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Cass saw it first. Stephanie and her had been out on the town to get Babs a birthday present when she saw the small girl walking and talking on the phone. Nothing unusual there, but it was interesting that the girl was signing at the same time. It was like it was just second nature for her to sign while she spoke and Cass smiled. The girl was probably an interpreter, then she saw the man following her. It was starting to get dark so Gotham was about to become even less safe and there was someone following this tiny pixie of a girl. Cass signed to Stephanie pointing out the situation and then crossed the street.
“Hey! Missed you!” Cass spoke while she signed ‘ there is a man following you. Can I help you get to safety?’
“Oh! It’s been so long!” The girl signed back ‘yes please. My name is Marinette’ then spoke into her phone, “Adrien I’m gonna call you back. I just met up with an old friend.”
She clicked off the phone and turned to give Cass a hug while looking over her shoulder. Cass whispered in her ear, “my name is Cass.”
Then they stood in front of each other and signed as they spoke. “It’s so good to see you again Cass, it’s been far too long. Do you want to join me for dinner?”
Cass smiled at Marinette and then signed her response. ‘I want to introduce you to my friend Stephanie.’ She gestured to Steph and motioned her to come over and join them.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you!” Stephanie introduced herself to Marinette. “Cass hasn’t mentioned you before, did you recently move here, your accent is pretty strong?” She was trying to gage how well the new girl would know the area.
“Oh, I float between business locations. I met Cass when I was in Gotham a couple years ago with my uncle. He’s expecting me back soon. Would you like to come meet him?” Marinette continued to sign as she spoke and Cass smiled, it seemed like she was right about sign language being a natural habit for her.
“We would love to! Is he from Gotham?”
Stephanie was already taking a liking to the girl and Cass was happy. She glanced around casually and saw that the man had left. ‘Man gone, going to call him in though.’ Stephanie nodded and Marinette smiled at her signing back her thanks.
“He grew up in Gotham before he came to live in Paris. Have you ever heard of Jagged Stone?”
Cass laughed when Stephanie let out a small shriek. “You’re Jagged Stone’s niece????”
She missed Marinette’s response while she sent a message to Babs to have one of the boys come to pick up the would be attacker. If he was brave enough to go after a woman in daylight then he would still be out now, just looking for another target.
Cass looked back up at them. ‘Aren’t we having dinner with Jagged tonight?’
“Oh my gosh! I totally forgot about that!” Stephanie was getting excited again and Marinette was looking at them inquisitively.
“I didn’t realize that you were the children of the friend he said we’re having dinner with tonight. Do you mind if we go meet him together at the hotel and you guys can ride with us?” Marinette was smiling easily now.
“I’ll have to grab our bike and meet you guys at the manor, but I’m sure that Cass will be happy to accompany you.” Stephanie pointed towards the parking garage they had left her motorcycle in. It was the plain black one that the girls would use during civilian runs to the city.
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It didn’t take long for the girls to make it to Wayne Hotel where Jagged and Mari were staying during their visit, but in the short walk they were already becoming fast friends.
‘When did you learn to sign?’
‘It came in handy in Paris while Hawkmoth was around, and since i already talked with my hands it was easy to just start using it all the time while i learned it.’
‘Did you learn ASL first?’
‘No I learned LSF first, then ASL when I opened the American branch of my company CSL was the one that took me the longest to learn though..’
‘That’s a lot of languages to learn, did you learn sign while learning the spoken language?’
‘Unfortunately no. I already had a decent grasp on English before learning ASL and I grew up learning Wenzhounese and Madrian in tandem with French as my mother is from China.”
Marinette knocked on the door of one of the hotel suites and a woman opened the door to let them in.
“Rockette! I was wondering when you’d get here!” The man who Cass assumed to be Jagged ran over to pick her up in a hug and then smiled at her. “Who’s your new friend Nette?”
“Uncle Jagged this is Cass.” Marinette was still signing and Jagged seemed to follow her hands, so Cass decided to chance signing instead of speaking.
As she spoke with Jagged and Marinette, Cass decided that she and Marinette were going to be the best of friends, after all, Cass believed in signs from the gods, and seeing a girl who spoke ASL as easily as breathing was sign enough for her, and everything about Marinette screamed trustworthy. Yes, this was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.