/So, I definitely thought I had uploaded this chapter already. I was editing the next chapter and preparing to post it when I found that y'all hadn't read this beauty yet. We get to meet a new character! Yay! I had a lot of fun writing each character in this one, so please leave me a review and share your thoughts!
Naomi woke with bright beams of sun illuminating her face. Someone had opened her blinds during the night. She rolled over in bed to look at the time, but a pair of headphones blocked the clock. She doesn't own headphones. She's deaf. Moving them over to see the time, she noticed a post-it note attached to a tablet underneath.
"Put them on, press on, type the name of the song into the tablet. -TS" Underneath, scribbled as if he underwent a great internal debate before writing it, read, "Sorry about the barn doors. And dinner."
Naomi hesitantly obeyed the instructions. She knew that she wouldn't be able to hear the music. What were they going to do? She hesitated before typing, "This Is America."
In his garage, FRIDAY alerted Tony that Naomi had received her gift and made her first search.
"First song, what'd she pick?"
"'This Is America', sir." Tony looked up from his work, amused.
Back in Naomi's room, the tablet had fallen onto her bed, and she stood with her mouth gaping open. She could feel the vibrations, yet she could tell that the music wasn't playing loudly. The vibrations were more delicate, more intentional, and more detailed. Rather than just hearing the underlying base, each note would buzz. When the voice began, it was only on her right side- the music that was playing beforehand had switched to her left side.
Naomi felt slightly ridiculous that Childish Gambino had managed to make her cry, but her awe outweighed her embarrassment.
As Tony continued to work hours later, he checked in on Naomi again. "FRIDAY, is the kid still in her room?"
"Tablet usage indicates she has been listening to music and has not left her room. Should I disconnect her music access and alert her to exit her room for the day?"
"You know, you'd think as an A.I. you'd be more in tune with people's feelings. No, definitely do not do that. Just send her a message reminding her to eat."
Late in the afternoon when Naomi finally emerged from her room she had only one person in mind. Even if it was awkward, her parents had raised her right. Tony did something really amazing for her and she was going to thank him, no matter how difficult it would be. The elevator ride seemed to take ages, but it could be because there were about a gazillion floors in the building. When the elevator doors finally opened, Naomi began to swiftly exit before her adrenaline died down and she realized how nervous she actually was. Before she took her second step to cross the threshold, Naomi collided with a boy about her age who was turning into the elevator distractedly with his hands full of spare parts.
As the mess of wires and metal fell to the ground, he grabbed her shoulders to prevent them from tumbling on top of each other and began rambling what Naomi assumed were apologies. All Naomi could do was stare at him with wide, amused eyes. Tony didn't have kids (that she knew of), and the entire complex was pretty high security- especially Tony's workshop. The kid in front of her continued to talk, looking at her and Tony and back at her.
Tony's head stayed in his hands out of embarrassment. "Hey Pete," he yelled. The teen stopped talking just long enough for him to say, "She's deaf, genius."
This time it was Peter's turn for his eyes to grow double their size. "Oh, um." He waved awkwardly.
Naomi laughed, exhaling out her nose and waved back.
Peter rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, unsure of what to do next. He suddenly jumped, and scrambled to retrieve his cracked phone from his pocket. Going into his Notes app, he pressed the microphone/dictation button and spoke rapidly into his phone. He flipped his phone around for Naomi to see. She couldn't hold back her laugh, and a quiet grunting noise escaped her. At her confused expression, he returned the phone to face him and read what it said. "Hello peanut parking car never met new main," with a loading sign at the back end, still attempting to process the splurge of words he had asked it to translate. Peter deleted his failed message and tried again, more deliberately. He slowly spoke, "Hi (period) My name is Peter (period) What is your name (question mark)."
Squinting through the cracks, Naomi smiled at his formality. She typed back, "Hey Peter, I'm Naomi. Who are you?"
Attempting to hide his unsureness, he replied, "Peter (question mark)" Before he could show Naomi, Tony laughed at what he heard from the one-sided conversation.
"Why are you repeating your name, dork? It's not like she misheard you," he said from across the room.
"No!" Peter rolled his eyes as he shouted to Tony. "She asked who I am; what else do I say?"
