Sokka was going to make Zuko laugh if it was the last thing he did. He'd told his sister, who had called him an idiot, then asked why. And the answer was simple.
Zuko had a massive stick up his ass, and that shit needed to go. It was easy to ignore during the war, but the longer he knew the firebender the more annoying it became. He was getting a startling look into how the more layback Aang, Toph, and Katara felt whenever he pulled up a schedule. Zuko was all his most strict character traits on crack, and the man never laughed. Sokka needed to correct that situation.
The perfect time had arrived to give his mission a proper try, too. Before this week, if was just telling jokes after meetings. Leaving funny things on his desk when he visited. This week, though, this week was special, because Zuko was throwing a peace festival. It was a week long party, where foreigners were invited that used to happen every five years before Sozin rose to power, where everybody would celebrate peace and good trade. Aang and Zuko had been working on it ever since Aang told the young Fire Lord about it, even breaking into sealed vaults to find information about the festival. Zuko had invited foreign dignitaries as well as all of his friends to stay in the palace, which went Sokka had time and potential allies to put into mission "Make Zuko Laugh".
His first recruit, Toph.
"Zuko sure is tense." The water tribesman said as causal as he could as he leaned back against the rock he was sitting in front of.
The Gaang had gotten there a day early to help Zuko finish set up, because they were awesome like that. Once the sun started to set, their resident firebender dragged them to one of the palace's many courtyards, where he had set up a fire pit for them to sit around like old times. He was alone with Toph because Zuko had been called away, and Aang and Katara went to help him.
"Duh, Snoozles, he's planning a festival. Sparky is going to have twenty foreign leaders staying at the palace. He has to make sure everything is perfect, or it will damage public and private relations with the world. It's a nightmare, like the gatherings my parents would have with business partners times ten." Toph rolled her eyes, speaking in that tone that she used when explaining rich people stuff to them. He was well aquatinted with it.
"I mean, yeah, but I'm talking about always. The closest to happy I've seen him is when using sarcasm, that self satisfied he gets sometimes, and that little he gets when he looks into middle distance thinking about peace." Sokka threw a hand out to gesture towards the middle distance before promptly realizing Toph was blind and putting his arm back. "It's unhealthy."
"Is this about your mission to make Sparky laugh?"
What?
"Katara told you?"
"Yeah, she thought it was funny."
Well.
"Oh. Well, do you want in?"
"Yeah, sure. Sparky could use some joy, and shenanigans could happen, so what not." Toph shrugged. "Do you have a plan?"
"Well… no." He admitted, and the look of disappointment that Toph sent to where she assumed his eyes were based on where he was sitting made him feel like he'd been punched. "Don't look at me like that-"
"I can't look at anyone, Snoozles."
"You know what I mean!" Sokka felt his face heat up with embarrassment. "Look, do you think you can get the others in on it? I haven't had any luck coming up with anything on my own."
"Yeah, definitely."
##################################
Sokka woke up to knocking on the door of the guest room he was staying in and immediately wanted to die. Did everybody in this hot house of a nation wake up at the creak of dawn? Agni might be Tui's brother, but he was a dick for wanting his people to wake up so early. He let out a groan to try and get the person to go away. The knocking returned louder, with yelling now.
"Open up, you Arctic Slug!" Came the frustrated caterwauling of his sister. Oh, shit.
He scrambled to the door to let her in, to find not just his sister, but Aang, Toph, and Suki.
"Hey, so. Toph spoke to you." Gesturing them into his room, which Zuko had taken pains to try and decorate for a Water Tribe guest with ocean and fish themed wall decorations and some navy throw pillows in the sitting area. His room had some cool swords hung up, because he was cool like that and Zuko knew him well.
"You really haven't made him laugh yet? You told me about that months ago." Katara criticized as she sat down.
"He's a tough nut!" He defended, and Suki, his precious battle angel, came to his rescue.
"He's right, I've been guarding here on and off for years and have never heard him laugh." Suki explained, earning a kiss from Sokka.
"Thanks, babe."
"Oogie!" Katara stuck out a tongue.
"Right, so you want to help?" Sokka tried again, though it was hard to really get a look at the group with his just barely awake eyes still very sensitive to the light rushing in the window. Spirits, it was so bright here.
"Joy should be experienced by all people, that's what this festival is about. Plus, Zuko had a rough time growing up, he deserves more laughs." Aang preached, twiddling his thumbs from his spot sitting next to Katara.
"I just want to supervise to make sure nothing goes catastrophically wrong." Suki said.
"That's my girl." Sokka grinned, patting her back. "So, any ideas? Because I'm running out of fire puns."
"I would actually like to put forward an idea that might help motivate us." The smirk on Toph's face was bordering between mischievous and evil and he wasn't sure if that was good thing in this cause. "I brought us together to prepose a contest."
"A contest?" Katara's brows drew together in confusion.
"Mhm. A contest, the first one to get Fire Lord Hotpants to laugh wins. The losers will carry the winner on their backs, through the halls, singing their praises, dressed as monkeys."
"I'm in." Sokka agreed admittedly fast, with the other nodding in agreement, eyes glinting with mischief.
"Ground rules for the contest are as follows: to win you need to get a full laugh, a snicker or a amused huff doesn't count; you can team up, but only the one who directly gets the laugh wins; If you tell Zuko about the contest, you face the penalty of getting buried to the neck in the ground for a yet to be determined amount of time."
"That sounds fair." Aang nodded. "It starts today?"
"Of course. May the best person win." The grin was back, and Sokka felt threatened.
#################################
Katara knew she needed to get help. She was all about the contest, not just because she wants to be carried around like royalty, but also because Zuko needed to loosen up. The days of her being in denial about her comedic abilities was past, and she could admit that she needed to help to win. And she knew just the person to ask.
"Uncle Iroh!" She greeted the old tea maker with a hug after Zuko had released him from a hug of his own.
Along with world leaders, Uncle Iroh was visiting for the festival. He arrived with on an airship that was also carrying the Earth King, his children, and the leaders of cities near to BaSingSe and some of their families. So right after releasing his Uncle, Zuko was bowing to the Earth King, who bowed in turn.
"Master Katara, you look as beautiful as ever." Iroh flirted playfully, a thing the that had started when she turned eighteen a few months ago and Zuko had pull her aside and explain before she killed him. The old man was just a flirt, and actual come ons were much more gross and apparent. It was just Iroh's way of regarding adult women. "The Avatar is a lucky man."
"Thank you, Uncle Iroh, how is the Su from the flower shop doing?" Katara teased back, as was standard in greetings between the two now.
"It's rude to treat a defenseless old man like this." He blushed at the mention of the woman.
"You're hardly defenseless, but you are old, so why don't I escort you to your room so you can rest before everybody heads to town later today."
"That would be lovely!"
"Katara, don't you want to greet the others?" Aang asked, fully confused, as King Kuei walked up, his pregnant concubine and young son trailing behind him.
"We have all week, it'll be fine."
"Master Katara has a point." Kuei nodded. "We really don't have to do all this, I'd really like an escort to our quarters as well, the travel is really very exhausting."
"I'll take you!" The Avatar volunteered with enthusiasm.
"And you got my specifications about rooming? Bosco is so picky." The man fussed before the bear trotted up the stairs and let out a roar that transitioned into a yawn.
"I've personally made sure that everything is just as you said." Zuko chimed in, and Katara just feel the anxiety vibrating inside him from where she was. "Nothing to worry about."
"Wouldn't want things to go wrong, would we?" The Earth Kings son mumbled under his breath, causing his father to sweat and everyone to look away awkwardly for a moment.
Nobody had been aware King Kuei had a son until the war was over, and the boy was found being held prisoner in the palace by Dai Li. Along with being told that he should probably learn about leading, he should probably also be spending time with his son and teaching him to lead. So, here he was, and the kid had chip on his shoulder about being ignored and then abandoned that only got worst with the new pregnancy. It was a trash fire that the international community was choosing to ignore out of courtesy and also because BaSingSe really can't fall apart right now.
"Come on, Uncle Iroh." Katara blurted, ushering him away. Iroh didn't argue, clearly wanting away from the awkward very badly.
"I'll see you all in a few hours at the festival! I can't wait to show you all some genuine Fire Nation foods, like you've shown me." Iroh grinned at the earth kingdom dignitaries, who he was certainly friendly with after the trip over, if he wasn't already friendly with them through his work at the tea shop. The old bender was over the moon when he started catering high class events, he sent messenger hawks to everybody he knew talking about it.
"I refuse to believe a bean filled pastry is better then classic Earth Kingdom tea cakes and cookies!" One called right before reaching Zuko to greet him.
"You'll be eating those words by tonight!" Iroh called as they walked off.
They walked to his guest quarters, marked with a green and gold nameplate reading simply 'Uncle', with the detailing of a dragon above the name. The fire bender turned to her, and smiled.
"So, what is it you want?"
"How do you know I want something?"
"You are incredibly kind, Master Katara, but you wouldn't want to be alone with me, let alone away from your boyfriend while he greets dignitaries, if you didn't want something."
"Okay, this is a secret, you can't tell anyone."
"A lotus can't speak, for it has no lips." Iroh said and Katara instantly felt dumb because, duh, Iroh is a head of a secret society.
"So all of us have this contest going on, to see who can get Zuko to laugh first. And I'm not exactly a comic genius, so I figured you could give me so tips. You've known Zuko the longest, you have to know something about his sense of humor." The explanation earned a giant grin from Iroh, eyes sparkling.
"Oh, what revelry! A delightful exercise, though I must say, you all have your work cut out for you. Zuko hasn't been much of a laugher since his training started when he was young. Even if he's more at peace now, he's still so cranky! It's a wonder how he fits so much angst in such a small pace." Zuko wasn't really very little, he and Aang (who recently has a large growth spurt) we're some of tallest men she knew, and Zuko has always been on the muscular side because of his intense training. "I don't know how much I can help you, though, Zuko was never fond of my jokes. The one time I saw him laugh since his banishment was when the pirates that were harassing us ship caught fire when they were sailing away."
"So irony, maybe? A dark sense of humor? I can work with that." She rubbed her chin. "And Zuko loves your jokes, he fails at telling them to us all the time."
"When he doesn't know what to do, he tends to imitate my behaviors, that doesn't mean he likes my jokes." Iroh paused in a way that let the waterbender know she was about to have a metaphor thrown at her. "If you are looking for where a fruit has fallen, looking at the tree is pointless, the answer lies in other fallen fruit."
