Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, I would have brought these two together from the Get-go
A big thank you to the lovely Becca for proofreading this for me! I love you!
The lights flashed in the Bledsoe household. Emmett ignored it, figuring his mom would open the door since he was up in his room. He just continued to stare through his window as he sat on his bed, watching the rain fall.
Downstairs, Melody put down her laptop and got up to open the door. When she did, her eyebrows shot up in surprise; on the other side of the door stood Toby Kennish, looking like a drowned puppy.
"Hey." he said as he did the sign for it, "Is Emmett home?" he asked slowly. His signing clumsy as he was still learning, and he wasn't as confident in his signing as his sister was in hers. She nodded, motioning for him to get inside. She held up her hand, telling him to wait. She headed off upstairs, grabbed a towel from the bathroom and swiftly returned downstairs.
As she handed over the towel to the boy, he took a moment to think before signing, 'Thank you' to her in response. She smiled back at him, signing 'You're welcome' in return. Toby dried his hair and ran the towel over his clothes a bit, taking off his shoes and leaving them at the door.
Melody tapped his shoulder and when he turned she signed to him.
"He... is... in.. his... uhm... room?" Toby said as he tried to translate the motions, smiling proudly when he got a nod from her. "I'm getting better at this." He commented to himself as he took the stairs. When he reached the top, he walked down the hall towards Emmett's room. As he walked in, he raised his hand to knock, but realized that wouldn't be any use and dropped his arm at his side.
He awkwardly stood there for a moment, noticing that the room's occupant was staring outside. He made his way over to said boy and waved a hand in his line of sight, to which Emmett looked up, surprise written all over his face when he saw he had a visitor, and who that visitor was. He waved in greeting, Hey, what brings you here? He asked the blond.
"Hey... what... here?" Toby mumbled the signs he knew, "Oh, why I'm here?" The other boy nodded, "Right, I uhh... I was wondering if we could... hang out?" he said slowly and sheepishly as he tried to sign the words he knew. Emmett raised his hand and made a sign while mouthing the word slowly.
"Huh?" Toby asked, confused, the other boy spelling it out slowly, "Oh hang out?" Emmett nodded while doing the sign again, "Oh that's the sign for 'hang out'?" Toby asked, repeating it a few times.
Emmett gave him a smile and thumbs up. He patted the spot next to him, inviting the blond to sit with him. Toby smiled and sat down next to the boy. Emmett signed to him again, Toby watched carefully and furrowed his brows in concentration. "That's... uhhhmm... Game... Games... Video... games! Want to play video games? Yes, I'd love to." the blond smiled.
Emmett gave a pat to his shoulder as he got up and turned on his console along with his TV, grabbing two controllers and sitting back down on his bed. As he handed Toby the second controller, he gave him a challenging smirk. He set his in his lap to sign, I'll try to go easy on you. Once Toby seemed to understand what he said and rolled his eyes at the boy, he just gave a cocky smirk as he pressed the start button on the menu.
After a few hours of fierce battles, they ended up in a tie and decided to leave it at that. As Emmett shut it down and put away the controllers, Toby laid back against the headboard. As he turned to sit back down next to the blond, his mother walked in, waving her hand to get her son's attention before she started signing, Dinner will be ready in 10. You staying for dinner? She directed the last part at Toby, who had a look of concentration on his face. As they both saw the understanding flash through his eyes, he nodded, "If you don't mind." he said/signed. Not at all, she replied before walking out.
10 minutes of goofing off and just laying on Emmett's bed looking around the room later, they went downstairs to join Melody at the dinner table. It was quiet as they are, something Toby wasn't used to. He's used to the chatter from his dad about work and sports, used to his mother asking how all of their days went, and Bay's excessive complaining about everything. However, the silence was nice, welcoming even, the only sound being that of the cutlery scratching over their plates as they cut their meat, or the clinking noise their forks made as they tried to stab a piece of vegetable onto it.
