His Translator

His Translator (Henry Stickmin x Burt Curtis)

(What's their ship name? Imma call it "Stickcur". Anywho, on with the oneshot!)

Having Henry Stickmin as the boss was...interesting, as Burt would put it. Not bad at all, Henry was a good boss. He just took time to get used to. The first thing people noticed was his selective mutism. Henry tended to prefer signing instead of talking. Again, not a bad thing, but not every member of the Toppat Clan knew sign language, which made meetings difficult sometimes. Whenever Henry did talk, it was clear that he wasn't comfortable. His voice was slightly hoarse, and constantly sounded strained. That's when Burt really came into the picture. If someone came up to Burt and told him that he would end up acting as Henry's "translator", he'd say they were messing with him, after all, none of the previous Toppat leaders thought he was that important.

It started when Henry began visiting Burt's little office. He'd ask how Burt he was doing and bring him lunch or sweets; small gestures like that made Burt feel appreciative of him. He eventually wanted to return the favor, and he had an idea how.

Henry walked into Burt's office, "Hello Burt!" Henry's hoarse voice catching said man's attention. Burt turned away from his computer and faced his boss as Henry took a seat in the spare seat in the room. "Hi boss." Burt replied. "How are you?" Henry asked, clearing his throat after doing so, his voice was a bit more hoarse than usual. Burt made a mental note of that before speaking, "I'm good. Yourself?" Burt replied, "Oh I'm alright, a little tired, but I'm fine." 'Liar' Burt thought, he could tell there was more to it than that, but he didn't push it. Clearly Henry didn't want to go into further detail. Burt decided this was the moment to repay his boss for his kindness.

"Hey. Boss."

"Hmm?"

Burt raised his hands and began to sign 'Just so you know, I know sign language. You can communicate to me this way, if you feel more comfortable doing so.'

Henry's face lit up. Finally he could communicate with someone without his throat hurting! Henry lifted his hands, signing back 'Thank you Burt, that means a lot.'

That's how Burt became Henry's personal "translator".