Mute Me

Kitten slipped her head phones into her ears as she exited the bus on their first stop of the European tour. She was going to wake up Princess but when she’d gone to her bunk to wake her the girl wasn’t there. There was a note how ever in her place letting the older girlfriend know that Princess was out in the sun already getting the merch tent set up first. A Small smile graced her lips as she made her way out of the bus tying her hair up so that it didn’t get to hot on her neck. She wandered over to where she knew the merch tent was being set up and smiled at the appearance of her younger girlfriend, Princess.

Despite the nickname Princess was a pretty hard worker especially when she enjoyed what she was doing and being a stage hand was always something both girls had kind of enjoyed. Walking over she gently tapped her lover on the shoulder to let her know she was there not wanting to spoke her. Princess turned around looking at Kitten and smiled making a heart with her hands before going back to work.

See there was something different about these two girls, something the rest of crew had noticed but the bands had yet to pick up on. Neither girl spoke a word, the whole first part of the south American tour neither girl had said a word. They only signed to each other and if they had to communicate with other people they would use text messages or a note of paper. No one ever really questioned why they didn’t talk and none of the other crew members ever tried to force them to talk. They simply communicated however made the girls comfortable.

Most of the time that consisted of leaving the girls alone to do their work and occasionally asking Yes or No questions, nothing more complicated than that. Sometimes that made life a little difficult for the other stage hands but they worked around it not wanting to make the girls uncomfortable. The funny thing was no one even knew how they got this job. None of the bands had ever met these girls, none of the management team seemed to know them, the only one that seemed to have any idea who they were was the stylist on tour Lou Teasdale.

But usually when Lou was asked about the girls she simply shrugged and sent whoever it was on their way without answering questions. It was very mysterious, the whole situation. The girls seemed to be pretty comfortable though and that made everyone else keep their distance. Every now and then Kitten and Princess would catch another crew member watching them communicate or just be together. Their relationship seemed to baffle and amaze the rest of the crew and it embarrassed the girls every now and then but there were days neither girl really cared.

‘I have to go set up stage, you ok here?’ Kitten signed Princess smiled and nodded reaching over and offering her girlfriend a soft kiss. They shared a moment of love before Kitten reluctantly pulled away and headed towards the stage. She frowned noticing a taller blonde boy running around the unset up stage area. He was singing something to himself and dancing around one of the other crew members. She’d never seen him before then again she still hadn’t seen/met the main band on this tour. She knew the name of the band but she didn’t know what they looked like and she never stuck around for the concert. Often opting out to find a quiet place to read or be alone with Princess.

“Niall shut up already,” Dan laughed as Kitten approached, Niall, what a strange name. She’d heard that name before. She believed Princess mentioned that name once or twice while they were “talking” But she couldn’t remember where that name came from or who it belonged to at this point.

“No! I’m bored! The guys are napping! Entertain me!” the blonde chanted jumping up and down as Dan, someone kitten had worked with before, set up the drum set double checking the stands. The blonde whined and jumped on Dan’s back startling Kitten who frowned and back away a little bit accidently running into something laying on the floor and tripping over on her butt. Landing with a loud thud, she unfortunately drew attention to herself.

“Oh kitten, Hey,” Dan smiled as he turned around to face her shaking the blonde off his back. “here let me help,” He rushed over to her side and pulled her to her feet. “Are you ok?” She blushed and simply nodded her head before looking around the stage and looking back at Dan asking a silent question. But again her silent communication with him was interrupted by the eager blonde who was still jumping up and down.

“Who’s this? Why haven’t I met her before? Dan? Dan? Who is this? What’s her name? She’s pretty? Is she a crew member” When Dan simply rolled his eyes the blonde decided to turn his questions on her. “What’s your name? Are you a crew member? How come I’ve never seen you before? Did you know you’re pretty?” Kitten simply stared at him her brown eyes wide as saucers as he threw questions her way. She’d never met someone so aggressive about greetings before.

“Leave her alone Niall,” JD one of the other crew member hummed as he approached with Princess at his side and Kitten practically let out a whimper in relief. “the only thing left to be set up is the ramps if you girls want to work on that,” He smiled and both Princess and Kitten nodded. Kitten rushed towards where the ramps were kept Princess on her heals and unfortunately so was this ‘Niall’ character.

“Who is that? Is she your girlfriend? Are you two best friends? Are you two stage hands? What’s your name? How come I don’t see you at the show? Do you not like us?” He rattled off questions and Princess looked a little confused and bewildered at the males behavior as well as Kitten. The elder girlfriend shook her head tapping the ramp to get Princess attention back. “Do you hate me? You hate me don’t you? That’s why you aren’t saying anything!” The blonde practically wailed As he followed the girls carrying the heavy ramp onto the stage.

