Work Text:
Enjolras:
- He isn’t born hoh, instead loses some of his hearing when he stands too close to a gun going off without proper protection
- One of the HoH community’s strongest activists, Enj personally takes on all matters involving deaf/hoh rights. It’s one of his most infamous passions
- He wears a hearing aid in his left ear (gold, so it blends with his hair) and a cochlear implant in his right (red)
- Isn’t afraid to punch ableist assholes in the face
- Always makes sure to call teachers or professors out if they treat him different because of his hearing loss, this is including but not limited to; when they act like he needs to hear everything repeated in a slow, mocking voice, making a big deal out of putting closed captions on, shouting at him, blatantly pointing out his hearing loss to anyone who comes in (eg “you need to speak louder and slowly around Enjolras, he’s hard of hearing”) even if they show no sign of needing to talk to Enj
- Has written multiple angry letters to companies and administrators that haven’t made subtitles available on their content
- At every les Amis meeting, the amis make sure to not talk over the top of each other, and to face Enjolras with their face towards the light so he can hear their ideas
- he relies on lip reading heavily, and when it isn’t possible he’s always got Combeferre and Courfeyrac backing him up and helping him out
- Enjolras used to find it hard to ask them to help him, but after a small breakdown (that they supported him through) he realised that it wasn’t something to be ashamed of
- He gets listening fatigue quite often, and it takes Combeferre and Courfeyrac combined to help him through that. He hates feeling useless, and tired, like the world could be on fire and he wouldn’t be able to put it out, so listening fatigue at night is especially hard
- His mental health takes a huge knock when he is diagnosed, and there are days when he can’t bring himself to take out his hearing equipment because he hates feeling blind and like he would easily miss out on something important
- And of course there are days when he can’t bring himself to put them in, when the stress of the world gets too much and he needs some alone time with his thoughts
Grantaire:
- He is born hard of hearing, but his parents never get him tested. They think he just never listens, and treat him as such, which is one of the reasons he fell into depression and developed anxiety.
- One day, Joly is doing a routine health check at a meeting, and he gets roped into being checked over by Bossuet. They discover he is hard of hearing, and set him up with some hearing aids.
- At first, Grantaire despised his hearing aids. He hates the way everything is suddenly so loud, and he hates the headaches. He always drinks more with them in, and sometimes even has to leave the room to catch his breath.
- The overwhelming sounds sometimes lead to panic attacks, which Enjolras and Joly often stay and support him through.
- but he grows used to being able to hear with his hearing aids, and only takes them out to a) annoy Enjolras, b) to shower c) paint and d) to sleep
- Sometimes if Enjolras is going off on an angry or passionate rant, or if he’s arguing with Grantaire, Grantaire will simply just take out his hearing aids and smirk, self-satisfied, as Enjolras slowly calms down and glares in annoyance at R
- Grantaire slowly realises that it wasn’t his fault during his childhood when his grades were shit and his parents blamed him for not listening, and he begins to be kinder to himself (much to the delight of Jehan and Courfeyrac)
- One of the reasons he loves art is that you don’t need to be able to hear to appreciate its beauty.
- His art reflects this
- Whenever he gets overwhelmed, he takes out his hearing aids and just paints or sketches.
- All of les amis agree that his art is best when he does this
Courfeyrac:
- the KING of deaf jokes
- like honestly
- you can’t even mention not hearing something without Courf being like “hold on, that’s my job!”
- also gets a kick out of making fun of youtube’s autogenerated subtitles, because really, have you seen them????
- all the errors *shudders*
- he wears one hearing aid and on cochlear implant, both are a sparky purple that he chooses himself
- and he somehow manages to make them match with everything despite the obnoxious colour
- he buys sparkly purple hair clips to accessorise
- wasn’t born hoh, he instead loses some of his hearing blasting his music too loudly for too long
- Combeferre and Enjolras never let him live this down, always calling after him “don’t forget to turn it down!”
