wrapping your arms around her. She scratched your head and smiled.

“Hey sleepy head how was you nap.” She asked and you yawned making her chuckle. “That good huh?” She grinned and you nodded against her arm.

“Well if you’d like to join me i was about to start making dinner soon my love.” She said and you nodded again. After she helped you off the bed you sleepily followed her to the kitchen where nat was sat drinking hot chocolate. Sensing something off with her Wanda started to cook and you shifted and crawled into her lap. Nat stroked your fur and looked at you with misty eyes and soon you were breathing was slow and rhythmic as you slept again. Nat chuckled.

“Your right wands i think being a ferret makes the little thing tired.” She said and Wanda laughed.

“Yeah she could use the sleep. I think it calms her down to be small and on top of someone it makes her feel safe and protected helps her sleep.” Wanda explained and nat smiled.

“Im glad she feels safe around us.” Nat said Wanda hummed an agreement.

“She loves you very much nat. You make her feel safe.” Wanda said and nat nodded. you let out a small squeaked of agreement in your sleepy state that made nat chuckle and scratch behind your tiny ears.

The next morning you woke and headed to the kitchen to make some coffee. you were in a bad mood. you hadn’t slept much and everything was either to bright or too loud. the sound of the coffee machine made you dig your nails into your palms to ground yourself. the lights seemed to bright over head and you desperately wanted to go back to bed but you knew it wouldn’t do anything. you couldn’t sleep. nightmares plagued every minute you weren’t awake and the only thing that seemed to stop them was being with either Nat or Wanda but you didn’t want to both them when you woke around three to a cold sweat and fast breathing. you only really slept for about two hours and now it was half past four and you needed some coffee.

when it finally was done you drank it quickly needing the kick to wake up. after a small breakfast of cereal it was now fifteen past five and nat wandered into the kitchen looking surprised. she was dressed in active wear obviously heading to the gym.

“Y/n? what are you doing awake?” she asked and began making her workout shake. you grunted and waved a hand dismissively already feeling annoyed without any real reason to be. Nat frowned and went to say something but you stood and left the kitchen. electing not to follow you nat headed off to the gym.

You needed some time alone. desperately. your social battery could only withstand so much and you had been living with the team for almost a week now. Your room seemed to easy, Wanda or Nat would come find you later and coax you out but that wasn’t what you needed right now. You had and idea and grabbed a hoodie from the drawer in your room. throwing it on and shoving your sketchbook and pencils plus some snacks and your phone in the black backpack you had by your desk you slipped down the hall almost silently. Once in the lift you asked Friday your burning question.

“Friday?”

“yes Ms L/n”

“is the treehouse still around?” you asked praying it would be.

“Tony Stark and Ms Y/n L/n’s tree house is still intact. Mr Stark his made improvements over the last few months in anticipation of your return.” Friday said and you grinned. Tony and you had built the tree house deep in the woods near the compound a long time ago and it had since become your safe haven. A place you could hide if you needed some space to yourself.

“what kind of improvements Fri?” you asked.

“Mr Stark has installed Myself into the house as well as a new Tv, Wifi, more snacks, updated lighting and a microwave.”

“um Fri?”

“yes Ms L/n?”

“can you hide my location from Wanda and nat please?” you asked, you wanted to keep this space a secret for as long as possible.

“yes Ms L/n however i cannot hide your location from Mr Stark.”

“thats ok Fri just Wanda and nat are fine for now.”

“ok Ms L/n”

you walked through the foyer and out the back door. Sure Tony had said not to leave without an escort because of HYDRA but this was different he would understand and the treehouse had almost as much if not more security measures as the compound, it was built by tony after all.

after the long walk you climbed the ladder up into the mossy tree. It was old and beautiful with the branches hiding the treehouse nicely. it was large to say the least as the tree was huge. tucked deep into the woods off the beaten path if you weren’t looking for it you would not find it by chance. climbing up into it you typed in a small code and pushed open the trap door and crawled into the space. the lights flickered on and it had defiantly been upgraded. it was a single room with a door to a small bathroom on one side. how tony had managed to get plumbing this far into the woods you didn’t know but you thanked him none the less. the room had a beanbag chair in the corner with a blanket and a pillow. on one wall was a flatscreen Tv. there was a counter that turned into a desk with three shelves above it for storage. a microwave was set into the wall and a cupboard was above it that supposedly held the snacks. the lights in the roof could be dimmed and the colour changed. large glass windows lines the walls looking through the branches into the surrounding woods. large curtains could be drawn and there was a small deck you could sit on with just enough room for about three people to sit on with their legs hanging off the edge.

throwing your backpack on the desk you started by investigating the snacks. tony had bought all your favourites and you mentally thanked him. pulling out some chocolate you dragged your backpack over to the beanbag and clicked on the TV. you put on your comfort show and threw the fluffy blanket over yourself and pulled out your sketchbook and pencils. this was what you needed. exactly what you needed. some off-grid time alone to recharge. A few hours passed and you had watched the sunrise through the windows.

MASTERLIST

[tgmsunmontue]

Another Time (Chapter 14/14)

ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN

Summary: Jake wakes up in Rooster's body ~30 hours post-Mission and they have to deal with it. They're adults. Apparently.

(Posting on Tumblr, chapter a day until it's complete, after it's complete I will post it on AO3 once a day until it's completed there as well).

