Fire Lord Zuko sighed, pulling on his altogether-too-flamboyant ceremonial robes. The cold, hard knot of dread in his stomach hadn't left him all day, despite his friends' and family's best efforts. He wasn't ready for this. It wasn't at all what he wanted. But it was what his nation needed.
"Having second thoughts?"
Zuko tied his sash and turned to face Aang. The Avatar was standing in front of the curtain leading out, smiling sadly. His gray eyes spoke volumes.
"Yes," Zuko answered truthfully, "and no."
His friend sighed.
"Are you sure that this is necessary?"
Zuko nodded.
"The Fire Nation needs stability from its ruler. It had to happen soon, and with all the nobles pressing their daughters on me after Mai left in hopes of tying their families to the royal line... I had to choose quickly."
Aang moved forward and hugged Zuko tightly.
"I'm sorry. It's terrible that you don't have the time to wait and marry for love."
"I don't think that would have been a possibility anyway. Not since Mai..."
"Yeah." Aang fell silent. Zuko could tell that his friend was wracking his brain for a way to cheer him up. He hugged Aang back, mustering up a smile in spite of his gloomy mood.
"It's my wedding day, Aang. Let's get out there and enjoy it."
The Avatar smiled back.
"Right. Let's go get you hitched, hotman!"
Zuko rolled his eyes at Aang's outdated slang and placed the golden artifact that marked him as Fire Lord in his hair.
"Lead the way, Avatar."
Hey, readers, I'm Lizzy, and I'm the half of HonorarySistersForever who's writing this particular story! This is my first time posting a fic, and it's sort of a big deal, because I've never been certain that I'll finish a story before. Okay, it is a big deal. A really, really big deal. Well, this chapter was really short, but hopefully it did all right in setting up the premise of this story. Just as a warning, the chapter lengths are going to vary a great deal in this fic, but I promise that the shortest ones will be posted with at least one other chapter soon before or after. Anyway, I hope you like the idea of this story, and I'm open to whatever comments, questions, et cetera, that you may have. Oh, and timeline-wise, this takes place sometime after the comic trilogy The Rift and ignores whatever events are going to take place in the upcoming Smoke and Shadows trilogy.
