Demi Clayton- Thank you for reviewing, and for the heads up! I did actually intend to use the word behest instead of request this time, but I appreciated your letting me know so I could have fixed it if it were a mistake! 3
LINGUAPHILE PT 2
It was a Saturday. The sun shone gently down on the cool late April morning as Jack landed lightly on the Bennetts' roof and twirled his staff, the Wind swirling around him in a cheerful reflection of his good mood. The Burgess kids didn't have school today, and it was still early enough in the year to be a comfortable temperature for him to spend the day with them. He was ahead on his spreading snow, he was fully recovered from his injuries and feeling great, and he had escaped the Pole without any of the other Guardians noticing and asking where he was going and giving his warnings about wearing himself out too much. (They had all been rather mothering after the battle with Pitch and discovering his injuries. He appreciated the care- he really did. It brought a warmth to his chest that he didn't even know was possible for him to feel. But he had been independent for three hundred years, and the attention was taking some getting used to. Sometimes he just needed a short break.)
All in all, it was looking to be a great day!
Jack's grin widened when he heard the kids' voices below him. He flipped upside down and peered through the window, his hood falling against the back of his head.
The kids were clustered around a slightly battered CD player that had the remains of several ancient stickers, looking at a CD case with excitement (in the case of Pippa and Cupcake) and bemusement (in the case of Jamie and the twins). Sophie was dancing happily with Abby to the bouncy song that was coming from the speakers, blithely ignoring the older children, who seemed to be in the middle of an disagreement.
"It's weird," Claude said, and Caleb nodded with conviction.
"You can't even understand the words," Jamie added.
"Well, they have the song names in English," Pippa defended. "I'm going to ask my dad to help me look up what the lyrics are. But still, they're good songs! And look how cute they all are!" she added, pointing to the CD case.
Cupcake nodded in agreement, and the boys looked at each other dubiously.
Jack chuckled to himself and shifted to flip down onto the windowsill. The small movement caught Jamie's attention, and the ten-year-old's brown eyes widened happily when he turned to investigate. "Jack!"
Jack laughed as the other children looked up and greeted him excitedly, that new warm feeling sweeping through him again as he flipped down onto the ledge and hopped through the window that Jamie opened for him. He hadn't been able to come to Burgess since he had managed to wheedle permission from the Guardians for a short visit to check on the kids and assure them he was okay a couple of weeks ago. And though he had told himself he was being ridiculous, he hadn't quite been able to shake the subconscious fear that they would forget him if he was gone too long. "Hey, guys! Whatcha up to?"
Caleb made a face, and Claude answered, "Pippa and Cupcake were showing us some weird music."
Cupcake scowled. "What's so weird about it? Just cus you can't understand it-"
"Oh, I know this song," Jack said, unintentionally interrupting the budding argument as he started singing along. "Gomaul ppuniya saranghal ppuniya, neo gateun saram tto eobseo, juwireul dulleobwado geujeo geureohdeon geol…*"
He trailed off when he noticed all of the kids staring at him, eyes wide. "What? It's a fun song." He jumped slightly before grinning when Sophie clapped happily and grabbed his hands to pull him over to dance with her. (It was mostly hopping and a lot of twirls that flung her choppy hair around her face, but her innocent joy was heart-meltingly adorable.)
"You know Korean?" Pippa demanded, her eyes wide with disbelieving excitement.
"Yeah, I know lots of languages," Jack said, twirling Sophie until her shrieks of laughter and Abby's excited barks almost covered up the music.
"Wooow," Jamie exclaimed, the twins nodding wide eyed.
"Wait, so you understand what they're singing?" Cupcake asked as the song ended, her face brightening with eagerness.
"Yeah, it's a song about loving a girl who's the only one who can make you smile like she does," Jack summed up, over Sophie's calls of again, again! while she tugged on his arm.
"That's so cool!" Caleb said, and Claude nodded, no sign of the previous "it's weird" in sight.
"Wait, do you know Spanish?" Jamie asked eagerly. "One of my mom's friends is Mexican and she gave Mom a CD with a bunch of Spanish songs on it!"
Jack laughed again, heaving Sophie into the air upside down and eliciting furious giggles to distract her from yanking on his arm. "Um, yeah I speak Spanish!"
"That's so cool!" Jamie said, jumping in place. "I'll go get the CD! You can tell us what all the songs mean," he called, already running from the room.
"So how do you say I love you in Korean?" Pippa asked, nearly about to start bouncing in excitement like Jamie."
