Sheraton Academy

A Not-So-Subtle Hint

Rating: G

Warnings: None

"So, you've finally given up, then?"

Donatien sighed and glanced at Stacey's clock, before turning back to him and signing, "Yes. It's useless."

Stacey's mouth twisted a little and he leaned forward, gently patting his friend's knee.

"Maybe he's just not interested but doesn't know how to say it?" Dona signed. "So he's just ignoring it."

Stacey pursed his lips and tilted his head side to side. Then, noncommittally, he shrugged.

"You think he's asexual? Or aromantic?" Dona didn't know either of those words in BSL, so he had to pause to spell them out, fingers still a little clumsy around the letters. He'd learned the alphabet first, of course, but then went on to barely use it, so the information had been pushed to the side for things that were more useful.

"I think you're being too kind," Stacey signed. He looked at the door, as if he were checking for eavesdroppers, as if an eavesdropper could even hear them.

"I think he's an idiot," he finished. Dona laughed, bright and loud, because even though neither of them actually thought so, it was freeing to hear someone else voice the frustration he'd been feeling the past few months.

"So, I guess you and Josselin are not to be, then?" Stacey continued.

Dona shook his head and shrugged helplessly.

"You know," he signed, "when I tried to invite him out on a date, I kissed both of his cheeks, like the French do, right?"

Stacey started to shake his head, then paused and nodded instead. He was still retraining himself to use English gesture rather than Greek.

"But I had my fingers on his chin and my lips were much closer to his jaw than they should have been. So he asks," Dona leaned to the side, as if he were talking to himself, "what's this? And I say," he leaned back to his original stance, "oh, it's a French custom – even though I had thought that it was common knowledge that it's not a custom shared between boys or men?"

Stacey nodded.

"So he goes, tell me more about French customs while we walk to the village! I would love to learn about your culture!"

Stacey rolled his eyes and dropped his forehead into his hands in second-hand embarrassment. His sigh was silent, but heavy. His stupid friend was so clueless. And Meara had been trying to flirt with him almost as long as Dona had, although, to Meara's credit, he stubbornly refused to give up. All of them knew that if Josselin were to tell Meara to back off, he would, immediately, but that wasn't the case. Josselin just did not understand flirting or what it meant or how it worked.

"What about you and Adam?" Dona signed. "How did you do it?"

Stacey shrugged and shook his head helplessly. "We were friends, we went out for lunch, I kissed him, he kissed me, I asked if he wanted to start dating, and there it was."

Dona sighed and slumped back against the side of Stacey's bed. Normally the lovely lavender and ylang-ylang Stacey's room always smelled of was so calming and helped to clear his head, but now it just seemed overwhelming and muddled. "That's it!?" He threw his hands up and sighed. Stacey shrugged again and, though Dona had forgotten, he was suddenly grateful that Stacey could read lips.

"I think it's too late now, though," Stacey signed. "I'm pretty sure Meara's sliding in, even if Josselin is too clueless to know it yet. I think they're equally into each other."

Dona signed and nodded, signing a loose, tired, "Yeah." Truthfully, he had expected it – he and Josselin had so much in common on so many levels, but Meara and Josselin just... clicked. Dona didn't believe in fate, but even he was confident the two had been destined to find each other.

Dona glanced at the clock again. 2:46. He pushed himself up and Stacey followed suit.

"We should leave for the café or we'll be late," Dona signed.

Stacey nodded and patted his taller friend's shoulder sympathetically.

Dona sighed.

***

"So, this carnival coming up? I was thinking we could go together? If you didn't have anything else to do."

Meara had been steeling himself up to ask the question for weeks, now. His smile was casual and his stance was confident but inside he was shaking with nerves. Josselin was going to say no, or say yes but they should bring Stacey and Dona, too, or something, completely unaware that Meara was trying to ask him on a date. And Meara could really only blame himself for it: he knew Josselin was clueless and would probably need him to say, quite directly, You are wonderful and adorable and I fancy you and we should date, but even though it was frustrating as hell to drop not-so-subtle hints that went completely unnoticed, Meara was so afraid of rejection he wasn't sure how else to even go about the situation.

"That sounds great!" Josselin grinned. Meara's smile widened and he leaned forward on his elbows, subtly reaching his hands a little further across the table, even has he braced for –

"Do you know if Danny's coming in that weekend?"

That.

"No," Meara said quickly. It was a reasonable question to ask. Danny was his boyfriend! Maybe that was why Josselin didn't get the hint? Even though when Meara brought it up, Danny said he was pretty sure he was polyamorous, too? Even though all his friends knew he and Danny were in an open relationship?

He slowly pulled his hands back and wrapped them around his coffee mug. "He has... other things to do." Danny, in fact, did not even know that a carnival was taking place, but Meara would get in touch with him and make sure he made plans if he didn't have them already.

"I thought we could go together. You know... just you and me?"

Meara's brows drew together even as he smiled, hopeful, nervous, ready for rejection again, but Josselin's face brightened and his shoulders perked and he grinned, "I'd love that!"

For a moment, Meara was still, stunned, but he quickly found himself again and grinned back. "We can make a day of it. Lunch and everything?"

"Yeah!" Josselin smiled, and even though it wasn't a date, it was something special one-on-one, and it was a place to start.

***

Stacey and Dona hung back on the sidewalk opposite the café, watching Meara and Josselin through the all-glass wall. Stacey shook his head, tight-lipped, and Dona stood loosely, one hand propped on his hip.

"Meara's asking him on a date and he doesn't even realize it, does he?" Dona signed. It was messy and clumsy with just one hand, but it was clear enough for Stacey to understand. The smaller boy nodded and threw his hands up in the air, as if asking the Gods to intervene because wow, he was getting so sick of this.

The two friends drew more than a few curious glances from the people walking by; a tall, thin young man with perfect hair and posture who could easily pass for a model and a much smaller boy with hands flying everywhere, occasionally stamping his feet in frustration. Were they brothers arguing? Friends trying to decide where to spend the afternoon? A deaf couple having a lovers' quarrel?

But no, they were close friends, the same age, watching their two older mates through a large glass window and trying very hard to not slam through the door and smash their faces together, because if they didn't do it, nobody else would. Meara and Josselin themselves could certainly not be trusted to handle it on their own. Stacey finally sighed and nudged Dona with his elbow.

"Help me make sure they go to the upcoming carnival together. Alone." The last sign was sharp, hard, definite. "I'm going to have a booth there and they'll want to visit me. I'll take it from there."

Dona nodded, then pointed at the café and gestured Stacey to follow him inside