For all of you hoping for another chapter of More Than Blood Can Stand, I apologize. The last four weeks there has been a death in the family and I've been very sick, and honestly, I pretty much haven't written since before Christmas. I want to stress that I haven't abandoned MTBCS. The next chapter is half written, and the other half is going to get written as soon as I can pull myself together again. It's just going to take a little more time.
But as luck would have it, for the last couple of months when I haven't felt inspired to write MTBCS, I have been secretly working on this: a Maiko romance set after Smoke and Shadow. I was going to wait until MTBCS was finished, but I decided to post the first chapter now, to hopefully make up for the long wait you've had to endure.
This story is primarily a romance with the plot existing for the sole purpose of forcing Mai and Zuko into some of my favorite tropes. Basically, I'm writing a Maiko K-drama, because I'm a sucker for that kind of cheesy, melodramatic romantic nonsense.
I was originally aiming for a short, sweet 20k words, or maybe 40k on the long end. But then plot happened, and I've already written 30k words in the first arc. But who cares? There is a dearth of novel-length Maiko fics in this world. I may as well help remedy that problem.
Expect updates every other week or so until I get through my backlog of chapters. Then it will slow to whenever I manage to finish the next chapter, because I don't work well to deadlines. ;)
The Dragon Pox Affair
Chapter 1
"Do you mind telling me where we're going?"
Zuko looked over at his newly-appointed head of security. "Hinata, I thought we went through this already. If I tell you, I have to kill you."
"The not knowing is what's going to kill me," he grumbled, pushing a vine out of his way so he could trudge through the thick jungle underbrush.
Zuko smirked. "You've only been back in the Fire Nation for what? Two months? And only head of my security for a few weeks? Trust me. There's a lot you don't know yet."
"If I'd known this is what I was signing up for, I wouldn't have volunteered," he grumbled.
But Zuko wasn't fooled. "The first thing you did when your division returned home from the Earth Kingdom was to ask for the position. You wanted to - and I quote - single-handedly turn around my security detail and put the Kyoshi Warriors out of a job. You can't tell me you were on board with fighting off assassins and weeding out incompetent guards, but you weren't up for following me around in the middle of nowhere?"
Hinata hopped over a fallen branch and smirked at him. "My father always said the worst part of serving the royal family was putting up with all their silly whims."
"General Saito does have a way with words."
They rounded a corner in the path, and stopped to take in the view. The jungle gave way to a clearing filled with immense stone structures and buildings. Some were crumbling from age, and others had vines encircling them in an effort to reclaim the clearing for the wilderness. It was a view Zuko knew well.
"The Sun Warrior ruins?" Hinata asked.
"Pretty amazing, aren't they?"
"Well, yes," he admitted, "But what, exactly, is so urgent about the ruins that you couldn't wait another day to visit?"
"That is what I can't tell you," he said with a grin, enjoying teasing him. "I'm afraid you're going to have to wait outside while I go in."
Hinata folded his arms across his chest and glared. "Absolutely not. That would be a dereliction of duty."
"And disobeying a direct order from the Fire Lord is insubordination."
"Given the choice between the two…"
"Hmph," he said, with false annoyance. If he had really thought he couldn't trust Hinata with this secret, he wouldn't have brought him.
They trudged down the path to the entrance, taking the route Zuko had worked out over many visits to avoid the traps, and were met at the entrance by the Sun Warrior chief, Necalli.
"A real Sun Warrior?" Hinata asked in a whisper.
Zuko nodded once, curtly. He was focused on the chief's stern gaze.
"Who is this?" he asked in his booming voice. "You were supposed to come alone."
"This is Hinata, my head of security."
"You've never brought guards before," Chief Necalli sniffed, obviously affronted.
"None of the others were so thorough in fulfilling their duties." When Necalli's frown deepened, he raised his hands in a peaceful gesture. "I trust Hinata with my life. You can trust him with this secret."
Necalli deliberated for a while, then sighed. "I suppose the fire ferret is already out of the bag. We couldn't remain secret for much longer anyway." Then he leaned in until he was almost nose-to-nose with Hinata, and his voice dropped to a menacing timbre. "What you see inside these walls stays inside these walls."
Hinata nodded. "The only thing I care about is keeping the Fire Lord safe. So long as this secret doesn't endanger him, I have no interest in talking about it."
This seemed to amuse Necalli. "We'll see if you still feel that way after you've seen him."
"Him?" Hinata looked at Zuko.
Instead of answering, he walked past Chief Necalli into the complex.
Zuko had seen all of this before, and it had long ago ceased to amaze him. But seeing Hinata take in the grandeur of the atrium, he felt himself remembering how it had felt that first time with Aang.
