teri learns latin in her spare time; she doesn’t know enough to read or speak anything fluently, but she likes the thought of knowing latin. she’s fascinated by legal maxims and terms that derive from it, and gets her mom to go over the interpretations and context of them all. while she would never use such phrases and terms in common speech, she likes using them as retorts to punishments — which doesn’t go down too well with her mother. due to her strong black and white views, she often doesn’t agree with a lot of them and gets very frustrated in the process. in whole, it’s more of a private ~casual~ bonding process with her mother.
fiat justitia ruat caelum (let justice be done though the heavens fall) and dura lex sed lex (the law is hard, but it is the law) would be her favourite phrases/maxims so far.
on a more public and open side, she’d also like to know russian just to confuse people. that’s it. not even because she likes the language — purely for the fact she thinks it would be the most confusing to speak with an american accent.
she knows a few hebrew and polish phrases but only enough to look cool for five seconds, not to hold a conversation.
teri makes karl read to her, sometimes for comfort but sometimes just because she likes listening to him--even if he reads much slower than she would by herself.
so far they've read:
sherlock holmes
battle royale (triggered karl too much so they stopped half-way through)
to kill a mockingbird
the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
the lord of the rings, the hobbit
game of thrones (currently reading)
her faves are : daenerys, tyrion and varys
karls are : jorah, ygritte, jon, tyrion
when ruby and sapphire first game out, teri bought pokemon ruby and forced karl to get sapphire so she could get the version exclusive pokemon from his game. eventually they ended up trading pokemon for each other: teri ended up with a sableye called SH;TGR;N while teri sent karl a zangoose called P3PP3RM1NT. after teri went blind she gave her game to karl, who has been transferring SH;TGR;N and P3PP3RM1NT from generation to generation. when pokemon-amie came out, karl set it up so teri could play with SH;T GR;N again. she happily screeched back at him and stuffed him full of poke puffs. he'd even help her play the expression game with her 'SH;TGR;N WANTS YOU TO MAKE A BIG SMILE.'
"No the thought never crossed my mind! It’s 2014! I didn’t know people still did that, outside of romcoms where the entire plot is winning the approval of the fiancée’s insane parents! I thought that was like a thousand years ago when it was like, I want to marry your daughter, I’ll trade you two pigs and a goat for her, done deal, here’s my fucking daughter! I didn’t—oh my god.” So much for everything being perfect—everything was far from that now that he had Ms. Pyrope to deal with. If she was scary normally, and scary about just them dating in general, he had no idea how she was going to take this news. The potential that she’d be happy her daughter was marrying someone who would always be loyal to her seemed like a far-off desperate bit for approval and he doubted his inherent faith to her would have any real significance in any of this.
Groaning again, Karl flopped down too, initially just on the ground, but he quickly rolled into her, pressing his face against her side and muffling his voice thanks to her dragon shirt. “She’ll never approve of me anyway,” he whined, sighing and reaching gingerly for her hand. “I didn’t ask because I didn’t… entirely plan this, I’ve—” he sighed, nudging his face further against her in hopes his voice would be so muffled she wouldn’t hear him. “I’ve had that stupid ring since October and I carried it in my pocket every fucking day so I wouldn’t miss a perfect moment oh my god I hate me so much I’m so embarrassing.”
"So the guy who thinks that life is like one big romcom, didn't actually take into account one of the major parts of a romcom? Or even consider the fact that his girlfriend's mother, who he has known for almost fifteen years, is overprotective and would probably like to be consulted about such a decision?" Teri teased further, amused by Karl's inadequacy. Her hands moved to accommodate him, drawing light shapes over the top of his back and shoulders as she offered some comfort to him. "Do you really think I'm worth two pigs and a goat?" She suddenly asked, unsure if it was an insult or a compliment.
She happily let Karl hold her hand, ending up squeezing it lightly as he continued talking. Her face felt a little hotter at his admittance, thrown off by how long Karl had been planning this--and how much thought he'd put into it. Nonetheless, she quickly gathered herself again, dopey grin spreading across her face as he grew embarrassed. Teri wriggled out of his grasp on her waist, shimmying down until she could force Karl to embrace her properly as she playfully licked the tip of nose. "You're so silly in the best ways possible. I can't believe how much time you've spent on this." It was more that she couldn't believe that someone had found her worth spending so much time on, but it was fact she was happy to admit. Her hands pushed under his shirt, falling against his bare skin as she tried to move even closer to him. "How about we consummate this?"
"No, that’s you," Karl replied, backing away from her to scowl meaningfully in her direction. "I’m always the prey. You’re always trying to tease me! Don’t think I don’t remember that first but at college, with Miss No-Underage-Sex-When-We’ve-Already-Had-Plenty-But-It’s-Illegal-Here-So-We-Can’t, don’t think I forgot you deliberately winding me up and then leaving me with nothing but a cold shower! And you’ve been doing the same thing, only I can’t go take a cold shower at your mom’s because she’ll probably know what a cold shower in the middle of the night means! You’re a bully, Teressa Pyrope, don’t forget it! You’ve always bullied me and now I’ve made the mistake of proposing to you. I don’t know which of us is more fucked up." His head fell forward in exhaustion, resting weakly against Teri’s shoulder.
