Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Steve’s not exactly sure when it started.

He likes to think it was sometime around Billy beating his face to a bloody pulp, but he knows deep down in his gut that this really all began with that first punch Jonathan sent towards his face. A deserved punch, to be fair, but one that caused a chain reaction that led him to where he was now. 

He couldn’t hear anything.

Well, ok, that wasn’t entirely true. He could still hear some things, like the vague and muffled sound of a voice that was five feet away. Or the pounding bass of a song turned up to eleven. 

But other than that, there was almost nothing.

When he woke up in the morning, he could never hear the chirping of birds outside his window, he could feel the rumble of his car but not the ticking of the signal, and while movies were definitely fun to look at, they were almost impossible to understand.

One night, he considered asking Dustin if they could rent the script for Star Wars so he could actually follow along for once, but he figured that would be too much trouble and never ended up bringing it up.

All things considered, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. He’d had almost 17 years of full hearing. Some people never even got one. Who was he to complain? The accommodations weren’t bad either. He found an alarm clock in one of his mom’s magazines that actually vibrated the whole bed when it went off, so he wasn’t sleeping in. He’d also found a few different alarms that flashed instead of rang. For cooking, among other things. All things considered, he was functioning perfectly fine. Sure there was the occasional migraine, but that was plenty easy to manage.

Most of the issues he’d had were more to do with understanding other people.

When he’d first noticed the issue growing worse, he’d spent hours in front of the mirror, practicing sounding out words to see the shapes they formed in his mouth. He’d also taken the time to really pay attention to people’s body language so that way he could still understand what they were trying to convey, even if he didn’t get the whole idea.

He’d even taken a page out of Dustin’s book and headed for the library, hoping to find some decent “paddles” for his new knowledge exploration. The books on ASL he’d found had been interesting, really interesting, but he’d figured that no one else would want to learn an entirely new language just to talk to one person, so he kept those paddles to himself.

But, even with all that training, and all that practicing, he still messed up sometimes.

He noticed it in the way Dustin’s brow would crease when he admitted that he still didn’t know the plot of Star Wars, despite them watching it over 10 times. He saw it in the way Nancy used to sigh whenever he wrote an entire essay on the wrong subject because he’d read the teacher’s lips wrong. He even noticed it in the way the people around him gradually stopped including him in conversations because they noticed how he could never keep up.

Something about that felt a bit wrong to him, but who was he to judge? If someone had acted like that around him when he could still hear, he’d have probably acted the exact same way. Not that it made the exclusion hurt any less, but it helped him understand, at least. 

He was ok, really. He just had to accept that this was his life now, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

Of course, the moment he did, that’s exactly when things started to change.

He noticed it first when they were all gathered for movie night at that new guy, Argyle’s, place. It was, predictably, Star Wars again, and Steve consigned himself to another night of piecing the plot together, one scene at a time. 

But to his surprise and amazement, the movie ended up having subtitles.

At first, he was just plain astonished; what had happened? Had the group finally found a version of this movie with subtitles? No, it couldn’t be; they would’ve used it ages ago if that was the case. 

But then…he glanced over at Argyle suspiciously. Could he be deaf? He didn’t seem like it, not with the loud and unabashed way that he talked, but maybe that was just him compensating?

Either way, he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he settled down and prepared to watch Star Wars for the eleventh and first time. 

As enraptured as he was in the story, he almost missed the way Dustin seemingly pursed his lips in displeasure out of the corner of his eye. He must not like the subtitles, but it was ok; they could just watch it again next weekend.

After that night, he started paying more and more attention to Argyle, hoping to spot some sort of sign. What kind of sign exactly? He couldn’t say, but whatever it was, he’d catch it soon enough. 

It was during his relentless pursuit that he started noticing other strange behaviors, and not just from Argyle. 

It started inconspicuously with Eddie and his music suddenly gaining a much higher volume. This didn’t bother him, but it was worrying, was Eddie starting to lose his hearing as well? He certainly hoped not; Eddie didn’t deserve that.