Odd chapter = Jake POV, Even chapter = Bradley POV

FOURTEEN

                He gets through the actual debrief in a haze, answers questions and Admiral Bates seems to take it in stride that Bradley isn’t in the right body. Maybe weirder things have fucking happened. He’d like to hear about them one day. Maverick does a lot of talking, translating for Ice. Jake corrects Mav a couple of times which had made Ice’s lip twitch in what Bradley knew was amusement. But Ice is distant, despite the hugs Bradley had felt like there were conversations that needed to happen. Apologies, as hard as they will be. And Jake uses ASL fluently, why did he never know that?

                It takes a few hours for everyone to finish, and he feels emotionally drained, wrung dry. He’s reprimanded and temporarily grounded, pending review and psych evaluation which he knows they’ll all have to get. Payback and Fanboy have been shooting him weird looks and he gets it, he’s definitely not maintaining the illusion that he’s actually Jake, so they’ll have to have that conversation as well even if this miraculously fixes itself overnight and fuck he just wishes it would but he’s not holding out hope. They have four weeks of confirmed leave, which won’t count for anything unless he’s back in his own body to enjoy it. Although he’ll be on limited duties regardless with his injury.

                Even with him in Jake’s body Phoenix reads him like a fucking book, insists on driving both him and Jake back home, Bob following in her little rental car. Javy is waiting when they pull up and he slaps Bradley on the shoulder before helping Jake out of the back of the Bronco. Bradley is suddenly immensely grateful for all of them. Even when Payback and Fanboy turn up, heckling Rooster about having off-base digs he lets himself feel… less alone. Jake is giving them the finger, telling them he hopes they aren’t fucking staying because he needs to rest. Bradley goes about changing on auto-pilot; has to stop and think about it when his jeans are too tight and Jake’s got thicker thigh muscles than him. He knew that. Well. He hadn’t, but he’d noticed. He changes into Jake’s jeans, leaves his own tank and unbuttoned shirt on top.

                “Hey man, can I have a quick word?” Javy asks, and he’s looking nervous and Bradley can’t figure out why; can’t help immediately thinking of a dozen things that could go wrong that Coyote would need to talk to him about.

                “Is Jake okay? Wait. Are you okay? Uh, I was going to, make something? For dinner?”

                “No dude. Jake might not be able to cook worth a damn, but he can order door dash like a pro. He’s already sorting something for you two. You’re dead on your feet. You need to rest as well.”

                “Uh. Thanks?”

                “Yeah, you look… not great. Also I need to tell you something.” His stomach drops. “I kind of fucked up.”

                Bradley feels on the verge of tears, wonders what the hell more can happen right now.

                “Shit. Sorry. I’m fucking this up. It’s nothing major. I was just talking to Jake’s niece, she rang me because Jake wasn’t answering, and I mentioned the busted ankle he was having checked out, and now she’s coming to visit. Tomorrow.”

                “Oh…” Of all the potential things he’d imagined this hadn’t even made it into the room. “Can’t he just call her and tell her he’s okay?”

                “Well, you can, but if Jake tried she’d know for sure something worse had happened. You two sound nothing alike. Anyway, Ella is lovely. Her flight gets in at like two in the fucking morning though, so I said I’d pick her up. Except that pretty much convinced her that you can’t drive. Jake loves his family. He’d never not pick them up…”

                “Um. Okay. This seems more of a Jake problem?”

                “Oh, he knows already. He’s messaging her, but he’s not doing his regular video messages so she’s as suspicious as hell. I just wanted to give you a heads up and apologize.”

                “Right. So. We’ll have to tell her tomorrow then,” he says, letting out a tired breath. It’s a problem for future-Bradley. And future-Jake he supposes. He wonders if they’re going to tell Fanboy and Payback, or whether the weird-as-fuck debrief tipped them off. They did do it split, which isn’t usual, but he still should have been an active part of their debrief but it would have made no sense for him to be there in Lieutenant Jake Seresin’s body.

                Nat and Bob are sitting at the dining table looking at something on Bob’s phone and when he turns back into the living room he does a double-take, because Jake has been settled on the sofa. Jake smiles and pats the empty seat beside him so Bradley just lets himself slump down, rests his head on the back of the sofa. He hums appreciatively when Jake starts running fingers through his hair, follows the whispered instruction to lie down, resting his head in Jake’s lap while he pets his hair. It’s calming in a way he hadn’t expected, and he finds himself relaxing.

                “Okay – so I thought maybe at lunch you two were a thing. How long has this been going on?”

                “Three days,” Jake says, and Bradley nods, eyes slipping closed again.

                “Bullshit. You’re wearing each other’s clothes. That’s like, months type stuff.”

                “Yeah well, our timeline got pushed up,” Jake says and Bradley smiles at the turn of phrase. Pushed up indeed.

                “Well, I guess that’s what almost dying does.”

                Silence. He tenses, doesn’t want to think about that right now, has had to think and talk about almost nothing but that all afternoon and for the last few weeks. Jakes fingers keep combing through his hair. He hears someone hit someone else, quiet-hissed recriminations and does his best to ignore it. Tries to distract his mind.

                “What food did you order?”

                “Vietnamese. No fruit in sight.”

