I told you this chapter would be short, and I kept my word.
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Aftershocks
Year of the Unagi
He didn't forget, and I doubt he ever forgave.
It would never be like him to just accept that I'd tried to kill myself rather than remarry. Now, he walked with even a shorter temper than before and his face was always twisted in a bitter expression. Everywhere I went, at one point, I felt his eyes on me and I would smile in his direction and bow slightly to show my respect, but then paid no heed to him anymore whatsoever. The atmosphere between us had reached a new level of tension, but I still acted the way Iroh taught me to; with grace and dignity as I continued throughout court.
Despite our distance, I still knew him in and out.
He liked control; he lusted for it, he craved it. A twisted lust, and an acquired craving; but it was still emotion nonetheless.Iroh and I still strutted around the palace posing to be everything he detested, everything that a person could not control, and he always thought of us as a threat.
He'd grown skeptical in the past few years, the Royal Bloodline curse affecting him, as I could see, and everyone knew it.
At the time, it didn't even matter.
Iroh and I; we were lost in our own world. During the nights we were together we would talk about what life would be like if we were both nobodies instead of the golden couple of royalty. We would've owned a small farm; working our way to happiness from noble deeds instead of noble birth and noble marriage. My daughters and my son would all be there with us and though we would be working, we would all be happy doing so. Without the suspicion that the walls had eyes, we wouldn't be afraid to hopefully procreate a new child for us every night.I missed those days; those careless days where we could just fantasize about a world that we would never have fit into.
The truth always remained that we were destined to live this way.
Iroh was bound for greatness no matter which family he was born into nor what social rank he was born into he was not only a prince, but a lusty and ambitious character and though he was somewhat careless and promiscuous at times, he had the heart and courage of a ruler and subjugator.
Even if I was born into the Princess rank back in the Northern Water Tribes, I would've been exiled and avoided the instant my powers were discovered.
I probably would've done the same thing, whether I jumped off Ueshita peak all those years ago or I unintentionally melted the ice under me, or even if my father liquefied my standing ice so I would drop into the ocean didn't matter anymore; my life as a Fire Nation soldier and princess was all that mattered.
Every day after Iroh went off again, I would take a light stroll through a few newly constructing gardens.
I did not want beautiful Fire Nation plant species to die, so I asked for the council's permission (with a few statements twisted so they wouldn't think of me as a weak and idle woman wanting to build something for myself) and they granted me a land claim within the Fire Palace borders to build a few private gardens.
Tai, now that he was 6, was becoming more exposed to the world around him and I watched with the sad tug of foreboding in my heart as the little boy I carried my belly for nine months and gave birth to after screaming nonstop at Iroh as I was delivering, the one who would joyously shout out as I picked him up and held him to the sky, the little boy who I spoon-fed when he was too stubborn to eat the food in front of him, the one I'd spoiled, become only a distant memory.
"So where the hell is he?" I demanded Kuzon.
Where was he?
Iroh promised that he would've been back after 7 months of battle, not counting the 3 months it would take him and his troops to sail across the Northern Sea and then march by land to their battle city and then however long it would take Iroh after victory to round up his troops, march back, stop for a few parties, and then sail back to the Fire Nation, but more than a year and a half had already passed (over 18 more possibilities to have another child with him also gone) and there was not even a progression letter?
"I told you; his troops are progressing across the Northern Earth Kingdom." Kuzon answered me for the tenth time.
"I cannot believe you; there is no casualty count letter, no messenger with news from the warfront, nothing!" I screamed up at him.
And to think I once looked up to him when I was a soldier; he should have know how worried I am, on second thought; no he shouldn't have, and at least tell me more. But NO; he's still sore over Nanue and thinks that the more that a woman is kept in the dark, the fewer issues with the 'weak' gender he'd have to deal with. I wanted to grab him and shake the overindulging vanity and selfishness out of him, which probably would've been impossible anyways, but the damned etiquette of monarch society forbade me to even come near him unless he beckoned me and gave me permission to approach him.
