As they disembarked from the helicopter, they wished more than anything that they could be any-fuking-where else than here right now. They didn’t want to be doing this, but it had been forced on them. You’re getting to be a grown man, one of their mother’s advisors had said, and he was lucky that Yuki had been expressly forbidden from throwing punches at important officials. You have to learn to take on political responsibility.
Well, at least this was going to be easy. They could tour the facility, ask a few polite questions, and be done with it, then they could go on to Edge and spend the weekend with Aunt Tifa and go back home Monday morning. They just had to get through the next few hours.
When they saw that Tseng was going to be the one escorting them, they breathed a sigh of relief. Speaking Common for days on end was exhausting, and at least during the few hours they were with Tseng, they wouldn’t have to bother.
They held out their hand to Tseng and tried to put on a polite smile. They weren’t sure whether or not it worked. “Thank you for agreeing to show me the new facilities, sir. My mother and father send their warmest regards to you and to your boss, of course. They regret not being able to come as well.”
It wasn’t strictly the truth, but it was the polite and, more importantly, the expected thing for them to say.
Tseng reached out to accept the Heir’s handshake, and tensed as a string of Wutaian left the young royal’s mouth. A lifetime of experience kept him from audibly groaning or sighing, and years as a Turk kept the polite smile on his face. Internally though, a familiar litany of thoughts fought for dominance: this assumption again, of course; I’ve been actively trying to learn for years, what is wrong with me that I’m not fluent in my own family’s language by now; is this why I got saddled with this task?; their speech is so formal I barely understood three words, fuck me.
“Sorry,” he said out loud, silently praying he didn’t sound too terrible. “I don’t speak much Wutaian, and your speech is unfamiliar. I only caught a small part of your words.”
Whether he chose the more Eastern, Midgardian pattern of speech because he was just more familiar with it, or because he kept him just one extra step removed from the Imperial family, no one would know.
kianamaiart
pixelskylines
gummygunk
annaxmalina
kaledo-art
