It’s an accident.
Well, as much as searching out an ableist asshole and beating him to a pulp can be an accident.
So, not an accident at all really.
But he tells Makkari it was an accident. She doesn’t believe him of course, that would be too easy. She just raises an eyebrow and shakes her head and she looks so Damn disappointed that he begins questioning if he actually made the right decision.
Probably not. But he can’t exactly bring himself to regret it. Even if Makkari is upset with him now.
24 hours earlier
“It’s not funny.” She signs, but there’s a smile tugging at her lips and it's getting harder to hold in his own laughter at the sight of her indignation.
“It’s a little funny.” He signs back, smiling fully now. Her braids are a mess on her head and she’s got mismatched shoes on and he’s right, okay? It really is a little bit funny.
Makkari, always so punctual, always in a rush, always early, is ten minutes later for class and looks like she got dressed in the dark. Besides her mismatched shoes she’s wearing a pair of sweatpants, which she wouldn’t be caught dead leaving her apartment in, and a too large hoodie.
He’s feeling a bit smug about the fact that it’s his hoodie, one he left there by accident a few weeks ago. Not that she’s seemed to notice yet.
No, for once Makkari is completely unprepared, and he does know it’s wrong to be so amused by it but he likes it when she’s caught off guard. He likes it when she looks like the Makkari he sees late at night when they’re pulling all-nighters to study or watching movies, all relaxed and casual.
Except she’s not really relaxed right now, she’s frantically signing at him so fast he can barely keep up, and slowly the humour starts to fade. He stops her frantic hands and holds her wrists for a second, watching her take in a sharp breath and then relax instantly.
Once she’s fully calm he slides his notebook over, for once filled with notes. The look of pure relief and gratefulness on her face is worth every excruciating second of sitting in this classroom and actually paying enough attention to take the notes.
She steals his pen and he settles back into calmly translating for her, letting the words wash through him meaninglessly while she takes notes. He’ll never understand why she wants to study physics, none of it makes sense to him, but he’s happy to continue translating for her as look as she requests the services. She’s not-so-secretly his favourite person to do this for.
Not-so-secret because literally everyone knows except for her that she’s the only one he translates for anymore. The last time someone try to sign up for a shift with her, Thena just casually erased their name and told them not to bother. Druig continued to act like he wasn’t simultaneously blushing and feeling smug the rest of the day.
But Makkari has no clue how much he likes her and now that they’re actual friends there’s no way he’s going to tell her. So he keeps picking up her translator needs and she keeps making fun of him for being a mess.
Except for today, of course, where she’s the mess for the first time ever. By the time class ends he’s burning with questions, but she has some for the professor so he has to wait.
He translates their conversation easily enough, and passes on her apologies for being late, and then finally they’re leaving the classroom. Just as he’s about to start asking her what could have possibly ruined her morning this bad, he hears it.
“I just don’t know why they let people like that in. They have colleges for the deaf, shouldn’t she just go there so we don’t have to deal with seeing them waving their hands all the time? It’s so distracting.”
Druig freezes, turning slowly to face the guy who's talking to his friend. He obviously has no idea they’ve walked out of the classroom, but his friend sees them and goes pale, then abruptly walks away.
The guy turns like he knows he’s done something wrong, but instead of looking apologetic towards Makkari he turns to Druig and shrugs.
“Sorry, I’m not trying to be a dick.” He shrugs and then he keeps fucking going. “I mean it must the exhausting for you having to do this, at least part of you must wish you didn’t have to, right?”
“No.” Druig says, and his voice comes out so stiff and angry he’s not sure how the guy doesn’t flinch. He just flicks his eyes over him and then to Makkari, who’s a few paces ahead, head stuck in her notebook completely oblivious.
“It’s because you want to fuck her, isn’t it?” The guy nods like suddenly everything makes sense. “I get it dude, if it weren’t for the deaf thing I’d probably be into her too.”
And that really is the last straw, Druig thinks, feeling anger bubble over every other emotion. He’s taking a step forward, already settling into a fighting stance, when Makkari suddenly turns around and looks for him. She rolls her eyes and grabs his arm, pulling him to her while she points to some of the notes he took for her.
“What does this even say?” She signs, pointing to a spot of nearly illegible handwriting. Then another. And another. She’s not even really looking at him for an answer, just gesturing at his poor handwriting. It’s like a bucket of cool water being dumped over him, watching the little furrow in her brow and realising that she really hadn’t been paying any attention to the conversation he’d been having.
He looks up again but he already knows the guy is gone. Sure enough the hallway is empty but for the two of them, and with Makkari’s presence his anger fades fast.
