Prompt: Legacy
The love story the Fire Nation knew and the love story Fire Lord Izumi knew were two completely different things
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As far as the people were concerned, the relationship between the Fire Lord and Fire Lady was that of politics, not love. The Fire Lady did her job and did it well, so they didn't complain too much. The woman came from a good and pure bloodline, and she produced an heir. That's about as far as the good thoughts the Fire Nation has for her mother went.
They thought she was too heartless, too cold, too emotionless for her father. They thought that she'd turn him into a dead man walking, subduing his very own emotions. She'd kill him from the inside out, they used to say. Surely, if she could be such a way before she was even of marrying age, a lifetime spent with her could definitely change the young man that had already been through so much.
The men thought he was crazy, letting a woman who could fight so well be his wife. What if she decided to take out the nation? Surely, lying beside the man running it, she could do it in a number of ways. Sweet talk him into letting her rule, kill him in his sleep, and much more. And if she didn't want to do as he said? A flick of the wrist, and he'd be dead. Foolish of a man to take a noble bride that was more powerful than one would seem. Foolishness that would rob the Fire Lord of his country, or even his life.
The women were envious of her. How could a woman with such little emotion win his heart? She didn't laugh at his jokes, she didn't listen to every little thing he had to say, she didn't bat her eyes or give him a cute little smile. She didn't let him have dominion over her, she didn't let him to what he pleased to her. How could a man like a woman such as that? One that has been known to be deceitful, one known to be deadly? She was the least perfect of all the nobles, even if she was silent and still as they were told to be. Her manners meant nothing if she couldn't please her husband, so why did he love her so?
They people didn't like her mother at first, and for a time, was angry with her father for choosing the woman as his Fire Lady. It changed when the realized that she was, in fact, a noble woman. She did what she was supposed to, listened when she needed to, and spoke when spoken to. She didn't jump up during meetings or try to fool the Fire Lord in any way. She wasn't what they were expecting as a Fire Lady, yet she did what she was supposed to.
But they still didn't see how they loved each other. In fact, after their minds had been changed about the woman, they began to think that they didn't love each other at all. She seemed to be the Fire Lord's bride a bit too well.
She knew how to handle angry council men, how to keep track of every single one of the servants, and how to speak to each person that passed through the palace.
So, they thought it was because it was an arranged marriage. The details were fuzzy, but they were certain that it wasn't love that bound the two of them. Maybe it was that the young man wanted to appease the elders after doing so many changes and making of new laws, so he married a good noble woman. Maybe it was a betrothal before they were both born, and the Fire Lord didn't have the heart to leave the woman without a husband. Truly, they didn't care; as long as their country was taken care of.
To them, it wasn't love at all. There was no love story. Just two people pulled together through politics and forced to stay that way to honor tradition.
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Yet still, they don't know the true story.
The Fire Nation doesn't know about the blushes when they were young, the kisses stolen behind pillars or hands held in the garden. They didn't know that yes, they had been betrothed, but not before birth, nor for money. The people didn't know that the betrothal was made by a mother that saw her son happy and wished for it to stay that way. They didn't know that the princess' friend became the prince's mate.
They also didn't know anything about what happened after the war meeting, and the three years that followed. They didn't know about the banished teen that never stopped thinking or the young noble girl that never let the world see she was still hoping.
Their love flaring up again once they were brought back together, just before the end of the war. The way the spent practically every waking moment with one another, happy times, tense time, and most of all, confusing times.
Yet even through the struggles, they still loved one another, though they weren't quite sure how to show it. He'd been banished for years and now that he finally came home, he found himself questioning everything he once knew. He didn't know what to do at that time. She had all but lost hope of being able to see him, without being caught up in a scandal, and let her mother perfectly groom her into the perfect noble woman she was to be. Now that she was with him, she didn't know what to do. They tried their best to convey their love to the other, but during a war? That's practically impossible.
Then there was when her father joined the other side, leaving her mother behind. Her mother wouldn't tell her about what had happened between that day and the day at the Boiling Rock, but even though her mother was an expert of hiding her emotions, she'd let herself slip up in front of her child. Izumi would note how her lips formed a tight line, and her eyes would always be cast down. Never any tears, but just that was enough for the woman to know that it hadn't been a pretty time for her mother back then.
Of course, there was the incident at the prison. Her mother went against her nation, her family, her friends for her father. The man labeled a traitor. She was willing to lay her life down for him, and proved in later years that she'd do it again if needed. People liked to call her mother loveless, but had they known that story just right there, they'd realized that it was love.
The Fire Lord and his wife heard the rumors spread by the people about their love. Her mother wouldn't show a flicker of emotion, as per usual, but her father would have a hard time controlling his anger. A small tug on his sleeve and a look from her mother was enough to keep him calm through the whispers. The Fire Nation knew this, but thought she was just being a good wife. After all, had anyone spoken up against any other Fire Lord to say that the wife he'd chosen was unfit would have been cast into the dungeon for thinking that their leader was so incompetent that he couldn't even choose a fit woman for himself.
They were wrong.
They didn't know that later those nights, the two would be curled up within themselves, telling each other just how they loved each other and why they'd prove this nation wrong one of these days.
Life went on, a child came to be, and the rumors would come in waves. She respected her parents because even despite all that, they never let the words reach their hearts or let their love be detoured in any way. Yes, there were good times and bad, but they always, always came back to each other.
Just like after the banishment, to the Boiling Rock, to after the war, and so on. Never did their love weaken or stray, no matter what the Fire Nation thought.
The country claimed to have known anything and everything about her parents' love life, but in all reality, they knew nothing.
To Izumi, it was so much more than love. The grandest love story that she would hope to have one day. Just two people pulled together through a young princess and forced to that way to honor true love.
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To the Fire Nation, the story of their love was nothing. Perhaps they did manage to fall in love with each other and live relatively happily, but based on what the country saw, they doubted that. Just another royal marriage, another forced relationship. A new, so very young Fire Lord wanting to please his people and a noble woman that was raised to do what she was told to. A perfect match, but really, not a happy one.
To Fire Lord Izumi, daughter of Fire Lord Zuko and Fire Lady Mai, the story of their love was everything. From the exciting, sometimes heartbreaking, story of their teen years, to the struggles they faced against those who doubted their love, to the way they prevailed against it all. She watched their love story unfold more and more each day she grew, from child to teen to adult, even up to the day she became Fire Lord in her father's place.
Her parents passed without the nation knowing the full truth, but that didn't stop Izumi from wanting it to be told.
So after she was retired and letting her son rule over the country, Izumi would tell the story to her grandchildren. From a young crush, to a love during war, and even go as far as the days her parents would be in an emotional battle against their own people.
The story was passed down, through generation to generation, long after Zuko, Mai, and even Izumi left the world. It was a story that was left unknown during their time in the world, but after they left, it had blossomed into a beautiful legacy.
The legacy of Zuko and Mai, how no matter what, they always came back together.