"Uncle, please, I don't want to sort out a riddle today."
"If you want some real help, you should ask Lady Mai."
"Mai! She's engaged to Zuko, she has to know something." Katara grinned, pounding her fist down on an open hand like a gavel.
"Glad to be of assistance." He bowed. "I think I'm going to go take a little nap, now."
"Of course."
The Mai lead went nowhere.
"What do you mean, he doesn't laugh?" Katara pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Exactly what I said." The future Fire Lady answered, not blinking or reacting at all. "Zuko isn't a laugher. I get him to snicker sometimes, but from what you told me, this won't get you a win in this contest."
"Everybody laughs sometimes."
"The entire time I've known him, he's laughed three times, none of those were after his banishment. After that, it's snickers, smirks, lovey grins, and that far away content look he gets when he thinks about peace." Mai said, looking between her two outfits for the day. "Do you think I should wear the one with the embroidery or not? The embroidery one is more more fitting of the Fire Lord's betrothed, but I can hide more knives in the simple one incase anybody thinks the festival is good time is good time to take a shot at Zuko."
"Aren't you rich people supposed to have servants for things like this?"
"Zuko and I find it annoying, we like to be independent. We only have chamber maids help us with hair and clothes for the complicated stuff, or for special occasions." She shrugged. "Like they are washing my hair this week, and for the balls being thrown some of the nights they will be doing our hair and dressing us."
"Huh. Well, the embroidery is pretty, but we have no idea if it will be a day where Zuko is capable and can defend himself, or if he'll be a klutz." Katara considered before shaking her head rapidly. "You changed the subject!"
"I can't really help much. Zuko has a strong sense of irony, and his humor can be on the dark side. Your best shot at getting him to laugh is to relax him enough, but he's tightly wound. So good luck, I hope you all succeed. The world is an awful place, and Zuko's joy makes it better, so go for it. I just don't think you all can do it." Mai said, not looking at her. But she didn't need to look in her eyes to feel her sincerity. "Now can you help me? Suki is busy with guests, Ty Lee is away with the other warriors, and need girl help."
"Fine. Maybe we can find ways to combine the two outfits."
###################################
The festival was really something. It was great to see a Fire nation festival outside of the context of the war. In a peaceful Fire nation. They went to one the first time, they couldn't enjoy it. Now, now they can and it was sweet. The street food, the performers, the bright atmosphere, it was all vibrant and pulsing with the energy and drive the that nation was know for. The dignitaries were even having fun, or most of them were. Everyone was dressed in brightly colored, traditional Fire Nation festival clothing, but in the colors of their respective nations. Zuko had gone all out in his preparation, having his royal seamstresses work with a team of Caldera's best dress markers to craft outfits for all his many guests for the week. Water Tribe representatives in colors in various shades of blues and purple, at various lightness and darkness, Earth Kingdoms in greens, yellow, and browns, and Aang had been gifted outright a wardrobe of oranges and yellows.
Their Fire Lord friend had gone out of his way to have his friends outfits be extra custom. Katara's outfits, while being in Fire Nation styles, were all in light shades of blue and purple, with occasional darker skirt. Katara had decided to where her prettiest casual outfit on this first day, a light blue dress made of light, breathable fabric, navy embroidery depicting a water dragon, which Zuko had told her was a representative of the spirit of the nations largest river. Born of stories of the river eating people whole, ancient Fire Nation folk told stories where the river was a dragon. She loved it, it was elegant looking, but also threatening, and it was cut in a way that she was able to strap her water sack to her side in a way that still flattered her. He even had a fancy navy strap made.
The waterbender looked at Zuko, the young Fire Lord with his fiancé walking were walking with her. Externally, they were walking with her because she was the representative for Southern Waterbenders. The real reason was Zuko needed a break from shmoozing for a while.
Zuko himself was in bright red robes made of light fabric, with brilliant gold embroidery of a fire-y dragon. His hair was in half top knot, crown perched firmly in the knot. No big shoulder pads, or fancy jewelry, which Zuko was frequently forced into. Mai was in a robe just as red, but her embroidery was that of a duckbilled fire peacock, carefully layered with thin robe so she could carry more knives. He seemed relaxed as he tends to get.
So it was the time strike with some comedy.
And Katara was drawing a blank.
Why did Sokka get all the comedic ability? It wasn't fair.
From the corner of her eye she saw it, her golden opportunity. The ruler of an eastern earth kingdom region, Hu. Hu was a pompous Tiger-Walrus ass of a man. His region produced tea leaves for most of the kingdom, which meant he was stupid rich and he thought his tea made the world go round. Even Uncle couldn't stand him, because he talked down on tea from other regions. Lord Hu had been a pain in Zuko's ass since he arrived, whining like a child about minor things. His quarters were too far from the palace exist, not close enough to the King, the servants moved to slow. And it went on and on. He was also just not a fan of Zuko. He had provided tea rations for the army, and Zuko ending the war when he rose to power took a small chunk from his profits.
Katara knew exactly what to to do. She was going to win this before the others even knew what to do.
"Hey, watch this." The waterbender whispered, gently elbowing the Fire Lord for his attention while discretely bending stream of water from her side.
She silently bent a thin stream of water into a ball over Hu's fat head, she was looking in a different direction so nobody noticed it in the friendly chaos of the festivities. Except Zuko and Mai, who she had made aware.
"You wouldn't." Zuko whispered with eyes wide as he realized what she was doing.
"I would."
SPLASH!
Zuko's lips turned up and pressed together, joy flashed on his face- Katara was going to win in one! For a second she felt sweet victory, she hope the seamstresses Toph bribed finished soon because this was it-
And it slipped away like water through her fingers as joy was plastered over with anxiety and worry and Zuko rushed over to the now screeching Lord.
Hu was red in the face, head and shoulders soaked, demanding answers as to who did that, and Zuko, the good host, was going appease him. Damn.
"I'm so sorry, Lord Hu." Zuko fussed, quickly bowing in respect. "I can get you dry."
"I demand to know who did that!" The man seethed and Suko seemed to short circuit for minute. Which is how Katara knew Suko was about to lie.
"Kids! Must be kids. There's this new gadget that came out of the Republic, shoots water. Kids love it, use it play waterbender vs firebender. And the shoot adults. They are so sneaky, those kids, they are long gone by now." Zuko starts to ramble and wave his hands. He catches himself and claps his hand together. "Let me dry you! It will just be a second, but I need to focus." Hand went into the sign of the flame, eyes are closed and he takes a deep breath.
When Zuko exhaled Hu was surrounded in stream, dry now.
Katara did not know Zuko could do that.
"How did you-!?" The earth lord huffed in shock.
"I heated the air right around you. Just a quick flash, so there's no damage."
It was whatever Combustion Man did but smaller scale and closer. Could all firebenders bend at a distance with enough distance. And that freaky tattoo was like a focus thing to make it stronger? She'd have to ask Zuko.
"You could have killed me!"
"No! No no no, that's not-"
And they were off to the ostrich-horse races of arguing.
Katara saw her brother, eating an oversized kabob with a smirk on his stupid face. Smug bastard.
############################################################################
Aang was proud of Katara's effort. Sokka had told him about the scene he saw, and his girlfriend did a good job. A practical joke on someone who was a thorn in Zuko's side is a good idea, and the fact that his girlfriend pulled it off was impressive, given that she was… comedically challenged. It was good idea, it appealed to Zuko's sense of justice in a funny way. She failed to consider the fact that Zuko is hosting, though, and it had let her down. He was so going to win this! Air Nomads were brilliant comedians. Part of it was their ability to use their bending to pull elaborate fart jokes, but most of it was their traveling exposing them to many comedy styles. Sokka had been continuing to throw puns at Zuko, hoping the festival would loosen his hardened heart to the awesome night of puns. Suki went for physical comedy like Katara, setting a trap to trip a dignitary Zuko didn't like. Toph was laying low, enjoying the festival, which made him nervous. She was plotting, and he couldn't let her plotting her in the way of his winning. The pride of his nation was on the line.
Zuko was a tough comedy nut to crack. Whenever he told jokes was either some sarcastic wisecrack or a poor attempt at one of Iroh's puns. But he was also a very layered person who they found new things about all the time. Normally it was something horrifying, like the time he told them about the time him and Azula were playing hide-and-explode and she landed him the palace infirmary with widespread second degree burns. Other times it was cute stuff, like his love of animals. There were lots of times Aang wished Zuko joined them earlier, and this one of them because it would sure help if he knew him a bit better.
Mostly he wished he had a plan because now was the perfect time for a pick-me-up. They were at a banquet to cap the first day of festivities. And Zuko looked like he'd rather eat glass and die then be here, but in a subtle way. A Zuko way. He was surrounded by Fire Nation leaders, advisers, and what was left of the military leaders. Mai was his only anchor to the physical world, because Toph had disappeared somewhere, and Katara was trying to save her brother and father from themselves because they had gotten in some sort of dumb eating contest with the spiciest foods served.
Verbal comedy was mostly out, unless it's paired with physical comedy. Zuko isn't very reactive to puns. So something more physical, which means there needs to be a victim. Best shot was someone Zuko didn't like, which didn't narrow it down much as his capacity for anger and hate was almost as big as his love and compassion. It was long list, but Aang was pretty sure he knew who to get.
Advisor Aito, a largely unpleasant man who Zuko couldn't get rid of because nobody else was qualified to do his job. He advised the Fire Lord about how to run educational reforms. Which meant they fought like two angry wombat-badgers over a beehive. He was old and racist, and there wouldn't be anybody savvy enough on the ins and outs of the education system in the nation for at least another six years. His experience in helping trash the education system in the first place was very important to fixing it. Behind closed doors called him, quote 'A wart on the ass of a bastard Komodo rhino' and while he disapproved of the language, he agreed with the sentiment.
He was so going to mess with this guy.
Aang knew Zuko had to settle two disputes between him and a water tribe man, so some harsh karma could get him to laugh.
His soup arrived and the avatar knew what he needs to do.
He knew that you could bend with subtle motions with enough focus. It was very strong, but he didn't need it to be. Tapping the front of his foot to the floor with extra force. He bent two small pillars of earth to break the front legs of his chair, sending the wrinkly menace careening into his soup.