After Eddie, it was Robin, randomly dropping to her knees in the middle of the store and scaring him half to death when he finally turned around. He grabbed her arms and pulled her up quickly, mumbling something about her ruining her jeans and, “ Jesus, if you have to be dramatic, can you at least do it in the back?” 

The weird behavior persisted, spreading among the entire group like a virus, albeit a fairly friendly one. 

It showed up in things like Nancy turning sharply to face him mid-conversation instead of looking around curiously like she normally did. Jonathan using more and more exaggerated facial expressions, to the point that you could see what he was feeling from a mile away. Lucas reaching out to tap his arm to get his attention instead of rapidly waving until Steve eventually noticed. It was really weird…but it was also really nice. He found himself engaging in conversations more than ever before, and the rate of him jumping due to being startled but sudden people's appearances had dropped down to almost 20%. Things were good now. Things were just…kind of nice.

One day, a few months after this behavior started, Steve woke up to an intervention in his living room.

“An intervention?” he asked, “for who?”

“For you, Steve,” Nancy pressed, standing up from the armchair and reaching out to take his hands. “We wanted to talk to you about you being deaf. And why you never told us.”

Steve blinked, completely taken aback. He looked around the room at the earnest and serious faces of his friends. Faced with an assault like this, there was only one thing he thought to say.

“You guys didn’t know?”

Chapter Text

In all the time Dustin had known Steve, the older teen had never been quite there. 

Sure, he was there physically, but his mind always seemed to wander, distracting him from reality, even at the most inconvenient of times.

It wouldn’t have been as annoying if it hadn’t impacted their time together. After all, Dustin was used to people wandering. Will used to do it all the time, staring into nothing for hours as he thought about the different story ideas he had. The difference was, Will would always pay attention when they needed him to, and saying his name was often enough to snap him out of whatever he was thinking about. With Steve, it was more complicated. 

Most of the time, Dustin had to resort to physically shaking the other teen in order to get his attention, as calling his name almost never worked. And Instead of Steve slipping into a daydream whenever they weren’t talking, he always slipped into one in the middle of conversations. It was easy to tell when, based on the confusion that could be seen on his face when he tuned back in, but it was still unbelievably frustrating. 

Even movies weren’t immune, with Steve still not knowing the plot of Star Wars even though they’d watched it at least 10 times by now.

It was disappointing, and definitely annoying, but it was also just how Steve was. 

When they’d first met, it had taken a while for Dustin to adjust. Constantly repeating himself and dragging Steve all over the place instead of explaining his idea for the third time had grated on him, made him consider finding someone else, someone who actually listened. 

But then, against all odds, Steve was kind to him. He didn’t make fun of Dustin for having a crush on Max or berate him for making small mistakes.

He was just nice, not to mention fiercely protective, no matter how much he denied it.

Dustin had never really stopped to think about why Steve was the way he was. He just accepted it. After all, that’s how Steve had treated him, crooked teeth, no collarbones, and nerdy ramblings and all. Who was Dustin to bring up something Steve was probably insecure about?

That isn’t to say that he’d never thought about it. He just hadn’t thought about it very much.

He still wasn’t thinking about it as they all gathered for the infamous movie night, the first of many to come, with the entire party and friends gathering at Steve’s house (his was the biggest) to watch a movie together.

Argyle, who’d been tasked with picking up the movie, was hunched over the TV while everyone else laid about on the various sofas, talking about whatever came to mind. Lucas and Max were curled up on the middle couch, practically taking up the whole thing, while everyone else sat around them in a bunched-up group, happy to give Max the space she needed for her still recovering broken leg. 

At some point, Steve got up to go to the bathroom, which was on the second floor.

The minute he did, Argyle got up with a loud cracking noise and meandered over to the rest of the group.

“Alright, muchachos, we’re all set! Is everyone here?”

