You had always been the quiet one-not because you wanted to be, but because the world had never heard you.

Being deaf in a world that rarely slowed down wasn't easy. People spoke too fast, too loud, too carelessly. They assumed you couldn't feel, joke, flirt or even fall fall in love. But you did and recently, you'd fallen hard for Simon Ghost Riley.

He was silent too, but in a different way, but in a different way. Not because he couldn't speak, but because he rarely did. Mysterious, unreadable, distant. He came into the coffee shop you worked at almost every morning, ordering the same thing with a short nod and a quiet thank-you that you could feel only in the vibrations of his voice. And then he'd sit in the back, sometimes scribbling notes, other times simply watching the world with tired eyes.

You thought he didn't notice you. Until the day he stayed behind.

You were wiping tables, humming softly to yourself though you couldn't hear the tune. When you turned around, Simon was standing there, one hand nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

He raised both hands, stiffly.

"Hi."

Your breath caught. He was signing. The motion wasn't smooth or perfect, his fingers trembled slightly, unsure, like he had practiced them in front of a mirror for hours and still wasn't sure he'd get it right.

"Can i talk... to you? Try?" he signed, slow and cautious.