"Most of the time, the messengers run late." Kuzon replied in an aloof manner.
"Not over a year late." I snapped; crossing my arms.
One of the women on his left stepped forward with what she hoped was a menacing glare and put her hands on her hips like a military lady would.
"Our Fire Lord has many more things on his mind and the last thing he needs is a whorish twit nagging about how soldiers were faring on the battlefield." She snapped at me and I difficultly held in my urge to roll my eyes at her.
She was obviously trying to get good merits with Kuzon and she thought that by pushing me away for him, she would gain a bit of his respect. If only her words had been different, then she probably would've succeeded.
Instead of feeding his ego, she practically shot it down. In Kuzon's mind, she was saying that he was an over-worked and tired man, which would've made him think that he was old with liver spots and wrinkles all over his body, and that the last thing he needed was female company to take his mind off of all his troubles.
Being a now-retired soldier, he felt old despite his position of utmost power in the Fire Nation and after many hard years, he probably inherited the disease of control-paranoia all soldiers get when they have power to command and now a woman standing in front of him telling me to back off, he probably thought that she'd pitied him and that he needed someone to fight his battles for him.
That juxtaposed with his greed for control, considering that he'd already thought of women as being the inferior gender that could be tamed and mastered.
That and the 'whorish twit' comment brought back unwanted memories of Nanue.
Her outcome would've better if she'd forced him to kiss her and then spit out his taste.
He grabbed the woman by her upper arm and abruptly spun her around. I could still see the look of mock surprise and hope on her face that he would 'thank' her for insulting me, but all she got was a hard slap that sent her to the ground.
To keep him from screaming and spitting on her, I clucked my tongue at him and kneeled down to help the woman up.
"You're not going to make many friends doing that, Kuzon." I said; looking at him squarely in the eye with no fear showing.
He looked like he was about to say something, but he could find no insult. I pulled the woman to her feet and turned to leave.
"Wait." A voice called; it was that woman.
"Why aren't you—?" she asked, her voice trailing off because she did not want to be caught talking like that about their great Majesty Fire Lord, Kuzon.
"If you knew him in his earlier days, then you would know." I tell her evenly and then politely excused myself from her presence.
How much time had passed since Iroh had gone?
The gardens came along finely and all that was needed now was to wait for the plants to grow out.
Tai took Tenera to the gardens where they would study together, they were both enrolled with his tutor, or whatnot and I would sometimes join them and help them improve on their Huowen and teach them a bit of Heiwen to help them get ahead of their classes.
"I wish I had a mother like yours, Tai. No wonder you've been brought up so well." She once said to him.
I held in my laugh as I saw Tai blush slightly.
They looked so cute together and I would've loved to have seen them grow into a couple and maybe marry and give Iroh and myself grandchildren we could shower them in love, probably smother them anyway, and tell embarrassing stories about their parents to them before their bedtimes.
But no member of royalty in the Fire Nation ever had much of a happy ending like one in a fairy tale; or at least, they didn't have the fairy tale story for some part of their lives.
I had recounted the time Iroh was gone, nearly 31 months, and was about to go into the Pond garden when I saw someone else sitting on the bench a distance from me.
"Why are you here?" I demanded.
After all he had done, I'm surprised he would even step into one of my constructed gardens.
"Waiting." He replied and I rolled my eyes.
"I'm sure." I said sarcastically and then noticed something else as he turned his face.
"You have some…mud on your cheek." I noted; pulling out one of my handkerchiefs.
"Wipe it off." I said at the last minute; wondering if I'd completely gone mad to actually, for a second, wanting to go and dab it off of his face.
He only slapped my hand away and tried, pathetically, to stand up and strike fear in me with his 'towering' height. He only looked more like a pretender to me.
"I don't need your pity, you wanton whore!" he snapped.
Was I actually supposed to be offended by that? It was only another show of his weakness, but I nonetheless took his insult and fired back.
"Forgive me for actually offering you a moment of kindness and thinking that you were actually human, then." I spat back and, throwing down the handkerchief, marched away from the garden with a fevered pace; anger pushing me onwards.