Emmett watched the blond, glancing every now and then at him. He seemed at ease, even though he was probably used to a lot of ruckus during dinner. He seemed to enjoy sitting there in silence. Aside from a twitch now and then, he seemed to enjoy eating dinner with the Bledsoe's. He raised an eyebrow at the boy after he caught his eyes when he twitched again. Toby just smiled at him as he continued to eat. Emmett decided to brush it off for now. He'd ask the boy later.
After dinner and a delicious dessert, as well as Toby profusely complimenting his mother's cooking, Emmett took the boy back to his room to relax a bit as they digested the food they consumed. The non-hearing boy plopped down on his bed and stretched out as the other looked around his room again and ended up looking at his photo collage that hung on the wall. After a few minutes, Emmett tapped the boy's shoulder gently before letting himself fall back on the bed.
"Huh?" The blond questioned as he turned around to face the other.
Are you okay? Emmett signed, a frown on his face as he gave the boy a once over, noticing another twitch in the boy's body language.
"Yeah, I'm okay, why?" he asked innocently.
You seem... annoyed. On edge even. He signed back slowly. This time Toby didn't reply and simply looked away, turning back to the photos on the wall and biting his lip. Emmett sat up against the headboard and waited for the other boy to say or do something.
After a moment of silence, Toby sighed and sat down next to the other boy, his back against the headboard as he curled his legs against his chest, wrapping his arms around them. He looked at the other boy as he tiredly said, "My phone's been going nuts for a while now."
Answer it then? Emmett questioned him confusedly. The blond shook his head. "I don't want to deal with my family right now." He mumbled, hoping the other could forgive his lack of signing at the moment. Not that he knew how to sign half the words to begin with.
What's wrong? The other asked, putting a comforting hand on the blond's shoulder. Emmett watched as the other sighed deeply, his shoulders rising and slowly sinking back down as he did. Toby looked at him, giving him a once over as he bit his lip in frustration. Emmett fished into his pocket, took out his phone and went to the notes app, typing: this might make it easier, and handed it to the blond. He read it and nodded, biting his lip, deep in thought.
Emmett waited patiently as the blond thought of the words and how to put them, typing something every now and then. His eyes glazed over every now and then, making Emmett worry about the boy.
After several minutes of waiting for the boy to finish typing, he hesitantly handed back the phone to it's owner, not making eye contact as he bit his lip.
It's just that... ever since we found out about the switch thing, everybody is talking about it. How hard it is for the girls and our parents, how we're dealing with it, how does it affect the girls, what does it do to mom, dad and Regina. Even at school it's all about the switch, how's your mom coping, how's Bay taking it? Who's your real sister then? And everyone just seems to think it didn't affect me. It's all about the girls and how our parents are dealing with it. It's like I got shoved to the back. Though I am expected to do everything perfectly still, 'Toby your teacher called, you got a D?' 'You're going to college soon, you need to get those grades up'. 'Toby can you drive your sister to the art shop?' 'Toby do this, Toby do that'. I'm just sick of acting like nothings happened, like I'm okay. But I was affected too! Suddenly, my sister turns out to not actually BE my sister... And before you know it, these strangers are living with us, one of them being my actual sister, who it's kind of awkward to be around even though everyone expects there to automatically be a brother-sister bond going on while I don't even really know her. No one seems to notice me unless they want something from me or have something to say about things that I do or don't do.
It broke Emmett's heart reading that. So for all this time, the boy next to him has been all on his own, watching everyone around him deal with things, while no one paid him any attention or even asked him how he was doing.
He puts his phone down on the bed and scoots a little closer before he simply wraps his arms around the boy. Toby slumped against him; he was tired. Tired of everything that's happened in the past few months. Tired of being on his own all the time. He let the silent tears fall freely now, soaking up Emmett's shirt. The other paid it no mind, though, and simply rubbed circles on his back. Soon, he pulled his arms away from his knee's to wrap them around the other boy, clinging on tightly.
After a few minutes of them sitting like that, Emmett gently pulled away and grabbed his phone. After typing something real quick, he handed it to the blond who read it, Why don't you stay the night? Take a break from everything.
