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Natasha is the first to approach Clint, which was to be expected; he would have appreciated it if she hadn’t flipped on his lights and done so at 4 in the morning but he knew how little the firey-haired assassin liked secrets being kept from her so he couldn’t say he could blame her. She curled her hands into the ‘s’ handshape and then bumped her wrists together, smile thin and tight as she waited for his response. Clint has to fumble for his hearing aids before he replies, plucking them from the box on his bedside and sliding them into his ears with a wry, sheepish grin on his features.“Why am I surprised that the first thing you do is call me a douchebag?”
”You shouldn’t.” Natasha replied primly, “And you are a douchebag for keeping this from me. Don’t you understand that it placed you at a disadvantage? Someone could have exploited your weakness and hurt you and I wouldn’t have even known to guard for it.”
”But I did, ‘Tasha.” His subdued tone must have caught her attention because she fell silent, sucking in a sharp breath, and Clint nodded at her thanks before continuing. “I didn’t want to be babied, alright? I compensated for my hearing loss; if I needed help on that front, you should know that you’d be the first person I turned to.”
”Of course you would.” Natasha sniffed but raised her fingertips to her mouth and let them fall away again. Thank you. “You might not have needed help, Clint, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be offering it. Steve’s suggesting that we all learn sign language and I, for one, agree. It’s practical.” She added absently, almost as if she couldn’t allow her sentiment to remain so emotional.
”If you must.” Clint drawled even as his chest felt warm and open from the support he was receiving from his friends; Natasha chuckled, smoothed one hand through his hair, and then left his room as suddenly as she’d entered it, turning the lights off behind her.
Clint stumbled down to the kitchen the next morning, roused by the lights he’d asked JARVIS to flash for just that purpose, a drowsy grin on his lips as he padded down the stairs, a smile that slipped away when he heard Tony’s voice echoing down the hall. “Why do we need to learn sign language? We could have Cypher translate if it’s a short term thing and if it’s not, I’ve got enough money to get him the cochlear implant or something to fix him.”
The archer was still debating whether or not he should return to his room or walk in and pretend he hadn’t heard when Bruce’s low, rumbling voice responded. “He’s not broken, Tony, so there’s nothing to fix. Steve already knows ASL so he can act as an interpreter until we’ve learned enough to be conversational.” He sounds firm, even if his tone is kind, and it encourages Clint enough for him to saunter into the room, hands casually shoved into his pockets.
Good morning. Steve signed in greeting, launching after into a string of signs so long that Natasha and Bruce just watched indulgently and didn’t even attempt to recognize a single sign in the whole mess. Tony, who had watched Clint’s reaction, merely cursed under his breath at how goddamn happy he looked to have someone understand him. Perhaps… perhaps he had been a bit rash to consider Clint differently after discovering his disability.
That evening, Tony approached the blond with downcast eyes and trembling hands raised in front of his body. <em>Sorry</em> He signed, looking utterly miserable as his fist circled arc reactor in his chest, sign. “I know you heard what I said in the kitchen, and… it was wrong of me, okay? Things that make communication easier is great, of course, but it’s better for <em>you</em> because you’re the one who has to deal with it; it doesn’t really matter if it’s convenient for me or not. You’re my teammate, and you come before my pride.”
Clint dragged his thumb up his chest, signing coming naturally again for the first time in years, “I’m proud of you, Tony. I hope to see you at Steve’s classes.” And with a warm grin and an almost disbelieving laugh, he skated around the other and resumed his day.
After dinner that night, the Avengers all piled into the entertainment room, Steve and Clint both perched on chairs while the others sat in an attentive line on the couch, fingers moving clumsily through the finger spelling they copied from the two blonds. Natasha was calm and collected, as always, but both Tony and Bruce had their brows furrowed in concentration as they worked their way through the alphabets.
Friends Tony signed almost an hour later, when his whining that they should learn actual signs and not just letters finally won out, gesturing to encompass all those in the room after his fingertips finished tapping against each other.
F-A-M-I-L-Y Steve spelled out in response, and then signed the word in demonstration, ‘f’ handshapes making a circle before him. Like Tony, he made the expansive gesture to include them all.