And there was laughter, from some nearby watertribesman, including Sokka, even some Fire nation folks. Mai was smiling, that was good as a laugh. Zuko's face did a weird thing, he clearly thought it was funny, but was containing himself.
"Eat much, wrinkly?" Sokka quipped with laugh, earning sharp look from his clearly amused father.
"Respect your elders."
"Advisor Aito, are you okay?" Zuko was fully in host mode, heading to help the man, Aang had lost this round. Monkey feathers.
"This blasted chair broke out from under me!" The man complained, looking over his ruined clothes. He turned a glare to Zuko. "One of the mud slingers you invited in probably broke it from under me."
All laughter stopped and Zuko went red in rage.
"Or it was worn out because it's been storage for over ninety years, because my ancestors, who you helped brainwash the public so they could take over the world, banned fun things like most festivals and banquets." The young Fire Lord grit his teeth, smoke pluming out between them. "One more. One more racist comment and don't care how much experience you have, you will be fired."
"Yes, Fire Lord Zuko." He acquiesced, glaring up to him. And Zuko glared right back.
"Fire Lord Zuko, deep calming breathes, tranquil ocean waves." Uncle Iroh peeped up from his seat next to Mai. He spread his fingers out in a calming motion. "You're smoking."
"I know that I'm-" Zuko started in a loud voice before sucking his teeth, and sitting down with a mumble that sounded suspiciously like 'fuck your ocean waves'. He took a deep breath, and looked at Aito. "Someone will escort you to your room to change."
And just like that a servant appeared and started to lead him away.
"For the record, if somebody did orchestrate that, that's fine. Nobody likes that guy." Advisor Kazue, who advised Zuko on agricultural matters. The advisor Zuko liked the most.
"His behavior is distasteful, the only saving grace he has is his absolute loyalty to the Dragon Throne." Advisor Hideo scowled in distaste. He was a pain in Zuko's butt, a racist, but at least he knew how to behave himself.
"It was really funny." Sokka said, stuffing a dumpling in his mouth before turned red and sputtering because he forgot how spicy his food is.
Even watching Sokka and Hakoda cry as their contest went on wasn't enough to recover Zuko's mood. He remained peeved the rest of the night.
##################################
"This is impossible, there was practically a slapstick show going on around him all day and he barely cracked a grin." Sokka complained loudly, slumping back in chair.
They were having a little morning meeting to discuss the contest, Katara and Sokka were a bit cranky between their utter failure and having to wake up early.
"Maybe you guys just aren't funny." Toph said as she causally picked dirt from her toes.
"Big words from the only person who never tried anything." Katara snarked with a pointed look, prompting Aang to put a hand on her thigh to try and soothe her.
"Uh, hello, earth bending master." The younger girl rooked her eyes before looking unimpressed in Katara's general direction. "I've formed a plan, and am waiting for the perfect time to strike. Neutral Jing, bitches." She threw up her hands like she just made a great point.
Aang wished Toph and Zuko wouldn't swear so much.
"Can you at least tell us about your plan?"
"When Koh's lair freezes over. This is a contest, Sweetness."
"We just have to keep trying, he will break eventually. Even Zuko isn't that stubborn." Suki asserted, but nobody seemed so sure.
And then there was a knock on the door, but before anybody could answer, it was opened and Mai walked in, dressed in the most casual clothes they'd seen her in.
"I don't have time to talk much, I just wanted to tell you all to lay off you're little contest for today." She said, not showing any sign that she felt bad about barging in.
"How did you even know!?" Sokka squawked, throughly shocked and off put. Aang swore he felt Katara tense a bit. Weird.
"I'm Mai, I know everything." Mai smirked and Katara un-tensed.
"And do we need to stop?" Asked Toph.
"Today is the Day of Lights, it's going to be a rough day, and he doesn't need to risk the backlash if a prank or bit goes wrong. I have to help my mother run the flower shop today, so won't be around to soothe him."
Understanding immediately dawns in Aang's mind. Of course the Day of Lights would be tough for Zuko.
"Day of Lights? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Mai is right, we should back down." The air bender said, before scrunching his brows up. "Don't you remember what it is? I told you all all about it when Zuko and I were planning the festival."
"Uhhh… yeah, sure, but why don't you explain it like we don't know anything." Sokka chuckled sheepishly.
"In the Fire Nation, when they celebrate the dead, they light floating lanterns, or send candles decorated with flowers and offerings out on the water. Most cities have their own festivals, celebrating soldiers fell in battle, since battle and fighting is so central to the history and spirit of the nation. During the Peace Festival, they would light tributes for those fallen in battle with other nations, not only on the Fire Nations side, but the foreign nations as well. To honor their sacrifice and remember why peace between nations was so important." Aang explained, tone heavy as his heart felt. "When the Peace Festival was being phased out by Sozin, the Day of Lights was the first thing to go."
Silence.
"Right, so just cool it for today." Mai broke the heavy silence. "And you, blind one, I hope whatever you are planning is good because last night Zuko was informed about your little visit to his father and he almost had an aneurism."
"That's where you went last night?"
Toph just grinned as Mai turned to leave.
##################################
Katara and Sokka decided to spend the day with their father, which Aang thought was great idea and endorsed loudly. Suki had guard duty for the Earth King's son today. Toph had disappeared again. So he was alone, which he wasn't super happy about.
He remembered the first and only lantern festival that he ever went to. It was while he was visiting his friend Kuzon, in his home town. They were celebrating an ancient battle that had taken place between two war lords. He had helped his friend decorate a lantern for the festival, as his town wasn't near enough to water for a candle offering. It was fun, but also somber. The young firebender had told him that he couldn't wait for the Peace Festival, because then they would get to make a lot more lanterns. Told him that he should visit then.
Aang never got to see that Festival, because he was frozen, and the War started.
His entire people fell in conflict with the Fire Nation.
And now he was alone. He wished he had taken Katara up on her offer to spend the day with her family, instead of denying it on the grounds of giving them space to deal with their personal tragedy of what happened to their mother and their people.
"Avatar! How great to see you!" Called the voice of Uncle Iroh from behind him, quickly followed by Zuko.
"Uncle, no!" He stage whispered.
Aang turned to see them, Uncle just as happy as his tone had indicated and Zuko was just as embarrassed and angry as his tone implied. The pair were dressed in a dark red, accented with white and gold. With white being a mourning color in the Fire Nation, from what he remembered, they were fitting outfits.
"How nice to see you, Zuko and I were just going to head out to get supplies for our tributes, would you like to come with us?"
"Uncle- Aang, I'm sorry, you don't have to come." Zuko looked dangerously close to blushing. "I'm sure Aang doesn't want to spend today of all days with the direct relatives of the man who ordered the genocide of his people."
"Actually, I'd love to tag along. Before I went in the ice, I was planning on attending the Peace Festival with Kuzon so we could make a bunch of lanterns on the Day of Lights. So…" The air bender twiddled his thumbs. "If you guys don't mind…"
"Come on, then, let's go. Fire Lord Zuko knows where the best stands to get lanterns and candles are." Iroh grinned as they pushed forward in the direction they were heading. "Perks of organizing the whole thing."
"If you are going to do this… do you have any ideas what you are doing?" Zuko asked as they headed towards the lantern stands. I'm doing a water tribute, for the crew of the Wani we lost."
"I'm doing a lantern for my late son, who fell in my siege on BaSingSe."
"I was thinking of doing five lanterns for the council of elders at the Southern Airbending temple." Aang smiled, but he could tell it wasn't reaching his eyes. "With a special one for Monk Gyatso."
"You've mentioned him… he was your mentor?"
"Yeah."
"You will need help getting all those done in time." The elder firebender said with a nod.
"You guys wouldn't mind, right?"
"We'd be honored. Maybe you can tell us a bit about the air nomads." Zuko answered with a small smile.
"Absolutely!"
Selecting their lanterns, candles, and paint was easy and didn't take long. After they were done, Uncle turned and gave a sly sort of grin to Zuko.
"Time to get flowers for your offering, Fire Lord Zuko."
"Uncle, I'm begging you not to embarrass me." The younger man complained, when Aang remembered.
"Mai works at a flower shop!" Aang joined Iroh in grinning at Zuko.
"Aang, please."
"You looovvveeee her!" The Avatar teased, poking his shoulder. "Love her so much you are doing a water tribute just so you have an excuse to see her!"
"Would you keep your voice down." Zuko hissed. "If the protect detail tailing us here's you, I'll never hear the end of it."
"You're engaged, why would they make fun of you?"
"Because… reasons. Let's just go to the shop."
Aang did shut up, which was difficult when they started approaching the shop and Zuko started straitening out his clothes (blown slightly eschew by some of Aang's regular antics), like a dork, so he'd look nice, like dork.
"Well, if it isn't Fire Lord Zuko, come to patron our little shop." Mai's mother smiled as they entered. "And the Avatar! My friends will never believe it."
"You distribute flowers to the whole island, I wouldn't call you a little shop." Zuko scoffed, rolling his eyes. "I'm sure your friends won't be even a little surprised, since I come here three times a month. And I've told you, you're about to be my mother-in-law, call me Zuko."
"I will not."
"What do you all need today?" Mai asked, finally entering their eye sight. Zuko's smile was small, but spoke volumes.
"I need some flowers for a tribute. Some blue, orange, and red."
"I think we have some beautiful blue flowers in the back that would be perfect." Mai's ability to fit so much sly energy into a such a small smirk astounded Aang everytime.
"I can help you look."
"What a gentleman, Fire Lord Zuko."
And the pair disappeared into the back.
"They get fifteen minutes, and then if they aren't out, somebody goes after them." Mai's mom shook her head, going to get flowers. "While I get the orange and red flowers, do you two need anything?"
"No thank you, mam." Aang said, bouncing as he followed her around the shop. "So, is it cool, having your daughter marry into royalty?"
"It certainly goes beyond our wildest expectations. We figured the best we could do was a landlord or another business heir."
"Now, don't be so unsure, if Zuko wasn't getting married for love, I'm sure Mai would have been a prime candidate for an arranged marriage to him anyway." Iroh doted.
"That's very kind of you to say, Prince Iroh."
Aang really didn't get rich people at all.
