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Lately, Adam Parrish was thinking a lot about hearing, more about specifically his lack of it.
At first it had been something he could easily ignore, there were too many other, more pressing matters at attend to, more worries piling on top of it so that he could never take more than a few seconds to mourn his loss of half his hearing without other worries that were deemed more important intruding. That was getting harder now as the rest of his life was going a lot better. He no longer had to worry about Gansey dying because Gansey had already died and been resurrected (again), he no longer had to worry about scholarships and college because the week before he had received his acceptance to Harvard with a full scholarship, and he no longer had to worry about his feelings for Blue because any feelings that had been anything but deeply platonic had been transferred away from her (also she was now dating Gansey, much to his eternal delight),
There was the matter of the boy who all of the un-platonic affections had been transferred to, but in comparison to what he had been dealing with before, a crush on Ronan Lynch was distinctly preferable.
However pleased he was with every single one of these developments, the downside was that, because he was always overthinking something, he was left to stew over the uselessness of his left ear, Whenever he didn't quite catch something because his good ear was facing away, whenever he tried to listen to music through headphones and could only ever hear half the song, whenever he was forced to ask someone to repeat themselves because he couldn't see their lips when they had spoken, he would take a moment to allow his blood to boil over the sheer injustice of the last permanent mark his father had left on him.
The only person who seemed to notice all of this was Blue, she was constantly on alert in the most subtle ways, turning to look at him when she spoke, sitting on the left side of the pig so that Adam could take the right and still hear the conversation, and blasting music from speakers instead of headphones when she wanted him to listen to a new song. In fact all of this was so subtle that it took weeks for Adam to even realise she had been doing it, he only noticed when one of the others didn't behave in the same way and he found himself having to ask them to and found himself immensely grateful for her subtle but helpful gestures.
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They were all at 300 fox way when the source of all of Blue’s wisdom on how to make Adam’s life slightly easier became apparent. They were watching a movie they'd all seen before, (with the subtitles, Blue said she didn't know how to change them) when one of the seemingly infinite little cousins wondered in and plonked herself down on Blue’s lap so they were face to face. She couldn't have been very old, maybe eight at the most but it was the first time any of the boys had seen one of the cousins go looking for Blue in particular. They all watched as Blue waved at the little girl and she waved back, they gradually became more confused when instead of talking, the two of them communicated in a series of fast and complicated hand gestures. Blue only became aware of their watching when she threw her head back to laugh at something the girl had said.
“Oh, guys, sorry, I should introduce you, this is my cousin Elise” she said, still making the gestures as Elise’s eyes followed her hands, “She’s deaf so we sign.”
It was then that the metaphorical light bulb turned on in Adam’s head, of course Blue would know how to look at someone when she were speaking and make sure they could hear the best that they could, she was obviously really close with this particular cousin and was used to casually accommodating her without fuss and had assumed that she should do the same for Adam.
Elise started signing rapidly at Blue again while she interpreted “She says, ’’are those the raven bastards?” At the end, she snorted and nodded yes.
Gansey, ever the polite and charming one, despite having just been called a bastard, was the first to respond, eager to win over the little girl, “How do we sign ‘hi, nice to meet you?”
Blue smiled indicating that trying to sign had been the right choice, she made another series of signs, this time slower, she rubbed her hands over each other, held up her two index fingers and pressed them together and then pointed forward, all of the boys, even Ronan, sat up and clumsily imitated the signs, Elise let out a little giggle at their unpracticed movements but signed the same thing back to them.
“She can read lips a bit, but it’s easier if I just interpret.” Blue went on, it was only then that they all realised that Blue was fluent in sign language, it wasn't the sort of thing that came up often in conversation, they were slightly surprised but it was Blue so of course she had more skills than they had banked on.
Blue then started to introduce them all one by one, talking and signing simultaneously “This is Gansey,” she started “he’s my boyfriend” Elise giggled again as Gansey waved at her “And this is Ronan,” Ronan gave a wolfish grin at the girl, he was surprisingly good with children and Elise was instantly charmed and gave him a small wave, “And here’s Noah,” Noah, stuck his tongue out at the girl playfully and reached out to ruffle her hair in greeting, Elise let out a full blown laugh at this and swatted at his hand.
