Thoughts Can Hurt || Percy & Avengers Crossover

in which percy accidentally signs a bunch of cuss words

Clint groans. "No," he signs miserably, "you can't say thank you like that, Percy." For Percy he signs the letter Y and the sign for surf.

Percy thinks for a moment. Instead of
signing thank you, which starts at your chin and goes forward, he starts at the top of his neck and brushes past his chin. He raises his eyebrow, as if daring Clint to correct him.

"No!" Clint buries his face in his hands. "Curse word!" He signs without looking up. He slowly sits back up. He looks both exhausted and slightly amused. "Do not say that word!"

Percy eyes Clint for a moment. His eyes narrow. He holds up his hand in the I love you sign.

Clint grins. "Thanks, love you too." He pauses, clearly thinking something over, and then signs, "Kid."

Percy looks where Clint's hand just was when he was signing kid.

He looks back at his hand, which is still in the air in the I love you sign. He moves his hand sideways and imitates a plane. The "I love you" plane slowly crashes to the ground and Percy moves his hands out wide, imitating an explosion.

"My love for you." He signs, his face void of emotion.

Clint rolls his eyes. He repeats the sign but makes a bigger explosion. He smirks and raises his eyebrows.

Percy falls back into his bed with a loud sigh. He brings the blanket up above his head in one fluid motion.

Clint watches him with raised eyebrows.

Percy sticks his head out of the cover just long enough to sign, "Shut up." Before he ducks back under them.

Clint waits a few minutes. He walks over to Percy's bed and taps his shoulder. Percy swats his hand away.

"Go away." Percy motions.

Clint pauses and then taps "story" in morse code.

Percy slowly opens his eyes to Clint's questioning expression. He sighs. Clint's puppy face is too effective.

"Funny story?" Clint asks again, his sign a bit hesitant, as he doesn't want to push Percy into anything he won't be comfortable with.

But at the same time, he knows Percy needs socialization. Although the other team members have come to visit him, he refuses to talk to them. One of the doctors mentioned that it's not uncommon for patients who undergo incidents like this to draw back into themselves so they don't appear incompetent to everyone else. They don't want to be treated differently, despite needed a higher level of help than before. Especially if they have more trouble doing things that used to come easily, like memory or word recollection.

Percy pauses and then sits up. He nods.

"One time, I went to the store with Natasha." For Natasha he signs the letter N and then scary. That's not actually her sign name, but it's not like Percy will snitch on his best bro, right? "She said I could just stay in the car if I wanted and I was like yeah. Sure. My hearing aids had died earlier, so they were charging at home."

"So anyway I was like eyyyy I'mma jam to some music! So I turn the radio up loud, boost the base, and switch through the channels till I feel a good beat. So I'm out in the car absolutely jamming and vibing to whatever song this is when someone walks past. They look at me weird but I'm like whatever. So I keep vibing. But a minute later, a couple other people walk past the car and they look at me weird too! So I'm like, oh no, I hope this song doesn't have a bunch of cuss words in it or something."

He pauses signing to take a sip of water.

"So anyway, Natasha comes back out a few minutes later. She gives me an odd look and turns the radio down. So I was like, Natasha, what song was I listening to? Everyone that walked past me gave me such weird looks. She stares at me for a minute and then turns the radio off. Clint, she signs," Clint attempts to imitate Natasha's way of signing, but he fails. Miserably.