Toby nodded gratefully, sending a small smile the brunet's way. He lifted his open palm to his chin and signed, Thank you. He received a smile from the other boy. Welcome. Short and simple. D-V-D? Emmett signed next, which earned him a small nod. As he got up to grab his pile of movies and hand them to Toby, his mom came into the room, I'm heading to bed boys, don't make it too late. She stopped as she saw Toby's red eyes and tear streaked face. Before she could say anything, Emmett had dragged her into the hallway.
What happened? She demanded from her son, who shook his head. He's got a lot on his mind. He simply stated, is it okay if he stays for the night?
She seemed to think it over a little bit and decided not to further question it, nodding. Sure, as long as his parents are okay with it. Emmett smiled gratefully and gave her a hug, which quite surprised her, but she didn't comment on it. Emmett popped his head, and one hand, back into his room real quick to finger-spell 'Snacks' real quick before heading downstairs.
He returned a few minutes later with two cans of soda under each of his arms and a bowl in each hand, one filled with popcorn, the other with chips. Clutched between his teeth was a big bag of-
"Are those Skittles!?" Toby exclaimed as he turned towards the boy who just entered the room. Emmett smirked around the bag between his teeth and nodded. He let Toby take it from him when he got close enough to the bed. The blond also took one of the bowls and soda cans, which left Emmett to set the remaining two down himself before taking the DVD Toby picked out from his outstretched hand to pop it in.
They settled down on the bed afterwards, pillows propped against the head board, bowl with popcorn in Emmett's lap, the bowl chips in Toby's, and the bag with Skittles being passed back and forth. The volume was turned way down low, as per Toby's request. About halfway through, Emmett felt a light weight on his shoulder. When he looked to see what it was, he saw that Toby had dozed off. He smiled a little, seeing the peaceful look on the boy's face. He put the bowls and the little that was left of the bag of skittles on his desk, along with the now empty cans of soda, turned off the lights and crawled back into bed next to the other boy. Before they turned on the movie they had shed their normal clothes. Toby settled in his undershirt and a borrowed pair of sweats from Emmett, while said boy settled for just his boxers and a white shirt.
As Emmett laid down, he stared at Toby, thinking of why the boy decided to show up at his house, considering they didn't really know each other, except for when Emmett had played drums for his band once. And aside from that, the only conversation they have had was when he and Wilke were begging him to join Guitar Face. He found it strange that the blond came to him. But at the same time he felt... happy, glad. Toby seemed to trust him. And for an unknown reason, that made him smile. As he studied Toby's facial features, he couldn't help but notice how much he and Daphne actually had in common, aside from their hair color. He wondered briefly if he would he be as great of friends with Toby as he was with Daphne if Toby has been switched? Then again, Bay would have to have been a boy as well for that to happen, and she would have had to be Toby's age, and he himself would probably have to be older for that too. And yes, he was over thinking it. Bottom line, he probably would have. Or wouldn't... would Toby have suffered the same fate as Daphne had? Or would the boy have kept his hearing?
Then again, he's glad it didn't happen that way. He quite liked Toby the way he was. Even if it annoyed him at times that the boy was so slow with signing and he had to sign so much slower than he likes to. But he also finds joy in helping teach the boy a language he himself has spoken since birth. Okay, that's exaggerating too because even hearing baby's don't learn to speak until they're like, four, but you know what he means.
As he settled into a comfortable position to actually get some sleep, he felt the other boy twitch a bit and scoot closer. Emmett smiled as he closed his eyes. He would help Toby with his signing when they woke up; get his mind off of his crazy family situation, even if just for a little bit.
Emmett awoke to a flash of light, and something that was making the bed shake a bit. He rubbed his eyes as he blinked them open. He had left the curtains open, and apparently there was a thunderstorm blowing over town. When he looked towards where Toby was, he found that the shaking came from him. His back was tensed up, and he seemed to have curled up during the night, facing away from him.