Dustin looked around, counting everyone’s heads, “Yup, all good. Steve just went to the bathroom, so he’ll be back in a sec.”

“Alright,” Argyle nodded, “let’s get this party started.”

It was as he was reclining into a nearby chair that he said something strange, “Oh, and don’t worry about the subtitles, dude, I totally made sure that they’re on.”

Dustin blinked, confused. He looked around the room and received similar glances.

“Wait, what? What do you mean? Did someone ask you to put on the subtitles?” Dustin asked, tilting his head to the side.

Argyle looked just as, if not more, confused, “Nah, man, I just figured we’d need 'em.”

Nancy spoke up then, from where she was tucked into the corner of the loveseat with Jonathan’s arm wrapped around her shoulders. “Why would you think that?”

Argyle’s face showed confusion once again, but it quickly cleared up, “Ohhhh, I get it. You guys must buy him a copy of the script, right? That’s a little old-fashioned, but it works.”

The confusion in the room was practically palpable at this point, with the whole group throwing questioning glances Argyle’s way. Nancy continued, though you could tell she was beginning to get annoyed, “Him? Who on earth are you talking about? And no, we don’t buy copies of the script. Who does that?”

The confusion on Argyle’s face gave way to concern, “Wait…” he began, glancing incredulously around the room, “do you guys not know?”

“Know what?” Will asked hesitantly.

Argyle pointed out the living room door in the general direction of the bathroom and said his following words in the most serious voice any of them had heard him use.

“Steve,” he said, arm still pointing, “he’s deaf.”

Somewhere in the room, there was a sharp inhale of breath, and Mike, who had been in the middle of taking a sip of water, nearly choked in surprise, coughing harshly. 

The next few moments were silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop as the room processed what Argyle had just said.

“What?” Max spoke up first, propping herself up, “No, he’s not, don’t be stupid.”

Argyle shook his head, his expression still unusually serious, “No, I’m telling you guys, he’s definitely deaf.”

“What makes you think that?” Jonathan asked, crossing his hands on top of his knees.

Argyle sat up, bringing up his fingers, “Well, for one thing, he’s always lost during conversations-”

“That doesn’t mean he’s-” Dustin tried to cut in.

“Not done, my guy,” Argyle said, holding up his hand. He continued to count with his fingers. 

“He’s always looking at people’s mouths in order to read their lips. He’s always tilting his head, probably so he can hear with his better ear, and I caught him practicing the alphabet with his hands once when no one was paying attention.”

Having made his point, he stopped and looked around the room.

Everyone’s faces were pale, all of them trying to take in the information Argyle had just bombarded them with. 

“But,” Nancy began, “how can you be sure , couldn’t he just be bad at following conversations?”

Argyle shook his head, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms, “My best friend in elementary was deaf. I know what the signs look like. He’s definitely deaf, or at least partially. “

It was at that moment that Steve returned. 

“Hey guys!” he said brightly, “You ready to get started?” he looked around the room, noting their grim expressions. 

“Woah, what happened?” he asked, his excited look giving way to concern. 

Unable to think about this right now, Dustin shook himself off and turned to face Steve, “Nothing, we’re just excited, right guys?”

The rest of the room mumbled their consent, and Dustin was quick to grab the remote and press play. 

Though he still looked concerned, Steve accepted the excuse and sat down next to Dustin with a small grin, which Dustin returned hesitantly. There was no way Steve was actually deaf, right?

The movie was starting, and the first scenes and the first subtitles showed up on the screen. 

All Dustin had wanted these last few months was for Steve to finally watch a movie with him without getting distracted. But as realization and even more obvious understanding bloomed on Steve’s face as he read the subtitles, Dustin hoped against all hope that Argyle was wrong. 

_________________________

They held a meeting the next day while Steve was busy with work.

They’d opted to gather in the Wheeler house basement, clustering around the small table that Dustin swore used to be bigger. 

The atmosphere was silent, tense, almost awkward. 

Dustin was the first to break the silence, his voice cracking through his first words. 

