Charlie stared at Roach with a strange almost judgmental look. Everyone noticed, was it Jealous? no. It was wariness.
On the other hand, Gisele looked absolutely blank— lifeless. Roach spends a few hours each day trying to talk to her. Asking her things here and there. Sometimes she answers other times she just stares at him with a blank stare.
Ghost could tell it was hostility, not enough like the first day they met, but it was annoyance in her gaze. She sometimes humored him and other times she seemed overwhelmed.
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I stared at Roach, like his namesake this fucking man is persistent. Following me trying to sign. I told him it's been a few years since I've used ASL and that I'm very rusty. That didn't matter he'll sign slower.
leave me alone!
I stare at the ceiling as I sense Roach walking towards me. my fears came true. He's worse than both Soap, Gaz, and Ghost. I needed a lot of energy to humor him and even more patience to deal with his attempt at communication.
I turn to him with a blank face he waves and begins to sign, 'Hello Y/n how are you.'
How do I sign again?
"Why don't you teach him our signing system?" Charlie spoke up. Roach perked up and turned to me with a sparkle in his eyes. I slowly turned to Charlie who noticed and looked up from his phone.
"Someone gonna need to know what you're going to do when I leave." He had a point, why did he have to be right?
"Ghost knows how to communicate with Roach so it is a good way to still understand you," Gaz spoke up in a supportive way. Roach turns to me paddling his hands on his legs.
"Fine."
'You can speak?' Roach signs to me.
"Yeah."
'Why didn't you sign them?' He asks.
"Because God looked at me and thought, huh how do I make this thing unique... The tism." I sarcastically state.
"Autism," Charlie tells Roach. Roach nods and smiles, his dimples flash for a second. I sigh and turn to Charlie.
'Get hit by a car.'
"Only if you are driving." I roll my eyes. I turn back to Roach.
"It's a mix between ASL, gang signs, and short hands." Roach nods pulling out his phone to take note.
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"She's like a child." Ghost mumbles to the rest.
"How?" Soap asked looking at Roach and Gisele, talking about their sign.
"She's very... pouty." Ghost gruffly states looking at her with folded arms. Roach is his friend if she tries anything...
"She gets upset easily and has a hard time hiding her distaste." Charlie jumps in eating a 2-week-old burrito.
"She's... immature," Gaz spoke up gently. He notices how much care Charlie has for her. He didn't want to offend him.
"That's true," Charlie sighs and sits down with them. "She just doesn't like change."
"I can tell."
"She doesn't like not knowing." Charlie took another bite of the burrito. "This is shit—"
"Why are you eating them?" Soap asks.
"I'm hungry." Charlie mutters, "It's the autism, she needs to know so she can subconsciously divide up her time, energy, and patience."
"Why is everything autism?" Soap looked over it felt like her autism was to be blamed for everything. Gaz and Ghost turn to him waiting for an answer, it did feel like it was a crutch to use.
"Because autism changes how your mind is wired. If you have ADHD," Charlie side-eyed Soap so hard it wasn't subtle, but Soap didn't notice. "Certain things neurotypicals find easy are extremely hard. Autism in females is different than males."
"How so?" Gaz genuinely asked and truly wanted to understand his new teammate.
"Well, most females tend to try to be more... sociable them males. They feel the pressure to fit in." Charlie begins. Once he truly started to like Y/n he did his own research for Autism, trying to understand the different ways her mind works.
"Since autism— for a long time considered a boy thing most girls are diagnosed much later in life. in their teens so they end up getting more abuse and cruelty for their differences. Their better at hiding their differences they Camouflage and mask their true self. So, they would be aware of eye contact and sometimes over-exaggerate facial expressions to fit in."
"She doesn't do that."
"Nope because she's not masking not Camouflaging herself." Soap and Gaz's eyes widen.
"So, she's comfortable with us?" Gaz hopefully asks.
"Nope, she just can't mask to save her life." Charlie chuckles looking at a frustrated Y/n trying to teach Roach.
"One thing she does do which is in line with female autism is mimicking what others do when she doesn't know what to do. With her Echolalia and palilalia, she repeats and others. That got her into a lot of trouble people think she's mocking them. You'll know when she's mocking you, she'll straight up tell you she's mocking you. She's very truthful if you ask her a straight question, she'll give you a straight answer even to the detriment of her own image."
"Really?"
"Yup, one time a drill sergeant asked if she was mocking him, she looked him dead in the eyes and said: "You're not worthy of it" She did 100 pushups." Gaz and Soap laughed as Ghost watched on silently.
"She does not consider people friends or acquaintances until you experience her worse and still stay, then she gets possessive."
"That sounds toxic."
"It kinda is, but hey I understand where she comes from. In her mind, she's giving up a lot of time, energy, and patience on me, so she wants my entire attention." Gaz gave Soap and Ghost a look but kept his comment to himself.
"Besides the having a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and mental breakdown. She can sniff out other neurodivergent people, it is freaky."
"Really?" Ghost finally spoke.
"I have ADHD and the reason she stuck around was that and I quote "You're not normal, but you are also not like me but you're adjacent to me." I was so confused and like a few weeks later I was diagnosed."
"Mate she just called you weird, if she had said that to me..."
"I almost did hit her."
"Really?" Soap turns to Charlie. He can get upset with her?
"The reason our conversation always derails is because she's used to speaking to many people with ADHD so to keep their focus, she rapidly switches topics and just info dump. The shit she knows is so strange, I often wonder where she learns these things."
"What was the weirdest thing she told you, that was true," Ghost asks.
"There was a banana genocide at one time."
"What?"