Still, there’s a lot of it burning in the back of his head for the rest of the day. He can’t help thinking how many people feel like that, how many people on campus are secretly just ableist assholes. Does he know more of them? Are they in all of Makkari’s classes?
Does Makkari know they feel this way?
It’s that question that eats him up inside. The idea of her, giant ball of sunshine that she is, knowing that there’s people on campus who think that just because she’s different she shouldn’t be at the school. He can’t stand the idea of her someday finding that out either.
So maybe that’s why he does it, when he’s out with his roommates Phastos and Kingo that night. Or maybe it’s because Ikaris is there and being an asshole and trying to push Druig to pick a career path other than psychology. Trying to convince him to join the family business. Or maybe it’s just the residual anger from the guys words early that day.
It doesn’t matter the reason what matters is he’s four beers in when the guy suddenly shows up at the bar. Druig’s not sure how long he’s been there, because he’s a little tipsy and it’s not like he watches the door, but when he finally notices him the guy is with only one other friend drinking a beer.
Druig watches them drink one, then two, then three beers before the guy finally starts leaving the bar. Druig hasn’t left his spot at a table in the corner since the guy arrived but as soon as he starts heading to the door Druig follows. He ignores Phastos calling after him and steps out into the cool night air. The guy is only a few steps ahead of him.
“Hey.” Druig calls out, and forces a smile on his face when the guy turns. He obviously doesn’t recognise Druig, drunk and probably stupid to begin with. So he just gives him a confused smile and lets a Druig catch up. “You heading to campus?”
“Yeah brO, you?” The guy asks, words slurring a little. Druig nods and the guy gives him a grin, then narrows his eyes. “You look familiar, do I know you?”
“Yeah we met earlier today, outside Dr. Sersei’s physics class.” Druig says, keeping his tone light.
“Oh shit! You’re the guy who wants to fuck the deaf girl!” The guy grins like he’s solved some great puzzle and Druig is really fighting to keep his expression from going dark. But then the guy chooses that moment to clap him on the shoulder and say, “Hey, you know when you’re done with her you could tell her I’d be down to be next.”
Druig thinks the guy might be trying to wink at home but truthfully all he sees is red. One minute they’re on the street and the next he’s got the guy down an alleyway and he’s punching him hard in the face. Blood starts gushing after a couple more hits, and then someone is pulling Druig off him, literally carrying him away.
He doesn’t fight it, lets himself be dragged off, but he shouts over the noise of other people in the alleyway, and when the guy flinches he knows he’s heard him.
“I hear you spouting that ableist, sexist shit again and this will feel like a fucking hug compared to what I’ll do next!”
“Jesus, Druig, what did he do to you.” It’s Phastos carrying him then, until they’re half a block away and he must feel they’re far enough that it's safe to put him down.
He stumbles a little bit when Phastos releases him, and leans his aching hand against the wall of the building to steady himself. When he finally looks up Phastos is glaring down at a phone, rapidly texting, and Druig belatedly realises it’s his phone he’s using.
“Phastos,” he says warningly, “why are you texting on my phone.”
“I don’t have Makkari’s number.” He says, like that answers everything. Druig feels like a stone drops from his throat to the bottom of his stomach as he realises what is happening. He lunges for the phone but Phastos just neatly sidesteps him, and then locks it and hands it back.
“What did you do.” Druig says, scrambling to try and unlock the phone. His hands are starting to really ache, but he ignores it in favour of opening his messaging app.
Druig: It’s Phastos. Pretty sure your boyfriend just got in a fight over your honor or some shit. We’re outside Eternals and he’s kinda drunk. Come get him?
Kari: On my way.
“You’re an ass.” Druig says, and leans his back against the wall, letting his head fall back and scrape on the brick a bit.
“And you’re an idiot.” Phastos says, which Druig really has no argument for. He is an idiot.
It only takes Makkari about ten minutes to get to them, pulling up in her little BMW and honking. It tugs a smile at his face that she does that even though he’s looking right at her. She’s still wearing his hoodie. He climbs into her car slowly and gives Phastos the finger as he closes the door. Phastos just throws his hands in the air and turns back to the bar.
Makkari doesn’t even look at him until she’s parking, and then the only thing she does is ask him, “My apartment or yours?”
“Yours.” He signs and she nods, getting out of the car and immediately walking away. It takes him a second to actually get out of the car, and then he has to jog to catch up with her. Each step that she doesn’t turn to talk to him feels like another reminder of what an idiot he is.
