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overmoreficsSeeing the boy speak his language wasn’t something Alva was used to at first.
He remembered Herman speaking it from time to time, but it was mostly just curses when something went wrong. Very rarely had he seen him speak Serbian in a sense of communication. A couple of times he had been writing a letter, presumably to his wife or Luca, and left it to do something, resulting in Alva looking over it. He was unable to recognize any words, but that's probably why Herman never bothered putting it away when not present.
Luca, on the other hand, actually used the language.
There were a couple of other people at the university speaking it, so when present with him, they'd just switch for convenience. Alva was rarely present when that happened, but there were moments when some of them came into his lab looking for Luca and they'd start speaking it instead of using English. Alva had no issue with it, truth to be told. Yes, it did occasionally annoy him he wasn't aware of exactly what they were talking about, but more often than not, Luca would tell him afterwards.
Over time, this became the norm. Luca was comfortable with his language, much more than Herman was. That man seemed to hide his origin, using a fake last name and only using it when necessary. Luca was not like that.
It added to his character in Alva's opinion.
And when the older man started forming feelings for the student, he put a little more effort into knowing the language.
It started off with little things that were understandable, the equipment they used. It meant that every time they'd work in the university labs, Alva became aware most of the things Luca would talk to others who came it was due to equipment. Things would not work or something would be done wrong, resulting in other students asking Luca to ask Alva for help. It happened so much to a degree anyone who would enter the lab they were at the moment would be questioned by Alva on what equipment wasn't working this time.
He'd often be met with confusion, the students wondering how he knew it was about that. Luca would chuckle at that every time.
He then got the idea to ask Luca to teach him the language, but held off on the idea for a bit. The sentence structure and just the way of saying things were much different than English and it sometimes confused him.
"How do you know who's speaking if you just leave out the pronouns?"
"You know thy the way verbs are said", Luca told him. "You can tell who speaks by them."
How do you even do that?
He held off on learning more for a while, having some sort of hope the feelings would just go away. Being in love with a man was not accepted by society and he doubted Luca would feel the same. Not to mention the issue that could raise if he did confess but Luca was repulsed by the confession.
But to his luck, or better say Luca's inability to be careful, he had seen him enter a bar one night.
It was a public secret that the said bar was visited only by people interested in the same gender. Most people entering it would hide themselves, their heads covered by capes, doing their best to not be noticed.
Luca threw all that out of the window and just went in there with no head covering.
Alva was with his wife (loosely said, considering she didn't bother much over him. They had married out of convenience, for Alva not to look suspicious unmarred at his age and for her to stop the nagging of her family.) when he saw him. If he were anyone else, this would've brought Luca so much trouble, both in case of his studies and social life.
But it also opened a possibility for him. If anything, facing rejection wasn't going to come with the gamble of possibly ruining his life.
So, he decided to properly ask him to teach him the language.
"Where's that coming from?", Luca asked him, a little confused why he'd ask such a thing.
"Constantly learning something new stimulates the brain, even if it's a language. Not to mention that you seem to enjoy speaking it to your fellow friends."
"I guess you're right", he continued. "Where should I start then? There's a lot to go through, is there an area you think you'd like the most to start from? Like food or household items-"
"How do you say 'I love you'?"
Luca stopped talking and looked at Alva with a surprised look.
"That's a… very odd first request. Well, if you want to say it word for word like in English it would be ' Ја тебе волим' but you're more likely to hear people say 'Волим те'. It's simpler that way."
Alva repeated both phrases. As expected, he struggled a bit, unable to get the words correctly right away.
"You're not bad for the start. The accent is a bit off, but once you repeat it a couple of times, you'll get it right!"
So, he did. He repeated the words to himself, trying to get it right. It took him a couple of tries but he somehow managed.
“You don’t need to get it right immediately you know”, Luca laughed. “It talks some time to-”
“Волим те.”
He said that looking him straight in the eyes, Luca freezing on the spot. He stared back at him and said nothing for longer than Alva expected.
“Ја…”
Had he made a miscalculation? Was Luca not in that club or maybe he was picking up someone who was gay but he himself wasn’t? Had he made a mistake by doing this?
“Хвала ти”, he started. Alva couldn’t understand him. “Мислио сам да сам једини који се тако осећа. Толико ми се дуго свиђаш да сам мислио да ћу полудети ако ти не кажем, али нисам знао како би реаговао.”
“Luca, you know I cannot understand you.”
Luca continued as if he didn’t hear him.
“Хвала ти, Алва”, he smiled at him. “И ја тебе волим.”
Just at the end, Alva heard words he somewhat understood. They were similar to what he just told Luca. That response… he must’ve felt the same, right?
Not wasting any more time, Alva pulled the boy from the chair he was sitting at, getting him to a similar height, and kissed him without a warning.
Luca did not pull back. He moaned into the kiss, gripping Alva by his shirt, kissing the older man back. To their luck, Alva decided to do this late at night, when most people already went home, meaning no one was going to hear them in the lab they were in and realize what was going on.
