Just a little something that came to mind the other day, it's a short pointless fluff piece, so if you were looking for something other than that...I have other stories. Enjoy!
She slowly twirled the umbrella in her hand, peeking to her left to see his golden gaze upon her. "What?"
"Why are you twirling the umbrella?"
She shrugged, "A nervous habit I guess."
"You're nervous?" He chuckled. She nodded. "Why are you nervous?"
"I'm always nervous around you," She admitted. Her olive green eyes looking up towards the clouds sprinkling rain upon them, "It's not something I can really help doing."
He rolled his eyes, "You have nothing to be nervous about, if anyone is nervous, it's going to be me."
"My almighty boyfriend is going to be nervous?" She couldn't help but tease.
"Well, have you ever thought about relationships? Every step in this relationship depends on how you're feeling. Whether I kiss you or attempt to make love to you, I have to be on my best game or you'll reject it. I have to attempt to make you think I'm the guy that you want to be with forever and then I attempt to make you say yes to me when I ask you to marry me. In the end, I'm putting up half of my assets in a sick gamble of whether or not you will continue to love me for the rest of our lives." He explained. "Don't worry about how you come off, if I didn't like it by now, I most likely would have left."
She smiled, "Is this what you really think about all the time?"
He shrugged before pulling his black hoodie over his head, "Not really, it's more of the tip of the iceberg. I think about life in general a lot. You can blame my Uncle for that one…"
"It's because he puts weed in his tea isn't it?" She joked.
He couldn't help but laugh, "I'm sure I would get more conversations about life if my Uncle was high."
"How much do you think about us being married?"
He was silent as they continued down the wet street, her nerves started to get the best of her. "It's hard to say," He finally admitted.
"Want to elaborate before I rethink about letting you sleep with me."
"You're different from any girl I've ever dated. With the other girls, it was every Valentine's Day, Birthday, Christmas, whatever it was, I had to go the whole nine yards. If I didn't, it was like I just told them to screw off. But with you, buying you a few flowers for Valentine's Day makes your face light up. You make being in a relationship easy, like it's breathing to me."
"I'm not following, what does that have to do with the question?"
He smiled, "I'm getting there. When I thought about being with the other girls, it would two different scenarios, us together as boyfriend and girlfriend or being married. But with you…I can't imagine any difference. If you and I got married tomorrow, for our honeymoon we would probably have sex as much as we have now and marathon some new series on Netflix for the rest of the time with room service." His golden pools met her olive green orbs, "So I guess I think about us being married all the time. How about you?"
She blinked a few times, before pulling him down to a kiss. "That was the greatest thing anyone has ever said to me."
"I literally just said gibberish, I didn't even really follow what I was saying," He admitted.
She wrapped her free arm around his, resting her head against his shoulder, "I understood what you were trying to say though." They remained silent for a few more moments, "Would it freak you out if I said that I think that we're almost there?"
"As in marriage?" She nodded against his shoulder. "No…it doesn't really freak me out. It's been like, 6 years now?"
"6 and a half next month."
"Well, it's been long enough. We've had our share of fights, we just moved in together and neither of us has gotten bored of each other," He thought out loud. "Marriage would be the next step."
"So should I start picking a venue and telling my parents."
He looked down to her for a moment, "Don't get too ahead of yourself."
She chuckled, "Can you blame me? I've wanted to marry you since our first date."
"Ah, the date where you assumed I juggled in the circus."
"You said you can do something that people in the circus could do!" She argued with a laugh. "Do other people usually guess that you're a Fire Breather?"
"They at least suggest something better than a juggler!"
"What if I said clown?"
He thought it over for a minute, "Never mind, juggler is a lot better."
"Probably because clowns have to smile instead of scowl." His face dropped, "See? There it is," Her voice rose with excitement at the frown. "Who has a little cute frown," She asked as if he were a little child. "You do!"
He scowled at his girlfriend, "That's not funny."
"I think it's pretty hilarious," She rested her head back against his shoulder. They walked towards the tea shop owned by his Uncle, once she got underneath the small cover above the door, she shook off the rain on the umbrella and tied it up. They entered the small shop, he made eye contact with his Uncle, who smiled and gave him a nod. Taking a seat by a window, she looked out to watch the rain while he pulled out his phone. "I love the rain, we never got any back home."
He looked up from his phone to see the glimmer in her eyes as she watched the rain. Putting away his phone, he took one of her hands in his, "Do you ever miss it back in Gaoling?"
The brunette looked his way and chuckled, "Oh definitely not. My life is here, school, friends…my man." She looked back to the rain, "It's too beautiful to leave."
