AN: I had this idea, and I hope this doesn't offend anyone. I would like to say before you read this that I don't know much about selective mutism, just what Google has taught me. So there's that. Nothing else to say, really.

The Feeling's Mutual

Living in a hospital isn't the most ideal of situations, but they put up with it. They ended up sharing a room in the mental health ward, in silence. Both had their own reasons for being mute, but obviously neither were going to share. Instead they shared the quiet.

During the first week, the green eyed blonde man stared at the walls. He made no effort to communicate with the nurses who brought him food, or the doctors who attempted to give him counselling therapy. He just sat there. The only person who could get him to make any kind of response was the insanely tall, long haired man who visited him every afternoon. When he appeared, the man would become instantly alert, gesturing wildly as he silently begged to be removed. The tall man brought in a blonde girl, obviously his girlfriend, sometimes, and the mute man would gesture at her, too. However, his pleas to leave were unhindered, and he stayed.

The dark haired, blue eyed man, on the other hand, smiled politely at everyone who entered the room. He had been in the room a few weeks before the other arrived, and the nurses fawned over him. Anyone who saw him was under the impression that even if he spoke, he wouldn't say much anyway. He had the quiet air of someone who patiently listened to whatever was said to him, before giving a careful, considered response. No one visited him – the reason for this being a part of the reason for his mutism – and he simply observed events surrounding him, often gazing out the window that overlooked the gardens for hours at a time.

By the end of the second week, the blue eyed man had managed to coax his companion into games of chess. Despite the fact that the green eyed man did not know how to play at first, the brunette taught him through a variety of printed instructions and gesticulating in great detail. Soon enough, they were evenly matched, and the green eyed man was learning to smile again. They moved onto other games, such as Operation (Green Eyes chuckling silently at the fact that they were playing Operation in a hospital while Blue Eyes smiled at him), Snakes and Ladders, Candyland, and the odd puzzle. Sometimes they simply sat in companionable silence, reading. Green Eyes favoured Vonnegut, while Blue Eyes preferred to pore over analysis of religious texts.

They were entirely oblivious to the small contingent of nurses that watched them through the glass on a daily basis, smiling.

With the end of the third week, the giant man's visits were only every couple of days, due to his college attendance. Green Eyes was despondent at the news, but Blue Eyes soon cheered him up by sliding his dessert (a piece of apple pie) over next to Green Eyes' dessert, giving him double. Green Eyes smiled at him with real affection, and the watching nurses held their breath as the two men gazed at each other with warm fondness.

After a month had passed the two of them were able to communicate entire sentences with a single look. It wasn't uncommon for the nurses bringing their meals in to find Green Eyes sat at the end of Blue Eyes' bed, waving his arms as he signed a story, with Blue Eyes beaming, or for Blue Eyes to be stood over Green Eyes as he slept, woken by the man's wordless sobs from his nightmares. He sent away the nurses with a single look, smoothing the blonde hair away from that creased forehead, and sitting by the other man's bed throughout the night holding his hand. When it happened for the fifth night in a row, Green Eyes stopped being surprised by his presence, and looked at the other gratefully, before patting the space next to him for Blue Eyes to lie down and stop sleeping in the uncomfortable chair.

The doctor who walked in the next morning found them asleep in Green Eyes' bed, holding one another closely even asleep, and left without a word. It didn't happen every night, but it happened a lot.

And they were still silent.

Things continued like this for two months, and the occasional touches between the two became more and more frequent. Silence, but with a gentle hand brushing a cheek as one stood up to sit in his own bed. Hands touching when one made a move during chess. Staring at one another for full minutes wordlessly, because they didn't need words. Not really.

They did leave the room, occasionally. The other patients accepted them into their gatherings around the small tables in the cafeteria. One girl, petite and blonde, had slits down her forearms and a brash attitude. A quiet, nervous looking Asian boy with wide eyes heard voices claiming to be angels. A man with peach fuzz and a New Orleans accent hallucinated that there were vampires and demons everywhere looking for him. One day he left and never came back.

At the end of the fourth month, everything changed.

It was Green Eyes, this time, who was woken up in the night by the sound of sobbing. He sat up in bed, confused, and looked over at his roommate, who was thrashing around in his bed. His mouth was open in a silent scream, and Green Eyes responded on automatic, leaping out of bed and padding across the small space that separated the two before lying down next to the other mute. He ran his hands down the arms that threatened to knock the bedside lamp to the floor and held the smaller man close. Blue Eyes awoke just as he placed a small kiss on his forehead, and looked up.

For a second, they just looked at one another, before Blue Eyes smiled. They fell asleep like that, Blue Eyes tucking himself into Green Eyes' torso, and the both of them wrapping their arms securely around one another. Green Eyes still had his lips pressed into the dark messy hair when they woke up hours later.

Neither of them knew of the other's secret visits to the man who had an office on the same floor as them, where low, nervous voices leaked out from under the door, trying and testing vowels for the first time in months, becoming accustomed to the way sound felt as it throbbed along the long unused vocal cords.

The long haired man who visited Green Eyes saw the way they interacted, and related it all to his blonde haired girlfriend. He surprised Green Eyes one day by simply holding up a hand and flashing a gold engagement ring. Green Eyes jumped up, hugging his brother and almost knocking him over with his enthusiasm. After the man left, Blue Eyes laid a hand on his companion's shoulder. Green Eyes looked up at him, and tears were shining in his eyes as he smiled. The smaller man pulled him out of the chair he sat in, and pressed his lips to his cheek before folding him in his arms. They stood there for a while, breathing in the scent of one another and ignoring their racing heartbeats.

One day, six months after Green Eyes arrival, Blue Eyes walked in to find his friend sat on his bed, staring at the floor and wringing his hands nervously. Before he could tap him and start signing to ask what was wrong, the other man looked up and smiled, opening his mouth.

"Hey, Castiel."

A pause.

"Hello, Dean."

FIN

AN: Thoughts? Again, I am far from an expert on selective mutism and mental health, and if I've made it look offensive or something then I apologise please tell me ASAP.