"you gotta put your middle- and ringfinger down," chase lectured, his hands, as always, moving along with signing the sentence he had just said while sitting on the couch in his living room, legs draped over yours. at this very moment, he was trying to teach you american sign language. why? he wasn't too sure, the whole you-sleaking and him-lipreading worked out just fine for him, but you had insisted

not that he minded, he found it pretty endearing how you were so set on learning a whole new and fairly complex language for him just because he was your boyfriend. his bunny 'microsoft' - he swore that he had come up with the name when he had been twelve and obsessed with code - hopped around in his lap, occasionally sniffing his hand and trying to chew through the silver wristwatch he had on or digging into his graphic tee to mess it up

an amused smile played on his lips when your fingers struggled to sign properly; you weren't doing it wrong, but, naturally, you couldn't quite match the ease and pace that chase did it with. here and there he would throw in some small encouragements and praises to make sure you didn't lose interest or hope, because, for an absolute beginner, you were doing pretty amazing

"you got it, it's good," he nodded and leaned forward a little, earning a soft kick from 'microsoft', to gently bend your fingers into the right position, watching your face while leaning back, hands always hovering somewhere they could be seen when signing. you could understand ASL pretty good, dating chase for almost a year now had heavily contributed to that, but using it was a slightly different thing

"and no," he piped up before you could, an amused and fauxely alarmed frown on his face the second he spotted your thoughtful expression, "it's got nothing to do with the rocker sign. this one," he tugged at your thumb, "has your thumb out to the side, and it means 'I love you'," your boyfriend informed you with a slightly teasing grin, before metaphorically responding; "love you too"