Heyllo, everyone! Today is May 30th, the birthday of one Mr. TREY PARKER, so I decided to write this little oneshot in honor of him. So, Trey, wherever you are, happy birthday!

DISCLAIMER: Don't own "Newsies", don't own Blink, I only know Fiona.

I CAN HEAR YOUR HEARTBEAT

"EXTRY! EXTRY! COCKROACHES INFESTED WITH VIRUS! TERRIFYIN' AMERICAN HOMES AS WE SPEAK!" Kid Blink yelled, hawking the headlines to any customer who would stop and listen. Ironically, the one person he was hoping would listen just wasn't. She was a slender girl with orange hair, freckles and chocolate brown eyes. She had turned once when he was selling earlier and smiled at him, but Blink hadn't been able to get her attention after that.

Blink sighed and ran up to her. "Hey there," he said.

No response.

"Hey!" he said a little louder.

Still nothing.

"Odd," Blink thought. He tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned around. "Hey there. I'se Blink," he said, touching the brim of his hat in salutation.

The girl smiled but said nothing.

Blink smiled back. "You gotta name, pretty girl?"

The girls smile slowly faded away.

Blink's face quickly turned pale. He never had been great talking to girls. "I'se sorry, miss. I didn't mean to be so forwa-"

The girl held up a hand to cut him off. She then pointed to her ear with a trembling, pale hand.

Blink eyed her behind his sunglasses, sunglasses that were so big that they blocked his eyepatch. Although she couldn't see it, his one blue eye was full of concern. "You… you mean you can't hear?"

The girl shook her head sadly. She then started spelling out words with her hand so rapidly, Blink couldn't even make it out. She then mouthed, "I can read lips."

Blink's face brightened. "You can?"

She nodded. She then pointed to herself. "Fiona," she mouthed.

"Fiona? I like that name," Blink said, pointing to himself and then giving a thumbs up.

Fiona laughed, and then Blink looked over around the corner to Mush. They were selling together, like they always had been. "HEY, MUSH!" Blink yelled over to him.

Mush ran over to Blink and Fiona. "What is it, Blink?"

Blink gently pushed Fiona forward. "Fiona, meet Mush," he said.

Mush held his hand out to Fiona. "Pleasure," he said.

Blink asked, "You still got that notebook you got for Christmas, Mush?"

"Yeah."

"Can I borrow it?"

Mush raised his eyebrows. "Um… sure thing, Blink, go ahead," he said warily. He drew a small notebook out of his pants pocket and ran off to chase away Tumbler, who was stealing some of his papes.

Fiona looked at Blink questioningly. "What are you doing?" she mouthed.

Blink took out the notebook and wrote: "I really don't wanna make you feel bad Fiona, but I don't know the first thing about signin'. So, I was wonderin' if you could teach me some signs, and then I could talk to you through this. Whaddya say?"

Fiona thought about it a while, and then gave the "ok" sign. She led him over to a park bench and began with the alphabet. It was hard for Blink, considering how hard it is for anybody to learn a new language, let alone one where you don't even talk. Soon enough, though, Blink could sign the alphabet faster than anybody in Manhattan.

Fiona grinned, then motioned for the notebook. She wrote "Now, we can move on to words." She then taught Blink the signs for "hello", "please", and "sorry". And then Blink asked, "What's the sign for 'I love you'?"

Fiona looked a bit taken aback, but then held up her left hand, clenched in a fist. Blink thought she was going to punch him and braced himself for the blow, but instead, she lifted her pinky, middle finger and thumb.

Blink wrote, "What kind of sign for 'I love you' is THAT?"

Fiona shrugged and wrote, "Hey, I didn't invent this, don't ask me."

Blink laughed, and then signed, "I love you."

Fiona smiled. "This is the sign for 'good'," she wrote, and then swept her left hand forward, then back, across the open palm of her other hand.

Blink took Fiona's hand and spell-signed, "T-I-B-B-Y-S."

Fiona laughed and nodded. She and Blink walked off, arm in arm, towards Tibby's. Blink saw Race, Mush, Jack and Skittery sitting at a table. Race noticed Blink and waved him over.

Blink and Fiona walked over and pulled out a chair for Fiona. "Fellas, this lady here is Fiona." He then knelt next to Fiona and spelled out the boys' names as he pointed to them. "M-U-S-H," he spelled, as Mush waved his hand in greeting.