                “You’re a fruit…” Bradley mutters, and fuck he’s tired, he’s not making any sense even to himself.

                “I’m fruit you like. Just the right firmness,” Jake says and Bradley can’t help the snort of laughter, cracks an eye open to peer up at him and he gets a grin and a wink. It makes him laugh harder and it has an edge of hysterics, like anything and everything is hilarious.

                “You two are fucking weird.”

                “You’re only just coming to this conclusion now?” Coyote asks dryly and Bradley gives him the finger, laughs more when he sees Jake doing the same thing.

                “Hey, Javy you ass. Take a photo, I need another one to send…” Jake says, and he’s tossing his phone to Coyote who catches it effortlessly.

                “Everyone say hi to Ella…”

                Coyote is clearly taking a short video, there’s a very disorganized-jumble sounding greeting and then Javy is sending it off despite Jake’s protests he wants to check it first, but then he’s too busy scrambling to make sure the phone doesn’t hit Bradley in the face when coyote chucks it back at him.

                “Right. I’m out. I just came to tell you about Ella coming. Come on you lot, let’s leave the new lovebirds to their own devices…”

                “Yeah, come on.”

                “Oh, I thought we were staying for dinner?”

                “Where are we going?”

                “Nope. Come let me beat you at darts while Hangman is out of commission.”

                “Yeah, I guess if your boyfriend almost died twice you wouldn’t want to let him out of your sight…”

                “Fucks sake man, shut up already.”

                “Yeah…”

                Part of him wants them to stay, if for nothing but the distraction value. However it hasn’t helped so far so maybe it is better that they go. He and Jake don’t talk while their friends leave; he feels like an awful host but he’s tired, hungry, and emotionally wrecked. He lets himself lie there and enjoy his hair and head being stroked, the action making him drowsy.

                “What are you doing?”

                “Just chatting with my niece. She’s asking where the fuck I got the shirt…”

                “Tell her it’s your boyfriends…”

                “Boyfriend huh?”

                “If the shoe fits…”

                “You think we’re ready for that?”

                “I don’t want to wait until I think I am.”

                “Think we might actually need legit couples therapy out the gate…”

                “Yeah… yeah.”

                “Seriously? You’d, uh, go to therapy?”

                “Yeah. I’ve been to therapy before. It can be good, if you get a good person.”

                He doesn’t add that he wants this to work with Jake. That he is more than prepared to put the effort in to make it work, for as long as Jake will have him.

                “Then I’ll let her know… trying to explain now that it’s my boyfriend’s ankle that is busted and I’m glued to your hip taking care of you. Too busy to call her.”

                “Do you want me to talk to her?”

                “Uh… You could try, but we often switch to ASL, so… we’d be found out instantly.”

                “When did you learn ASL anyway, you seem pretty… fluent?”

                “It’s my first language. I’m the only hearing person in my family. Well, I was, anyway. A couple of my nieces and nephews’ kids are hearing. I was the only one for quite a while though. Ella is hearing and she’s the oldest.”

                “Wait, when you said you saw them talking on the carrier, you literally saw them.”

                “Yep. Think they assumed it was a private conversation… Mav is not subtle.”

                Bradley laughs, but it’s accompanied by a swoop of guilt and sadness again, but then an excited spark of realizing that he’s going to be learning ASL to talk with Ice, and Jake’s family.

                “Will you teach me? ASL?”

                “Pretty sure I can find the right motivation for you darlin’… although, some of my family are actual ASL teachers, or interpreters, so…”

                “I want you to teach me.”

                “Sure thing… we got time.”

                “Yeah, we do.”

                He gets up when the food arrives, delicious smelling bahn mi filled with ginger and lemongrass chicken. Jake makes him sit opposite him and starts teaching him the alphabet and Bradley follows along easily enough, although as soon as Jake speeds up he’s lost immediately. He asks for the sign for everything, and Jake humors him. They brush their teeth side by side in the bathroom and he likes the domesticity of it. They have done everything completely backwards but it also seems to be promising something.

                They arrange themselves in bed, Bradley tucking himself in carefully behind Jake, he’d like for nothing more to be held right now but the broken ankle makes things awkward and Jake insists on cuddling, which isn’t something he would have ever thought he was into from looking at him, but he’s more than happy to oblige. They talk quietly, Jake listing all of his family again and Bradley pays more attention. Older brother and sister both in their mid-fifties. His parents in their late-seventies. His six nieces and nephews ranging from twenty-five down to twelve. Bradley makes a comment about how holidays must be noisy and Jake laughs, tells him no, because there’s not a lot of talking.

                He doesn’t remember falling asleep, but he wakes with a gasp, blood pounding in his ears, heart racing and he lets out a shaky breath, nightmare fading and reality settling back around him. He’s okay. The rehashing of missions in a debrief always seem to put his brain into overdrive, and obviously today? Yesterday? It was no exception. He’s shifted away from Jake in his sleep and he stretches, winces at the flare of discomfit. It sends a flash of awareness through him though and he swallows roughly, suddenly nervous. He reaches for his face in the dark and almost sobs with relief at the feel of his own features under his fingertips, moustache and scars easily identifiable as his and his alone.

                He reaches out and feels the warm body of Jake and then he feels him have a full body jolt and he realizes that he’s maybe having a nightmare too.

