Agent Washington (completelysane) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-10-21 17:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, agent washington, yue katou |
Who: Wash and Katou
What: Wash has lost his voice
When: Same day as these texts
Where Wash's office at the Agency
Warnings: Low
Status: Complete!
It was one of those mornings in which Wash felt as though he hadn’t actually slept the night before. That wasn’t uncommon when he’d had a Dream and considering the Dreams he and Carolina had been having lately, Wash considered himself lucky to have woken up at all. In fact, that he wasn’t covered in his own blood and choking on a bullet hole in his throat was an added bonus. He’d had a brief sensation of not being able to breath, but it passed along with the last remnants of the Dream itself. It had still scared the hell out of him, though.
Because he and Carolina had been Dreaming so closely together (and considering the last time he’d been gravely injured in the Dreams he’d spent three weeks in a coma), the first thing Wash had wanted to do was call his sister and tell her he was alright. He quickly discovered his voice didn’t work. Apparently the life-threatening injury hadn’t crossed over, but the after affects had. As awful as that may have been, Wash preferred that over bleeding out or strangling because he had a hole in his throat. He texted Carolina that he was alright, just unable to speak, which she took about as well as one could expect.
Sophie seemed to know something was wrong and stayed extra close to him that morning. She knew the morning routine well enough by now that she didn’t need any verbal commands. When they got to his office at the agency building she opted to sit next to him rather than taking her normal position on her doggybed.
Katou never had been one for early mornings, except, briefly, when he’d still been dreaming and he thought an early morning run was a good way to both avoid the dreams and avoid other cravings, but that had passed pretty quickly.
Luckily with the Agency, sleeping in until noon and then rolling into work wasn’t too much of a problem, provided someone’s dreams hadn’t come around to fuck everything up, and so he wandered into work a little after one, coffee in one hand and doughnut in the other.
He didn’t really have too much to do yet, or at least he assumed not - he hadn’t quite made it to his office yet - so he decided to stop by Wash’s office instead. “Hey man,” he said, throwing himself down in one of the seats. “Hi Sophie,” he added.
Since Wash had started bringing her to work with him, Sophie had gotten to know his co-workers fairly well. When Katou entered the office, she scooched a little from where she was sitting, but didn’t stray far. Her tail wagged against the floor showed she was happy to see the other man.
Wash looked up from his computer and reflexively attempted to respond to Katou’s greeting with a flippant remark about waking up at the crack of noon. The strangled sounding wheeze that came out instead reminded him pretty quickly of his current problem. Wash gave a frustrated sigh and tapped two fingers to his throat to indicate that he couldn’t speak.
That wheeze… did not sound good, and Katou’s brows knitted together in something that could almost be considered concern. “Lost your voice?” he asked, and then realized how obvious that question was. “You sick? Or this some kinda dream thing?”
Wash nodded his head in response then paused. That wasn’t really an answer. He looked around his desk for a pad of paper. It took him a moment to find a spare one in one of the drawers on his desk. Then he wrote out in his block-letter style handwriting:
”Voice is gone. Got shot in the throat in the dreams.”
He held up the pad so Katou could read it.
Katou let out a low whistle, his eyes automatically travelling to Wash’s neck as if he would suddenly see a massive hole or a scar where the bullet had pierced him. “At least you don’t have an actual hole in your neck,” he said. “Though uh, I probably would’ve taken the day off of work if I couldn’t talk.”
There was a slight scar on both sides of Wash’s neck just above his collarbone, but other than that, there were no other signs of trauma. He nodded his head in agreement. Yes, he was very grateful that he hadn’t woken up with an actual hole through his neck. That would have been a very bad way to start the day for him, his roommate and sister.
In response to Katou’s second statement, Wash kind of shrugged and then wrote:
”Needed to come in. Would have gone crazy doing nothing at home. Emailed Natasha already this morning”
The idea of staying home hadn’t even crossed Wash’s mind. The way he saw it, if he wasn’t injured enough to have to go to the hospital, than he could go to work. Besides, sitting at home would have meant having to think about the dreams and what was happening to him in them.
Katou nodded. He could understand that feeling at least. For people like them, it was important to keep themselves busy when things got rough, before they did something they’d regret. Even if Katou’s prefered mode of being was Lazy, with a capital L.
“Things getting bad in them then?” he asked. Writing all of his thoughts down seemed like a pain in the ass, so yes or no questions probably would be easier. Even if Wash would still have to write shit down if he wanted to elaborate. His thoughts were brought to Uriel, from his dreams, who had cut out his own vocal chords and communicated first through his thoughts, and then through something the rebel army had created.
