Disclaimer: I don't rightly know who owns this, but it's not me.
AN: This was a response to a challenge I have accepted. Basically they list a fandom and a basic premise, and see what I can come up with.
Fandom: X-Men Evolution
Challenge: One's language is a beautiful thing that most of us using it on instinct don't really consider. To someone who's not speaking their native language however the loss of that beauty is felt deeply. Please write something demonstrating this, and if possible how friendships can be formed by attempting to cross that barrier.
AN2: I think the one who set this challenge had read my lost story request in the LotR fandom because this was a plot point in that and I posted that too soon before the challenge was issued for it to be coincidence. You should know that aside from that the two are not remotely alike; that's where the 'see what I can come up with' part comes in.
Also, while Jamie is not OP in the traditional sense here, he does have a better memory than he probably should. I'd meant to demonstrate that forcing his mind to do that was painful for him in an attempt to balance it out but the opportunity didn't arise beyond summarising it. I'll understand if any of you wish to click the back button at this point.
Jamie had once again been left alone. Once again he'd been told he was 'too young' to join his fellows into town, though to be honest he wasn't entirely upset about that. Quite why Sam, Ray and Roberto were so keen to leave the relative safety mansion he did not know.
And the older team were on a mission with Mr. Logan and The Professor and he was fairly certain Ms. Monroe was observing Sam, Ray and Roberto from afar (about 300 feet directly up). The only ones left at the mansion were Dr. McCoy, a sick Tabby, and Amara. And of those three, the Beast was the only one who might ever voluntarily spend time with him.
Not that he was complaining too much. After a few months he'd become used to his treatment by his, he couldn't honestly call them friends, and had filled his time with something more meaningful. And not all of it was related to pranks, fun though they were. He routinely sent his clones off to the mansion's library eager to read or learn anything he happened to think of while nobody was around to distract him. As a result he was well versed in topics from Jane Austen (which he deeply regretted) to flower pot making, though against all odds both of those had proven useful for pranking – Bobby was still trying to figure out just how he had hid his watch inside a tulip pot, since Kitty was hundreds of miles away at the time and without Jean's assistance would never have deciphered the obscure Northanger Abbey clue that led to it.
He'd also tried to train in how to fight, though there was no rhyme or reason to his approach. Basically it amounted to 'hit each other really really hard and see what makes one of the clones dissipate'. He suspected he could learn better with a competent tutor but the only one he could think of was Mr. Logan and that was one conversation he was not willing to have.
It was further complicated by his having to have his clones read something several times before he could retain it, though he suspected that was the same for people without clones too. The main problem was that if he kept this pace up, he would run out of books within two more months, and the recalling of so many clones at the end of each reading session gave him severe headaches.
This was the intended plan of action for today as well, but just as he was creating his clones to send off he heard someone trying to open his door, seemingly groaning.
The main three pranksters were away, and Tabby was barely mobile, but he was still suspicious. He had no doubt that Dr. McCoy could be quite devious if he threw himself into the game. One of the clones slowly opened the door while another covered them with a paintball gun and a third was recording with a video camera, albeit a small cheap one. After all, if they did somehow get the jump on him he wanted to review it so he could avoid said trap in future, and/or return the favour later on. But it wasn't Tabby or Dr. McCoy.
"Amara?" There were two reasons for Jamie's questioning. One because she never spent any time with him and two because she appeared to be in pain.
"Laudare Deos." Came the response, which Jamie's time in the library's dictionary section told him was Latin for 'praise the gods'.
"Quid iniuriam?" he asked before he realised what he'd said. Perhaps his clones were spending too much time in the library, he made a mental note not to send any more. He was also sure that it was not quite the correct translation of 'what's wrong' that he was going for, and he suspected he may have mispronounced it too.
He was spared Amara's critique of his language skills (or lack thereof) or indeed any other comment as she didn't bother answering his question, instead pushing his clone aside and flinging herself at the adjoining bathroom.
"Of course," he murmured to his clone. "Nobody ever wants to talk to us, er, me, whatever the correct pronoun is." There were nods from the clones. "Note to self, ask Dr. McCoy about pronoun usage, he should know."
"Consider it noted," replied the clone with the camera.
"You can stop recording now; I'm fairly certain she's not going to prank us and if she is then she should have brought her own digicam," Jamie told the camera-clone and the light went off on the front of the cheap digital camera with built in 360x240 video.
Jamie decided to have his clones work on their woodwork today (in addition to his homework), under the idea that sawing and decorating shouldn't have him sprouting random phrases.
He had only to wait until Amara left before he could join them in the crafts room, which was a very boring 2 minutes for the not overly patient mutant.
"Bit desperate were you?" Jamie asked when she emerged, thankfully in English that time.
"What makes you so sure?"
"You'd slid into Latin like when you first arrived, one of my clones has just videoed you looking like you had taken a football to the stomach, and most tellingly, you came here. I can count all our conversations on one hand, so I don't think you would otherwise. Besides, it's rude to push your way into someone's room you know."
"Alright, you got me. Tabby's great and all, but not when she's spending forever in the shower when we have just got back from school."