When Emmett put his hand on the blond's shoulder to get his attention, he noticed just how much the boy seemed to shake. Like he was scared or something. He was met with wide and frightened eyes when the boy turned to face him. You okay? Emmett asked. Toby was shaking too much though, and the moisture in his eyes combined with the darkness around them made it hard to make out what the other boy signed. Emmett fished for his phone, bathing them in a weak light, but strong enough to at least see something. Toby looked absolutely terrified. Worried about the other boy, Emmett wrapped his arms around him and scooted closer, typing on his phone once they settled, asking what was bothering Toby. He handed it to the boy awkwardly from their position.
After shakily typing, Toby handed it back for Emmett to read.
I'm not a big fan of Thunderstorms...
It read. Emmett added up the rest. Though being born deaf, he was aware that Thunder made loud, sudden noises, regardless of whether or not you notice the flashes. It was a common enough fear in his book. Even to deaf people, the sudden flashes of light could be startling when its dark out. He simply just held on tightly to the boy, rubbing his back comfortingly.
Toby relished in Emmett's warmth, finding comfort in his embrace. It got him thinking, though. How come he felt that? Warmth, safety. He barely knew Emmett, yet here he was, being comforted. There was just something about the boy that made him so trustworthy. That made him want to be comforted by him. He snuggled closer to him as another loud bang soared through the air, making him tense up and squeeze his eyes closed tightly. He really hated thunder. As a little kid, it was his biggest fear. He always ended up hiding under his bed, blankets wrapped around himself tightly, his hands over his ears, where he usually remained until it stopped, or he fell asleep from crying. As he concentrated on the way Emmett rubbed circles on his back, he started to calm down. Relax a little, even. He wanted to thank the boy, but that meant pulling back. And he didn't want to do that. Emmett tapped his back, though, so he reluctantly pulled back a bit.
Better? He spelled to the blond, who in turn nodded, and also used one hand to sign, Thank you, back, which earned him an honest smile and a simple, anytime, in return. Toby bit his lip, looking contemplative. Emmett nudged him, which seemed to make up his mind.
"Can we... stay like this?" he asked hesitant and slow so Emmett could read his lips. The boy nodded, mouthing 'sure' back at him. Toby smiled back a bit shyly. It was a weird request, he knew, but he was happy he could stay close to Emmett. He made the thunder seem almost non-existent... Almost.
Right then there was an extra loud clatter of thunder. Toby shot forward, hiding into Emmett's chest with a loud, and to his shame, quite girly, squeak/whimper. Emmett simply tightened his hold on him again. Though the sudden movement had startled him for a second, he quickly brushed it off. The blond had tensed up once more, so Emmett simply started rubbing soothing circles into his back again. He wish he could comfort him some more with words, but he would need his hands for that. Not to say he wasn't content just laying there, cuddled up. He quite enjoyed it for some strange reason. He probably just forgot how it was to just lay down with someone in his arms. He was just reminded of what it felt like.
Or perhaps he enjoyed it so much, simply because it was Toby who was in his arms. Did that mean he liked Toby? He has to admit, the thought doesn't freak him out as much as he expected. True, he's looked at other boy's before. But then again, he is the brother of both his ex, and his best friend. That could get... weird and/or awkward. But he found that he didn't really care about that. Toby seemed like a nice enough guy. He was definitely attractive, no one could deny that.
With the next bolt of lightning that struck, Emmett actually saw it briefly a few miles away when he looked out the window. It must be getting closer. Toby definitely was getting more tense with each flash of light, so it must be getting louder too. He squeezed his shoulder reassuringly and unconsciously placed a small peck on the blond's head before resting his chin on the spot. Toby seemed to stop breathing for a minute, probably surprised by the action, but he relaxed considerably after a while, seeming to snuggle closer.
Toby's heart and mind were racing. Though the former is partly due to the storm outside. Why had Emmett kissed his head? And why did he feel so okay with it? Did he like Emmett? The guy was definitely attractive. He had a real charm going for him. He easily wins you over with his adorable face and those sky blue eyes. He breathed in deeply to calm his heart rate and was met with the strong musky smell of Emmett's shampoo. It seemed to calm him down. He liked the smell. It was his new favorite smell.
