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When Kim had told Jack months ago that if he ever needed some help, she would always be happy to help him, in whatever way she could. And, of all the things that he could’ve ever needed her help with, it just had to be needing a crash course in French because he got himself into quite the predicament. When he had been reaching out to some other dojos around the world, Kim had tried to remind him to be wary of trying to get into contact with dojos that were in countries that weren’t English-speaking, since it would be unnecessarily difficult trying to communicate with them. (Not that she told him not to try getting in contact with them, just to have a bit of restraint and not get his hopes up too high.) So, after the first few months of emailing, arranging visits months in advance, all of which always just magically seemed to work out perfectly in Jack’s favor, it then started to fall apart after he’d been in contact with an up-and-coming dojo in France.
For the time period they’d been in contact over email, Jack had been able to rely on some input from Kim, as well as using online translators, and everything seemed to be going well enough. Until, that was, he was arranging a visit for the Parisian dojo he’d been talking to to come visit their dojo in Seaford. As it turned out, while he’d pick up on some simple French words and phrases as he had been in contact with them, Jack had opted to tell them he was practically fluent in their language. Spoiler: he was very much not fluent in French.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do, Kim.” Jack had told her late in the evening, as they were both getting ready to go to bed, "Sensei Martin is going to be here in like a week.”
“You could always just, I don’t know, tell him the truth?” Kim replied, taking a bit too much joy in Jack’s self-inflicted worry.
Jack, on the other hand, was not amused by her answer, “I’m being serious, Kim. I know I shouldn’t have told him that I could understand French, it was just, I was being stupid. I mean, I was just being all egotistical, and I don’t know, I just hadn’t thought it all the way through.”
As Kim pulled back their bed covers, she asked, “You didn’t think about your lie at all, Jack? Even while you were planning that whole trip for them to come over here and see the dojo and meet us?”
“Not helping, Kimberly.” Jack returned in a growl, letting his frustration at the situation boil over. Which he immediately regretted allowing to happen, “Sorry, it’s just. You’re right, I didn’t think about this at all. But what can I even do now? If I tell Sensei Martin that I lied about something as frivolous as that, how can he possibly trust anything I’ve said to him?”
“Well, I still think that it would be best that you just come clean about it, and the sooner the better,” Kim first replied as Jack slid into bed with her, and as their faces were mere inches apart, she added, “But, luckily for you, I have a back-up plan.” She had to hold back most of her laughter at the wide-eyed look he gave her at that. “There’s a reason that I’ve been able to help you write to them, Jack. I had to take French classes through middle school and high school. Dad wanted me to take Latin instead, Mom wanted me to learn Italian, but she convinced him to let me take French as like a middle ground. I have no idea how they got there. But anyway, while there’s no way we have enough time to get you anywhere close to being fluent. I mean, I’m not close to being fluent in French either. But, I think that if you are willing to put in the work, and actually listen to me, we will be able to convince Sensei Martin and his friends that you’re familiar enough with it that they won’t think you’ve intentionally lied to them.”
There had been dozens of times that she’d caught him looking at her like Kim had the answers to all of the questions Jack had. But especially so in this situation. “You’re amazing, you know that?” Jack told her between quick kisses.
“I know.”
Honestly, she really should’ve expected that things weren’t going to be as smooth sailing as Kim had hoped they would be. Realistically, after she’d woken up the following morning and mulled over what kind of a task she’d signed herself up for, Kim knew that there was going to be a bit of difficulty giving Jack a rough crash course in French. But, it only took her about fifteen minutes, after scouring some guides online to get a better idea as to how she could go about giving her husband a few lessons on at least being able to comprehend and speak some basic enough French.
After going over her plan with Jack over a quick breakfast at home, which was mostly just Kim outlining what they were going to try to tackle each day so he could be as ready as possible for Sensei Martin’s visit, the pair headed over to their Bobby Wasabi Dojo.
