The bassline in the speakers filtered out though the dimly lit club, vibrating over every surface and through the soles of its occupants. Various people all out to let off steam and to just have a good time crowded the dancefloor, amalgamating into an almost solid mass. watched as the liquid in her drink slowly formed a shallow ripple. Although clubs weren’t her usual scene, she had been roped into a blind date of sorts; a semi-blind date that her friends and Louis would be chaperoning. Unlike most blind dates, she knew who she would be meeting. Her date, however, did not. It wasn’t necessarily a typical date but more of a getting to know to each other session based on the fact that their friends thought the other would at least be good company for their friend. Although, she had no idea how they could get to know each other with the amount of distractions emitting from around their booth. Louis turned to ask the girls a question, leaning in to be heard over the thud of the music. relayed her answer to him. He looked who was still staring at her glass, his mouth turning upwards. turned towards her, laughing when she realised that she probably hadn’t even seen him approach their table. She nudged , causing her to blink a few times. Her thoughts had been disturbed. She moved her head towards her friend who pointed towards her brunette boyfriend who offered her a smile as she looked up at him. He cupped his right hand and bought it up towards his mouth as if taking a drink, his left hand resting on ’s shoulder as he leaned forward in their direction. She nodded back at him and he pointed towards her drink, mouthing “same?” She nodded again and he shot her a friendly wink. She watched him squeeze ’s shoulder as he stood up to his full height and walked away from them with the intention of being as brief as he could. He looked at the bar and groaned inwardly; the mass of people gathered to order their drinks had at least doubled since they’d walked into the club no less than twenty minutes before. He just hoped that his friend would be able to find him, or at least the girls, in the darkening club, the mood lighting slightly too dull. He made his way along the edge of the dance space and joined the back of the line, keeping the entrance in his sights. Surprisingly, the line moved rather quickly and he soon found himself second in line. As the people in front of him slinked away, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He slid it out as he told the bartender his groups’ order, taking a moment to read his friend’s text.

At the door. Where are you?

Louis looked up, searching for his friend’s figure. He saw him as he walked through the entrance, his friend’s head moving around in search of him. He raised his hand to wave him over, hoping that his sudden movements would catch his eye. He watched as his head snapped around, his grin broadening as his eyes met Louis’. He made his way over to him, squeezing in and out of the crowd. The bartender placed the drinks on a tray, pushing them towards Louis. He read out the total amount and Louis asked for it to be put on the tab he had started. The barman nodded at him and moved away to serve some more customers. Louis’ friend joined him and followed him as he carried the tray across the floor. He stopped halfway between the booth and the bar.

His friend gave him a weird look.

“Listen, mate,” he leaned closer to him so that he could be heard, “Before I introduce you to , there’s something you should know about her.”

He sighed, “She hasn’t turned up, has she?”

Louis shook his head, “No; she’s here.”

“She’s married, isn’t she?”

He shook his head again.

“Does she have a kid, then?”

“No. I can’t see that as being a deal breaker for you anyway.”

“Then what is it?”

“You’ll see. It’s nothing major. It’s probably an advantage.”

He started to walk towards the booth again but a hand pulled him back, causing him to almost spill the contents of the tray.

“I wouldn’t have suggested that you hang out with us if I didn’t think she’d be a good match for you. Rhi and I just thought that instead of jumping into a blind date, we’d let you both get to know each other first, with our help,” he started walking towards the girls, quickening his pace; “just in case the usual forms of communication are a bit of a challenge…”

His friend raised his arms as if throwing something in the air and followed after him. As they approached the two females who were gesturing animatedly as they conversed, Louis placed the tray on the table. appeared to have said something funny as her friend was now laughing. She stopped when she felt their presence, grinning up at the pair.

Louis addressed , “, this is Niall.”

She gave him a small wave in a way that he had only seen a handful of times before.

Louis turned to Niall, “Niall, this is .”

He watched as turned and gestured her hands again. It was then that it hit him what Louis meant by communication being a bit of a challenge. His date was deaf.

The quartet sat in silence for a while, well, as in much silence as they could muster between them over the thumping bass in the packed nightclub. seemed to be fixated on staring at the table. She was concentrating on feeling the beat traveling upwards through her feet. She nudged to sign at her;

smiled as she took what was being communicated to her. She turned to the lads with a smile;

“She really likes this song.”

