Miguel had been deaf for a little while now, long enough that his voice was starting to lose any inflections when he spoke, which was not all that often. Not that he spoke to all that many people to begin with, other than Lyla. Long enough to be bothered by just how silent everything was, and to have one or two private freakouts where he'd cocooned himself up in the back corner of his own lab for a few hours when he couldn't quite hold things together - what if this was permanent, what if someone/something was behind him, what if something was going to happen and him being able to hear whatever was going to happen meant it could be stopped and now he couldn't hear it to stop it and the station, this new and much better station, would end up like the one he was used to... Relaxing clearly wasn't something he was used to doing, especially at the moment.
And yet, spending time with Maria was relaxing. They were just two nerds, geeking out a little about their work, right? And it felt great, like something he'd have done back in school with Xina. So he smiled and leaned in a little to look closer at the vibrating earrings. "That's pretty clever," he signed back, "but I don't think they'd suit me. They might get lost in all my hair." His hair was getting longer and curlier again, and there was his beard as well.