A/N: Valentine999 came up with the original idea for Scott's new found language (and very kindly let me borrow it *hugs*); I just changed it a little.
Pedro needed to learn English. Everyone knew it. The other three of the known five only spoke English and it was practically a give-in that the missing member would too. They could survive not knowing what he was saying during their time awake together (despite how frustrating it was for all four of them), but what if they were attacked? Say Pedro was in danger and one of them tried to warn him, but he couldn't understand them, and vice versa? It was a recipe for disaster. They simply couldn't wait for him til they were asleep to communicate, or to rely on a translator.
One day, the boys were playing football out in Professor Chambers' garden. It was going rather nicely until Jamie hit one of the llamas with the ball.
"You idiot." Scott summed up before they all ran for the house as the llama, panicking, charged into another llama, who in turn went wild and ran smack into another, and so on until they had a stampede playing out before their eyes.
Banished inside the house by the professor, they sat in silence, trying to think of something to do. Pedro came up with an idea and tried to voice it, but all that came out was some sort of garbled English and Spanish hybrid. Giving up, the Peruvian boy slumped in his seat, in a bad mood over being unable to communicate with the others.
When he left to go to the toilet, Matt leaned over to Jamie (with Scott glaring at him as he had to half-crawl across his lap to do so) and whispered in his ear, "Can you see what's in his mind and help him out a little?"
"What, do I not have powers all of a sudden?" Scott hissed, leaning as far back from Matt as possible. They were still quite close.
Jamie shook his head as the two boys wisely ignored his elder twins grumbling. "Sorry, I already tried; he still thinks in Spanish too, so that's why it's coming out kind of funny. But it also means I can't understand what he's thinking, so I can't help him."
"Well, there's got to be something we can do to help." Matt frowned, trying to come up with something.
"Oh, do enlighten us if you have any ideas." Scott drawled doubtingly.
Jamie gave his brother a warning glance, no doubt scolding him telepathically. Matt's frown grew more pronounced. Was it him, or did this guy have something against him?
"Talk to him." The teenagers jumped, causing Matt to tumble off of Scott. They looked over, or in Matt's case, up at the woman as she tried to explain, patting herself down to get rid of the dust from the llama rodeo. "I would suggest an English/Spanish dictionary, but since Pedro can't read, the only thing you can do is talk to him regularly in English; it'll help him get use to how the words are supposed to sound and how to speak correctly."
As they absorbed this, Richard came tumbling into the room, coughing and muttering about how he needed to get in shape, and what was the point in keeping llamas' anyway, and did he smell like one now? Because he had something vaguely reminiscent of the animal on his shoe, and he didn't mean its fur. Due to this, no one noticed the tiny smile curling Scott's lips.
XXXXX
Pedro had made an amazing improvement. Everybody was amazed (apart from a certain two members of the five). Pedro still had a thick accent and spoke slowly, but he no longer confused the two languages and he was easily understood, as well as understanding the others, which made life considerably easier and lifted a burden of worry from Matt's shoulders.
Everything was nice and everyone was content. Until they were attacked.
They were all outside enjoying the dying sunshine over a nice dinner that Professor Chambers' had somehow managed to make edible. Suddenly Jamie cried out in pain and reached under the table to grab his ankle. Scott went pure white as he saw in his brothers' mind what had hurt him. Jamie launched himself off his chair and bent over to pull the live scorpions off of his skin, his twin seizing him to help. There must have been half a dozen of them, all crawling up his leg, their poisoned tails poised and ready.
Scott growled lowly in pain as about four stingers all struck his fingers at once, ignoring the pain as he wrenched one out of his younger brothers calf muscle, throwing the cursed creature to the ground.
"Scott, back off a moment!" Matt shouted, throwing himself up and sending his chair crashing to the ground. "I can get them off!"
The American boy made eye-contact with the English one for half a second before reluctantly releasing Jamie's leg. Matt focused. Instantly, the jet-black animals were dragged off of Jamie's leg and flung through the air, about seven metres away from their victim. Scott glanced at Matt and his right eyebrow ticked up slightly. Matt could tell he was impressed.