Within a year of both of them graduating from college, Jack and Kim co-reopened the dojo that they’d spent most of their high school years in, the small-ish place in the Seaford Mall. It wasn’t much of a debate between the two as to who would be ranked the highest; Kim easily gave that title to Jack. Not because she was worse at karate than he was, but rather they figured that it would be better if one of them took charge of the financial side of running the dojo, while the other got to focus on leading classes and training. Jack, admittedly, wasn’t too detail-oriented when it came to budgeting and finances. So, it just made more sense for Kim to take that role. And so far, for the five, almost six, years that they had been running the dojo together, they hadn’t run into any issues they weren’t able to work through.
Plus, since they owned the dojo and worked on their own schedules, they had the majority of the day to work on whatever they wanted to. Most days, it was either planning out the classes and tournaments for the next month, going over their finances together (Usually only if they needed to recruit more students or look into starting another class.), and on the odd occasion, they actually got to spar with each other like they had when they were teenagers. But, this week, their flexible schedule came in handy, as they had to cram as much French into Jack’s head as fast as they could.
“Okay, we are going to start with you learning the alphabet and the letter sounds.” Kim explained, as she connected her phone to the dojo’s speakers, “And I’m hoping that in about ten minutes, you’ll have it down pat. Just, um, try to repeat the sounds that you hear.”
Before she could walk all the way into the office, as the start of the video played through the speakers, Jack asked, “What, and what are you doing while I have to listen to this?”
“Making sure we’ve got enough room in the budget for your laque, Jacque,” Kim replied, followed by promptly shutting the office door before he could respond.
As she’d promised, about ten minutes after she’d stepped into the office, and was greeted to the sound of Jack mumbling along to the French alphabet song. “How’s it going?” Kim asked as she joined him on the mat, switching off the song before she did so, “Are you all warmed up and ready to learn Français?”
“Uh, I think so. What’s Français?” Jack asked.
“French, Français is French in French.” Kim explained shortly, which got a cheeky laugh from Jack, “So next we’re gonna start with some simple phrases. Just introductions, hellos, and good-byes, that kind of stuff.”
After taking a second to process what she’d said, Jack gave her a short, firm nod as he replied, “That sounds perfect. What’s first?”
“Just, repeat after me. Okay?” Kim asked, getting another nod from Jack, “I’ll say it in French first, you repeat it, and once you’ve got it down, I will tell you what it means in English." She got another nod from Jack, “Alright, let’s start with, bonjour.”
The rest of the week followed a similar routine. After the third morning, Jack was pretty solid with the letter sounds and could manage his way through a short introduction. But, if he needed to hold much of a conversation, that was another story. However, by the evening of their fifth day of trying to get Jack to quickly learn enough, they were both feeling pretty confident about Sensei Martin’s visit the next day. For the entire week, once Jack was starting to learn some short words and phrases, Kim got to practice her own French as they spoke to each other only in French when they weren’t working with students in the dojo.
“Comment vous sentez-vous?” Kim asked Jack as they were getting ready to go to bed once again, knowing that he was likely very nervous about Sensei Martin arriving the following morning with some of the teachers from his dojo.
Jack needed a second to think of his response, since it wasn’t one of the questions that they had practiced a lot, before he answered, “Bien, merci, mademoiselle.”
“Incroyable.” Kim told him, as they climbed into their bed together, Jack pulled her into his chest as she added, “Dors bien, mon amour.” Which she followed up with leaning her head back onto his shoulder enough to kiss his lips.
Once she pulled back just a touch from him, Jack gazed into her eyes endearingly as he replied, “Tu es l’amour de ma vie.” When she looked at him a bit too wide-eyed in surprise, since terms of affection or for love weren’t exactly areas they focused on, Jack laughed between kisses he peppered along her neck and jaw, until she couldn’t help but giggle alongside him, “Fais de beaux rêves, Kimberly.”
“Dors bien, Jacque,” Kim repeated, planting one more kiss on his lips before settling into a much more comfortable position to sleep in. But, before she drifted off to sleep, she asked, “Are you really ready for tomorrow?”
Jack sighed as she shifted behind her, his arms holding her close to him, before he answered, “As ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose. But, even if it all goes terribly, and I can’t say a thing in French once they get here, I at least had this really hot teacher to help me. So, it’s not bad, you know?”