the_trashmouth | Backdated to late July

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"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Richie's shouting to no one as he heads back to the Home, mostly pent up excitement now that he's left Regan, and he's grinning from ear to ear for maybe the first time in weeks. The snow was gone, Regan was alive, he'd kissed her and she'd liked it.

Richie's stomach was still doing flips, and had been since they'd gone to share a slice of pizza, their hands interlinked. Now he feels like he needs to do something, but he can't focus enough to figure out what. Is Regan his girlfriend now? What the fuck does that even mean?

He took out his phone and texted the first person he could think of.

EMERGENCY CAN YOU MEET ME

So maybe it wasn't an actual emergency, but right about now, Richie didn't care much.

[For Jamie or Eddie or Beverly or all of the above.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

lost_boy

"She'll help you practice, too," I told him, although I was happy to help. Regan just knew a lot more than I ever would, no matter how often I practiced. Still, I could help Richie start and then he could surprise Regan with what he already knew.

"Is that the emergency?" I asked. That didn't seem like an emergency to me, but Richie had much bigger reactions to things than I did. Maybe something had happened that was too hard for them to communicate through writing.

From:

the_trashmouth

"Yeah, man," Richie says, because it should be obvious. Except, it's only then that he realizes that he never actually told Jamie what happened. "Because we kissed and because it really sucks that I can only just type stuff on my phone."

Regan's been pretty okay with it so far, bur Richie figures it probably sucks for her, not being able to talk to him like she's used to talking to everyone else. Plus, he really wants to know more about her and it feels like that's a big part of it.

From:

lost_boy

At that, I lit up into a grin, unable to help myself. I hadn't even known Richie and Regan liked each other like that, but it made me happy, thinking of two of my friends being together. Especially since Richie seems excited about it, excited enough to want to learn how to sign properly and I thought that was probably a very good thing.

"Really?" I asked, still grinning. "That's exciting, that's not an emergency! I thought it was something bad. I can help you, though. I'm still learning myself, but I'm loads better than I used to be."

From:

the_trashmouth

Richie shrugs, because it definitely felt like an emergency to him in the moment. Because now he wants to learn every bit of sign language he can, so they don't have to type everything on their phones all the time.

"If it was something bad, do you really think I'd be texting?" he replies.

From:

lost_boy

"Maybe!" I said, then laughed. I had come to expect nearly anything from Richie, it was part of why I liked him so much. Of everyone I knew in the city, he reminded me most of the other boys. Being around him was like being back with them in a lot of ways.

"Okay, this is simple," I said, then held up my hands and began to sign. It was simple, just Hi, I'm glad to see you.

From:

the_trashmouth

Richie watches closely as Jamie signs something, but can only pick up on part of it. He adjusts his glasses and frowns.

"Hi, I'm seeing you? Why would I ever need to say that?" he asks, and wonders if there's any way to do his Voices with just his hands.

From:

lost_boy

I laughed, then signed it again more slowly, speaking it as I did. "Hi, I'm glad to see you. It's a really simple place to start and I bet she'll like it. But you mostly knew that one already, which is good. If you want to surprise her at first, we should practice together for a few weeks and then you can ask her to help you. You can sign it, asking her to help you more."

He would learn much better from Regan than he would from me, but she was helping me most of the time, so I knew I was getting better and better as time went on. If I could teach Richie even just a few things, I knew she would be really impressed with him.

From:

the_trashmouth

Jamie signs it more slowly and Richie tries to imitate it, though he thinks he's clumsier than Jamie is, switching from one word to the next one.

"Yeah, I don't wanna ask her to help me yet," he replies, thinking that it'll be better if he can just do it on his own, even if it'll take forever. He pauses for a moment, thinking, and frowns.

"But it sucks that more people can't talk to her that way. Everyone should learn it."

From:

lost_boy

I nodded my agreement. That was what I had thought when Regan and I first met, it was what prompted me to start learning as soon as I could. I couldn't imagine having to write down everything when I wanted to communicate with someone and if I could help in some small way, just by learning her language, then I would.

"She'll really like that you're learning," I said, then grinned. "Especially if she wants to kiss you."

Then, my grin growing, I signed, Can I kiss you? "That's how to ask if you can do it again."

From:

the_trashmouth

"Wait, do that again?" Richie asks, and he tries to do the sign himself, but wasn't paying as much attention as he should have been to Jamie's hands in the moment. That was a very important sign that he'd definitely need. At least, he really hoped he'd need it. Richie's stomach flipped a little bit at the thought of it.

From:

lost_boy

I signed it again, slower this time, then realized it would be a really bad thing for Regan to see us right now, with me repeatedly signing Can I kiss you? to the boy she had just been kissing. I tried not to giggle, then did the same sign again, keeping the same slow speed.

"Okay, do it at the same time as me now," I told Richie. "Slow at first. It's important you get the shapes right. That's what Magnus told me."

From:

the_trashmouth

Richie mimics Jamie, repeating the sign slowly as he tries to commit it to memory. This one is definitely take a few times before he gets it right, and Richie wants to be sure he doesn't accidentally say something else instead.

"Where'd you even learn this one?" he asks, wondering if Regan taught it to him, even though that doesn't make any fucking sense.

From:

lost_boy

"I just know the words," I said. "And then I can put them together into the sentence. It might not be exactly right, because I'm still learning, too, but I think she'll figure it out."

I had never had any cause to use it and I doubted I would, except when I was practicing with Eddie. But it would be a good thing for Richie to know. I bet Regan would really like that.