~+~Two for Joy~+~


"Look how much she's showing!"

The youngest maid serving the Fire Princess—a clever and observant girl of only fifteen—was whispering behind her hand to the Fire Princess's lady in waiting—a young woman of twenty four who had seen her share of misfortune to be wise far beyond her years. They were both in the Fire Princess's quarters, bustling about changing bed sheets, dusting furniture, sweeping floors, folding clothes, and scrubbing windows. The two of them were on the other side of the room, leaving the Fire Princess alone in her sitting room that was attached to her bedroom. She was sitting tiredly but happily in a chair in the corner of the sitting room as she watched her two year old son giggle and play around on the floor in front of her. The two servants saw her eyes twinkle as she laughed and held a hand onto her bloated stomach.

"I think she's doing a lot better," the young maid whispered as she scrubbed another dirt spot off of the windows. "I haven't seen her laugh in ages."

The lady in waiting nodded as she looked back at the Fire Princess and her young son. She sighed as she neatly folded another one of the Fire Princess's dresses and placed them neatly in piles on the bed. She kept her voice to a whisper so that the Fire Princess wouldn't hear their gossip.

"It's been about nine months. The doctors say it should be any day now."

The young girl nodded and whispered rather darkly. "It seems like it."

The lady in waiting picked up on the girl's tone and placed a hand on her shoulder. The young girl looked up, but only for a moment before she turned back to focus her attention on the stubborn spots that she was scraping off of the translucent glass.

The lady in waiting frowned. "What's gotten into you?"

The young maid shook her head and continued to work on the windows. She blinked quickly four or five times—was she holding back tears?—and started pressing against the glass a lot harder than before. The sound of her nails scraping down the glass became louder and louder and the lady in waiting could have sworn that the girl was clenching her teeth.

The older woman sighed. "If you press any harder, your hand is going to crash through the glass."

The younger girl sucked her teeth loudly and threw the rag down on a table across the room. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and started fumbling with the fabric of her dress on the side of her body. She shook her head and let out a shaky breath.

"It's not fair to her. What she's going through, it isn't fair at all."

"What are you talking about?" the lady in waiting asked, putting down the clothes she was folding.

The young maid walked closer to the older woman until they were only two inches apart. She looked up into the older one's eyes and gave her a look that screamed worry and hatred all at the same time. She was always a strange one. Despite her ability to see past anyone and anything, she had a very quick temper. Although she claimed herself that she wasn't one to busy herself with tears and frowns—claiming them to be a waste of energy—there were moments when her grief showed through at unexplainable quantities.

The lady in waiting quickly noticed that this was one of those times.

"I overheard the Fire Prince in the throne room the other day."

The older woman's eyes widened. She dipped her head lower and brought her face level with the young girls and spoke as quietly as she could so that the young maid could still hear her. She grabbed the arms of the girl and pulled her into the corner of the bedroom that was out of the Fire Lady's line of vision. She grabbed the towel that the young girl had thrown just now to trick the Lady into believing that they were simply crossing the room to wash more windows. They huddled close together as the young maid began to speak.

"He was talking to one of his friends I think," the young maid whispered as silent as the wind. "They were talking about the Fire Princess."

The lady in waiting nodded. "Well? What did they say? What did you hear?"

The girl looked away from the woman's gaze. "I couldn't catch all of the words—the doors are pretty thick—but I did catch a little bit of the conversation."

The woman shook her girl slightly so as to prod from her what she had witnessed.

The girl sighed. "He was saying something about how she's beginning to be useless. That he's been doing his duty—he has done it so many times—and gave her three chances to bring heirs into the world. And all she has to show for it is a sickly little boy."

The lady in waiting brought a hand to her mouth. Her eyes darted quickly to the wall that was separating her from her mistress and his son.

"The boy's not that sickly," she argued. "Sure he's a little weak and gets sick easily, but I've seen so many children grow out of that over the years."

"Clearly the Fire Prince doesn't think so," the younger girl whispered back. "He says that she had better see this pregnancy through before something needs to be done."

The young girl wrapped her arms around her body again. "And with the Fire Prince, that 'something' could be…"

The lady in waiting nodded. She knew. Everyone knew. The young maid didn't need to elaborate.

"It's just not fair to her," she muttered again. "She hasn't done anything wrong. She's trying her best and he's treating her so poorly. And what I can't grasp is how she has the energy to smile the way she does."

The lady in waiting shook her head and clasped the girls' smaller hands in her own. "You wouldn't understand. You've never felt a child inside of you."

The girl tilted her head to the side and was about to open her mouth to say something. But then her eyes widened and she pulled her hands from the woman's grasp to cover her mouth. Her face showed that she was having trouble forming her words together. She pulled her hands away and bit her lip.

"I-I'm sorry! I d-didn't mean to…"

The woman held up a hand. "It's fine. I know you didn't mean to bring attention to it."

The woman walked to the right just enough so that she could get a glimpse of the Fire Princess again. She saw her sitting her in her chair still and watching the young Prince Zuko roll around and laugh on the ground in front of her, playing with all of the toys he had gotten as gifts for his second birthday. The lady in waiting smiled as she saw the Fire Princess grin and unconsciously run a hand down her stomach again.

The young maid watched the older servant curiously as she mimicked the Fire Princess's movements, rubbing her own stomach as if she were holding a baby. The girl's heart started to twist in sympathy as she saw silver droplets of tears roll down the woman's cheeks. The lady in waiting's voice came out in a breathy whisper.

"She was devastated both times when she lost her child. Having that happen to you is…" The woman stopped and sighed deeply. "…terrible. But despite that, feeling life inside of you again is able to put such a smile on your face. It makes you forget about everything…and I have no doubt that the Fire Lady is ecstatic at the moment. Nothing her husband can say to her will change that. Her children make her happy."

The girl clutched the older woman's sleeve. "Ming…I-I…"

The lady in waiting shook her head and turned back to the clothes she was folding before. She started whispering again now that the Fire Princess was within ear shot. "Let her be happy. She knows what is happening to her isn't fair. She's a clever woman. But she's allowing herself to indulge in simple pleasures. Let's not take that away from her by reminding her."

The young maid looked at the distraught emotions collecting in the eyes of the Fire Princess's most loyal servant. She then switched her gaze over to the Fire Princess. Her nose was wrinkled—something that the Fire Princess did when she laughed—and her teeth were shining as she smiled the brightest smile while watching her son. But the girl couldn't ignore the hunched back, the limp hair, the skinny limbs, and the sunken in eyes. The girl sighed. Try as they both might to forget about the pain that had haunted their pasts and replace it with happiness, the girl didn't think it was possible.

Ming tried to cover up her grief by busying herself with work in the palace and putting on a happy smile as an example to the rest of the girls. But the young maid knew that she could never truly be happy after losing three children and then hearing the news that she simply wasn't strong enough to carry anymore.

The Fire Princess was the same. Try as she might to fill the sadness with her little boy and her soon-to-be child, the girl picked up on the woman's worried and tired appearance under all those smiles. She picked up on the truly tired and fed up woman underneath. The one that was scared of another still birth. The one that prayed every night for a miracle. The one that was tired of her husband.

The young girl turned her attention back to the windows and began scrubbing them again. Why anyone would want to put up a mask of happiness to hide their true feelings of grief and sadness she didn't have the slightest clue. But maybe Ming was right.

Maybe she was just too young to understand.