Signs

**

To put it mildly, Inu-Yasha was not happy. He'd been unhappy for a good hour now, and had been shouting nearly that long. Luckily for him, he was the only one that didn't have to hear it. His companions were starting to envy his recent bout of deafness.

"He sure shouts loudly for someone who can't even hear himself think," Miroku commented.

Kagome glared at him. "Miroku! That's an awful thing to say."

Miroku didn't much feel like being polite though. Inu-Yasha's complaining was giving him a headache. "I know you feel bad for causing this, but if you don't shut him up soon, we're all going to go deaf. Just tell him to sit already and get it over with."

"Think that'd work?" Sango asked. "He can't even hear the command."

"I'll have to try…" Kagome said. She did feel bad though. Surely Inu-Yasha was entitled to a little complaining. He did just lose his hearing, due to her carelessness. Still… "Sit!"

THUD!

"Owww!" Inu-Yasha grumbled as he pulled himself up from the ground. Though he hadn't heard the 'sit', the reaction it caused was proof enough that it'd been said.

He wanted to shout at Kagome and demand to know why she'd done that, but what was the point? He wouldn't be able to hear her reply. So he just glared at her. She glared back at him, putting her finger to her lips in a gesture for him to be quiet.

His eyes widened at the gesture, recognizing its meaning. "Hey, do that again!"

She blinked at him. He wanted her to do what again? "What, 'sit'?"

THUD!

"Not that!" he shouted at her, pulling himself back up and grumbling. Sure, he couldn't hear himself talk, but it felt good shouting anyway. To relieve tension, anyway.

"I think he means the gesture," Sango said, making the 'be quiet' gesture in demonstration. Inu-Yasha nodded eagerly.

"Like sign language!" Kagome cried, excited.

She dug through her pack for a moment, pulling out a notebook and pencil. She made a gesture to imitate twitching dog ears, and wrote 'dog' on the paper, showing it to Inu-Yasha. He blinked at her, copying the gesture. Kagome nodded, her next gesture imitating someone aggressively showing their claws, writing 'demon' on the paper. Inu-Yasha copied that sign too.

Then Kagome did both signs together, 'dog' and 'demon'. On the paper she wrote, "Inu-Yasha." Inu-Yasha copied the gestures, then pointed to himself, looking at her questioningly. Kagome nodded. Grinning, Inu-Yasha repeated the two signs together. They'd just made hand gestures to represent his name.

Inu-Yasha grabbed the notebook from her, inventing new signs and explaining them to his companions in the same way, gesturing then writing down the meaning. After inventing the hand signs for 'annoying' and 'human', he combined the two signs and wrote, 'Kagome' on the paper.

Kagome glared at him, making a sign like something falling hard onto the ground. "Sit!"

THUD!

Inu-Yasha glared at her, but Kagome was pleased to see he understood the meaning of that hand signal just fine.

**

Kagome was exhausted. And her hands were starting to hurt. Since they'd started inventing hand signals with which to talk with Inu-Yasha, he'd become obsessed. It seemed he wouldn't be satisfied until he could "talk" fluently again.

He'd created hundreds of hand signs already, insisting on Kagome at least learning every single one. Miroku and Sango learned some of them, enough to at least understand what Inu-Yasha was trying to express, but after that they'd just gotten tired of the constant gesturing.  

Kagome had finally taken a short trip through the well and back again, bringing with her a few sign language dictionaries, which Inu-Yasha had taken to memorize. His perseverance may have been born of the desperate need to communicate, but it was admiral, all the same. Kagome just wished she didn't have to be so involved in it. Inu-Yasha had made her his official translator. And even using hand signs, Inu-Yasha talked fast.

When Inu-Yasha had first lost his hearing, everyone had been hoping the condition would be temporary. But days passed, and he didn't seem to get any better. It was starting to look like Inu-Yasha might be deaf permanently.