                “Hey… hey Jake… wake up…”

                “Fucking… wha?”

                “You were having a nightmare…”

                “Shit. Sorry…”

                “Don’t ever apologize for that. But also…” Bradley pauses then, wonders how to tell him that they’ve changed back. Jake’s still half-asleep and part of him is terrified that if they fall asleep again this part will all be a dream. He reaches for Jake’s hand and brings it to his face, presses his fingertips to the scars on his cheek before dragging them across to his moustache and he grins, pokes his tongue out and licks before deciding to suck a single finger into his mouth. Might as well go for broke.

                “Holy shit, we’re… back.”

                “We sure are.”

THE END

Author's note:

This marks two weeks of being 'in' the TGM fandom (other than just commenting on fanfic when I can). I re-wrote the last chapter, because this entire fic has been a practice for me to get back into writing regularly again.

There are parts I wrote which have been removed:

I removed the explicit stuff from the last chapter. It got too big, but more importantly (for me) was that it didn't fit right for me in terms of their emotional upheaval.

Bob’s utter disgust with them (the following day) at their complete lack of scientific approach to figuring out how to switch back.

Bradley and the mending of his relationship with Maverick and Ice.

Bradley being dragged off to Texas (?) – nothing like full-immersion to learn a new language.

Other firsts… (I was basically just practicing writing PWP again it didn’t fit with their development to just jump right into it (in this particular case *cough cough*).)

On the subject of using ASL in my fic:

I do not use ASL personally (I'm not American, for a start). However I do use NZSL (it's my third language). However there will be differences in Deaf culture - I am only aware of Deaf culture in my own country. (I am not Deaf, however I am HoH*and am ~5 years off needing a hearing aid or using NZSL full-time - hence learning to use it for nearly 20 years).

Genuinely open to chatting with people about Deaf culture and using SL in fics.

*HoH = hard of hearing

(NZSL = New Zealand Sign Language, and my second language is Swedish for those who are wondering. I was born and raised in New Zealand but lived in Sweden for an exchange and still try and speak Swedish as often as I can, but I would say I used NZSL more regularly).

[hairstevington]

songs that voices never share (2)

Deaf!Steve Harrington x Eddie Munson

Summary: Steve receives a letter from El and goes on a quest to fulfill her wishes. Along the way, he runs into Nancy as well as the intriguing metalhead that Steve can't stop thinking about, for better or for worse. (part 1 found here)

Warnings: Lots of angst, good babysitter Steve Harrington, use of ASL, appearances from a bunch of the kids, Steve and El are penpals and it's very cute

Word count: 3.6K

A/N: I am going to move this story over exclusively on Ao3, so please follow along there if you're interested!

--------------------------

Chapter 2 - I'm getting further away

Steve wanted to go directly to Robin’s after dropping the boys off at home, but he forced himself to wait until they worked together the next day. It was after dark, and Mrs. Buckley wasn’t the biggest fan of teenage boys showing up at the house unannounced and distracting her daughter from studying.

Pssh. As if Robin didn’t distract herself most of the time. 

Steve had pulled his typical Harrington move a few times and snuck up to her window, which Mrs. Buckley didn’t love, but she accepted, as long as he didn’t step on any of the flowers in the garden when he did so - he learned that lesson the hard way. Anyway, Robin’s mom tolerated Steve’s excessive presence in Robin’s life because she was happy that Robin had a “handsome boyfriend.” While Steve was a year older and not in college, he still had a decent reputation in the town (somehow), and Mrs. Buckley approved of him, more or less.

He would have called her, but his hearing over the phone was hit or miss, and besides - he wanted to see her face when she found out. 

So, Steve went home. He went up to his bedroom (which Robin often called the torture chamber due to how poorly it was decorated and also the general vibes of Steve’s house being off), and he thought about Eddie.

Seriously. Eddie. Steve Harrington was lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about Eddie Munson. A total freak. The bane of Steve’s existence due to the fact that Eddie was actively replacing Steve in Dustin’s life. That Eddie. And all because of Tommy and Jonathan and Billy and the Russians all treating Steve like a punching bag until he started losing his hearing, and now that guy, Eddie Munson, was one of the only people Steve would be able to communicate with. 

Okay. So apparently Steve had gone from being excited to being angry about it. Funny how that works. At least Steve understood anger better than he understood…whatever the hell he’d been feeling before.

Eddie seemed to be, like, fluent. Steve wasn’t. He’d been practicing pretty much nonstop for three months, but that didn’t mean much. He could carry a conversation as long as people talked about very specific topics. And even then, Steve wasn’t sure he was signing half the words correctly. Books about ASL were great but not exactly the best way to learn a 3-D, visual language. 

The impending migraine he’d felt approaching over the course of the day was getting worse. It was probably going to rain tomorrow or something. That was a thing, right? Feeling achy and sore before a storm hits? Or was that only an excuse for when his mom didn’t want to do chores? He could have looked it up at any point, but he didn’t feel like it. Robin or Dustin would probably already know the answer, anyway. Who knows? Maybe Eddie would, too.

Ugh. Steve was sick and tired of feeling like the stupidest person in his life.

-

The next day, Steve woke up and noticed an envelope had been slipped under his door. He rolled his eyes, consistently amazed at how his parents avoided trying to talk to their own son. Whatever. He walked over to grab the letter and noticed it was from El. 

