Mimi had warned him about her family. He had thought her to be exaggerating considering he has had to deal with:
1)his former child soldier/sociopath great aunt (a great way to get rid of unwanted dinner guests like Prime Minister Wei and his daughter),
2)his Uncle Tenzin's messy break up with his Aunt Lin(they all had been waiting for it since Iroh was born, but yikes),
3)said uncle's marriage to a girl just a year or two older than Iroh( yes they are in a happy healthy relationship,but its still weird for him)
4)and his father,Bumi, being constantly overlooked and belittled for not being a bender (by both strangers and relatives alike).
Sure Aunt Lin had almost leveled Air Temple Island when Uncle Tenzin tried to let her down easy, but he was honestly more afraid of his future mother-in-law than he had been of Lin Beifong that day. After all Lin Beifong hadn't been cheated on by her husband of thirty years and had his mistress interrupt the dinner party thrown for her youngest daughter and her fiancé.
He felt bad for Lady Eun, he could tell that even after five years she still hadn't acclimatized herself with a family that blew his clean out of the water in being dysfunctional. The Cabbage Corp CEO's family was the only family he had seen that was as wholesome as they appeared. If you could count barely hidden homophobia- typical amongst earth kingdom nationals- and Lau Lan-Gan's disregard for his three daughters' rights as wholesome.
Shu, that is Crown Prince Shu of Omashu and husband to Hisa, slipped off his house slippers discreetly. No doubt the master earth bender was using his seismic sense -another ability no longer reserved to the upper classes nor one single family- to keep an eye on his wife's parents.
"You must excuse our parents, your highness. Mother absolutely hates it when father's affairs interrupt dinner." His soon to be brother-in-law, Naoko, apologizes and not so subtly hints as to why the Duke and his wife are fighting during the dessert course.
"I understand, but please call me Iroh." Iroh once again asks for his future family to drop the honorifics and act like he isn't royalty. He wonders just how long it took for Shu to stop being His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Omashu to them.
"As you wish, Iroh. I am sorry your first dinner with our family has gone to shit." Naoko apologizes once again.
"Naoko." Eun reprimands, "What will his highness, sorry, Iroh, think?"
"He will think that we are normal people with far too many issues and can swear without sounding too vulgar, dear." Naoko replies to his wife.
Beside him an annoyed Misao simmered in quiet rage. She hasn't done anything except play with the remaining of her ice cream, her favorite flavor made up in the shape of a camellia flower. Even if he had known her for four months- technically since they were children, but even then, they were just loose acquaintances- Iroh knew this angry silence isn't a good thing.
Misao hides her face in her hands and the telephone rings again. She cries out in anger, "Will some unplug the fucking telephone?!"
That was more like her. Misao had her mother's temper and her father's wit.
One of the footmen scurries and hastily unplugs it from the telephone jack on the wall. They could have done that when it rang the first three times, not when the masters of the house where perilously close to coming to blows.
"I won't blame you if you decide to end things." Mimi smiles wryly. Like he could end things over something so insignificant as having a dysfunctional family.
"I'm not going anywhere." Iroh takes her hand that rests in the space between his plate and hers. For just a couple of seconds the angry yelling and Naoko's debate with Eun over when it is okay to swear in front of you guests fades and its just the two of them.
"Aww, that's so sweet. We will hold you to it when the official dinner with the whole family is here." Hisa teases. She turns to looks across the table to her husband. "Don't these two remind you of us at that disastrous dinner with your late grandmother."
"Yes, they do, darling. Didn't she throw plum wine at you and called you an opportunistic whore?" Shu mentions reminding everyone at the table that no one could be worse than the late Earth King's two daughters in terms of awfulness. The current Earth Queen was considered much less violent than her late elder sister.
"Yes, and we weren't even engaged then." Hisa giggles at the memory.
"Are we cursed or something, because your grandpa had a stroke when I came over for my first family dinner," Eun asks Naoko, because it was too coincidental for all three siblings to have such rotten luck when inviting their fiancé to have dinner with them and their family.
No one gets to answer because at that moment a vase smashes and Shu reassures," Oh, your mother didn't throw it at him, not that my father-on-law doesn't deserve it, it just fell. One of the maids must've put it wrong."
They all breathe out in relief and it isn't long before the masters of the house come back inside the dining room.
"My wife and I are deeply sorry for ruining this dinner, your highness. We will be going to the sitting room near the library as the music room isn't available." Ichiro, that is Mimi's dad, apologizes and pretends that the climate inside the dining room didn't drop by like five degrees.
"It's no bother, sir." It is a bother, both parties contributed on ruining dinner and make things awkward for them.
"Sweetheart, I am sorry for ruining your special night," Ichiro apologizes to Mimi who doesn't accept his apology.
"Well that was awful." Mimi says as we walk up to the bench just right outside the sliding doors of the sitting room by the library. It was pleasantly warm and old houses like this one often opened to the courtyard garden in which they walked on without a chaperone.