Wash considered the question. He’d been shot before, been close to death several times in the Dreams and somehow he’d always managed to somehow survive even when he hadn’t wanted to. He wondered when his luck would run out. Would this finally be it?
He let out a weary breath and shrugged his shoulders in response and wrote: ”Been better. Been worse.”
Katou tapped his foot impatiently as Wash wrote out what his feelings, both impatient and frustrated on Wash’s behalf. These dreams deserved a good kick in the ass, though it wasn’t likely that would ever happen. He was glad, he guessed, that it took less than a year for him to finish his dreams, reruns aside. If he was still dealing with their bullshit nearly four years later, he would have lost it by now.
“There’s gotta be an easier way for us to talk than you doing that,” he grumbled as he read Wash’s paper. “At this rate we might as well buy you one of ‘em chalkboards to hang around your neck.”
Wash deadpanned at him, though at this rate, Katou wasn’t going to be that far off. Back when his military injury had been given him migraines on a regular basis, he’d started using text-to-speech for his phone and computer as he found not attempting to read the screen actually helped keep the headaches at bay. Even though the migraines had mostly gone away by this point, he’d gotten so used to using the program that his texting skills had really gone to shit and he would never win any typing awards. Writing everything he wanted to say was going to get old very quickly.
Wash tapped his pen against the pad of paper for a moment before he came up with a possible solution. He quickly wrote: ”I could teach you some of the sign language we used in the marines when we were on stealth missions.”
“Well, it sure as shit beats waiting for you to write everything out,” he said, though he wasn’t entirely sure about learning sign language. He spoke Japanese and English fine, despite how wildly different the two languages were, but he hadn’t actually had to learn either of those languages outside of growing up with them, and he remembered his Spanish classes in high school not going particularly well. Granted, that had probably been because he’d skipped the majority of them. Anyway, military sign language couldn’t be that complex. “Yeah, let’s go for it.”
The next hour and a half was spent with Wash teaching Katou the basics of the hand signs he’d been taught as a marine. It wasn’t actual ASL and wouldn’t serve well for an indepth or even everyday conversation, but at least Wash would be able to get an idea or the basics of a thought across. Or so he hoped. When it looked as though the younger man’s eyes were starting to glaze over, he decided to call the lesson over.
It was fairly simple, which Katou appreciated. More so since he’d seen, if not these exact symbols, then something resembling some of them, in movies for his entire life. He thought, all in all, that with a bit of practice he’d have the hang of it.
Still, focusing on one thing for that long was enough and just when Katou thought he’d had enough, Wash ended it. Katou let out a sigh of relief. “Well, it ain’t perfect but it’ll beat the hell outta needing to read everything,” he said, making a face at the very prospect.
Wash nodded his agreement. He wasn’t sure how great a teacher he was, or how much Katou was going to retain, but he figured it was a good enough start. And where the hand signs themselves fell short, pantomime would probably fill in the rest. Maybe. He could carry a small notebook and pen with him, just in case. Though, he didn’t relish that idea. So this was going to be his life going forward. Fan-freaking-tastic.
He let out a noiseless sigh and set his chin in his palm. His eyes wandered over to the clock on his wall and his lips pulled down into a frown. It was after lunch. His eyes moved to Sophie, who had finally laid down next to his chair as he had taught Katou a few of the signs. She should probably be taken outside. Wash let out another breath and looked at Katou as he pointed at the dog and then towards the door of his office.
Katou followed Wash’s gaze to the clock, and then nodded. “Yeah, I could go for a smoke anyway,” he said, standing up and leaning back to stretch his back. Learning this shit was a pain in the ass and he could go with a good nic-fix. “You can have one too if you need.” He was pretty sure if he ever lost his voice, he’d need a cigarette or ten.
A cigarette sounded like a good idea, actually. His throat didn’t hurt any more, though he briefly wondered if smoking would make the problem worse. He quickly dismissed the idea. It wasn’t as though this was a normal injury. His voice would likely stay broken as long as Orange County wanted it to be. Which could be anywhere from a couple of days to forever. Hopefully not forever…hopefully this wasn’t a prelude to something else.
Sophie lifted her head off her paws when Katou got up from the chair. She was quickly on her feet when Wash stood up too. Though she didn’t stray from him, she started doing the Happy Dog Dance seeing him reach for her leash. Regardless if she needed to go to the bathroom or not, she loved going outside.
Katou pulled his pack out of his pocket as they made their way outside, silently offering one to Wash as they walked. This was going to take some adjusting to, especially if they ever went on a mission together, but at least they’d managed to figure something out. Even if Katou was pretty sure he’d already forgotten half the hand signals.