so why don't you come on over, valerie?

Mikhail hummed to himself as he walked around the shop. Today, he wasn't wearing his hearing gear. It wasn't that not hearing anything didn't bother him, but he felt that what everybody else said was not at all his buisness. If someone wanted a conversation, he could manage to understand well enough.

He scanned the shelves absently.

Valerie was walking around and came across a shop. She looked at the name of it and walked into the store. She started looking around the shelfs for something that was cool enough for her to not waist her money on it. Valerie let her eyes graze the shelfs but she bumped into a wall. She looked to see it wasn't a wall, but a boy. Now she felt bad.

"I am so sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you, oh god please tell me I didn't hurt you" Valerie asked.

Mikhail jumped when someone bumped into him. He quickly turned so that he could see what the blonde girl was saying. She spoke english, it seemed. Right.

"No, no I'm fine," he said, nodding. "Could've happened to anyone." The Hrabrost shrugged his shoulders indifferently.

Valerie mentally relaxed when he said he was okay. "That's good, I wouldn't really no what to do if I hurt someone" Valerie said to him. She nodded. "Yes that is true I guess" she agreed. Valerie held out her hand to him. "I'm Valerie and you are" she asked.

Mikhail nodded and smiled a little. "It is." He grabbed her hand and shook it, taking a moment to consider the name she'd said was hers. "Valerie... That's a really pretty name. I'm Mikhail."

Valerie nodded. When he shook her hand back she smiled. "Thank you, and your name sounds awesome. It's very new and original" Valerie replied to him. She realized that the boy wasn't English like her. "Where you from" Valerie asked.

Mikhail chuckled. "Thank you. Yeah, I guess it sort of is." He shrugged his shoulders, considering his reply for a second. "Hmm... My father is norwegian, I was born in Switzerland, but I currently live in Russia. Where are you from?"

'He had a nice laugh' Valerie thought. "Mhm" Valerie nodded to him. She waited for his reply and when it came she nodded. "Always wanted to go to Russia, my twin sister went there before, just not me" Valerie said. "I was born and raised in England. I still live there now" Valerie explained.

Mikhail grinned as he focused on reading her lips. "That's cool. I've never been to England before." He felt a little puzzled. What exactly had she said? Oh, right. "You should go. It's a pretty cool place. Lots of interesting people."

"So, what brings you here on a day like today?" Mikhail questioned.

Valerie nodded to him. "You should, it's really amazing there" Valerie said to him. Valerie smiled. "I really should go there one day" Valerie felt excited of thinking about going to Russia.

Valerie shrugged to him. "I don't know, I guess boredom. I had nothing to do today" Valerie answered. "What about you".

"Okay," Mikhail shrugged. "I think I will one day." He nodded enthusiastically. "Well, when you do, contact me."

He was pretty confused at her next words. Mikhail hadn't caught it. "I- can you repeat that?"

Valerie smiled at him. "Great" Valerie said happy that he was going to visit her home town. She knew he'd like it very much. Valerie nodded. "I will let you no and we can hang out somewhere" Valerie replied.

Valerie was pretty confused but repeated her question. "I said that I didn't know, probably boredom and that I had nothing to do, than I asked what about you" Valerie asked once more.

"Yep, definitely," Mikhail nodded.

He looked down, blushing. "Yeah, okay. I'm just... walking. I needed to get out of the house." He dared look up at her again. "Sorry." It made him feel weird that he couldn't hear her.

"The reason I asked you to repeat," Mikhail sighed, "is because I can't hear. I'm deaf."

Valerie smiled at him but it turned into a frown at what happened next.

She nodded. Valerie lifted his head up to look at her. "What's wrong, are you okay" she asked concern. Valerie was shocked that he was deaf. Than she realized that he kept looking at her lips, now she got it. She smiled.

"It's okay, a lot of people are different in their own ways, so don't let this bring you down" she reassured him.

Mikhail stayed still when she made him look up at her, even how much he just wanted to push her hands away. "I'm-" He stopped, suddenly feeling like an idiot. Why was he so embarrassed that someone else knew it? So what he was deaf.

If only Mikhail could think that way all the time.

He was stunned by her words, but managed to get his face to break into a big grin. "Really?" But somehow, it also got him down. "You say that like it's a good thing to be different. I know that it can be, but it's not a nice feeling when you don't know what anybody- much less yourself- say all the time."

Valerie nodded to him with a smile. "Yes really" she nodded. "Mikhail, yes sometimes it can suck being different, but that's what makes people great. It's boring trying to be like everyone else, it better to stay and be yourself all the time. I've tried to live up to other's exspectations before and it was boring, just be yourself Mikhail, I know from the short amount of time knowing you, that I like who you are" Valerie gave him a smile.

Mikhail nodded. "I guess it's a good thing, but still. I can't hear you or anybody else. Every time you say something, I have to guess what it is. It's annoying, Valerie." His shoulders slumped slightly. "Yeah, it's probably boring." The boy smiled a little. "Thanks! I like who you are, too!"

Valerie didn't know how it felt to be like that. How to not hear people speak to you and just read someone else's lips. "Mikhail, I know it's annoying but maybe one day someone can find a cure for deafness and you will be able to hear what people are saying but for now, you should just embrace who you are" Valerie suggested. "Thanks!" she smiled.

Mikhail nodded. "I suppose so. But they'd better do it fast, because I've been deaf since I was five. It's been nine years since I heard properly." He sighed and shook his head. Maybe being different wasn't all that bad. "You're welcome."

Valerie touched his arm to comfort him. "Don't worry, one day you will here again and not feel like an outcast" Valerie reassured. "So if you don't mind me asking, how did you loose your hearing" she asked. "If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to" she added.

"Maybe," he murmured quietly, keeping his arm in place and looking down at her hand. "Nothing wrong with being curious. I was playing with my uncle's old band equipment. Him and my dad used to be in a band together, years ago."

Mikhail shrugged. He didn't like talking about it, and slipped her hand into his casually.

Valerie nodded. She didn't want to make Mikhail feel uncomfortable talking about how he lost his hearing so she just stopped asking him those kind of questions. "That's horrible, but since you don't want to think or talk about it, lets look around and talk some more" Val suggested.

She smiled softly when he slipped her hand in his.