Remembering what he’d said about lip-reading, they faced Jasmyn and ensured they didn’t mumble, “Hello, it’s nice to meet you.”
Jasmyn smiled, revealing sharp canines, and signed back.
“She said, ‘You too’,” Dex translated as he grabbed his backpack and headed down the hallway.
Cya followed close behind him, glancing back to see Jasmyn trailing them. She was bigger than Cya thought she’d be, but they’d also spent little time around children. They didn’t have siblings, and their extended family had never been particularly close.
“Make yourself at home,” Dex said as he tossed his backpack onto a large, well-worn couch. “You hungry?”
“I got something from the cafeteria,” Cya said as they hovered at the end of the couch.
“Okay, I’m gonna make myself a plate before we start.”
As Dex puttered around the small kitchen, Cya surveyed the space. It was clean with carpet that had once been burgundy but now had faded to an almost copper tone. The paths most traveled carved through the room, the fibers thin and balding. A basket of unfolded laundry sat next to a scratched coffee table peppered with water rings and a slash or two of marker that couldn’t be removed.
Yellow-painted nails drifted over their forearm, and they jumped at the touch, making Jasmyn startle too. “Sorry,” they said, and she smiled sweetly, pointing at their armband.
Extending their arm, they allowed her a better view, and Jasmyn studied the gold and the amazonite, just as her brother had. She signed something at them, and Cya grimaced.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know…”
“She likes your jewelry,” Dex said from the kitchen as he dished some kind of rice casserole onto his plate. “She says that it looks pretty.”
“Oh, thank you,” Cya said to Dex, before shaking their head and turning to Jasmyn. “I mean, thank you.”
Jasmyn touched her fingertips to her forehead, hand flat, and dropped it forward in a shallow arc, mouthing “thank you” at them. She repeated the sign, then watched Cya expectantly.
They copied the sign, saying “thank you” aloud again, and she grinned, rubbing her wrists together.
“Yes?” Cya asked, jewelry clinking as they mimicked her.
Jasmyn nodded, then she frowned slightly and shook her head, fisting her hands and tapping her wrists twice.
“No.” They copied her, and her tail wagged.
“And now you know the basics,” Dex said, leaning on the counter and watching with a soft expression on his Mammylion face.
They tucked their hair behind their ears. “It’s something, I suppose.”
Gaze ping-ponging between them, Jasmyn scowled at Dex, hands flying through forms so fast they nearly blurred together. Dex clearly had no issue keeping up, though, because he responded almost as quickly as he retrieved his plate from the microwave, continuing to sign with one hand.
“Because not everything’s about you,” he finished aloud, adding extra emphasis to his signs.
Jasmyn flipped him her middle finger, and Cya snorted. They didn’t need to know HSL to understand that gesture.
“Brat,” he said, and she made a circle with her thumb and index finger, the other three fanning open. “Oh, I’m an asshole, huh?”
With a nod, she smirked at Cya, pointed at Dex with one hand, and used the other to make the sign again.
“Very informative,” they said, practicing the sign at Dex.
“Great. You two are ganging up on me. Love that for me,” he drawled.
Judging from her proud expression, Jasmyn read his lips just fine, and she laughed. Her tail brushed over Cya’s hip briefly before she turned and headed back to her room. When she returned, she had a book in her hand, and she curled up on the lounge chair adjacent to the couch and started to read.
Plate in hand, Dex collapsed onto the couch and gestured for Cya to sit as well. They set their purse on the ground and hugged their computer bag as they settled beside him. Tugging his books and laptop out of his backpack, he started setting up his study station between bites of his food.
“Okay, so”—he slapped his thighs—“where do you wanna start?”
