Memories of Old

Chapter 18: Ties of Brotherhood

Chapter 18: Ties of Brotherhood

Everybody was gathered in the living room, Romano included. His eyes were slightly red, but nothing else betrayed his earlier breakdown. Wisely, nobody brought up the last memory either.

"Is everybody all right to continue?" England asked, his gaze lingered a little longer on my brother.

"I'm fine." He snapped.

"R-right. Sorry." England averted his gaze.

I gently tapped on the back of Romano's hand before opening our Twin Link. 'Are you okay, fratello?'

'I'm fine... I'm just... frustrated, I suppose.' He answered, mentally sighing. We followed the group to the door and back out into the memories.

'You've Blinked Out again.' It probably would've been a question if I couldn't already tell.

'Yeah. This next memory will probably explain it, anyways, won't it?'

I looked around, recognizing my past self and Lovino sitting around a sparse living area. Lovino seemed out of it.

'Yup. Most definitely.'

"So you really can't hear me at all?" Feliciano asked, but Lovino showed no indication of having heard him.

"If you're talking, I can't hear you. I already told you, I'm apparently deaf." Lovino answered, making the nations startle.

Good Time! Talk about jumping right into it! I sighed.

"Wait, what?!" Spain whipped around to Romano, who'd been standing in the back with me.

"I suppose I should explain a bit." I sighed. "We don't know why or how, but one day fratello just woke up... deaf. Completely and entirely deaf. I think someone had slipped him some kind of poison or something, because it affected him right up until we connected with our nation. Though it sneaks back in from time to time. We call it 'blinking out'. It's usually a result of stress, though we've learned how to manage just fine despite these disabilities when we do blink out." I explained.

"Wait, what do you mean 'we'?" Germany asked, his eyebrows knitting together in concern.

"Ah... well, it wasn't too long after fratello lost his sense of sound, that I..." I trailed off, a blush of embarrassment on my face.

Japan's eyes lit up in sudden understanding. "You went blind, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I sometimes blink out, too, but I've learned a lot of tricks to help me when I do. It's part of the reason why I don't like quiet rooms... I feel severely disadvantaged and vulnerable when there's not some kind of ambient noise in the background." I admitted.

"Wait! So you went blind," France started, pointing to me, "and you went deaf?!"

"Pretty much." Romano said. "Also, if you're wondering, I'm actually blinked out right now, so while I can read your lips pretty adeptly, you do need to face me first. So if you're talking to me while facing away from me, I'll just ignore you."

"Felice..." Lovino spoke again, his words sounded somewhat slurred. "W-what am I going to do? I can't even hear myself speaking right now. I'm scared."

Asher whined and pushed his nose up against Lovino's hand, but his words weren't translated into comprehensible English for the other nations, likely because Lovino was deaf, and I hadn't been able to understand wolf at the time.

The nations winced as Lovino's voice trembled with uncertainty and fear. They'd never heard my brother speak like that before, and it unsettled them. They were so used to the loud, brash, confident persona that my brother had built for himself, that this meek scared little boy was a frightening contrast.