"Context dude. You are a teenage boy, in the most secure facility in New York, working next to Iron Man. Those pieces don't exactly make total sense." Naomi watched, growing impatient at being excluded from the conversation.
Peter was still very lost. "So...the internship?"
"NO, not 'ThE iNtErNsHiP'! Remember your whole Spidey-boy thing? Yeah, that." I'm not getting any more kids; two is good; two is enough.
"Oh, right, right." He spoke into his phone again. It read, "Mr. stark tracked me down because I'm spider man and so I'm kinda an avenger now and he lets me work on stuff here after school." Stark squinted his eyes at the Avengers comment, but decided to let it slide. Peter looked at Naomi, unsure how the random girl would take it.
"Cool," she replied nonchalantly. "What year are you?"
"Junior. You?"
"I'd be the same. Working on anything good?"
"Um I just finished developing a dual extruding web shooter so I can use a faster dissolving web formula for swinging so the city gets less mad at me but I can still use the slower one on the bad guys." Usually the only person interested in anything tech related was Ned, but Naomi seemed to be genuinely interested, which was nice.
"Why didn't you format it to have the single extruder with the cartridges- I assume the webbing's in cartridges, adjacent on a switching mechanism so that you only have to have one nozzle to deal with per wrist?"
As Peter was stuck between impressed and outwitted, Tony had to restrain himself from messaging T'Challa immediately to get their three teens in a lab together.
Naomi never made it to thanking Tony, but he knew that was why she had come down to his lab, and he appreciated the sentiment. After she left, Tony said to Peter, "What happened to your Spidey Sense? Didn't you feel her behind you?"
"I guess I was distracted. No one else is ever down here either, so yeah."
"But why didn't you catch the junk you dropped afterwards? Everything good?" Even without his web shooters, Peter should've been able to stop most of the stuff he took from hitting the ground.
In slight embarrassment, Peter replied, "I caught her, though."
Resisting the urge to tease him further, Tony instructed, "You're staying tonight; I'll let Aunt May know. I heard that Clint is planning something."
Though confused, Peter had learned that making excuses regarding school wouldn't do anything. Besides, he enjoyed staying with the Avengers, even if there was a stranger there. If he was honest with himself, he really didn't mind Naomi being there.
Each Avenger sprang from their quarters clad in various t-shirts and pajamas as the loud alarm sounded throughout the compound. Clint, holding a small remote, stood calmly by the couch. Once Tony brought up the rear- strolling nonchalantly next to a frightened looking Peter, Clint began to speak.
"Thank you for joining me. We need to talk."
Sam interrupted him, and for the first time, the others noticed his shirt, which was rapidly soaking in water from his body. "Hold up, you mean to tell me that you pushed the 'Only For Emergencies- Avengers Assemble' button, causing me to leap out from under the impressively high water pressure of my shower, to have a family chit chat? Hell nah, I'll see y'all in the morning." Turning to leave, he mumbled, "Last time I pressed the button unnecessarily, Tony fined my bank account for the 'unnecessary and loud use of his tech'." Tony smirked at the fond memory.
"I want to teach you guys some signs so that you can communicate more with her."
Sam froze in the doorway.
"I made a powerpoint," Clint quietly added.
Peter piped up from the back, "Did you use the cool transitions I showed you?"
"Yeah, kid."
Peter smiled. "Cool."
"Well, I'm not gonna be the only douchebag here, so sign on Professor Clint," Sam replied in true Sam fashion as he rejoined the group.
*Click*
"First signs, 'Hello' and 'Goodbye'." He signed, "Hello" multiple times with the others copying and repeated with "Goodbye".
*Click*
"Next, 'What's Up' and 'How are you?'."
The process went on for another hour. By the end, the Avengers knew the alphabet, 'Yes', 'No', 'Please', 'Thank you', 'Good', 'Bad', and several other signs that Clint thought would be the most helpful to know off the bat. They even learned a few phrases like 'How do I sign _?' and 'See you later'.
The favorite by far, however, was when they learned their name signs and the reasons behind them. Peter turned the shade of his suit when he found out his name sign was based on the word CLUMSY.
Tony remained the only Avenger without a name sign, which went unspoken of, but not unnoticed.
