GATE (Thus the JSDF fought there): Breakthrough

Chapter 11: Deception

A few days had passed since the rescue operation of the Ambassador and Vice Minister.

The team gathered at the tavern once again, it was sort of becoming a habit for all of them. Chris was still in recovery so he couldn't come, Jackson had left to see how the rescued hostages were doing, Mike had left to call his family, and Ryan went to go and chat with the SOGs and talk to General Barkley who he had orders to see

So the only people who remained at the table were Claire, Aiden, Markus, and Jason. Druilla was also there like usual, seemingly by his side everywhere the sniper went.

"These words are getting confusing..." Jason mutters, looking at Aiden.

Ever since Druilla and Jason hooked up, Jason made it a priority to understand the local language so he could chat with Druilla, but it was something incredibly new for Jason as he never learned another language except for when he needed to in high school, and even then he forgot the language in its entirety the day after the finals.

"You need to put more emphasis on the vowels, it can sound like another word if you don't" Aiden replies, flipping through a few pages in his book before writing something down on a napkin.

"Alright, I want you to say this to Druilla. Sound it out and put some emphasis on the last word." Aiden slides the napkin to Jason where Druilla still hangs onto his right arm.

Jason's gut was telling him that Aiden was playing some sort of joke on him, but Aiden was either really good at hiding it or it wasn't a joke in reality. "Alright, let me see."

Jason looks at the napkin, trying to piece together the words before looking to Druilla and sounding out the phrase in a very broken manner.

Druilla raises her head to stare at Jason, taking a long moment to take in what Jason said before she starts to stutter.

Aiden hides his wide smile by covering his mouth from Jason as Claire hides her laughter by looking away from the table. Sadly Markus would be left out of the joke, not having a single clue on what's going on.

"What did you make me say?" Jason looks at Aiden as he starts cracking up in laughter.

"Don't worry, nothing embarrassing." Aiden barely keeps his composure down as he shakes his head.

Druilla starts talking to Jason at a fast rate before taking a deep breath to calm down, drinking from his cup of beer.

"Congrats, she says she loves you back." Aiden is barely able to mutter under his laughter as the table begins to calm down.

A few minutes passed, Druilla rested her head on Jason's arm as Claire decided to break the silence.

"How's the wife Markus?" Claire sipped her cup, leaning back in her seat while glancing over at Markus.

"Talked with her last night, she gave me a pretty good rant about her workplace. I love that woman but man... I forget how much she can talk and not stop. Sometimes that's what I love about her though." Markus replies. "What about you? Any of these guys around here get you interested?"

Claire laughs slightly, looking around the tavern before shrugging. "Don't know. Even if I did I wouldn't go telling you with the PsyOps right here."

Markus laughs as Aiden raises an eyebrow. "It's easy to read when people are in love, you don't need a psychology major to see it." Aiden soon grows a grin, having watched everyone on the team he was able to read what most of them were thinking. Jackson was the most concerned, yesterday seemed to hit him hard despite hiding it from the others.

"Alright alright, I won't poke fun at you." Claire sighs, taking a sip from her cup.

"I'm glad we understand each other Corporal." Aiden says before opening his book once again.