#################################
Since Zuko's wouldn't take long to put together, they were focusing on the lanterns. Six lanterns in total, with the work split between the three, two a piece. Aang had told them about what sort of colors and patterns to use. Started chatting and telling stories about the Air Nomads. It was a lot more pleasant then he could hope that it would be. Fun, even. He knew that doing this with Iroh and Zuko, of all people should feel awkward, wrong, in so many ways. But it wasn't. Because Zuko and Iroh didn't kill his people, and even at their most cruel he can't imagine them doing anything like that. There wasn't any honor in it. Shameful.
"I never knew you were such an artist, Fire Lord Hotman." Aang teased as he watched Zuko carefully brush swirls onto the lantern in vibrate blue.
"Calligraphy lessons come in handy sometimes."
"Master Piandao uses his calligraphy from when he was eight years old as example for his intermediate students. He has such a creative mind." Iroh complimented as he worked on his own lantern.
"Watching grown men fail to match up to a eight yearold must be fun for him."
"It is."
"So…" The Avatar glanced at Iroh's lantern. Yellow and green paints, earth kingdom colors, but he was brushing in a Fire Nation style, the most prominent image being a dragon, chasing its own tail around the circumference of the paper lantern. "That's for Lu Ten? You said he died in the siege?"
"Yes, it's the reason I released my devotion to war and embraced peace." Iroh got that far off look in his eyes and Zuko's face settled into a look of resignation that looked so at home it looked practice. "I had been conflicted for a long time. I couldn't bring myself to kill the last two dragons, and I was always a bit too calm for a firebender. As I traveled on my warpath, to try and make a good future for my son, I learned so much about the cultures and people I was trying to dominate. I started to empathize, appreciate their uniqueness. Even started to feel the starts of guilt, but I pressed on, for him. Lu Ten believed in the Fire Nation, and what sort of life would he have if I gave up? And then he was gone…" His voice caught in his throat, Zuko put a hand on his shoulder.
"When Lu Ten died… Uncle ran off to the spirit world to try and find him. It changed him. He went missing for sometime, which is when he joined the White Lotus, who he had meant along the way."
"Met?"
"King Bumi, as a matter of fact. He was leading a platoon on my conquest west, and saw something in me. In my demeanor, how I led my men. He shouted a cryptic message at me, and launched a Lotus Tile at me from across the field. After my venture in the spirit world… I understood. Was able to get in proper contact." Iroh smiled. "Bumi is quite the character. Told me once I'm the only man to ever make him retreat, use negative jing. And then he started chewing on his big toe."
"Bumi was always like that." Aang nodded. "He decided he was going to be my friend after watching me try and haggle lower prices for fruit. Immediately took me to ride the mail slide. One time he spent an entire day walking on his hands, still don't know why."
"Yes, you two are friends. How delightful."
"I'm just glad he's still around, most people from my time are gone, let alone people I met. I know benders live longer, but most benders would die in the war, or of complications from injuries they got, stuff like that."
"I'm half convinced that he'd staying alive based on pure stubbornness."
"Sounds like Bumi."
…
"So, Zuko, what happened to the crew you lost? Was looking for me that dangerous?" Aang asked to break the silence.
"I mean, it did get dangerous sometimes, but, uh… They didn't actually die under my lead, they died in the Siege of the Northern Watertribe. Zhao had requisitioned my whole crew. Four of the Wani's imperial firebenders and helmsman died. The firebenders were in the city when the sea spirit came through and they got caught up and drowned. My Spirits awful luck must have rubbed off on the helmsman because he was helping the navigation of the ship the ocean spirit karate chopped the top off of."
"Zuko…" Guilt swelled in his heart. He never really thought about it, but people must have died in his spirit attack. "I'm so sorry-"
"Don't. Don't apologize. It's not your fault. You didn't have full control of Avatar State and was merged with a vengeful spirit. Zhao had just killed the fucking noon, for spirits sake." Zuko sat his brush down, looking him in the eyes. "While I don't always agree with how much of a pacifist you are, because some people do deserve death, I'm glad you are who you are that day. Because almost anybody else would have annihilated the entire fleet and the entirety of my former crew would be dead. It's okay, Aang."
"Thank you, Zuko." Aang focused in on detailing his painting of a little sky bisons. "The Air Nomad genocide wasn't your fault, you know. So I hope you are helping me with these lanterns because you are my friend, not because you feel guilty."
"Anything is better then schmoozing with dignitaries." Zuko joked, picking up his brush again. Aang snorted out a laugh.
"It can't be that bad."
"I'd rather have the other half of my face burned off."
"Zuko!" Aang couldn't help but laugh, because was so messed up, and if he didn't laugh he might cry. "That's not funny!"
"You laughed." Zuko smirked, Aang retaliated by flicking paint at him. "Hey!"
Long story short, Aang and Zuko had a little paint fight. Their robes were ruined, and some flecks of paint got on Aang's lanterns, which he thought really captured the spirit of his people and pulled it all together nicely.
Aang had a nice day with Iroh and Zuko, and would realize just as he was going to sleep that night after the releasing of the lights that over the course of the day Zuko had seemed close to laughing plenty of times, and he realized that maybe they were all trying a little too hard.
##########################################################################
"Okay, so I've had some time to reflect, and we need to end this contest ASAP." Sokka said to the group as the group gathered once again. "Not that we should stop, I just really want to enjoy this festival Zuko put together. I have come up with a last ditch option, that will be enacted at the ball tonight if we can't make him laugh today."
"Last ditch option?" Suki asked, feeling uncertain about what her goofball boyfriend has conjured him up.
"It's simple, if he doesn't laugh by the ball, we whip out this." The watertribesman said as pulled out a bottle of dragon's fire whiskey and sitting on the table in front of them. "We just get him hammered, loosen him up, pry that stick out of his butt by force. This is the last ditch effort, because if Zuko is a particularly chaotic drunk, political relations might be damaged."
"One problem, Snoozles, Sparky's a royal who spent three years living on the sea. He's has to have a crazy tolerance level. We've been to plenty of events where he drank, have you ever seen him even get tipsy?" Toph asked, twirling a finger.
"Oh… that's a good point."
"The answer is obvious, Zuko can't resist a challenge of any kind. One time a servant brought her kid, kid got loose, found Zuko in casual clothes, and challenged him to a tree climbing contest. He was way too proud about beating a seven yearold in a climbing contest. Told him to come back when he can climb up the side of ship with his bare hands." Suki said with a smile, remembering the determined look on the boys face at the challenge and the dismay of the mother.
"A drinking contest!" Sokka snapped his fingers, on the same wavelength as her.
"I'm sorry, Zuko got in a what contest?"
"Whoever challenges him will probably go down, so they won't win." Ignoring Katara, Toph put forward.
"It's my plan, I'll challenge him. I'll make that sacrifice. Plus, Zuko isn't really into my type of comedy, so I'm probably not winning anyway. So I'll do my best to make it so one of you can win." The watertribesman threw himself back in his seat dramatically. Suki felt her heart flutter with affection. He was so cute.
"I had my own realization yesterday, and I agree to the plan and the reasons why it should be sprung, but I got to say… I think we are trying too hard. I spent yesterday with Zuko and Iroh, and I almost got him laugh by accident plenty of times."
"What!? Yesterday was a time out, Aang!"
"I wasn't trying, we were just hanging out." Aang threw his hands up in defense of himself. "I really think if we tone it down a bit we could do it. The blowback of some of the more extreme slapstick seems to stress him out, even if it does get him close to laughing."
"Aang makes a good point." Suki pointed out, having witnessed most of the antics herself.
"Today is the day, one way or another."
################################
Being on Zuko's guard duty gave her a special opportunity to witness most of the tomfoolery of the contest head on. It also made it clear why Sokka was so determined to do this in the first place. Whenever she was guarding him normally, he was pretty stressed when he had to deal with advisors and the like. And now that was doubled, but in a weird way that sprouted up randomly because the happy atmosphere did seem to sooth him, until it didn't.
So far Katara and Sokka were sticking to their dad, looking for the best street show they could find. They had a planned lunch with Zuko where they would try to make him laugh. Toph, seeming to be done with whatever prep work she needed for her plan, was tending to her own duties as Beifong and shmoozing with the rich business owners who had come from different nations to see the festival and presumable buy a bunch of crap to show how rich they are. Rough as Toph is, she will probably have a few good connections by week's end. Aang was bouncing around the city, goofing off and Suki was sure he would bump into Zuko several times.
Right now Zuko was walking with Mai, chatting with the water tribe ambassador to the earth kingdom, as they strolled up to a swamp waterbender who was doing this weird performance with vines. While it was going well, they both had run into issues with some of the same earth kingdom nobles, Suki knew from watching over Zuko that things could turn quickly.
And what do you know, it did. Because the ambassador said something about the swampy bender, and their bending being based more in the primitive Southern style. Zuko didn't take it well. He could take some snideness about the Southern Water Tribe in professional settings, when he went to the Water Tribes for political meetings. In this casual setting, he was bit more…
"The Southern style is… what?" Zuko said, gaze sharpening.
"You've been to the South, it's so primitive. It's bending isn't that much different. Devoid of the progress of bending in the North."
And Zuko looked like he was going to tell him exactly what he thought, so it was time for Suki to save him from himself.
"Fire Lord Zuko, a threat has been spotted nearby, I need to take you somewhere safe." She slide in between the pair.
"Of course." Zuko's face slide from anger to wide eyed caution, grabbing Mai's hand for safety. His safety, not hers.
She quickly led them away, down the street, around the corner and into a little knick-knack shop.
"Whats wrong, what's the threat? It's not some new off shoot of New Ozai Society again, right? Those guys are like weeds." He looked back and forth like an assassin might pop out of a ceramic turtleduck.
"The only threat to you was your own mouth, Fire Lord." Suki let out a long suffering sigh. "I know it's hard in more casual settings, but you can't fight the dignitaries and ambassadors. What he said makes me see red too, but we can't be starting crap."
"I know." The firebender sighing. "It's just so… ugh! Just like there is nothing wrong with advancement, there isn't anything wrong with tradition, as long nobody is really hurt in either case. The Southern Tribe likes their traditional ways paired with a democracy, and that's fine. I can't afford to do anything about all that shit they pull with the oil and reconstruction efforts because then it'd mean war between the Northern Tribe and the South, with the Earth Kingdom backing the North and the Fire Nation backing the South. So hearing that shit talk is just-" He breathed violently through his nose, starting to turn red. Mai laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Breath, Protector Lord, things will work out eventually." And Zuko took a breath and turned back to his normal color.
