Saving the Ink Demon (A Bendystraw Fanfic)

Chapter 35: Sign Language

Author's Note:

Just so you know I am not fluent in any sort of sign language. I kept the exact motions vague for that exact reason. I do mention the way to say 'hello' in ASL as that's most common where I'm from. I'm sorry if I got it wrong and I do not mean to offend anyone.

Idea from: Unstable_Xena

"Alright Boris, I think this should fix your ink problem." Mugman said proudly. The ink was thicker and smoother. Boris picked up a rock and mixed the ink to a gray color. He spread the ink on the rock and formed it. The ink stayed on and when Boris tried to remove it, the ink wouldn't budge. Boris gasped in surprise. He immediately turned to Mugman. "You're a genius!" Boris exclaimed, "Look at this! It's stable and is easy to work with." Mugman chuckled to hide his embarrassment, "What would I do without you?" Boris asked, not looking for an answer.

Mugman blushed. Boris looked over at Mugman and seemed to remember something. "I still need to teach you sign language." he mentioned. Mugman had forgotten about that promise despite it only being a few days ago. "Alright, where do we start?" Mugman asked. "Let's start with 'hello'." Boris said. "The word 'hello' looks like this." Boris explained while doing what looked like a small salute. "Like this?" Mugman asked, copying the wolf. "Yes, exactly like that!" Boris said happily, "Okay, 'hello' is pretty easy. Let's try 'how are you?'" 

Boris made a series of slightly harder hand movements. "Like this?" Mugman asked, doing his best to copy what Boris did. "Not quite, more like this." Boris said, repeating the hand movements although this time a bit slower. "Like this?" "No, here let me help you." Boris said as he grabbed Mugman's hands. Boris guided Mugman through each of the individual motions. They repeated the motions until Mugman started to get the hang of it. Mugman looked up at Boris and realized how close they were. Mugman tried to ignore how close they were and looked back down at his hands...that Boris was still holding. 

Mugman got so nervous that he forgot how to do the proper hand motions. Boris was confused on why Mugman was doing so poorly all of a sudden. He looked at Mugman and then back at his hands. And then it clicked. He was holding Mugman's hands. Boris immediately let go of Mugman's hands. "S-sorry I didn't realize." Boris said nervously, scratching the back of his neck. "It... it's okay." Mugman responded. "Are you sure? Your head's um... doing somethin'." Boris stated. "Huh?" Mugman gasped in confusion. He felt his head and noticed that his head was...bubbling.  

"O-oh this! Don't worry it's nothing." Mugman said nervously. Boris shrugged off the obvious lie because of his own willingness to ignore the situation. "Do ya wanna pick this back up tomorrow?" Boris asked Mugman. "Yeah, sure." Mugman replied with a bit of hope behind his voice. He was excited to continue to practice sign language with Boris so that he can grow closer to Boris. Cuphead walked over to where Boris and Mugman were. "How's the ink workin' now?" Cuphead stopped dead in his tracks as he saw Mugman's head bubbling.

"The ink's workin' much better now." Boris explained. "That's good. You should go tell Bendy; I gotta talk to Mugs about somethin'." Cuphead replied. Boris nodded and walked off. Cuphead waited until Boris was out of sight. "Alright, what happened?" Cuphead asked. "Boris was just teachin' me sign language, but I wasn't getting it, so Boris grabbed my hands to sort of guide me. And when I noticed I just started...bubblin'." Mugman explained, "I-I think I have a crush on him." Cuphead just looked at Mugman with a deadpanned expression, "You just now figured that out?"