By the time she unlocks her apartment and ushers him inside he’s feeling righteously pitiful and about ready to beg forgiveness. So he’s surprised when she leads him to the bathroom and then pulls a first aid kit from under the sink.
“Sit.” She points to the toilet and he sits atop the closed lid. He’s feeling a little off balance at this point, and when she takes his aching hand gently in hers he swears he looses sense of gravity for a second.
She eyes his hand thoughtfully, before opening the first aid kit and beginning to clean the jagged cut across his knuckles. She wraps them carefully, almost like she’s afraid if she treats him indelicately that he’ll hurt himself more. In the end he has to slowly tug his hand out from hers so he can try to sign.
“It was an accident.” He tries, but she just raises an eyebrow and shakes her head. There’s this look on her face he’s never seen before and slowly he realises that it’s disappointment. Makkari is disappointed in him.
It hurts worse than anything else.
“I’m sorry.” He signs, but she just gives a soundless sigh and waves for him to follow her. He does, like a puppy to its parent, and tries not to let his expression show his confusion when she leads him to her bedroom.
She has a nice room, even if it’s a little cluttered. Makkari has some many things that it’s difficult sometimes to figure out where anything but the bed is, but it doesn’t matter this time. She leads him to the bed and tells him to sit, and he knows better than to argue.
“Why did you do it?” She asks, leaning against the desk opposite him. He wants to lie to her, wants to tell her he was just being drunk and stupid, but he’s never lied to Makkari before and he doesn’t really want to start now.
“He said something stupid and he deserved it.” It’s not enough but he can’t bring himself to repeat what the guy said. Makkari just shakes her head in confusion.
“Said what? What could have possibly made you want to fight?” And he knows he’s not getting out of this one, not unless he wants to ruin their friendship. And he can’t do that, can’t deal with hurting Makkari with lies. So he tells the truth.
“It was about you.” He signs and hopes she’ll interrupt him. She doesn’t of course, just waits him out until he finally gives in. “He was telling someone he doesn’t think deaf students should be at this school.”
“And?” She signs and he lets out a soft curse under his breath. Of course she knows him too well to think that’s it.
“And he may have insinuated that he wanted to use you for sex.” He signs it quickly, and is almost worried she’ll ask him to repeat it, but she doesn’t. She just raises both her eyebrows and leans back, thinking.
“So you,” She signs after a few minutes, turning to look at him with a strange expression in her eyes. “You fought this guy just because he said something rude about me?”
“Of course.” He signed back, then shrugged. What else could he have done? Makkari looks at him blankly for another moment before taking a small step closer to him, and then another.
“Why?” She asks, and this is when Druig realises he is so much drunker than he thought. Because instead of telling her it’s because they’re friends or because he’s a feminist or any rational reason he says…
“Because I’m in love with you.”
They both freeze as soon as his hands stop. Druig with horror, because he knows he’s just absolutely completely and irrevocably ruined their friendship, and Makkari with shock, evident in the pop of her mouth as her jaw drops.
He can’t help the way his muscles lock in place when she takes a sudden step forward half a second later, and then a small jump when she suddenly launches herself at him. They fall back on the bed with an “oof” from Druig that’s quickly cut off when her mouth lands on his.
He’s so surprised he doesn’t realise what’s happening at first. She has to slap his shoulder for him to get with the program. But once he does, once he finally moves, it’s like a dam breaks.
He moves them without a thought, rolling them so she’s underneath him. She arches up into him beautifully and then they’re really kissing, deep and slow and in a way that is so much better than anything he’s ever dreamed of.
She breaks away after what feels like both seconds and hours, and the sound of her gasping for air has him grinning. She pulls on a lock of his hair and gives him a smile back, before it slowly drops and she pulls her hands towards her to sign.
“I can fight my own battles.” She says, and he instantly feels guilty. He sits up, but can’t help pulling her with him so they’re pressed together, forehead to forehead next to each other on the bed.
“I know you can. I’m sorry.” She nods and then pulls back, eyes flicking to his lips for a second.
“If you get in another fight I’m not going to kiss you anymore.” She smirks as she says it, like she knows how big of a threat that is. And it really is, because now that he’s had a chance to touch her, a chance at this, there’s no way he’s going to threaten it.
“I promise. No more fights.” She smiles so wide and he can’t help pressing forward to kiss her again. Her smile when she pulls back is worth every second of the disappointed looks she gave him earlier.
“I love you too, by the way.” She signs, then pushes him down and crawls on top of him, capturing his lips again.
He can’t help thinking there’s worse ways his night could have gone.