A/N: I want to say sorry about takening so long to get this chapter out. I am trying to get as much as the story done as I can so there are no month long gaps wile I write a new chapter. Please tell me what you think. I love feedback.
Ch.2 Notes
The sun wasn't even in the sky yet when Zuko slid out of his gold sheets. Fire benders, it was well known, always rose with the sun, but the sun was still hours. Most of the place would not be up for quite a while. In fact he would still be sleeping at this hour if he could. As it so often happens when you rule a country, sleep often allude you, as it did for Zuko tonight.
No matter, he thought, I'll just get an early start on the day. With that he set to practicing his bending. Working thou his forms over and over again until the sweat pored off him. He had always pushed himself hard, now that he was Fire Lord he pushed harder. He was not going to be seen as weak. When his work out was over the sun was still at least an hour away if not more, so he bathed, dressed, and went to work in his office.
He knew as he enter the room that going to work this early in the morning meant that once again he would miss breakfast with his wife and child. He couldn't help but feel guilty. He did this most mornings and miss dinner most nights. Over the years he had started to work more and more and see his family less and less. Katara had once suggested he worked to avoid with them. Was he really avoiding from them? When had he started avoiding? Was he avoiding them because he had grown tired of them? Or was it something more? He loved Mai, didn't he? Then why was he spending so much time away from her?
Mercifully this line of thought was broken by the sight of a messenger hawk waiting on its perch for him. This particular hark was one of his own and meant that the message could only be from a handful of people. Maybe it was from Sokka informing him that Suki was yet again with child. Or maybe Toph or Ty Lee might be coming for a visit. Or the less likely option that it might be from Aang. The hawk barely moved when Zuko reached out and took the message from the bird's leg. He unrolled the parchment and saw hand writing he knew too well. Katara was finished with her assignment and was coming home. She would be back by dark. He smiled to himself. He would meet her after his dinner with Mai. He looked down at the snow globe still in its box. She was coming back. Tonight. Then almost as suddenly as she had come in to his mind, he banished her from it and set to work on today's pile of papers.
At the top of the pile was yet another report of Earth Kingdom shipments going missing. This was the third times in two months. If he didn't find away to stop the shipments from disappearing and soon he would have The Council on his ass. The Council would never believe him when he told them he had nothing to do with the missing rice. They would no doubt claim that he was withholding the supplies or redirecting them for some evil purpose. There were times when he wished the damn council had never been formed. They spend more time thinking of things to accuse the Fire Nation of doing, then finding ways to help people.
The shipment or the people behind there disappearing shipments would have to be found sooner rather than later. He knew just the person to send to find the missing shipments. He took out a piece of parchment and wrote something down and placed it in the hidden compartment of his desk, before getting back to his other papers.
It wasn't more than an hour before his councilors and scribes come in and the real work began. There were meeting and papers to sign, more meeting, and more papers. He worked on even after his councilors and scribes had left and the lamps were lit. It wasn't until one of Mai's handmaidens came in to remind him that dinner was being served in the royal apartment, that he final stopped working.
He couldn't miss dinner. He had promised.
Mai sat on a cushion in the royal apartment trying not to get upset that her husband had yet to show up. He had promised her that he would be there. He never broke a promise to her. Yet he still was not here. Dinner had been served almost an hour ago and he was still not here. Was this the point at which he started lying to her, and braking promises. Her mother had told her that it would happen, that all husband, especially Fire Lords would turned away from their wives once an heir was born. It was at this point that all men when looking for companionship elsewhere. She had never thought it would happen to her. Her marriage had not been arranged. She had made a love mach. Even after Zuko had started taken mistresses, she had not been shocked or even upset. He at that point was still spending every night with her. It was only in the last few years that he had spent more and more time away from her. Was he done with her now that she had given him an heir? Her eyes feel on the squirming boy who sat across the small table from her. He looked so much like his father had as a child. At least she had a son if not a husband. Had she been any other woman she would have cried.
Her son had stopped picking at his food as his mother's eyes fell on him. He had been told that he couldn't eat till his father joined them. It seemed that his father was never going to show up. The time passed so slowly it felt like ages to the poor boy who wanted nothing more right now than to eat. What four year old would be able to hold back when all his favorite foods where right there in front of him? So he would grabbed small bits when he felt his mother wasn't watching.
