Even In The Grave, All Is Not Lost

Conversations With Other People

A/N: sorry this took a while, brain fog's been particularly bad lately. It's a longer chapter tho so hopefully that makes up for it some :)

[Trigger warning: reference to child abuse]

. . .

"Ha yu."

"Ha you," Murphy repeated.

Simple enough. And here I was thinking this Trigedasleng shit would be hard.

But then again I am brilliant.

"That's 'how are you?'" Luna informed him, lifting one of the fish fillets off the board.

Murphy wrinkled his nose. He didn't know how it was possible but the smell seemed to have risen to even greater heights of vomit-inducing. He was never letting Raven and Luna pick what they were having for dinner again. The two of them were going to have to find something else to do on their little dates.

When Luna had enlisted his help in 'scaling', 'gutting' and 'de-boning' the little fuckers, he'd nearly thrown his knife at her.

"Yu laik meizen."

"Yoo like masen."

"Meizen."

"Mazen."

"Very good."

He shifted under the praise, sneering slightly. "You better not be getting me to say I smell like ass."

Or fish - which he now realized would be an even worse insult.

"I'd never do that." The way Luna's eyes danced, though, left him somewhat in doubt. "It means 'you're beautiful'. When you say it to someone, you're not just referring to their appearance but everything they are. It's one of the highest compliments you can give a person."

The look Luna sent him held a lot of meaning and absolutely no subtlety. Murphy didn't have to guess why she was teaching him this particular phrase.

He wasn't the only one who liked to tinker around in people's relationships, apparently. Though her reasons were probably far more altruistic than his.

"What's the highest?"

Might as well go for home base.

"For my people? Being called strong." Luna shrugged. "But beauty requires its own kind of strength. It's hard to be beautiful in a world like this, or to hold onto what beauty you have. Not everyone who's strong is beautiful. But everyone who is beautiful is strong, in their own way."

Murphy withheld a sigh. It seemed it was impossible for this woman not to come out with the deep and meaningful answers. Leaving it at 'strong' would have been more than enough. He wasn't looking for a philosophy lesson.

"Alright, this one?" Murphy waved a carrot in the air, lest she delve even further into the complexities of beauty.

(he did decide to file 'yoo like mazen' away to give to Raven at a later date, though. Since apparently it was what got Luna hot.

Emori, on the other hand, would probably laugh in his face if he used that line on her)

"Bonifu." Luna turned on the tap and began rinsing one fillet under the water. Not for the first time, he was glad she'd volunteered to take over fish duties whilst he worked on the vegetables.

There was slime on her arm.

"Boneefoo."

She nodded, eyes focused on her work. "Yu gaf fis fyucha op?"