GermanyXMute!Reader: Silent Sparrow pt. 3

'How are you doing this morning?' ______ signed to me, concentration scrawled on her face as she translated her thoughts through her hands.
  
I spoke and signed to her, "Pretty well, how about you?"  I had to learn signing as much as ______ had.  The whole point of her learning how to sign was to be able to communicate with Gilbert and me without having the clunky whiteboard all the time.  It had proven rather difficult for me, but ______ picked it up rather quickly.  She was so eager to be able to talk with me, to put her thoughts out and exchange them with mine.
  
'Really well, but my neck is sore, I think I slept funny.'  She stuck her tongue out slightly at the mention of her neck being sore.  She still utilized her face to express emotion that her hands still struggled to convey.
  
Though she was still our bright and cheery _______, Gilbert and I still noted that she was still withdrawn and less lively than before the accident.  Her eyes didn't quite have the same shine as when she could tell us verbally how she was doing, and her heart just didn't penetrate her actions the way they used to.  However, each time she found a new way to communicate—gestures, the whiteboard, sign language—the dullness from her eyes seemed to fall away.  She was beginning to brighten once again.
  
It gave us so much hope to see ______ opening up.  We both did our best to make sure that our Sparrow could glow the way she used to. We made sure to learn signing alongside _____.  I was adequate at it, but Gilbert had taken to signing even more avidly than ______ had.  He took all of the video lessons with Sparrow and even revisited a few that he wanted to improve upon.  I was amazed at how well he was doing.  I still had to think long and hard about what signs meant what, but Gil could tell and respond as though he had been signing for much longer than a week.  I was a bit jealous of his fluency to be honest.
  
A loud "Guten Morgen!" accompanied by a massive gesture heralded Gilbert's arrival.  Beaming at this obnoxious, but very Gilbertesque greeting, Sparrow turned around in her seat and offered a sweet, though equally big, gesture for "good morning."

"How'd you sleep?" Gilbert asked verbally and visually.  _______ gave him the same response she had given me, her gestures slightly more confident than before.  They continued to sign at one another, and I did my best to catch what they said.
  
To anyone listening in, it would sound like Gilbert was having a one-sided conversation with himself, but our family knew that—unseen and unheard—there was a little bird singing its silent melody.
  
"Gilbert," I put my hand in the shape of a G and made the symbol for "awesome", Gilbert's name sign, "we have the meeting to go to today, so don't be too long."  My signs lagged a bit behind my words, but I think I got the right signs out.
  
Sparrow hopped up in her seat and signed rapidly, 'Can I come with you today?' Her eyes glittered eagerly.

Gilbert signed and said, "Sure thing, we'd love to bring you."

"But make sure you are ready in time," I signed to her, smiling, but still business-like.  "We leave right at 9 'o clock."
  
'I will be,' _______ signed quickly before wolfing down the rest of her bacon and eggs and rushing up to her room.  I was happy she wanted to come with us, but she hadn't asked to come with us to a World Conference in a long time.  I wondered if she had another reason she wanted to come with us.
  
Pushing the thought aside, I locked eyes with Gilbert and signed, 'I'm serious.  9 'o clock, sharp.'

Gilbert signed offhandedly, 'Yeah, yeah,' and continued to eat his eggs.
  

***

"Yo, Germany!  How've ya been?"

I winced at the over-enthusiastic greeting from America.  I never could get used to just how loud this country was.
  
"I'm doing well, America, thank you for asking," I replied politely.  At that point, Gilbert and ______ had just turned the corner of the hall and met up with me.

  Both had spruced up for the occasion nicely.  Gilbert was wearing a sharp dark blue suit with a white undershirt and matching tie.  _______ had curled her hair, giving it a cute bounce and healthy shine and wore a knee-length gray pencil skirt and matching top with a white camisole underneath.  She wore a red scarf around her neck to hide the scars on her neck from the accident.
  
America's already-huge smile widened even more as he caught sight of my family.  "Prussia!  Where've ya been?"  Gilbert and he had a quick, masculine embrace as Gilbert expounded on how he hadn't seen this particular son-of-a-gun for ages.
  
The bespectacled blonde then turned his attention to ________.  "This isn't ______, is it?  You we're only this big last time I saw ya," Alfred put his hand at the level of his kneecap.  ________'s eyes sparkled at the joke as she went forward to hug him.  "You are getting so big," America playfully emphasized the "so".

"America, what are you bloody well shouting about this time?"
  
"Ve~, Germany!  You finally got here!"

"Konichiwa, _______-chan."

Before we knew it, we were completely swept up by the whole World Conference talking at once.  So many countries asked me how I was doing, to which I uncomfortably said I was fine.  I could handle these meetings when everything went smoothly, but these rough and unorganized interactions I found some-what uncomfortable.  Gilbert was doing absolutely fine with all the attention and got swept up in conversation rather quickly.  ________ was being swarmed by many countries excited to see her.
  
Back when she was a toddler, we had to bring _______ to a lot of meetings out of necessity and she had easily made the entire world her adoptive uncles and aunts.  Few people could say that the whole world loved them, but ______ was one of those few.
  
"It's good to see you again, mija."

"________!  You are still too cute, aru!"

"Come here and give your Uncle Denmark a kiss, min lille blomst."

"You haven't forgotten your auntie Ukraine, now have you, _______?"

