Chapter Text
Tamara is sitting on the couch flipping through mindless television when Tori bursts through the door. About half an hour ago, after giggling and snorting at some videos of someone muttering incoherently in what she thinks might have been Spanish, Tori gave Tamara the kind of look that made her skin crawl and then darted out of the house and into her car without explanation.
Then she comes back with a bottle of Smirnoff in one hand. Good. And a book in the other. Bad. She hands the book to Tamara. Tamara looks at the cover, it’s one of those shitty “How to Speak x Language” books that teach you how to speak a language like you’ve never actually heard a native talk.
Tamara looks up incredulously, “Why?”
“Well I thought it would be cool if you learned to speak Norwegian, you’re brothers giving it a shot and I thought maybe you would do the same?” Tori said as she looked at Tamara innocently.
Tamara got it instantly. A mischievous smile came across her face. Fine, if Tori wanted to play games, she could play games. She opened the book and looked at the first word.
“Hallo,” she said, purposefully mispronouncing it. Tori giggled. Tamara looked up at her, feigning confusion.
She flipped through the book and skimmed the words for a bit. Eventually Tori got bored of watching Tamara just turn through the book. She wasn’t even saying them aloud, occasionally she would just mouth them to herself. Tori got up and gave Tamara a small hug as she left the room to go cook dinner. By the time she had everything set and was just waiting for the oven timer to go off, she came back into the living room to find Tamara in the same position still looking at the book.
“How’s learning Norwegian going?” Tori said.
Tamara closed the book and looked up at Tori, smiling softly, “It goes, you know, I really think I am starting to get the hang of it.”
Tori tried to hold down laughter as she folded her arms across her chess and said, “Oh really? Let’s hear.”
“Okay, but you have to promise not to laugh,” she said coyly, holding the book protectively against her chest.
Tori raised her right hand, “I swear.”
“Alright then,” Tamara said, and then took a deep inhale. And let out a stream of dirty talk that sounded oddly familiar. The pronunciation was good if slightly off.
Tori gaped at her. “Wha- how? When did you even-.”
“You called me a whore maybe three times before I started looking up the words you would say to me in high school. I only knew the basic ones back then, just would look up the insults. After we started dating I started studying it more seriously. Even took a course in college.”
Tori stood there shock washing over her. She thought about all the things she had said to Tamara assuming she couldn’t understand. She had known it had been a bad habit, but she could have never estimated it would backfire like this. She had said dirty things. She had always thought Tamara had been responding to her voice, not the actual content of her words. Tori felt her cheeks heat up.
She had also said loving things. Things so gentle and sweet that she thought Tamara would run the other way or call her a sap if she said them in English. It gave her an odd rush to realize Tamara had been quietly accepting her words of love without comment or disapproval.
Oh.
She had said some really horrible things during their fights. You are unreasonable. You are too stupid to understand what I am trying to do for you. Why are you like this, other girls I dated were never like this? All of which Tamara had managed to feign innocence and not hold against her. Or maybe she had and Tori just thought it was part of her usual grumpiness.
She didn’t know what to say.
Tamara stood up and handed the book back to her. She looked at Tori as she put her hand on the book, about to take it back so she could burn it.
“Jeg Elsker deg,” she said with this cute little quirk in her lips. “I knew that one as soon as I thought things might be getting serious. Before I told my parents about you.”
Tamara finds herself in a crushing hug so tight she can feel the joints in her harms popping. Instinctively she wants to snap at Tori for causing her discomfort. She lets it go, letting Tori have her way, as usual. Tori’s shoulders are shaking and Tamara just tries to awkwardly pat her back.
“Hey you want to hear something funny?” Tamara starts. Tori releases her and goes to sit on the couch, bring Tamara with her. Her eyes look a bit foggy but then she is back, looking at Tamara, focused and alert.
“Sure.”
“Tom’s been trying to learn Norwegian too, but I know him and he’s lazy and doesn’t fact check. So I’ve been texting him wrong pronunciations and weird dirty talk.”
Tori remembers the videos on her phone. Suddenly it makes sense why Tom’s Norwegian was so bad.
“You’re evil,” Tori says as she leans back on the couch laughing so hard she can barely breathe.
“You would do the same thing to Tord and you know it.”
She’s got her there. The timer in the kitchen dings, and Tori goes to put dinner on the table. She cracks open the Smirnoff after dinner and yes, Tamara’s Norwegian is good sober, but not so much after a couple drinks. She has her arms around Tori’s neck and Tori has her phone out pressing the record button.
“Tammy, say you love me again,” Tori says bluntly. Tamara takes one look at the recorder and looks Tori dead in the eyes and opens her mouth.
“Fuck off you stupid commie whore,” she slurs in Norwegian, stumbling over syllables and flopping back on the couch when she is done, giving Tori the finger and quietly laughing to herself. Tori rolls her eyes, and turns off the recorder. Her phone asks if she wants to save or delete the recording.
Tori doesn’t even hesitate to press save. She knows Tamara, and she knows in her own little grouchy way, she’s telling her she loves her.