It was kind of exciting, receiving a letter like that. The last time he’d gotten letters in the mail, they were rejections from colleges, so this was a lot more fun, even though he barely knew the girl. He opened the envelope and read it.

Dear Steve,

I do not know you very good well, but I want to practise writing. Will is helping me with grammer and spelling because I am not good at it. I am working on it and I think I will be good at writing soon. 

School is okay. It is nice to have friends, but the homework is hard. Joyce and Jonathan do not help me much. There is a woman at school who helps me. She is nice but she smells bad. Will told me it is something called perfume. I asked Joyce and she told me women wear perfume for dates. Why is Mrs. Vickers wearing it at school? Will says she likes Mr. Samson and that is why. But then I asked her and she said no and that he is married. 

I wrote Mike and Max letters too and they probably will get them at the same time you do. If you see them, can you make sure they have them?

I hope you are good. How are your ears? 

~ El Jane

PS: My name is Jane. Please call me that.

Steve smiled. There was something so endearing about it. El - er, Jane - was just a girl, and yet she’d saved a lot of people’s lives a bunch of times. She’d saved Steve’s life at that mall - that is, unless he dreamt that. It was right after he’d puked his guts from the truth serum shit so his memory was a bit faded. But he was pretty sure El threw a car across the room and then Jonathan sliced her leg open to get some wiggly thing out of her.

Jesus. That whole night was fucking wild. Why did nobody ever talk about it?

Anyway, it was Saturday, and the boys (Dustin, Lucas, and Mike) were hanging out in Nancy’s basement to do god knows what. Probably something nerdy. Although, Steve didn’t mind the nerdy shit as much now that he was friends with Dustin and Robin. Since Jane specifically asked Steve to check if Mike got his letter, and it’s not like Steve had anything else to do, he got in his car and headed to the Wheeler’s.

It struck him as he approached the driveway that Nancy could very well be in her own house on a Saturday afternoon, so he might see her. 

Idiot. 

Well, he couldn’t leave now, because Nancy’s Dad was totally paranoid and probably would have called the cops about a mysterious car pulling up and then driving away. Unless he was asleep on the couch or something, which he did pretty often. It was 50/50 with Ted Wheeler. Eh, more like 75/25.

Being at Nancy’s house was weird. He didn’t go there very often other than the occasional drop-off after Hellfire. He and Nancy were fine, in the technical sense, but still. She broke his heart and left him for Jonathan. They were exes.

Of course, she was the one who opened the door.

“Oh!” she said once she saw him. “Um, Steve! Hi! What are you doing here?”

Fair question.

“I’m looking for your brother.” Steve nonchalantly signed YOUR BROTHER as he spoke without even thinking about it. Nancy looked at his hands and pressed her lips into a thin line. She’d been acting extra weird around him ever since he’d told her about the hearing thing. She didn’t learn any ASL, she just stopped talking to him - which was fine, because it’s not like they had much to talk about unless the world was ending or something.

Which meant they probably still had at least a few months of silence between them before they were due for another apocalypse.

“I think so,” Nancy replied, looking behind her. “One second.”

Nancy walked ten feet closer to the basement door and yelled for Mike, who tumbled up the stairs and ran to the door so fast Steve wondered if Mike had considered joining the track team. Steve already supported Lucas joining the basketball team, and even helped him out before tryouts. Lucas didn’t need much training, though. He was a natural at basketball. 

Mike was huffing and puffing when he noticed it was Steve asking for him, and then his face fell. 

“DUSTIN!!!” Mike yelled behind him. “YOUR STEVE IS HERE!” Steve rolled his eyes. One good thing about talking to Mike was that he frequently yelled, which translated to a more normal volume for those who’d had ruptured eardrums. 

“I’m not here for Henderson,” Steve clarified. “I’m here because your girlfriend wants to know if you got your letter.”

“You - what?!” Mike exclaimed. “How did you know that - since when do you talk to El?”

The other good thing about talking to Mike was that he was relatively good at enunciating. This was especially helpful considering Mike signed BITCH instead of TALK. But hey, at least the kid was trying.

“Her name’s Jane, now, dude,” Steve corrected him. “And uhh - I dunno. She wrote me a letter too.”

Mike clearly did not like any of this. He crossed his arms and scoffed so dramatically Steve had to hold himself back from laughing.

“MOM!” Mike yelled. “DID I GET A LETTER?” There must have been a response in the background, because Mike looked like he heard one. He turned back to Steve and nodded. “Yup got it.”

“Great,” Steve replied. Unfortunately, only half his job was done. “Did Max get hers?” Mike shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he answered. Steve sighed.

“Okay,” he said. “Do you know where she lives?” Mike responded, but Steve couldn’t for the life of him figure out what he said. It looked like - “Frosties?” Mike shook his head and said it again.

“Forest Hills,” he clarified. Steve furrowed his eyebrows. 

“The trailer park?” he asked. Mike nodded. “Oh. Okay. Thanks.”

Steve always had a headache after talking to people, because he had to concentrate super hard to get what they were saying. It was getting old. He turned to go back to his car, but was stopped when Mike grabbed him by the wrist. Steve spun around and tried not to laugh at how hard Mike attempted to look menacing.

