So, I've finished FMA:B and I'm currently watching FMA. Ling was probably my favourite character, so I wanted to make a story about him. What do you guys think?

"Ya Yeet" Regular speech

'Ya Yeet' Inner monologue

'Ya Yeet' Mysterious voice

"Ya Yeet" Multiple voices

- London Park - Location

[Evening] Time

Chapter 1 - The Peace Treaty

"LING YAO! Come down here this instant!" Oh boy, he'd really gone and done it this time...

A boy of about 8 walked slowly down the steps of his house. He stood at around 140cm, with black, spiky hair that was fashioned into a small ponytail. He wore a gold coloured button-up shirt and cargo shorts, with a foam scimitar at his side.

"Yes, mother?" He asked, feigning his most charming grin.

"What's this I hear of an altercation on your first week of school?" That didn't work. He looked towards the doorway to see a man with tanned skin and golden hair. Behind him, sulking in the corner, was one of the most annoying girls he had ever seen. Yang. Xiao. Long.

"I have no idea what you are talking about mother." He lied through his teeth.

"Ling. Do I hear a lie? I know I got that call."

'You're really in it now, kid. Wow.'

Ling stood through a ten minute talk, after which he was expected to apologise to the girl who threw sand at his face! How cruel the world was.

[Break Time - School]

"Sorry, but we were at the sand pit first, so we play here! Those are the just rules!" Ling told a young Ruby Rose exasperatedly. He and his friends had been in the middle of making a sand-castle for the ages when Ruby had asked them if she could sit in the sand pit.

"Excuse me." A girl with freckles and blonde hair stepped in. "I'd like you to let my sister sit here."

"You look nothing alike." Yang looked pretty angry at that. "Besides, we need all the sand possible to match the castles my great, great, great, great grandfather would have owned as the Emperor of the long-lost Xing Empire-"

Yang had gingerly walked over to the sand castle, taken a good look at it, and kicked it straight in tits base.

"That's how much I care about your stinking grandpa! Now let my sister sit here!" She began go yell.

"Yang! That's not nice!" Ruby pleaded. Ling strolled over to her, shaking.

"My great, great, great, great grandfather was a great man! Don't you dare disrespect his memory!"+ He almost had tears in his eyes. Yang took a shovel of sand and threw it at his face.

He dodged and pulled at her hair. The teacher had soon gotten involved, and the two were put on a time-out for the rest of the day. Nobody played in the sand pit that day.

[Flashback End]

"I'm not apologising for defending my great, great, great, great grandfather's honour from this brat!" He spat out. Yang stepped out, fist prepared.

"Ling!" His mother warned.

"I don't care about your grandpa! Is he here now? No! Then the… Sing Empire or whatever doesn't matter!" A few of Ling's siblings growled from just beyond the room at that.

"Yang! Don't think you're off the hook, young lady!" Taiyang suddenly turned around.

"But he-!" Yang sighed.

"You've quite clearly disrespected the honour of his ancestor. Some people take that very seriously. Apologise right now."

Yang sulked, mulling over her possible actions.

"Fine, but only if you say it!" She pointed at Ling. He smiled. They both began to speak.

''I'm sorr... Hey!" Ling scowled deeply. Stupid, smart girls! He had another lecture after she had left, after 5 minutes of Ling being forced into apologising.

Ling went upstairs and sat in his room, sulking. He didn't see what he'd done wrong. She'd insulted his ancestor, and him by extension. She was no better than the rest of their class, who teased him behind his back throughout the entirety of the day. In fact, he was pretty sure she joined that group after break. It wasn't as bad as it was in Mistral, but it still got on his nerves. It still made him feel unwanted and alone.

He was happy, he was friendly, most of the time, and he made people laugh! What more was there to it? Why couldn't he make more friends? Michael, Terry and Ryan were his only real friends. In less than an hour, they'd all become been able to bond over their shared experiences of isolation and loneliness. Why was it so hard to fit in with anyone else? Ling laid back on his bed, deeply in thought.

[Evening]

That night, dinner was quiet in their household, despite the fact that Ling had 5 siblings present. A small conversation had started over the events that had transpired at school.

"You really shouldn't treat your peers so harshly, Ling." His mother scolded.

"But the honour of the Xing Empire was at stake!" Ling half pleaded.

"I doubt a single girl could threaten the Xing Empire." His mother retorted. Ling remained quiet.

"It sounded like she was defending her family's honour, in a way." His eldest brother, Fang, spoke up. "Maybe you could start by befriending her younger sister."

"She seemed polite enough. Definitely better than her sister." Ling remarked.

"I dunno, sounds like a crush if you ask me." His fourth eldest brother, Cheng, teased.

"I never!" Ling jumped out of his seat.

"Such foolishness." Bao and Bai, his second and third oldest siblings remarked tiredly.

'Maybe the experience couldn't hurt. You're gonna be pining for women soon any way.'

'Shut up, creepy voice!' That voice. That damn voice had been at the back of Ling's head for years. The first time he had gotten in any serious trouble was when he listened to its advice and stole candy at age 4. His backside was sore for a good day-and-a-half after his mother was done.

'Watch the salad- Oh for... Ling!' His mother yelled out as a healthy dose of salad dressing decorated his new shirt. Soon, the house was back to normal.

