Communication

[Demothesis]

My first fanfic- hopefully it flows well. I know my writing has a tendency to come across as rushed and I hope I managed to avoid that this time. The scenario has been in my head ever since I saw the Shizune ending in act 1.

Enjoy.

------Communication-------
“Hiichan you suck at this! WAHAHAHA!”

I glare at Misha as she laughs her trademark laugh at the other side of the table. The classroom is empty except the two of us, reminding me yet again just how well off this place is that they have an abundance of empty classrooms after school.

“Doesn‘t the performance of the student reflect more on the teacher than anything else?”

I grumble back irritably. And watch her expression fade for a moment into borderline seriousness.

“Eh? It does?”
“Then you better learn fast Hiichan!”
“You don‘t want to make me look like a bad teacher do you? WHAHAHAHA!”

Damn she turned that around on me fast. She must be taking lessons from Shizune, who’s a better teacher than Misha judging by the results.

“Well let‘s run through it again then.”

I try to get back on topic. My lessons.
I normally would go to anyone but Misha for lessons on any subject, but she’s the only one I know that knows sign language. She been teaching me for a few months and though I picked up on most of the words apparently I ‘talk’ like a-

“Robot Hiichan. WAHAHAHA!”

Misha interrupts my thoughts as she makes fun of my signing, mimicking it’s jerky mechanical nature. I notice that even when shizune’s not around she signs everything almost reflexively, she even signed her joke. Grumbling incoherently I try again, signing my argument.

>Lay off, I still have to remember every sign before I sign it. It‘s not easy you know.<

“>So? Remember faster! WAHAHAHA!<“

They way she signs is uncannily like the way she speaks, big broad gestures making the signs as ‘loud’ as her speech. It’s also a reminder of just how alike her and Shizune really are, the way she bluntly tells me to get better.

“>I still think we should tell Shiichan. It‘d help if you ‘talked’ more often.<“

She looks uncharacteristically uncomfortable. I didn’t pick up on it from her signing, but her tone while saying it out loud makes me think it’s not just to help me learn faster. I can relate. Shizune’s been getting a bit suspicious lately, she’s been trying to find us during my lessons. And it seems like she’s more irritable whenever the two of us are around.

>No.< For once the motion seems natural. I adamantly refuse despite being somewhat indecisive in my mind. I’m mostly just being stubborn I know, but I want to surprise Shizune when I get the hang of this. Partly because it’ll give me an advantage during one of her ‘competitions’, but mostly because… I turn my head to look out the window, hiding the embarrassed expression on my face from Misha.

“>Ok~ay but it‘s your fault if she gives us extra work Hiichan! WHAHA-eh?<“

I turn back just in time to see her falter at her laugh and catch the surprised expression on her face. I swear I can feel eyes on the back of my head, and turn around slowly. My suspicion is confirmed when I seem Shizune looming over me. It’s amazing that somehow she managed to sneak up on me despite being deaf. Her expression is furious. She rapidly signs to Misha, her hands chopping through the air so savagely I almost flinch the same way you do when a loud noise goes off next to your head.

>Misha, Hisao! The student council meeting was supposed to start ten minutes ago! What have you two been doing?!<

It’s interesting how her motions somehow convey the same questioning and accusatory tone that I’ve always associated with speech. It’d be unnoticeable to me if it weren’t for the fact that I’d seen her sign a hundred times by now. There’s also something, almost worried about it.

Noticing me staring at her hands she signs to Misha, almost accusingly.

>Are you translating?<

Misha looked at me worriedly. I think she may have picked up on something I may have missed.

“Uhm, Hiichan. I think you‘d better tell her.”

“Why?”

I take a moment to glance back and forth between the two. Misha looks very uncomfortable, and Shizune is trying to appear angry, but there’s some other emotion under the surface. It takes me a moment to figure it out.

“Oh, OH!”

Shizune is staring at Misha with a frightening intensity, and I’m not looking forward to getting her attention, but she has to be looking at me to understand. Reaching a hand out into her field of vision I wave it tentatively. She immediately turns her stony gaze one me.

>uhm, Shizune. Sorry, Misha‘s lesson ran late.<

Shizune freezes, her expression surprised. For the first time ever she seems to be at a loss for words. She feebly starts to sign a couple of times before stopping and staring between myself and Misha, gaze accusatory once again.

It takes a few moments but she finally seems to find the words she wants.

>You idiots!<

This was not the reaction I was expecting. Her signs chop out with a great deal of force and I worry for a moment that she would accidentally hit me while making a sign. And without any further speech she storms out of the room.

“Shizune wait!”

I forget she can’t hear me for a second and try to yell after her, but she’s gone already. I turn back to Misha, confusion plainly written on my face.

“What was tha-”
“No time for that! WAHAHA!”
She cuts me off, her expression back to it’s easygoing laugh. Grabbing my arm she marches quickly through the building and across the campus.

“Misha, Where are we going?”

I am thoroughly confused by this point. I had thought explaining things would have been enough to calm Shizune down, but it seems she only got more upset.

“To play cupid! WAHAHA!”
“What?!”

