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Tales of Vesperia, "Keep A Secret" (Yuri/Judith)
She decided to teach him her ancient language; on a whim, really. Or so she told herself.
Contains Yuri/Judith and Judith novel references that are probably going to become meaningless as I continue translating it. But the idea appeared in my brain, and now it's in a fic.
.keep a secret.
Judith was lying on her stomach in bed, legs kicking idly in the air above her, humming to herself as she read. It was a rare enough moment that she got to relax like this, especially now when the skies above Zaphias were darkened by the looming presence of the Adephagos. But Rita, Estelle, and Karol had gone shopping, and Raven was out 'canvassing', as he liked to call it; or 'loitering', as everyone else did.
So it was just her lazing about, and Repede curled up against her side, and Ba'ul in the back of her mind, and--
"Hey, what's this?" Yuri asked her, leaning against the doorframe of the girls' room and brandishing a small slip of paper.
Judith kicked her legs a little more, lips curving up. "I thought you read more than that," she observed.
"I happen to be familiar with the practice. But this note is making me wonder if I'm not familiar enough. What does it say?"
"It says 'You're on dishes tonight.'"
She didn't bother looking back at him, but she could hear Yuri lifting his eyebrows as he looked at the paper. The note had absolutely none of those words on it, that he would recognize; other than her name in the signature, they would all be foreign to him.
"It looks like you just wrote down gibberish."
"Really?" she said innocently, leaning her chin into her hand. "That doesn't sound like something I'd do."
He paused for a moment, and then tried measuringly, "Barruk -- athal'am tor innse?"
Judith let her legs wave a little in the air, bare toes pointed up. "That was a pretty good try. But 'innse' doesn't have a long vowel. Like 'rinse', without the 'r'."
Yuri shifted, pushing himself off the door, and then paused again. He asked, "Are you trying to teach me some sort of Krityan language?"
She looked back, shifting to give him a curious glance. "My, what a question. Haven't you been to Myorzo? Did the Krityans there speak a foreign language? Maybe I just didn't notice--"
"Yeah, yeah. I got it." A grin was tugging at his lips as he pushed himself away from the door and headed back downstairs to the inn's little kitchenette.
She didn't bother explaining herself to him; she rarely did. He didn't ask, either. It seemed to be enough for Yuri to know that for some reason she felt like leaving him little notes in a language he didn't recognize. He would bring her the note, and she would tell him what it meant, and then he would repeat it out loud. He never asked, or acted like they were anything out of the ordinary.
It was sweet of him.
The Adephagos was long gone by the time Yuri could read a simple note. He had a permanent room in their guild headquarters, even though he seldom stayed there for long, and Judith liked to leave him little letters, gradually improving the vocabulary she used in them. It was a slow process, indirect and seemingly pointless. She really had no way of knowing if he was taking any of it in, or just humoring her. She supposed it didn't matter. The important part was having someone who would play along with her, right?
It wouldn't be quite the same to leave those letters for Karol. He would ask a thousand questions about them, and probably resent being asked to learn something so useless; his preference was for practical information, things he could use to help people or make money or further the guild. Raven would make tiresome jokes about them being love letters long past the point where it was amusing. Even if Judith saw them as often, Rita and Estelle would have been frustrated by the slow pace of their education, chafing at the tidbits of new knowledge, and want to know more, faster, if they were to know anything at all: they were both scholars at heart. Not like Judith.
And Repede couldn't read, as far as Judith was aware.
Besides. There was something kind of appealing about it being Yuri. She couldn't quite put her finger on it.
It became very abruptly real one day after a big holiday dinner, in Zaphias where it had all began.
And then Yuri asked her casually, "Ai-ra barruk athal'am tor innso ay?" as they broke away from the dinner table.
It was silly. He was asking if it was his turn to do the dishes. But Judith felt her heart skip a beat happily, and she had to turn away, look at something else, something that was clearly interesting because it took her a moment to find the ability to agree, "Sil-ra."
She was on her way back to her room when she heard Ba'ul in the back of her mind, warm and fond; a fluttering impression of feelings and images that said as clearly as words, You spent all that time teaching him your secret language, and now that he knows it, you're just walking away?
He already knew all the things she wanted to say, but couldn't. Ba'ul was the one living soul who knew about her father, their secret language; what it had meant to her to know that there was someone with whom she had an invisible bond that would allow them to communicate in secret, even in the middle of a crowded room. For Ba'ul, that bond was literal. But now there was something binding her to Yuri, too. Someone she could be as close to, trust as much, as that simple little girl had been with her father.
Rather than answer him directly, she answered, Don't worry. I have something in mind.