"Thank you, Lady Mai." He smiled, giving her a peck on the lips before looking to Suki. "And thank you, Suki."
"It's no problem, besides, I figured you needed a little break from Fire Lording."
"The festival is fun, but all the wooing is so tiresome."
"The Fire Lord is a wild man at heart, he'd rather wonder the world as a hermit helping people than kiss dignitaries butts, but alas, fate has different plans." Mai teased and Zuko got this smirk on his face that Suki knew meant some pretty gross flirting was about to happen.
"You forgot about my other favorite thing to do, loving you." He nuzzled her forehead with his, and she gave him a sly smirk back.
"Ah yes, Romance Lord Zuko, how could I forget? Wondering the world would just empty if you couldn't love me, would it?"
"Who else would keep me safe?" And they started kissing. Well.
"Hey, still here." Suki waved a hand. She wondered if she and Sokka were this gross.
"Sorry." Croaked Zuko as the pair jumped apart.
"It's fine, I'm just still in shock that sourpuss Zuko is a romantic type." She could remember getting that revelation early on in her guarding at the place. Suki had caught him trying to sneak off to set up a date in the catacombs. He had been carrying scented candles, a bag stuffed with scrolls and a blanket, and strangely an ancient dagger that was a prized heirloom of the Dragon Throne. She ended up helping him set it up. It was so sweet. Latter she would find out Mai is not a romantic, and the couple had an ongoing agreement about who much mushy crap Zuko could pull. For example, the marriage proposals was small and practical, quiet, but the announcement was a huge spectacle where Zuko got to pronounce his undying love and be as extra as he wanted to. They released armadillo doves and everything.
"It's not that bad." It was said like a defense, but it read as a lie. Zuko knew how bad he was.
"Zuko, you tried to write me poetry even though you have no affinity for wordplay or metaphors."
"Metaphors are hard to make up, Mai."
"Sure they are." She patted his shoulder and he looked indignant.
"You like the dagger, that was romantic."
"You get one point. One."
"Dagger?" Suki questioned, starting to get a little lost.
"Oh, you were training new recruits on Kyoshi when he proposed." The deadpan girl said, reaching for something strapped to her thigh under her robe. "Zuko proposed to me with this."
And Mai then pulled out the most beautiful dagger Suki had ever seen. The blade was dark and perfectly sharp. The handle was a brilliant gold, sculpted wit amazing details of a dragon winding down, surrounded by flowers, with a ruby in the dragons mouth at the end of the handle.
"Woah."
"Yeah, besides being beautiful, it's also well made. The gold is actually a gold alloy with iron and gold to make it stronger, and it's perfectly balanced." Her eyes glinted, almost smiling.
"Can I hold it?"
"Sure." Mai handed it over, and Suki handled it with care. She was right, this dagger was perfectly balanced. "The day Zuko proposed, I thought we were just going to have a regular old catacomb date. Sit down and have picnic, maybe get up to something on his ancestors graves, the usual, but then he pulls this thing out, and asked me to marry him."
"That's so sweet, in a creepy way." The warrior said, handing the dagger back.
"Just the way I like it." The other woman said, kissing her fiancé on the cheek.
"We better get going, the owner is starting to stare." Zuko mumbled with a slight blush.
#################################
So, it was lunch time and Aang had already almost made Zuko laugh on accident. He hadn't even known Zuko was around, he was goofing off on a roof for entertainment of the children of earth kingdom delegates and took a tumble. Zuko snorted and shook his head, close but no cigar. But now, it was lunch, and Zuko had insisted Suki eat lunch with them instead of hanging at a corner table, which meant she got both a front row seat to possible shenanigans and lunch with her boyfriend. A win-win by all accounts.
Watching Sokka try to eat with chopsticks was getting pretty funny. The Water tribes were just about the only nation to not use chopsticks, instead primarily eating by hand or spoon. Katara had adjusted well to chopsticks, but Sokka still struggled sometimes when he thought too hard about how to hold them. He never figured out how to use chopsticks to break up things, which was leading to increasing embarrassment for his father and sister as they watch a grown man grab a whole piece of easily broken up meat out of his ramen and trying to tear a bit off with his teeth.
"Son, please, just ask for different utensils, with all the foreigners in town they probably have some in stock." Hakoda looked like this conversation was actively aging him.
"I got this, Dad, I'm not a little kid." Sokka said, though it was barely intelligible because he was talking with his mouth full like a heathen.
"Sokka, gross!" Katara scolded with sharp eyes glaring at her brother. "You are the Ambassador to the Fire Nation for the Southern Water Tribes, we are eating with the Fire Lord. Even if the Fire Lord is only Zuko, you should mind your manners, we are with royalty. Right, Zuk-"
Katara didn't even finish her sentence as she looked at her friend for validation, she just hung her head. Everybody had been so focused on the spectacle of Sokka that they hadn't even noticed Zuko, who was tearing into a barbecued meat kabob with a degree of savagery that was less then befitting of his station. He paused mid-bite and blinked owlishly, noticing everybody looking at him. The finished the bite, and then spoke, covering his full mouth because he was at least slightly more mannered then Sokka.
"The meat here is really good." He justified, like he didn't have sauce on his face.
"That's what I'm saying, my man! Hit it, hot man!" Sokka reached out a fist that he just looked at with bewilderment before putting his food down and grabbing Sokka's hand slowly, like it was a door knob in a burning house and Zuko wasn't sure the fire was in the room he was entering. "No no no, you're supposed to hit it with your fist." The watertribesman tutted, shaking the hand off. "Try again."
Suki could see the flaw in Sokka's explanation. She would let him learn the hard way this time.
Just like she thought he would, Zuko proceeded to punch Sokka's outstretched fist as hard as he could. Sokka screeched like a dying barn owl-cat, holding his hand.
"Ow! Spirits, not that hard! A firm tap, you flamehead!" He was definitely starting to tear up, and his fingers were clearly broken. Unsurprising, given that Suki knew on good authority that Azula and Zuko both had freak strength. "You broke my hand, I need my hand!"
"You told me to hit it!" Zuko defended, though he did clearly feel bad and was also anxious at all the attention Sokka was attracting.
"You really should have seen that coming, Sokka. You know Zuko can be a bit literal sometimes." Katara sighed, drawing water from her water skin. "Let me see your hand."
"Can you save it?" Sokka sighed dramatically, and Zuko's guilt visibly disappeared at his antics.
"You just have a bunch of hairline fractures, one bad one. I'll be done in a minute." His sister rolled his eyes.
"I'm sorry about my son, Fire Lord Zuko." Hakoda said, calming down now that his son was getting treated.
"It's fine, I'm mostly sorry I broke his hand."
"Mostly!?"
"You aren't really much for social graces, are you?" The older man asked as Zuko started digging into his meat like that all didn't just happen.
"No." Zuko answered, covering his mouth again as his mouth was full. "I usually try a lot harder, though. Even though most of us at the table are important political figures, I figured it was safe to relax a little with you all."
"The Fire Lord is having a very long week, he can use the break." Mai said, more visibly amused than Suki had ever seen her. "Catering to rich folk and political leaders is dreadfully boring when it isn't infuriating."
"Yeah, I get that."
"This is what relaxed looks like on you?" Sokka asked as his hand was finished healing.
"Yes?"
"Was that a question?"
"… No?"
"Compared to how tight he with others, it is." Mai answered, trying to save her fiancé from his one of his best friends.
"That's so sad."
"Sokka!" Katara scolded.
"What? It is!"
Sokka was silenced by Katara's 'shut your big mouth' glare, but Suki knew her boyfriend well enough to know he was dwelling, plotting. The others were so wrapped up in food and discussion of cool street shows they've seen that they didn't notice, but she practically hear the wheels spinning in his head. And then then he acted, and even Suki was caught over guard enough that she couldn't stop a small laugh as Sokka stuck his chopsticks up in his mouth so they were hanging down like tusks, looked Zuko right in the eye and said in a goofy voice-
"Chopstick Walrus wants a smile from a cranky hotman."
"Sokka." Katara tried to reprimand, but it failed because she was trying not to laugh at her idiot brother.
Even Mai let out a huff that was close to a chuckle. Hakoda was processing.
"Sokka, what on earth-" Zuko was openly baffled, but he wasn't laughing. He had moved like he might have swallowed a chuckle, but no laugh. Suki was caught between amusement at her man and internally cheering him on to pull it through.
"Chopstick Walrus sees a sour boy who needs to sweeten up." Sokka was now fully committed to the bit.
"Sokka, I know I said this was a casual lunch, but your father is right here, at least try to act like an adu-" Zuko went from openly smirking at his friend to visibly trying not to laugh as he looked at Hakoda, who was sitting straight faced with chopsticks held in his mouth like his son.
"Father of Chopstick Walrus agrees with his son." The look on his face clashed hilariously with the ridiculous voice he put on.
"This is so stupid." Zuko wheezed, looking just as in pain as he did amused. That only made Suki and Katara laugh more.
"Chopstick Walrus-"
"Chopstick Walrus." Zuko parroted back in a mockery of voice as he stood up. "Is paying for his own lunch." He threw down enough coins for his and Mai's meals.
"But you said you'd cover it!" Sokka complained, chopsticks falling out.
Hakoda and Zuko agreed to split the bill. Zuko covering himself, Mai, and Sokka, with the older man covering himself, Katara, and Suki.
Zuko broke into a sinisterly large grin and said in mockery of Chopstick Walrus.
"Somebody's not a happy boy."
He grabbed Mai's hand and returned again to his regular tone.
"Let's go, Mai."
And they left.
"I have to go with him." Suki said, kissing her shocked boyfriend on the cheek as she got up to leave. Katara and Hakoda were still laughing at Sokka as she left.
Aang was right, they didn't need to try that hard. And Suki was looking forward to seeing how this would end.
########################################################################
They were definitely planning something. Mai could tell. She would have listened in on the meeting she was sure they had in the morning, but she had gotten a little wrapped up with Zuko so she didn't have the time. Now, they were helping Zuko and the staff set up the big ballroom up for the ball, and Mai could feel it in the tips of her knives, they were planning something. They were lucky her fiancé was socially awkward and also busy because they were giving off clear suspicious vibes. She knew this wouldn't be happening had she just been more helpful to Katara when she came, but she wanted to see how they would all fair. But it was hard to give their nonsense any space in her mind when she was finally in a situation where all the stupid lessons on being the perfect lady was coming in handy and as much she hated it, she couldn't really help it.