The pose was short-lived though, pulling away to watch her flush and smiling softly at the way she looked as she grew flustered over his words, his moving to cup her cheeks and smiling at how warm they felt. The smile grew further at her words—her fiancé, he did like the sound of it. He leaned into her as she moved to kiss him again, his hands trailing from her cheeks to her neck as he moved his lips against hers, taking small breathes when they parted for a moment so he wouldn’t have to pull away. Unfortunately it was only then that another reality of their engagement dawned on him, and he pulled away sharply and reached for her left hand. “Oh my god, is your mom going to kill me for this? I mean, the engagement in general but—god she’s not one of those overly traditional people that thinks people need to ask parental permission for marriage, is she? Please tell me she’s not. Please tell me it’ll be fine. I’m too young and too unmarried to you to die.”
Teri was happy enough to just kiss Karl, annoyed when he pulled back to start talking again--surely it was as best a time as any to rectify the teasing situation by actually doing something, but apparently Karl had other ideas. His other ideas apparently meant talking about her mother, and Teri groaned as he did so. But then she caught up, and telling Karl that he'd done the right thing was basically impossible.
"Waaaaaaait, you didn't ask my mom?" Teri also pulled back, mouth parted in realisation and slightly horror. Karl didn't give any indication that he was joking, and Teri's face frowned in further dismay at the idiocy of her boyfriend-turned-fiancé. "You didn't ask my overprotective mother if you could marry her only daughter, at eighteen. Like, the thought never crossed your mind? At all?" Despite the fact it didn't mean much to her, Teri rolled her eyes at Karl and completely pulled away from him with a groan. "Yeah, you're fine," she laughed sarcastically, flopping back down onto the ground again. "I guess you lived a good life."
"She’s never going to be okay with me," he whined, ducking his head against her neck and sighing. "Why couldn’t I have been born smarter? And probably taller, I bet she sees my height as more signs of inferiority. And anyway it’s not like I want, or need to kiss you in front of her; I’d like to be able to kiss you while in the same house as her, though. Or innocently share a bed! I’m capable of that, even if you aren’t," he leaned away, scowling at her like she was the casual of all the friction between himself and her mother—though if Ms. Pyrope was going to say one of them was corrupting the other, he was sure the finger would still be pointed towards him.
Regardless, his issues with her mother—or more accurately, her mother’s issues with him weren’t something he needed to focus on at the moment. He smiled when she did, feeling his stomach flip as she said what he’d wanted her to say, closing the distance between their lips eagerly when she moved them against his. “I was hoping you’d say that,” he replied as he pulled away from her again, forehead coming to rest on hers again. “I want to brag about how you’re mine and how lucky I am and I want you to tell everyone I’m yours and how lucky I am still; I want everyone to be jealous that I get to spend my life with you and they don’t,” he muttered, leaning closer to kiss her again. “Teri! Teri, you’re not my girlfriend anymore, you’re my fiancée. How cool is that? Like if I was introducing you to someone I’d say, ‘this is Teri, my fiancée.’ I can’t wait to call you that—we need to make some new friends so I can tell them.”
"That's because your height is a sign of your inferiority, or at least it is until you grow another two inches," Teri sympathized, never able to give up an opportunity to lord it over him. If Karl really didn't grow any more then she'd be taller than him for the rest of their lives, which was something she could happily live with. "And you are not innocently in a bed with me, you are a marked sexual predator and I am your helpless prey. I am the pure daughter who won't be sullied by your sexual desires!" Teri laughed, even though the whole week had been the opposite. She'd taken any opportunity to tease him before backing off, always leaving Karl with nothing that he wanted. Her mother's assumptions where forever misguided, but it wasn't as if Karl could correct them without dragging the two of them further down into the abyss of no-return: which gave Teri a nice position of power.
She wasn't expecting his tone to change with hers, flushing at his compliments. Although Teri always joked that she was the best and Karl was lucky to have her, it wasn't the most confident claim she'd ever made. There was always room for self-doubt, and she couldn't complain if Karl wanted to say such things about her. Her bashfulness turned back into excitement as Karl's did too, happily giggling at how happy they both were. "And this is Karl, my fiancé." She continued laughing as her hands sought out Karl's face, cupping it as she resumed kissing him again--slower and more thoughtful than before.
"It is not like that,” Karl argued, releasing her hand so she could make her way into the treehouse and following behind shortly after to ensure she made it up in one piece. “It’s not about him knowing I’m loved; he knows I’m loved. It’s about modesty in front of parents, and how can you talk? You had to sneak downstairs just to snuggle with me and then leave before she woke up, at least my dad lets us touch! I felt like some sort of dirty secret,” he whined melodramatically, dropping against the beanbag and then tugging Teri down as well,
He considered what she was saying, scrunching up his face in disgust as each instance of their friends progressively got worse. “Jesus Christ, well, good. Good I guess? Only shameless people are invited so it’s… good all our friends are fucked up. We just probably shouldn’t have seafood as a meal at the wedding, right? Because I love Kana and I don’t think she wants to see that. And also I don’t.” He paused, taking a moment to smile over how easily they were discussing the future now, even if they weren’t doing it seriously. “So, you want to tell everyone, right? Not keep it a secret or anything?”