"I recognize those poses." Hinata walked over to one of the statues for a closer look. "I've seen you practice them." He turned back to Zuko. "You learned this here?"
He nodded in return. "It's a Sun Warrior firebending form. I'll teach you sometime. But that's not what we're here to see."
They walked out of the building through the back door - Hinata obviously reluctantly - and followed a path to a large paddock about the size of his chambers in the palace.
He jogged over to the paddock fence and leaned against it, trying hard to keep a goofy grin off of his face.
"Zuko. What-" Hinata shouldn't have used his name, but it wasn't like Zuko didn't understand the shock he felt. This was probably shifting his entire worldview.
Sitting in the middle of the paddock, hardly larger than a wolf bat, was a red baby dragon.
He waved Hinata over. "Do you like him?"
"How did you even…" He shook his head and laughed. "Of course I like him. This is more than amazing. It's impossible."
"His name is Druk." He couldn't stop the grin now. "And as soon as he's big enough, he's going to be mine."
"You're joking," he breathed, joining Zuko at the fence. He shook his head in disbelief. "But dragons are extinct! The Dragon of the West killed the last one before we were even born."
"Apparently not," he laughed. "Aang and I discovered the last two remaining dragons here during the war. I've come back several times since I became Fire Lord, and when I heard that the female had laid an egg, I immediately began negotiating to reintroduce dragons to the Fire Nation."
"That would be…" He hunted around for a strong enough word. "Something else," he finished feebly.
Zuko pushed himself off the railing, grabbed a hippo-ox leg from a bin next to the paddock, and jumped the fence.
"Is that safe?" Hinata called out, hesitant. "Aren't dragons… dangerous? Especially dragon mothers?"
"She doesn't mind," he replied, sitting on the ground and waiting for Druk to approach him.
He circled Zuko a couple of times, his tail held high and his eyes alert, before he pounced in his lap and sunk his teeth into the hippo-ox leg. Zuko stroked Druk's back and encouraged him as he ate.
His little jaws shattered the bone bit by bit until all that was remaining was the piece in Zuko's hand. With a wag of his tail, he crouched and sprang, grabbing the last bite with a flourish. He missed.
"Ow!" Zuko hissed and grabbed his hand. There was a tiny fang mark on his index finger. "Must you do this every time?"
"Are you hurt?" Hinata perched on the paddock fence, ready to leap it.
"No, I'm fine," he said, annoyed that he'd been so careless again. "This is the second time he's tried to bite me when I fed him. The little terror hasn't learned his manners yet. This time he even broke the skin."
Hinata was not convinced. "Are you sure you're okay? Weren't dragons venomous?" Then, with a shake of his head. "I mean, aren't they?"
"That's what I thought, too." He sucked on the wound in a vain effort to alleviate the pain. "But honestly, I don't know how much to believe of the old stories. They were also supposed to be vicious, but every dragon I've met here has been no more dangerous than a komodo rhino."
"What does the chief say?"
Zuko shrugged. "The truth is that no one alive today has ever seen a baby dragon before. It's all a lot of guesswork. But he says they have writings about how to train dragons, and so we're mostly going off of that."
"Has he said how long it will be until he's grown?"
"Maybe another three months?"
His mouth fell open. "That soon?"
"He was the size of my hand last month."
"Wow. How did you ever get them to agree to give him to you?"
"Lots of negotiations and concessions on my part." He stroked the scales on Druk's back. "And a glowing endorsement from his parents."
"The… dragon parents?"
"Yes," Zuko grinned. "The dragon parents."
Hinata talked his ear off the entire trek back to the Caldera, so that by the time they returned to the palace that night, Zuko's head ached. It reminded him of how Ty Lee prattled on and on. Hinata wasn't usually like that; he was usually single minded and focused, and though he had a good sense of humor was not the excitable type.
Zuko could understand, of course. He had felt much the same after he and Aang had seen Ran and Shaw for the first time. If he hadn't been preoccupied with the visions they'd given him of the meaning of firebending, he might have reverted to his giddy 8-year-old dragon-obsessed self, too.
But after the long day they'd both had, he wasn't able to muster the same enthusiasm. He paused just outside the gates and said, rather more harshly than he'd intended, "Enough!" At Hinata's wounded expression, he pinched his nose and sighed. "I get it. You're excited. But no one else knows about this, and it has to stay that way. So keep your mouth shut, okay?"
"Of course," he said, offended. "I would never give away a secret like that."