"No red camellias! The older war veterans will find them ghoulish for an event like this, and they are too romantic a flower otherwise. It's way too risky a flower." Mai shouted, feeling years of training on how to run a household when she wasn't being a doll kicking in full force. "Really, Zuko, what sort of hack florist did you hire? Why didn't you get my mother in here? These arrangements are terrible."
"Your mother scares me, and I thought that it would be a good sign of trust between nations if I hired an earth kingdom florist, but all the good one were too busy, so I went with a little one. I didn't think it was a big deal." Zuko huffed as he helped move a table with Sokka.
"My mother is a small middle aged non bending woman. And the person you hired was a hack, you should have been hiring months ago."
"I didn't know we were doing this months ago!" And Zuko dropped the table to put his hands on his hips. Sokka started to complain and a servant ran over to help. "And your mother is the former heiress, current owner, of the Fire Nation's nations largest flower distributor, and is the number one florist. Your already wealthy father married her for the money. She's the fourth most terrifying woman I've met."
"Fourth?"
"Toph, Azula, Katara."
"Understandable." Mai looked back to the flower arrangements. "Well, I'm going to send an emergency hawk to mother, and she's probably going to show up with the order, and it won't be cheap. I know she has the daffodils, and some Fire Gardenias will be good… and some hydrangeas in some warm colors…"
"Do what you have to." Her future husband sighed, and she knew he was calculating the price and how much the advisor to the treasury was going to scold him.
"Go Mai." Toph smirked from the side. "You are well trained, quiet and still when you need to, but fully capable of running shit when the husband can't."
"I know, right? It's awful, but all those dumb lessons should come in handy." Mai lamented as a scroll was handed to her and she was led to the nearest table to write.
"I know exactly what you mean, all those etiquette lessons are bullshit but sometimes it comes in handy. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have survived living BaSingSe without my training."
Mai almost smiled, Toph was always the favorite of hers out of Zuko's gaggle of friends. She really got it. When Zuko and her hung out with Toph it was a different vibe, because Toph was like them, just louder. Well, louder than her, Zuko was pretty loud sometimes.
"And I'm the scariest woman you've met, Sparky?" The blind girl smirked in the direction of the man in question with startling accuracy.
"A week after the war ended, when we were flying to some earth kindgom city for peace talks, out of nowhere you snapped your fingers, shouted 'look what I can do', held your arms out, stomped your foot and had the metal door wrap around you like a suit of armor. Which you then further used your metal bending to make look nicer and wore for the rest of the day. It was the second scariest thing I'd ever seen. You are blind as a badger mole, but you get around perfectly and have truth telling powers. Your whole existence breaks laws of the universe, it's terrifying, and why you're one of my favorite people."
"You got that right." Toph's grin was feral.
"Bring this to the royal messenger hawks, have it stamped emergency. The ball starts in two hours and these flowers are terrible." Quickly handing the letter off to the servant who brought the scroll over, Mai turned to look at the rest of the room. She was raised to potentially have to throw large events, though this would be much more joyful and vibrant then any event she was raised for, the preparations were about the same, at least in theory. "This place is dirty, after we get the tables and chairs in here we need to get it cleaned before any food or instruments are brought in."
"Yes mam." Zuko droned, passing her by with a few chairs in his arms, earning him a quick pitch of his ass. "Ouch!"
"Watch it, Fire Lord Zuko. I'm just going what I was bred for. All these stupid skills might as well be of use."
"Tone never rises above a respectable volume, but voice is well projected. The husband is scolded without breaking his personal lines of treatment, bravo!" Toph clapped her hands. "A solid eight out of ten. Half a point off for the use of the word stupid. One and half points off for pinching Sparky's booty."
"How can you tell I pinched him with your earth sense?"
"I can't, I guessed." The little dirt gremlin smirked. "But thanks for confirming it."
"Hey, can Zuko and Mai stop acting like a married couple long enough to actually get things done?" Katara complained loudly as she carried her own chairs.
"We aren't married yet."
"Details, details, use the freak strength you used to break my brothers hand to lift more chairs. If you were a better planner, this place would be ready already."
"There was no way to know how dirty this place was! The banquet hall wasn't nearly as bad."
"The banquet hall had been used in the last one hundred years, this ballroom hasn't."
"Hey, if we could back up for a second, Zuko did what to Sokka's hand?" The Avatar peeped, clearly trying not to lose focus because he was using earth ending to move the tables around to more general locations in the huge room so that getting them properly set up in those areas would be easier and faster. He was failing, accidentally bumping a wall. "Oops!"
"Aang, that table is older then you are by birth year, be careful!" Zuko scolded, ignoring the question asked because it embarrassed him.
"I'm super careful, why did you break Sokka's hand?"
"I didn't do it on purpose! He told me to hit his fist, I did!"
"Sokka, you know how Zuko is, you should have been more specific."
"I'm the victim here! He's the one who doesn't know what a fist bump is because his country outlawed fun, why am I the idiot!?"
"Because you've known his awkward self for years." Katara answered promptly.
"Hey, maybe we should be doing less talking and more moving." Mai said firmly, dying internally at how much she sounded like her mother. "We need to get done quickly so we can get ready for the ball. No casual clothes allowed, hair done, so let's get going."
It only took twenty minutes to get the tables and chairs in place so that the servants could get started on dusting and mopping. Katara would be back between doing her hair and getting dressed to bend any left over water off the floor so the band and catering, and now a florist again, could get in and finish set up.
"Thank you so much for the help, Fire Lord Zuko." The head servant bowed in respect, looking genuinely grateful. "Again, we are so sorry for being so behind."
"It's fine, I was getting tired of watching the street performers and nibbling on street food anyway. Plus, I needed to work off these fried cake things I ate earlier, so… no biggy." He shrugged a bit and bowed back.
"You're a Fire Lord me and my staff are proud to work under. Now, you should probably get along to hair dressing. Both of your hair is full of dust and ash." She would have never said anything like that to Ozai or Azula, but with Zuko? Zuko was very friendly with the staff, they loved and respected him as much as they feared his power, and was thus a bit mouthy with him. Zuko took it as a sign of respect, remembering working in the Lower Ring and how when he didn't like a fellow server he'd rather eat glass then tell them that they looked stupid because they had something on their face. If they didn't like him, they would let him walk around looking like a dirty hobo in a crown.
"Right." Zuko visibly restrained himself from brushing ash from his hair. There had been a lot of firebending performances in the streets today. He instead took Mai's hand. "To the Fire Lord's hair parlor, my future Queen."
Mai smirked as she bowed her head and they went off. The Fire Lord's hair parlor had two rinsing stations and was much more open and better decorated then the ones for other royalty. It was on of Zuko's favorite rooms in the palace, because as independent as he liked being, he really liked having someone else wash his hair in the peaceful environment of that room. It was a nice break for him. They liked to do it together sometimes, since the second sink is for the Fire Lady/Fire Gentleman.
They walked into the room, where two attendants were waiting in the wings, but the thing Zuko focuses in on was-
"Cherries!" There was a bowl of fresh cherries sitting between the two sinks. "A great pre-ball snack."
"I guess."
"I propose a contest." Zuko smirked playfully, plucking a pair of cherries that were connected at the stem. "I eat one, you eat the other, who ever pulls away with the stems, loses."
"What does the winner get?"
"Winner gets to pick what we wear to the ball." Zuko answered, putting one of the cherries between his teeth and holding it there.
"All these performances have you in such a silly mood, Fire Lord." She deadpanned taking the other cherry in her mouth anyway. They were nose to nose, so close that Mai could smell the barbecue from earlier on his breath. In the corner of her eye, she saw Zuko counting down on his fingers, and she prepared to pull away-
###################################
Mai didn't know what her future husband's friend were planning, but as she adjusted her brightly colored robes, she hoped it would be something that would embarrass Zuko later. That dramatic, extra asshole had them in a matching pair of red, orange and yellow garments, with elaborate golden embroidery. Perfect for the ball, and perfectly obnoxious. As a man, his were shorter and over dark red pants, but as a woman, hers were gaudy all the way to the floor. Zuko said she looked radiant, she told him what she thought about that.
He was about usher in the beginning of the ball, which was to begin with a bending display by the Avatar and all his teachers, going in Avatar order starting with Aang and ending with Zuko. Zuko had been been practicing for some time, since his act required him to hold alcohol in his mouth till the grand finale.
Today was all about the bending arts of nations, so it only made sense.
Aang was ushered on stage with four big jars full of colorful flower petals. While Zuko was going to tell a story, as was custom in many Fire nation bending arts, Aang was focused on spectacle as was custom in with Air Nomads.
Now, Aang had chosen red, orange, yellow, and light blue flower petals as those where colors of his people, so he did ultimately choose a flame motif in his air bending. Carefully keeping four streams separate to form dancing flames of beautiful cold fire. As suddenly as the flames were dancing, they soon collided in a swirling mass of colors that and the Avatar would blow out over the ball room, letting petals fall over everybody as the grand finally. Mai is honestly surprised the kid didn't use the opportunity to try and get a laugh from Zuko again, since humor wouldn't have been out of place, so whatever they were planning must be something.
Katara was up next, and is was the one she was looking forward to most. Zuko and her were in agreement, waterbending was the prettiest bending. Fire was a little too bright to be beautiful like water. The waterbending performance started with four new jars being deposited onto the stage and four watertribesmen in traditional garb, one of whom Mai recognized as Chief Hakoda's right had man… she couldn't remember his name, something with a B, each with a large drum made of carved driftwood and animal skin. Zuko and Uncle Iroh used their bending to dim the candle light in the room, which signaled the men to begin pounding away on the drums and Katara to start bending with fervor to match the intensity of the the drums.
She started with swirling whips and quick movements, the water reflecting the dimmed candles gorgeously as the they swished around. Suddenly as the frantic pace started, it slowed, the drums getting quieter and slower in pace, Katara's bending became slower and more deliberate. Whips transformed into dozens of generic looking fish that began to 'swim' out in the crowd. Mai wondering if they put glitter in the water to make it shine better in the dimmed lights because they looked stunning as they dashed and wiggled in the crowd. The drum picked up, and the water fish split into the two groups, one with that swirled around Katara and became a stream, and the second began to school above the crowd. The drumming got faster and faster, getting so so loud you could feel it in your teeth, as the stream around Katara turned into a giant toothed whale whose species she couldn't recognize that sprang forward with mouth wide open. As the open closed the drums halted and the lights all went out abruptly.
