I have to concede...this chapter's pretty weird. Well it's been 2 years since my last update haha.
"What is your purpose with the Fire Lord?" Zuko intoned deeply, his silhouette menacing behind the wall of flames.
The figure kneeling before him edged her head upward, bottom lip quivering—
"BAHAHAHA! What was that, your 'Avatar state voice'? Trying to make me pee all over your waxed tiles, huh." The middle-aged woman bent over again, this time from raucous laughter. "I've heard turtle ducks with scarier voices than you."
The Fire Nation royalty flinched at the sound of her obnoxious voice filling the chamber. Man was he glad the doors were closed. "That's because this was a practice session! You knew what I was going to say! If it were anyone else they would have ran out of hear crying already."
Zuko's new Public Relations director and redecorator got up and brushed off her pale red robes. "Yah you keep telling yourself that….But it doesn't matter, your cute wittle voice will play into the new Fire Nation image anyway."
It took the man with the cute wittle voice all his will power not to roast Mung alive. The only reason why she was around was that Mung managed to pull a circus out of debt-ridden abyss and into a very public eye, and that was something all of his advisors agreed the new regime could use, Uncle Iroh included. Ty Lee also vouched for her decorating sense. "I am Fire Lord Zuko, son of Fire Lord Ozai and Fire Lady Ursa, and you will respect me!"
Mung was still chuckling as she turned her heel on Zuko and started walking toward the double doors. "No no, that doesn't work either. With your height, you'll come off as a brat. Instead, you have to turn it around and insult the other person." She didn't even wait for the Fire Lord, who parted the fire and walked as quickly as he could in his long robes to catch up. "And try not to mention Ozai either, that subject's pretty touchy right now, you know, with him trying to annihilate the Earth Kingdom and all."
They left the chamber, with the PR director leading the Fire Lord, who was fuming like an angry sabre-tooth moose-lion with sparks flying out of his nose.
"Mai!" His call sounded practically desperate as he tried to turn his head around, which was difficult with all the pins jabbed into his collar.
The goth girl entered the room looking for her boyfriend, but halted at the sight of a young man snowed in under different shades of pink fabric. There were five different tailors bustling around, debating over whether to fold a piece left or right and pinning him together like a sad rag doll.
"Um, sorry, wrong room…"
"No, wait, Mai, you can't abandon me here!" But Zuko's shouts were lost as Mai quietly escaped from the room, leaving him to be unrelentingly makeovered.
"Nu-uh," said Mung, wagging a long finger at the Fire Lord. "We can't have any distractions. Your self-image is very important, especially when millions of people are under your leadership."
Zuko flinched as one of the designers wrapped a gold-threaded belt around his waist. "But why pink!" The longer he looked at the salmon-colored fabric encircling his entire body, the more he felt sick.
"Because pink is the friendliest color. It makes people think that they can come up and be buddies with you. That they can trust you."
"But I don't want random people coming up to me and asking me to play a game of Pai Sho," Zuko ground out.
"Fire Lord Zuko! You are now the head of entire nation! You must endure for your people!" Mung looked appalled at his unwillingness to be a real leader. "That being said, I was thinking of replacing your shoulder plates as well. They're so pointy, someone could get killed if you tripped over onto them."
"You want to what?"
Zuko's new outfit was finally finished, and he was seated, rosy robes and all, in the palace garden with Mung, relishing a cup of jasmine tea. Now he could understand his uncle's obsession with the drink; it really did wonders settling his nerves after they were pulled tight by Ty Lee's crazy friend.
"I want to repaint the entire palace. The first thing I think of when I enter the palace is, 'Geez, who died and haunted this dreary building?' I mean even when its bright and sunny outside, the inside looks like some underground catacomb. It feels like a koizilla will jump out of a corner and slap you to death."
The Fire Lord blinked a couple times before responding, "My servants are more than capable of working in the palace. They were hand-picked by me and my advisors." Though there was incident a couple of months ago regarding an axe-murderer who snuck in and tried to jump Mai. Though it was the axe-murderer who ended up being slashed.
"I do not doubt your servants' states of mind. However, any visitors that may appear—"
"Zuko!"
The two turned their heads to see the young Avatar running towards them, followed by a flustered servant. "Sorry," the servant huffed out, "for not being able to alert you to the Avatar's presence earlier, Fire Lord." Zuko nodded in understanding and dismissed him.
