tangled up in blue

bonus chapter 06

now- miguel

2022 AN- hi so i edited this smut because it was horrifyingly unrealistic WHAT was wrong with me. kinky bitches dont get mad at me for editing this LMAOOOOO sorry not sorry i want to go to HEAVEN !!!! i have since reconciled with Jesus, amen

Lee

Eugene spoke the loudest through actions, not words. We hadn't been seeing each other- we're seeing each other we're boyfriendsboyfriendsboyfriendsohmygod- for too long at all, but it all just felt... natural. Like I was meant to know him. We slipped into intimacy like it was what we were made for.

It was the quiet moments where I understood Eugene best. He'd been teaching me sign language after laughing at my determination to learn ASL plus Japanese within a year, which I thought was perfectly manageable for a genius like me; but really, I'd let him teach me anything. I was used to noise. I personally couldn't shut up for more than forty-four seconds (Noah timed me for a week straight to come to this conclusion), so being around someone so tranquil all the time was strange, and new, but I found something in it that just felt right. It was right. Sometimes I was restless and uncaged, filling up every room until it could burst, and then he'd be there, redefining peace, unmaking the mess of me. We just fit. So, Eugene taught me sign language. Softly. Patiently. Giving me gentle laughter when I'd completely butcher a sentence or groan in frustration, taking my own fingers in his larger ones and reshaping them, leaning in for a shy kiss when I got something right. Teaching me to listen.

I liked him a lot, a lot, a lot.

"There's sound in silence," Eugene signed and then translated once we were laying down on his bed, facing one another. I played with his hand, absentmindedly drawing shapes upon the warm skin that waited, pliant for my touch. "A lot of Hearing people think that Deaf people are worse off, but that's not true. When Yua blasts their music, my parents walk around barefoot, feeling it. They have a whole different perspective on the world, but that doesn't mean it's worth any less than ours. It's beautiful."

I hummed in agreement, smiling softly as I studied his face. I liked the way he said things, especially when he was passionate enough to talk for a little longer than usual, to get you hanging on every carefully thought-up word. I told him just that, before adding, "and I think everybody should learn sign language. So thank you for teaching me."

His timid smile mirrored my own, a direct contrast to the giant sprawled out on his too-small childhood bed, dressed in all black, a hint of dark color drawn just above his bottom lash line. Hot and cute. Annoyingly so.

"Lee, we've only done, like, four lessons." Which usually end in us just making out anyway.

"I know. But I'll never run out of reasons to be thankful for you."

I was sickening, but Eugene liked it if the pink tips of his ears were anything to go by. I mean, his favourite movie was Casablanca. He was a hopeless romantic beyond redemption.

He flipped our palms so that he had control over my hand instead, and like a puppeteer, he slowly spelled out three words with the ASL alphabet. I. Love. You.

It might've been too soon for other people, but then again, Eugene had been pining over me in secret for a year, (which was fucking adorable, and when he told me, I bit him out of an excited affection that couldn't be verbally translated) so he'd had enough time to mull it over. I'd been trying to get him to be more open with his feelings, too. That's when it happened for the first time. We got back to my house after Marcella, the villain, held us hostage and practically forced us to make out, and then we started talking about us. About the whole, like, dating thing, and how I wanted Eugene real fucking bad but he was gonna need to stop confusing me with his feelings. Honesty, and stuff. Of course, I never expected him to say, "oh, okay. Well, I love you. Yeah. M'in love with you," before blushing like he'd just asked me to prom and finishing with a, "how'd I do?"