[The Next Day]

Ling sat at his table. He had done the first 6 questions on his sheet, but could not, for the life of him, figure out 12x12. The highest he could go was 12x10, and that was because that was easy. He only knew his 2, 4, 5, and 10 Times Tables by heart, anything else was just mysterious to him. Suddenly, he remembered what he had discussed yesterday.

"Hey! Michael!" He half whispered. Michael looked up. "Y'know the great invasion of Wednesday?"

"Yeah?" Michael responded.

Terry piped up. 'The blonde one is puuurrreee eeeeeeeevviiiiiiilllll.' He whispered like a snake.

"The red one wasn't so bad. She's in, what, Year 1? 2? Seemed polite. Maybe we can get her to help us rebuild, if we give her something in return."

"Yeah. Makes sense." Ryan added.

"Ling! Be quiet!" The teacher yelled out. Yang snickered.

"It's 144, by the way."

"Oooohhh! You're always so smart." Ling complimented. He handed his sheet in to the teacher, just 30 seconds before they were allowed to pack up for Break. He ran out of the class, to the area where he'd hang out occasionally, and where he'd seen Ruby hang out at as well. The monkey bars. He swung on the monkey bars with ease, and utilising his upper body strength He lept across two, pulling his legs up to hang down next to a sad-looking Ruby Rose. 'Hey.'

"Ah! Monkey person!" She yelled out. A small 'Hey!' could be heard from a nearby faunus.

"Wanna help rebuild the Xing Empire?" Ruby looked conflicted.

"Yang said you were a D-Word."

"We'll let you sit when you're done." And just like that, Ruby ran down to the sandpit.

With their allotted 20 minutes of time (In Ling's old school he only got 15 on good days!) They had created a large sandcastle. Possibly the largest they had ever made.

"Wow." Michael said, dusting sand out of his raven hair from his unfortunate tumble.

"Crikey!" Terry said, massaging his small moustache, which he had grown quite fond of.

"Mhmn." Ryan added, shaking sand out of the joints of his glasses.

"That was fun! I wanna do it again!'" Ruby added.

"You... really have an eye for large structures." Ling remarked, in awe. The thing nearly came up to his head!

"Wow! That's great! I think this'll look great on the school website! Anyone mind if I take pictures?" Nobody objected, so the teacher took out his scroll, and began taking pictures. Ruby was a bit shy, but seeing how happy Ling was made her a bit less apprehensive.

Around the third picture, Yang came crashing through on one of the tricycles in the area.

"Sorry…" She said in the fakest apologetic tone ever.

"Yang Xiao-Long! Can I not trust you to ride the tricycles responsibly?" Yang did not look like she cared one bit at all.

"It was an accident…" She put on her puppy eyes.

"I have quite the reason to speculate that it was, in fact, not an accident." Ling said, attempting to sound smart.

'Jesus Christ, you sound like a jackass right about now.'

'Shut up.'

"Well, you may have to have your tricycle taken away, seeing as you clearly cannot drive it properly. You're lucky that's all I'm doing."

"But-!" She sighed. "Ugggghhh!" She jumped off it, and sulked off to her friends.

In the next few weeks, Ruby ended up spending more time with Ling. She couldn't understand how one person could be so outspoken and confident, but he was fun. She ended up breaking out of her shell and learning to be more confident through him, and even Yang couldn't help but rethink her sentiments.

"This Ling kid must be really doing something. Ruby's been making more friends than I've ever seen!" Qrow remarked during one of Ruby's sleepovers. "Hey! Don't stop cleaning 'till I can eat off it!" Yang grumbled in response. She had gotten into trouble when she had broken one of their neighbour's garden chairs with her friends. As such, she was grounded for a week, and had her motorcycle magazines confiscated for the time being.

"I don't like Ruby playing with weird kids."

"Maybe you got off on the wrong foot, y'know." Taiyang spoke up, grabbing a flask out of Qrow's hands. "If you tried to be friends he might not be that bad."

"I dunno. Maybe." Yang spoke, mainly to herself.

[Next Week]

Yang had to admit, Ling was a pretty interesting kid. For a class presentation, he decided to do some work about one of his ancestors, who ruled the Xing Empire that sprung up in Mistral some hundred years ago. He had clearly done his research, and was very passionate about the work. She had actually managed to learn and not be bored, which was something she tended to struggle with.

Even as her friends snickered at his eccentricities and made comments about him, Yang couldn't help but feel bad. After the break bell rang, she shyly walked over to the sandpit, where she knew Ling, his friends, and Ruby be.

"Hey… guys." Terry ran in front of the sandcastle, spreading his arms in front of it. Ling pulled out a foam scimitar and stared with wary eyes.

"Look, I'm not here to break the castle again." Ling lowered his scimitar, while Ruby looked on curiously. "I feel like I've kinda been a jerk to you guys, so… truce?" Yang was shaking, finding it difficult to actually get the words out. She had never been good with apologies. Ling rummaged through his pocket, before pulling out a sheet of paper. It looked like a child's imitation of a legal paper, complete with crayon colouring and a fair share of misspelt words.

"I want to apologise for being kind of a jerk as well. Sign here please." Ling handed out a pencil. Yang looked at the peace treaty, before smiling and signing her name. Terry moved out of the way, while Michael, Ruby and Ryan both cheered.

Just like that, they were no longer sworn enemies.

AN: The idea of a young Ling is quite fascinating. Thinking about how he would've been shaped into the person he became is fascinating to think about, so expect some character building for the next 2 or 3 Chapters.

Until we meet again!