It took all Jamie's willpower to hold back the reply 'well, maybe she wanted you to join her' as he didn't think Amara would appreciate it. He knew that Bobby and Ray and Roberto had been wondering just how close those two were when nobody was looking, but as far as he knew no-one had brought the subject up with either of them and he was not going to be the first one.
"But you should know that if that video gets shown around the mansion, or worse, at school, I will bind each of those clones of yours to crosses so that you can't reabsorb them and then melt them all down at once." Amara rounded on him. "Tell me, can you feel it when they get hurt?"
The answer to that was that yes, he felt everything that happened to them though it was slightly duller than if it was happening to him. If however a large number of them were simultaneously roasted then the agony would probably put him a coma.
"This is what I mean, why this hostility? What have I ever done to you?" he asked her.
"Filmed me at a bad moment." There was no hesitation in her answer.
"I didn't think it was you. I assumed Tabby or Beast were attempting to affect a prank. Besides, I wasn't going to show it around. Believe it or not I was going to delete it once I'd spoken to Beast, on an unrelated subject I hasten to add."
Amara thought for a moment.
"Is that why you answered the door armed? And can you blame me for thinking a prankster like you would not show that to everyone you can?"
"With the paintball gun? Yes. And when in the what, three years that we've been here have I ever pranked you, or anyone else who's not a fellow prankster?" Jamie was incensed at the accusation. He'd gone to great care to ensure that he didn't give anyone more than they were due. He wasn't like Bobby who would do things like chill the hot water pipe when as many people were in the shower as possible. That one had literally exploded in his face though. Well, 'burst in his face' was perhaps the most literal interpretation but most people would give him 'exploded'.
"OK, OK, I believe you." It seemed Amara realised some things were not laughing matters. Jamie would let her have that, at least she wasn't commenting on his earlier reply to her. Though that did make him think of something else he'd wondered about occasionally, and to his horror his mouth put that to words.
"Amara, what's your home like?"
Amara's face lit up.
"Est pulcher Jamie." For a moment it was almost like her words were smiling. "Sorry, I meant 'it's beautiful'." She looked sheepish. "What is with me today?"
"Don't worry, I got the gist of it." Jamie replied. "Though I would have preferred an answer with more detail; most people think their home is beautiful."
And Amara was more than happy to provide. They lost track of time as she told him at length of all the trees and the rivers and the meadows, and the small hill she'd climbed as a child. And of her family, who she was apparently still close to despite rarely seeing. And of the people, proud but fair, wary but brave, few but valiant.
It was only when Jamie asked her to please slow down because he couldn't process the words fast enough that she realised she was back in Latin again.
"Sorry," she replied and got ready to continue. "Wait a second, are you saying you understood me?"
"Mostly. I got lost at one point though; were you saying you admired your handmaiden, or was 'Miranda' her name?"
Amara's eyes went wide for a second before her face melted into a smile, and Amara flung her arms around the unsuspecting Jamie.
"You really did understand!"
"Yoo diden ans…" Jamie pulled out of her grip. "You didn't answer my question."
"What, oh, that I admired her. Do people really name their children that?" Amara asked, curious.
"Thank Shakespeare for that one. He used it basically so he could make that exact lame pun," Jamie replied.
"There's always more to learn." Amara chuckled to herself. "Jamie, if I'd known you could understand me I'd have spoken to you long ago. Really, I mean that."
"It wouldn't have worked," said Jamie. "I only memorised the dictionaries in the last few months."
"You memoris- No, I don't want to know how you did that."
The 'how' was perhaps the least pleasant part. Jamie had found that if he had three or more clones read the same thing before reabsorbing them all at once the clones' memories were almost perfectly transferred. Unfortunately that also led to the splitting headaches. Their current task of chair making was much less likely to hurt later.
"Let's just say I plan of asking The Professor to book a new power-control test as soon as he gets back."
"Jamie,would you please say something." Amara looked at him.
"Uh, I just did." Jamie wondered if she could hear OK.
"I meant, since you can understand me, if you can speak my language too."
"Uh, not really. If there's more than one translation of a given word then I wouldn't know which one to use. Or how to say it."
"Just try it, please." Jamie could see the pleading look in her eyes.
"Quaeso amicum meum?" The words slipped out before he could stop them. This was embarassing.
She looked at him for a moment.
"Scilicet" she replied before taking a look at the clock. "Come on my friend, it's almost dinner." She draped an arm over him and pulled him along.
AN3: So that's that. Hopefully I've done the characters and the fandom justice. If you're wondering about the characters that I picked, Jamie was because the mixture of nobody liking him and all those clones means he has more time than he knows what to do with and thus learning another language would be less unbelievable for him, or so I hoped.
As for why I used Amara (with a variation on her comic-verse background since her Evo-verse background wasn't established) instead of say, Kurt, to be honest I'm also wondering that myself. The best thing I can think of is that it's because Kurt and Jamie have more obvious things to bond over like pranking.
The other thing is that I'm not sure I actually managed to fulfil the challenge, at least not completely, but I imagine I'll hear about that in due course.