- He doesn’t sign much, but tries to learn for the sake of being able to communicate with the rest of the deaf community about political affairs and such
- Everyone loves him for this
- They were worried that when he lost his hearing, his outgoing and positive atmosphere would dissipate and Courf would become quiet and subdued
- But it’s quite the opposite, he instead becomes even more brighter and loud, Combeferre believes there’s nothing quite like his laugh, loud and rambunctious and so goddam carefree
- sometimes he gets a little too loud, and all it takes to calm him down is a gentle hand on his arm or shoulder from Ferre and he automatically quietens in favour for maintaining Ferre’s gentle, loving gaze
- if he’s had a bad day he’s unnaturally quiet, and the rest of les amis set aside the meeting plan in order to try and help him
- prefers his attention to be caught by touch rather than being yelled at
- he isn’t afraid to yell back, mocking the person. he speaks slowly and loudly to them (just as they did to him) as if they wouldn’t understand him if he spoke normally
- the other Amis get a kick out of it
Combeferre:
- was born hard of hearing in one ear and profoundly deaf in the other
- wears one hearing aid (brown so it blends with his hair)
- doesn’t like to bring it up in a conversation but also isn’t afraid to jump in and defend himself if it comes up naturally
- he’s very soft spoken, and not that vocal when it comes to the things he finds difficult due to his hearing loss
- so Enjolras and Courfeyrac always make sure to double check he’s okay with everything, and they help him with his self advocacy
- eventually they don’t even have to ask him, he just speaks up if he didn’t hear something, and they’re really proud
- is like a peacemaker in arguments, he can’t hear if people are talking over the top of each other so he makes people (read; Enjolras and Grantaire) slow down and wait for each other to finish talking before interrupting
- this prevents an argument from blowing up and also helps solve them
- if not for Ferre, E & R’s arguments would end a lot worse
- he gets listening fatigue more often than not, causing his sleep schedule to be very strict. he sleeps early and wakes up around mid-morning
- the rest of les Amis often tease him about it (with love, no malicious intent) and say that they should go pull a ‘Ferre and sleep early
- Ferre pretends it annoys him but deep down he finds it endearing
- Les Amis also find his sleep schedule endearing
- really it’s just a lot of endearment
- he doesn’t sign
- this leads him to feel out of place when hanging out with his deaf/hoh friends
- he feels he doesn’t fit into either society, hoh or hearing.
- it puts him through a lot of stress, and also impacts his mental health drastically
- so les amis do a search and they find a group of people who also feel like Ferre and invite them to meetings so Combeferre doesn’t feel so lonely
Jehan:
- they were born fully deaf, and was raised in sign language - use the label ‘Deaf’ (culturally deaf)
- they don’t get their cochlear implants until they’re a legal adult, as their parents decide to let Jehan make the decision for themself
- The transition from being profoundly deaf to hearing with cochlear implants isn’t easy, but they find a strange sort of fascination in the way the world chirps and beeps
- all of their poems stem from the muse of experiencing the hearing world in a different way, or they stem from the silence that settles once he takes off his CIs
- They love both the hearing and the deaf world equally, and isn’t ashamed to suddenly take off their CIs in the middle of the meeting and dreamily smile as they watch their friends alight with passion and ideals
- all of les amis learn sign for Jehan, and Jehan does their best to teach them all little snippets of slang
- they soon become fluent
- and Enjolras always makes sure that he signs along to his speeches at protests, or he gets one of the other amis to while he gestures passionately
- Jehan loves them all for it
- They’re very sensitive to world affairs involving deaf people, and Enjolras often asks for their opinions when they’re protesting or organising a speech addressing it
- Jehan appreciates this, though they often say that the amis don’t need to run things concerning hoh and deaf people by them. If they have an opinion, they should speak (or sign) it.