“How… How did you know?”, Luca said as they parted. “That I might like you, I mean. I never talked about it or written it in my journals.”
“You are a reckless boy, you know”, the older man said. “I saw you enter that bar with nothing to cover up your identity. If I was someone else, you might have gotten yourself in trouble in more ways than one.”
“Shit”, it came out of the boy. “I… I really should be more careful about that, shouldn’t I?”
“I don’t think you’d ever be able to do what, no matter how hard you try.”
Luca did not let go of Alva, so they just stood there the whole time.
“Did you really want me to teach you Serbian or did you ask that just so that you could tell me that you love me like this?”
“To a degree, yes”, Alva started. “It was because I wanted to confess to you this way. But I do want you to teach me the language. You sound very happy when you use it to talk to your friends. And you do sound nice when you speak it.”
Luca wasn’t able to see that, but there was a tint of red on his face as Alva spoke about that.
“I’ve… I’ve never had someone say that. Usually, people look down upon me for speaking it, so I avoided it unless it’s with friends who also know it. I was very happy you never commented on it and even asked for some words because it told me you don’t hate it. I… I think reactions like those were why my father completely stopped using it at some point and just switched to English. No one liked it, so he would default to English even when speaking to my mother and I.”
Alva could only imagine what it’s like to be forced not to use the language you were taught since birth because someone viewed it as less or had an issue with it, in your own house even.
“You can speak it with me as much as you want.” His hand went through the boy’s hair, Luca looking at him lovingly as he did that.
“Хвала ти”, he said again. He buried his head into Alva’s chest, probably relieved of the situation.
“It’s getting late. We can continue with this some other time, alright? You must be tired, no?”
“Yea.”, the boy murmured into his shirt. “Say, could I stay with you for the night? If it’s okay?”
His wife was almost never at home, so there won’t be any harm done. He was quite sure she was with someone else anyway.
“It will be fine. There’s a spare room, so there will be no problem.” Alva was about to continue but instead looked down. Luca had grabbed his hand, their fingers intertwining. He didn’t think he’d hold his hand out of everything.
“Is this okay?”
Alva nodded. “It’s okay. Just let go of it when we’re out for safety.”
Luca did not let go of it until they were out of the building. The halls were empty, and even if someone was to come by, they’d hear it and part away on time. He seemed rather fond of physical touch.
Alva could remember that for later.
Now, his mind was focused on his young apprentice, wondering of all the things that would come from this.
He remembered Herman speaking it from time to time, but it was mostly just curses when something went wrong. Very rarely had he seen him speak Serbian in a sense of communication. A couple of times he had been writing a letter, presumably to his wife or Luca, and left it to do something, resulting in Alva looking over it. He was unable to recognize any words, but that's probably why Herman never bothered putting it away when not present.
Luca, on the other hand, actually used the language.
There were a couple of other people at the university speaking it, so when present with him, they'd just switch for convenience. Alva was rarely present when that happened, but there were moments when some of them came into his lab looking for Luca and they'd start speaking it instead of using English. Alva had no issue with it, truth to be told. Yes, it did occasionally annoy him he wasn't aware of exactly what they were talking about, but more often than not, Luca would tell him afterwards.
Over time, this became the norm. Luca was comfortable with his language, much more than Herman was. That man seemed to hide his origin, using a fake last name and only using it when necessary. Luca was not like that.
It added to his character in Alva's opinion.
And when the older man started forming feelings for the student, he put a little more effort into knowing the language.
It started off with little things that were understandable, the equipment they used. It meant that every time they'd work in the university labs, Alva became aware most of the things Luca would talk to others who came it was due to equipment. Things would not work or something would be done wrong, resulting in other students asking Luca to ask Alva for help. It happened so much to a degree anyone who would enter the lab they were at the moment would be questioned by Alva on what equipment wasn't working this time.
He'd often be met with confusion, the students wondering how he knew it was about that. Luca would chuckle at that every time.
He then got the idea to ask Luca to teach him the language, but held off on the idea for a bit. The sentence structure and just the way of saying things were much different than English and it sometimes confused him.
"How do you know who's speaking if you just leave out the pronouns?"
"You know thy the way verbs are said", Luca told him. "You can tell who speaks by them."
How do you even do that?
He held off on learning more for a while, having some sort of hope the feelings would just go away. Being in love with a man was not accepted by society and he doubted Luca would feel the same. Not to mention the issue that could raise if he did confess but Luca was repulsed by the confession.
But to his luck, or better say Luca's inability to be careful, he had seen him enter a bar one night.
It was a public secret that the said bar was visited only by people interested in the same gender. Most people entering it would hide themselves, their heads covered by capes, doing their best to not be noticed.
Luca threw all that out of the window and just went in there with no head covering.