"R-A-C-E-T-R-A-C-K," earned a smile and nod from Race.

"J-A-C-K." Jack raised his eyebrows at Blink. Blink rolled his eyes and mouthed, "He's also called C-O-W-B-O-Y." Fiona laughed and made a lasso motion with her hand. Mush, Race, Blink and Skittery laughed, while Jack hid his face in a menu.

"S-K-I-T-T-E-R-Y" surprisingly got a "hello" sign from Skittery.

Fiona signed to Skittery and he signed back.

Blink looked at Skittery, shocked. "How do you know signin', Skitts?"

Skittery looked at Blink with dark eyes. "Me kid sister's deaf. She's been in a special deaf school since she was five, and I haven't seen her since."

"How old would she be now?" Jack asked.

"She's about three years younger than me, so she'd be about 13, now. I haven't seen her for eight whole years. Why else do you think I'se always so glum and dumb?"

Fiona signed, "I'm sorry." Before long, she and Skittery were signing in a deep conversation. Anybody there could see that Blink was just getting the teensiest bit jealous of Skittery, so Fiona turned to him and mouthed, "What's wrong?"

Blink just shook his head and ran outside, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it along the way.

Fiona looked after Blink with confusion in her eyes. "I'll go check on him," she signed, and ran out into the alley after him.

Blink looked at the door to Tibby's and saw Fiona, standing with hand on her hips. "Well, now I've done it," Blink thought to himself as Fiona stomped over and motioned for the notebook. "Would you mind telling me what the hell that was back there, Blink?"

Blink took the notebook back and wrote, "Forgive me if I'se not entirely pleased with a girl that I bring to a nice place bein' stolen away by a… a… a hand signin' Lothario."

"Blink, don't you get it? Do you know how hard it is for me to walk around here not hearing a sound? Skittery's the only person I've met who I can communicate with, and not feel strange or different. Can you understand how that must be, walking around, thinking nobody will ever really care about you, just feel sorry for you, pity you even?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do, Fiona." It had suddenly occurred to Blink that Fiona didn't know about his patch.

Fiona questioned Blink with her eyes. "What do you mean?"

Blink sighed. This was going to be bad. He lifted his hands up to his face and took the sunglasses off, revealing the brown patch he had had over his left eye for as long as he could remember. He took the notebook back and wrote, "See? It took me forever to make a friend when I met the Newsies, and even now, some of the new kids make fun of me patch. They call me 'Peg-Leg' and all that sort of crap. You were the first person I met who didn't run the other way when I said hello."

Fiona winced and gently fingered the patch. Blink reached up, gently took her hand away, and held it on his heart. "Sorry," Fiona signed with her free hand.

Blink shook his head, pointed to himself, and made the "wacko" motion with his free hand.

Fiona laughed and then did the one thing that Blink never, ever thought a girl would do in a million years: she kissed him on the lips.

Blink's eyes widened in surprise at first, but then he closed his eyes and put his hands on Fiona's face. When they broke the kiss, Blink smiled and wrote "What's the sign for 'beautiful'?"

Fiona smiled back and swept her hand in a circular motion in front of her face and closed it when the circle ended.

Blink spelled, "F-I-O-N-A", and then signed, "beautiful."

Fiona blushed, but signed back, "B-L-I-N-K" and then, "handsome" by drawing an imaginary circle in front of her face with her pointer finger and then swept one open palm on top of the other.

As Fiona ran off to her mother, waving her over, Blink shot the "I love you" sign at her, and Fiona signed it right back.

Blink saw Fiona only a few more times after that. Fiona's parents were extremely strict about who she hung around with, and they didn't approve of their daughter hanging around with a Newsie. After she met Blink, Fiona's parents rarely let her out of their cramped tenement in Harlem. Blink and Fiona missed each other terribly, and even met in secret a few times. And then…

*A FEW MONTHS LATER*

"OK, SO ALL OF YOUSE GOTTA BE AMBASTARDS!" Jack screamed to all of the Newsies after they publically announced they were going on strike.

Blink's heart leapt. Ambastards were those people who went out to different places, right? Well, that meant… "SAY, JACK, I'LL TAKE HARLEM!"

THE END