“I’ve made Steve watch Star Wars with me at least ten times in the past 2 months. In all of those times, it was just us, just me and him in his living room, absolutely no distractions whatsoever.”

Dustin’s voice grew faint then, in disbelief. “And last night…that was the first time I’ve ever seen him actually understand what was happening in it.”

The room fell silent yet again, all of them attempting to process what they’d only recently learned.

“Argyle,” Nancy said, catching the pizza truck driver’s eyes, “you said he was probably reading people’s lips, right?”

Argyle nodded, shifting uncomfortably in his chair, “Yup, though it’s not a perfect fix, which is probably why he seems so lost all the time.”

“How so?” Nancy pressed.

“Well,” Argyle began, “for one thing, if someone’s not looking at him, he’s definitely not going to be able to read their lips, not to mention that lip reading is still really unreliable, he can’t always be sure of what someone’s saying, or he could get it wrong.”

Nancy groaned at his words, leaning back in her chair and pinching the bridge of her nose. “Dammit!” she cried, “I hate that this makes so much sense!”

“What do you mean?” Jonathan asked warily.

Nancy sighed, scrubbing her hands down her face, “Back when we were dating, I used to help him with his homework, which honestly wasn’t that bad. What was bad was how often he would write an essay on the completely wrong topic or turn in an assignment that had a bunch of random details added to it that the teacher hadn’t mentioned.” she threw up her hands, “But! If he’s deaf, that means that he literally couldn’t understand what the teacher was saying and that I yelled at him for no reason at all.” she sat back down in her seat with a huff, her face creased in anger.

The rest of the room thought about what Nancy had just said. 

“He always has his music crazy loud,” Max said suddenly, causing everyone to look at her in surprise.

She gestured to her casted leg before continuing, “He’s been driving me around a lot lately, and I noticed that whenever he has music on, it’s like insanely loud, louder than Billy used to play his even.” she paused and took in a shuddering breath. From his position next to her, Lucas took her hand and smiled reassuringly.

Smiling back, she continued, “I thought he just really liked ABBA, but him not being able to hear very well would make more sense.”

They all looked at Argyle as if asking whether or not that would make sense.

Argyle thought for a moment before nodding, “Yeah, that’d make sense, especially if he only has partial hearing loss. And even if he doesn’t, he could just want to feel the bass.”

The room fell silent once more, for what felt like the 10th time, as they all continued to think on this new, to them at least, development. 

“Why didn’t he say anything?” Robin asked suddenly, drawing the attention of the room, “You don’t think…you don’t think he thinks that we won’t support him, do you?”

Their eyes all widened. That was something no one had considered, but something that made a lot of sense. Why didn’t he say anything? Was he that insecure?

“We should tell him that we know! He shouldn’t have to hide this from us!” Dustin said, standing up from his seat.

Mike scoffed, “Confronting him like that is more likely to make him run. We should just slowly insinuate that we know.”

El tilted her head, “You mean like…imply?”

Mike grinned at her, “That’s right, we need to be subtle about this.”

Around the room, heads nodded, everyone agreeing with what Mike had to say.

Turning to Argyle, their resident expert, Mike asked one final question. 

“Do you have any ideas on how we can do that?”

Chapter Text

“You guys didn’t know?”

Out of all the things the group had expected Steve to say, none of them had expected that.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Dustin asked, making sure he was angled towards Steve as he spoke.

Steve looked around the room, clearly bewildered, “Um, I kinda assumed you guys knew…” he looked around again, noting everyone’s shocked expressions. “Was I wrong?”

Behind him, Nancy had faceplanted into her hands, and to her left, Jonathan was trying and failing to stifle his laughter.

Robin, who’d been taking her own minute to process, put her hand on Dustin’s shoulder and pushed him to the side. 

“Steve,” she began, her expression deadly calm, “why on earth would you just assume that we knew? Especially me! We only met a few months ago!”

