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Now, Tommy wasn't unaware of what was said about him.
That he was always cheerful, that he threw all of himself into his work as a bastion guard apprentice and made good work of it, but also that he could be a bit grating to be around sometimes, and was very, very, very stubborn.
Thing was, that didn't bother him one bit. Especially when his stubborn nature made it easier to stay on tasks he really wanted to get done, like learning (or in this case, teaching) a new language.
Language, Dialect, whatever the fuck Technoblade was speaking. He had sure as hell never heard anything like it before. But then again most of the merchants that had set up shop at their bastion seemed to consider it their base of operations of sorts, returning after cycle long trips to other bastions, strongholds and beyond.
Idly, he wondered where Techno's bastion had been located. Or stronghold, he supposed, with the way that Techno's eyes had widened like a piglet seeing a ghast for the first time when he had shown him around the marketplace.
It must be somewhere behind the soulsand valley that was bordering their own crimson forest. At least the condition they had found Technoblade in suggested that he had shuffled the entire, surely miserable, way through the valley, only to fall down one of its treacherous cliffs and bruise himself up.
Tommy had hardly believed his eyes when he had seen the then brownish blob slam right against one of the mushroom stems.
Rounding the corner to Techno's room, he mentally compares the brown of the valleys sand with Techno's vibrant pink fur. He had to have been traveling for ages for it to have gotten as dark as it was. Tommy still remembered his shock when the clean up of his bruises had first revealed the pink.
Techno's face brightens with a smile when he sees Tommy come into his room, muttering a halfhearted "Hullo" and looking at the seemingly random assortment of items Tommy had brought with him.
Today they were going to be doing some LANGUAGE learning. A botched "Hello" and "Goodbye" would hardly be enough if Techno was planning on staying with them. If he would stay with them. Tommy ignores the little pang in his heart and spills the items onto Techno's Hoglin hide, settling himself in a little criss-cross besides them.
Still eying the items Tommy had brought, Techno mirrors him.
A golden apple, courtesy of Phil's market stall, though recently he kept complaining about Tommy "stealing" his "stock" and having less product for the "customers" like Tommy wasn't the bestest and loyalest customer one could ever wish to have.
Two types of mushroom, one poisonous, the other harmless.
A few gold nuggets for trading, and finally a little ghast plushie from the nursery.
Look, he didn't want to overwhelm Techno with advanced concepts such as "luck" and "illness" just yet, even though he really wanted to teach him just to force the guy to buy him something at the market (did techno even have nuggets for trading?) but those seemed useful enough to be a good first addition to Techno's Vocabulary.
Tommy commanded Techno's attention by theatrically throwing his hands in the air, earning him an amused look by his new student.
"This, here, my dear Technoblade, greatest mysterious traveler of all time, is an apple. A golden apple, to be specific. Philza has a bunch of them and they taste really fucking good, that's why I keep bringing them for our little adventures around the bastion."
Techno looked helplessly overwhelmed, like he always did when Tommy started one of his world famous monologues, but Tommy was used to it. Pointing at the apple with more determination than he had surely ever felt in his entire life, he repeated himself, slower this time:
"Golden apple." Techno looked from the Apple to Tommy, and back again, tilting his head not unlike the striders in their local lava lake.
"Golden apple. Gol-den apple"
Now Tommy's intention seemed to be coming across. Techno's eyes got his signature determined glint in them, the one he always had when Tommy tried to race him in something, and tried his best to mimic Tommy.
With....middling results.
"Apple, Techno, Apple with two "p" sounds!"
The second try sounded much closer already, at least goldnt aple had the right sounds in there, and Tommy felt his tail swish happily behind him. Techno catches the apple as Tommy throws it, and doesn't hesitate to take a bite out of it.
"Exactly! There we go big man, knew you'd be a natural at this whole learning thing!"
It was good enough for Tommy, so it would surely be good enough for the rest of the sounder.
The mushrooms were a bit more of actual survival importance. Techno picks up one in each of his hooves and holds them up for Techno to view.