"Saranghae, or saranhaeyo if you're talking to somebody older than you," Jack answered, swinging the giggling two-year-old in his grasp onto Jamie's bed, just avoiding tripping over Abby as she jumped up on top of Sophie.
"Why is it different?" Caleb asked curiously."
"Because saranghaeyo is more polite from adding the -yo, so that's what you use for grown ups," Jack said. "But you can leave that off if you're talking to friends or somebody younger than you. Like Sophie," he said, tickling the little girl on the sides. "Saranghae, saranghae, Sopi-ssi!" he said over top of her happy shrieks.
By the time Jamie got back with the CD, the other kids were eagerly firing phrases and words at Jack to translate into various languages as he played with Sophie. He couldn't help laughing at their exuberant excitement, and happily translated whatever they wanted, teaching them a few simpler language rules and easier phrases. (He even taught Sophie the Spanish word canguro to impress Bunny with the next time she saw him.
He couldn't wait to see the big rabbit's face.
The room was filled with giggles from Sophie and thumps from Abby's wagging tail, along with the mispronounced words of numerous languages and Jack's laughter mixing with the music. (Which was a very good collection of songs with excellent guitar, from what he could hear over the kids' jubilance.)
Needless to day, Jack didn't end up summarizing what the songs meant for the kids. They were a little distracted.
***0***
Alison Bennett smiled at the sound of her children exploding noisily through the front door, stirring the nearly-hot taco meat on the stove before wiping her hands on her apron. The kids had spent the morning upstairs in Jamie's room with some of his friends, listening to music that had been almost completely drowned out by their laughing and shouting gibberish, before stampeding outside gleefully to play in the yard for the rest of the cool afternoon. Cupcake and Pippa and the twins must have gone home for dinner, since there were only two sets of footsteps pounding through the house.
"Hands," she called as Jamie and Sophie trampled into the kitchen. "And then please set the table, supper's almost hot."
"Okay!" Jamie agreed happily. "Se amo, Mom!" he added, flinging his arms around her waist briefly.
Mrs. Bennett laughed warmly and hugged him back, not without confusion. "Aw, I love you too, sweetie. Where did you learn that?"
"Jack taught me!" Jamie replied, grabbing a stack of plates from the cupboard. "I can also say usted es bonita," he announced proudly, spreading out the plates, "and jjeoreo, and-"
"Cangrow! Cangrow!" Sohpie interrupted, bouncing in place.
"Yeah, that's Sophie's favorite word, but she's saying it wrong," Jamie said, shaking his head. "It's canguro. It's the word for bunny in Spanish!" he explained excitedly.
"I'm pretty sure it's… not," Mrs. Bennett said, trying not to laugh. Jamie didn't hear her, though, still listing off words he could say in other languages as he set the table, Sophie hopping after him and repeating them (with varying levels of success). Mrs. Bennett smiled fondly as her son talked animatedly through the rest of dinner, almost forgetting to actually eat his tacos. She wondered idly if the things he said were actually words, and made a mental note to look some of them up later. As Jamie waved his hand to illustrate something he was saying, nearly knocking his water off the table, she added asking Rosa about getting Jamie into a Spanish class to the list. She mentioned it aloud absently, and Jamie's eyes flew open wide, before he burst into another energetic ramble of excitement, making Sophie laugh and clap her hands over the table.
In hindsight, maybe she should have waited to say anything until tomorrow. She was never going to get them to bed.
*"How grateful, it's love, There's no one like you, Even if I look around it's just like that…"
(Romanised lyrics to "No Other" by Super Junior- it really is a cute song!)
A/N: I finally quit putting this off, and am actually really happy with how it turned out! This one takes place in the same general time frame as the first Linguaphile; late April, only a few weeks after the Easter reckoning with Pitch and Jack's official Guardianship. It is, once again, my indulgence of siccing Jack with knowledge of things I'm interested in! I am trying to teach myself a little Korean (although I am very much a beginner), and have grown to be a big fan of several Kpop groups (although my variety is pretty limited since I end up wanting to learn the lyrics well enough to sing along at least to bits of each song. Which is a lot of work!). I had to do a little research to find a Kpop song that was big in 2012 (since at the point I was about the Burgess kids' age, and mostly listened to the radio, old CDs, and AiO) but I found "No Other" and thought it was a cute, fun song that a pair of ten year old girls might like!
Also, canguro is totally the Spanish word for bunny. Totally. (Thank you, google, for my Spanish classes never covered that!)
This is also the beginning of a subplot that I am super ridiculously excited for, so I am buzzing that I finally got to start on that! *rubs hands in glee*
I will end this ridiculously long note by begging for reviews. :D See you in the next update! Elen out 3