Smoker X Mute Reader, modern AU, as requested by RoseDracul, hope you like it!

A fight broke out between two men being brought in for questioning. They were both cuffed but it didn't stop them. The first was giant redhead, complete with red tinted lips and a equally large metal prosthetic. The man he was trying to pummel was shorter and slim, with pitch black hair and dark bags under his eyes. You simply watched the five different officers pounce on them to break it up from the safety of your desk. They all had tasers if things got out of hand and it wasn't like little ol' you could do much to help.

You sighed as you got back to writing up a report.

Just another day at the office.

You started working as an officer in this particular city relatively recently and you worked alone. Many of the other officers left you to your own devices, deciding that since you refused to talk to them you were too much of a stuck up bitch to bother with. The funny thing was, you didn't choose not to talk to them, you couldn't. Yep. You couldn't speak. But it worked in your favor pretty well, for the job at least.

Your boss knew about your situation but found it wasn't his business to tell anyone else and that meant no one messed with you. There were no eager co-workers hoping to get you out on a date, no men assuming you'd need their help with cases, and no one coming around to talk because they were bored and distracting you from work. All in all, it was a halfway decent set up. The only issue was, sometimes you wished you had company.

It wouldn't hurt for one person to mosey on over and try chatting you up or offering assistance, if only for the sake of getting to communicate with someone besides your boss. But you wouldn't complain too much, you could've really gone out of your way to introduce yourself to others when you first started working here but you felt you were beyond that now. So it wasn't just their fault things were like this. Sometimes it's important to show some initiative, especially with a handicap like yours.

You watched the short tussle blow over as cops separated the two men, both of them spouting insults at each other as they pulled away, looking a little more battered than before. Your fingers naturally found their way to the thick choker around your neck and began fiddling with the band. As soon as things settled down and the men were out of sight, you went back to work.

----

You liked to take your lunch break while everyone else was hard at work, so it wasn't uncommon for you to push it back pretty far. When you finally got around to it, the break room was completely deserted with the exception of the occasional co-worker popping in to top off their coffee before heading back out. It left the room almost quiet. Nothing was ever perfectly quiet of course. There was the sputter from the coffeepot, the subtle whirring from the fridge, and whatever small noises you made whenever you shuffled around in your seat as you scrolled through your phone after eating.

The imperfect silence was a welcome change from the normal sounds of the rest of the station. You were accustomed to your home being in a similar state as the break room and the loud noises of day to day life got to be a bit much at times. This was a good time for you to unwind before heading back to your desk or out on a job. You still had plenty of time left when the door opened and another officer walked in. You'd seen him around plenty of times but once again, you'd never spoke to him.

His name was Smoker and he was one of the harder working officers around here. He was always out on one job or another, chasing leads and catching criminals. As tough as he sounded and looked though, rumors were the silver haired man had a soft spot for kids too. A hard ass at work and a nice enough guy in every day life.

Smoker sent you a sidelong glance as he did the same thing every other officer had done when they came in and went straight to the coffee pot, pouring himself a fresh cup. Except instead of heading out as soon as he was done, he turned around and leaned against the counter. It felt odd to you but it was the break room. There was nothing saying no one else could be in here with you.

You went back to scrolling while he stood in silence, not even sipping at his hot coffee. It took everything to resist the urge to frown as you felt his eyes on you. You wanted to tell him staring was rude, except you couldn't quite do that. Maybe he'd get the point if you stared right back.

"So what's your deal?" He growled.

Having someone actually speak to you was enough to make you look up at him with surprise as he stepped forward to stand in front of the table you were seated at. You were too caught off guard to respond so he spoke up again.

"You don't talk to anyone, no one knows a damn things about you, and you refuse to work with a single cop here."

There was a lot wrong with that and you were set to explain it all. With a sigh, you pulled up your notepad app on your phone to type up a message for him, the chances of him knowing sign language was slim to none and you weren't in the mood to test if he knew.

"So now you're ignoring me?" He snapped, yanking a chair out from under the table and dropping into it.

You looked up for a second to hold up your finger, telling him to wait before getting back to typing up a response. He gave a baffled scoff but leaned back in his seat as he clamped his mouth shut and crossed his arms over his chest.

When you had your thoughts written out, you slid your phone across the table to him. He gave you a slight, confused frown and then looked down at the screen to read your response.

<I don't talk because I can't. No one knows anything about me because they haven't made any attempts to. And I don't refuse to work with anyone, I just hadn't offered to and neither has anyone else.>

He fixated on the first sentence. "What do you mean you can't talk?"