"I've seen worse, if it makes you feel better." Iroh reaches out to hold her hand as they sit. She doesn't flinch and move it away like she usually did. Her hands were always cool, but not as cold as a water bender's hands.
"I'm glad we didn't manage to scare you off tonight." She tilts her head to look at him as they talk. The close proximity of her face to his reminded him of that one kiss they have had. They hadn't kissed since then, not unless he counted kissing her hand when he proposed or the chaste kiss near the edge of her lips just two hours ago.
"I meant what I said, I am not going anywhere." Iroh wished he could say something much more romantic, but romance has never been his forte. He inherited his father's ingenuity, but to his father's disappointment Iroh couldn't sweep someone off their feet without fucking it up.
That grand romantic gesture wouldn't have been as perfect as it was without the input of his dad, Jin (the playwright secretly in a relationship with Akira, who wears the word gay as proudly as he wears a rainbow handkerchief on his lapel), Akira, and even Kuei Young.
"My father's mistress, the person who kept on calling, is my ex-girlfriend. My father has no idea I am queer." She admits, as if he didn't know she was bisexual. They've had this conversation when lounging around in the observatory at Akira's house.
"The Jen family somehow got the White Lotus to ban me from visiting the South when I asked them for their blessing to court LuXian." Iroh replied, mentally kicking himself to saying it out loud. "I didn't see gran-gran until the White Lotus fired him."
Iroh has mentioned it partially that night at Akira's observatory drinking to the closure of the Gay Dragon. His new friends were mourning the closing of a bar that allowed them to be out of the closet for just a few hours. The word Gay had become slang for same-sex attraction and a blanket term for anyone who wasn't straight thanks to the bar's name.
It had been the first time in his life, someone didn't dismiss his sexuality with a 'you just haven't met the right person yet' nor a 'that doesn't make you queer'. Iroh doesn't feel sexual attraction the way the rest of his friends did, he only feels sexually attracted to those he has developed strong bonds.
Mimi had admitted having never felt romantic love but had felt romantic attraction very rarely and was afraid that whoever she did feel romantically attracted to didn't feel the same. This she had said from the other end of the couch they were sharing.
He remembers her blushing when they toasted to all the different types of love. It was then when his desire for her began growing slowly, but surely like the sand falling to the bottom of an hourglass.
"Are we talking about the same LuXian? Korra's former earth bending master -so great his Kyoshi Warrior guards think sunlight shines out of his ass- Jen LuXian?" Mimi asked ignoring the part where he was banned from the Southern Water Tribe.
"No, his lesbian body double, Kumi." Iroh answers sardonically and then adds." Yes, that LuXian."
Mimi doesn't ask him if he still loved him like his ex-girlfriend and former lovers did. She looks away blushing making him realize he was 'staring adoringly at her' again. Jin had complained about Iroh's inability to even downplay his feelings for the girl somewhat oblivious to them.
"Grandmama wanted to betroth me to him when I was presented. She wasn't satisfied with Hisa marrying Shu. The Jen family, being close enough to the EK line of succession, seemed like a great catch and Old Lady Meng did say I would marry royalty." Mimi leans closer to him and he puts his arm around her. Iroh has no idea when this became a reflex.
"Oh, really. The Councilwoman is an ambitious woman." He told her in what many consider his trademarked honesty. He half expected her to pull away, Misao didn't like anyone insulting her family.
"There is nothing wrong with being ambitious, so long as you achieve your goals fairly and preferably without spilling blood or violating human rights. Grandmama likes power and making sure that no one can threaten the Nakamuras or Shuhon, besides my parents fought her on that one."
"Oh," he doesn't hide his surprise at hearing her father didn't go with the scheme. Ichiro Nakamura had been pushing for the ultimatum that resulted in this hurried engagement.
" Daddy told her there was no way the Jens would accept a Nakamura of Shuhon Island and mama said she would kill him if ever made me marry a man who isn't at least sexually attracted to women." She said flippantly, as if the heir of the wealthiest family in the Earth Kingdom being queer was not a big deal. LuXian's family had been adamant in keeping that particular secret hidden to the point of ruining any potential happiness they could've had.
His first love had been a man, and Iroh was still queer even if the love of his life was the woman cuddling with him on the stone bench.
Perhaps when Korra becomes a full realized Avatar or sometime in his mother's tenure they could live in a world that no longer cares about whether you are the gender you are born with or the gender of the person you love.
"I'm glad your parents refused to follow with your grandmother's schemes." He says, wondering if that was an okay thing to say.
"So am I, but enough of family politics. We won't have much time left before we must return inside, and I'd rather make the most of it."
"I know what we could do." Iroh leans his head closer to hers and she giggles like she did at the Party.
Jen LuXian is princessofdarkness12's OC from her fic, The Tiger of the North. Thank you, princessofdarkness12 for letting me do this little cameo.
My inspiration for these two chapters was the Great Gatsby when Tom's mistress calls during dinner with Daisy, her friend Jordan and Nick. Except with more drama.
I also did a mood board for it, but for some reason it doesn't show up . It's on my Tumblr if you guys wanna check it out.