A/N: I have a bit more planned for this, but it was already so long, so there may be a second, possibly third, installment. And I apologize for any typos. All signing is in italics. If they speak and sign, it is only in quotations, no italics.

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What had she gotten herself into?

Katniss sat frustrated at her desk as she watched the PowerPoint flick by showing the different signs and their meanings, while the teacher demonstrated, and had them repeat it back to him.

Katniss was only taking American Sign Language because it counted as a humanities credit. That and Johanna had dragged her in on grounds of wanting to know one person in the class. Johanna. That was really why she was here.

Johanna had met a guy she really liked, but he was deaf, so she wanted to learn sign language to at least be able to speak with him as friends.

What was most frustrating to Katniss was that their teacher was actually deaf. He could hear a little bit, thanks to hearing aids, but not enough for you to verbally ask questions. You either had to sign them or write them down. He was born hearing, but due to complications with chicken pox as a baby, he lost his hearing.

And he could hear enough to know if anyone made a sound, so if you talked while signing, he would take points off of your final grade.

It wasn't that bad of a class, and Mr. Beetee was actually really cool, but Katniss hated sitting still in silence for this long.

Plus, it was hard for her to concentrate when they had to partner up and follow a written dialogue. Johanna had quickly decided to partner up with another classmate, someone named Finnick, making Katniss wonder why Johanna had dragged her here in the first place.

But Katniss, not wanting to choose anyone, waited to be approached, and, as luck would have it, the guy who lived in the same apartment complex as her asked if she would be his partner.

The same guy she watched jog by every morning as she drank coffee on the balcony. The same guy who smiled at her as he ran by, making her scowl. The same guy who despite her scowl made her stomach do flip flops with his blonde curly hair, lopsided smile, and bright blue eyes that were always so clear even from her second story balcony.

The. Same. Guy.

Great.

She looked down at her notebook, checking her class schedule, when a finger tapped her desk.

Snapping her head up, she saw that guy, Peeta his name was, pointing to the teacher who was staring at her, making her blush.

Sorry, she signed, mouthing it silently along with her hand movment.

Peeta was smiling at her as the rest of the class chuckled, but his smile wasn't chiding like the laughter, more like he had a secret or was just looking at something pretty.

Katniss shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Mr. Beetee wrote on the board that there would be a study group in the library that night.

As they were dismissed, Peeta stood and turned to her from his seat in front of her.

Hey, he signed.

She smiled, signing back, Hey to you, too.

He chuckled. What is your next class?

Kinesiology.

Me, too!

With Mr. Abernathy?

Yup!

Really? I don't remember seeing you there.

I always see you there. You're the one who doesn't pay attention.

Katniss scoffed. What he said would usually creep her out, but for some reason, coming from him, made her blush. She threw her backpack over her shoulder, holding her book for the next class tightly to her chest as she followed Peeta from the room.

Once in the hallway, they both turned toward the elevators.

"You going to the study group?"

She felt like her stomach was training for the Olympics, rolling and tumbling at the sound of his voice. She realized she had not heard it until now, between signing in class and observing him jog. Thank goodness this wasn't a debate class, otherwise anything that came out of his mouth she would agree with, despite her side of the debate.

"Um, yeah. I think so. I need it."

He smiled. "Yeah, I think I'll go, too."

After a moment he added, "By the way, I've never heard your voice before, but it's beautiful. It's like a song."

Katniss snorted, making his grin only grow. "Okay. That snort wasn't so melodic, but I swear, whenever you talk, even the birds stop and listen."

Katniss started to laugh so hard, she bent over, clutching her stomach.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing."

"This is what nothing looks like for you? I'd like to see you laugh at something that's actually funny."

Katniss only laughed harder, reaching out to shove him playfully, but it failed as she laughed so hard no sound came out.

Stopping to catch her breath, she panted, "No, nothing, it's just, I'm not that good at making friends and one of the first ones I'm making tells me I'm the bird queen or something."

"It's half way through the semester. You haven't made any friends?"

"Told you I wasn't any good at it."

"Well, you are making an excellent choice with moi."

After getting on the elevator and exiting on the ground floor, Peeta piped up, "Bird queen. I don't like the sound of that. It's too…"

"Too what?"