Alva was with his wife (loosely said, considering she didn't bother much over him. They had married out of convenience, for Alva not to look suspicious unmarred at his age and for her to stop the nagging of her family.) when he saw him. If he were anyone else, this would've brought Luca so much trouble, both in case of his studies and social life.
But it also opened a possibility for him. If anything, facing rejection wasn't going to come with the gamble of possibly ruining his life.
So, he decided to properly ask him to teach him the language.
"Where's that coming from?", Luca asked him, a little confused why he'd ask such a thing.
"Constantly learning something new stimulates the brain, even if it's a language. Not to mention that you seem to enjoy speaking it to your fellow friends."
"I guess you're right", he continued. "Where should I start then? There's a lot to go through, is there an area you think you'd like the most to start from? Like food or household items-"
"How do you say 'I love you'?"
Luca stopped talking and looked at Alva with a surprised look.
"That's a… very odd first request. Well, if you want to say it word for word like in English it would be ' Ја тебе волим' but you're more likely to hear people say 'Волим те'. It's simpler that way."
Alva repeated both phrases. As expected, he struggled a bit, unable to get the words correctly right away.
"You're not bad for the start. The accent is a bit off, but once you repeat it a couple of times, you'll get it right!"
So, he did. He repeated the words to himself, trying to get it right. It took him a couple of tries but he somehow managed.
“You don’t need to get it right immediately you know”, Luca laughed. “It talks some time to-”
“Волим те.”
He said that looking him straight in the eyes, Luca freezing on the spot. He stared back at him and said nothing for longer than Alva expected.
“Ја…”
Had he made a miscalculation? Was Luca not in that club or maybe he was picking up someone who was gay but he himself wasn’t? Had he made a mistake by doing this?
“Хвала ти”, he started. Alva couldn’t understand him. “Мислио сам да сам једини који се тако осећа. Толико ми се дуго свиђаш да сам мислио да ћу полудети ако ти не кажем, али нисам знао како би реаговао.”
“Luca, you know I cannot understand you.”
Luca continued as if he didn’t hear him.
“Хвала ти, Алва”, he smiled at him. “И ја тебе волим.”
Just at the end, Alva heard words he somewhat understood. They were similar to what he just told Luca. That response… he must’ve felt the same, right?
Not wasting any more time, Alva pulled the boy from the chair he was sitting at, getting him to a similar height, and kissed him without a warning.
Luca did not pull back. He moaned into the kiss, gripping Alva by his shirt, kissing the older man back. To their luck, Alva decided to do this late at night, when most people already went home, meaning no one was going to hear them in the lab they were in and realize what was going on.
“How… How did you know?”, Luca said as they parted. “That I might like you, I mean. I never talked about it or written it in my journals.”
“You are a reckless boy, you know”, the older man said. “I saw you enter that bar with nothing to cover up your identity. If I was someone else, you might have gotten yourself in trouble in more ways than one.”
“Shit”, it came out of the boy. “I… I really should be more careful about that, shouldn’t I?”
“I don’t think you’d ever be able to do what, no matter how hard you try.”
Luca did not let go of Alva, so they just stood there the whole time.
“Did you really want me to teach you Serbian or did you ask that just so that you could tell me that you love me like this?”
“To a degree, yes”, Alva started. “It was because I wanted to confess to you this way. But I do want you to teach me the language. You sound very happy when you use it to talk to your friends. And you do sound nice when you speak it.”
Luca wasn’t able to see that, but there was a tint of red on his face as Alva spoke about that.
“I’ve… I’ve never had someone say that. Usually, people look down upon me for speaking it, so I avoided it unless it’s with friends who also know it. I was very happy you never commented on it and even asked for some words because it told me you don’t hate it. I… I think reactions like those were why my father completely stopped using it at some point and just switched to English. No one liked it, so he would default to English even when speaking to my mother and I.”
Alva could only imagine what it’s like to be forced not to use the language you were taught since birth because someone viewed it as less or had an issue with it, in your own house even.
“You can speak it with me as much as you want.” His hand went through the boy’s hair, Luca looking at him lovingly as he did that.
“Хвала ти”, he said again. He buried his head into Alva’s chest, probably relieved of the situation.
“It’s getting late. We can continue with this some other time, alright? You must be tired, no?”
“Yea.”, the boy murmured into his shirt. “Say, could I stay with you for the night? If it’s okay?”
His wife was almost never at home, so there won’t be any harm done. He was quite sure she was with someone else anyway.
“It will be fine. There’s a spare room, so there will be no problem.” Alva was about to continue but instead looked down. Luca had grabbed his hand, their fingers intertwining. He didn’t think he’d hold his hand out of everything.
“Is this okay?”
Alva nodded. “It’s okay. Just let go of it when we’re out for safety.”
Luca did not let go of it until they were out of the building. The halls were empty, and even if someone was to come by, they’d hear it and part away on time. He seemed rather fond of physical touch.
Alva could remember that for later.
Now, his mind was focused on his young apprentice, wondering of all the things that would come from this.
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