Hello again! This chapter was actually two chapters but they were so short I decided to combind them. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar
They reached the capital of the Fire Nation early in the afternoon. There was no one there to meet them as anyone of any importance had made their way too Ba Sing Se and they were slowly trundling back to the city.
Zuko and Toph did not stay in the palace. A house had been prepared slightly outside of the city, where the couple was supposed to stay until Zuko was crowned Fire Lord. At least, that was what had been planned but as the carriages that carried Toph and Toph things rolled out of the city Zuko couldn't help thinking about what a waste it was. He was staying in the city till later, seeing if he could look up something on the Avatar.
The house and the grounds that belonged to it were only a short way outside of the city; twenty minutes by carriage if all went well. Toph jumped down and looked at the house as the servants carried in the chests from the other carriage. Most of the stuff had been packed by her mother, so she doubted she would find it very useful.
The house was large and low, only one story high. The rooms were large and sunny, due to the oversized windows in every room. The floor was earthy, in the style of the Earth Kingdom houses, which was a pleasant surprise for Toph and she suspected that it had been specially arranged to make the bride feel more at home. There weren't very many rooms, but all very large. A bedroom and several guest room, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room and parlor made up the whole house. Several rooms at the back had been dedicated servants quarters but these too were large, sunny and charming.
The grounds that came with the house were very large and very beautiful. A part of the garden had been arranged in the style of the Palace gardens but a lot of it had been left in a semi-wild state. There were places that were clearly indicated to be used for firebending and earthbending. It was a place that Toph almost felt she could stay.
There were three servant-guards that would live with them and a cook, which wasn't a large number and they would most likely keep out of the way most of the time. Gardeners and the like would visit the place from time to time but they didn't live in.
Toph followed the servants as they placed the chest into the main bedroom and began to unpack. She was looking for one chest in particular, a smaller one, that she had helped pack. It was one of the last ones to be brought in and she took it from the man in order to unpack it herself.
This chest contained the stuff she had wanted to take with her specially. There was her regular green tunic, the same as she had worn on her travels with the Gaang. A larger size, because, even though she was still small, she had grown in all the years. And her meteor bracelet, among other things. It was worn but still the most precious piece of jewelry to her. These were her true things, not the silks and diamonds her mother had organized for her.
Zuko came home early in the evening and he was very, very frustrated.
"All anyone will talk about is how great a success the marriage was," he raged, pacing the room, his hair flopping in his face, unpinned from the hairpiece. The messy hairstyle was in sharp contrast with the neat and ceremonial outfit he was wearing, "'oh and the symbolism'," he mimicked, "'everything was just fantastic' It was not! The whole thing was wrong!"
Toph was standing against the wall, looking like her normal self again for the first time in months. Her hair was in its bun; she was barefoot and appeared to be grinning.
"It was supposed to be a symbol of unity, of togetherness and of a new beginning," Zuko seethed, "but what happens? They blackmail you into the marriage! Does that seem like a symbol of a good partnership to you? No, it doesn't!!"
The flames in the lamps mounted on the walls flickered higher as he turned around angrily.
"I thought I would be marrying someone who knew what she was getting herself into and accepted it," he stormed.
"Well, I would say I'm sorry," Toph said, watching his outburst with some amusement, "but it's your own damn fault. What the hell were you thinking anyway?"
He turned to her, his gold eyes glimmering with fury, though not directed at her, "I thought I was doing something for my country! I thought I could show the world that the Fire Nation means well! I really thought that this marriage could be a symbol of unity between our countries."
Toph grinned, slightly cynically, "Oh I think the marriage is a perfect symbol of the cooperation between our countries; one part forced into it because they need to get something back, the other doing it for the gain it can reap."
Zuko had never thought of it like that.
There was a knock on the door and after a moment one of the servants entered the room. She was a tall woman, maybe 28 or 29 years old with long black hair and tanned skin. "Prince Zuko, Princess Toph," she stated calmly, "Would you like to have dinner soon?"
Toph's eyes bulged out of her head as she spun around towards her, "Princess Toph?"
The woman, her name was Hana if she remembered correctly, looked at her, frowning slightly, "Of course. You are married to Crown Prince Zuko. Therefore you are Crown Princess Toph of the Fire Nation. Now, about dinner?"
But Toph ignored her. Crown princess of the Fire Nation? Her? But how could she forget, she was married now, married to the bloody Prince. The thought almost made her sick.
"We'll be ready for dinner," Zuko said shortly. Hana nodded and was about to leave the room.
"Before I forget," she said hastily, turning back to him, "a message hawk brought this. How it knew to come here I'll never understand but…"
She held out a scroll to him and Zuko took it. Hana bowed and left.
He examined the scroll, "It's from Katara!"
This shook Toph out of her reverie, "What does it say?
Zuko opened the scroll and scanned it quickly. Then he began to read aloud, "Hi Zuko, how are you doing? Everything is fine here; the Tribes are finally getting back on their feet. Sokka is really enjoying himself, telling the kids about the adventures he had with the Avatar.
"There have been some ridiculous rumors going around though. A young man just came back from Ba Sing Se and he's claiming that he married you and Toph. He keeps moaning about how awful it is to be back here. I really wished he'd stayed away.
"Anyway, I know the rumors can't be true. Neither you nor Toph would do something so stupid as to bind yourself for life. Besides, if you did get married, you would have invited us, wouldn't you? Anyway, Sokka says hi. Write back soon okay? Katara."
He lowered the scroll and looked at Toph. She was chewing her lip.
"So this is it, is it," she said, a grin breaking out on her face, "We're really married, undividable in the eyes of the world. Bound for life."
"What are you smiling about?" Zuko said harshly.
"The situation," she snapped back, "If you think about it, it's actually quite funny. Me, the only metal bender of the world, Crown Princess of the Fire Nation. Your wife."
"Yes, and I'm your husband!" Zuko yelled, then ran a hand through his hair, staring at Katara's letter, "That sounds so…final. We're married."
"Why does this seem to surprise you so much?" Toph inquired, "Didn't you do this by choice?"
"Yeah," Zuko sighed, "But somehow…it didn't register. I just thought about the wedding, not what came after it. Besides," he fixed her with a stare, "You're in this too."
She shrugged, "I was going to run away from my husband first chance I got. No one connects Lady Toph Bei Fong with the Toph that helped the Avatar, not even you. I could get married again easy."
"You really want to get married again?" He asked her, "after this fiasco?"
"It turned out better than I expected," she grinned at him, "I was expecting some pompous brat that would order me around and treat me like an inferior. But I got you, maybe not the person I love, but a person I like and get along with, someone who respects me."
"Well, I feel great now," Zuko growled, "But what am I going to do?"
"No idea," she answered, trying to keep from laughing. Somehow an angry Zuko was very funny, "Go with the flow. See what happens?"
He stared at her, sensing that she was laughing at him, "Are you laughing at me?"
"Yes," she answered and it burst out of her. He stared at her frowning, quite insulted.
"I'm sorry," she gasped, "but you're so stupid sometimes. You decide to marry someone you don't even know and don't think about what happens afterwards. And now you're married to me and you're wondering what to do!"
It didn't strike Zuko as an incredibly funny joke but as he looked at Toph, who was still grinning to herself, it became more and more ridiculous and he started smiling to himself as well. Maybe Toph was right and he shouldn't worry, not yet anyway.
"Let's go to dinner," he said. She nodded and led the way out of the room and followed her, his friend, his wife.
I don't know if this would really work, the message from Katara but...I don't care! XD Please review!