There were some phrases that Alexsandr Kallus could never forget hearing. Cries of "no, please" and mothers begging for their children's lives to be spared, to take them instead. Some of those were in basic, some were Twi'leki in origin but most were Lasana. When he closed his eyes he could see a small Lasat child clinging to their mother, mostly hidden by her but still looking at him as he readied to shoot. It was a shame he had to bear and a part of him never wanted to learn the language so he wouldn't actually know what each of those people had begged him that day. He didn't want to know that some of the men he killed were telling their wives to run and take the children to cover, they would find them. He didn't want to know any of it.
Until Garazeb Orrelios came along, whispering what he could only assume were terms of endearment in his ear, pressing kisses and smiling against his hair. Until Garazeb Orrelios started talking to him in Lasana whenever he was half awake in the mornings and before he could remind himself that Alexsandr didn't understand.
It made him want to understand and be able to reply more than ever. Which is how he ended up sat on the floor with Chava, wincing in pain as she hit him over the head yet again. "You're not paying attention. No more Belter instead. Basic and Lasana only." They had been at it for at least an hour and while he was happy he had found a teacher who was willing to be patient with him, even if he did keep substituting words he didn't know with the Belter equivalent. It wasn't his fault that Lasana seemed to have less specific words for space travel than he was used to. Séping just worked to describe artificial gravity that came from the centrifugal force of spinning a space station. It wasn't his fault the sentence he was creating led him into that. Kapawu for a space ship was the same. But if this meant he could tell Zeb that he loved him properly, in the Lasat's own language then Alexsandr would go through the ordeal of being hit on the head several more times.
"Fine, fine. I'll try that again. Garazeb, Ashvahn ni malmanahn, L'ashkerrir an." He winced in preparation for the next strike, closing his eyes. When a minute passed and nothing came he opened his eyes again cautiously to see Chava smiling at him.
"Good. You're learning. Now, again."
He had never expected much after he had defected from the Empire. Maybe getting to serve with the Rebels for a short time, perhaps being imprisoned by them. He had certainly doubted their ability to win, even if their victory was small, it was a start and they had gained an impressive amount of hope for the future from it. The thing he had expected least was to be brought to Lira San by Zeb, getting to see more Lasat that had survived. He finally had a chance to make things right, and he'd start by learning their language. Learning how to tell Zeb that he loved him for the first time in his partner's own language.
A/N: All Lasana comes from the amazing Anath_Tsurugi, all Lang Belta from Nick Farmer. I decided to use LB for Kallus because it's a conlang I'm learning, and I feel like it adds more to his character if he does speak more than one language, and that language being something that is looked down upon like the Belters are to the Inners in The Expanse.