Zuko sighed, rubbing the spot on his head that was beginning to throb. "I know. I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's just been a long day, and-"
"And you should get some rest. You have double the meetings tomorrow because of taking today off."
He groaned at the thought. "Why do I do these things to myself?"
"Because you're a good Fire Lord who doesn't shirk his duty, not even for-" he dropped his voice to an awed whisper "-dragons."
He had to smile at that.
Then Hinata bowed and left for his quarters, and Zuko trudged to his room. He collapsed into bed and kneaded the sore muscles in his neck.
The headache was getting worse. He considered having someone bring him some willow bark tea, but he couldn't muster up the energy to call for it.
Sleep would help. All he needed was a good night's sleep.
He woke the next morning to the sound of knocking on his door. Each knock ricocheted through his head in a way that reminded him that his headache had decidedly not been cured by sleep.
"My Lord?" Hinata asked.
"Come in," he croaked past a surprisingly raw throat.
The door creaked open, prompting another wince.
"You, er, don't look your best this morning, sir," Hinata said frankly. "Is anything wrong?"
"No," he insisted, and to prove it he pushed himself out of bed - and immediately collapsed back onto it. And despite how he knew it looked, he looked up and said through gritted teeth, "I'm fine."
"I can see that," Hinata's mouth was set in a grim line. "But just to be safe, why don't I send for the Royal Physician?"
Before Zuko could respond, he had stuck his head into the hall and spoken to a servant.
It annoyed him, but rather than fight it, he leaned back against his pillows and shut his eyes. Hinata was being overprotective, but the truth was that he did feel a bit off. He shivered and burrowed under the covers, only to find that his sheets were soaked in sweat.
It couldn't hurt to spend a few more minutes in bed.
He must have drifted off, because the next thing he knew Hinata had left the room and the physician was leaning over him and tutting as he did a careful examination. After a few minutes he straightened and shook his head.
"If I didn't know any better, my lord, I'd think you had the dragon pox." He smiled reassuringly. "Thankfully, that's impossible."
The words had a rather different effect on Zuko. "Dragon pox?"
The physician brushed a cool, wet towel over Zuko's forehead. His eyes fluttered shut at the sensation, such a relief after the blazing heat. Seconds later, the towel was beginning to steam.
"It's a terrible and deadly disease, my lord. Very rare, even when dragons were still alive."
"Tell me about it," he said hoarsely, a sinking feeling in his stomach - or was it a bout of nausea?
"No physician has seen a case in my lifetime, I'm afraid, so all I can tell you is what I've read in scrolls. The disease is spread by the bite of a baby dragon, and follows a slow progression of ever-increasing fever, nausea, and rash. Over the next few days, the rash turns into pustules, which begin to boil in the later stages, just before death."
This wasn't good news. Why hadn't Chief Necalli warned him about this?
"I see," he said faintly. "Doctor, let's say for the sake of argument, that I was bitten by a baby dragon. What would be the treatment and my prognosis?"
"Treatment was a lot of trial and error. As far as I can remember, there were very few effective treatments. And as for prognosis," the physician smiled. "It is a good thing this can't be dragon pox. More than three quarters of the people who contracted it didn't survive."
That was it, then. Odds were he was going to die a slow, painful death.
He thought about all the work he'd done these last years as Fire Lord, and of all the work he had yet unfinished, that he needed to finish. He thought of Uncle, so happy in his tea shop in Ba Sing Se, being forced to return to the Fire Nation to take a crown he'd never wanted.
He thought of Mai, and how two years later he still hadn't fixed things with her. Though maybe that was a good thing. At least she wouldn't be as hurt by his death.
And then he remembered that he was not someone who gave up in the face of adversity. This wasn't a fight in the sense he was used to, but he still had options.
He tried to sit up in his bed, and his head spun so badly that he had to grit his teeth against the nausea.
"Doctor, I need you to find every dragon pox treatment you can, successful or not. Have the scholars make it their top priority."
"My lord," he said hesitantly, "I think my time would be better spent at your bedside than in researching a dead disease."
"I was bitten by a dragon yesterday."
There was a long pause before he answered. "You are running a high fever. You are not yourself."
"You will treat this disease as though it were dragon pox. That is an order from your Fire Lord," he said with less force than he would have if he'd been well.
The man blinked, obviously unconvinced, but bowed. "As you wish, my lord."
Zuko had heard that tone of voice before from ministers who thought they knew better than him, and knew that this man wasn't going to follow his orders.
Very well. He had other options.
He motioned to a servant. "I need paper and ink, and three of the fastest messenger hawks in the palace."
"Right away, sir."
His physician might not take him seriously, but Uncle and Katara and Aang would.
