Maya watched as Riley and a boy who had come from the kitchen signed to each other, the boy friendly and Riley shyly. Maya knew that the amount of Deaf people Riley had met in her lifetime, she could count on two hands, so this was probably a huge experience for her.

"What are they saying?" Josh asked, nudging Maya with his shoulder.

"They're talking about sign language and Deaf experiences," Maya said simply. She glanced up at him. "You know, if you learned a little more sign language-"

"I take ASL at NYU," Josh interrupted, and Maya turned to fully face him, her eyebrows raising.

"I didn't know that," she said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Maya," Josh began uncomfortably, "you seem to think anyone who isn't completely fluent in sign language isn't trying to have a relationship with Riley, either friend or family."

"That's not true," Maya objected immediately, before stopping to think it over.

Was that the impression she gave off? She didn't know. All she knew was that Riley was her best friend, and she wanted everyone to see what an amazing person was. And to do that, they needed to know her language. She realized that she had jumped at the chance to teach Lucas sign language, because it meant that he was really trying to have a romantic relationship with Riley, and Maya wanted the best for Riley. She hadn't thought of how differently she thought of Lucas's knowledge versus the rest of her friends and family.

"I've known Riley her whole life," Josh pointed out. "But we didn't grow up together like you did, and learning any language takes constant practice. I'm sure that if I had spent every day with her, I would be more fluent, but I'm not. But Maya," he emphasized, "I am trying. That's all you can ask of anyone."

"I know," Maya agreed softly. She watched Riley's eyes light up as the boy said something that made her start signing faster, excitedly.

"It's so different, seeing Riley like that," Josh observed.

"They're in her world," Maya said. "Riley lives in our world, the hearing world, almost all the time. It must be so liberating to meet someone with the same life experience. Can you imagine if the circumstances were changed, and everyone around you was Deaf? And you couldn't really understand most of what they said?"

Josh paused. "It sounds very isolating," he admitted, and Maya nodded.

"I just wish that more people could communicate with her like I can," Maya sighed. "They would see what an amazing girl she is."

Tyler joined them for dinner in the fairly empty restaurant, and Maya had never seen Riley so free.

'Where do you go to school?' Tyler asked.

Maya signed back, 'We go to Abigail Adams High in New York City.'

'Are you deaf?' Tyler asked.

Maya shook her head. 'Hearing,' she signed silently. 'Riley is deaf, we grew up together.'

'You sign really good,' Tyler observed, and Maya smiled.

'I would hope so, I've been doing it for over seven years.'

'Wait, so you go to a hearing school?' Tyler signed to Riley, incredulously. 'Why would you want to do that?'

'To be with my friends,' Riley explained.

'But do they sign?' He asked, and Riley waved her hand in a 'so-so' motion.

'They do their best,' Maya signed back.

'Do you have any Deaf friends?' Tyler asked Riley, and she pursed her lips.

'I have an interpreter,' she offered, and Tyler's eyes widened in disbelief.

'Haven't you ever heard of Deaf Events?' He asked.

Riley tilted her head. 'What?'

'There's a huge Deaf community almost everywhere you go, you just have to look for it,' Tyler said. 'Deaf Events are where Deaf people all meet up together, but anyone who can sign is welcome.'

'Where do I find them?' Riley questioned.

'I'm sure there are websites,' Tyler said. He thought for a moment. 'I have a friend, her name is Claire. She lives in New York City, last I checked. I'll get you her phone number. Here,' he signed, pulling out his phone and handing it to her, 'put your number in and I'll send you the contact.'

Riley hesitated, and then took the phone and typed in her number.

"I'm kind of lost," Josh said to Maya, and Maya immediately realized they had been signing silently and fairly fast the entire time.

"Tyler is telling her about Deaf Events in New York," Maya said. "He has a friend there who Riley can meet up with."

"Sounds cool," Josh agreed. "It would be good for Riley to have some Deaf friends, don't you think."

"Yeah," Maya agreed softly. She watched as Riley and Tyler talked about Deaf Events, in both Rochester and New York, before Tyler asked Riley how long they would be in town for.