"Oh my God, ______, you have to, like, totally stop growing or you're going to be, like, too big to share clothes with."
  
________ tried to juggle all of the greetings, compliments, and embraces from her extended family.  She beamed as she greeted her adoptive family, happy to see all of them once again.  She couldn't have gotten a word in edge-wise if she wanted to with all of the hugs, kisses and questions.

Though I was happy to see my little Sparrow reunited with everyone, the meeting was now almost twelve minutes behind schedule.  I tried to keep the vein in my forehead from twitching to rapidly as I watched both my sister and the clock.  As the hands of the clock passed 10:15, my patience wore thin.
  
Unable to take it anymore, I prepared to raise my voice over the crowd when Russia, towering over everyone else, gave a calm yet-loud enough-to-silence-the-crowd, "Excuse me."  He smiled his sickly sweet smile that sent shivers up my spine.  "I think we should start this meeting, da?  I would very much like to discuss this whole human rights trade restriction America has been going on about."  The pure aura of evil that surrounded the massive country appeared all the more frightening coupled with his naively disarming smile.
  
It went without saying that the meeting needed to begin, right away.
  

***


I loosened my red tie from around my neck and sipped on the glass of water in front of me.  This meeting had actually been more productive than any other I had ever attended: we actually ended a half of an hour early.  Had I known ______ could motivate the whole world to sit down and cooperate, I would have asked her to come sooner.
  
Every country sat on the edge of their seat, waiting eagerly to hear from their favorite niece.  _______ bit her lip as she stood up, all the while tangling her fingers in the edge of her red scarf.  I had never seen her so nervous before.

She had asked me in the hospital not to tell any of the other countries about the accident.  She said she wanted to keep it to herself.  As she stood there, looking both shaken and sure of herself, I hoped my sister wouldn't regret her decision to come to the meeting today.  She gave the whole conference hall a wan smile, raised her hand to her neck, and pulled down the scarf.
  
The whole room was utterly silent.  All eyes were fixed on the angry red scars on _______'s neck.  The cruel, red, thorny vines grew from the center of her neck and twined around the rest of its otherwise smooth surface, menacingly threatening to throttle her.
  
_________ looked to Gilbert and signed quickly, 'Translate for me, please.'  He nodded his assent as my little sister stood bravely in the center of the room.  This would be the first time anyone outside of Gilbert and me would see her "speak".
  
'I'm sorry I never told you all before,' she began, her face apologetic, yet determined.  Many already confused faces in the room grew more worried as they saw the strange motions _______ made and heard Gilbert speaking for her.  'But a little under a month ago, I was stabbed in the neck after being held hostage at the mall.'
  
Eyes widened and a few grew red at this statement, but the room was still filled with a deathly hush.
  
'I can't speak anymore.  My vocal chords aren't working.  I've been so scared this whole time.  I just don't want to be forced to be silent, so Gilbert and Ludwig learned Sign Language with me.  I want you all to know that I love you very much, and that I wanted to tell you sooner, but I didn't want to worry you, since you have such important jobs to do.'  She paused here, looking at the ground for a second and began again.  'You all are my family and I was wrong to keep this from you.  I'm sorry.'

When it became obvious that she had finished, I saw one hand slowly rise in the air.  _______ looked over and signed, 'Yes, Italy?' spelling his name quickly with her hands since she did not know a name sign for him.  The fact she called him Italy seemed oddly formal of her.  She had always referred to him as Uncle Ano, her own special nickname for Feliciano.
  
He stood up as Gilbert translated for her, looked her in the eyes—big brown puppy-dog eyes staring into hers—and said, "There's no need to be sorry, we're just happy you told us."
  
________ smiled widely.  The sort of smile you give when tears are threatening to choke out.  'Thank you,' she signed gratefully.
  
After that, the whole of the meeting hall thronged impatiently around _______ to ask talk with her.  Some asked her how she was feeling, how she felt about losing her voice, how she was holding up.  Some just came up and embraced her, or started to cry.  A few even asked if they could give her a name sign to call them by.  I was astounded that, in spite of the disorderly mob gathered around her, everyone waited his or her turn to speak with _______.
  
It was almost two hours after the meeting had finished when the last country had spoken to _______.  When just the three of us were left in the hall, she let her long-squared shoulders collapse and her once strong face relax.  Her brave front was now gone.  She sighed silently and signed to me, 'Let's go home.'
  
Gilbert and I gathered our things and began to walk out of the hall.  It seemed cavernous now that it was devoid of arguing countries.  As we sat in the car, Gilbert signed to ______, 'Sparrow, why did you tell them?  I thought you said you weren't going to?'  

'Because I had to prove to myself that I could tell someone,' she replied.  That one comment echoed with wisdom beyond her years.  'I had to be able to get past the fear of being rejected for not being able to speak.'
  
I watched her from the mirror, her little face full of tired conviction and strength.

"So, does that mean you've made your decision, about the surgery?"  I asked tentatively.
  
_______'s faced the floor for a second, her brow furrowed and her eyes staring into space.  She met my eyes a few seconds later, 'I think so, but I still don't really know.'

I smiled quietly.  I knew this was a tough decision, much tougher than she deserved in her life.  "Whatever you choose, we'll help you through it."
'Promise?' she signed.
  
Gilbert and I replied en masse, "Promise."