Pedro suddenly released a shout of horror. Looking around, the four teenagers and two adults saw they were completely surrounded, the grass disappearing under a sea of pure black, festering creatures, all itching to plunge their poison into the human's veins.
With no proper weapons at hand and the twins ability of mind control unable to get the out of this mess, the humans were forced to seize the chairs on which they had so peacefully been resting not five minutes before and slam them on the ground, crushing several scorpions at one time. Soon, it became obvious that this effort was not nearly enough.
Richard yelled in pain as three scorpions inched their way up his foot, one of them jabbing him right between the two biggest bones in his appendage. An idea, a desperate one, perhaps, but an idea none the less, occurred to Scott. Turning towards Pedro, the American let out a stream of Spanish words. Everyone would have stared at him in complete shock, if they weren't so focused on survival. The Peruvian boy nodded and jumped on the table, running across the surface quickly to land beside Scott.
Facing Matt, Scott shouted, "Matt! Clear a path behind me so Pedro can get to the house! Trust me, I've got a plan!" He added, seeing the blue-eyed male hesitate. After a moment he nodded. First, he turned and emptied the immediate area around himself so he could fully concentrate. He then did as Scott had requested and Pedro bolted down the expanse of clear grass to reach the hacienda.
For a tense few minutes, the other continued to attack the little beasts, Professor Chambers' lobbing a plate at a pile of them to stop them from getting at Richard, Scott dragging his little brother out of harm's way as he began to sway on his feet, the poison kicking in. So it continued, saving each other, trying to save themselves, killing the scorpions as quickly as possible for what appeared to be hours.
A great burst of orange light suddenly flared up at the edge of the ocean of small monsters. Time seemed to stop as the three boys, the two adults and even, it seemed, the scorpions themselves. There stood Pedro, pouring bottles of brandy on the creatures before setting them alight by dropping matches on their alcohol-soaked backs.
Spying Scott, the closest of the other five to him, he flung another bottle of brandy and another packet of matches through the air. Scott managed to catch them both before flinging them at Matt, having to use both hands and arms to cradle Jamie, who was beginning to drift in and out of consciousness.
Soon, all the horrible creatures were ash on the ground.
XXXXX
Scott passed restlessly across the living room floor as Pedro healed Jamie, who was lying, passed out, on the couch. Professor Chambers' helped Richard into a seat, the little poison he had contracted from his own sting removed from his system and his cut already scabbing.
Matt focused on Scott alone, sensing the boy might go berserk. Hoping to stop that, or at least delay it, he poured a cup of Pisco Sour and handed it to him, knowing he was especially fond of it. Scott stared the cup in his hand for a moment, before downing half of it in one go. As he was lowering it again, a groan sounded through the room and everyone turned their attention to Pedro and his patient. Scott strode over rapidly to his twin to check his condition. Jamie sat up slowly, helped by his elder brother.
He blinked at them groggily for a minute or two before his eyes re-focused. He smiled at Pedro. "Thanks."
Pedro nodded and returned the smile, happy he had been able to help the boy. If he hadn't, he didn't even want to think about what Scott would do to him. Jamie spoke again tiredly, "Are we safe again then? The creepy-crawlies gone?"
Professor Chambers' nodded. "Yes, and we've taken precautions to make sure that any more that try anything can't get in."
"Okay then, I've got just one thing to ask." Everyone waited. Jamie rounded on his brother. "When the hell did you learn to speak Spanish?!"
Scott grinned broadly, showing his white teeth. "Pedro and I have been having little chats recently."
Matt scoffed. "And there was me thinking you were just trying to help Pedro."
The other boy glanced at him and frowned. "I was."
"Oh really? Seems like you were just trying to get something out of it for yourself."
"Que?!!" Scott twitched and dumped his drink over Matt's head.
A/N: I was giving you strong hints of something in the beginning of this one-shot of something I might write about soon, despite this being set before the other two.