- Jehan tries not to let the ableism get to them, and often puts on a brave face, but somedays they’re just so tired of it all
- When this happens, les Amis try to support them, and they make sure that Jehan doesn’t have to go out alone
- They always back them up, and defend them if they can’t bring themselves to respond
- One of their greatest joys is music
- Jehan makes sure they’ve always got their headphones that are big enough to cover the microphones on their CIs in their bag, so that they can still listen to music anywhere
- They someday wish to find Bluetooth CIs, they know that some hearing aids have Bluetooth so they’re waiting for the day that cochlear implants also do.
Bahorel:
- he doesn’t realise how loud he is being most of the time, and all it takes is a soft nudge from Jehan for him to try and quieten himself
- his speech is somewhat slushy as he didn’t learn to speak quite right (a very common trait in hoh individuals) and when he’s tired it’s even worse
- so Ferre and Joly offer to help him with speech therapy and eventually it really helps
- he is born hard of hearing, and as soon as he gets diagnosed (at late primary school age) he wears his hearing aids
- they’re a neutral grey colour so they match his uniform for school, and even after he leaves school he keeps the colour
- it grows on him ok-
- he’s particularly sensitive about his hearing loss, and it ends up being the root cause of most of his fights
- Bahorel tries to focus on Jehan and Feuilly as well as the other Amis when he gets worked up but it doesn’t always work, and the sounds blur together. the next thing he knows, he’s in a fight with an offender
- he finds volume very difficult, and gets extremely loud when tired
- he either talks to soft or too loud, and the habit shows no sign of breaking
- the other amis learn to accomodate it, and if he’s being too quiet they know somethings up instantly
- Enjolras always excuses Jehan from meetings so they can stay with Bahorel
- one time he sees a young girl with hearing aids getting beaten up and nothing can hold him back, he’s attacking the attacker and ends up in the hospital
- Enjolras is so proud of him
- Combeferre and Jehan are so worried though
- All Grantaire does is wink and says “this is where you’re supposed to say we should see the other guy”
- the other guy ended up with a fractured collarbone and two broken arms
- his first date with Jehan is at a poetry reading
- and he instantly falls in love because he doesn’t even have to ask for a written copy of the poems being read onstage because Jehan is already at the counter, asking for two copies
- when they say they don’t have them, Jehan just takes Bahorel’s shaking, fisted hand and walks out, and they go to a bookshop and buy the book of poems
- the lady at the counter glares at them when they return to the reading with the book photocopied and Jehan and Bahorel start handing out copies to the audience
- and Bahorel almost cries because he’s so in love
- they spend the rest of the night listening (and reading) the poetry being recited and clutching hands
Bossuet:
- he’s born profoundly deaf in one ear
- it throws him off balance a lot which is why people often believe him to be extremely clumsy
- he hasn’t got two left feet, he’s got one right ear and that’s at times even harder because he can’t grasp the general direction of sound
- He goes through his life truly believing that he’s just incredibly clumsy until Joly tries to whisper some sweet nothing into his left ear and he doesn’t react and they discover his hearing loss
- Which leads to some seriously poor self esteem
- But Joly and Musichetta are there and they’re always making sure to help Boss out
- Musichetta and Joly are both insanely protective of Bossuet and his clumsiness - if someone dares to comment on it Chetta will spit in their drink before serving and Joly will glare at them the whole night
- At first it annoys Bossuet but he soon learns that it’s nice to have someone who’s got his back no matter what
- And he always tries to find little ways to make it up to them e.g staying behind to help Chetta clear up, going with Joly to med talks etc
- there’s the strangest sort of relief he gets when joly diagnoses him
- like sort of an ‘oh- maybe, I’m not so clumsy?’
- one night he’s hanging out with his partners and he can actually pick up on everything, they’re taking the time to check and make sure he can hear them and he starts smiling softly because it all makes sense now
- the night ends in wholesome cuddles :)
- he ends up using his bad luck and his hearing loss for humour
- like he’s so curious and reckless and it annoys the hell out of Joly but at the same time Joly is so happy to see his boyfriend finally seeing his hearing loss and bad fortune in a positive light
- “what would happen if we stuck a like pole next to the magnet in my head?”
