"It is nice of you to come, Lord Narik, such a shame your mother couldn't come." Xue smiles and pretends like he isn't her best friend's archenemy.
Izumi doesn't know what happened, but she'll find out later.
"My dear mama has to stay home and take care of father. She will be touched that you asked about her." Narik smiled, and Ikumi scoffed.
"So, what brings you here?" Fang asks him.
"I came to ask Princess Izumi for a dance. Lately her dance card has been full, and I was hoping I could get a dance or two before all the eligible young men snatch her up."
He says this and Izumi wishes Bumi had come to the party. After seeing the discomfort and outright loathing Ikumi has for him, she feels justified in her dislike of him.
"I believe you have to ask me and not my friends if you wish to dance with me, sir." Izumi feigns interest in him and drags him away playfully before she or Ikumi burn his stupid little mustache off. Ikumi's grandfather on her father's side was a combustion bender, according to the book on noble lineages.
As interesting it would be for Ikumi to have cultivated such ability -Izumi knows ten combustion benders and one of them does great party tricks- that would certainly ruin Xue Young's reputation worse than when Lady Bāguá said that her son was secretly a royal bastard. Little Kuei really was the bastard grandson of Hou-Ting's late twin brother, but Izumi would not dare to confirm Lady Bāguá's story.
"You should not consort with such women, your highness." Narik says as if she were his sister or someone who's opinion mattered to her.
"Whyever should I not. I grew up with Lady Ikumi, Lady Fang and Baroness Young, they're unconventional, but they're good people." Izumi defends the young women who do not think of her as mousy and boring.
"Lady Fang and Lady Xue are Earth Kingdom chits with no class, don't tell me you are not aware of our Hostess' little bastard." He sneers at their host who is talking with Toph Beifong over something Toph finds interesting. "Ikumi Nakamura is damaged goods, a lightskirt is not suited for a future Fire Lord." Contempt drips from his words.
Izumi wished she could punch him or burn him, but she can't. She is frozen in shock at seeing the shit spewing from his mouth. He mistakes it as her taking his side.
"I am afraid I cannot dance with you, sir." Izumi mutters and leaves in search for her friends. No that is a lie, she is looking for Bumi, who enjoys not having people shove their daughters at him and call him a lost cause behind his back.
Where the fuck is he?
Izumi wanders off the ballroom and into the hallway. Xue's mansion was big, but Izumi had been trained in stealth. She could find her way to the library.
To her great relief, he is alone. Smoking a cigarette and drinking liquor in an armchair by the window and in one of his bad moods. Well, he's about to get in a worse one thanks to her.
"Oh, thank Yue you're here!" Izumi says in relief closing the door behind her. She sits down in the chair in front of him and he offers her a drag from his cigarette. She takes it gladly.
"Narik being his charming self or did Mingyue spill punch on you?" he asks.
"Narik being a jackass and insulting my new friends in the same breath." Izumi answered rubbing her eyes as carefully as she can, so she doesn't ruin her makeup.
"Oh, the Narik vs Ikumi thing." Bumi winces as if the mere thought of whatever is going on between Narik and Ikumi is enough to sour his mood further.
"What happened between them? Everyone seems to know, but no one will tell me." Izumi leaned on her elbows on the little round table between them.
"Narik seduced Ikumi and she was sent abroad for seven months. You are a smart cookie, finish the puzzle." Bumi said.
"Oh, is that why she keeps trying to find reasons to go back to the Fire Nation?" What else could she say in response?
"Narik's family wanted to force marriage between the two, which apparently was their plan all along, but the Councilwoman is not such a heartless witch after all, at least not anymore." He took another drag of his cigarette and releasing a perfect smoke ring. Aang could use his bending to make shapes and entire little plays out of cigarette smoke, not that the Air Bender smoked. "Are you ready to go back into battle, Zumi?"
"If I go back, I think I'll pummel Narik and Lady Bāguá will have a field day tomorrow." Izumi grumbles and Bumi chuckles. He was free to leave, and no one would call him out on being rude to his hosts -except maybe Ikumi, Xue and Lady Bāguá-, but Izumi has to stay here for another hour or two and pretend that large gatherings of people are something she likes.
"We could go for a walk in the garden, if we get out through these perfectly convenient doors, we end up right in the maze." Bumi suggests as he puts out his cigar on the pewter ashtray older than his father.
"You, sir, are the single most intelligent man I know." Izumi laughs.
"Don't forget handsome, Zumi." He opens the glass doors and lets her go first.
"Never in a million years." She jokes, usually she'd say something like you wish or in your dreams, but the champagne has given her more confidence than Kya's pep talks in the carriage ride over here.
"I think we should get going, your aunt will send out a search party for you." He dodges her question and walks faster towards the library.
"You haven't answered my question, Bumi." She stops and refuses to move, and he sighs in frustration. "Why have you been in such a bad mood lately?"
Was he jealous that she was getting all this attention from his friends, or did he have another fight with Tenzin and Kya about the whole them being benders thing?
"I was told that I will never be General, that nonbenders are just 'not qualified enough for such a position' and Narik -who for some fucking reason was there- insinuated that I am only in the Navy because my dad is the Avatar." He admits kicking a pebble out of his way.
Bumi dreamed of becoming Grand Admiral ever since he knew he wanted to be a naval officer. The United Republic only allowed benders in the highest ranks and some benders believed all nonbenders to be weak, especially those with famous parents like Bumi.
"I'm sorry, I wish I could help you, but I think I would just make things worse." Izumi rubs his arm and blushes when feeling just how hard the muscle is.
"It's fine, I already knew I was aiming for the impossible when I applied as an officer, kid." He calls her kid and for some reason it kind of disappoints her. "Wait here." He says before running over to where a patch of clovers defiantly grows in Xue's perfectly maintained gardens.
"I wasn't sure it was a four-leaf clover until you lit your fingers and I figure you will need all the good luck you can get." He gives her a four-leaf clover that she'll have to get rid off before they get is allergic to clovers, Izumi remembers when Hou-Ting purposely gave her a salad with clovers when the young Queen invited Izumi to Ba Sing Se and Xue was still the Queen's Lady-in-Waiting.
Never mind, it looked like it the flower could fit in her locket, she'll just have to break most of the stem to make it fit.
"It's a good thing I brought my locket." Izumi opens the locket that he gave her for her last birthday and when she looks back up his face is close enough to kiss him in his damnable, kissable lips.
She needs to get over this crush on Bumi, he's made it clear he only likes her as a friend. Or does he have romantic feelings for her? The tiny flame in her raised hand sputters and Bumi takes her hand in one of his as the other reaches to lovingly caress the side of her face.
"You have no idea how long I have been dying to do this." He whispers just as his lips brush against hers.
That is when they hear Ikumi barricade herself in the library with a drunk Narik banging on the mahogany doors in the hall that connects it to the music room and the ballroom.