Adore // Oneshots

ASL (Peterick)

CATEGORY: Fluff, high school AU
FEATURING: tough!Pete and deaf!Patrick
TRIGGER WARNINGS: None
PROMPT: Pete has a crush on the deaf boy in his class, but has no idea how to communicate with him.
WORD COUNT: 1,397
(In case you didn't know, ASL stands for American Sign Language)

"We'll be reading The Red Badge Of Courage next." Mr. Way picked up a copy of the book from his desk and held it up for his students to see, casually flipping through the pages. "It was written by Stephen Crane, and takes place during the American Civil War." Mr. Way went on to ask the class a few questions, and discuss the book and the war itself further.

Pete wasn't listening. He was too busy checking out the student two rows ahead of him.

The boy had short strawberry-blonde hair, soft-looking pale skin, and pretty blue eyes framed by black hipster glasses. He wore a faded red sweatshirt with a gray shirt underneath, matched with blue jeans and black sneakers. As usual, the boy wore a plain black fedora atop his head. Normally, Mr. Way would ask students to take off their hats in class so they wouldn't block others' views of his presentations, but this particular student was so short you could see right over him, even with the fedora, so nobody ever complained.

Truthfully, Pete was rather short too, but he liked to think his tough--albiet friendly--personality made up for it.

Pete was pretty sure the student's name was Patrick, a name which seemed to suit him. He'd overheard a substitute teacher call his name during roll call one morning, but Patrick hadn't noticed.

Patrick was the only deaf student in school. Pete's best friend, Brendon, had wondered aloud one morning why Patrick wasn't in some special school with other deaf kids, but Pete had elbowed him in the ribs. Patrick was smart, Pete knew--the teachers always seemed to favor him, praising his work when he turned it in--and he could fluently speak American Sign Language.

It seemed like it would be tough for a deaf kid in public school, but Patrick, as well as the other student and faculty members, seemed to handle it pretty well. One student, Andy Hurley, knew sign language, so he would sit next to Patrick in most of his classes and sign to him.

Pete payed more attention to Patrick than most of the other students. In all honesty, he kept an eye on Patrick whenever the other boy was in the room, because he had a massive crush on him.

And it was funny, too, at least for Brendon. The taller boy always made jokes around Pete about how opposites attracted--Pete was tough-looking, while Patrick looked harmless; Pete wore black only, while Patrick wore faded or pale colors; Pete was outgoing, while Patrick was shy and kept to himself. Pete didn't mind the jokes too much, because he knew that Brendon was only kidding around.

The bell suddenly rang, startling Pete from his thoughts. He grabbed his backpack from underneath his desk and joined the sea of students leaving the room. Pete's school was almost crazily crowded, had been since freshman year. Pete was a junior now, along with his friends Brendon and Joe.

Pete had a free period, and so he headed into the library to join his friends at their usual table. Brendon was wearing his glasses today--he liked to switch between glasses and contacts--and he was flipping through his notes with a bored look on his face. Joe was eating a bag of chips, even though food wasn't technically allowed in the library. Joe never stopped eating, it seemed.

"Joe-fro, are you gonna share those chips?" Pete asked as he sat down at one of the chairs, dropping his backpack at his side. Joe had gotten his nickname after he arrived at school on a particularly humid morning. His hair had become ridiculously frizzy, standing up in every direction. Even though Joe's hair was short now, the nickname had stuck.

"No way." Joe tilted up the back, pouring the last few chips in his mouth. "I practically had a fight with the vending machine this morning cause it wouldn't take my money. I've earned these chips."

Pete just rolled his eyes, and was about to start studying, when he noticed a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye. Patrick was sitting at a table nearby, also seemingly studying. Just the sight of the boy, with his blue yees flicking across the pages and fingers tapping lightly on the table, made Pete smile.

"God, Pete, just talk to him," Brendon said with a sigh, having looked up from his notes to see the lovesick teenager. "You've been eyeing him for ages now."

"I don't speak sign language, Brendon," Pete replied, making himself look away and back to his notes.

Just then, Brendon gave Pete the most brilliant (and possibly obvious) idea he had heard in ages.

"Then learn."

----  ----  ----  ----

When the bus dropped Pete off at his house, he ran straight inside and up the stairs to his room, throwing his backpack on the floor carelessly and sitting on his bed. He opened up his laptop and did a search for American Sign Language, clicking on the first site that popped up.

Pete had thought that sign language would be easy to learn. He wouldn't have to pronounce anything, so there was no danger of him saying it wrong, right? Besides, there were only so many hand gestures you could make, so there probably wasn't a whole lot to learn.

However, upon scrolling through the site, Pete found that he was very wrong. There were signs for letters, but also numbers, nouns, adjectives, verbs, everything. It was definitely a lot.

But Pete also definitely liked Patrick. And if learning sign language meant that he could talk to him, then he was at least going to give it a try.

So for the next few days, Pete spent all of his free time learning. He watched videos online and checked out an American Sign Language dictionary from the library so he could learn during free periods. He practiced, practiced, practiced, any time he could: during lunch, during free periods, even under the table during classes.

He had expected Brendon and Joe to make fun of him, or become annoyed by his constant vigilance, but they didn't. In fact, most of the time they left him be, so he could focus on studying.

Pete studied all weekend, until finally, it was Monday. He still didn't know everything, obviously--there was so much to learn--but he had managed to memorize the alphabet, along with a few other basic terms. He was ready.

He didn't get a chance to talk to Patrick until free period. Brendon and Joe were studying at their usual table, and Pete left them be, wandering among the stacks at the library until he finally found Patrick sitting alone at a small table in the corner, reading. He was wearing a baby blue shirt today, which matched his eyes. His faded red hoodie was hung over the back of his chair.

Pete swallowed back his nervousness, and approached Patrick, lightly tapping the boy's shoulder to get his attention.

Patrick lifted his clear blue eyes from his book to look at Pete. It was the first time he'd looked at him before, and it made Pete feel like his heart was going to burst out of his chest with excitement.

Carefully, Pete signed 'hello', trying to keep his hands from shaking.

Patrick stared at Pete's hands for a moment, then looked back up to Pete. "Hi."

The other boy was so surprised that he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "You can talk?"

Even though his question was kind of rude, Patrick just smiled. "Yes, I can talk. Not great, as you can probably tell." His voice was soft, and slightly off somehow, but Pete thought it was beautiful.

"How do you know what I'm saying?"

"I read lips." Patrick shrugged. "I'm still learning, but it's enough."

The whole situation was so funny that a grin broke out on Pete's face. "I learned American Sign Language to talk to you, and you can read lips."

A blush crept across Patrick's face. "You did that for me?"

Pete rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "Yeah. Sorry, it's weird."

"No, it's not weird. It's k-kind of cute." Patrick blushed and looked down, then looked back up at Pete. "Do you want to study together?"

Another smile lit up Pete's face, and he sat in the chair next to Patrick. "Yes, please."