“Don’t hurt her, understand?” Mike demanded. At least he had one sign down - UNDERSTAND. Steve nodded, regretting that he taught Mike anything. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Steve responded. Jane could still kick his ass probably, even without her powers. 

He left for Forest Hills after that, feeling somewhat sad for Max. He hadn’t really talked to her much, so he didn’t fully know her deal, but he knew she grew up with a psycho brother and was angsty enough to take down said brother. Steve was knocked out cold for it, but Dustin had told him her attack involved using Steve’s nail bat to threaten Billy’s junk. 

Needless to say, Steve was kind of terrified of Max. 

All that said, Forest Hills was known for being - uhh - not the best place to live. It was relatively close to Steve’s house, and his dad warned him all the time growing up not to go there. He told him it was filled with the worst kind of people.

Then Steve grew up, and he realized his dad was among the worst kind of people, not the folks at the trailer park. 

It was just sad there. Even though people lived in the trailers, something about it felt empty at all times. Hollow. Miserable.

Steve realized he hadn’t asked which trailer belonged to Max’s family (idiot), but thankfully she was outside feeding the dog when his car pulled into Forest Hills.

She didn’t seem at all surprised by his arrival, or maybe she just didn’t care. It was probably the second one. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked after Steve got out of the car. She looked around her, and Steve could have sworn she saw a crack in her tough exterior. He wondered how many people knew this was where she lived now. 

The sky was cloudy. It would probably rain any minute. Steve’s head was pounding. 

It was at that moment Steve realized how ridiculous this whole mission had been. This girl who he interacted with like three times in his life wrote him a letter and asked him to check in on two other kids, both who Steve also didn’t have much of a relationship with, and he just…did it? Because he had literally nothing better to do on a Saturday?

Oof. He had no idea when he got so pathetic. 

“Steve?” Max called. Steve was too lost in thought to even respond, but within moments she was standing a foot in front of him. Despite being a lot shorter than he was, she still seemed tall. She signed, WHAT’S UP? He took a deep breath. 

“God, this is -” he said. “This is so stupid. Did you get El’s letter? I mean - uh - Jane’s letter?” 

Max’s gaze softened. 

“Is she okay?” she asked, slight fear in her expression. Steve nodded. 

“Yeah,” he answered. “She just uh - she sent me one, too. Asked me to check that you and Mike got yours.” 

At the mention of Mike, Max rolled her eyes. At least she and Steve had that reaction in common. She walked to the mailbox, opened it, and shuffled through the (many) envelopes inside.

“Jesus,” Steve exclaimed. “Someone’s popular.” Max didn’t react.

“I always forget to check,” she said casually in response. Steve wondered why she would be the one who had to check the mail, but didn’t press it. Max took one of the envelopes and held it in the air. “Here. Got it,” she said. 

Max was acting differently. She was never the most bubbly person, but she seemed even more tense than usual.

“You okay?” Steve asked, signing OK. Max nodded and signed FINE. As much as Steve knew she was definitely for sure lying (seriously, Steve was the King of pretending everything was fine when it wasn’t, he saw right through this shit), he also knew he wasn’t great at the whole emotions thing. 

“Be nice to El or I’ll kill you,” Max threatened. Steve shook his head. 

“Why is everyone saying that shit?” he complained. “Seriously, I just -”

Suddenly, there was a sound that Steve assumed was thunder. Max’s eyes focused on something in the distance behind Steve, then pointed at her ear and nodded towards the noise. When Steve turned around, he saw Eddie attempting to put a garbage bag in the metal dumpster and failing miserably. 

He turned back to Max, who looked at him expectantly.

“What?” Steve asked. She looked back at Eddie, then to Steve again. “You’re the one who lives here, you help him.” Max’s face crumpled with judgment. 

“I’m a child,” she explained, as if helping Eddie with his task was a preposterous thing for her to do. Steve rolled his eyes and turned back to the dumpster, which was now closed. Eddie was wiping his hands on his pants, triumphant. Then, he locked eyes with Steve.

Shit.

Usually, Steve could pretend he wasn’t able to hear someone if they were far away, and then he didn’t look like a dick when he didn’t talk to them. Unfortunately, Steve couldn’t use that excuse with Eddie. 

HERE WHY? Eddie signed from across the park. 

Steve wasn’t sure why he was so nervous all of a sudden. It sucked that every single time he ran into Eddie, he forgot all ASL he’d practiced and instead just looked like a total fool. Steve pressed his lips together and gestured to Max beside him. Eddie raised an eyebrow. 

Steve looked at Max panicked, and she looked back at him. 

“He knows ASL?” she asked, impressed. Steve nodded. “How?”

“Uhhh, his mom is deaf,” Steve explained. “Was deaf. She’s dead now.” Steve knew like three things about Eddie, and those were two of the things. Of course, those facts sounded incredibly tactless when repeated without context. 

“Steve, what the hell?” Max replied. “You’re being weird.”

“I know,” Steve replied in a hushed voice. He went to go back to his car, then noticed that Eddie was walking right toward them. Steve’s eyes widened. 

Okay, here goes nothing. 

“This guy bothering you, Red?” Eddie asked. He was using a sign Steve didn’t recognize, but he assumed it meant BOTHER. Steve crossed his hands in a similar way at his waist, as if doing it would sear the sign into his brain. 