"Iroh you shouldn't pick at your food."
"Daddy" Iroh shouted with all the joy in the world. Finally he could really eat.
"I was starting to think you weren't coming." Mai's words hurt him as she hoped that they would. He had never wanted to be a bad father or husband. And yet that was what he was doing. How much of this had he learned from his own father?
"I promised you I would be here." He bent down and kissed Mai's check and took his seat between her and Iroh.
Wanting to change the focus of this conversation he turned to his wide eyed son, "What did you learn in your studies today, Iroh?" Zuko lost himself in listening to his son chatter on about all that he had learned and the other little things that only concern children. Zuko did love listening to the small boy talk. He had so much energy. He was reminded of Aang. Even though Aang was in is twenties now he was still very much a child Zuko had meet years earlier. Which Zuko supposed that was why The Council kept so many things from Aang. Or was The Council keeping Aang ignorant on purpose?
He smiled at Mai, who's anger had been washed away by this interaction of father and son. Zuko saw how her eyes glowed with happiness. This was all she wanted, form her husband. He just had to spend more time with his family, to make her happy. "And what did you learn today." She asked Zuko trying to join in the conversation. This was a mistake she should have known not to make.
"Oh it was the same old stuff really, land grants, mining rights, pardons, that sort of thing. Oh and Katara is returning tonight. In fact she should be here soon if she isn't here already." He said as if it was nothing. But Mai knew what he was really saying and she was less than happy about it.
"Oh, aunty Katara." Iroh was taking joy in what his mother could not. "Will she have a present for me?"
"I don't know, I'll ask when I see her." He spoke pretending her couldn't feel Mai's anger wafting over the room. And then as if on cue there was a rap on the door and a servant entered.
"What?" Mai snapped at the servant letting her temper get the better of her. Having never been spoke to this way by the Fire Lady, the girl froze to the spot where she stood, unable to move or speck. The poor girl looked so scared that Zuko took pity on her and rose to retrieve the note that was on the poor girl's gold tray.
He read the note, replaced it, and smiled at the girl. "You can go now." He returned to his set. "That poor girl was shaking, Mai." Iroh tried to make himself small and unseen, at hearing his fathers raised voice, as he always tried to do when his parents argued.
"She should have waited till she was invited to enter." Mai said as she picked up a pea pod and placed it in her mouth. She did not need him to tell her that it was wrong to be mean to the servants. She already knew that and part of her hated that she had taken her anger out on the girl. But she couldn't take her anger out on the person she wanted too. "Let's just finished dinner."
Iroh yawn in to Zuko's arm as his father carried him to his bed a few hours later. "But I'm not tired." The boy protested. Zuko couldn't help but smile at thought that he had once made the same statement to his mother. He placed the boy in to his bed and pulled the cover up over him, as Mai stood in the doorway watching the scene of domestic bliss that was unfolding in front of her. Why couldn't it be like this every night? Why could she not hold on to him the way she uses to?
Zuko felt her eyes on him as he tucked the boy in to bed and kissed the forehead of the sleeping prince. He knew what was coming and wasn't looking forwarded to it. He slowly moved out of this room and in to the next trying to prolong this peace as long as he could.
It happened almost as soon as Mai had closed the door to the nursery. "Stay with me." Her plea was just above a whisper. She hated to have to ask him this and he hated that he had to hear it. And he hated even more what he was about to say next. Her back was to him and he was glad. He wasn't sure he could meet her eyes right then.
"I have to meet Katara. I have to get her report." The over used excuses feel out of his mouth like a stone. His words were fooling no one and he knew it. He had known for some time that they weren't.
She was across the room is a heartbeat. "Can't it wait till tomorrow? Come to bed… with me." Her hands were around his. "Please." He could here the tears that she never cried in her voice.
"Tomorrow." He said slowing lifting her hands to his mouth and kissed them. He still couldn't meet her eyes he knew that if he did he would see nothing but pain in them. He couldn't deal with that. He hated to hurt her. He slid his hand out of her's and left her standing alone in an empty room once again.