Zuko and Uncle set to lighting all the candles as everybody gave their applause and they quickly started the set up for Toph, who was telling a story like Zuko. Her version of the tale of Oma and Shu. Now with more badger moles. The figures for Oma and Shu were vague, but everything else was very detailed. Toph was clearly trying to include elements she was familiar enough with so that she could replicate them. Smart. She was also having someone read the story aloud, like Zuko was going to do.
Mai started to get bored halfway through and started to scan the room, which was when she saw Sokka try and hide Zuko's favorite brand of fire whiskey behind a curtain with his sister trying and failing to cover for him. And it clicked.
That gaggle of idiots were going to try and get Zuko drunk to make it easier to get him to laugh. It was so simple and stupid that it just might work. Mai knows that she should probably be concerned and try and stop them but she wants to see if it works. She'd never even seen Zuko get more then mildly tipsy, it could be interesting.
She would look out for him, though, make sure he didn't do too much damage depending on how trashed he gets.
Time came for Zuko's performance, a telling of a Fire Nation spirit tale about the Agni, Tui, and La. He announced his story with very practiced flourish and took in a mouthful of sake, starting his bending. A teller read the story. At the beginning of time, there was only the great spirits, amongst them were the siblings, Tui and Agni. The Moon and the Sun. Twins, Agni the older and Tui the younger.
Zuko bent a koi fish and a dragon, dancing side by side, as the story went on to tell how Agni taught Tui to dance. Then the two animals shifted to human forms, and Zuko bent a third figure into existence. La, the ocean spirit. La was the only spirit with which Agni didn't get along, because her waters smothered his warmth and light on earth. Even his collaborative work with the great earth spirit, Jian, lava, wasn't any use against her ocean. Unfortunately for Agni, La and Tui well in love at first sight.
Two koi swam in circles, dancing together as a dragon raged in the distance. Zuko took a careful breath through his nose, making sure to not breath in any of the alcohol in his mouth.
Tui and La decided to live on earth.
The Koi dive down to the stage and disappear in a splash of flames.
Agni, in despair of having his sister taken, rages, causing massive eruptions of volcanoes below the ocean waves that lasted for years.
Zuko spun the dragon around him, before thrusting a fist forward, sending in front of him. He spits the sake, fueling the Fire into a giant dragon of rainbow flames before disappearing in a poof of sparkles.
"And that's how the Fire Islands came to be." Zuko announced and gave a flourished bow.
The crowd clapped and cheered, the children present oohed and ahhed and tried jump up to catch a sparkle as they fell and disappeared.
The ball started in earnest now, with Zuko being swept up immediately to dance with Aang no matter how much the Fire Lod tried to protest. Mai was fine with it, though, her and Zuko had discussed the shmooze plan for the ball. She would handle lady leaders and wives, he'd handle male leaders and husbands, they'd meet periodically for breaks and keep an eye out for each other. They were going to establish good relations with the nations if it killed them, and it just might given their subpar social skills. He so owed her for this, but she didn't really think he minded that either.
Girl talk was so tedious, it was why she preferred the company of Azula and Ty Lee growing up. They spent as much time practicing combat and discussing world domination as they did talking about boys, clothes and makeup. Not that she didn't like those things, she wanted to look as fierce as she was, but it was so boring to talk about. The only bright spot in a night full of hearing haughty rich women prattle about the newest thing they got was watching the Avatar's gaggle pull bar sleezeball antics to try and get Zuko drunk. Every time Zuko took his eyes off his wine, one of them poured more into it, if he finished it, they slide a new one in his hand. If she didn't know their end goals, she would be concerned, but since she did it was just funny in itself. The fact that it wasn't working, because Zuko had been allowed to drink wine with dinner since he was a child just made it better. Whatever plan they had, Sokka was clearly the one going down for it, because as the night went on, and Zuko remained unfazed, Sokka seemed to sink into dread and also switched from white wine to a cider.
It would probably really go down once they got to that time where all the dignitaryies's children and the buzzkills went to bed for the night, and vibe of the event went from ball to after party.
Two other highlights ended up being the Earth King's son playing an instrument in a new style that had popped up in the republic, which was scandalous to all the Earth Kingdom royalty except his father and King Bumi, and the Earth King trying to dance with his very pregnant concubine. That family was a mess, and she loved it. If Kuei was a bit more competent, Mai might be able to like him.
At the half way point, Zuko starting bribing the band to play slow songs, because their agreed upon meeting times were slow dances, so they could relax together in a way that didn't make them look like the antisocial weirdos they were.
"Does the Treasury Advisor know you are exceeding your monthly bribe allowance so you don't have to talk to people? That money is supposed to be for buying the silence of people your father antagonized." Mai smirked up at him, her arms draped over his shoulders, voice low.
"The Treasury Advisor can suck it." His hands were on her hips and his face was buried in her elaborate hairstyle.
"Awh, play nice, Fire Lord."
"Fuck that." Mai snorted at the language, and almost snorted again when she saw from the corner of her eye Sokka refilling the wine glass Zuko had sat down.
"It can't be that bad, you have your friends with you."
"They are chaos gremlins, sent to cause disarray wherever they go. Except Katara and Suki, but Katara is on thin ice after that thing she did a couple days ago."
"You love them."
"Doesn't make me wrong." He muttered darkly. "I'm sorry you're stuck doing this. I know you hate events like this, having to do the whole affluent wife/fiancée thing."
"Just another way to serve my country." She joked, and he let out an amused huff. "Besides, all that training might as well come in handy. Plus, I'm learning a lot about Earth Kingdom fashion and court manners."
"I'm so sorry."
"It's fine, Fire Lord Zuko."
"After the festival, I'm going to arrange an afternoon where we can just practice with our weapons, and watch the sunset with a picnic. Just us, okay?"
"Sounds beautiful, thank you."
The sound ended, the couple parted with a kiss, Zuko putting on a smile as he greeted a prominent Water Tribe military leader and had his drink put back in his hand. Mai was back with the peanut gallery, who were discussing the newest trends with shoes.
It was only about fifteen minutes after the children and the boring filed out and off to bed that she heard the voice of Sokka echo out across the ballroom.
"I challenge you, Fire Lord Zuko, to a drinking contest! Face me or your pig chicken shit!"
Zuko looked as offended as he did annoyed, which she knew meant he was going to do it.
This was going to be good.
################################################################################
The parts of Zuko that knew a drinking contest was a bad idea were drowned out by the parts that wanted to make Sokka eat his words.
"You're on, Water Tribe!" He called back before gulping down the rest of his wine.
"You're going down, rich boy." Sokka smirked, whipping out a couple bottles of his favorite whiskey. Great, this would be fun.
"Not before you, peasant boy." The speed at which Katara and Aang set up the table should have been suspicious, but Zuko was quickly getting swept up in his healthy male competitive spirit.
Zuko drank plenty on the boat. Not in a concerning way, at first it was pain treatment for a fresh burn, then it was just because there was nothing to do between Avatar leads and boredom was a killer. Plus the crew were really bad at hiding their stashes. Except Uncle, Zuko could never find Uncle's sake, and he knew he always had some to pass around on music nights. The crew never suspected him of grabbing the stashes, either. He was that good.
He also doesn't think Sokka knows that firebenders tend to have higher tolerance for substances, something about running hot and crazy metabolisms. Fool.
"Down the hatch." Sokka said before downing his shot and crinkling his nose a bit at the strong taste.
"Too strong?" He shot his no problem. He was sure he looked smug, because Sokka got flustered and did two shots quickly.
"No." The younger mans voice betrayed him a bit.
"Good." Zuko did two in turn, so they were even.
"This is strong, though, you feel that?"
"Sokka, three shots of whiskey was pain treatment for my fresh burn when I was thirteen." Zuko rolled his eyes, taking another shot to challenge Sokka to keep going, which worked.
"I'm sorry, you drank what when you were thirteen?" Hakoda asked, before looking to Iroh, who was nearby with Mai watching the chaos. "You let him do that?"
"Only until he was comfortable enough around burning things to smoke his medicine, which took a couple weeks." Uncle said with causality that Zuko thought was okay, but apparently it wasn't because the other man looked shocked.
"Smoked?"
"The plants are less effective in teas, and taste terrible, smoking is a better method. Our resources were limited, being banished and all. The creams could only do so much." Iroh shrugged. "I think he liked the whiskey more, though."
"Those herbs tasted like a shriveled bird asshole, Uncle, of course I preferred the whiskey."
"Why can't we do anything without tripping and falling over your trauma?" Complained Sokka, who then took the fifth shot.
"I don't know, blame Ozai, it's what I do." Zuko shrugged, taking his. He was starting to feel it a bit now, numbness coming for his lips and the tips of fingers, but he was still together. Sokka was blinking, like his vision was fuzzing and that would help at all. "Having tr- trouble, Sokka?"
"You wish." His words beginning to slur, and Zuko felt giddy.
"Then here, let's do another." Zuko lifted a shot like a toast, which the other man did in turn. They drank at the same time.
"What kind of creature are you?" Sokka was definitely slurring now.
"A royal fire bender."
"Otherwise known as the best drinkers in the world." An Earth Noble said, clearly nearing drunkness himself. "Legend says that early in his reign, Sozin won land in a drinking contest with a noble still friendly with him as he'd only taken a few towns at that point."
"It was just a tiny village, he was more mayor than earth noble." Zuko waved a hand. "Plus, that was fortified wine, not even proper liquor."
"Zuko, what the fuck?"
"What? They are a part of the Republic now."
"You never told us you literally come from drinking legends?"
"It seems pretty obvious if you think about it." Uncle remarked. "Why would he have to tell you?"
"Don't get distracted, Sokka." Zuko said, feeling the numbness creep further as he grabbed and took another shot. The younger took another, too stubborn to stop.
It only took three more shots for Sokka to sit his head on the table. Zuko was bit numb in his extremities, and parts of his face, and he felt a bit… silly and goofy, mood-wise. But was fine.
"Son, maybe you should tap out." Hakoda suggested, gently putting his hands on his son's shoulders.
"Never." A hand reached up for an already filled shot.
"It's over, Sokka." Zuko said, taking one last shot as the other spilled the drink he'd grabbed.
"I was bamboozled." His head remained down.
