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I wanted to name this chapter to When your neighbour tries to corrupt your "wife", but apparently chapter names can't be that long so it's now called Ä.
This one takes a place somewhere during/before Kalmar union (1300-1500). Though, Finland mentions his university and he didn't get one before 1640... hups.
"Okay, Finny", the Danish nation said and smiled to the younger nation, who was sitting on the floor and fixing some old clothes, "I have some very important things to teach you." Finland didn't feel very comfortable about being alone with Denmark. Firstly because he was very young nation and when the Dane was already almost adult, the Finn had barely reached his teenager years, though he had been growing a lot lately. Secondly, he wasn't independent nation and he didn't really like the idea of Denmark snatching him away from Sweden. Sweden was okay. Thirdly, Sweden didn't like Denmark so Finland was of course a bit afraid of the man.
"No thanks, mister Denmark", he said so politely than he could, "I'm already educated."
"You sure?"
"Yes", Finland said because he was, "I even have a university!"
"That's cute", Denmark said with a nod, "but I can teach you some really special things!"
"Mister Sweden had already taught me everything", the Finn said, "and I have also learnt a lot by myself."
"Yeah yeah, but these things are very good", he tried to make the Finn believe him, "these will make you better than Sve."
Better than Sve? Finland bit his lip. Since the Swedish nation had taken him to his custody, the Finn had been trying his best to become just as good as Sweden was. It would be a dream come to true to be better!
"Okay, mister Denmark", he said after brief hesitation, "what you wanted to teach me?" Denmark's smile widened a bit and he congratulated himself quietly before focusing in the topic.
"So Finny, you know this letter?" he asked and drew a big Ä on the paper.
"Of course! I use that one", the Finn said with a nod. He rather liked that letter. It had a nice sound and it fitted well in his long words.
"I thought so. But it would be much better if you would use this one instead", the Dane said and drew a letter Æ next to Ä. Finland tilted his head and looked at the letter before nodding slowly.
"It looks funny", the Finn said, "and I have never seen it before."
"Yeah, but it's much better letter", Denmark said, "only the best nations use it so that's why you never see Sve to write with it."
"If you say so."
"Look, I have another one too", the Dane said and drew a letter Ø, "you can use this one instead of Ö."
"These looks very weird letters for sure", Finland said, not sure if he liked these new forms.
"Listen Finny", Denmark said with a smile, "these ones are very precious but I know you are much better nation than Sve. That's why I show these for you."
"I'm still not sure", Finland said, "and mister Sweden always say that you have only bad ideas."
"He is only jealous!" the Dane declared, "that old, smelly Swede."
"Also mister Norway says that your ideas are bad."
"Well", Denmark said slowly, not wanting to say anything bad about the Norwegian, "he uses these ones too. Haven't you seen his writing?" Finland had to think a moment and dig his memories before he remembered that he had seen some letters from Norway. He had used these weird looking letters too, that was right.
"Listen, if you just give them a try", Denmark said, noticing that the Finn wasn't still sure what to think, "I'll give you some words and you can see how it feels, alright?"
"Okay", the Finn said, hesitating a bit but giving up anyway.
"So, say 'pølse'"
"Pølse?" it sounded weird in his mouth but Denmark nodded happily.
"You got it almost right at first try!" he cheered, "I knew you are so much better than Sve, damn it."
"What pølse means?"
"It's better word for 'korv'", Denmark told him, "because, you see, when you start to use these much better letters, you will also get much better words!"
"But I already have words for everything", Finland said, "mister Denmark, I'm not sure if I want to learn more words right now."
"Don't you want to be better than Sve?"
"Well… Yes."
"Just try couple more", Denmark asked him, "I promise you will like these better words."
"Okay."
"Say 'ærligt'."
"Ærligt."
"Good!" Denmark said, "you see, they are not so weird. It's just a bit better than Sve's words. Some are almost exactly same so you will learn quickly. Like, when you say 'nej', right?"
