crankgameplays imagines

[49] lightning

Thunderstorms were always your favorite.

Not necessarily because of the thunder itself, but because the beautiful flashes of light across the sky as your vision was warped with the falling drops of rain was one of your favorite sights.

And of course, it was hilarious whenever you were with one of your hearing friends and they'd jump in their seat suddenly, to which you would laugh. They'd sign an apology to you, and you could always read their lips and knew they were saying something along the lines of 'holy shit!' when the thunder struck.

You went deaf when you were just a baby, some infection when you were in the hospital, and the doctors couldn't figure it out. The option for a cochlear implant was offered up to your parents, and they decided against it. Since then, they tried their best to learn ASL for you, and you attended Deaf schools for all of your education.

After high school, most of your Deaf friends were going to Gallaudet, and your parents expected you to go there as well. But you knew your dreams were out in LA. The YouTube Space was there, as well as a huge community of Deaf people as there were in most urban cities. You'd started your YouTube channel in freshman year of high school, wanting to connect with more Deaf people aroud the country and share your ideas in your native language.

You never expected the channel to explode like it was. It was getting views from ASL teachers, students, and there was even a huge petition that went aroud the Internet to get you on the latest YouTube Rewind. You never did, but all the ruckus caught the attention of YouTube, and you were quickly invited out to the YouTube Space for a meeting on creating more awareness of Deaf culture and what exactly Deaf people were capable of.

So here you were, in the YouTube Space LA waiting room, watching the lightning strike through the grey clouds outside. Not exactly a great first impression of "sunny" California, but you didn't mind, it only reminded you of home.

You felt a tap on your shoulder and looked up to see a few people, and you stood to shake their hands. One began signing to you, and you realized this must be an interpreter they had hired for your visit. The interpreter explained that they were eager to hear your ideas on expanding the views of other cultures and getting equal representation of Deaf people on this visual platform.

Quickly, you signed back to the interpreter and watched as she spoke to the others, reading what you could on her lips. They led you to a conference room, and the meeting went by with only formalities, and you could tell that they were almost patronizing you, you felt talked down to. They were trying, but they still saw you for your "disability", you realized as the meeting came to an end. A picture was insisted on being taken, and you told the interpreter to give them your regards before you left.

On your way out of the YouTube Space, you were disgruntled to find that the sun had come out, and you were without sunglasses. As soon as you stepped outside, you were blinded, and felt something strike against your body. Falling to the ground, you immediately tried to collect yourself, embarassed that you had literally run into someone.

You saw a hand offered down to you, and you accepted it, finding yourself faced with a handsome blue-haired boy, whose lips were moving too fast for you to possible read even a single syllable. It was obvious that he was nervous by how he fidgeted as he spoke, and you realized he was expecting you to reply when he had stopped, looking at you expectantly.

Taking a chance, you tried to see if he knew at least a little sign, so you signed out 'I'm sorry, I'm deaf. Do you know ASL?'

He just seemed startled and lost, looking over his shoulder to the two men and two women he had been travelling with. You held out a finger to gesture to him to wait, and reached into your purse for a notepad and pen. You scrawled a similar message across it, having to remind yourself to use English grammar, not ASL, or else you'd confuse the poor boy even further.

Handing him the sheet, he nodded, and took the pen to write something of his own. You read it, smiling as he had introduced himself in the note as Ethan, and apologized for running into you. You wrote your note of forgiveness, and asked about his friends.

Ethan perked up, and wrote four names on the sheet. Pointing to the curly-haired man, he then pointed to the name Tyler. Next was the dark-haired girl with glasses, who got the name Kathryn pointed to, then the last two were Mark and Amy, who you knew were dating from the heart Ethan had drawn around their two names. They all waved and smiled at you, and you wrote down 'Nice to meet you all.' before showing it to the group.

Ethan was about to write something else, but Mark grabbed his arm and started saying something to him. You shifted awkwardly, hating the feeling of being left out of a conversation, but you knew that none of them knew sign, and they probably didn't understand that this was rude in the Deaf community. Ethan wrote fervently on the sheet that was nearly filled up now.

When he handed it back to you, you read over it as quick as you could. 'Sorry, we have a meeting and really need to go. I loved talking,' you snickered to yourself when you saw that he had crossed out talking and replaced it with, 'writing with you. Feel free to text me if you want to. I hope I can see you again, Y/N.'

Below his signature was his phone number, and you nodded to him to show that you understood, and waved goodbye to them all. Once they were inside, you saw Ethan wave to you again before they stepped into the elevator, and you started trying to hail a cab back to your hotel. In the cab, after awkwardly writing the address to the driver, you pulled out your phone to type in Ethan's number.

This was exciting, he didn't seem to really be put off by your deafness. Most hearing people didn't quite know how to act around you, some tended to coddle you, while others just didn't understand how you couldn't hear them and got frustrated. He seemed like neither, he treated you as an equal.

You sent just a friendly message to him, telling him who it was texting him and that you really appreciated meeting him today.

It wasn't until the next day that you got a text back from him. The whole time you were panicking, wondering if he regretted giving you his number, but to your relief, you woke up to a message from him.

'sorry it took me so long to reply, but i wanted to learn a little something for you first.'

Sent below it was a video, and when you clicked on it, you saw Ethan nervously wave before hesitantly  signing "Hi, my name is Ethan." You were ecstatic, Ethan had learned some ASL for you, just after meeting you once.

You eagerly texted back, 'That was such a beautiful surprise, Ethan. Thank you!'

'It was really messy, I'm sorry if I totally did everything wrong.'

'Don't be sorry. Next time, don't bounce your hand so much when you fingerspell, it's hard to read. Thank you again!'

Your conversations continued on with Ethan like that, mainly you texting, and occasionally he'd send a video of something in ASL he'd learned. Of course you would help him out when you could, especially with grammar and variations in signs, but you still hadn't met him in real life since that first day at YouTube Space.

You'd just finished typing out all the English closed captioning for your next signed video when you felt the buzz of your phone through your desk. It was surprisingly a video call from Ethan.

You accepted it curiously, propping your phone up so the camera could see you clearly. Ethan was at his own desk, waving happily at you.

He signed, "Hi Y/N."

"Hi, Ethan. Why did you call me?"

"I want to ask you to go on a date with me. Please."

Your eyes widened as you watched him sign. The signs for 'meet' and 'date' were very similar, you had to double check.

"Did you sign 'meet' or 'date'?"

"Date." He confirmed, looking very nervous as he did so.

Nodding your head, you signed yes to him, grinning as he apparently yelled something victoriously to the sky. Turning back to the camera, Ethan signed, "Thank you, see you tomorrow?"

"Yes."