Niall grinned looking at , “She does?”

She nodded as nudged her again. She had been observing them. She made a few more hand signals at her. Niall couldn’t quite tell how her tone; she was gesturing a bit manically but at the same time was trying not to show any emotion.

turned back to him, “She says she can lip read. You don’t need to talk through me.”

He blushed wildly before addressing her, “Sorry.”

Her face softened and she giggled. She motioned that she was fine with it.

“You’ll have to forgive me; I don’t know sign language.”

held up a finger to him to indicate “one second” and twisted more to her right to grab her bag that was tucked between herself and . She took out a pen and then reached across the table to a pile of napkins. She scribbled something down on one of them and then passed it to him, stretching across their friends.

Is this better? She had written in neat cursive. She had even added a smiley face at the end.

He looked up and grinned at her nodding. He stood up and walked around the small table in between them to sit beside her. He wrote down his own message and slid it to her.

You really like this song?

She gave him the thumbs up.

He wrote something else down: This is one of ours.

She looked at him with a look of surprise. I didn’t know. I don’t really follow music. But, yeah; I really like the sound of this one.

She tried to gauge his facial expressions; he seemed to be confused as to how she could tell whether she liked it or not given that she couldn’t hear it. She laughed lightly as she penned an answer; I might not be able to hear the music but I can feel it. His expression didn’t change as he read over her shoulder, causing her to laugh harder. She took his hands and placed them on the table. He very quickly realised that he could feel the vibrations through his palms, especially when she mimicked the beat by tapping her hands on the table. His face cleared. He was starting to understand what she meant. She then pointed at the floor beneath the table and looked down. He discovered that she had slipped her shoes off so that she could get a better and more direct feel of the pulsing sensation. He found it rather endearing.

and Louis sat watching the pair who had seemed to hit it off.

Louis squeezed her hand as he leaned in to her ear, “Told you they’d get along.”

“I knew they would; he’s a really good guy. He’s actually treating her like human being and listening to her.”

“And that’s got to make her feel better about herself. I know I’ve only known her for a little while, and most of what I know about her is through what you’ve told me, but it still hurts me when people ignore her because they can’t be bothered to learn how to communicate with her. She’s a nice lass. She deserves the kind of attention he’s giving her.”

She agreed, “Hopefully he can see that she’s actually interested in him and not for what he is.”

Louis tilted his head to get a better view of his friend. He had a large smile planted firmly on his face, “I think he can. I think it’s safe to say we did a pretty decent job matching them up; they’ve not paid us any attention since he sat beside her.”

She laughed and pushed him out of the booth, “Perfect timing for this.” “For what?” he let her out behind him.

“For you to dance with me!” she giggled as she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the dancefloor with a swift tug.

looked up when she no longer felt their presence at the table. Her face lit up when she saw trying to make Louis move in time to the beat. ’s head shot round and she waved at her with a laugh. She found Louis trying to dance far too funny. waved back before turning her attention back to Niall. Her gaze fell to a new napkin that had been written upon.

So; tell me about yourself?

A few drinks and a couple of hours passed and before anyone had time to fully realise what was happening, they were spilling out into the cold night air. stopped just as they reached the taxi rank and pulled aside to talk to her.

“Is it OK if we leave you here? I want to spend some more time with Lou before they leave tomorrow.”

gave her blessings, “I’ll see you back at home.”

They hugged then returned to their dates. Louis had already made Niall aware of the situation.

Louis directed his speech at , “Niall’s going to share a cab back with you – if that’s OK with you?”

She nodded. She really didn’t see any problem with it at all.

He gave them both separate hugs, bounding over to the cab that had waiting for them.

“Looks like it’s just the two of us,” Niall noted, “are you sure you’re OK with sharing a cab?”

She nodded again, noting that she needed to find a new way of communicating with him. They hadn’t stopped to pick up anymore napkins on the way out and it was going to be one awkward ride if all she could do was gesture “yes” or “no”. She also didn’t want to weird him out by staring at him the entire way back to hers in an attempt to show she was aware of when he was speaking. Then she had a brain wave. She took out her phone. She flipped it to the memo pad and typed in a message. She tilted the screen at him and he flashed his newly-straightened teeth at her; he liked her quick thinking.