Okay he definitely liked the guy. And it seemed that maybe Emmett liked him too. Or was that just an attempt at comforting him? He snuggled closer, burying his face in the dirty blond's chest. He felt him tighten his hold reassuringly, which made him smile. He pressed his ear to Emmett's chest and listened to his heart beat, closing his eyes, he started to slowly relax, forgetting the thunder and slowly dozing off.
Emmett felt Toby's breath even out. He was glad he could finally fall asleep and forget about the thunder. He himself decided to close his eyes too, once he was sure that the other boy was sound asleep.
The next morning, Melody was setting the table for breakfast and decided to wake her son and their guest before she started making said breakfast. She slowly headed up the stairs and walked to her son's room, opening the door and peeking her head inside. What she found made her smile. There they lied on her son's bed, sheets a tangled mess, her son spread out and the blond snuggled against the others side, head resting on Emmett's chest while said boy had one arm wrapped tightly around the boy. It was a picture perfect scene. However, it was time to get up. So she walked over to her son and poked his shoulder until he opened his eyes.
I'm starting breakfast, be down in 10. she told him. When he nodded, she smiled, satisfied and left the two alone.
Emmett looked at the boy clutching his side and smiled. It seemed he managed to sleep through the rest of the storm. Looking outside, he saw it was still raining, but the thunder had stopped. Which he was glad for. He turned his gaze back to the blond, taking his time to study him. He had a peaceful look on his face, a small smile grazing his lips. He couldn't help himself when he leaned in and placed a small kiss on his forehead, smiling when Toby wiggled a bit.
A few seconds later, Toby started to stir a bit more and slowly opened his eyes, looking up at him groggily. Emmett smiled in greeting, using his free hand to give a lazy wave.
"Good morning." Toby smiled happily. "Sleep well?" He asked, still a bit groggy. He received a nod, then a finger was pointed to him. "I slept great." He beamed, "I've never had such a good nights rest during a storm." he said. "Thank you." he said sincerely, "Thank you so much." All Emmett did was smile at him and mouth, 'Welcome'.
Toby laid his head back down on his chest. He was really enjoying cuddling with the other boy. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He was so comfortable like this. Emmett's hand absentmindedly rubbed his arm. This is the most relaxed he has been in a long time now.
Same went for Emmett. He was able to fully relax for once, and he was loving it. He never wanted this moment to end. However, he felt his stomach wanted something to consume. He felt Toby giggle a bit as well, so he tapped the boy's shoulder. When said boy sat up so he could sign, he moved his hands slowly, Mom's making breakfast. You hungry?
The blond nodded, "Starving." he said, Emmett made another sign he didn't recognize, so he furrowed his brow and cocked his head to the side. The boy spelled it out, then did the sign again.
"Oohhh, 'starving'." Toby nodded, mimicking Emmett. Emmett smiled and gave him the thumbs up. After he got up, he turned back to the blond and held out his hand to help him up, which the other appreciated. Toby smiled once he was standing. He surprised both himself and Emmett as he leaned in and pecked his cheek. "Thank you. For everything. I mean it." He told the boy before he headed towards the stairs. Emmett pulled himself from his shock and lightly touched his cheek, smiling wider than the Cheshire Cat himself.
When he got downstairs, he found Toby awkwardly trying to remember the correct signs as he greeted his mother and tried to ask if there was anything he could do to help, and apologizing for showing up out of the blue. But he was failing miserably. Which seemed to frustrate Toby.
Melody decided to save the boy the embarrassment and took his hand and stilled them, before telling him to just sit down and relax. Emmett smiled and chuckled a bit as he sat down in front of the blond. Why don't I give you a crash-course ASL? He suggested, hoping to spend the rest of the day with him. He was enjoying his company. Toby nodded eagerly, both wanting to learn and better communicate with the boy, but also wanting to spend more time with Emmett.
As they started to have some small talk while they waited for Melody to finish breakfast, they both had the same thought running through their heads. Today was gonna be an amazing day.