- “bossUET NO-“
- oh yeah he eventually gets a cochlear implant
- the surgery doesn’t really freak him out too much
- but the dizziness afterwards is h e l l
- he’s got Joly and Musichetta by his side though so he’s okay 🥰🥰
Feuilly:
- when he loses his hearing completely in one ear and half in the other in an accident he breaks down and his mental health plummets
- Because he thinks he won’t be able to work all his jobs anymore and therefore won’t be able to afford to keep living
- But E n j o l r a s
- He personally makes sure Feuilly finds all the correct support and funding for his recovery and then emails around finding jobs Feuilly can work that don’t require full hearing
- I love their friendship sm—
- He grows to appreciate his hearing loss
- he likes how he can turn his ears off to focus more or when things get too overwhelming
- and he also starts to bring more awareness to the treatment of hoh/D/deaf people in the working industry
- all of les Amis support him wholeheartedly
- of course he faces a shit ton of ableism, especially at work
- they try lowering his wages, leave him out of big decisions, speak down on him etc etc
- and Feuilly is just- too tired to do anything but put up with it by now, he accepts that this is just how life is for him, a little bit harder
- but the m i n u t e Enjolras hears him talking about it to Bahorel he’s marching down to Feuilly’s boss and demanding more rights and equality
- it somewhat annoys feuilly; he doesn’t like having to be defended, he can still be independent and can stand up for himself
- he and Enjolras get into a huge fight over it and the guilt kills both of them
- like seriously kills them
- grantaire and bahorel/jehan are comforting them both after like oh my god bc they’ve never seen either man so upset
- Enjolras learns to take a bit of a step back and respects that Feuilly wants to maintain his independence
- Feuilly learns that it’s ok to need help and even more ok to ask for it
- courfeyrac throws them a party to celebrate them making up :D
Joly:
- he wears two hearing aids, one in each ear
- they’re coloured as a soft brown to match his hair
- and he’s very very consistent in his maintenance/care of his hearing equipment schedule (which I really need to get better at)
- you’ll never catch him missing a day of changing his batteries and cleaning out the ear wax with the patience and precision of a professional
- because really by now he’s a professional
- as he grows older his hearing worsens and by late 20s he needs to get a cochlear implant in one ear
- he’s absolutely terrified; he’s extra aware of all the risks like meningitis and he doesn’t really want to lose the last little bit of his natural hearing in an ear
- musichetta and bossuet both stay with him at the hospital, they help him walk around after the surgery (any surgery questions feel free to ask!) and hold his hands as he goes under anaesthetic
- and of course they’re both there when he wakes up from surgery bc honestly
- it’s J B M
- of course they stayed
- they’re the most supportive and wholesome ship in the world and I love them so much—
- it’s a rocky recovery road
- but joly takes good care of himself with the help of his Bossuet and Chetta
- at first he hates the beeping noises that replaced the sounds of his lovers’ voices and would walk around with only a hearing aid in his other ear
- but they motivate him to wear the CI more and more often so he eventually gets used to it and his brain adjusts
- he gets a little overwhelmed and overstimulated in loud environments; he’s gone his whole life with no full hearing at all, and whilst the CI doesn’t replace it it’s more sound in one ear than he’s ever head
- his anxiety runs pretty high during this moments
- but
- and you guessed it
- bossuet and musichetta help him through it by being their kind and loving selves 🥰
Marius:
- he’s born hard of hearing in both ears, and his grandfather makes sure he gets hearing aids the same colour of his hair to blend in
- he never gets the option to learn sign
- his grandfather basically does everything he can to stop Marius being anything but “normal”, including not letting him talk to other kids like him or getting additional support in classrooms
- so Marius grows up being ashamed of his hearing loss, he keeps it a secret from everyone
- but then he meets les amis
- and they’re fighting for disabled rights and Marius makes a huge fool of himself
- he starts ranting about “normal” and how disabled people have to “hide”
- and he slips up and says ‘we’ instead of ‘them’
- enjolras, combeferre and courfeyrac realise what happened right away and they sit him down
- Enjolras gives him a long talking to
- But it’s all kind and polite, it’s about how disabled people are natural and okay
- Marius actually starts crying a little, because he’s just been told he doesn’t have to hide himself anymore
- courfeyrac gives him the biggest hug
- His grandfather promptly finds out about his new revelations
- cuz Marius can’t lie for shit—
- anyways so he kicks Marius out y’all know the drill
- he stays with courfeyrac and courfeyrac teaches him to sign
- courf’s his best friend honestly
- with his help Marius slowly becomes more and more confident
- and then he meets cosette
- and it all goes down the drain
- Marius is convinced she won’t love him if she finds out he’s hard of hearing and courfeyrac’s just like •_• we’ve been over this marius
- cosette eventually finds out and she’s just like— wait you thought I wouldn’t love you???
