A few days later, Hearless stands on the ship deck, looking out to the sea, watching the waves in the distance. She feels a tap on her shoulder and looks over to see Illustrious, and the young girl, she learned, was named Unicorn. She sees Illustrious sign to her "We're nearly at harbor; it should only be a few hours", Hearless nods at this and looks out to sea again, but stops herself and turns back to Illustrious, "Is there a chance I could work in the dry docks repairing ships?" Illustrious looks at the hearless in slight surprise before nodding, "Perhaps, but that would have to be discussed with the others, and if they do agree with it, it may take some time to gain their trust." Hearless nods in understanding.
a couple of hours later
Hearless sits on deck, waiting for the carrier to finish docking at the pier. She feels the engines down below stop turning, and she gets up and walks to where Illustrious and Unicorn stand. Illustrious looks up at her and motions for her to follow. They walk down the boarding ramp to meet two blond women, one wearing what appears to be a British officer coat and the other a much more energetic-looking girl wearing a white poncho over a blue shirt with star-spangled socks. "Why, hello, illustrious, its been quite a while," the woman in the British outfit said while looking at illustrious rather than hearless, "and who might you be?" "Wales, I should inform you she's deaf, and she's here because when she made herself known, I was past the return point, so I brought her the rest of the way to have some form of punishment." Illustrious quickly said to Wales, who seemed surprised, "Oh well, then perhaps we should take this to my office along with other official business." illustrious nodded as they walked to the office.
in the office a few moments later
Illustrious was speaking, "I will vouch for her; she has proven herself trustworthy to me; she also likes to be called hearless." Wales listens and nods as she thinks, "You said she appeared after making port in a US Navy shipyard?" "Indeed, I did say that," Illustrious said calmly. "Ill consider it for now, but till then, I want at least one person watching her who understands sign language, so for now it defaults to you," Wales said as she had a look of slight concentration. Illustrious nods as she pours some tea for herself and then offers some to the hearless who accepts it.
"I see that as a fair compromise, but she used to work in ship construction; perhaps she could help Vestal when she gets here?" Illustrious asked after sipping tea, "Well, I see no issue with it as long as Vestal is fine with keeping an eye on her", Wales said, keeping an eye on hearless "I fuckin know I stowed away on her ship, but man, am I being treated like a war criminal?" she thought to herself as she sipped tea while watching the conversation about her.
Cleveland sat there watching the two converse as well, glancing at the hearless every once in a while before deciding to talk to her, "So your part, Sakuran?" Hearless saw movement out the corner of her eye and looked at Cleveland before signing, "Can you repeat that?" Cleveland facepalmed, realizing the issue of trying to communicate with her. "Right, your deaf," she mumbled to herself.
She grabs a piece of paper and pen and hands it to the hearless, "Uh, can you lip-read?" She asked nervously. She gave a quick nod and wrote on the paper, "Can you repeat the first question?" Cleveland nods before repeating, "So your part, Sakuran?" Hearless gives another short nod at that. Cleveland smiles and asks her next question. "So what brought you to Eagle Union?" hearless tapped the pen against the paper before writing, "The society in Sakura Empire wasn't that friendly to me, so I decided to move here and get a job in shipbuilding." She handed the paper to Cleveland, who read it and looked up to her again, "and your parents?" Hearless's ears folded down some as she grabbed the paper back and wrote on it, "Dead car crashes when I was 7 or 8 didn't help my predicament with society; I was seen as broken goods moved here by myself." Cleveland made an oh look with her face in surprise. "I see, that must be." Hearless cut her off by tapping her shoulder and writing more, "It was awhile ago. Let the past die in peace and look to the future." Cleveland seemed surprised by this before nodding at her, "Well, at least you're at peace with it." Hearless's ears folded more before she wrote again. "I try, but it isn't always easy to deal with it; it's also how I went deaf." Cleveland looked at it and made a sad smile before pulling hearless into a hug "It's alright, your safe now" Sadly, hearless didn't see Cleveland's mouth move and thought, "I can't hear shit, and now my sight is being obscured by a hug. Is this a joke?" Hearless pulled herself out of the hug and looked at Cleveland, grabbing the paper and pen and writing, "Why?" "Right, sorry you couldn't hear me," Cleveland said in embarrassment.
Hearless face and palms read that before her body shakes like it was laughing, she grabs an empty piece of paper and writes, "That's a new one for me; perhaps you could learn as well and I wouldn't have to deal with the paper." Cleveland reads this and smiles. "One day, maybe I might be able to get my sisters to learn it as well." Hearing the mention of sisters, she quickly wrote, "Sisters, how many?" Cleveland's eyes lit up reading this: "I got 3, but I think in total there's 5, and the other two are out in the Atlantic doing patrols off of New York." He hearless nods at this and writes, "Cool didn't think you'd have so many sisters." Cleveland reads this and smiles. "Yeah, but they're still building us, so there's going to be more soon", Hearless tilts her head at this information and writes, "What do you mean by building?" Cleveland smiled and simply looked at her and said, "Vestal can make a better explanation of what I said than I could. You can ask her when she's here." Hearless nods at this but notices Cleveland seemed distracted for a moment before rushing out the door. Hearless looks out the window and notices incoming aircraft, and suddenly she feels the raddle of explosions. She sees Wales run out, but quickly looks at him and yells to her, "Stay put." Illustrious does the same but in sign, making sure hearless caught it.
"What in the blazing hell is going on?" Hearless thought to herself.
YOU ARE READING
soundless exile
Fanfictiona young girl battling with her own struggles finds refuge in a ship but little did she know she was aboard a kansens ship
