Speechless (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter Fourteen: Part Two

Chapter Fourteen: Part Two

Without speaking I kneeled before Harry my hands placing on his that were clutched in his lap. There was no need for signing now, he knew that the answer of ‘Amelia’ would bring me little to no satisfaction and he would have to continue on.

Harry slowly looked into my eyes and I saw the sadness that overwhelmed them. This was a sight not only uncommon for him but for anyone. It was such complete emotional vulnerability that when a person nears it they normally shut down but Harry wouldn’t be so lucky. He had crossed over and there was no way for him to go back.

My hands were cold against Harry’s but I didn’t move them, at this point I was the only one that could help Harry get past this, that could help me regain himself enough to get through the day.

We sat in silence again but this time my attention didn’t waver from Harry, his defenselessness sucked me and held me captive without reason. Our eyes remained locked and my hands rested upon his. Much like I had noticed before time seemed to freeze, cradling us in this intimate moment of pain.

Harry lifted his hand out from under mine and tentatively reached towards me, his fingertips barely brushing the side of my face and it went to push back my hair.

“You look so much like her,” he whispered as he tucked the loose strand carefully behind my ear.

His hand then cupped the side of my face, caressing my cheek softly. I could see the tears begin to roll down his cheeks but I didn’t move. Harry’s hand reluctantly left my face to whip the tears from his own.

Pulling my hands away from his lap I signed slowly, “who is she?”

This was the missing piece; this was Harry’s trigger, Harry’s reason for being who he was.

Amelia.

Harry took a deep breath in as if to gather the pieces of himself that had been strewn around like the leaves caught in the wind.

“Amelia,” his voice broke when he spoke her name and he had to stop to regain his composure one more.

I didn’t care how long we sat here taking in nothing more than the sounds of the park, if it meant that I would finally place the missing piece in the puzzle of Harry I would wait for days.

“Amelia,” he started again this time fighting through the name without losing his composure, “Amelia was my twin sister, she killed herself when we were 14.”

My hand instantly went to cover my mouth in shock. Harry was not only a twin but had lost that twin.

Harry sighed and continued on, he knew if he could keep his momentum going there would be little time for brokenness. Removing my hand from my mouth I pushed myself up from the ground and sat beside Harry on the bench. We both shifted our positions so we were directly facing each other.

Swallowing hard Harry spoke again, “Amelia was five minutes younger than me.”

I nodded slowly and took hold of Harry’s hand in my own intertwining our fingers. I didn’t know if Harry needed it but I would do it anyways. He was going to tell me and if he did break again, he would need a rock to hold him, and I would be that rock.

“She was born with Connexin 26 deafness,” Harry’s face contorted at the word but he continued on, “she was unable to hear from the moment she was first conceived because of a genetic defect in the GJB2 protein.”

A realization then washed over me, this was the reason he knew ASL, his twin sister was born unable to speak like me but for her it was because of deafness. So for Harry, ASL was a second language taught to him at the same time regular English was taught to him.