Chapter Text
“I don’t know how they do it,” Jade sighed as the wind whistled through the open windows of her parked jeep. Across the pond sat her brother with another boy with skin darker in comparison to the siblings’ natural tan. It seemed impossible for the two to communicate, since Dave, her brother’s friend, was unable to speak, and even though he was fluent in sign language, John, her brother, was completely blind. Usually they sat together and shuffled through John’s piano compositions, not talking more than John occasionally asking Dave to skip to a different song. Jade figured that they’d never be able to communicate without a translator. She pulled up her sunglasses and turned on the radio, singing along softly to Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson as she tried to mask her disappointment with the overplayed tune. Dave eventually began leading John back to the car, helping him into the back seat. John only let go of Dave’s hand to get buckled in, but he quickly regained possession of it.
“It’s so nice out!” He pushed his dark curls away from his forehead then added, “I wish I could see it.”
Jade was quick to change the subject. “Are you guys coming to the concert tomor-?”
“Dave’s in it!”
Although thrown a bit off guard from being interrupted, Jade perked up. “Really? I’ll have to come for sure then.”
“I sure hope so. I don’t want to have to sit in the back with only Bec to get me around the crowd.”
“You better not do anything to make me change my mind then. Which means no pranking. That goes for both of you noodle brains.”
They both collectively groaned, though Dave’s was more of a huff and a pout.
“How’re your ‘sick beats’ coming, David?” Dave turned from the gameboys and wires he had sprawled across his desk. There in the doorway stood his sister, elegant and pretentious as ever. Rose strolled over to his side and read over his poem. “Bro taught you well. If this doesn’t win John over nothing will.”
Dave felt his cheeks burn as he snatched his notebook out of her well manicured hands. ‘Why can’t she mind her own business for once?’ he thought to himself. Rose snickered as she took a seat on his untidy bed. “It really was quite clever for you to think of using morse code. And very lucky that we don’t have to teach him. That would ruin the whole surprise, wouldn’t it?”
Dave silently agreed. How on earth he was lucky enough that John and Jade’s Grandpa Harley was in the air force, and taught his grandkids morse code was beyond him.
Rose stood, pulling him from his thoughts. “I’m going to sleep now. Don’t stay up too late. You’ve been practicing too much as it is. The last thing we need is for you to fall asleep onstage.”
She was often right. She definitely had that going for her. Dave gave in and crawled into bed, turning off the light beforehand.
The next day was hotter than the last, even in the late afternoon. Dave slipped on his lucky shades and headed to the park early. Over the next hour, people slowly poured in with dogs, children, water bottles, chairs and blankets. Everyone was in some combination of shorts or capris and a tee, tank, or crop top. Dave scanned the crowd as he set up his equipment, and sure enough, John was making his way to the front, carrying a blanket and accompanied by a snowy Kishu and Jade, who had her hair up and was carrying a fold up chair. Jade mostly paid attention to maneuvering John through the scattered audience and making sure Bec didn’t bother anyone, but she managed to send a wave and a smile Dave’s way. The friendly gesture gave him a quick boost of confidence so that when he was told to start, he was ready. He watched Jade tell John that the show was starting and John lay down and shut his eyes to fully enjoy his best friend’s music. Dave took a deep breath, pulled on his headphones, and turned on the consoles. He couldn’t tell as first whether John understood that the song was a message since his focus was on the music, but the audience sure loved it.
After he was applauded for his songs that he’d also written with morse, he moved his equipment offstage for the next group to come on. Behind the stage, Jade led John up the ramp until he stood before Dave.
“Am I in front of him?” John asked.
“Yeah,” Jade replied, surreptitiously rolling her eyes. John reached out his hand, touching Dave’s chest to see just how close he was, then pulled it back only to attack him with a bear hug. Dave grabbed onto the railing but the next thing he knew John was kissing him. Not on the lips though. It was pretty bad aiming actually. He’d actually kissed between that spot above Dave’s upper lip and his cheek. Jade had to step away because she was laughing so hard and didn’t want her brother to feel discouraged.
John didn’t seem to mind all that much though. His toothy smile was bright enough to compete with every star above them. “That was amazing, Dave. It was genius!” John hugged Dave again then murmured, “I love you too.” Now Dave expected a lot of things - no comprehension of the song at all, rejection, thinking it was really cool but not getting the point - but John returning the feelings had been completely out of the question until now. And Dave could not be happier.