Trinity

Language Barrier

Ten'etirey found herself paired up with Mansk while traveling. He apparently had a stronger hold on the language than the others so she offered to help teach him. One of them needed to be fluent, or something. She wasn't really listening to the reason. Either way, they were at the back of the group and they talked for hours.

Of course she was still interested in him, but she was pleasantly surprised to be drawn to him on a personal level. He was like her. His masks were just much more noticeable than hers. It was nice to have someone to relate with and they quickly developed an easy way of talking.

Silence was never awkward between them, they didn't need to fill it with anything. Get asked a question you don't know how to answer? Not answering was completely acceptable. There was no reason to force interactions and she enjoyed his easy company. Sometimes dealing with neurotypicals was exhausting, it was nice to have someone she didn't need to mask around.

It reminded her of her conversations with Norm and Max. While they weren't autistic, she felt safe being herself around them. They wouldn't get offended or upset at the way she said something or her bluntness.

On the third day he found out she knew sign language.

They were taking a break from 'language lessons,' and just talking in Na'vi. His conversational abilities had grown exponentially in the past few days, amazing what consistent experience would do. At some point, Lyle got his attention and signed to him.

Better not let the Colonel see you hitting on her that hard.

Mansk flipped him off and Wainfleet walked away with his signature shit-eating grin. He just liked pushing Mansk's buttons, within reason. Lyle was, hilariously enough, respectful of his boundaries. The matching shit-eating grin on Ten's face confused him. Before he could ask, she raised her hands and he froze.

Hitting on me, huh? His eyes widened behind the dark lenses as she signed to him. What was he supposed to say to that?

Fuck it. Might as well double down.

Maybe. Her smile grew and it pulled a smile out of him.

You wanna fuck with the Colonel?

Bad idea. Bad idea! Don't do that. Don't agree to that. You know better!

I'm in.

Fucking idiot.

=-=

There was no real plan, she would just pay attention to Lyle and Quaritch's conversations and eventually interject when she thought it would be the most entertaining. Unfortunately it meant she had to wait for Lyle and the Colonel to talk. They couldn't exactly put Mansk in there to push things along without it being suspicious.

It took four days of waiting for it to finally pay off.

Four whole days of reading their every movement until the most perfect opportunity blessed her with its presence.

The fuck is wrong with these bodies? Lyle signed to the Colonel.

You want to elaborate?

Not exactly. Quaritch studied him carefully and finally got what he meant.

You too?

Thank fuck I'm not the only one. Shit is driving me insane. Twenty year old bodies and they couldn't give us or do something to curb the drive?

Ten's eyes could have left her head at that very moment and she would have waved them goodbye with a smile on her face.

She had seen everything she wanted to see.

Eywa herself could ascend from the very ground beneath her feet and she would still be more interested in this conversation.

This was just too good, she expected to have fun with this but god damn. She glimpsed over at Mansk and saw him trying to suppress a smirk.

Oh yeah, this was it.

I doubt they even considered it, seems like a lot of this was done without consideration of what we'd be dealing with.

Quaritch had come to the realization that most of their issues would have been solved with the RDA pulling its head out of its ass. This shit wouldn't have flown if he had been in control.

How the hell do the natives deal with this? Supposedly we can't do anything unless we bond to that person forever?? I'm going to lose my fucking mind.

Lyle signed frustratedly, he had been on edge for weeks. The time they spent up in the ISV didn't help, and being out in the middle of bum-fucked-egypt wasn't helping either. Ten had been watching them carefully with a growing grin and Lyle took notice, causing Quaritch to also face her.

Generally we deal with it by fucking, you don't have to bond to do that. You can just, fuck.

Ja, Lopez, Prager, and Zdinarsk watched as she signed to them. They didn't speak sign language but it was obvious that she did.

The look on the Colonel's face was exquisite, Lyle's was pretty good too.

"How long have you known sign language?" Quaritch asked aloud.

"Since Spellman taught me after I went non-verbal a few times to help alleviate some of the stress when I was eight." Her voice was smug and Mansk was struggling to not laugh. Spider was right alongside him, doing his best to prevent his laughter.

"So this entire time, you've been able to understand us?"

"That would be correct." Finally, Mansk couldn't take it anymore and let out a breathy laugh at the display and the others besides a mortified Lyle and Quaritch, joined in.