Hello again!
This is the third part of my series "Something Wonderful."
The fourth instalment in this series is called "A Wonderful Family Dinner". Go check it out!
Disclaimer: None of these lovely characters are mine.
Chapter 1
17 October 2007
"Teach me your name!"
Thorin and Bilbo are lounging around on the latter man's couch when Bilbo suddenly makes this odd request.
They are enjoying a nice quiet evening in after an exhausting and demanding week of work for both of them. Bilbo, his short form spread out on the sofa, his head leaning against the armrest, is flipping through a gardening magazine in search of new inspirations for his flower beds in the spring (he likes to plan things far in advance). His legs are stretched out over almost the entire length of the couch, the soles of his bare feet digging into Thorin's shins. The taller man is having a harder time getting comfortable than his boyfriend. Bilbo is by no means a large man but he can take up quite an impressive amount of space if he wants to. And currently he seems very determined to make himself as big as possible.
Thorin is crammed into the tiny space not occupied by his boyfriend's body, his legs tugged against his chest. They are starting to cramp up. At one point he tried to stretch them out by placing them on either side of Bilbo but his right leg kept sliding off the couch. So he attempted to squeeze both appendages between the sofa's backrest and Bilbo's side. During his attempt of swinging his leg, the one that kept falling off, over his boyfriend's body, he managed to kick the shorter man in the face and so Bilbo glared at him until Thorin retreated into his current position.
He is watching the curly-haired man frown at the article he is reading when Bilbo suddenly sits up and drops the magazine onto the floor.
"Teach me your name!" Bilbo signs.
Thorin frowns. He has gotten a lot better at sign language over the last couple of weeks but this just does not make any sense. He motions for the other man to repeat his demand.
"Teach me your name!" The shorter man looks at him expectantly. All Thorin can do is frown in confusion. "You know my name," he signs back. "T.H.O.R.I.N." He is finally able to fingerspell without having to pause and think about every letter. Bilbo only shakes his head.
Thorin proceeds to make the sign for "oak" followed by the sign for "shield." Bilbo had assigned this personal sign name to him after Dwalin had told him about Thorin's old nickname. Nobody had called him Oakenshield in years, a name he had earned when he played rugby in school. The curly-haired man had laughed himself silly when he heard about his boyfriend's wild teenage years. How he and Dwalin had gotten to this particular topic in the first place was still beyond Thorin.
Bilbo shakes his head again. "Teach me how to say your name! With my mouth."
Oh.
How unexpected. Thorin has never actually heard Bilbo say something. The man would grunt and sigh and squeal and laugh but Thorin had never heard Bilbo's voice before. Though he has often wondered what it sounds like.
The shorter man is watching him with raised eyebrows. He is obviously ready for Thorin to jump into action. But Thorin has no idea how to proceed. How can you teach a man, that can't hear, to speak? Bilbo has been deaf all his life so he doesn't know how to pronounce the letters that make up a word.
He grabs Bilbo's legs and manipulates him into a position that gives Thorin a little more space to move. He releases a sigh of relief when he stretches out his legs. He could have put his feet up on the coffee table or simply moved to the armchair all this time but that would have meant defeat. And he refuses to admit defeat in a battle for legroom against a person that is over a head shorter than him. Bilbo crawls over and then folds his short legs underneath his bum to get a good look at Thorin's lips. Just to make sure he is in the perfect position, he gently pulls on Thorin's long hair to make the taller man bend down for a kiss.
Bilbo nods his approval and motions for the other man to get started already.
"Can you say other words?" Thorin asks instead of complying with his lover's demand. Bilbo pouts when his wish isn't granted. But Thorin's pleading look sends him into submission. "My mum taught me some," he responds but does not elaborate. At Thorin's raised eyebrows, he rolls his eyes and stretches up till his face is only an inch away from Thorin's.
The taller man watches with fascination as Bilbo slowly gets his lips and tongue in position.
"No."
Thorin is struck by the beauty of Bilbo's voice. It is everything and still nothing like he expected. It is rough from disuse but surprisingly high. He can only stare at the mouth that has just produced this remarkable sound. And then he laughs. Because "no" is just the most likely word Bilbo would bother to learn. The short man is as stubborn as a stone wall and never does anything he does not want to do. And he likes telling people that.
Thorin kisses Bilbo's pouted lips. Stubborn and fussy. That is Bilbo Baggins in a nutshell. When they part, the shorter man is smiling again.
"Mama."
Thorin immediately imagines Bilbo's mother sitting down with her young son to teach him to say this word. How long had it taken Bilbo to say it right? Had he understood back then the importance of this word for a mother? He still remembers when Dis called him, crying tears of happiness, to tell him how Fili had said "Mama" for the first time. It hadn't even been his first word but it had made Dis happier than anything else. Belladonna "Took" Baggins would have done anything to get her son to say it. Just as stubborn as her offspring.