You figured it wouldn't hurt to show him, it'd make things easier to understand. You reached around to undo the choker and pulled it away, revealing the harsh scar it hid. Smoker's eyes immediately softened up as he took it in, realizing the mistake he made when he assumed you chose not to talk.

"You really can't....I'm sorry for bringing it up."

You shook your head and wrote out a new response.

<It happened some years ago and I got over it pretty quick. It's no big deal.>

"Except everyone assumes you're a stuck up bitch."

Your lips curled up into a smile. <I figured as much and I don't really mind. Work still gets done.>

Once you were sure he was done checking out your scars, you put the choker back in place. Having them on full display didn't bother you. The constant looks and whispered comments did. It got annoying overtime, made you self-conscious when you really didn't need to be. Hiding them kept people from giving you a hard time, even if the accessory wasn't quite normal for most people to wear, especially cops.

"Would it be wrong to ask what happened?" Smoker was curious but he was trying to be considerate as well. Lucky for him, you didn't mind sharing the story.

<When I first started as a cop I thought I knew what I was doing, assumed I was just as good as anyone else with a badge. My partner who was showing me the ropes at the time and I went to go check in on a call about a group of teens causing a ruckus in the streets. He thought it'd be an easy one, tell the kids to behave and be on our way.>

"Wasn't that easy though, was it?"

<Never is. And I learned that the hard way.>

Smoker grimaced, he was already getting an idea of what happened. Not like it was a hard story to follow anyway.

<We met up with the kids, a group of about five. All of them had bad attitudes and acted like it wasn't their first run in with the police. They were yelling at people passing by, shaking down anyone they thought had a few bucks on them, probably smoking some illegal stuff. We never got to look into that last bit. A few people who'd been standing nearby for a while filled us in on what'd been going on, all the while the kids were lying, as expected. The kids didn't like being ratted out and put in cuffs so it started to get tense from there.>

"They decided to put up a fight." Smoker rubbed at his chin and leaned forward so he could see what you were saying as you typed it out. He was getting sucked into this.

<Unfortunately. We went to start frisking them for weapons and three of them pulled guns on us. I didn't learn till after all this that they were relatively new members to a local gang, they were probably hoping for trouble and were happy when it came to them. We couldn't do anything with others nearby and multiple guns on us, so we had to surrender and hope for the best. Me being a rookie, I thought something could still be done. I tried talking to them, reasoning with them, but they wouldn't listen. When they started getting rough with my partner, I started getting angry. It turned into a pretty heated yelling match. If I were smart, I would've kept my cool but all the shouting drew other people's attention and more cops were called. It was well on its way to becoming a hostage situation.>

Smoker was almost beginning to look like he was regretting asking about this, but he wasn't backing out. Kudos to him for that.

<The kids didn't want to stick around though and risk dealing with more cops than just the two of us but they weren't about to leave without making a "statement" so to speak. They figured they'd pull out a knife and cut up my throat and made my partner watch. While I was working on bleeding out on the road, they shot him right between the eyes, point blank. And then they left.>

He swallowed a couple times before asking the one question that you knew was bugging at him. "How'd you manage to make it?"

<They either had no clue what they were doing when they cut me, or they had extensive knowledge on anatomy and knew how to avoid the most important parts. I'm betting it was the first. Either way, I passed out from blood loss and woke up in a hospital bed. I was told I was lucky to have survived but I'd never be able to speak again.>

".... I'm sorry for bringing all that up." He shuffled around in his seat uncomfortably.

You couldn't help but smile. He came in frustrated that you wouldn't deal with anyone and when he figured out why, he seemed very apologetic, like he wasn't looking to start trouble, but simply just wanted answers. Based on this short interaction, you figured he wasn't all that bad of a guy.

<It's all in the past. If I would've handled things better I think it would've turned out better but I can't change what's happened. At least I can say I learned a lot from it.>

You looked at the time, noticing your break was over. It was an awkward place to leave a conversation, but you couldn't goof off at work. Smoker noticed what you were going for right away.

"Break's done?"

You nodded.

"I guess I won't take up more of your time then. Thanks for telling me, I know you didn't have to. You aren't as stuck up as everyone thinks."

You laughed silently, catching the teasing tone in his voice. He gave you a close lipped smile back. You gave him a wave goodbye as you got up to leave, happy the interaction went well, all things considered.

"(Y/n), right?"

You turned back to him questioningly.

"I hate leaving things like this. Maybe we could get together for lunch sometime, outside of work. Maybe get to know each other a bit?"

<Yeah, I think I'd like that.>

"Great, we'll do that then."

Heading back to your desk, you felt like you were looking forward to talking with him again. Though your first real meeting with him started out a bit rough, it ended well. You planned on the lunch date going just as nicely.