Leon Orcot (under_arrest) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-12-08 15:00:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, clint barton (hawkeye), leon orcot |
Who: Leon, Clint and NPC!Chris
What: Halloween Costume shopping
Where: The mall
When: Octoberish
Rating/Warning: Low/none
Status: Complete
Leon’s life had changed a lot since Chris had been dropped into it. For one, his job no longer consisted of just work, drinking, and the occasional poker game with other cops. No, now he did things that were more child oriented. Like buying Halloween costumes. Leon hadn’t dressed up for Halloween since his mother had died six years earlier. And now he was trying to figure out what kind of costume to pick up for the kid.
He’d also been learning ASL so he could better communicate with his brother. He never had been good with languages, but luckily all he had to do was know how to understand it. His brother was mute, not deaf, which meant that Leon could talk to him like normal. A small saving grace. Small, especially since Chris seemed to be learning ASL a whole lot quicker than Leon was.
Can I be a cowboy? Chris was signing at Leon. With the cowboy boots and cowboy hats and a gun like yours?
Leon stared for a moment, before deciding that yeah, the only thing he’d gotten out of that whole sentence was ‘hat.’ “Sorry bud, you’re going to have to slow down,” he said, frowning in concentration. Unfortunately, even when Chris repeated himself slower, Leon still couldn’t understand him. He was asking if he could be a something that had boots and hats and another word that Leon couldn’t understand but was almost positive meant ‘gun.’
Leon scratched the side of his head. “You uh, want to be a police officer?” he ventured hesitantly, mildly flattered but confused about where the boots and hat came in.
Simone, for some reason, really trusted Clint with her kids. So while she waited for the repair man to get his ass up to her apartment and fix the A/C unit like he’d been meant to for weeks now, Clint was taking her two boys out to pick out their costumes -thankfully they knew what they wanted, apparently this year it was Rick and Morty, whoever they were.
But the costume store didn’t seem to be too great by way of ‘portal gun’ props, which meant the kids were likely just assing around. And Clint should get them out of there, but his attention was caught by the whirlwind hand gestures from a kid about their age. They were too precise to just be random, and the way the kid needed to repeat them and slow them for the guy he was with just proved that.
“Cowboy.” Clint said, looking forward for a second before turning to the blond. “This,” demonstrating the sign that had been repeated several times now, “means cowboy.” Or a very loose interpretation of it. “He wants to be a cowboy.”
Leon let out a sigh of relief when the man showed up. He might have asked Chris to spell it out for him, but since Chris was only six, his spelling choices could be … interesting at times. Though, he probably could have handled ‘cowboy.’ But Chris smiled and nodded at the man in response, so that was an option that evidently didn’t need to be used right now. Though, he was a little disappointed that Chris hadn’t wanted to be a policeman after all.
“Thanks, man,” Leon said, copying the man’s gesture a couple of times as a way to memorize it. “Glad you showed up. Not a lot of people know ASL so it’s not like I could have asked around. I’m Leon, by the way.”
ASL wasn’t commonly taught, which was a shame really. Clint hadn’t needed it until he was older and then learning it had been a frustrating struggle. It was one time that the dreams had come in handy, since he had needed it younger then thanks to an abusive father. It helped streamline his sometimes shaky signing. “No worries.”
It said a lot that Leon was trying. “Clint.” He gave a wave. “You’d have got there. Even if he had to drag you to the cowboy hats and show you.” He wasn’t sure if the kid was deaf, could lip read or what, so he just signed to let him know his name, introducing himself to the kid with ASL.
I’m Chris, Chris signed. Leon was glad; it was one of the few times when he didn’t have to introduce Chris for him, and he could tell that Chris was happy too. Are you deaf?
A light blush came to Leon’s cheeks. Of course that was the logical question to ask someone who knew sign language.
Yeah, mostly. It wasn’t a big deal going through it all, the story and the history. “I lost a lot of my hearing in an explosion, while I was in the army.” Because it seemed like Leon wasn’t just as there with reading ASL, Clint opted for the dual process of speaking and signing. “I had to learn ASL for a while until some of it healed.”
He was lucky that he could lip read, that he wasn’t just reliant on ASL, otherwise he might’ve stayed at the VA longer, might’ve not picked up Lucky and gone roaming and ended up here. He didn’t know if that was good or bad considering it was Orange County that cost him the rest of his hearing. “But I can lip read pretty well.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. But good on your for serving.” Leon said, clumsily signing along, though he he had to spell out the last sentence. “Chris isn’t deaf, though he doesn’t speak.” He wouldn’t say can’t, because, as far as the doctors knew, the car accident that had left Chris mute hadn’t damaged his vocal cords or his brain. At least, not in any way that wasn’t purely psychological. “You doing some Halloween shopping too? If you wanted, you could join us.”
“Yeah,” it meant that while the kid was signing for others to understand him, he didn’t rely on other people learning sign language to know what they were saying. A little less frustrating for the kid but not ideal at all. “I have a pair of tykes around here somewhere. Letting my neighbour get her place decorated, babysitting is a lot more full on than I expected.”
Although Simone’s boys weren’t too bad, they were just really energetic. Clint knew they were running around finding the best props to build costumes around, but he wasn’t terribly concerned with them getting lost. “Any tips on what they could dress up as?” Because no one had made a choice yet.
“Tell me about it,” Leon said, and then had to force himself to remember that he wasn’t babysitting Chris. The kid would be living with him until he was eighteen, and if he was anything like kids these days probably much later. He loved his little brother, but he really hadn’t seen himself saddled with a kid so soon.
“I haven’t really done this whole dressing up things in years,” he admitted. “Chris?”
Dinosaurs? Chris asked, frowning thoughtfully. Or pirates! Pirates are cool. Dinosaur pirates?
“Dinosaur pirates? Hey, if they can get an eyepatch on a dinosaur suit.” It was out there, but in all honesty, it was like Clint had ideas at all for things. He’d never really dressed up as a kid, here or dreams wise. “That could work.”
Trevor took that moment to waddling into Clint’s leg, the toddler looking up with his big brown eyes, “Hey dude, where’s Charlie?” Because Charlie was meant to keep an eye on his little brother. “Think there’s a dino costume small enough for you?” Picking up the three year old, catching sight of the seven year old he was also watching, Clint at least knew they were both calming somewhat in the face of a massive store to search. “What’cha think, Chris, little pirate t-rex?”
Leon was glad Clint knew sign language, because he hadn’t been able to follow much of what Chris had signed. At the mention of dinosaur pirate, he snorted. “You’re way more creative than I am, kiddo,” he said, signing kids at Clint with an amused look.
Chris nodded. Definitely! Don’t forget the pirate hat.