Comfortable Silence (Shinsou Hitoshi x Mute! Gender Neutral Reader)

Chapter 6

It was her. Could you really even say that? You never knew what your mother looked like, and yet her figure, her presence, it haunted you as a child and often. There was no monster under the bed or in the closet whom you feared. No villain to strike terror in your soul, but her. Your own mother, the lady who abandoned you before you were old enough to know her face.

You used to be plagued when you were younger with dreams of her, although they all seemed to disappear as you got older, and left completely when you moved into the dorms. They only reoccurred when you slept back at home. And every time you did have them, the dream was the same, start to finish.

You first walked outside the apartment building with Maiko, the day sunny and bright. There's ice-cream in your hands, and it's melting. You try to save it but licking it faster, but the speed it's melting at is faster than you can eat the ice-cream. You see a shadow tower over yours and the the ice-cream stops melting, but it's significantly colder around you than it is outside. Maiko is no longer beside you.

"Need a little help, lovely?" a sweet voice would ask behind you. You would turn around, and see her. A feminine figure with long, dark hair, and a well-fitted pinstripe suit, glaring purple heels, and a dark red lips. She smiles, and you notice the faint swirl in her hands, knowing exactly why your ice-cream has stopped melting. 

You look down and the ice cream is gone, and when you look back up, she stares right at you, but the rest of her face is blurred, something like a face that maybe looks like you staring at you. 

I'm fine. You would sign, but she would frown at you.

"Speak up lovely, you have a voice, don't you?"

You'd shake your head. Of course you don't. She should know that. She's your mother.

"No? Why not? You should have a voice. I gave you one."

You shake your head again, opening your mouth and making no noise. 

"Really? How disappointing. I wish you had one so that I could talk to you." She'd stand and smile again. "Perhaps I shall try again." The swirl in her hands became a blizzard, suffocatingly cold, harsh and bright.

Your hands would freeze as you signed for her to stop. Her smile would become a devilish grin. "I can't understand you, Lovely. You need to speak up and use your voice so that I can understand you."

And then you'd start screaming, empty and silent, tears streaming down your face. 

"No one can hear you lovely. The heroes cant come save you if they can't hear you." Her figure fades until all you can see are those cruel dark red lips.

She opens her mouth to speak but the voice is different. "Y/N! Wake up!"

You gasp and sit up in your bed, breathing heavily. Maiko's hand is on your shoulder, and you can feel his worry come off in waves.

"Y/n? You okay? I heard a lot of thrashing and thought you were going to hurt yourself." 

The room is dark and you reach for the lamp to flick it on. His expression is concerned. You take in a few deep breaths before signing. Her. Nightmare.

"Again? I thought they went away.."

You shake your head. They come every now and then. Only here, though. The same dream. It was all the same.

He nods, embracing you in a gentle hug. "But she's not here. She hasn't been here. She can't hurt you, you know that. I'm always here to protect you and keep you safe, Y/N. No matter what. I'm not going anywhere."

You nod, your tears appearing on his shirt. You didn't even notice that you had cried in real life. You sniffle and pull away, wiping away the tears, taking in a deep breath. I know you're here for me. I've always known that.

"Good. Are you calm now? We both need sleep, still."

I'll be fine. I just need a bit before I let myself go back to sleep.

He nods slowly, watching you before rising from beside your bed. "Alright. I'll be next door if you need me." He walks to the door, giving you one last glance before disappearing into his room.

You consider picking up your phone, to text someone, anyone, but you stop yourself. You shouldn't let her make you feel weak or helpless. Maiko is right. She hasn't been here, she can't hurt you. Not even in your dreams.

You flip the pillow onto the colder side, lie down and pull the blanket up to your shoulders. You fall back asleep, the rest of the night void of dreams.

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You leave your room the next morning, following the sound of faint machinery, along with the smell of gasoline. Walking down into the lower-half of the apartment, you peek around the corner to see Uncle Hisashi carefully building a tech item. You knock on the railing to catch his attention, but it seems that he's too focused to notice you.

Sighing, you make a finger gun and let a light puff of air leave your finger tip, watching his shirt ripple from the gust of wind. He startles a little, before putting down his tools and turning towards you, a faint smile on his face. 

"Morning Dear. You're up early."

Good morning Uncle Hisashi. This is normal wake-up time for me. Mei is very loud.

"Ah yes, your inventor friend. Quite eccentric, indeed. Do you need breakfast? I can go make some."

You shake your head, walking down the steps and up beside him. What are you making?

"Mt. Lady asked for a special device she could use against a large group of enemies to get them out of the way or to capture them. I'm working on making an expandable and retractable net-ball. It'll grow in size with just a click and then unravel and capture those beneath it with heavy metal with another. Or at least that's what I'll hope it'll do. I can't figure out what to do to reduce the bulk and weight."

Seems very useful.  You glance over at the draft he has laid out, messy scrawls of notes and design changes over top of erased writing circled around a complex drawing of a net. The net itself was made out of wire rope, with a sensor in one of the wires that ran through the entire netting to make it wrap and unravel.

You cross out "wrap rope around each other" on the paper. He looks over your shoulder as you write down another material.  Aluminum alloy wire rope, mechanism to slide into each other to compact size. High flexibility, light and durable. Smaller notches should get the rope to slide into each other.

"Hmm..Good yes...I had thought of that, but the rope would just get super bulky in some parts and the fact that it expands would be obvious," he says, reading your words.  He pulls out another, more recent draft than the main one you're looking at, showing his calculations.

You nod and scribble down a small diagram on the first draft. One piece would be covered, the two beside it would slide over it. When it expands it could grow slightly in size by a small lock and release mechanism. Your mind was racing over small details it could have, calculations going through trial and error in your head. But it made sense. To you, anyways. Maybe Mei, too, because her thinking is way more complex than yours. Uncle Hisashi seems to be running the design through his head as well, working out the numbers. He nods after a moment, happily surprised.

"Well done Y/N. Your mind works much faster than mine, I see." He carefully places the drafts onto the bulletin board above his work station. "I had just started this two days ago, and yet you've practically built it just by staring at it. You're going to be a wonderful inventor, I'm sure."

You shrug and smile. You gave me the base and already had all these notes out. I just filled in some empty spots.

He smiles and pats your shoulder. "Still wonderful work none-the-less, my dear. I believe this breakthrough deserves some breakfast, no?"

You nod, and as if on cue, your stomach rumbles. Do we have oatmeal?

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Author's Note:

Imma be real the second half of this chapter was filler because I wasn't gonna give you guys a chapter that was 800 words long. You all deserve more than that, so I gave you more than that.

Happy reading! We'll get back to Shinsou soon. But tis a slow burn lol.