The Fire Lord's Bride
Fire Nation soldiers were the hardiest men in the world. They possessed a long tradition of intensive training and discipline that honed their combat and Firebending skills to the keenness of a razor's edge. A hundred years of war and conquest had also instilled a strong sense of pride and courage within them that had not been overcome even by defeat. They could face the worst horrors imaginable and they would not flinch. But they were certainly flinching now.
Four days had passed since their party had left Lo-Man. The entire town had turned out to bid them good luck and goodbye before their departure, truly sorry to see the most entertaining group of visitors the townspeople had ever met go on their way. During the first day they resumed their journey, the soldiers had hidden their grins whenever they encountered their Fire Lord and his bride, clearly remembering the circumstances that had led to their sudden marriage. Zuko had only scowled back at them. On the second day, they had all carefully pretended to be deaf when the newlyweds had a brief and colorful argument about the Fire Lord apparently hogging all the blankets and snoring. This time, Zuko ordered them all to go off on a marching exercise in the dead of night, supposedly to keep their skills sharp and well-conditioned. On the third day, they were uncomfortable spectators when the Fire Lord and his Earthbender wife tried to settle the matter of which element was greater through an all-out bending challenge. After they dug out Zuko from the pit Lady Toph had left him in, and tried to console him by saying that they knew he was merely holding himself back during the fight, their evil overlord had done the unthinkable and confiscated all their bottles of wine. And, somewhere in between all of these shenanigans, they had managed to search a good number of villages where they had hoped to find the people they were pursuing. Truly, the soldiers had put up with a lot during the whole journey and they had held steady all throughout but, now, they finally seemed to have reached their breaking point.
Iroh glowered at the sheepish-looking men gathered behind him. "Cowards!" he said exasperatedly, then he turned and looked at the entrance to the Fire Lord's tent. Raised voices sharp enough to make his ears bleed came from within. The ground rumbled beneath his feet and the dark interior suddenly lit up with a bright flash of fire. More shouts and curses followed, in words that Iroh himself would have blushed to say. Then the earth shook violently, and they were all thrown of their feet. The old general stood up again as quickly as he could and gazed at the tent with true alarm now. He was just about to rush inside, dreading what he might find, when Toph Bei Fong—no, Fire Lady Toph marched out with furious strides. Once the soldiers saw the expression on her face, they all scampered out of the way. Iroh then swiftly went into the tent to check if Zuko was still alive.
"Nephew? Nephew, are you all right?" he cried out.
"Here," Zuko groaned. Iroh saw he was sitting on the bed he shared with his new wife, cleaning the dirt on his face with a wet piece of cloth. He grimaced at his Uncle's questioning look. "Is it normal to fight like this when you're newly married?" he wanted to know.
"It depends on the natures of the couple," Iroh answered carefully. "What was the fight about? Toph looked very angry when she came out of here."
The Fire Lord sighed. "She wanted to go off on her own and scout the remaining two villages in these mountains that we haven't checked yet. I, of course, forbade her to go since she would be needlessly putting her life in danger. Then, things just sort of deteriorated from there." He sighed again. "So that's the eighth thing I've learned not to do with her."
"You are keeping a list?" Iroh tried not to let the amusement show in his tone.
"Of course," Zuko nodded. "If I intend to live long enough to sire an heir, then I need to get along with that impossible woman."
"A very wise move then. But, aside from these fights, I hope the two of you are indeed getting along?" the old man asked delicately.
When he realized that there was another meaning he could take from his Uncle's words, Zuko coughed and reddened slightly. "Yes. Yes, of course," he said quickly. He stood up, went to a table, and poured himself a glass of water that he drank down in one long gulp. "So what do you advise I should do?" he inquired to change the subject. "About letting her go off and scout the villages, I mean. She's so stubborn that I wouldn't be surprised if she's half-way to the next one on the map right now. It's not that I doubt she can take care of herself. It's just that I don't want her to get hurt, but she doesn't seem to understand that."
"Let me find her and talk to her, Nephew," Iroh told him. "Perhaps I would be able to resolve this matter between the two of you."
"All right," Zuko conceded, and Iroh started to make his way outside to search for Toph. Then his nephew spoke again. "Uncle?" He turned to look back at the young man that he considered his son. "When you talk to her, tell her—tell her I don't like it when she's away from me for too long. That's another reason why I don't want her to go off alone on a mission."
Iroh nodded and smiled. "Yes. I will tell her." Then he stepped outside and was gone.
oOo
It wasn't hard for Iroh to find Toph. He just had to follow a small path of destruction and, soon, he was at a clearing that suddenly dropped off at the edge and offered a spectacular view of the mountains. She was sitting on a large rock and moodily staring out into the distance.
"Toph?" he said her name gently. "Are you all right?"
She huffed. "I can't believe I married the stupid one in your family. He actually had the nerve to think he could tell me what to do. He may be my husband now, but he doesn't own me!"
The man regarded as the Dragon of the West had not reached his current age without attaining a good amount of wisdom and, upon hearing her words, he understood exactly what was bothering the girl both he and his nephew cared for deeply. He also knew that she had to be the one to admit it to herself. "May I sit?" he began, and Toph obliged him by bending another rock to appear beside hers. He settled down on it with a grateful sigh. "My little Toph," he said, "tell me what is on your mind. You may speak openly. Right now, I am your friend and not Zuko's Uncle." He hoped that would get her to start sorting through her thoughts and feelings.
Her face twisted for a moment as if she was in pain but, being who she was, she simply moved past it and went straight to the heart of what was causing her a lot of worry and confusion. "I'm scared, Iroh," Toph admitted. "What if we just made a huge mistake not fighting against that crazy woman who married us? Being married and being Fire Lady—those are two great responsibilities that I had believed I would never get to have, not after what happened about a year ago. Sure, I was ready to take them on when I was trying to be a good Earth Kingdom citizen and daughter, but now—I've realized a few things since then, and I'm too settled into being myself that I don't think I can stand living a life where I have to be a proper lady, let alone a wife. And his wife too!"
She got up and began to pace. "He's meant to be a great Fire Lord. He paid a horrible price to help end the war simply because he believed in something better than his father's vision for the world. He needs a wife who can help him rebuild what Ozai destroyed, someone who can be royal and wise and kind, and I don't really want to be any of those things! I want—I want," she floundered, at a sudden loss for words.
"What do you want, Toph?" Iroh prompted.
She bit her lip, then let out a sigh. "But I want to make him happy," she confessed. She turned to Iroh, looking dismayed. "Isn't it awful? If Katara heard me now, I'm sure she'd be all like, 'I knew you had a girl's heart somewhere, Toph!' That preachy little Waterbender. But, oh, I wish she was here so I could talk to her about it because she always knows what to say, and she understands all this love stuff better than I ever could, and she'd probably kill me because she wasn't my maid of honor or something. Am I making any sense?" she demanded.
Iroh nodded, a fond smile on his face. "Yes, perfectly."
"So what do I do?" she wanted to know. "How do I deal with this?"
"Toph," Iroh stood up and went to her to clasp her hands in his. "I can only give you advice that you have undoubtedly heard before, but it is still nevertheless true. Let your heart guide you. It will not lead you astray, it will not make you less of who you are. But you have to let it speak, especially to another heart."
At his words, a tear slowly slipped from the corner of her eye, then she laughed quite merrily. "Okay. That sounds a lot better than anything Katara could have said." She suddenly hugged him. "Thanks, Iroh, for listening. And everything else."
That night, the Fire Nation soldiers got their wine back, and they all drank a toast to Prince Iroh the incomparable Dragon of the West.