"Pigeon lady at the park."

Katniss snorted once again.

"I think…. Mockingjay is a good nickname for you."

"From that book series?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay. Whatever."

"She has one other nickname of sorts in the book, and it fits you, but I don't think you'd like it. People would take it out of context and think I'm making some reference to a past romantic encounter or something."

"Which one?"

"The Girl on Fire."

X-X-X

At the study group, Mr. Beetee was drawing names to be leaders of the groups.

K-A-T-N-I-S-S E-V-E-R-D-E-E-N, he spelled out.

Katniss gulped.

Peeta scrawled something on a piece of paper and slid it over to her.

Katniss snorted softly when she read it. "Our Leader The Mockingjay".

She looked up at Peeta with a scowl, which he only returned with a beaming, proud smile.

Katniss raised her hand, and Mr. Beetee nodded for her to go on.

Katniss signed very slowly, wanting to get it right. I'm not comfortable being the leader. Can someone else do it? Or even, could we partner up with our partners from class?

Mr. Beetee put it to a vote, and the class agreed that partners were easier.

As the night progressed, Katniss felt more and more at ease around Peeta, and they fell into an easy conversation in sign, surprising her at how much she remembered so fluidly.

They followed the standard questions on the piece of paper.

What's your favorite color?

Katniss blushed. Green. What's your favorite color?

Orange.

Like that horrible leather couch over there?

Peeta laughed. No. More like a sunset.

Awwwww, Katniss signed teasingly.

Shut up, Peeta grinned back.

When they had to do numbers, Katniss had trouble forming her hand into the correct shape.

"May I?" Peeta whispered, gesturing to her hand.

"Uh, I guess," Katniss whispered back.

Peeta took her hand in his, helping her hand easily form the correct shape. His touch felt like electricity to her. She stared at his face, smiling at the way he stuck his tongue out in concentration, trying to mold her hand.

He met her gaze and they both froze, his hand holding hers, and goofy grins on both their faces.

He pulled his hand away, and she instantly missed it.

There, he signed.

Thanks.

Don't mention it.

How do you know so much about sign?

I used to have a friend that was dating a girl who was deaf. He taught me basic stuff so we could all converse at parties and stuff.

So why are you in this class?

I forgot over the years. He moved away and so did she, but they are here at school, so I figured I'd brush up.

Oh? Who?

Peeta pointed over to Johanna and her partner.

Him. F-I-N-N-I-C-K O-D-A-I-R.

Why is he taking the class if he already knows?

He wants to learn correctly. When you learn from a friend, you learn their speech pattern, kind of like slang or an accent, so he wanted to learn the basics so he can communicate with more of her friends along the way.

That's really sweet.

Yeah, he's a good guy. That's his girlfriend over there. He pointed to a beautiful girl sitting off to the side, behind Finnick, reading a book and earbuds in her ears.

What's her name?

A-N-N-I-E C-R-E-S-T-A.

Why does she have earbuds in?

Oh! Peeta chuckled. She can feel the vibrations.

Really?

Yeah. Plus, she doesn't want people coming up to ask her questions and her having to sign she can't hear them.

Is she embarrassed about it?

She used to be, since not many of our friends knew sign language, but now, she is just tired of getting hit on.

Katniss snorted softly once again.

I love your laugh.

Katniss rolled her eyes. Whatever.

Katniss noticed Annie signing to Finnick, something on her left hand sparkling as her hands moved quickly.

Are they engaged?

Yeah.

And she is still getting hit on with that rock on her finger?

Yeah.

Jerks.

Yes. Speaking of….

Just then, an attractive, but jerky looking guy walked up to Annie, and began signing away.

Finnick walked over to him, forming his hand into the sign for the letter "p", placing his middle finger on the tip of his nose, then pulling away to his front into the sign for "f". He did it very quickly, and angrily.

"What does that sign mean?" Katniss whispered, not looking away from what appeared to be a sign off between the guy and Finnick.

Mimicking the sign as he spoke, Peeta whispered back, "Piss off."

"Who is that?"

"Cato. He is deaf like Annie, and thinks they should be dating instead of her and Finnick because Finnick is hearing."

"Oh."

