IV. Benefits
This state dinner should have been no different from any other state dinner. The Fire Lord would listen intently to the plights of various aristocratic factions and the Fire Lady would sit back and observe various internecine machinations that her husband hadn't the will to care about. Business as usual.
Only this time, the business wasn't so usual. Mai held her usual seat at his left, but the senior chancellor who usually set up camp at his right had been displaced by this evening's special guest. Lady Ty Lee was back in town for the first time in the months since the wedding. She was taking a short respite from her performance and public relations tour of the Earth Kingdom.
Lady Ty Lee was taking advantage of the break to visit her oldest and best friend. She was also, apparently, more than a little interested in using her left hand to investigate the contours of his thigh under the table.
The Fire Lord choked on his liquor.
Once he came back to his senses, Zuko's gaze turned to his bemused-looking spouse. He wondered, idly, which one of them would end up stabbed before this night was through. If he were a betting man he'd wager on himself. Fate took pleasure in his suffering.
Zuko's life had gotten a lot more complicated since he'd realized he was primarily attracted to people with the capacity to maul him. He still vividly recollected the conversation where he'd stumbled across that particular revelation. Oh, how Uncle had laughed and laughed.
Zuko hadn't found anything funny about it then and he didn't find anything funny about it now.
"Mai," he muttered under his breath, before grabbing his wife's hand under the table and guiding it to where Ty Lee was feeling up his leg. That was the only way he could think of to communicate his desire to live through the night without creating a scandal.
"Shush, dear," Mai murmured discreetly.
Zuko tensed. His wife only called him 'dear' when she was being dangerously ironic.
Mai motioned with her spare arm for one of the servants to fetch new bottles of huangjiu. Once the servers had finished distributing the new aperitif, Mai raised her glass.
"A toast," Mai said laconically. All eyes were fixed on the ordinarily taciturn Fire Lady. She rarely spoke at these events when she wasn't given a pressing reason to do so. The edges of her eyes crinkled with that Zuko had learned to recognize as amusement. "To my dear friend, Lady Ty Lee. I think that she'll be as good of a friend to my husband as she is to me."
The toast was duly completed, after which the table exploded into murmuring and gossip. Everyone was trying to figure out what political message the Fire Lady had been trying to send with that little display. Was the Lady Ty Lee being groomed for a position on the War Council?
If she was, Zuko would certainly like to know about it. He himself was completely in the dark as to what that had been all about.
Sensing his confusion, Mai rolled her eyes and shoved Ty Lee's hand further up his leg. The acrobat winked at him and then giggled into her wine. What kind of friend would…
Oh.
Ooooh.
Mai had told him that Ty Lee was something of a free spirit.
Zuko drained his glass and manfully waited for the dinner to end.
