The Fire Lord's Bride

Zuko had never been more flabbergasted in his entire life. It took him a few minutes to find his voice and to order his soldiers to bind her. When she protested, very loudly, he ordered them to gag her mouth as well. He then told the men to take her to his room at the inn. Once she had been deposited on a chair, he told everyone to get out except for Iroh. He then took a moment to study her before speaking.

She was thinner now. Her face had lost its round-cheeked softness and her hair was even longer and wilder than he remembered. Her eyes, though, were still the color of clouded jade, and they still had that unerring habit of staring right through him as though she wasn't blind. While he was looking her over, unbeknownst to him, Iroh was studying him in turn. The old man then cleared his throat quite loudly. "Zuko," the old man said reproachfully, "this is Toph. Must we treat her like a common criminal?"

The Fire Lord scowled. "She gets treated the way she deserves to be treated," he said. "But I have some questions that she needs to answer first." He stood before their captive. "I am going to take the gag from your mouth. I expect you to speak in a calm, civilized manner and answer my questions. Is that understood?" Sullenly, Toph nodded. Zuko then started to remove the gag. No sooner had he freed her mouth than she screamed.

"You son of a — !"

He quickly gagged her mouth again. "You haven't changed at all, have you?" he said furiously. "You're still filthy and disgusting and aggravating with your caterwauling and, and!" he sputtered. "I can't believe I ever thought I was in lo —!" He abruptly stopped speaking.

"Nephew," said Iroh placatingly, "let me talk to Toph."

"Fine! Get some answers out of her stubborn head!" He stalked over to the nearest chair and grumpily sat down, still staring daggers at the Earthbender.

Iroh gently removed the gag from Toph's mouth. She remained silent, though, and glared at a spot beyond the old man's shoulder. "Toph," Iroh said, "what are you doing here in Tenzu?" He feared to hear her answer, but they had to know how she happened to come back into their lives under the most suspicious of circumstances.

She finally deigned to look at him. "What do you think?" she spat out.

"Did you - ?" Iroh hesitated then continued, "Did you have anything to do with Lady Ayumi's kidnapping?"

She took a deep breath. Her expression clearly revealed that she didn't want to answer Iroh's question, but she answered it anyway. "I was hired to do a job. I had no idea that they were planning to kidnap Zuko's bride, okay? They just said that they wanted an escort to the Fire Nation, and they paid me in advance. So I brought them into the country, then I thought I'd stick around for a bit, and the next thing I knew everyone was screaming about how a bunch of Earthbenders made off with the Fire Lord's bride. I tried to stop them but I got here too late. I thought about talking to you people and offering to help, but then I remembered that I hated both your guts! I was just about to get away when Princess over there caught me."

"You brought those criminals into my kingdom?" Zuko shouted. He would have said more had not Iroh silenced him with a look.

"So," the old man said to Toph, "you know the men who took Lady Ayumi?"

A wary look came over her face. "Yeah."

"Do you think you could track them down?" Iroh asked.

"What exactly are you asking?" she demanded.

"We will pay you four times what they paid you if you will help us recover Lady Ayumi," Iroh said.

"What?" Toph and Zuko both exclaimed at the same time.

"Toph is the only one who can identify the men who took your bride," Iroh explained. "If anyone can find those men and Lady Ayumi, it would be her."

Zuko couldn't help but be suspicious of his uncle's motives in insisting that the blind Earthbender aid them in pursuing his bride's abductors. However, he could not deny that there was wisdom in the old man's words. If anyone could find the men who had stolen Lady Ayumi, Toph was the one who could do it. Shooting Iroh a very dark look, he said grudgingly, "Perhaps you're right." He turned to the Earthbender. "Well?" he demanded. "Are you going to help us get my bride back?"

She scowled. "Do I have a choice?" she snapped. "It's a matter of honor now, isn't it? I was indirectly responsible for your precious bride getting kidnapped, so I might as well do the right thing and help you get her back so the two of you could make moody little Fire Nation babies together."

Iroh nodded solemnly. "Thank you for agreeing to help us, Toph."

"But I still do expect to be paid the amount you promised!" she quickly said. "Gold's gold, and you'll never hear me refusing it."

"Excellent!" Iroh beamed. "So we will pay you half of the amount now and then you will get the rest upon the safe recovery of Lady Ayumi. How much did those men pay you, by the way?"

When Toph told them the price, Zuko sputtered furiously. "We are not paying you four times that amount in gold!" He could afford it, of course, but he just hated her so much right now that he wanted to be as difficult as possible. It was very childish of him, and he thought that he had outgrown such behavior but, apparently where she was concerned, he could still be quite the spoiled brat prince he had used to be.

"Zuko!" Iroh growled, obviously warning him not to antagonize Toph any further.

"Why not?" she retorted. "Is your bride so ugly that she's not worth that much to you?" It was a taunt meant to provoke him and so, just to be contrary, he bit back the angry reply that he was about to make.

"Fine. We'll pay it," he said, but couldn't resist adding, "And, for your information, my bride is the most beautiful maiden in the entire Earth Kingdom."

"Whatever, Princess," she shrugged. "You've got low standards anyway. So, since we're going to be working together, could you get these ropes off of me?"

Zuko nodded for Iroh to release her. "We'll have an early start tomorrow," he said. "Make sure you're ready."

She smirked at him. "I can't wait."