Sorry, I can't hear you

It doesn’t hit him that he’s gone until roughly two weeks after move in day. It’s also not one of those moments where he’s surrounded by people laughing in a cafeteria in a new state, despite what the movies say.

No, he realizes that he’s attending fucking MIT when he’s walking from class to his dorm, a cup of coffee that the cute girl at the shop gave him ( part of him feels guilty for accepting, but he can’t ‘betray’ Rory if she fucking packed up and left with just a post on fucking Instagram as his notice ). He’s breathing in the damp air, watching his classmates discuss homework or the club fair or their plans for the weekend, even recieving a few greetings in ASL from other speakers. Signers. Whatever. 

It’s in that moment, as he watches the activity around him, practically feeling the area buzzing with life, that he feels a warmness in his stomach. This is where he belongs. This is home. 

He does miss his home, and his parents( They sat him down and had a conversation about how much they love him and are proud of him and are so sorry that they’ve always had a hell of a time trying to be there for him because they’ve had to work so much. He’s not ashamed to admit that he has never cried harder.), and he misses Tammy and Danny, and even Rory, despite how he wishes he didn’t long for the latter. 

Tammy, who never rejected him. Who took his hand and showed him how to have friends and always reminded him that she cared about him, something he hadn’t really had directed at him before. Who loved him like a best friend should and whom he would always be thankful for. 

Danny, whom he met just before he left but bounced right back from finding out Dex was deaf and started learning ASL just to communicate with him, even though they had only hung out twice like fuck. 

and Rory, who taught him how to dance and came into his life with a burst of blonde hair and smiles and spoke of wanting him, though he had always thought he would end up alone. Who learned ASL for him and defended him and let him hold her hand and allow him to almost fall madly in love with her and made him believe that she could fall in love with him as well. And broke his heart nearly as much as Dallas did, with unanswered text messages and a basic lack of existence.

He shakes his head, as the first drop of water hits his skin. Maybe he had experienced a typical high school life after all. But that was over now, and he sees Jacob and Michael wave at him to come under their umbrella, the fact that his roommate’s boyfriend was here promising mischief once the sky stopped pouring buckets). Michael launches into a discussion about the newest Science Journal, speaking and signing, and cracks a joke about global warming, and he’s laughing as the pair begin to bicker. 

Maybe home isn’t the place he grew up, or the school he went to. Maybe it was the people he met and friends he made and wherever the hell he wanted it to be.

and that was pretty fucking awesome.

Danny slid into the booth across from him, focusing on the boy’s - wait no, man’s hands. “Still shorter than you, though, Dex…like almost everyone.” He laughs. The more comfortable he got, the more sign language that came to him. He supposed it was hard to forget something you dedicated months to learning and used to use as frequently as possible. Even now, him and his wife are planning to teach their son the basics so they can communicate.

He hears the swallow and focuses on Dexter’s face. He was glad he had nothing in his hand when the man across from him spoke. He would have dropped everything. He had missed him and he had wanted to say it to him. Danny wondered if he had practiced for this moment. “Wow - you’ve come really far, man. I missed you too.”

“Don’t worry Danny, you’re still my favorite Hobbit.” One would think the word Hobbit wouldn’t have an actual sign, but the world was surprising. “Is the Mrs. with you?” The man felt a swell of pride in his chest, taking a deep breath, “Thank you.” he spoke shakily,  but his smile fell a bit as he had to sign, “I’m sorry that I can’t say more. I just wanted to tell you. When I felt so alone, just learning.” theres a pause, as he tries to think of how to phrase it. “It meant so much to me. Thank you.”

He’s in Slow Down because why wouldn’t he be? This was the first place he came in this town although he despised coffee, and you know what? He still does. Danny likes the environment - he likes the smell, he likes the fact that some things never changed. Including someone in the corner with a textbook - only now the person was much visibly older.

“Hey - I know you.” His real sign language is rusty - a language he’d stopped using soon after leaving Roseboro, but he still attempts because he couldn’t imagine walking around in a place where no one spoke your language and no one cared to try.