- long story short Marius is a bit silly but he’s got his reasons
- and he’s also got courfeyrac and cosette to snap him out of things
Cosette:
- she’s born hard of hearing in one ear
- Thénardier just doesn’t give a damn, instead they get mad at her when she doesn’t hear them
- Cosette doesn’t understand why she doesn’t always hear them — she blames herself, and tries really hard, but it never works
- and then Valjean adopts her, and he gets her hearing checked instead of getting mad
- she gets diagnosed and they set her up with a hearing aid
- people often don’t take her hearing loss seriously
- they think oh it’s just one ear, the other works fine
- but really the other doesn’t matter, she’s still hard of hearing in one ear and it upsets her greatly when people say otherwise
- Valjean tried to shield her from the ableism as much as he can, but it’s difficult
- when she and Marius see each other across the square she’s really worried
- because what if he called out to her, and she didn’t hear him over the noise of the rally?
- and what if he wanted to meet her somewhere? and she didn’t hear?
- what if he was waiting somewhere for her to show up?
- but then he shows up in her garden, and Cosette’s too lovestruck to realise ‘how the hell did he find my home is he a stalker omg’
- she doesn’t hear Éponine singing along with them softly in the shadows
- and later on when she realises what happened she feels so sad and guilty
- because she wanted Éponine too
- she always has
- eventually the three get their shit together at a les amis meeting
- but it’s forced. courfeyrac shoves Marius into her, and Grantaire shoves Ép, and Combeferre is standing slightly behind her should she try make an escape
- because I head canon her and Ferre as friends ok
- and she starts crying a little as she explains to Éponine that she didn’t hear her in the garden
- Éponine goes quiet. like dead silent, and Marius and Cosette look at each other really worriedly
- and then she talks, and Cosette has to strain to hear her bc it’s so quiet
- “I’m so sorry about my parents”
- and éponine’s realised — Cosette wasn’t ignorant. she had been ignored.
