Guard dog AU: Learning Xingese

Ling was walking down the halls of the palace as he made his way to his study. He had a lot of work to do. He had several trade policies he had to read and approved that the new Fuhrer Grumman had proposed to him. He really didn’t want to think about them right now as it had been a bit of a controversial subject among some of the lords. Not quite as much as the change of line of succession had been, but they didn’t like the idea of opening up to the west. They didn’t see what Amestris had to offer and they feared that increased trade with such an industrious nation would hurt the guilds and home industries in Xing with the competition. He had convinced them that importing machinery built in Amestris could help push their nation forward scientifically and allow them to produce more goods on their own, but they still didn’t like the idea of other goods that could be produced in Xing being imported. Plus there was the issue of building a railroad, which even as a joint venture between the two nations would cost Xing millions…
He sighed. This whole thing was a mess that he could tell would not easily be resolved. However, he had to make this work. He couldn’t just back down and let the the other nobles have their way so easily. If he did, they would think they could walk all over him. He had to keep working on this until he could make it work.
He stopped as he past a door that heard an angry growl come from. Ling raised an eyebrow as he heard angry, distinctly Amestrian grumbling coming from behind it.
...Maybe a short break couldn’t hurt. He opened the door and looked inside to see a very frustrated looking Dolcetto sitting at a table, hunched over some parchment. There were papers scattered everywhere. He cupped his face in one hand as he leaned on the table with his elbow and he held a wet ink brush in his other hand. He wasn’t paying attention to it as he glared at the paper before him, and it was slowly dripping ink onto the antique table.
“I hope you realize that table has been around for over 100 years,” Ling noted, though not really worried about the state of the table.
Dolcetto looked up in surprise before looking down at the small puddle of ink before cursing. He immediately used his black sleeve to wipe it up. “Doi boo chee,” he said before looking up, “That’s how you people apologize, right?”
Ling winced at the butchering of his native tongue. “Sort of,” he said with a shrug, “You’re...close. It’s good enough for a beginner. But you really should work on getting your pronunciation and tones right before you try to talk to someone. You might end up saying something you’ll regret otherwise.”                      
Dolcetto sighed. “Does it matter? It’s not like those stuffy upper crust guys are ever gonna think I’m anything more than some dumb thug you dragged out of the back alley of Amestris,” he argued, “I could be a master of calligraphy and they’d still think little of me. Maybe this was a bad idea.”
Ling frowned. “First of all, not everyone thinks little of you. The heads of the Chang, Li, and Cai clans are very happy to see you are here. They’ve never had the opportunity to become well acquainted with an Amestrian before, you know, and they’ve only really read about the country in books and travel logs,” Ling argued, “and secondly you aren’t learning the language to be able to impress the nobles. You’re learning it so you can actually communicate with your peers. Life here will be a lot easier for you once you learn.”
Dolcetto glared at him. “You don’t think I don’t know that?”he snapped, “Of course life would be easier! I could understand what the hell is going on around me!” He then turned back to his papers and rested his head in his hand. “But it’s just so hard! I mean look at this!” He cried gesturing to the characters he was studying, “Why can’t you people have an alphabet like everyone else?!”
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. I wasn’t the one who made up the language after all,” he joked before frowning, “Though your instructor should be helping you understand this. Are they not doing their job?” He had payed for a very well known teacher of amestrian to help aid Dolcetto, but if they weren’t up to snuff, he’d be more than willing to find another.
“No, that’s not it,” he said, “I’m just having a hard time figuring out these characters. They make no sense! How does this one look like a fish?” He held up a piece of paper with the character “鱼” on it.
Ling chuckled and scratched the back of his head. “Yes, some of them are a bit strange,” he said, “But I do know a few patterns that can help you.”
He sat down next to Dolcetto and pulled out one of the sheets before beginning to draw on it with the ink brush. He first drew the character “曰”. “This is the character used for day when writing out a date. It’s also one of the character for ‘sun’,” he explained, “However it’s commonly used when writing character that have to do with time.” He wrote out three more words: 时间, 昨天, and 晚上. “There characters translate to ‘time’, ‘yesterday’, and ‘evening’,” he explained, “Many related words have patterns like this to them.”
“Oh ok…” Dolcetto said, nodding his head as he pointed these things out, “That makes sense, I suppose.” “Got any more patterns I can learn?” he asked.
Ling tapped his chin with the end of the brush. “I suppose…” he said. He then proceeded to show him a few more including the roof pattern, the silk pattern, and the heart pattern. “The heart character is commonly used when dealing with characters that express emotion or feeling,” he finished explaining as he wrote out the word “忘”, “This one means ‘to forget’.”
“Ok I think I got it,” Dolcetto responded, “Is there any other one I should know of that’s trickier?”
Ling thought for a moment. “Well there are plenty, but the only one I think you will run into here soon in your studies is this one,” he said before writing the character “饣”, “This character is often used when referring to food. Like in cháguǎn, or tea house.” he wrote out 茶馆. “Another example is the word for cooked rice or meal where it shows up as part of the character for ‘fàn’ which roughly means meal-”
All of a sudden Dolcetto started laughing. “Well that explains it!” he chuckled.
Ling gave him a confused look. “Explains what?” he questioned in confusion, “What’s so funny?”
“Why you like Lan Fan so much!” he said, “after all, you love to eat and she has the word for meal right in her name!”
Ling blinked before sighing and glaring at him. “No that’s not-I don’t-” he tried to explain before Dolcetto cut him off.
“Do you think she’s tasty?” he teased, “Is she your favorite meal?”
At that the boy became flustered. Ling stood up. “That’s not why I like her!” he snapped, blushing, “I do not think she’s tasty! Why would you even say something like that?!”
Dolcetto smirked before resting his head on his hand. “So you admit you like her,” he said.
Ling blushed and his mouth opened and closed as he tried to respond. “GRRRR….How I feel for her has nothing to do with her name! Her name means Orchid! Not any kind of food!” he snapped.
“Whatever you say,” he said, “You still haven’t denied you like her, or said that she isn’t your favorite meal.”
Ling growled. “That’s it!” he snapped, pushing the papers off the table, “I’m done helping you! You’re on your own now!” He stormed out of the room and towards his study. As he stormed off, he was furious with Dolcetto. But at the same time...he couldn’t help but remember how Xing had several different dialects, most of which he knew. And in one of those dialects...at least verbally...her name does sound like the word for “cold rice.”