You fell first, I fell harder //Wenclair one-shots//

Hearing aids

Prompt: deaf Wednesday au that no one wanted but we all needed.

Wednesday didn't like sound. She never had, and never would. Any time it was possible, she preferred sign language over speaking.

When she really thought about it there were some plus sides to the vibrations that found her ears, like footsteps approaching or even a telephone ringing, but those could be found in other ways, like feeling the footsteps on the ground, a talent she had found before she had gotten these stupid things and come to this damn school.

"Wednesday! Are you listening to me?" Eugene asked, a hurt look crossing his face. She nodded, knowing honesty would hurt him.

"Continue your ranting."

He didn't stop speaking as he started to scrape honey off the honeycomb, though his head being turned did dim the volume a fair bit.

The interaction lasted far longer than Wednesday would have wished it to, but eventually, she was back on her way home, or to what had become her home, though she was never alone in it.

"Wednesday!" Ah yes, the bane and meaning of her existence in one body.

"I'm taking a hearing brake, Enid," she huffed.

"I can just shut up, you don't need to-"

Enid's voice went almost fully muffled as she pulled out her IICs, placing them in their case for charging and rubbing her temples, relieved at the final silence.

Wednesday, look at me! Enid's little whiteboard slid in front of her face.

"I don't want to look at you." Though she was born deaf, the feeling of talking and not hearing her own voice always felt odd after she had experienced proper hearing.

The chair she had been sitting on was spun around, forcing her to face Enid.

"Just because you are having a hearing break doesn't mean you can ignore me Wednesday," Enid signed, her face expressing the irritation her hands couldn't. "Is something wrong? You don't normally get this overwhelmed," she flicked her hands over her head much softer now.

"I can lip read, you know."

Enid gave her a plain look. "But will you?"

"Nope," she made sure to pop the p, something she had recently discovered that felt really funny, especially with her hearing aids out.

"Please just tell me what happened."

"Nothing happened! The world is just too loud sometimes."

Enid didn't make another movement for a few seconds, clearly sighing.

"We have dinner in a few minutes, do you want to wait until then to put them back in?"

"I'm not putting them back in."

"Most of our friends don't know sign."

"Most of our friends don't know I'm deaf, Enid." This conversation was getting annoying very fast. As much as she loved her girlfriend, it was hard to ignore the slight mistakes in her sign as she was still learning, and she had to work pretty hard to interpret it.

"You haven't told them?" Her eyes went wide. "When your IICs die you wear your other ones though, and they're visible. They would be able to see them."

"I have hair I can hide them under."

Enid frowned. "Who knows?"

"Bianca due to one falling out during fencing, and Xavier because he noticed me lip reading."

Giving up on signing, Enid just spoke, relying on her girlfriend's skill to interpret her. "Not even Eugene knows?"

Wednesday stood up, shaking her head. "And he doesn't need to, I can lip read. Also, I'm only eighty percent deaf, I can still hear slight echoes sometimes,  your voice is managing to penetrate mumbles into my brain currently."

"And in a group setting where everyone is talking, you won't be able to hear that."

Wednesday ignored her, simply standing up and turning to the further side of her desk. She quickly opened a drawer, pulling out her phone. "I will use this if needed." 

Knowing she wouldn't hear her anyway, Enid didn't answer. 

The two exited the dorm, walking through the winding halls until they reached the Quad. "You sure you are okay?" Enid signed, getting only an annoyed look in response. 

"Yo! You two, grab something and come sit down!" Bianca yelled over to them.

Wednesday quickly looked to her partner for help, not able to tell the exact lip movements from this far away, but she was already off skipping to the werewolf table. Great. She looked around momentarily, choosing that food was the safest option. She grabbed a plate, scooping up a salad and a buttered bun before heading to the table. 

"You okay?" She almost froze up as Xavier signed the words to her, and then tapped his ears. How had he figured it out so fast?

"I'm fine, hearing brake." She signed the words back, sitting down and glancing around. Enid, Yoko and Divina were in conversation as well as Eugene and Bianca, leaving just her and Xavier to discuss among themselves as Ajax had an extra class that took up Friday dinners.

"Any reason for it?" 

"I just need one, stop drilling into me," she waved him away, focusing on her food, or at least trying to before a banging vibration on the table near her arm tore her attention away and over to Eugene. 

"Divina was asking what your p3 was," his fast pace talking made it hard to catch the lip movements. Maybe Enid was right, she could hardly understand him.

"Biology."

Both Divina and Yoko started talking at once, and Wednesday felt her heartbeat spike. Why had she been so damn stupid and not just- a small box was pressed to her palm, and she recognised the weight and texture. Enid must have grabbed her hearing aids before they left.

"One moment." Taking a deep breath, she opened the container, quickly putting them in. The sound of the crowd came back, loud but also quite nice. She expected questions about it, maybe even nagging, but no one even shot them a second glance. Yoko and Divina carried on with their rant, and for the first time, Wednesday realised something. It didn't matter, they were just something that was there to help her, no one cared if she wore them or not as long as they could talk. It was normal, just in its own way.