Work Text:
"Uncle Derek?" Henry said, mouth moving fast as he chewed noisily on a chicken nugget. Smirking at the "see food", Derek inclined his eyebrows to show Henry he was listening as he tried to avoid speaking while he ate. "Don't you get sad sometimes that Spencer can't hear you?"
Derek considered the question. Henry had always just accepted Spencer as he came - Spencer talked with his hands and couldn't hear your words and that was that - but Derek knew that a question like this must have been in his mind at some point and now seemed to be the time he felt comfortable enough to ask it.
"Well," Derek masked his mouth with his hand as he swallowed. He shrugged his shoulders, he didn't know the answer. "I suppose it's a bit sad he can't hear music or the funny voices you make, but he has a personality that is influenced by his deafness and I don't know if he would be the same person if he was hearing."
Henry frowned and sipped at his shake. "So," he contorted his face, "You're not sad he can't hear?" His eyes looked at Derek imploringly, wide and innocent, open to influence.
Derek inhaled and let it go slowly. "Honestly, I'm not sure." Henry wasn't content with his answer and fixed Derek with a somewhat unhappy acceptance of the reply.
He was about to push the question further when he saw Spencer returning from the bathrooms in the corner of the diner. He waved, catching Spencer's attention, and smiled at he rejoined them at the table.
"You're eating those chicken nuggets pretty fast." Spencer smiled, pointing to Henry's food. Henry smiled, he liked the signs Spencer used for chicken nuggets; a beak-like gesture at the mouth with thumb and forefinger followed by a c-shape with the same fingers.
Henry picked up another nugget and took a bite out of it. Derek took a long sip of his drink as he tried to push the thoughts Henry's question had raised to the back of his mind. He watched Spencer and Henry talk for a moment before he cut in. "Henry, does your Dad still teach you French?"
Henry nodded, "It sounds funny." He giggled and popped a pincer grip of fries into his mouth. He was quiet for a minute before he looked to Spencer directly. He tapped Spencer's arm for his attention and fixed him with a serious stare. "Are you sad sometimes when you can't hear?" Henry almost looked afraid when his finger tapped twice to his own ear.
Spencer's mouth thinned out for a moment and then he smiled. "I hear in different ways; with my fingers, my body." He spoke as he signed so Henry got clear answers. "You can hear music with your fingertips - the vibrations it makes, the changes it has. I can feel the difference between the sounds."
Derek watched them intently. "Feel noise?" Henry curled his lip. "That's silly." He looked at Derek, hoping he hadn't said something a little too sassy, then looked back at Spencer.
Spencer's face was soft, "Put your hands on the speakers when music is playing as you will understand." Henry fell quiet, eating his meal and apparently lost in thought.
Just when Derek began to think he was a bit unnerved by the conversation, he looked up at Spencer again. "Is it better, being deaf?"
Spencer raised his eyebrows. "I don't know." He shook his head. "I don't know what it's like to not be deaf."
Henry licked his lips. "Your hearing aids don't make you hear sounds?"
Spencer shook his head. He reached up and removed the aid from his left ear. "There is something, they definitely make something happen, but they don't stop me being deaf."
"So why do you have them?" Henry asked, examining the hearing aid.
Spencer shrugged his shoulders, "To make lip reading easier." He couldn't explain it - he didn't hear people's voices but something was different in what he understood. "Your mom isn't always good at signing; they help me understand the words she uses when she doesn't know the signs."
Henry turned the aid over in his hands again before handing it back to Spencer. "Mom is silly - she should learn. You speak with your voice so it makes it easier for her, she should talk with her hands for you."
Derek smiled warmly at the sentiment, the undoubting and blatant understanding of childlike innocence. "ASL isn't easy if you don't grow up with it, from being small." Derek said, "Your mom does great."
"You didn't sign when you were small." Henry point out.
"No but I live with Spencer, I've been around ASL constantly for a long time now. It's been easier for me." Derek explained.
"Are you and Spencer going to get married?" Henry asked him, his hands still.
Derek smiled and it broke into a laugh, "I hope so, one day."
"It would be good, so that when you have a kid too, like mom and dad, it can learn to sign and speak lots of languages and be smart like Spencer and have muscles like you." Henry blinked innocently.
"Muscles?" Spencer verified with Derek, who chuckled as he nodded.
"I think that's a great idea." Derek approved. "How about you finish up your food and we can go to the aquarium?"
Henry nodded excitedly. "Yeah! I want to see a shark!" Henry tucked into his food, finishing off what remained.
Spencer looked across the table at Derek and smiled softly, "Married." He signed silently.
Derek nodded slowly. "Yeah. How about it?"
Spencer tilted his head. "Seriously?"
Derek nodded his head again and reached across the table, touching Spencer's arm. "I am. Will you?"
Spencer broke into an enormous smile. "Yes."