I should go back for my handkerchief, I thought, but when I reached the gardens he and the handkerchief were gone.The footsteps of a boy servant made me turn around.
He was a bit over 10 summers old and judging by his speed, he had been running for quite a long time.
"Princess Yukihiya. Prince Iroh requests an audience with you." He breathed and I looked from the garden to the northern side.
Thin trails of smoke were slanting away from the Fire Nation; meaning dozens of ships were on their way back.
"Of course; lead the way." I said.
I knew better now than to just run off on my own; sometimes, a person needs to get ready or be led in a certain room before she or he makes their debut. Instead of to the main hall or Iroh's room, he led me to my chambers and inside, Lo and Li were setting out a formal and heavily ornate dark crimson Kimono and jewelry that I'd never seen before.
"What is—?" I began, but Lo and Li had begun to strip me of my regular clothes by then.
"Prince Iroh requested that you show up in your best attire and jewelry." Li answered simply.
I never had to dress fancily for anything save for a formal occasion; in fact, Iroh preferred me to wear loose (and easily removable) clothes when he returned. So why was this time so different? I let the twins dress me and carefully put on my jewelry. What I found peculiar was why they were pinning a crown in my hair; one I had never seen before. It was ornately embellished; covered with priceless gemstones and the only time you would see the gold holding it all together was if you looked carefully between the spaces the cut gemstones made. Again, the ambiguity of the situation startled me; I had never made a show of jewelry or of my wealth, unlike certain other crass members of the court."Come." Ane beckoned; dressed in new robes. Now that I think of it, most of my other servants were dressed up in new outfits of silk.
I made my way out into the grand hall and to my surprise, all of the tables had been cleared and there was another platform holding two tall, and not to mention regal-looking, chairs and Iroh sat on the left one.
When he turned, he flashed me a smile; beckoning me to join him sitting in the other chair. I hesitated, but stepped forward the best I could in my heavily decorated robes and joined him.
"Where were you?" I asked immediately when I was close enough to him.
"Forgive me, Koi. I went on an extra campaign down the Southern Earth Kingdom and captured most of the cities there and then went further west. When I felt satisfied, I had to march my troops all the way up North, but I could only after the rainy season was over. As I marched them North-ward, there were many festivals, the summer season had come after all, and you know I have an utter weakness for celebration. And then it started to get cold and of course the North would freeze up when it is winter, so there was a delay. Worst of all, we had to literally fight our way back; the Earth Kingdom imbeciles wouldn't get out of our way unless we did, so we fended them off for the entire winter season, and then I received another message from Kuzon requesting that we continue our campaign eastwards for some reason and he included more supplies and new troops, the whole shebang. And then other military leaders came to me stating that they needed to guard their own holds on various places and needed to team up with me, so, I had to keep fighting. After my newly unified forces and I conquered and plundered the cities on our way, we were yet again called back. So we had to fight our way northward and by the time we got to the coast and the ships were there, it was winter season again. We were going back, and then I decided to delay our travels a bit. And now here I am; home at last." He summarized.
"What delay?" I asked.
"It might've been pretty stupid, it was winter and all, but I finally accomplished it yet again even if it wasn't the same without you, and I think a reunion is in order." Iroh said cleverly. He was riddling again.
"A reunion?" I asked.
The winter, a reunion, he did something again even if it wasn't the same without me…
"Put me down! Do you know who I am?" a voice screeched from the now-open door.
Fire Nation soldiers marched in surrounding people clad in dirty blue clothing. The loud one was being shoved forward with the threat of a sword in her back.
My jaw nearly dropped and I shot a glance to Iroh, who winked at me, and then felt a sweet smile come to me.
This was what he meant.
The prisoners were forced to kneel and I could get a clearer and closer view at the still-screaming woman.
"Oh, gods..." I whispered; hardly able to breathe. I felt a laugh in the back of my throat; ready to spill out.
Naiya hadn't changed a bit.Besides the obvious, what do you all think is going to happen next?