- there are lots of tears and Marius is sitting there like uh oh crying girlfriends how do I handle—
Éponine:
- she loses all her hearing in an accident caused by her parents
- and she’s bloody terrified
- because now she can’t hear them coming, and she can’t run until it’s too late—
- she ends up hiding out at Grantaire’s, who automatically takes her to see Joly
- joly’s an angel, he makes sure everyone has a notepad and pen to write on and starts teaching them all basic sign
- eventually (with a lot of help from Les amis’ fundraising which she accepted after a lot of nagging) she saves up enough to afford cochlear implant surgery
- and with Grantaire and Jehan by her side she goes through it all spectacularly, with hardly any complications
- and she’s so happy because she can finally h e a r again
- but then
- it goes downhill
- the beeps and whistles are stressful to make sense out of and it leads to a breakdown
- she takes out her ci and hides them away
- honestly it’s a miracle she doesn’t sell them, money’s always tight—
- but a small part of her knows she’ll go back to them
- the silence is too unbearable
- Joly helps her remember hygiene and batteries
- Grantaire helps her by always being there — he’s her rock
- and jehan is always helping her in small ways — he supplies notebooks, writes her poems, describes the birds chirping
- when she finally starts adjusting to cis jehan answers all of her questions
- because he’s got cis too
- and that alone is a source of comfort for him
Les Amis:
- the group founded by Enjolras, Combeferre and Courfeyrac ofc 🥰
- at first it’s just those three ranting about ableism and cc
- but one by one each of les Amis makes it their own, and they become t h e group to go to for all hoh/D/deaf people, they’re incredibly well known
- and they’re inclusive of all hearing losses too bc,,, well why wouldn’t they be they’re amazing <3
- each of les amis learn to sign, and Jehan holds weekly signing lessons open to anyone who isn’t a dick
- Grantaire and Feuilly help with promos for these classes, and sometimes Enjolras steps in to help
- Bahorel goes along to deal with aforementioned dicks :D
- each of their projects involve making the world a more accessible place for /all/ disabilities
- and Musichetta, with two hearing aids, always keeps the back room unlocked for impromptu meetings
- she used to be given hard times for her hearing loss, and found it hard to get a job— but now she’s got the Musain, where everyone adores her
- And if they don’t, they either leave or Joly and Bossuet knock some sense into them
- one day a little deaf Gavroche stumbles in off the streets and instantly all of les Amis are like
- *hiss* our child now
- he gets taught to read and is taught to sign, cochlear implants are too expensive for them to afford just yet but they’re trying 🥺
- they give Gav the choice, of course, and when he’s old enough he decides he’s ok without them
- they’re all very very supportive
- found family 🥰
- musichetta and gavroche have a unique friendship, she’s very much a mother hen when it comes to him, though he also takes care of her when it’s late and she’s tired
- they make up their own sign language, just for the two of them
- Grantaire, Éponine and Courfeyrac always beg them to teach them but nope, it’s just for gav and Chetta
- It’s incredibly difficult at protests and rallies, especially when they turn into riots
- I mean it’s a group of reckless hard of hearing revolutionaries (except Combeferre and Joly — they’re not quite so reckless)
- but they make plans, they use the buddy system and ensure they’re always in sight of another pair so they can sign and be heard.
- Enjolras and Grantaire get shoved together as buddies because yes
- The rest of les amis get a kick out of it, it’s definitely planned despite them acting as if it was an accident
- the rest of the pairs are: jehan and Éponine, combeferre and courfeyrac, marius and cosette, bahorel and feuilly, joly and bossuet, and gavroche and musichetta.
- almost all of the pairs end up becoming couples (not jehan and ep!)
- this is /definitely/ planned by Gavroche and Musichetta
- they placed bets on who would get together first and who would get together last
- gav wins most of them, though they both lose when Musichetta ends up dating Joly and Bossuet as well
- no one expected that
- except jehan. they see all.
- weekly meetings, they have a talking stick
- it prevents things getting loud and out of hand
- they sit in circles whenever possible, so everyone can see everyone else and sign to each other
- they all speak and sign, except Gavroche who doesn’t speak unless absolutely necessary
- rule is, if you talk/sign without the talking stick, you have to buy the next round of drinks
- when Grantaire becomes sober, the drinks turn from alcoholic to hot chocolates and teas (never coffee. Enjolras is still recovering from his own addiction)
- and besides they’d always get non-alcoholic options for Gavroche and designated drivers — wasn’t much of a change <3
- they throw parties a lot, and they’re chaos, though by the end they turn into wholesome fluffy sleepovers with marshmallows
- the mascot of les amis is officially a deaf puppy
- one in ten puppies never gain their hearing after birth, did you know?
- what starts as one deaf puppy ends up with three
- they’re names are, obviously, liberté, égalité and fraternité — as a group they’re referred to as Cerberus, courtesy of mythology-addicts Grantaire and Jehan