Yuri knew enough vocabulary to understand 'Come pay me a visit in my room tonight.'
Contains Yuri/Judith and Judith novel references that are probably going to become meaningless as I continue translating it. But the idea appeared in my brain, and now it's in a fic.
.keep a secret.
Judith was lying on her stomach in bed, legs kicking idly in the air above her, humming to herself as she read. It was a rare enough moment that she got to relax like this, especially now when the skies above Zaphias were darkened by the looming presence of the Adephagos. But Rita, Estelle, and Karol had gone shopping, and Raven was out 'canvassing', as he liked to call it; or 'loitering', as everyone else did.
So it was just her lazing about, and Repede curled up against her side, and Ba'ul in the back of her mind, and--
"Hey, what's this?" Yuri asked her, leaning against the doorframe of the girls' room and brandishing a small slip of paper.
Judith kicked her legs a little more, lips curving up. "I thought you read more than that," she observed.
"I happen to be familiar with the practice. But this note is making me wonder if I'm not familiar enough. What does it say?"
"It says 'You're on dishes tonight.'"
She didn't bother looking back at him, but she could hear Yuri lifting his eyebrows as he looked at the paper. The note had absolutely none of those words on it, that he would recognize; other than her name in the signature, they would all be foreign to him.
"It looks like you just wrote down gibberish."
"Really?" she said innocently, leaning her chin into her hand. "That doesn't sound like something I'd do."
He paused for a moment, and then tried measuringly, "Barruk -- athal'am tor innse?"
Judith let her legs wave a little in the air, bare toes pointed up. "That was a pretty good try. But 'innse' doesn't have a long vowel. Like 'rinse', without the 'r'."
Yuri shifted, pushing himself off the door, and then paused again. He asked, "Are you trying to teach me some sort of Krityan language?"
She looked back, shifting to give him a curious glance. "My, what a question. Haven't you been to Myorzo? Did the Krityans there speak a foreign language? Maybe I just didn't notice--"
"Yeah, yeah. I got it." A grin was tugging at his lips as he pushed himself away from the door and headed back downstairs to the inn's little kitchenette.
She didn't bother explaining herself to him; she rarely did. He didn't ask, either. It seemed to be enough for Yuri to know that for some reason she felt like leaving him little notes in a language he didn't recognize. He would bring her the note, and she would tell him what it meant, and then he would repeat it out loud. He never asked, or acted like they were anything out of the ordinary.
It was sweet of him.
The Adephagos was long gone by the time Yuri could read a simple note. He had a permanent room in their guild headquarters, even though he seldom stayed there for long, and Judith liked to leave him little letters, gradually improving the vocabulary she used in them. It was a slow process, indirect and seemingly pointless. She really had no way of knowing if he was taking any of it in, or just humoring her. She supposed it didn't matter. The important part was having someone who would play along with her, right?
It wouldn't be quite the same to leave those letters for Karol. He would ask a thousand questions about them, and probably resent being asked to learn something so useless; his preference was for practical information, things he could use to help people or make money or further the guild. Raven would make tiresome jokes about them being love letters long past the point where it was amusing. Even if Judith saw them as often, Rita and Estelle would have been frustrated by the slow pace of their education, chafing at the tidbits of new knowledge, and want to know more, faster, if they were to know anything at all: they were both scholars at heart. Not like Judith.
And Repede couldn't read, as far as Judith was aware.
Besides. There was something kind of appealing about it being Yuri. She couldn't quite put her finger on it.
It became very abruptly real one day after a big holiday dinner, in Zaphias where it had all began.
And then Yuri asked her casually, "Ai-ra barruk athal'am tor innso ay?" as they broke away from the dinner table.
It was silly. He was asking if it was his turn to do the dishes. But Judith felt her heart skip a beat happily, and she had to turn away, look at something else, something that was clearly interesting because it took her a moment to find the ability to agree, "Sil-ra."
She was on her way back to her room when she heard Ba'ul in the back of her mind, warm and fond; a fluttering impression of feelings and images that said as clearly as words, You spent all that time teaching him your secret language, and now that he knows it, you're just walking away?
He already knew all the things she wanted to say, but couldn't. Ba'ul was the one living soul who knew about her father, their secret language; what it had meant to her to know that there was someone with whom she had an invisible bond that would allow them to communicate in secret, even in the middle of a crowded room. For Ba'ul, that bond was literal. But now there was something binding her to Yuri, too. Someone she could be as close to, trust as much, as that simple little girl had been with her father.
Rather than answer him directly, she answered, Don't worry. I have something in mind.
Yuri knew enough vocabulary to understand 'Come pay me a visit in my room tonight.'