There’s a moment of confusion as a vaguely familiar face walks up to his table, but then he sees the shock of red hair and familiar eyes and he knows it’s Danny. A smile lights up his face, the other man’s signing a bit rusty but the fact that he and Rory had learned it for him still makes his heart squeeze and tears well in his eyes. Not that that’s what was happening. “Are you sure? Because last time I saw you, there was a height difference and you had less facial hair”

Stumbling out from the reference aisle, a smirk on his face, fixing his shirt, Ben held his fingers to his lips. With a laugh and a whispered “Hold on, I’ll be right back,” he wandered up to the circulation desk, slapping Dexter on his back as a greeting. “Everything cool here, Officer?” he asked to the librarian, who had stopped yelling long enough to stare at him with puzzled and yet condescending eyes. “Do ya think you could yell a little less, ma’am? This is a library after all, and some of us,” he paused long enough to motion to himself and Dexter, “are trying to read in here. I mean, look at him, poor kid’s a deer in headlights over here because you probably just interrupted his fuckin’ Star Wars book or some shit, do they even make books of that, who knows, but point is, he’s trying to get his life together and you’re hollerin’ like a fuckin’ banshee, so much that the girl who was fuckin’ letting me touch her tits couldn’t concentrate on my tongue in her mouth. So if you could quiet your mouth down, I could focus on getting my dick wet. And this kid…could get on with whatever’s up in his life.”

His gaze is flying back and forth between the guy and the librarian, who is looking more and more scandalized and offended by the second. He should do something but he doesn’t know what he can do without causing her to yell at him again. He watches as the librarian says something ( he’s freaking out too much to lip read effectively ) and his shoulders sag in relief as she marches off, though he feels like this isn’t the end of the situation. He gives the boy a smile, or as much of one as he can, considering he was five seconds away from fucking crying in public because yelling people stressed him (and just about every other HoH or deaf person he had met) out. Dex brought his hand to his mouth and signing thank you very much (he’s too shaken up to grab his phone and all he can do is hope the guy gets the message). 

A blush turns her face pink at the next words he types, her teeth grazing her bottom lip before an embarrassed laugh has her watching her feet. Until she sees his arm raise again, and her head lifts so she can read the text on the screen. The sentence causes the smile to fade from her face as she reads it, her eyes flickering to him with a disappointed expression. All she can do is shake her head at the suggestion, another small smile attempting to light her features again. 

She licks her lips before reaching up to place her hand on top of his, lowering the phone with a quiet sigh. Her hand (the one not still subconsciously holding his) pressing itself against the side of his neck. “Hey, never.” But before the air between them can become too serious, she laughs again. “Uh.. Do you wanna go do something together? Like, just me and you?”

He’s about five seconds away from having a heart attack. She’s standing right there ( so wonderful and way, way too out of his league ) but her words are kind and her hands are soft and his heart is beating so quickly he can feel the blood rushing and it’s taking all of his willpower not to do something stupid. He knows these are empty promises ( despite how much he cares for her, relations between high school and college students rarely work out ), but the fact that she doesn’t want to forget him makes him mindblowingly happy.  He exhales, giving the girl in front of him a nod and a smile. He pulls the phone back up and types his reply “Like a date?” 

As of August 27, 2025

Name: Dexter Luke Hays Age: 28 Relationship Status: Engaged to Aurora Parker Pets: A cat named Mr. Whiskers Occupation: Biomolecular Engineer Alumni: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Work:  Process Development Engineer for Joule Unlimited Technologies (2019-2022), Senior Mechanical Engineer for Brown and Caldwell (2022-2023), Cancer researcher for Nagrath Labs (2023-present)

Twitter:

@dexhays: I’m 99.9% sure that my constant use of social media is unhealthy @dexhays: Is twitter even still a cool thing?? Or am I like a parent on Facebook? Do kids even know what facebook is anymore? I’m so old help. @dexhays: I don’t know who is cuter: my fianceé or our cat @dexhays: I’m pulling your leg, it’s obviously the cat @dexhays: Update: I am sleeping on the couch tonight