She makes no sense at all! Shizune’s pissed. So how is she going to ‘play cupid’? This thought keeps me occupied long enough to reach the girls dormitory, where Misha marches me through the halls and up a flight of stairs. We reach a door that seems normal until I notice the button next to the doorknob. I am about to ask what it’s for when Mish reaches out and presses it insistently several times. Under the door I can see a flash of light corresponding to the pressing of the button. With that Misha waves to me and runs off, looking thoroughly proud of herself.

“Wait Misha! What-”

I turned back to the door as it slowly opened. Shizune stood on the other side, she looked less composed than usual, and her eyes were reddened somewhat. She seemed surprised by me being there and signed in confusion.

>I thought Misha was- Not you…<

She seemed to notice my searching expression and signed quickly and aggressively.

>I don‘t want to talk to you like this.<

She quickly moves to the close the door, but acting on impulse I place my hand on the door to stop it and sign to her before letting go.

>I‘ll wait then.<

I then turned around and made sure not to look back at her as she shut the door. I leaned against the wall and waited for what seemed an eternity. I was beginning to worry Shizune wasn’t going to come out at all when the door opened again. Shizune seemed much more composed though she was still avoiding looking at me. We walk inside, sharing in the awkward silence. But after a moment it seems Shizune can’t stand not doing anything and takes a deep breath before signing to me.

>Explain.<

I can’t help but smile at the tone. It’s good to see she’s back to her old demanding self.

>Which part?<

>Why didn‘t you tell me?<

I grimace a bit, it was kind of childish the reason I had kept it hidden from Shizune.

>Ah, well. I thought it might make it harder for you to trick me if I knew what you were saying and you didn‘t know.<

She paused for a second, a ghost of her mischievous smile flitting across her face for an instant. That grin which simultaneously terrified me for what it usually meant and made me feel at ease with the world. It was a confusing feeling.

>Oh, is Hiichan getting competitive again?<

She slyly signed at me. Though there was still something almost disappointed about her motions.

>That‘s not the reason I learned it though.<

She stopped, looking somewhat confused.

>But you just said…<

>That‘s why I didn‘t tell you.<

I’m signing much more animatedly by now. Misha was right about how much it’d help to have more conversations..

>I wanted to be able to talk to you without Misha being around, like now.<

Her expression was even more confused at this point, though her signing seemed to indicate some form of anticipation.

>When would we be around each other without Misha being there to translate?<

Now it was my turn to pause. For a long time I just stared at her, hands frozen in place as a burning sensation stole over my face.

>I-If we ever went out. You know on a… A date.<

I waited for her response and did not have to wait long. Her face had turned a bright shade of red before I had even finished my explanation. And at the very end she was smiling, staring into my eyes. A second later she had crossed the short distance between us and was hugging me tightly. Before I could react and hug her back she had backed off, smiling brightly and signing excitedly.

>Don‘t you make me regret this decision Hisao Nakai.<

Again before I could react properly she had flung herself onto me again, hugging lightly. This time I managed to get my own arms around her and held tight.


---A few hours later---

We strolled out of Shizune’s room. She was leaning somewhat against my side as she walked. She signed one thing as we exited the building to head to our first date.

>You sign like a robot Hisao. You‘ll have to get better at this or you‘ll never win.<

I couldn’t help but laugh as I signed back.

>I don‘t know about that. I feel like a winner already.<

-End.

[SirMax]

d-aww. It's pretty cute, although it seems odd that Shizune would get all upset about Hisao learning sign language without telling her...

[Demothesis]

Yeah, I thought it wasn't very clear what was going on. It was supposed to be she had been getting angry over thinking Misha and Hisao had been going around behind her back and just lost it over that last bit. I'm probably going to go back and edit to try and make it more clear.

[DuaneMoody]

I waited for her response and did not have to wait long.

I can't be the only one who expected Shizune to slap him to the ground, hard.

Good story, though.

[Silentcook]

Minor fixing up required throughout (I don't know what word processor you used for this, but it and forum formatting mix badly), slightly unclear use of the "spoken" >signed< parts.

Plot needs improved detail and exposition especially when H&M get caught out, and yes it's somewhat rushed overall.

In summary: nice little story with lots of subtext. Reveal more of it and I think it will benefit greatly.

[Demothesis]

I waited for her response and did not have to wait long.

I can't be the only one who expected Shizune to slap him to the ground, hard.

I hadn't thought of that, but now I keep imagining Hisao unconcious on the ground with Shizune looming over him. I might make an alt version where she just beats him up.

Minor fixing up required throughout (I don't know what word processor you used for this, but it and forum formatting mix badly), slightly unclear use of the "spoken" >signed< parts.

Plot needs improved detail and exposition especially when H&M get caught out, and yes it's somewhat rushed overall.

In summary: nice little story with lots of subtext. Reveal more of it and I think it will benefit greatly.

Thanks for the critique. I'll try to work on those parts and hopefully have an improved version soon.

[U.T. Raptor]

The title makes me think of This

Also, I was going to say, "make the signed dialogue like thought-speech in the Animorphs books", but then I remembered the Internet hates brackets used in the normal way for stuff that's not html code...

[Duo2Cuo]

Wow, all I can say is well done! I'm looking forward to the sequel!

[G3n0c1de]

Is good. We need more good Shizune fics on here.

[The Chemist]

Well written. An yes, we need more Shizune fics.

[Deimos]

I considered it well worth reading and it would be pleasant to read more of your works here.