"It sounds different when you say it, mister Denmark", Finland noted.
"It's because I say it better and in the right way!" the Dane said, "also, it's only correct to say 'jeg' and not 'jag'. Sve got it all wrong. His language is such a mess!"
"Hei", Finland said but he didn't look at the Dane. Actually he looked somewhere behind of him but Denmark didn't even notice. He only kept ranting and didn't care about the fact that the Finn wasn't really listening anymore.
"…And he just can't speak like it is supposed to be spoken! Lost case, I think. He probably hit his head too hard or something", Denmark said and then stopped suddenly, finally noticing that the Finn was looking at something or somebody behind him, "there is a scary-looking Swede behind me, right?" Finland nodded.
"Mister Norway is there too", he said, trying to be helpful, "he doesn't look happy."
"For fanden", the Dane cursed and turned around, getting up from the floor quickly, "hej, Nor and Sve! What a surprise to see you here!"
"Really?" Norway asked, looking around like he was checking where he was, "I was quite sure that this is, in fact, Sve's home. Not really surprising to see him in his own home."
"Is it so?" the Dane asked, keeping his smile and moving carefully toward the door, "I must have gotten lost somehow."
"It's over two hundred kilometres to your land", Norway said, "I'm very impressed about your skills of getting lost." Sweden wasn't saying anything but he glared and it wasn't very good meaning glare. It was the glare. Normally Denmark would have been happy to answer to the challenge but Norway was there too and he couldn't really start a fight when he knew the Norwegian would get pissed off. It wasn't smart to piss off Norway.
"Thanks, Nor!" Denmark said happily, "oh, look at the time! I think I better to hurry now. Hej hej!" He ran off, disappearing in to the forest, though they all knew he wouldn't go far. About two hours later he would be back and act like nothing had happened.
"Hej, mister Sweden", Finland said, smiling to the older nation, "I'm sorry I haven't finished all my duties yet."
"It's okay", Sweden said, clearly calming down now when Denmark had gone and the Finn was speaking to him, "Dan's fault."
"He wanted to teach me a new language", the Finn said with a shrug, "but I'm not really sure about that."
"Your own is the best", Sweden grunted and looked then slightly embarrassed, turning quickly away to do something else. Norway sighed quietly and wondered how there two nations would ever become anything if the Finn kept acting all innocent and the Swede getting awkward all the time. He didn't say anything though, because he had actually come over to tell the Dane about something and he realized that now he had to go to look for him again.
"Oh, I think so too", Finland said to himself after he had left alone and he returned to his work with clothes, "and I really like Ä and Ö so I think I will just keep putting them everywhere."
Blaa blaa -part:
If any Swedes sees this: I dare you to go to Finland and tell a Finn that they are better with something (it can be anything). They will swoon. Because nothing is better than be better than Sweden. It'll be also very funny to see because their natural instincts will go like "noooo, it's a compliment! Don't say you like it. Deny it!" but at same time their national pride will not give up and it'll probably turn out to be really awkward. Try it. It'll be fun.
Swedes and Finns use ä and ö, and Danes and Norwegians use æ and ø. Plus Iceland has bunch of own letters too. There is not really difference on how to pronounce these, it's just same letter with a different way to draw it. One of my Norwegian work mates used to write always with æ and ø even if our work language was Swedish. It made it very easy to realize who had made the notes! Scandinavians also have letter Å. It's not used in Finnish because Å is pronounced like O in Finnish but it's included in Finnish alphabets anyway and we call it "Swedish o". It makes alphabet song very funny in Finnish because either you sing "o" twice or you speed up a bit at the end and do this: ...äks, yy, zeta, ruotsalainen oo, ää, öö.
And we like Ä and Ö. Such a nice letters.
Btw, Finland is unsure about himself because I think he used to be much younger than others and that's why he tries to be extra polite. I think he will grown up to be a strong guy later on.