'Just for the weekend,' Riley said.

'That's too bad,' Tyler said. 'There's so much amazing stuff to do here, you couldn't barely get the experience in only a few days.' His eyes lit up. 'Hey, why don't I give you a tour? There's several events happening this weekend for the holiday season.'

'Are you sure?' Riley signed hesitantly. 'I wouldn't want to take over your whole weekend.'

'Are you kidding?' Tyler flashed a grin. 'It would be my genuine pleasure to immerse you in our culture for the first time.'

"With you and Riley signing with that kid," Josh stated as he brushed his teeth, "I can kind of see what you were talking about with the whole 'unable to understand what's happening' thing."

"Sorry," Maya leaned against the bathroom door frame. "Riley was just so excited, I didn't want to ruin it with talking."

"Why? She wouldn't have been able to hear us anyways," Josh pointed out, and Maya frowned, throwing a hand towel at him, which Josh caught.

"It was just different for her, being in a Deaf world with a Deaf kid, and I didn't want to ruin it with hearing world stuff," Maya said.

"I just want to know what's going on," Josh said, wiping his face with the towel. "I'm really feeling the whole 'out of the loop' thing, I get it."

"I know," Maya said. She had often felt the stress of being the link between Riley and another person, but now it was the other way around.

"What's Riley doing right now?" Josh questioned, and Maya leaned her head back into the room to see Riley texting someone.

"I'm guessing she's either texting Lucas, Tyler, or her parents," she suggested. "She's supposed to meet up with Tyler tomorrow, he's going to show her around."

"Sounds good," Josh agreed. "But I need to do research and photography for my assignment. Will you guys be okay going alone with him? We can meet up for lunch or dinner."

"I'm sure we'll be fine," Maya said.

"I wanted to ask you," Josh said. He turned back to the sink to wash his hands, his eyes meeting hers in the mirror. "We didn't really get to finish our conversation on the train earlier."

"I thought we did," Maya disagreed, her tone changing a little. "You didn't want to go any further with this."

"It's not that I don't want to, Maya, I do want to," Josh contradicted. "I just don't want to rush anything."

"We've been skating around this game for almost two years," Maya pointed out. "I just want to know if I'm wasting my time, or if we're actually going to become something."

Josh dried his hands and turned to face her, reaching out to grab her fingers. "I've known you for a long time. And I know how good of a person you are, and I know how deeply you love."

Maya stared up into his eyes. "I like you, Josh."

"I like you too," Josh reminded her. "And if we're going to do this, I want to know that nothing will go wrong. You and I have both been building this up in our minds to be an amazing thing, but what if it doesn't turn out the way we expected?"

"We won't know unless we try," Maya pointed out. "And I want to know. I want to take that chance with you. Let me."

Josh studied her expression, and Maya did the same, trying to figure out what he was thinking. She was tired of not knowing. She just wanted him to take the leap.

But she honestly didn't expect it when he took one step and met his lips to hers.

A/N: I bet none of you expected that either.

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with the Joshaya plot line right now, but now that I've taken this leap with them, there's no going back. We'll see how they go forward with their relationship from here.

Someone asked about the whole 'games Joshaya' and 'true love Rucas' I said in a previous author's note, and I wanted to clarify that I was talking about the plot of Nodus Tollens there, not the plot of Anecdoche.

I wanted to post this two days ago, but FanFiction decided to lock me out of my account. And then the publishing part of the site went down, so I couldn't access my doc managers or story managers to publish anything. Anyways, sorry for the wait.

There's not going to be anything romantic between Riley and Tyler, for those of you who are worried. Riley's just excited about being able to truly relate to someone, and that's a really emotional thing.

I'm hoping to get more writing out, but I'm seriously behind on Microecon, and should probably spend more time with my boyfriend (virtually, that is, we're LDR right now, and then there's that whole pandemic thing and we don't want to, you know, die. Wear a mask people.)

Please review! I want to know your thoughts on this chapter and ideas about the future of Joshaya!

Kisses,

C