rakasha

via http://ift.tt/2uiTIPR:
(AN: I know very little of deaf/mute culture or of sign language; it is not my intent to misrepresent/insult anyone, and I earnestly apologize if I have accidentally done so)

It’s not sentiment. It’s practicality. Law glares at the flash cards in his hands, eyes flickering to one side as he double-checks the battered book he had ‘borrowed’ from the local library.

The gestures are unexpectedly hard - not in terms of physical strain, but in their sheer unfamiliarity. Law has to think about each movement, and that translates into hesitation and an inadvertent clumsiness - he doesn’t like it. It’s a little like learning to write - or so he tells himself; building up muscle memory is the hardest part of the entire endeavor, and Law doesn’t particularly care for it.

Also, there’s the fact that Corazon actually doesn’t know sign language. Of all the sheer idiocy… Yes, he can communicate by writing, but what if he’s in a position where he doesn’t have access to ink and paper? What if he’s in the middle of a fight, and doesn’t have time to write anything down?

Law actually has to teach the idiot what gesture means what - thus, the flash cards. And the homework. And the pop quizzes when Law confronts the older man to see if Corazon actually has done his assignments. (He usually hasn’t).

It’s enough to make Law want to stab him. Again.

***

Ten years down the line, and Law’s fingers fall into the old shapes and patterns with all the grace of long familiarity. Ten years down the line, and he gestures, soundless, a pattern of commands that his enemies stare at, uncomprehending, even as the Heart Pirates rally to his instructions.

Ten years down the line, and he still remembers the first thing Cora-san ever Signed to him, large, fumbling fingers finally curling into comprehensible shapes.

I love you.