Chapter Text
"What if we went to go visit your old home?"
Tamtey suddenly asked. So'lek had been working on cleaning one of his weapons, and the sudden topic of his old home definitely caught the man off guard.
"Excuse me?" He looked at Tamtey now.
The other man smiled and repeated his words, "What if we went to visit your old home? In the hallelujah mountains? We can make it a trip! A (vacation)!"
"What is a (vacation), Sarentu?"
This type of thing had been happening for as long as So'lek could remember, even before he started to help Tamtey and the other Sarentu relearn their birth language.
Actually, even afterwards, Tamtey would say human phrases in his sentances.
So'lek had tried to understand, but he only knew so much human language. And he tried to understand that Tamtey had been raised by humans, so little things he always knew, So'lek knew Tamtey couldn't just drop.
He especially saw this with Teylan. Teylan struggled to drop a lot of human things the most. He however was glad the Sarentu were working on it. But somethings just couldn't be fit out. Or, in Tamtey's words, 'Somethings just can't be wired out of our systems.'
Which So'lek had finally learned was a technology phrase! Someone be proud of him! He was trying his very best to understand the words and phrases that came from the one's mouth whom he cared the most about.
"I don't know if there is a word for (vacation). I guess tìsyortsyìp works. (Break), tìsyortsyìp." Tamtey answered So'lek's now.
"(Vacation) means tìsyortsyìp?" So'lek confirmed.
Tamtey made a shrug. "I think so, it sounds right at least."
So'lek then made a slight huff. "I cannot take a (vacation). We are always needed here in the kinglor forest. The Mangkwan and the RDA are always going to be here."
"I know that, So'lek, and we have many aytsamsiyu here. Many (warriors). We've been fighting our entire lives."
Tamtey moved forward to So'lek, lightly grabbing his arm.
"We cannot leave here, Sarentu. We will never not be needed here. The kinglor forest needs us."
Tamtey rolled his eyes. "(That's like saying Batman is always needed in Gotham. He's got the Robin's to take care of Gotham.) And we've got three clans here to help take care of the kinglor forest. All I'm asking is maybe one week."
So'lek made a full pause. What in the Great Mother were the words coming out of Tamtey's mouth? So'lek knew their language barrier could be off sometimes. But what in Eywa's name was a Gotham? Or a Batman? Or a Robins??
"... Right." So'lek nodded just once. Tamtey brightened up.
"So we'll go to the hallelujah mountains? We can bring our comms! If that makes you feel better."
What? No! So'lek wasn't convinced at all. They were not going. And Tamtey's bright smile wasn't going to persuade So'lek into doing anything!
"(Teylan, what is a Batman?)" So'lek found himself asking the guy 2 days before he and Tamtey were supposed to leave to the hallelujah mountains.
"I'm sorry, what?" Teylan turned to So'lek, a little confused. "What brought this up?"
"Tamtey said something about a (Batman, a Gotham, and a Robins.)"
Teylan nodded. "Well, that's a bit of a long (rabbithole) to go down."
"What is a (rabbithole?)" So'lek narrowed his eyes at Teylan now.
Teylan laughed softly. "Sorry! Okay. Uhh, Tamtey was really the only one who knows most about (Batman) and all that stuff. When we were in TAP we were shown human cultures and they showed us (Batman and Spider-Man.) I think they only did so to kinda show us that humans weren't bad and that they were saving us. (They used it as a metaphor.) And then when we got here, y'know how Tamtey collected those comic pages? Well he and Priya went over them and then she made a comment to (Batman) because (Batman) started out as (comic) stuff and then Tamtey read a few with Priya. But anyway! Tamtey is a lot more knowledgeable in (Batman) stuff than me or anyone else!"
So'lek maybe understood half of that. "(Batman) is a human culture?"
Teylan took a soft breath in. "Uhh. No."
The guy laughed now. "Maybe I'm not the person you should be asking translations for. Maybe ask Priya?"
So'lek sighed and just walked away. He guessed he could ask Priya, but it didn't seem like a good idea. Also, what was a (metaphor)?
"(Priya?)"
So'lek sat comfortably on one of the tables outside the new resistance base, it was a small base, very small. One that could easily be packed up into a Samson.
Priya looked up at So'lek from the tablet thing she was using. Human device, So'lek wasn't sure of the full name of it.
"(What's up, So'lek?)" It was obvious that she knew that he hadn't sat there to give her company. But So'lek was at least a bit grateful she didn't ask about it right away, so the pair had sat there for a little while, just being in each other's company.
"(I want to know, Tamtey speaks on this Batman. What does that mean?)"
So'lek still had it in mind. He didn't understand, he wanted to understand.