He turned his head when a pot of tea was set on the table, his Uncle smiled warmly, "Now I know my Nephew wasn't the one who chose to come here."
She turned to look at the older man, "Actually, he's the one who suggested it today."
"Finally coming around to enjoying tea?" He joked.
He looked into her eyes, "Something like that Uncle." Patting his Nephew on the shoulder, he left the couple alone. She couldn't help but grin, "What is it this time?"
"You really make me feel special you know?" She squeezed her hand in his, "6 years later and I still feel like the most special girl in the world to you…every day you make me remember why I love you so much."
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it softly, "You make me feel like greatest man in the world…I thought it would only be fair if I did the same for you."
She grabbed the tea pot by the handle while he let her other hand go, setting the two cups for them. Slowly pouring the tea in, she glanced up from the cups to look at him, "Now I wish we weren't in public and I can show you how much I really love you." His face flushed at the thought, she had a knack for teasing him in public. Her foot rubbed up his calf.
He sipped a small amount of his tea, "This long and you still want to have sex with me?"
"We can't be an old married couple yet," The brunette joked. "I plan on enjoying that until the day we die."
"I plan on holding you to that," He drank more of his tea.
"I would do anything to make you happy, you know that," She softly smacked her lips after sipping her tea, "Your Uncle makes the best tea in the world."
"So I've heard," His eyes rolling.
"You should be happy this tea exists," She finished her cup, "If it weren't for Iroh's tea, you and I probably wouldn't be together."
He rested his chin on his propped up hand, "Oh really now?" She nodded. "Well do indulge me with this info. I would love to hear this story."
The brunette poured herself another cup, "Well, when you asked me out, you chose your Uncle's tea shop for our first date."
"Oh I know, this exact booth," He sipped more of his tea.
"If you didn't invite me to the Jasmine Dragon, I wouldn't have accepted your date. Maybe I would be dating Chan or someone else." He could tell she was only trying to mess with him by the playful look in her eyes as she drank more tea. "Who knows? I could be married by now while you would still be single."
"So let me get this straight, even though you were telling our friends that you had a crush on me before we started going out and were basically begging my Uncle if I would be your server in my short time here, I would have not had a chance with you if I brought you somewhere else on our first date?" He challenged. As expected, she nodded. "I guess I will have to take your word for it. But I will have to correct one thing in the alternate world where you and I weren't together, I would most likely be with Yue."
Her face fell, "Yue?" He nodded. "Why Yue?"
"I was supposed to date her instead of you remember? If you didn't say yes to me, Katara would have set me up with Yue while you were with Chan. Can you imagine that? Interracial children. I wonder if they would have my eyes or hers." He pondered before sipping his tea.
She pouted, "That's hurtful."
"Oh, actually it's the complete opposite, it's not like you would be left alone, you have Chan…the guy who piqued in High School and is now shoveling polar bear dog waste, 20 hours a week for minimum wage. I wouldn't want to get in between you two."
He kept his composure when she kicked him in the shin, "Okay, enough, you know how I get with you and other girls when I'm not involved."
"I think Suki knows that," He finished his cup, pouring himself another.
"I thought we wouldn't bring that up anymore," She covered her face. "That was one time."
"If by one time you mean one weekend, then yeah, it was one time," He took another drink. "Freshmen year is truly an experimental year." Once they finished their tea, he left his money on the table, knowing his Uncle wouldn't accept his money if he paid up front. They walked back into the rain, it started coming down harder as they continued walking. They made to their apartment building, climbing the exterior stairs to Apartment 21. He unlocked the door and she shook off the rain before they both entered the apartment. It wasn't much but it's what they called home. A black couch with a coffee table covered either with magazines or unfinished school work between it and a TV. A small kitchen to their left and the entrance to the perpendicular hallway in front of them, to the left was the bathroom and the right their bedroom. They both took off their shoes, he went to the bedroom while she went to the bathroom. He closed the curtain in their room and shed off his clothing, getting into the bed, ignoring the fact that it was still mid-afternoon. With the curtains closed, no sunlight could enter their room. He turned on the TV and switching over to input setting for his console. Grabbing his controller he selected his Netflix app. She came back into the room, her brunette hair pulled back in a sloppy pony tail, a black tank top and green underwear. Getting into bed with him, she cuddled up next to him as he searched through several titles.
"What did you want to watch?" She asked, nuzzling her head against his shoulder.
"I don't really know, what are you in the mood for?"
She yawned, "You can watch whatever you want to. I think I'm going to take a small nap, wake me up if you want to do it."
"And they say romance is dead," He joked.
Her eyes slowly fell as she held him tighter. "I love you Zuko."
He kissed the top of her head, "I love you too Jin."
-SDB