"It's so great to see you again!" Aang said, showing his signature wide smile. "And it's an honor to meet you again, Mung." He bowed to the woman, who got up and bowed back.
Zuko's momentary elation was struck down after hearing that. "You guys know each other?"
Mung nodded with a smile. "I was the one who went to your uncle's tea shop to give a new, modern look. Guess whose sales have doubled!"
"Yah, she was the one who suggested Iroh plant leechi trees in the front. Guess which tea shop is Momo's favorite now." As if on cue, the lemur leaped out of Aang's robes and gave the Fire Lord's face a hug.
After peeling Momo off of his face, Zuko's face revealed mild exasperation. "That's great to hear."
"Haha, sorry about Momo, too much fruit I think." The lemur leapt back and settled on Aang's shoulder, who took this moment to scrutinize Zuko…and his new outfit. "Um Zuko, did you accidentally fall into a barrel of peach juice of something?" He did his best to hide his chuckle.
Aware of the little boy now sitting across from him, who was doing a bad job of stifling his laugh, the Fire Lord gritted his teeth. "Well—"
"Actually, it was a barrel of lily-flower dye. This is the best quality dyed silk you can find in all of the Fire Nation," Mung cut in, grabbing Zuko's sleeve and tugging it toward Aang for him to feel.
"Argh!" Zuko grunted, pulling his clothing back. Quickly covering up his annoyance, he questioned, "Don't we have business to attend to?"
"Ah yes," Mung agreed thoughtfully, turning to the Avatar. "We are about to begin the redecoration of the Fire Palace. Would you like to help us?"
"I'd love to!" Aang's eyes were as bright and wide as Momo's. "This would be a great way to take a break. I've been working my butt off for the past couple of months."
Zuko sighed, the Avatar's eagerness dispelling his thoughts of sneaking away from the dreaded house job. He gulped down the rest of his tea and followed the Avatar and Mung back into the palace, casting a regretful look back at the teapot in the garden.
"Might as well get the elephant-koi in the room out now," Mung addressed to the Fire Lord and the Avatar, who were all gathered in the throne room. She gestured generally toward the platform where the Fire Lord would be seated. "Was this room built original to roast boar-q-pines or what?"
"You could roast marshmallows here!" Aang exclaimed.
Zuko stiffened, ignoring Aang's food comment. "I think it looks great. The temperature is perfect."
"But what's the point of it?"
Zuko shifted his gaze towards Momo, he was approaching the fence of fire with curiousity. "It's therapeutic."
Mung rolled her eyes. "Yah, so is boar-q-puncture. What you need is regal ambience, not evil-overlord. Besides, it's not doing anything good for your complexion."
"What I need to do is rule a nation, not worry about looking like Firebender's Quarterly cover model."
"Well we could at least do something about that scar…" Mung reached into her pocket and pulled out some powder.
"No, that is enough!" Zuko balled his fists and looked at the decorator straight in the eye. "It doesn't matter what people think of this scar tissue on the outside. It is a part of me, it has made me who I am. Just like how this palace has a long, illustrious history, not just about Fire Lord Sozin and his war. So what if people find the building menacing. It's not just our job to understand other people and nations, they have to understand us as well!" He took a couple of deep breaths. "Now, you will listen to my opinions and not just do whatever you want around here."
"Well said, Zuko!" Aang applauded. "Though I do think she's onto something with this fire fence…"
"Fire Lord…" Mung looked almost apologetic for a second before saying, "Well done, well done! You've finally proven yourself. Your uncle always told me how although you were always hot-headed, around certain matters you always tip-toed too cautiously. You are the leader of a nation now and you can't afford to be a pushover when working with other people."
The chamber was quiet except for the flickering of the fire now as Zuko and Aang just stared at Mung, who held out her arms in a grand position.
"…So my uncle sent you? Not Ty Lee?"
"Well uncle thought the palace was due for some change and Ty Lee had me in mind. And it all worked out!"
Zuko didn't even have the energy to get worked up anymore. He sighed and said, "Let's just all take a break and maybe make some fire-flaked smores. The servants can tackle the redecorating." He headed out of the room in his royal pink robes with Aang and Mung in tow.
Comments and critiques are nice 3