Recent Messages:

[Text to: Mrs. Hays]:  That text was very inappropriate ma’m, I’m going to have to ask you to step away from your cellular device [Text to: Mrs. Hays]: Seriously, they just stopped making jokes about me being sexually attracted to my job this is not the time for me to get turned on in public okay i’M NOT SEXUALLY ATTRACTED TO MICROSCOPES I AM ATTRACTED TO MY BEAUTIFUL FIANCEEÉ GOD DAMN IT [Text to: Tam]: DID YOU SEE THE ARTICLE I THINK I JUST GOT A SCIENCE BONER [Text to: Grace]: Ten years later and I’m still waiting on those homemade ice cream sandwiches. Are you going to hold up your end of the bargain or...?

A grin finds her lips when she sees the same appear on his, a relieved sigh leaving her shoulders to fall from their rigid posture. God, something about his smile was contagious enough to not only make her return the gesture, but set her heart beat sky rocketing along with it. Such a sucker she’s become, in such a short time. When she hears the boy’s response, Rory’s hand squeezes his shoulder before falling away from it and (unintentionally, she swears) running down his arm before falling to her side. 

“Good. And it’s not a problem at all. Might as well be your princess in a shining short skirt before you head off to college and forget all about me.”

He’s shaking his head, holding up a finger before typing out: “I could never forget you.” and it’s the fucking CHEESIEST thing he’s said in his life ( or one of them; he probably said worse when he was with Dallas, the train wreck that had been), but he shoves the thought out of his mind and bites his lip, trying not to lean into her touch as her hand falls down to her side, already missing the presence on his shoulder.

 “Besides, you’ll probably meet some guy while I’m gone and be the one who forgets about me.” he types, his heart clenching as he holds up the device. 

The thought of her forgetting about him ( holding another guy’s hand, falling for someone that wasn’t him ) sent knots in his stomach, but Rory was so fucking amazing, it was only a matter of when and who. 

Aurora walks into the library with a sigh, looking down at her phone to both check if Alexis has texted and to turn the volume up on the song Rocking Chairs currently curing her headache. But just before she reaches the stretch of book shelves, her eyes catch on something in her peripheral vision. The old, blind librarian screaming and waving her arms around with visual anger. Yikes. Curiosity gets the best of the blonde, forcing her to walk closer the the poor person at the other end of her lecture in order to get a better look. But when she sees Dexter, a sudden urge to intervene speeds her up. And then she’s pulling her earbuds out of her ears as she steps in front of him with a frown. “Hey. I get that you’re blind, and that you survived the first World War. But you need to chill out. He can’t fucking hear you.” Rory watches as her words cause the older woman’s mouth to close and scowl, wrinkled arms crossing. “So before you start screaming about the lack of decency and respect shown by this generation again, get new spectacles and you might notice that some people can’t answer you. And that we are definitely not the problem here.”

Without wasting a second, she’s turning back to the boy with her chest heaving. As soon as she sees him, though, Aurora is calm again. Her hand rests on his shoulder, thumb moving over the cloth without her consent. “You okay?”

He’s tempted just turn and run back home, but then there’s a flash of blonde and the librarian has stopped yelling at him (and looks very shocked, so he’s pretty sure that the person in front of him just told her he was deaf), for which he is very grateful. He’s about to give his savior a smile, when they turn around, and of course it’s Rory. She’s always there, golden hair and twinkling eyes. Always exactly what he needs. He nods, and gives her a smile that’s probably a bit too enthusiastic, given the situation. But he can’t help it: Just being around the girl made him light up like a Christmas tree.

Wow, he was pathetic.

He finds himself softening under the touch of her hand on his shoulder, and whips out his phone to type out, “I’m fine. Thank you, Rory, you’re a lifesaver.”

He just wants her to stop yelling and let him go HOME.

@imnoprincess: im gonna strangle the director because this is the most aggravating thing to watch