I’d really like to finish our conversation.

A taxi pulled up catching them off-guard. They broke from the phone and climbed into the back of it.

The driver spoke into his rear view mirror, “Where to?” He suddenly realised he had no clue where lived and she clearly hadn’t heard the drive ask. She looked at him questioningly; she could tell something had happened.

“Hang on a sec,” he spoke back to the driver.

couldn’t tell what he was saying; his face was too far from hers and facing a different way to her.

He looked her in the eyes, “I need your address.”

“Oh,” she formed an o with her mouth. She tapped the screen of the phone still placed in her hand and began to type.

“Is she deaf or something?” the driver’s tone was less than welcoming and a bit too sarcastic for Niall’s liking.

“Yes, actually,” he bitterly replied but quickly changed his demeanor when he noticed was staring at him, mouth slightly open. He could tell that she just felt something was wrong. He gave her a “don’t worry about it” look and relayed her address to the driver. He felt her put her hand on his forearm and squeeze it in a way that let him know that she wasn’t going to drop it. He decided to type her message instead. He could still feel the driver’s stare boring into his skull via the rear view mirror.

There’s nothing to worry about. I’ve sorted it out.

A thought hit her. She keyed in a reply;

Was he being rude? He sighed and in that moment she just knew.

Her eyes dropped to her hands. She was used to this kind of interaction between people she was with and complete strangers. It happened more regularly than she ever wanted to admit.

Niall took her right hand in his and squeezed it tightly. She rested her head on his shoulder. She suddenly wasn’t in the mood for talking. He placed his chin on top of her head. They didn’t need to communicate this time to convey that they both understood each other loud and clear. They somehow knew what the other was thinking and that was enough. They may not have known each other that long but they both felt comfortable enough in each other presence to speak only through body language.

They spent the next twenty-odd minutes in silence – a silence that was only broken when the taxi stopped and reached into her bag to take out a few notes. Niall stopped her, conveying through a shy “stop” sign with his hand that she wasn’t to take any more out and to put what she had taken out back. She gave him a slight frustrated sigh but smiled gratefully at him instead.

She raised her hand to her mouth and then down again in a gentle swatting motion, “Thank you.”

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his cheek, stopping to give him one last smile before she got out of the cab. He watched her walk off, making sure she got to her door safely.

“Where to next?”

The driver cut off his train of thought and brought him back to reality:

“Stay put; I’ll be back in a minute.”

The driver rolled his eyes and sighed, “As if I’m going to go anywhere when you haven’t paid for your fare yet. You have five minutes before I charge you double for wasting my time.”

Niall glared at him through the mirror, replying sarcastically; “Many thanks. Much appreciated.” He let himself out of the back of the vehicle and made his way towards her. She was rattling in her bag for her keys. She jumped when she felt his presence behind her. She turned to defend herself but relented when she realised who it was.

“Sorry! It’s just me.”

Her eyes twinkled, half wondering what he was doing and half elated that he had followed her.

He pointed towards the phone still in her hand. She furrowed her brow but handed it to him anyway. He scrolled to her contact list and input his details. He showed her, allowing for her to accept or deny his request. She nodded and he saved his information, pressing the phone back into her hand. The taxi’s horn beeped in the distance but she was unfazed. The vibrations couldn’t reach that far. He leaned forward cupping her face in his hands and kissed her ever so sweetly. He mouthed a “goodnight” as he fled down the stairs to the waiting car. She waved him off, partially in shock. Her hands shook as she fumbled to put her key in the lock. No one had even made her feel this way before. When she was safely inside, the door firmly locked behind, she leaned her forehead against it for a few seconds then spun on her heels so that her back was touching it. She touched her fingertips to her lips in disbelief. She could still feel a trace of his soft lips against hers, making her glad that she had agreed to the blind date in the first place. Her phone lit up in her hand, alerting her of a new message from . She stared down at her phone, unsure of what to do. She switched to her messages and began to fill out a blank one instead of replying. When the time came to choose which contact to send it to, she searched for the newly installed ID and clicked “send”. She gave a gleeful shriek when, not even a minute later, her phone lit up again; this time with a response from Niall. She fell against the door. She was glad; very glad indeed.