In the minute while Elise was distracted Blue looked at Adam and asked “Is it alright if I tell her you're deaf? it’s just she hasn't met many people with even a little bit of hearing loss and I think she would like to.” It was rushed and she obviously wasn't sure what his answer would be, knowing that Adam didn't like to talk about his injury.
Adam was slightly surprised, it would be good to know anyone who could understand some of his frustration, and even though he had some hearing he had secretly wanted to learn sign language for a while but had only gotten up to ABC, but this was the perfect opportunity, even better if it would help Elise.
“Yeah, I don't mind” he breathed, Blue beamed at him before turning back to her cousin, getting her attention and signing again.
“And, saving the best for last, ” she was interrupted briefly by the rest of them yelping in protest, “this is Adam, he's deaf like you, but only in one ear”
At this the little girl’s face lit up like a Christmas tree and Adam couldn't resist smiling back, she instantly threw herself at him winding her short arms around his neck, at first Adam was completely shocked, he wasn't usually big on the whole touching thing but he couldn't say no to the tiny girl who was so genuinely happy to meet someone more like her so he wrapped his arms around her as well.
It was a beautiful moment until Noah interrupted it “Okay, that is totally cheating, now you're her favourite!” he joked, Ronan elbowed him in the ribs, which they could actually do now that he was once again corporeal, and Noah let out a noise of complaint. After another couple of seconds, Elise turned herself around, still sitting on Adam’s lap and signed something to Blue who interpreted.
“She wants to teach you some signs so she can talk to you without me! Already out-growing me and taking my friends!” Blue said fondly.
“Well, it's not like she would have to grow too much” Ronan interjected and Blue slapped his arm.
“Wait, I want to know how to sign my name!” Gansey interrupted, knowing he had to stop them before they end up wrestling on the floor (they did that a lot now that Blue was taking fighting lessons from Ronan and, while they would never do each other any actual harm, there was no guaranteeing the safety of the objects around them)
“Well, names are different in ASL, you take the first letter of the person name and then you pick a word to describe them.”
“Wait,” Ronan said narrowing his eyes in suspicion, “You already signed our names to introduce us! What on earth did you name us?”
Now all of the boys were worried, they knew what they had not made the best first impressions on Blue, Gansey, in particular, looked horrified, no doubt imagining all of the terrible words Blue would have come up with to describe the boy who she thought had assumed she was a prostitute. Blue did not help ease their anxiety and just gave a smirk that reminded them all far too much of Ronan.
Elise then turned around in Adam’s lap, faced him with a grin that positively screamed trouble, and began to sign again Blue watched and interpreted “she says ‘don't worry, we changed your names since the first day you met, Adam was the only one whose name wasn't a sign my mum won't let me make’”
Gansey looked scandalised and just said “I don't think I even want to know”
“I don't think you do either.” Blue responded, evil smirk still firmly in place.
“Back to the original point, what ARE our names?” Ronan asked obviously more curious than he wanted them to know.
“Adam’s is…” Blue made a fist before splaying out all her finger on both hands and pulling them down “It means magician” Adam grinned at that, he didn't know what his name had been before that but this one seemed to suit him better and it seemed fitting that his name had been changed after his bond with Cabeswater because he had changed so much too.
Blue then turned to Noah and made another sign “Noah’s is kindness” Noah beamed at this and got up to give Blue a hug, they all had to admit that this was suited to him, Blue and Noah had gotten along from the first time they'd met and they all suspected that Noah’s was the only name that had not been changed since Blue had gotten to know him better.
“Ronan’s is dreamer” Blue made the sign and offered Ronan a smile “and Gansey’s is adventurer” this seemed to please Gansey greatly.
“Okay then, now I do want to know what we were before,” Ronan said, obviously just wanting to know what the signs for some crude words were.
Blue grinned again, ‘Are you sure you want to know?” she asked, in a tone that implied that anyone who cared about the impression they mad would not want to know.
“How bad can it be?” Gansey said bravely, but he didn't sound sure.
“Well, Adam’s was fine, it was ‘determination’” This made Adam feel warm, he liked that that was one of the first things Blue must have thought about him, it was one of the qualities he possessed that he was actually proud of.
“But Ronan’s was ‘asshole’”
At this Ronan pretended to be offended while Noah piped up “well, I don't know why you changed it, still seems pretty relevant.” and Ronan threw a pillow at him.
“And Gansey’s was,” Blue paused and grinned, “It was posh twat.”
They all burst out laughing apart from Gansey who looked offended “Really Blue?”
