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Steve knew that with the number of concussions he's had, statistics had to catch up with him eventually. He knew about Post-Concussion Syndrome, knew that some of his friends on the basketball and football teams had lasting effects from concussions. So he knew that's what he was dealing with: balance issues, sight problems, and worsening hearing.
He wasn't expecting any of it to be as gradual as it was.
After the fight with Jonathan in '83, everything started to blur, and his grades worsened due to his inability to see clearly. He knew he probably needed glasses, but he wasn't going to go to the doctor for something as small as that. So he adapted and learned how to handle it without medical intervention.
The Russians caused his hearing to start to go. Right after, in the bathroom of Starcourt Mall, Robin came out to him. It had been the worst time for that, as he could barely hear what she was saying over the loud ringing in his ears. He had to slide under the door because it was getting ridiculous and unbearable, needing to strain that much to hear her. He figured reading lips would be easier.
You don't realize how many words look almost the same when reading lips until you have to do that to communicate with someone. It was challenging to do so while being drugged, and it took him twice as long to process her words.
It was difficult and took far more brainpower than it would've if he could hear clearly, but he managed to hold a conversation with her.
After that, after the Russian drug was out of his system, he found his hearing hadn't recovered but had gotten worse to the point where he couldn't hear anything above the loud ringing in his ears. Luckily, after realizing he needed to strain to hear people, he had picked up books from the library a few towns over on lip reading and ASL.
He had told Dustin, Robin, and Erica and had sworn them all to secrecy. It was unbelievable trauma, even by the standards of the Party. Russian communists having a secret base in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, and Dustin, by chance intercepting a code? Steve knew that no one would believe him unless they were there.
By March of the following year, he was pretty good at lipreading and could tell what people were saying with almost 95% accuracy. In addition, he could quickly learn how individual people moved their lips when speaking and had even gotten used to Robin's fast and rambling speech patterns.
In walked Eddie Munson. If Steve thought Robin talked fast, she didn't even compare to the speed that Eddie spoke. At least Eddie signed while speaking most of the time. And Steve had no idea why. He hadn't told the other man about his hearing loss, and he had sworn those that knew about it to secrecy. How did Eddie know?
He asked Eddie one day and was met with abject confusion. "I didn't know you were deaf." Then why were you signing? "Some condition that causes progressive hearing loss runs in my family. I've been signing my whole life but never learned SimCom. May as well start learning while I still have some of my hearing."
"What's SimCom?"
He watched as Eddie snapped his fingers. "Right. I keep forgetting not everyone was raised in Deaf culture. SimCom is an abbreviation for simultaneous communication. And what that means is signing and speaking at the same time. It's hard to do. But it's easier than lipreading, I presume. I wouldn't know; I went to a Deaf school up until middle school and then transferred when I moved in with my uncle. And, when I transferred, I got an ASL interpreter even though I had all my hearing until like last year."
Steve nodded. It was refreshing not having to strain to hear someone or struggle to read lips for once. Eddie knew Sign. Eddie simcommed with him out of a need to learn it himself. Steve didn't feel like such a burden being around someone that knew about his deafness.
He expressed this and Eddie pinched his brows together and frowned. "Steve, you're not a burden because you need another language."
Steve grimaced, his mouth making a line. "I am. To most people. I need people to learn a whole other language to communicate with me? That sounds burdensome to me."
Eddie stood up suddenly, and Steve could tell he was controlling his instinct to wave his arms aimlessly. "Would you call me a burden because I'm gonna require the same accommodation in a few years' time?"
"That's different," Steve muttered. "You're losing your hearing because of a genetic condition. I've lost mine due to my own reckless actions."
"You think the music I listen to at the volume I listen to it is doing my hearing any favors?" Eddie asked. Steve stayed silent. "And your actions weren't reckless, babe. You—" Eddie kept signing, and Steve barely caught any of it.
Babe. Babe. Eddie called him babe. Why wasn't he freaking out about that? He should be freaking out about that. The two weren't together and Steve wasn't—
Was he?