He holds good mushroom up to his mouth, mimes eating it and finally rubs his stomach with a very loud "MHHHHHH good food." to round the performance off.
Techno is clearly struggling to hold back laughter as Tommy holds the good mushroom up again.
"Food-Mushroom."
It seems Tommy is an even more awesome teacher than he thought, because this time Techno mimics him almost perfectly first try, and Tommy chuffs as he pumps his fist into the air.
"Perfect! Next one is this kind of mushroom here."
Repeating his charade from before, Tommy mimes eating the mushroom, but this time he throws himself dramatically on the floor, dying the death of someone much less awesome, tongue hanging out of his mouth and everything.
Techno does chuckle this time, but also seems a bit alarmed at Tommy's performance, regarding the mushroom still in Tommy's hand with a new sense of suspicion. Good.
"Evil Mushroom. Poisonous. Not-Good-Mushroom."
Repeating the last word twice, he watches at Techno tries to get his mouth to produce the right sounds for this word. It takes a while, and while there's at least one consonant missing, Tommy cares more about Techno recognizing the word for now than much else.
"Great! We are making real good progress king, lets see about the gold nuggets next."
Techno holds up his hand this time, and Tommy is the one to listen as Techno mumbles out a word.
"Steggun dlog" he says, and Tommy is immediately fascinated by this glimpse into Techno's language.
"St-Stegn log?"
Whatever Tommy had pronounced wrong causes Techno to go into a full on laugh this time, which only intensifies at Tommy huffs in feigned-annoyance.
"Oh come on, fine then we go back to my language! We call them gold nuggets."
Dutifully, Techno mimics Tommy's pronunciation, and ends up butchering it bad enough that Tommy joins into the laughing fit as Techno's own settles into an amused chuckle.
It takes a few repeats for them to get there, but all in all Tommy is almost surprised with how easy this is coming along. But then again, Techno had already spent at least a dozen cycles listening to them, not counting the time time he had been delirious with exhaustion and fever.
Lastly, Tommy picks up the stuffed ghast plushy again, and watches as Techno's amusement only intensifies.
"Oh come on! It was the best i could find, cant very well drag you outside the bastion when you don't even know our warning calls!"
Techno has gotten really good at picking up on whenever Tommy is whining about something, rolling his eyes before Tommy's even finished his sentence, the scoundrel. Such RUDE behavior towards his teacher, Tommy has half a mind to teach him the wrong word entirely. He decides against it once Techno starts to chuff again, seemingly content with just sitting with Tommy for company.
There's a smile on Tommy's lips even as he mutters Ghast while holding up the plushy, trying his best to mimic their demonic screeches and apparently failing hard enough to sent Techno right back into a laughing fit.
"TECH!" Tommy was not above admitting that he himself could hardly contain his laughter, joining the happy chuffs Techno was making as he rolled onto the hoglin mat, scattering Tommy's IMPORTANT education tools away from their rightful places next to each other.
"Tech! You are messing up my AWESOME lecture!" not even playfully shoving at his student seemed to snap him out of it. "We were making SUCH good progress! You just gotta stay focused big ma- HEY-"
Techno simply scooped Tommy into his arms, forcing him into a not quite comfortable makeshift hug, but the thought was appreciated.
"Tech there's a fuckin'- gold nugget digging into my back!"
This session was rapidly evolving into a playful wrestling place, grabbing and pulling at each others clothes until they were laying in a heap, Techno panting like he always did after strenuous activity, and Tommy content on his place laying on Techno's shoulder.
"Next time you won't be getting out of a lesson this easy, you gotta respect your TEACHERS Tech, or else you'll get in trouble with..uh. Phil."
Techno was sagely nodding along, even though Tommy was pretty sure that he had not understood a single word in that sentence.
"Are you just trying to fucking appease me or something? Really? I don't think I'm not noticing you trying to get out of-"
"Gudnght." Techno said, throwing his blanket over Tommy and finishing today's lesson on bastion piglin-speak for him.
Tommy grumbled as Techno started chuffing again, soon joining him in the newly started cuddle session.