“No,” Max said. “He’s fine.” She signed FINE once again. She was really getting her mileage with that one. 

Steve signed a question that was meant to ask if Eddie and Max had met already. Thank God he was actually able to express a coherent thought. He was pretty sure it was grammatically correct, too!

MEET, Eddie signed back. Steve cocked his head, so Eddie continued. “You signed DATE,” he explained. He closed his fists more and then repeated the motion. “This is how you sign MEET.” 

Okay, so Steve officially had to disappear forever. 

THANK YOU, he signed instead, resisting the urge to hop in the car. TWO-OF-YOU MEET HOW? This time, Eddie nodded in approval at Steve’s signing, which felt good. He was still humiliated, but at least he’d slightly redeemed himself.

Eddie signed a whole bunch of words Steve couldn’t really follow, but thankfully Eddie spoke anyway. 

“We’re neighbors,” he explained. “Also, her boyfriend is in my club.” Eddie was signing while he was speaking like it was nothing. Steve watched in awe. 

“Okay,” Max interrupted, unamused. “I’m gonna go inside before it starts pouring, but it was nice to talk to you both, I guess.”

With that, she was gone. That left Steve and Eddie alone. It was times like these when he really wished he could telepathically summon Robin.

“So,” Eddie said. Then, he signed something else Steve couldn’t understand. YOU, something, then ME? 

The missing word was extremely important. Thankfully, Eddie seemed to recognize that Steve didn’t understand. Eddie fingerspelled, S-T-A-L-K, then signed STALK again. 

YOU STALK ME?

Once Eddie’s initial question clicked, Steve shook his head aggressively.

“No, no,” he insisted. “I came here for Max, because her and I have a bunch of friends in common, and -”

“Steve,” Eddie said, cutting him off. JOKING.

Steve exhaled in relief. “Oh. Right,” he said. From then on, Eddie spoke as he signed. 

“How long have you been signing?” he asked. 

“Three months,” Steve answered. “Started losing my hearing in July.”

“Shit,” Eddie replied. “So it’s very new.” Steve nodded, noticing that instead of signing VERY NEW, Eddie signed NEW with a more dramatic motion and expression. Interesting.

“Yeah.”

Eddie looked up at the sky, which had gotten a lot darker over the last few minutes. 

“Well,” he said. “We should take refuge before the storm hits. But for the record, you’re pretty good at ASL considering it’s only been three months.” 

Steve smiled. REALLY?

Eddie nodded. REALLY. 

Steve didn’t think Eddie had any idea how much this brief conversation impacted him. Eddie just walked away after that to go inside, but Steve lingered outside the car for a few extra moments. 

Then he realized how fucking weird he looked and drove home as fast as he safely could.

-

Steve had a few hours before work, which was good because his headache was still going strong. He figured he’d pop a Tylenol and take a nap or something. 

When he got back to his room, he saw his letter on the desk and decided he’d write back before he slept.

Dear Jane,

Hi! I honestly didn’t expect you to actually write me. That’s pretty cool. I double checked for you and Max and Mike got their letters. And then they both gave me the shovel talk - wait, do you know what a shovel talk is? They basically told me that if you and I are gonna be penpals, I have to be nice to you. That’s kinda bullshit, right? I’m, like, really nice, now. Except to Dustin, but only when he deserves it.

That was a joke. I’m joking. 

Steve crumpled up the paper and threw it across the room. What was he thinking, going on about shovel talks and how he sometimes bullies a literal child? 

He took a deep breath and tried again.

Hey,

I’m really glad you wrote to me. Things have been kinda hard, honestly. My ears are the same. Actually, they’ve gotten worse. Today they’re hurting me a lot. I’m starting to think I’m gonna go completely deaf and I don’t really know how I feel about it. I just feel like a total dumbass all the time.

Jesus Christ, was he seriously trauma dumping on a girl who’s formative experiences included being imprisoned and experimented on in a lab??? And now, she had even more shit to conquer. She didn’t need to hear about his problems. 

He thought about giving up, but decided to try one more time.

Jane -

It’s nice to hear from you. I always had a hard time in school, too. Nancy used to help me out with my papers because I’m a shit writer. So this is good practice for both of us 🙂

I just found out this guy named Eddie also knows sign language, so I want to try to get to know him better. He’s in Hellfire club with Dustin, Mike, and Lucas, so I’ll see him sometimes probably. It makes me feel less alone, I guess. I’ve been feeling alone a lot these days. Maybe that’s not a manly thing to say or whatever, but I’ve given up on trying to be cool. Cool is overrated, it’s lame-time for Steve. 

Shit. Robin told me to stop talking in third person like that. She’d probably be fine with it this time though since I was calling myself lame while doing it. 

Max and Mike both have their letters, so all is good on that end. All your friends here are doing well. I’ll keep an eye on them for you if you promise to look out for Will. Okay?

Until next time,

Steve

PS: Mrs. Vickers is totally trying to get with Mr. Samson. Keep me updated with this because now I’m invested.

Well. That was as good as it was gonna get. He sealed the envelope and climbed into bed.

---------------------------

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[mebemilena]

Confused

summary: you're Maya's worst student and she is trying to flirt with you.

A/N: i was mistaking brazilian sign language and ASL, but i only understand a few signs. Wrote this as an exercise, i feel like i like it better with more diaogues, but i'ts been a bit hard to organize them in my head. i know i don't have to explain but i wanted you to know. Thank you for reading me.