Bamboozled was a funny word. Bamboozled. Bam-boo-zled. Ha.
"Hey, Zuko, have I ever told you about-" Aang had come up to tell him about something but-
"Hey, Lord Sparky, look over here!" Toph's voice rang out, and while it took a second, he did look over to the young earth bender where- she had cleared out an empty area?
Toph's smile got really wide and feral, and she stopped her foot, and what rose from the ground was the best thing he'd ever seen.
A giant stone statue of a Komodo Rhino, and on each butt cheek, separated by the tail? His father's face, cross eyed and dumber looking than Zuko had ever seen him.
He couldn't help it, he burst into laughter. Loud, full bellied, close to hysterical laughter. Laughter that made Zuko lower himself to floor for safety.
"Oh- m- hahaha- my-" Zuko wheezed, curling up on the floor. "Th- that's perf- ehehehehaha! Perfect!"
"Thank you, thank you." Toph bowed. "I'll be here all night."
Zuko couldn't stop laughing, he was already in a happy goofy mood, and the image was just- too perfect.
"How do you even know Ozai's face?" He heard Katara ask, but he couldn't see, because Mai had started to crouch next to him.
"Paid him a visit. Same with the rhino. The things I do for the sake of comedy."
"Alright time to wind down, Fire Lord." Mai commented.
"Ma- ahahaha… make it go aw- hahaha-" More wheezing.
"Toph."
"Got it."
The sound of shifting earth.
"It's gone." She started to rub his arm, and Zuko felt himself coming down from his laugh high.
"That was the best thing ever."
"It was pretty great." Mai smiled, and Zuko felt his brain forcefully derail from his father's face on an ass, to how fucking gorgeous his fiancé was.
"You're so pretty." Zuko felt himself say on impulse as she helped him up.
"I know that." His impulses had full control, he was hugging onto her now, burying his face in her hair.
"I love you so much."
"I know."
"I- I'm going to marry the fucking shit out of you." He felt her chuckle against his chest.
"You are?"
"Yeah. And your knives? Sexy. You could stab me, and I'd thank you."
"I know, Zuko."
"I'm drunk."
"I know."
"I don't know how much I've drank tonight."
"I know."
"I haven't gotten this drunk since I was thirteen and drank all of Jee's whiskey stash at once."
"That was you!?" Uncle Iroh yelled. "We had a private swabbing the deck for a week for that, Fire Lord Zuko!"
"Oh shit! Uncle heard me!" Zuko tried to hide behind his future wife, but alas, he was too big.
"Because you're speaking really loud, Zuko."
"I am?" Zuko lowered his voice to what was probably a stage whisper? Maybe?
He was maybe worse off then he thought.
"Fire Lord, if you are done with the Watertribesman, maybe you'd like a drink with me?" King Kuei asked, lifting a drink. "Looks like you are ready for a party now!"
Fuck it.
"Sure, why not."
###################################
The sun was really bright, was the first thing Zuko noticed when he woke up. It was only peaking over the horizon, but it was bright as it ever was. Next, he noticed he was in bed with Mai, arms rapped around her, leg resting on her legs. He then decided to snuggle in closer when the rest of his sensations came back and he noticed his headache, sore stomach, and how irritated his scar felt. The hangover was expected, but he must have been too blasted to do his nightly scar treatment, and now it was even more uncomfortable then it would normally be. If he didn't get up and treat it soon, his skin would get even tougher, probably split and crack, and be more painful, but Great Spirits, he didn't want to move.
All his foggy brain was putting forward was that works was cold and hard, but Mai was warm and soft. He decided to listen to that part… but he could only last so long before he started to rub his face against Mai's face to try and sooth his itchy scar.
"Zuko, rubbing is still scratching, you know you can't scratch your scar or you'll make it worse." Fuck, she's awake.
"No, I'm not. You're asleep, this is a dream."
"Zuko." Oh fuck, oh shit. She's disappointed.
"It's so much more itchy than normal."
"Because you didn't treat it last night." Mai started to dislodge herself from him, which only made Zuko try and keep her in place. "Zuko."
"It's cold in the morning, I need you for warmth. My head hurts."
"I'm going to get the things to treat your scar, you want your scar to not get worse, don't you?"
Zuko let her go.
"You don't really have to do this." Sighed the Fire Lord as he felt himself resign to getting up. "You are going out with your mother and little brother today, right? I wouldn't want you to be late. The letter I'd get from your mother just might turn me to ash."
"You know as well as I do if left my fiancée, who is the Fire Lord, in a state like this, my mother would throw me in the ocean."
"Good point."
"Alright, I need your help figuring out what extra needs to be put in here to help with the discomfort from missing a treatment." Mai strolled back over to the bed, arms full of jars of herbs, creams, oils, and a mortar and pestle. "Son of Ursa, help me."
Zuko rolled his eyes, an action he regretted immediately when the motion made him nauseous. Towards the start of reign, when he was having a bad time, especially with his mental state, the Avatar suggest he get in touch with his mother's side of the family and learn about them. How Aang knew about his lineage is a mystery, since Zuko hadn't told him, but he still did it. It turned out Ursa came from a long line of herbalists. It was probably how she killed Azulon, he thinks. It turns out, Avatar Roku only ever met his wife because his wife's family was taken as the new royal herbalists after the last family died out. She had been in training to take over until she met Roku. So, Zuko got a little fixated on learning about herbalism and the uses of plants and flowers. Mai liked to tease him, saying she knew all the symbolism of plants, and he knew all their uses. Ironic, giving how into the steel they both are.
She sat down on the bed next to him, sitting the mortar on her lap and everything else aside.
"Alright, it needs dried dragon's mane dandelion, right? Which is that?"
"That one." He pointed to the jar of small dried yellowish brown petals. "Only a big pinch full. The smell is terrible, though, so you should add in more pleasant fragrant herbs to cover it. Those are my favorite." He pointed out two more jars, which Mai sat aside.
"Now, the jasmine oil goes in before or after I mix this into your ointment?"
"After, and go easy on the oil. I don't want to walk around horny all day."
"That's a wives tale, jasmine oil isn't an aphrodisiac."
"Is so."
"Fine, only a few drops." And she started grinding the herbs up. The sound was grating on his ears, and the smell of the plants was making him queasy. She seemed to notice. "I'll tell the staff to get you ginger tea with your breakfast when I leave."
"Thank you." He felt his heart flutter as he watched the knife thrower grind the medicine up. The new sun was streaming in the window, and even though she hadn't brushed her hair, it still seemed to glow with the early light. Plus she looked so focused, and Zuko always thought Mai looked gorgeous when she was focused. "I love you."
"I know, you told me that a lot last night." She looked amused, and he was struggling to remember much after drinks the Earth King.
"How bad did it get?"
"Don't worry, your political ties are safe. A lot of them might be improved a bit. You did start to get a bit handsy and lovey dovey with me, though."
"I'm so sorry." He can easily imagine the sort of nonsense he said or did, and it made his head hurt even worse. "I didn't mean to embarrass you."
"It's fine, Fire Lord, it was a party. You get to have fun once awhile too. Plus, I embarrassed you right back. I got you to recite that horrible poetry you wrote early in our relationship. Then you started riffing." Mai smirked, and Zuko felt his face heat up.
"No…"
"Hair of Charcoal Diamonds."
"No!"
"Lily made of knives."
"Spirits." He ran a hand down his face. That sounded like him, alright, but he couldn't help but ask himself why he'd do that. Stupid… him.
"Everybody loved it." She finished grinding, opening up his scar ointment and using two fingers to take a massive scoop out to plop in the mantle to mix together.
"I'm sure the did." Aang in particular was probably very entertained.
"You also asked Toph to make you mini version of that statue she made."
"Really?"
"Right there." She nodded her head towards the bedside table, where he finally noticed to little statue and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Oh, Spirits, it's so great. I love it. I guess that's why she visited Ozai. I hope she made learning his face as uncomfortable as possible."
"I'm sure she did. It's Toph, after all." Mai grabbed his chin and tilted his head so she could get clear access to his scar. She looked at him for permission to touch his scar, he gave equally silent consent.
Her fingers were so much smaller and softer then his, it made her applying the cream feel so good. Zuko's hands were callused from bending and sword fighting. He could get them treated, be he didn't really feel like it, and he was always so busy. Mai was the same way, but she only had small amounts of callus on her thumb and pointer finger from knife throwing.
Zuko felt the medicine sink down into his thick, damaged tissue and sooth the frayed and damaged nerves. Hydrating the tissues so it would less tough and more flexible. Having to treat his scars was a pain, but the relief was so nice. It didn't take long for Mai to finish his face, she had done this for before, when he was sick.
"Alright, open up your robes."
"Woah, Mai, I don't think I'm in the mood, I'm pretty hungover but-"
"To treat your lightning scar, doofus." She pointed the two fingers she was applying with at him and it made Zuko feel sufficiently scolded. "I know since it needs to be treated less often, you neglect it, especially when you're busy. Open them."
Zuko didn't fight her on it, because he knew what his chest scar looked like. He opened the top of his robes, and just like Mai thought, it clearly hadn't been treated in awhile.
"You dumbass."
"It barely even hurts."
"It's pulling on your healthy skin, it's going to ruin it." She went to work massaging the ointment in.
"The Avatar doesn't have to treat his lightning scar."
"The Avatar was healed with magic water, his scar is softer and less painful than yours."
Aang does have some mild complications from his lightning wound that Zuko had to give him tips of dealing with it, but Mai didn't need to know that.
The morning progressed normally after Mai treated his scars. The only real thing that was off was his hangover, but he had tougher through worse and was starting to adjust. But of course the normality couldn't last, as around the time that Zuko finished helping Mai with her hair, a loud clamoring was heard getting closer… and closer… and closer, and didn't people know that people were just waking up!?
Zuko stumbled to the door as the noise approached his door, completely ready to tear whoever it was a new asshole no matter how much his head was pounding. When the door opened, the wind was taken out of his sails by the sight of Aang, Sokka, Suki, and Katara dressed as monkeys (where did they get those outfits?), carrying Toph and hollering her praises.
He closed the door.
His friends were being so weird this week.
Author's Note:
I decided to put all the chapters in one for posting this here because I don't really think this will be seen by many folks anyway lol.
Please remember to comment. I enjoy details, and I don't care how old the story is when you find it. Feel free. Favorite line/part? Bye, duckies!