Still looking very lost, Steve shrugged, “I mean, I never tried to hide it really.”

Argyle, who at some point had wandered into the kitchen, poked his head out to quickly say “Yeah he really didn’t.” before returning to the bag of chips he’d stolen. 

Nancy jerked her head up from her hands and hurried around to Steve’s front, “Steve, we didn’t know we were supposed to be noticing anything, for all we knew that was just natural for you!”

Looking more troubled now, Steve nodded slowly, “Oh…so you weren’t just ignoring it?”

“God no! Of course not!” Dustin cut in, shoving his way to the front, “Why do you think things have changed these past few weeks? It’s because we finally know.”

Steve’s faced dawned in comprehension as he thought over the interactions he’d had the past week, the ways his interactions with them had changed, and the ways they’d accommodated him. From just facing him whenever they spoke, to pointing out things that he missed, all of it had made life monumentally easier. 

His mind was running a mile a minute, analyzing every interaction he’d had in the past month. They’d done all that for him? He was sure he looked like an idiot then, with his mouth agape and his eyes as wide as dinner plates, but he couldn’t help it, he just couldn’t comprehend how people could possibly be that kind. Hadn’t it been annoying? Hadn’t they had to change things for nothing but his benefit? 

The guilt was beginning to set in now, rising up from the bottom of his throat and choking him out. He wanted to apologize, wanted to say thank you, say something, anything. But the words wouldn’t come. 

Mistaking his guilty look for apprehension, Robin took his hands in hers and slowly dragged him to the couch, sitting them both down as the rest of the group surrounded them, their presence reassuring him that they still cared. 

“Steve.” she said, her intense focus dragging his eyes up. She paused, as if she’d just realised something, before continuing with her words, her expression firm and confident.

“None of us care that you’re deaf, it’s ok, and us doing these things to help you understand don’t hinder us in any way.”

Dustin jumped in, having picked up what Robin was implying. “Yeah man! We want you to be involved in our conversations, we care about you, and no sign language or having to speak louder than normal will change that.”

The rest of the group enthusiastically agreed, Argyle even taking the time to come out of the kitchen and sign a quick, “We’re here for you bro.” before disappearing once more. 

El, who had been silently sitting next to Mike the whole time, tugged on Steve’s sleeve in order to get his attention. 

He turned to her hesitantly, his eyebrows raised in a silent question.

Smiling brightly, El signed a clumsy but well meaning, “Love you.” complete with half a heart that Mike quickly finished for her, smiling goofily as he did. 

Taking a moment to look around the room, Steve took note of everyone’s expressions. Robin and Dustin were still looking at him expectantly, waiting for his response, but also happy to let him to take his time. Mike and El were smiling at each other adoringly, but he hadn’t missed the fact that Mike hadn’t made fun of him even once, and El’s “love you” had made her feelings more than clear. 

Nancy looked tired, but content, smiling at Robin and the way she’d handled the situation, and when they momentarily locked eyes Steve saw nothing but support in her gaze. Next to her, Jonathan nodded reassuringly, his calm gaze making Steve relax a small bit. Max and Lucas had stayed back the majority of the conversation, happy to watch from the sidelines as their friends dealt with the intervention, though he had a feeling that he’d be getting an earful from Max later, the next time he had to drive her somewhere. 

Their expressions were calm, and most importantly, kind. None of them seemed exasperated, or upset with him, aside from the momentary irritation they’d most likely all experienced when they’d realized what he’d been hiding. 

They accepted him, no questions asked.

Looking down and blinking rapidly to disperse any tears, Steve rasped out a quiet, “Thanks.” to the room at large, his shining eyes still darting around the room.

Still smiling reasuringly, Jonathan reached out and put his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “No need to thank us,” he said, once he was sure he’d gotten Steve’s attention. “We’re only doing what we should have done in the first place.”

Smiling back and reaching up to wipe at his definitely dry eyes, Steve took a deep breath to center himself. 

Things were going to be ok.