"Papa."
Was that Belladonna's work as well? Or had Bungo taken over for this one?
"Belbow."
Thorin smiles at that. His love is in every way perfect. Including his name. And the way the curly-haired man's brow furrows when he says it. It seems to give him some trouble. Thorin had never thought about the difficulties a person like Bilbo must have when learning to speak without actually hearing anything. For Thorin, Bilbo is a fairly easy thing to say. Just a twist of the tongue and a tug of his lips. Done. But you can't show someone everything that is going on inside of your mouth and throat when you are speaking. Would Bilbo's parents have given their son a name easier to pronounce and lip-read if they had known that he is deaf?
"Flaua."
Of course. What would Bilbo be without his flowers? Another image of tiny Bilbo comes to Thorin's mind, the little boy frolicking through a wild field of red poppies, his blonde curls bouncing on the top of his head, a stuffed cat securely tugged under his arm. Thorin had found this particular photograph in one of Bilbo's various albums a couple of weeks ago. He now has his very own copy in his possession, courtesy of Belladonna. Bilbo had not shared Thorin's enthusiasm about the discovery of his baby photos.
Thorin comes back to reality when the short man in front of him lifts up his hands to switch back to sign language.
"Now your name!"
Thorin is still unsure about this but he cannot resist the curiosity sparkling in his love's beautiful blue eyes. Slowly he pulls his lips apart and pushes his tongue forward between his front teeth before releasing the air in his lungs to create the first sound of his name.
The short man in front of him immediately copies his movements and Thorin's gaze locks on Bilbo's lovely pink tongue. Oh, the things he wants this tongue to do right now. They could spend the next hour far more productively than Thorin attempting to give speech therapy to a deaf man.
Bilbo lets out a whine and gently shoves the taller man's shoulder when he sees him getting off-track. Then he copies the sound his lover made. With a lot more force than necessary. His "th" is more a hiss than anything else. He pouts when he sees Thorin frown. The dark-haired man grabs his boyfriend's left hand and kisses each nimble finger before letting them rest against his lips. Then he makes the sound again. Bilbo's eyebrows shoot up in realisation. It is apparently not necessary to blow the air out with such force. Bilbo's other hand comes to rest against Thorin's neck where he knows the man's vocal cords are. He often does this to feel the vibration of Thorin's voice. Now he needs to feel whether the sound produced is voiced or voiceless. That is how his mother had taught him the few words he knew.
Bilbo's tongue is still trapped between his front teeth and he attempts to produce the sound again. Thorin frowns once more. This one was close to a whistle. Bilbo is not discouraged and repositions his tongue after every attempt until Thorin nods his approval and rewards him with a kiss.
Thorin admires the view in front of him. Bilbo is lying on the mattress in front of him, panting up at the ceiling and squirming around as if unsure whether he should try and escape from the slick fingers giving him pleasure or move closer to bury them even deeper inside of him. The dark-haired man cannot help but smirk at his boyfriend's sour expression. This is Thorin's payback for being squeezed into a space of about three square inches on the sofa earlier. He refuses to let Bilbo come, his fingers retreating every time the shorter man is a second away from climaxing.
The curly-haired man whimpers when he feels Thorin's fingers disappear again. His lover's smirk only grows wider.
"Thorin," Bilbo whines and makes an attempt to grab the other man's hand to push it back where it belongs. Where it belongs right now anyway. "Thorin!" He is growling now and pushes himself up on his elbows to glare at his love. Thorin keeps smirking and lifts his hand to wriggle his fingers close to Bilbo's face. They are slick with lube. Instead of trying to get a hold on them again, Bilbo ignores them and grabs Thorin's long hair to pull him closer. He is not as gentle as he usually is and Thorin winces at the slight pain on his scalp. His and Bilbo's noses are almost touching now.
"Thorin," Bilbo hisses now, his blue eyes filling with fury, his face twisted into a scowl. The shorter man tugs on Thorin's hair again. Bilbo leans forward, his breath hot on the other man's face. "Fuck. Me. Now."
Even years later Thorin will wonder where Bilbo had learned to say that.
The End
Continued in "A Wonderful Family Dinner".
Note: My experience with deaf people and the Deaf culture is very limited (non-existent to be exact). This entire scenario is based on research, lots and lots of research. So if there is anyone out there that has more experience than me and finds something that doesn't make sense or is complete bollocks, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm very motivated to learn more about this topic, not only for the sake of these stories, but to broaden my horizons and satisfy my personal curiosity.
As this series goes on, there will be more and more sign language used.
British Sign Language is in no way related to the English language and has its own grammar and sentence structure. Since I am not fluent in BSL and for the sake of the reader, the parts that are meant to be in BSL will be translated into English to not disrupt the flow of reading.