“Niall,” JD shook his head at the excited male. “They don’t speak, it’s not that they hate you, they just don’t talk,” Kitten and Princess set down the ramp and watched as a look of pure confusion settled over Niall’s face.

“What do you mean they don’t speak?!” Kitten jumped startled by his tone of voice. Princess set a comforting hand on her girlfriend’s arm and rubbed the skin, calming kitten. Niall’s head whipped back and forth trying to figure out how someone could…not speak.

“Not everyone is as talkative as you are Niall,” Jon another crew member laughed as he continued to set up the keyboard area shaking his head at the excited boy band member.

“Yeah but everyone Talks!” Niall flailed as he watched the girls set up the ramps quietly kind of watching him warily as if he was going to bite them or something worse.

“I guess not, These girls haven’t spoken since they started touring with us,” Dan shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal but Niall was left gaping like a fish completely in awe at the fact that someone could be silent that long.

“How do you guys talk to them then!?” Kitten rose an eyebrow he was asking a lot of questions and he didn’t seemed ashamed to be asking them in front of the two girls like they didn’t exists. Dan looked over at them before looking back at Niall and shaking his head. JD shook his head standing up he walked over to the girls.

“you guys can be done for the day, If you want to go man the merch tent that’d be nice, Fans should start loading in soon.” He paused and looked back at Niall. “And don’t worry about Niall, he doesn’t know how to be a gentleman,” He smiled kindly at the two girls. Kitten giggled quietly covering her mouth and Princess stared at JD in awe as if he’d just insulted her idol which in a way he had but it amused her none the less.

‘Thank you’ Princess signed and grabbed Kitten’s hand dragging her off to the tent leaving Niall staring towards them absolutely confused. JD laughed slapping the boy on the back of the head before going back to what he was doing. Niall whined after a moment before rushing back to the bus. He ran full force towards the bus throwing the door open.

“GET UP” He screamed and thumping echoed around the bus followed by a load of cursing. Liam swore he saw stars as he fell out of his bunk startled and hit the floor because of his youngest lovers excited entry. Louis looked as equally as pissed off about being woken up so suddenly. Mumbling and groaning under their breath they gathered in the front of the bus looking at Niall like he’d lost his mind.

“What on earth is so important you felt the need for that?” Harry asked rubbing the top of his head trying to sooth the bump that had been created from being startled out of bed. Niall looked frantic like something was wrong and it sobered up all the boys pretty quickly. “What’s wrong Niall?” Forgetting the pain in his head as worry consumed him for his younger lover.

“They don’t talk! I just.. I just met these two girls and they don’t talk!....Like at all they don’t speak!” Niall gasped frantically flailing his hands about as if he was telling a very animated story. Zayn closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Niall,” Liam started shaking his head and letting out a sigh. “What the hell are you even talking about,” He wandered over to the coffee machine as Niall continued to babble for a minute looking for the words to say.

“These two girls on the crew! They don’t talk…They don’t speak at all,” Niall gushed looking at his lovers frustrated no one was understanding why he was so upset about this. Then Louis’ face lit up and he laughed shaking his head.

“The mute girls, yeah I was watching them at the merch booth the other day, was fascinating,” The eldest lover of the band. “I even went over and bought something from them. They had no idea who I was and my face is on the shirts,” He smiled as if it was one of the funniest things ever to have someone not recognize him.

“I don’t think they know who any of us are, they didn’t recognize me either,” Niall whined as if it was the opposite of the way Louis was acting. To Niall it was absolutely the end of the world that someone didn’t know who he was and wasn’t excited to meet him.

“I don’t think they do, I’ve never seen them attend a concert. I’ve seen them hanging with Lou though, I wouldn’t stress about it Niall,” Zayn spoke up having seen the girls the other day with Louis as the merch booth and having been just as fascinated. Part of him was curious as to why they didn’t talk part of him just wanted to scoop them up and love them until they were completely smothered in his love.

“Why don’t they talk? Who doesn’t talk!?” Niall cried throwing himself on the floor of the tour bus completely distraught that these two girls didn’t speak. “How am I supposed to make friends with them!?” Liam held back a chuckle as he leaned down picking up his boyfriend and setting him on the couch as he made himself a cup of coffee.

“People are mute for different reasons Niall,” Liam explained patting the top of his lovers head as he sipped his coffee. “Maybe you should learn to sign or something,” Liam had never actually met these girls and neither had harry but Harry looked extremely excited at the idea of new friends.

“I know a little sing language! Maybe I can talk to them!” Harry looked excitedly at Niall. “let’s go see if I can talk to them!” He urged and Zayn shook his head because as far as he was concerned they should probably just leave the two girls be. Maybe the girls didn’t want to be social, maybe talking to them was a bad idea. No one had ever really communicated with them, they could be awful people. But before he could protest the two youngest boyfriends were racing out of the bus.

“I worry about those children sometimes,” Louis added as he made himself a cup of tea and sat down to talk with his other boys.