( TONGUE TIED ! ) fw imagines

f.w - i can't hear you (1/2)

BY: @HoneybunchBowers

Finn Wolfhard was born profoundly deaf. He had about 80% hearing loss in his left ear, and 95% in his right. His entire family had a hearing loss gene and all of them were completely deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.

Because of his manual upbringing and environment composed of mostly deaf people (deaf family, deaf school, etc.), he believed that was how the world worked. Everyone was deaf; everyone communicated with their hands; everyone lived a purely visual lifestyle.

One day, he and his mom went out of town shopping. They brought their items to the cashier, and even after walking fourteen years on Earth, Finn saw something he'd never seen and never expected to see.

The boy, who was about four years older than him, spoke to his mother. He could not hear it, but Finn knew then that this boy wasn't like everyone else.

His mom didn't notice that he had noticed. But she had to have known, didn't she?

They were in the car, and as he felt the car engine vibrate he shook a hand to his mom to grab her attention.

'I have a question.'
'What? Something wrong?'
'No... curious about something.'
'Tell me.'
'...Why did that boy speak to you, mama?'

That day, Finn realized that he was the one not like everyone else.

-

"Hang out?" (Y/N) asked, gently swirling her thumbs over each other to try and reinforce the sign into her brain. Finn laughed his guttural abnormal laugh she'd come to love and shook his head, grabbing her wrists and pulling them down. He mouthed and signed,

'No, that's circumcision.' He pointed at his crotch, making her gasp in embarrassment.

'Sign it big,' He demonstrated the sign again, first with thumbs, 'Hang out few,' then with all of his fingers, 'Hang out many.'

After the encounter with his first hearing boy, Finn resented the world and even his mother for a while. He cursed hearing people, and even deaf people he met that chose to talk instead of sign. They all had something he didn't: speech.

When he was seventeen and a junior in high-school, Finn moved out of his parents house and into the city where he decided he enjoyed himself most. But sometimes he'd think to himself how lonely he was in a world dominated by those at odds with people like him; the ones that believe because he is missing something as simple as the ability to hear that he does not deserve the same rights as those who do.

In the neighborhood Finn moved to, there were no other deaf people. Most of the ones he'd go door-to-door to meet weren't the nicest, and in those days he thought hearing people were nothing but an ignorant, contemptible group. But, one faithful day, in Finn's silent world, a hearing girl by the name of (Y/N) saw the best in him.

Expectedly, Finn resented her at first. He acted as though he didn't see the flash when she rang his doorbell, or when he was in the kitchen cooking he didn't see her out the window, trying to get his attention.

But one day all of his bitterness came to an end.

That day, Finn was sitting in his room on his laptop, and then he decided to do what he called 'checking out.' What that meant was that he'd close his eyes and let his mind run for miles, left and right and front and back and side to side. He obviously heard nothing. But when he saw and heard nothing, his world was a blank slate. No annoying neighbors could yell loud enough to break his trance, and no light was bright enough to make him open his eyes. He simply felt like he didn't exist.

And during this particular time of not existing, he thought about (Y/N).

He thought about (Y/N), and took pity; on himself, that is. Not her.

Finn pondered his bitterness toward her, and felt terrible. It was not her fault, but the coddled nature of his childhood that made him this way. No-he was not taught to hate hearing people per se, but it was the ignorance he had of them which caused it nonetheless. He pondered every time she tried to greet him and he'd stare menacingly and stick his nose up at her.

(Wow, I'm a fucking asshole)

This 'checking out' lasted about an hour (they usually only lasted all about fifteen minutes or so) and by the end of it, Finn had worked up the courage to summon himself at (Y/N's) house.

He picked up a yellow notepad, a pencil, and slid his phone into his back pocket. Before walking out the door, he wished himself luck.

-

"Hey, Finn..." (Y/N) tapped his shoulder, "Can I ask you something?" (She only signed every other word, and relied on reading Finn's lips and body language rather than his sign. They gave up on the notepad method because his writing was so difficult to read.)

'Sure, what's up?'

She didn't want to try and hide her true intent. "Why did you hate me so much before?"

Finn sighed, and held his hands in front of her to signal that he was about to sign. He always took it slow for her.

'I didn't know... hearing people existed... until I was fourteen,' He seemed embarrassed. (Y/N) started to say something, but he stopped her.

'And when I found out that they did exist... I hated every single one of them... I was so bitter and angry... because my mom never told me I was the odd one out... not them.

'Yes, I hated hearing people... but it was more than that... I hated my own identity.' A small tear fell from his left eye but he quickly wiped it away.

(Y/N) pulled Finn into a hug and felt him cry onto her shoulder. A few tears soon turned into bawling with such raw emotion that she thought she might cry as well.

For a few moments after Finn quieted down, they held each other.

It was a beautiful sight-they were latched onto one another as if it was their life force, their only cathartic measure.

(Y/N) rubbed his shoulder and let up, looking into his eyes that reflected a light-red hue.

"Are you okay?"

He pouted his lips slightly at her, and nodded.

They stared at each other in a haze of sorrow and strong tension, and (Y/N) realized how ethereally the purple-pink light of the lava lamp next to her bed contrasted with Finn's paleness. It made his skin glow and enhanced the fullness of his lips. His eyes were glossy and his hair was a cute, tousled mess.

She leaned in and kissed him.

(a/n Part 2 soon :) )