Based on all she had read of the deaf culture in class, Katniss knew this was more common than one might think.

Mr. Beetee went over to them and added his frantic signing to the mix. Katniss was lost. Everything was so fast.

"What are they saying?"

"Well, from what I can catch, Mr. Beetee is telling Cato to leave the group alone, Cato is arguing that Annie is not in the group, Annie wants him to leave, and Finnick is just angry. He's making no sense. I don't…." Peeta scrunched up his face in confusion as he and Katniss watched Finnick flailing his hands. "I don't think that's even a sign."

"Not even slang?"

"Not even Klingon."

Katniss had to tuck her head to her chest to keep from laughing.

Cato threw his hands up in the air and stomped off, Mr. Beetee was patting Finnick's shoulder with a knowing look on his face before he returned to the group, and Finnick signed a thank you to him before sitting down beside a perturbed looking Annie, putting his arm around her shoulders and letting her lean into him.

"Can, uh, can we go talk to them?" Katniss asked, not taking her eyes off of Annie who looked like she could shoot lasers out of her eyes from sheer anger.

Peeta glanced over to Johanna and saw Mr. Beetee had partnered up with her. "Sure."

As they walked up Finnick immediately perked up and pointed at Katniss. "Hey! You're Katniss, right?"

"Yes," Katniss drew out the word.

Finnick smiled and turned to Peeta. "You're right. She is gorgeous."

Katniss was about to ask what 'you're right' meant, but Annie elbowed Finnick in the ribs before she could.

"Oh! I'm sorry." Finnick sat upright so he could use both hands to sign as he spoke. "This is my fiancé Annie. Annie, you remember Peeta, and this is Katniss."

Katniss also spoke as she signed. "Nice to meet you!"

Annie smiled. Nice to meet you, too. She then turned to Finnick with a glint in her eye and signed something Katniss didn't quite catch.

"What did she say?" She asked Peeta.

"Nothing."

Finnick chuckled. "She said, and I quote, 'Peeta was right. She is beautiful.'"

Katniss blushed. "Aw, thank you." Then turning to Peeta she whispered, "You talk about me? We didn't even talk out loud to one another until today."

Now Peeta blushed. "Yes. So? At least I'm owning up to it and not swatting it away. Having an eye for beauty isn't the same thing as a weakness… Except possibly when it comes to you."

Katniss opened her mouth to say something but was at a loss for words, and this just made Peeta smile even more.

So she changed the subject, once again signing as she spoke. "What were those signs you guys were using?"

"Which ones?" Finnick cocked his head to the side and raised his eye brows questioningly.

Katniss demonstrated as best she could.

"Oh!" Finnick sat up straight once again. "Those are our sign names. You know, you have to be given one by someone who is actually deaf, and not just someone who knows ASL."

"So what does each one mean?"

"Well," Finnick cleared his throat. "Mine is roughly 'Greek God'-"

"'Beautiful man'," Peeta corrected him.

Finnick glared at Peeta. "And Annie's is roughly 'Mermaid'-"

"She loves to swim."

Finnick glared at Peeta once again, waiting for Peeta to gesture him to continue.

"And Peeta's is the sign for 'water'."

"'Water'?" Katniss was very confused.

Annie chimed in. Yes, because he speaks so beautifully, his words are like water to a plant. Never harsh, never mean, but cooling, and soothing.

Before Katniss could catch herself, she signed and said, "You should hear his voice. It makes it even more accurate. Actually, 'butter' would be more accurate for that."

After a pause of silence, the other three began to laugh.

"What?" Katniss asked. Then, with a mortified face, "Oh. I said that out loud, didn't I?"

Annie nodded with an 'I'm sorry' look on her face, as did Finnick and Peeta only with smiles instead of pity.

You need a sign name. Annie's face lit up.

Me? Katniss pointed to herself.

No, your imaginary friend beside you- Yes you!

Finnick perked up as he signed and spoke excitedly. "Yeah! Come over tonight! We can all hang out and get to know one another before you get the name you will be stuck with for life."

"Great," Katniss said and signed before turning to Peeta with a scowl and whispered, "Do not suggest 'Mockingjay' or 'Pigeon lady' or I swear I will hurt you."

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