N.A:
fic has been written with respect for the non hearing and hard of hearing community, so if I got anything wrong on that regard, please leat me know.
2. I'll be using the next cues to indicate if someone is signing or not, just to make it easier to write and read:
a) When someone's speaking and signing at the same time, the text will be written this way: "[ text]"
b) When someone's signing , the text will be written this way: [ text]
Thanks for reading!
PROLOGUE
"I'm a leaf"
He breathed in deeply, calm blossoming from his very core.
The feeling of the soft rug beneath his body and under his fingertips only enhanced the serenity of the "here and now" that meditation helped to build within himself. There, isolated from any other exterior calling.
Dougie wasn't afraid to close his eyes, to rely only on touch and smell as an anchor to his surroundings… After all… at the very moment he closed his eyes, his mind was occupied by images as vivid as those in the present world, because his absolute lack of hearing had meant that images and movements had built his thoughts since his very first day…
"I'm a leaf", his mind repeated.
The dappled light of his surroundings moved along with him, in a soft dance of forest colors and creatures.
He could see himself, bright and green, smooth and quiet, as he descended, with radical acceptance and serenity.
"...Falling peacefully from my tree…joyously at the mercy of the breeze, cocooned in the presence of the air surrounding me…."
He breathed in deeply, and exhaled with a smile.
"Breathe in existence, exhale out in acceptance".
Suddenly the air felt…so wonderfully beautiful…as if he had stepped into a whimsical tropical jungle… He couldn't help the grin that lit up his features, while he kept his eyes closed.
…Oh! He would gladly be carried by this lovely breeze til the stream below! He could be carried away for miles and miles if this was the wind that was meant to guide his path!
It smelled of wild flowers and summer fruits, of sweet blossoms, sea and mystery, it was…
"…Bingo…"
She wasn't very good at meditation, or at least not as good as Dougie, yet she couldn't help but join the cavapoo when he suggested they try it out together… The heeler immediately felt at peace once she stepped into the room with him, the clear morning light filled the place with warm brilliance, while the incense stick he had burning on the windowsill released a gentle ribbon of fragrant smoke up and up into the air.
….But the thing is… she was distracted.
She had been lying in the rug beside him, trying to let herself flow with the relaxing music he had played on his phone, just for her. She had tried to focus on her own breathing but… it didn't work, and it wouldn't work with Dougie's calm, focused breathing beside her… so she had turned on her side to look at him.
The young woman breathed in deeply, now this was meditation!
Her eyes couldn't have enough of his, oh! so, very handsome face, and his smile…In this way, laying beside him, she could even feast looking at the mischievous dimples in his cheeks, where his fur was very short…and then the rest of him, his luscious coat and his rich warm color….
Bingo repressed a sigh.
How come they had developed this …thing…between them? Maybe something ought to be done about it…
The gentle music beckoned her to him, the rhythm of the drum resounding on her ears along her heart, beating so strongly that she could feel its thump against her chest.
She leaned closer and closer to him, the red heeler could see his mouth twitching a bit…as if smiling about something in his mind, while in deep contemplation of the wonders of the inner self.
"What if I just kiss him?" her conscience wondered.
Her snout hovered over his… their breaths mingled until her lips itched with need… And Ohhh! it felt so right! Just the mere fact of beings so close to him sending shivers down her whole spine, making her heart race wildly and her tail wag with anticipation.
"It would be so easy right now…", temptation whispered as she closed her eyes, inhaling his scent, imagining how it would be to feel the beating of his heart under her paw, how lush and warm it would be to be buried in his embrace.
How would he react? Would he go along with her kiss? Imagination flared as she pictured him nuzzling her with love written in his expressive eyes.
Oh, now her tail was wagging!
She smiled and went to him…letting herself finally flow (was this the moving meditation he had talked to her about not too long ago?).
Bingo opened her eyes when her nose was about to touch his nose, and then she encountered Dougie's dark eyes, wide open while a mischievous smile adorned his mouth.
She gasped and rocoiled to her place, as fast as a child about to be caught doing mischief, and sat beside him. The heeler smiled as if no romantic thoughts had ever crossed her mind.
He sat as well, and turned to look at her. He tried to ignore her flushed cheeks and her paw over her heart…. and also the flutter of his own soul…Because it couldn't be, she doesn't mean it, does she? No, there's nothing certain if she doesn't tell…
[Everything ok, Bingo?], he asked with a smile.
"[Yeah.. yeah, All it's fine!]", she replied.
She could swear he fully knew what she had been about to do, after all…. besides Lila, he was her best friend, he knew her well… so… why didn't he say anything?
Bingo sighed… it was beautiful and painful at the same time… how come they have developed this… thing?