Silent Beauty

Chapter 4: The Start of a Friendship

Matthew blushed as they walked and sped up a bit. (Alfred ignored it for the most part, but if he tried anything on his bro, they would definitely fight.)

---

"Hey Ludwig, I have a question." Alfred told the alpha as they walked up the stairs. They both lived on the same floor, but Ludwig was a few doors down.

"Ja, what is it?" He asked.

"What does this mean?" Alfred stopped walking and repeated the sign Arthur did as best as he could; he curled his fingers, leaving the pointer finger and thumb out but with no curve, then interlocked the pointed finger twice, dominant hand on top first then less dominant on top the second time. Ludwig watched and nodded.

"Oh, you mean this." Ludwig repeated the movements, but he did curl the pointer finger and thumb. "This means friend."

Alfred nodded. "How do you say 'we are friends' in sign?"

"You do this."

Ludwig pointed at Alfred. "You." He held his hand out with the palm facing himself and fingers in a circular motion in the middle of his body, then as he brought it to the right, the fingers closed in front of his shoulder. "And." He held up his pinkie. "I." He did the motion for friends again. "Friend."

"But that makes no sense speaking wise?" Alfred asked, feeling confused.

"Sometimes, so you don't take up too much time, a person only signs a few words of a sentence to the other. That's not so say some of them will always understand, so most just do the whole sentence. Arthur is smart, he'll know what you meant." Ludwig patted his shoulder and started walking off, but Alfred stopped him again.

"Wait, uh, how did Arthur lose his voice? He kinda let it slip that he used to be able to talk, but was he in some type of accident or something?" He asked.

Ludwig sighed. "Not to be cliche, but it's not my place to tell. I will say that yes, he was in an accident, and if he tried, he'd be able to talk. There's just something keeping him from it."

Alfred nodded. "Right, thank you."

They walked off to their rooms, both thinking deeply.

As soon as Alfred closed his door, he started practicing what Ludwig taught him. "You and I friend. You and I friend. You and I friend." He mumbled over and over until he was sure he got it perfectly.

---

The next day, Alfred went through his classes and practice working on the one phrase.

"You and I friend." He mumbled as he walked to his room, practicing the motions. He didn't watch where he was going and ultimately ran into someone. He looked up and saw Mattie.

"Oh hey Matt when are we leaving to the academy?" Alfred asked him.

"Uh, around 2:30 I think, why?" Matt asked, looking at his watch.

1:27 pm

"I just wanted to finish my homework before we left, that's all. I'll see you later bro!"

Alfred ran to his room as he waved back at his brother, a plan forming in his head.

'Artie'll like it! I'm sure of it! It's never failed!' He smirked to himself.

---

Arthur stared at the giant box of chocolates Alfred pulled out of his backpack and placed on his lap. He just blinked, unsure what it meant. He looked back up at Alfred curiously.

The two met up when Arthur was walking through the front garden just as the group got there and Alfred immediately requested they go to Arthur's place again. Arthur didn't think anything of it-his brothers (all alphas) visit all the time so he wasn't new to it-and took him to his room again, only to be sat down on the bed as soon as the door closed and have a big box placed on his lap.

"It's an apology for if I offended you with the whole 'covering-scent' and 'why-are-you-mute' stuff yesterday. I hope you accept it." Alfred smiled.

Arthur looked back down at it and bit the inside of his cheek. He did like chocolate, and it was supposed to be an apology-even though Alfred didn't really do anything wrong. He sighed and looked at the alpha, this time giving him a smile and nodding, bringing the box close to show he accepted it.

"Really? Great! Oh, I forgot! I have another surprise for you. Don't laugh if I mess up, I'm still pretty knew at this." Alfred warned before raising his hands.

Point at Arthur. Do the whole hand in the middle then closes as it comes towards the shoulder thing with right hand. Stick out pinkie. All but fingers but pointer and thumb curled into palm on both hands, make pointer and thumb look like a 'c', interlock first time with right hand's pointer on top, interlock second time with left hand's pointer on top. "You and I friend." He said as he signed.

Arthur beamed and clapped. He messed up a bit with the 'and' but he didn't care. Alfred was trying. That was more than anyone else had done in the past.

"Really?! I did good?!" Alfred asked excitedly. Arthur got off the bed, placing the chocolates on his desk and grabbing the stack of post-it notes. He got a pen and began writing.

'You messed up the 'and' a bit but I'm very proud. You did good Alfred.'

Alfred beamed after reading the note. "Great! So that means you consider us friends too?"

Arthur smiled and nodded. 'Duh.' He wrote again.

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Yay another one up!

BTW, in case any of you were wondering, I'm using ASL aka American Sign Language. I am well aware that it's different from other countries' sign language (except Canada, I'm pretty sure they share the same one) but I am from America so I gotta do what I can with my limited resources. Sorry if any of you are from different countries and didn't recognize any signs. I am also kinda bad at describing the signs and their motions so I'm sorry about that if it sounds weird. Please feel free to look it up yourself if you don't understand what I'm writing, I won't be mad, promise!

Also that little fact Ludwig told Alfie? The whole "a person only signs a few words of a sentence to the other, and it can still be understood by the person receiving the message" thing is true. I mean, we text each other lik ths dnt we? We didn't necessarily need that one letter there to understand the word. It's the same with them, but they can drop a word completely! Cool huh?!

I would also like to add that even though this is mainly UsUk, I will sometimes focus on other ships in here like PruCan or GerIta. Can't leave them out of the equation!

Until next time guys! ^.^