L'aire (BoyxBoy) (Watty's 2018)

Fifteen

'Single quote' = signing

"Double Quote"= speaking

Bold = writing/typing

Italics = native language

Living with Leah was just the break Sky needed from the demands of social norms. She was quiet, like him, and preferred to keep to herself. When she wasn't drawing or watching TV, she was teaching herself how to cook Chris' favorite recipes. Sky would supervise so she didn't hurt herself and assist when she asked, but she was determined to learn how to do it for herself. The two of them got on well, and they were equally as comfortable spending time together as apart within the home.

Sky wasn't sure whether or not the Silver-Lakens would take to having another outsider in their home, but Leah had a way with words. Garret, Diana, and Dominic were all completely smitten with the girl. Diana gave her sweets to take home after their dinners and Garret praised her endlessly for the work she was accomplishing at school. Sky knew that Leah loved her brother to no end, but he could tell she was relishing in the parental affection she was being showered with. She was young enough when her parents died that she didn't remember what they looked like, but old enough to have memories of the things they did and how she felt about them. Her mom was kind, always looking out for her and making sure she knew that she was loved. Her father taught her that she shouldn't be limited by the parameters set by those around her. They both made sure that Leah never felt out of place in their home and taught her that she shouldn't be ashamed of her deafness because it was part of who she was.

Who she was, was a little girl who loved the arts and had an aptitude for science and math. She preferred to teach herself rather than be taught, which may have been a result of her parent's insistence she be placed with the general population of students and her teachers had a hard time understanding what she wanted. She didn't like writing much and hated reading lips so if the teachers couldn't sign, she wouldn't interact with them. If the world didn't want to adapt to her then she would just pave her own way through it. So far, there was only one person in her life other than her brother who had bothered to adapt their own behavior to her life, and that was her best friend Sarah.

Sarah and Leah met in Kindergarten. Sarah had always been bubbly and outgoing, so when she saw the little girl with long hair isolating herself from the rest of the class she immediately took it upon herself to try and be her friend. Leah wasn't that interested in talking to her, mostly because she could barely write and she had never met another child who could sign before, but that didn't deter Sarah. When the girl learned that her new friend was deaf, she checked out books from the library and coerced her parents with good behavior to help her learn how to sign. At first she merely ate her vegetables and cleaned her room in order to bribe her parents into learning with her and helping her practice when she was at home, but she wanted to learn as fast as possible so she resigned herself to taking drastic measures. Once she knew enough sign language, she refused to speak to her parents verbally. She acted as if she was the deaf one and would ignore her parents until they signed to her. It frustrated them to no end, but the look on Leah's face when she discovered that Sarah's parents could sign too almost made it worth it. They were the first adults that she met who could sign and weren't related to her.

Sky was the first person she met that was also deaf, and maybe that's why she felt instantly connected to him. There weren't any other deaf kids in her school, and she's never connected with anyone else in the community because her parents wanted her to be "normal". By the time Chris became her guardian she was so used to her lifestyle that it never occurred to either of them to try and seek out any connections for her. Sky had never met anyone else that was deaf because where he was from no one else was deaf. The acceptance of their disability and their experienced were drastically different, but they bonded anyways and Leah found that even when Chris came home she wanted to spend more time around Sky. He understood her in a way that no one else in her life did, and she was mature enough that when then conversed Sky didn't feel like he was talking to a child. This allowed their friendship to bloom quicker than even Chris and Sky's had.

Sky often felt the need to make sure the people he cared about were safe, but he had never felt such a powerful need to protect someone as he had with Leah. He knew that she was spunky enough to take care of herself, but she was still only a small girl. Whatever power she possessed wouldn't be enough to intimidate those who wanted to take advantage of her. Leah had figured out how to steel her mind, Sky decided early in his stay with Leah that he wanted to pass on the knowledge his mother taught him and teach her how to defend her body. Even though it was hard to physically harm one of his kind, it still hurt quite a bit to be beaten and he was more likely to be abducted and tortured for ransom because he was one of the heirs to the kingdom in his home. His mother herself had been taken once as a child, so she began teaching her sons self-defense and other safety practices that could come in handy in an emergency situation. Leah wouldn't be able to do everything that he could teach her because she was only human, but Sky wanted to teach her everything he knew anyways. He figured whatever she was unable to do like him she could adapt to her own body.

Spring break was fast approaching as Chris returned to his home, and he graciously offered to let Sky move in with them. He knew that his sister would never admit it, but she was happier when Sky was around. She loved her brother, but he had never been able to connect with her in the way that Sky had. It would save Arika a lot of money if he moved out of the dorms, but he had no way to pay rent on his own and he wasn't going to ask anyone to let him live in their house for free. And as much as he loved spending time with Leah, if he was going to move in with anyone he wanted it to be the man he loved. After a long conversation with Dominic, they settled on a compromise.

Dominic petitioned his uncle for the use of clan funds to pay the rent on an apartment near Chris and Leah's house, but his aunt refused to let the newly bonded couple live in a dinky one-bedroom apartment, so she convinced Aiden to use the funds to buy them their first home, three doors down from their friends so Leah could come over whenever she wanted. The couple was incredibly grateful to their family for such a generous gift, but both of them couldn't help but feel a little guilty for using so much of the clan's funds. Aiden insisted that long-term purchases like that one were what the funds were for in the first place, but Sky and Dominic still insisted on paying them back at least a little bit. Dominic got a job at a local grocery store, his hours allowing him to spend every night at home with his love. Working full-time the paycheck was enough to pay the utilities on the house and he got an employee discount so they saved major money on food. Free and regular deliveries of blood were one of the perks of belonging to a large clan, so he didn't have to worry about that as an expense. Sky decided to use his unique skills to make some money on the side instead of getting a conventional paycheck at a job where he would inevitably get bored.

It started slow, offering to follow one of his classmate's girlfriend's around to see if she was cheating, finding out information on someone's crush to make wooing an easier feat, going through someone's stuff to see if they had stolen a particular object and returning it to the rightful owner, all for a price of course. They dubbed him Black Bird, his services spread by word of mouth, and through fliers around campus with the link to a website Dominic helped him set up. There, people could send in their contact information, requests, and payment without him actually having to talk to anyone. He wouldn't get his payment until the job was done, and he made sure that his work was reported as completed. He never took on requests that went against his morals, like getting the key for an exam or intentionally outing someone, but he wasn't afraid to break the law just a little to get the information he needed. Cheating academically wasn't okay with him, but breaking and entering was just fine. Once he had whatever he needed to give the client, he would leave it in a place he knew his client would see it and stick around to make sure they found it without finding him. He didn't really care if anyone found out who he was, he just didn't want to deal with the people on the receiving end of his work or anyone whose requests were denied for one reason or another.

His rates were based on the risk he was taking to complete the job. The higher the risk for himself, the more money he charged his client. Some thought it was unfair of him to charge so much money for taking back a sweater from an ex but they paid the fee anyways because in the end they weren't willing to break into the person's dorm themselves to retrieve it. The money he made wasn't steady, but Sky was confident that by the end of the quarter he could garner enough business to make small monthly deposits to the clan fund and pay back his new family for their kindness.

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