"(Batman? He's a comic character. A comic is a bunch of picutres to create a story, like a mural, but smaller, and with the same photos over and over. Kinda. Tamtey likes the character because he's a vigilante. Kinda like the work you and him do around the kinglor forest. You take down RDA sites illegally and Batman, technically, fights crime illegally. I think Tamtey found connections in Batman which made him like the character.)"
Then she added, "(Oh! Unless you meant who was he? Then he's a human who dresses up as a Bat to fight crime.)"
So'lek slightly nodded. "(...Right.)"
"(This has really answered nothing.. what is a metaphor? Teylan mentioned the metaphor and i do not know what that is either.)"
Priya laughed a bit, "(That's easier to explain. It's a figure of speech that compares two unrelated things by stating that one thing *is* another. A metaphor directly equates two things, 'He is like a Thanator in battle.' Saying that the subject he is equal to a Thanator in battle.)"
So'lek found himself nodding at that explanation. "(That makes sense! That makes a lot of sense. That is much better than whatever Tamtey was talking about.)"
Priya laughed a bit. "(Yeah, literature stuff is much better to understand.)"
So'lek was trying his best to understand Tamtey and the other Sarentu. Other Sarentu being mainly Teylan.
The guy left then, leaving Priya to go back to whatever she was doing so So'lek could go find Tamtey.
He knew that the Sarentu was packing his stuff to head out to the Ayram alusìng. Which So'lek still didn't agree to, or technically in his head he still hadn't agreed, but when he just saw how excited Tamtey was to go visit where So'lek had grown up, The Dog Tag Warrior himself couldn't say he didn't want to go.
"So'lek! Before we go I need to go recheck with Teylan and the Kame'tire again. I told Teylan to go tell them that we're gonna be gone but I feel he's going to get distracted hanging out with Okul and they always enable him—"
"Go, Sarentu."
So'lek watched as Tamtey turned his body towards him, his eyes looking directly at So'lek's.
"Tamtey." The other corrected.
So'lek's nod was brief. "Just go. I know you worry about Teylan. But he is competent. But go check on him if you please, we will be gone for a while."
Tamtey visably relaxed, his face softened and then he nodded, "Thank you, So'lek."
He moved to his ikran now and then got onto her, "Ready to ride, girl?"
Tamtey turned back to So'lek, "(I'll see you in a bit, love ya'!)"
Then the younger left.
"(Love?)"
"(Priya! What does love mean for humans!? When someone says it to another. What did he mean!?)"
So'lek had grabbed his comms so quickly after Tamtey left and tuned into Priya's radio, he only had so much time before Tamtey returned from the Kame'tire clan.
"(Whoa! What? So'lek, what are you talking about? What is going on?)"
"(Tamtey said he loved me when he left to go visit the Kame'tire for a last time before we leave for the Hallelujah Mountains. I know that the word love has different meaning for different things but I do not understand which he used for me when he said that!)"
There was a slight snicker through the comm line.
"(Well, okay, how did he say it?)"
So'lek moved to Ìley and pet his head, "(He said, 'I will see you later, I love you.')"
"(Oh that's definitely romantic!)"
So'lek paused, for a long time. Romantic? Really? That's what it meant? Tamtey loved him? Romantically? He wanted to be So'lek's mate? Had Tamtey been courting him? Did So'lek not see it? The guy must have not because he hadn't gotten any romantic messages from Tamtey at all.
Did he want to court Tamtey back? Yes. Next question.
He didn't even think about it. He knew he wanted Tamtey as his mate. That felt insane. So'lek was clearly going crazy. Right?
But he wasn't, he felt warm, he felt like his chest was floating, his tail wouldn't stop flicking around in the air and his head almost felt fuzzy at the thought of courting Tamtey back.
That was it. That's what he would do. When they arrive to the Ayram alusìng, So'lek would be able to create a Lovers' brace. With carvings specific to Tamtey. He would make it and then he would bring it to Tamtey and then he would make Tamtey his mate.
That was exactly what So'lek wanted to do.
"(Thank you, Priya.)"
"(Oh you're still on—yeah! Of course! You're welcome, So'lek!)"
So'lek went off the line now and then he looked at Ìley, "Ma' eylan, did you know he was courting me?"
Ìley replied with a few grumbles that So'lek couldn't figure out if they were ones of knowledge or of unknowing.
So'lek sighed softly, "It is okay, I will make it up to him, I will not let his courting efforts go unnoticed any longer."
Ìley hit So'lek's chest softly with his head, So'lek found himself softly laughing, "Maybe that's why he suddenly brought up this trip. He wants me to court him back, he wants me to take us somewhere to mate him. Of course, it just makes sense."