A/N- I don't think I will usually update this quickly, but I'm very pumped about this story at the moment. Who really needs sleep anyway?
"Father?" Rei called in a near-sing song voice as she swung into the throne room, where her father was sitting looking over some documents.
"We're not talking about this, Rei." The King replied sternly, not looking up from his parchment. Rei raised an eyebrow and smiled gently at him. She slowed down her step in such a way that was meant to calm him down. If Rei was good at anything, it was influencing her father. He was a simple man- she adored him, of course, he was her father after all- but his concerns with with issues of war and recourses. He wasn't an intellectual like Rei was.
"What do you think I came to talk to you about?" She asked, with the best impression of innocence in the city. Even her father couldn't see through it.
"I'm sorry, Rei. I shouldn't snap. Everything feels like it's been coming down around my head recently. Rebuilding the losses, financing reconstruction, the controversy about the funeral." Her father's face was held in his hands before he could finish his sentence. Rei's sympathy levels for the man sitting in front of her were significantly lower than usual, but the funeral controversy was something that she could relate to. The people were upset that Yue's funeral had gone beyond that of a princess and had treated her as a martyr of extreme holiness, when hundreds had died in the battle with the Fire Nation. There were still protests at least once a week outside the place where Yue's memorial was being built. That was a problem as well. The subjects seemed to think the tribe's money and recourses could be better spent rebuilding hospitals, libraries, and homes than on a tribute to it's deceased princess.
"I'm so sorry, Father. Is there anything I can do to help?" The concern was no more genuine than her interaction with the councilman had been. It wasn't that Rei didn't think the world of her father, it was that at the moment, she was beginning to wonder if he was worthy of that praise.
"No, Love. Everything will work out the way it's intended. It always does." Rei's sad smile was so convincing that it woke her father out of his stupor and reminded him of his daughter's plight. "Now, what did you come to talk to me about?"
"I wanted to express my enthusiasm and gratitude with regard to my wedding. I'm sure such an arrangement was difficult to attain."
"You're not... upset?"
"Of course not. We all have to make sacrifices for our nation, especially in times like these. However, I've been volunteering down in town at the soup kitchen and I'm afraid my presence has brought a good deal of donations. Now I'm sure they would do just fine without me, but..."
"Rei, why didn't you tell me you were volunteering in the city? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?"
"I didn't want to worry you, Father, but I felt it was the sort of thing Yue would want me to do." Rei did feel a twinge of guilt at using her sister's name for such a lie. Rei had never done volunteer work in her life, and certainly not in a soup kitchen, but it was just the sort of lie that might tug on her father's heart strings enough to make him call off the whole engagement.
"Oh, Rei." He stood up and wrapped his arms around her. "What will become of us?"
"We'll be just fine, Father. As always." Rei insisted, repressing the inner voice that insisted 'Maybe you'll be alright, but I'm being sold to scum from the nation that murdered my sister.'
Her father pulled away, held her at arms distance and smiled back at his daughter, who, he seemed to notice for the first time, was becoming a woman. He returned, somewhat more relaxed to his throne.
"Anyway, Father, my point is, if it would possible for this wedding to be postponed...," she emphasized the word so as not to make him think she was asking for the wedding to be called off- that would just make him angry- but simply to be pushed back a bit so she would have time to change his mind.
"Rei."
"...Until the soup kitchen no longer needs me..."
"Rei."
"That way, everyone will be happy and..."
"Rei, there is no way to postpone the wedding. A deal has been made that if a child from each my family and and Fire Lord Oazi's marry and produce and heir, there will be an opportunity for a non-aggression pact between the Fire Nation and us." There were tears in his eyes. So that's it, Rei thought, I'm a pawn in a war strategy. That thought should not have disturbed the young princess so much. As the last remaining daughter to the king, it was her duty to sacrifice herself for the good of her nation. That was something she had been taught since she was a little girl, but Rei was so much better than that.
Never once had anyone recognized just how brilliant she really was, Rei's mind cried out. Rei could think circles around any one of her father's councilmen. If given the opportunity, she was positive she could solve the financial crisis, the protests, and the entire war in less time than it would take her father to hold a meeting. And here she was being treated like she could do nothing more than marry into a treaty. Inside Rei's head were answers to questions the people there hadn't even thought to ask yet- she was sure of it.
No expression of pain or betrayal or frustration materialized on her face, though. Rei Lin was the same optimist, loyal daughter as always. She wasn't ready to give up on the subject, but for the moment, it seemed to the only logical course of action was to put it away for another day.
"When is the wedding to be held?"
"Next month."
"Next month?" Rei repeated with an air of indignation. A slight slip up- but nothing that couldn't be played down. "I'll have a good deal to prepare for."
"I'm sure you'll figure everything out." Her father finished, doing his best to hide that he was still tearing up. "Now, if you don't mind, Rei, I have some business to finish up. I'll see you for dinner?"
"Of course." Rei said. She reluctantly exited the throne room back into the hall. She didn't bother to go back for Maru, who would eventually realize that she was on her own for the rest of the day. Instead, she retired to her bedroom, where she could escape for a little while into a book.
-
Zuko's uncle had somehow managed to charm their way into an inn on the first island that they washed up on, despite their both being entirely penniless. The ever-more-uncomfortable young man excused himself into the waiting room, as his uncle all but flirted with the woman who owned the inn. How he did it, Zuko would never know, but the inn keeper insisted that the two of them stay as long as they like.
There was a seed of worry growing in Zuko's mind that he might have to remind his uncle that just because they lost their ship did not mean they didn't still have the same mission they'd always had. But after what had happened in the Northern Water Tribe, even Zuko was ready for a day or two's rest before beginning to strategize about how to find a new ship and get back on the Avatar's track. Still, a part of him knew that the whole 'vacation' as his uncle insisted on calling it, would be spent trying to remind said uncle that this was not a permanent change in pace.
Things never went as well as planned in that department.
On the fifth day in the inn, Zuko's uncle was preoccupying himself with examining a display of shells in one of the huts near the beach. They had already stayed days past when Zuko had planned on leaving, and now his uncle was planning on bring souvenirs with them, which would only slow them down more.
"We don't need any more useless things! You forget, we have to carry everything ourselves now!" His uncle seemed like he was about to respond with a proverb or something of that sort when he was cut off by a voice from across the room that neither of them had noticed.
"Hello, brother. Uncle."