A/N:  I'm so sad and tired. dont forget to eat bananas and sit outside for a while

- - -

You'd meet Maya three times a week for a new lesson in ASL. This week you were learning more daily vocabulary and she invited you over so you could practice the signs for objects, chores and more greetings, but you were way behind on the lessons. 

Maya's house looked cozy even from the outside. You saw Biscuits' dog at the front door first, bending to talk to him. "Hello, there, Billy Jack!", you caressed his fur and he sniffed your hands and face. "Hey, Boonie.", you greeted when the woman opened the door for you.

Boonie was wearing her firefighter uniform, probably coming home from her shift. You looked at her and smiled shyly, knowing your crush on Maya would probably show the moment you were in the same space. You looked around and saw Maya on the couch, looking at you.

"Good afternoon.", she greeted, signing slowly so you could follow. "Come in, baby. Have a sit next to me.", she signed.

You looked at Boonie then back at her. Maya decided to keep it simple for you. "Let's start.", she tapped the spot right next to her on the couch and your smile grew.

"Good afternoon. Let's start., you signed in reply, repeating the signs Maya just did. You felt silly for not coming up with something different.

Boonie watched your interaction before smiling at herself. "I'm going to see Pokni.", she signed to Maya, voicing her words for you. "You better study more.", she signed slowly and voiced the signs again, giving you the opportunity to learn a few new ones.

- - -

Being home alone with Maya made you a little more nervous. You wanted to tell her about your feelings and that you've been thinking about her; But you were afraid of rejection and didn't want to ruin what you already had.

You opened the book on page six and waited for her to start the lesson.

Maya just looked at you. "You're cute. I like your hair.", she signed, watching your face turn into a confused expression.

You opened the book but couldn't find what she signed in the lesson. "What. Page. You.", you tried to ask, but Maya just shrugged. 

"I wish I could kiss you right now. Would you go on a date with me if I asked? Or stay for dinner. Or spend the night with me. I'd treat you so right. ", she kept going, watching you stare at her.

"I'm sorry, Maya. i have a small vocabulary.", you signed how you had rehearsed many times before. "It's hard to learn but I'll try to study more.", you promised with an apologetic smile.

Maya was frustrated, that much was obvious.  "Please study more.", she pleaded, defeated.

The rest of the lessons went a little more smooth until noon. Boonie arrived back right as you were leaving, she eyed you up and down before pulling you aside to talk.

"Are you two hooking up or something?" , she was straight to the point. 

"W-what?", you stared at her in shock. 

Boonie scoffed. "You're almost eye-fucking all the time. I saw it earlier.", she told you. "Come on, spill the tea. We're friends, it's okay."

You felt your skin burning, a violent blush spreading all over your face. "Stop talking like that. Maya and i are just friends.", you whispered, knowing Biscuits could arrive anytime soon too. 

Boonie bit her lower lip and giggled, like she knew something you didn't. 

"You are really that stupid.", she signed, making you confused again. It seemed like this was the only adjective possible for you right now. 

[lost-spoons]

I've recently started learning ASL (out of necessity), but I'm not in any way close to fluent, so I tend to use my notes app in order to talk with people. For whatever reason when I say/sign that I can't talk, a good majority of people automatically assume I'm deaf or hard of hearing. I'm not, I just can't really talk. 

Onto the fun part, where assumptions can have interesting consequences.

I was at the DMV to take my driving test. When it was my turn to drive after waiting in line for a little bit, the test proctor came up to my window and ran me through the button/car test where she was checking to make sure I knew how each control worked before we went out into the road. I get the all-clear and the test proctor joins me in the car. We drive out of the lot and I notice something odd. The test proctor wasn't telling me where to go, she was just pointing and mumbling under her breath, more to herself than to me, seeing as I could just bearly hear her, and I couldn't make out most of the words.

It takes a moment to realize, she thought I couldn't hear, and we were already on the road so I couldn't type anything out. It is important to note that this was when I wasn't comfortable removing my hands off the wheel due to being a new driver, so I couldn't gesture to her that I could hear, and I was pretty sure taking my hand off the wheel counted for point deduction, so I only had one choice, continue on with the test, so I did. 

I was now taking a driving test as a new driver who wasn't entirely comfortable on the road and had to rely on instructions coming from my peripheral vision. My focus was forced to be split from the road/other cars, and the person sitting next to me, so of course, I failed the test by a few points. I would have to come back and try again at a later date, which was disappointing, but not a horrible outcome all things considered. On the bright side, I didn't crash the car.

I got out of the car and went to grab my mom so we could go home, and of course, she asked how it went/did I pass. I informed her I failed, and the conversation continued for a bit, my mom vocally communicating with me while I texted her my response, and then the test proctor came up to us, looking slightly baffled.

"She can hear?" I nodded my head as my mom explained that, yes I can hear, I just can't talk.

"Ah, I was wondering why she wasn't put with a proctor who could accommodate her." I shrugged. There wasn't really anything else we could do in this situation, so we just went home.

I passed the next test after making sure that the test proctor knew that I could hear.

Honestly, I have quite a few stories like this. Where my not talking/use of signs makes people assume I'm deaf. This is just, my favorite? I guess?