“hey, you were the one who tried to pay me to talk to you, I am most definitely not a prostitute’ She said, coming over to sit next to him on the sofa.
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Later, once some of the hilarity had slightly worn off and they'd come up with names for pretty much everyone they knew, they were all lying around, too tired and content to even think about moving. Adam and Blue were the only two awake now, Ronan was curled around a pillow with his head on Blue’s knee (he wouldn't live that down anytime soon), Gansey was sprawled across the floor with his mouth open, drooling a bit on the carpet, Noah was somewhere under a massive pile of blankets, and Elise had passed out on Adam’s lap. The movie had started to play for the second time, but neither of them was actually watching it.
Adam was the first to break the silence “Hey, Blue”
“Hmm” Blue responded, sitting up from where she had been starting to doze off
“Thanks, I didn't realise that you've been really helpful with everything, but you've been the best and just… Thanks”
“You’re welcome, what did you think I’d do? I’m your friend, you idiot” she said grinning “I knew that I could help so I did.”
“Well, you've been amazing and...” Adam took a deep breath to steel himself, not used to asking people for help, “I was wondering if you would teach me to sign”
Blue pointed two fingers and circled them in the air before tapping them down on her other had which was curled into a fist “That’s how you say of course.” she said with a grin.
Adam found himself grinning back and asking her how to thank you Blue opened her palm and placed it on her chin and moved it forward, Adam mirrored the sign still grinning and pulled her into a massive hug
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It had been weeks since that first day and Blue and Adam had been cramming tiny lessons in-between both their shifts and in breaks between study sessions, it was hard and Adam found himself increasingly frustrated when he couldn't remember the right sign or when he got one so catastrophically wrong that Blue and Elise couldn't help but laugh. But at long last he was able to hold some form of a conversation with Blue just in sign language and finger spelling the words he didn't quite know.
The other day they were trying it out at Nino's, just having a simple conversation and reveling in the waves of confusion that rolled off of Gansey and Ronan, as they understood absolutely none of what the two were talking about.
Now he was sitting in his room, studying, just because he had gotten into college didn't mean that he could slack off, when he heard the familiar ‘BANG’ of Ronan knocking at his door, he could tell it was Ronan because no one else could ever manage to make knocking a door seem so angry. Adam groaned before dragging himself up from the floor and his nest of blankets and books at open the door.
Ronan was standing there, he seemed uncharacteristically nervous, shifting from foot to foot and looking purposefully anywhere else but at Adam. “What are you doing here Lynch?” At this point this was just a formality, Ronan came in to haunt his doorway often enough that he didn't really need a reason.
“Is this how you greet all your guests Parrish?” Ronan asked as he pushed past and threw himself down on the mattress across the room
Adam sighed as he walked back towards his blankets, it was not unlikely that he would get to study, Ronan usually came round when he was bored and wanted to pick a fight or go on some harebrained adventure, neither of these things was exactly suited to scholarly pursuits.
Still, Ronan seemed quieter today, he was filled with even more nervous energy than usual, constantly fidgeting but never speaking. Adam sat down and started to read his textbooks again but found himself unable to concentrate on anything.
The silence was only interrupted when, after taking a deep breath, Ronan sighed and said “Hey, Parrish, watch me” Adam, confused turned himself around to find Ronan sitting crossed legged on the bed with his hands out before him, Then he started to make them, signing, Adam realised belatedly.
The signs were unpracticed and clumsy, but the meaning was clear “Will you go out with me?”
Adam was shocked in the best way possible, he had thought that they would be stuck in this permanent limbo of sort of knowing that their feelings were reciprocated but being too nervous to actually make any sort of move, that Ronan was trying to break this stalemate.
He just grinned and made the sign for yes, but this didn't seem to make Ronan any less nervous he still looked confused and was getting more nervous by the second.
“I erm… I didn't really think this through… I forgot to ask Blue what the signs for yes and no are”
This made Adam grin even wider, this seemed like exactly the type of thing that Ronan would do, try to make a cute and meaningful gesture but not know how to continue the whole thing. Adam just leaned forward and pressed his lips against Ronan’s, still with a giant grin plastered on his face. The kiss was chaste and simple, it took Ronan a minute to realise what was happening and start to respond but once he did it was amazing.
When they eventually parted, foreheads still touching, Ronan asked, still a little out of breath, “So I guess that means yes?”