Work Text:
Steve had never seen his soulmark. In fact, he had never really seen anything in his life since he was born blind. He had been told several things about it. That it was a pretty orange and yellow bird. That there were flames surrounding it. That it, ‘looked cool’, according to Tommy. Steve didn’t care one way or another, he had never been particularly excited about the concept of soulmates anyway. To his parents, it was just a way to shove him off on someone else to take care of. Sure it was nice to think of, having someone who loved you unconditionally, but Steve was…Steve. He would be a burden to whoever he was with.
It was Nancy’s turn to take him to school that day. It would be a miracle if he passed senior year, then he would have to retake it with that Eddie person who was always too loud in the cafeteria. Before he could get out of the passenger’s side of the car, another louder car drove past, blasting rock music. Steve made a disapproving face. That didn’t sound like Eddie’s van, and Eddie usually blasted the same type of music.
“Who is that?” Nancy said beside him, which made him jump a little. He hadn’t noticed her walk up.
“I dunno, Nance,” Steve said wryly. “Why don’t we go over there and ask?” Obviously they had a new student. A few seconds later the music stopped and two car doors slammed shut.
“Looks like the girl is in middle school, and her older brother is going to be with us…I wonder what grade he is,” Nancy wondered out loud as she guided Steve’s hand to her arm–he hated when she did that–and they started walking towards the school.
Nancy dropped him off at his homeroom and he sat back in his seat with a sigh, listening to all the conversations around him. Sometimes it got too much, but today he welcomed the noise.
The teacher knocked on her desk with the ruler to get everyone’s attention. “Everyone. Everyone please quiet down. We have a new student, all the way from sunny California. William, if you’d like to introduce yourself.”
“It’s Billy,” the new boy corrected. “Not William.” So the new boy was from California, Steve had never been, his parents always neglected to take him on vacation, but they always sent him postcards of the beautiful views .
“Well, Billy,” the teacher started awkwardly, “why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?”
“I rather not.” Billy answered. “If that’s okay with you, ma’am .” Steve could hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice.
“Oh of course, I’m sure you’re already overwhelmed by your big move. Go ahead and sit down beside Mr. Harrington back there.” The teacher didn’t catch his tone, but Steve had ample experience reading what people were really saying.
He heard Billy sit down in the desk beside him, but remained silent. Most of the time, people asked why they allowed him to wear sunglasses in school, Steve had thought up some pretty good answers to that question, but all the people at Hawkins high already knew why.
By the time homeroom was over, Steve was still kinda frustrated that the other boy hadn’t asked, or even whispered about him to another student like he couldn’t hear. Sure, he didn’t want that to happen, but it was better than just ignoring him. Steve didn’t like to be ignored.
He had the new boy in his English class as well, his worst class. It was mostly because braille turned the grammar in his essays into something strange, not that he needed the help. The other part was that he always managed to doze off in class, it wasn’t like he could read through the book to stay awake–the school didn’t fund braille versions of what they read–so his mind tended to wander when he was in class while others were reading.
He had stopped going to the deaf and blind school in Indianapolis a few years ago. He used to go every weekend, they treated him like he was stupid, but they helped him do his homework. But going was embarrassing so he stopped.
He was jerked awake when someone patted him on the arm. “Hey,” it was the new kid, “teach said we have to pair up and everyone else already has a partner…”
“Yeah, not sure how much I can contribute.” Steve didn’t even know what book they were reading, honestly.
Billy pulled a seat over, “Don’t worry, I’ve read this one before.” He paused. “Let me guess, they didn’t give you a braille version.”
Steve tilted his head towards Billy. “Nope.” Although his parents could have easily funded it, they just…never thought about it, he guessed.
“Should be illegal,” Billy muttered and flipped through the pages of his book. “Everything here sucks.” And then he spoke a little louder, as if Steve couldn’t hear him before, “Uh, you got someone to read to you then? Or like a book on tape or something?”
“Sometimes Nancy reads to me but I kept falling asleep so she hasn’t done it in a while. She looks over my essays though.” Steve shrugged, at least there was that, he felt bad about asking her to do more.
“She obviously needs to be more entertaining,” Billy said with a little scoff. “I can read to you, if you want,” he offered.
“Why would you want to do that? I don’t need your pity, you know,” Steve said dully.
“It’s not pity, did you think that maybe I was trying to be friends, since I’m new here?” Billy said with a little venom in his voice.
Steve hadn’t thought about it, he just assumed… “Look, I’m sorry, alright?” He had been getting better about apologizing and not being such a brat. “I get kinda defensive for obvious reasons.”
“I get it,” Billy said, nodding, “I’m nodding my head by the way,” there was a smile in his voice. “But just so you know, I’m not going to pity you. If I read to you, you gotta do something for me. Give and take.”
Steve tilted his head towards the other boy. “Alright, what do you want?”
The bell rang and Billy said, “I’ll let you know later,” and got up. Well, that was definitely different than what Steve had expected. People thought he was so fragile, so they danced around him. Even his own parents didn’t know what to do with him. It was disheartening. Maybe Billy would be different.
He had taken gym as his last class because he wanted to show people that he didn’t need to be coddled. The coach coddled him anyway and made him walk the track with the others who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do basketball. He had managed to get his cane in a spot where he would be able to feel the grass beside the dirt of the track, when he heard footsteps jogging up to him.
He stood strong and braced for impact, some people still were childish and thought knocking down a blind person was the cool thing to do, when the steps stopped beside him. “Hey there, pretty boy,” Billy said, “Looks like we’re in the same gym class together.”
Steve raised his eyebrows. “Wow. Shouldn’t you be inside playing basketball?”
“Nah, coach doesn’t want me on the team. I’m a liability,” he said as if it wasn’t a surprise to him. “Kinda hard to run around and jump with hearing aids.”
Steve stopped walking. “Oh.”
“Yep, partial hearing loss on both sides, too many hits to the head,” Billy shrugged. “I’m shrugging right now. Most people don’t notice the aids because I have longer hair.”
“Oh,” Steve said again, not knowing what else to say. So they were alike.
“Yeah, sucks but what can you do, you know?” Billy shrugged, “I’m shrugging right now.” That made Steve smile, most people didn’t care to narrate their actions.
“I used to go to a blind deaf school on the weekends, but I never really found anyone to talk to about…all this.” Steve said softly.
“You stopped going?” They started walking again.
“Yeah, people…have tones, and all the teachers there…” Steve made a face and shook his head. “I didn’t like it, so when I was able to, I got out. Of course it made school harder here but…” He shrugged. He couldn’t have everyone in his life pitying him, it was getting to him.
“I guess I’m lucky that I can just switch my aids off.” Billy mused as they walked. “That’s what I did during homeroom, you know?”
“Ah, so that’s why you didn’t question why I had sunglasses on inside.” Steve said, scratching his arm under the short sleeve of his shirt, where his soulmark was.
“Wait.” Billy stopped walking and put his hand on Steve’s arm.
Steve stopped as well. “What? Do I have a bug on me? Get it off.”
“No.” He pushed up the arm of Steve’s shirt. “Holy shit. That’s your soulmark?”
“The bird? Yeah…” Steve said, turning his head head away, he didn’t really like showing it off.
“Yeah, a phoenix. Exactly like the one I have.” Steve whipped his head back to where Billy was standing. “No joke.”
“Yeah I can tell by your tone…fuck.” Steve said, voice full of awe. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling, he didn’t know finding your one would feel like the sun trying to leap out of your chest. “A blind boy and a deaf one.”
“Partially,” Billy corrected. “What a pair we make…at least we look really good, trust me on that.”
“Oh of course.” Steve never doubted him.