Teri happily settled against Karl, lazily resting her chin against his shoulder as her legs wrapped around his waist. She liked being so close to him, finding it much easier to pick up on the little things that she often missed out on. She could hear the rhythm of his pulse if she leant against his chest, or feel the warmth of his face if she pressed her cheeks against his. She could even smell him properly if she pressed her nose against him, which she happily did. "My mom is totally different," she finally replied, content with having smelt him enough as she re-arranged her head to lean against him, but still be able to speak. "Your dad doesn't mind, he isn't going to kill me. My mom minds, she's probably going to kill you. Why can't I enjoy it with one parent?"
Even though she huffed loudly at the end of her retort, she couldn't help but start giggling again at the though of their friends--especially if they were going to be insulting Rosela, which was always a favourite past-time for Teri. "No secrets," she agreed, lip curling in relief at not doing that again. "We've had too many secrets, always doing things immaturely or to spare other people's feelings. Let's do this maturely, because it's about us being happy," she decided, smirk turning into a pleased smiled that they'd come so far. Her hands moved into the back of Karl's head, tangling in his hair as she softly pressed her lips against his. "Us," she reiterated with her lips ghosting his, liking the way it felt on her tongue again--as if it was something new, even though it was the oldest thing about them.
Teri’s attempts to kiss him in front of his father were not appreciated—not in front of his father at least, and he pulled away quickly each time she tried and pointedly avoided looking at his dad out of embarrassment. Her wiggling her eyebrows only made things worse, and he squirmed out of her grip further as he felt his face go redder. “Okay bye Dad, thanks for the congratulations and all, see you whenever,” he offered quickly, reaching for Teri’s wrist and all but tugging her back outside his house.
"You are so embarrassing, I can’t take you anywhere!" he teased once they were outside again, swapping holding her wrist for entwining their fingers, though he walked at the same pace so it was less like he was leading her. "We’ll never be able to get married, you’ll embarrass all our guests too much with your open PDA and shouting." He paused, too impatient to wait until they were back at the treehouse to steal another kiss from her. "I guess we’ll figure it out, though. Maybe we’ll only invite people with no shame so we don’t have to worry about that."
"Oh no, your dad knows I love you! What will we ever dooooo? It must be terrible for him to have to watch me dote on you, I can't even think the distress he must be under knowing that someone wants to openly give affection to his only child. Truly terrible, if only you could have been lonely, isolated and depressed your whole life," she tutted, but didn't resist against Karl holding her hand, or that idea of going back to the the treehouse. She found it slightly endearing that he hadn't been able to stand there while she'd kissed him, if only for the fact she was sure that his father wouldn't have minded at all--it was only Karl who was making a deal out of it.
"And that's bullshit: I think a wedding is the one time in the whole world where you can actually show affection and it's allowed. Or should it be like, you can now kiss the bride but I'll have to save my modesty," Teri teased back, leaning in to kiss Karl again before sharply pulling away. "Plus none of our friends have modesty. Absolutely none! Eriq is progressing into defeated honesty about his horse bestiality, we have all heard of Trav's first kiss with a goat-llama and Rosela is probably banned from every sea-food restaurant in California. I'm surprised she's even allowed to live near the sea, how can we say for sure that the local squid are safe from her tentacle impulses?"
Karl felt his face tinge brighter red as Teri wrapped her arms around her neck—a gesture that normally was fine, but certainly threw him off in front of his father. What she was saying flustered him even more, feeling his chest swell with affection at how excited she was and how eager she was to tell everyone; though, that said, he wasn’t sure his neighbors knowing was important or significant. He was pretty sure everyone who lived around here probably hated Karl and Teri for their childhood antics of tearing up everyone else’s yards during their adventures.
"I don’t think they need to know," he argued weakly, though if he was being perfectly honest, he’d probably prefer they did know. I mean it’s fine if they do, but I think they’ll probably be able to keep existing without knowing that the two annoying kids from the past are gonna get married. We can tell everyone soon though, okay? We can get out a laptop and tell them now if you really want to, I guess," he offered, a bit torn—mostly he just wanted to spend the night in her arms, kissing and whatever else, but at the same time he did sort of want to brag about his relationship.
Teri did take a moment to consider Karl's offer. It would be nice to finally be able to be confident about her position in Karl's future and it would be even better to say for definite that she was going to be the one in it as his wife. Such a thought left her giddy all over again, leaning in close to kiss Karl--completely fine with his father being right there. However, as fun as it would be to tell everyone, she realized she just wanted to enjoy the time she had with Karl now--where it was just them and that was all that mattered. There was plenty of time to use his laptop tomorrow, and she didn't exactly want to remember the evening of their engagement of being one where they were online.
"Okay, I guess we won't tell your neighbours, even though I think they might know already. We can just go back to the treehouse?" She raised her eyebrows in quick succession, kissing him again until Karl leaned back out of her grip--apparently not as happy for PDA in front of his father.
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