A/N: I can't be witty all the time. Read the chapter, that's where all my eloquence went.

Disclaimer: *monkey noises*

Iroh, cont.

It was evident to me by less than a month into our marriage that my initial plan to ignore Ursa as much as possible wasn't going to hold up. For one thing, the poisoning essentially forced me to step up as not just a crown prince, but a husband protecting his wife. It felt impossible to be neutral to her given the promise I'd made, and the dire circumstances under which I'd made it. But the second reason, that I was far more loath to admit, was that Ursa was quickly proving herself to be more human than anticipated.

When I'd laid my plans for my arranged marriage, I'd predicted my wife would be as any other woman chosen to join the royal family: pretty, polite, and painfully proper. Ursa certainly possessed the first two qualities, although she was still working on mastering the third as she assumed the role of Princess Ursa. There were moments where her mask slipped, where she stumbled over her court etiquette, that made me realize she was like me in significant ways: longing for life outside the capital and frustrated by the formalities of royalty. Even as my father dictated that she needed to leave her past behind and be trained into the perfect princess, I was curious about who she'd been before becoming my wife.

Ursa and Princess Ursa almost seemed like two separate beings at the beginning. Princess Ursa was the pretty, polite, painfully proper woman I'd predicted, who would bear my children and accompany me as future Fire Lord. Ursa was the person I saw when the princess didn't need to perform, in hushed conversations away from my father's hearing and shared glances of disdain for the roles that had been thrust upon us. Being able to reconcile these two as the same person was critical to the advancement of our relationship, especially as we started to look forward to the Autumn Festival.

"Block!"

Ozai raised his arms and dispelled Iroh's fire stream into harmless wisps of smoke.

"Redirect!" Iroh spun and kicked another stream at his brother. Ozai blocked it and attempted to turn it back on Iroh as instructed, but it simply vanished into smoke again.

"Remember, Ozai, you can't just grab at someone else's fire to redirect it. You have to guide it and turn your opponent's force against them," Iroh wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead; the indoor training arena provided more props for their practice, but it also heated up much faster for obvious reasons . "Here, firebend at me and I'll show you again."

"Gladly," Ozai didn't hold back as he produced a fire lash and slashed directly at Iroh. Of course, Iroh had figured his younger brother would take out his frustration on him, so he was ready for it. Ozai's lash broke apart and turned into fireballs that curved back towards him. He dodged without difficulty, since Iroh wasn't aiming to actually burn him, but his face clearly showed his exasperation.

"Maybe you'll get it next time." Iroh didn't want to keep drilling him on something that put him in a bad mood; Ozai's firebending was very sensitive to his emotional outbursts. "Let's work on fire knives."

The practice dummies dressed in Earth Kingdom uniforms faced Ozai's wrath as he attacked them. Fire knives were his favored technique for close-up combat, which was why Iroh had suggested it, and he utilized it with deadly precision. Iroh cut up a couple dummies himself for practice while mostly keeping an eye on Ozai's form. Sometimes his anger during training sessions manifested itself as accidents, but lately, he seemed to have figured out how to channel it into his bending instead. Iroh wasn't sure that was the best development.

Ozai beheaded the last dummy with a yell, and it clattered to the floor. Iroh noted that their instructors would have to put in an order for more dummies soon considering the rate Ozai was literally burning through them. "Extinguish that before you light the curtains on fire again," Iroh called out, noticing one was still smoldering. Ozai stomped it out with a huff, a dark cloud clearly still hanging over him.

Iroh had one more trick up his sleeve when it came to calming down his younger brother. "Come on, I'm starving. Let's raid the kitchens for lychee-nut smoothies."

One of the most clever features of the palace was that the kitchens were located within a minute's walk of the royal training arenas, which served excellently for hungry princes. Iroh slung a lightweight cotton robe over his shoulders for modesty's sake as they exited the room, noticing Ozai wasn't doing the same. He couldn't blame him; it wasn't that long ago that Iroh had enjoyed popping into the kitchen shirtless after training to have his ego stroked by the young maids' giggling and blushes.

"Aisha, dear, how is the loveliest lady of the kitchens?" Iroh greeted.

Aisha was the furthest thing from one of those young maids, of course. The palace's master teamaker and dessert chef had always had a soft spot for Iroh, if only because he showed great enthusiasm for her two specialties. He swore the woman had looked sixty for his whole life, leaving her actual age a mystery, but her culinary skills remained unmatched.

"Busy as ever, Prince Iroh, Prince Ozai." Aisha bobbed into a quick bow before going back to assembling a fruit tart. "Are you joining Princess Ursa in choosing dishes for the Autumn Festival's menu today? We might need a moment to prepare extra samples if you are."

"No, Aisha, I wasn't aware she was taste-testing today. We're just here for a post-training snack."

"Ah, of course." Aisha's brown, wrinkled face pulled into a smile. "Lychee-nut smoothies for both of you, coming right up."

"You know," Ozai whispered to Iroh as Aisha turned away to prepare their drinks, "if your wife's going to be taste-testing a bunch of dishes…maybe we should help her? She might want a second opinion, and we're experts on the festival's food."

"She has plenty of people to give her a second opinion. You just want an excuse to stuff your face and get out of your geography tutoring this afternoon."

"Dad's always harping on me to become more engaged with our rich culture or whatever. I think he'd buy this as a decent substitute for geography, especially if he knew you were doing it too."

Now that Iroh was standing in the kitchen, the smells of the tantalizing Autumn Festival dishes were starting to tempt him. He really couldn't fault Ozai for preferring snacking to geography, either; old Master Ping had a way of turning an already dull subject into a veritable torture chamber of a lesson.

"Fine, but we can't accompany Princess Ursa in our training attire. Take your smoothie and go change. I'll send a message to Master Ping."

Ozai practically beamed with gratitude. "Thanks, crown prince. And Aisha." He took the smoothie Aisha held out to him, playfully bumped shoulders with Iroh, and all but skipped out of the kitchen.

"He is already in a much better mood than when you came in," Aisha said as she gave Iroh his own smoothie, speaking more frankly now that he was the only royal in the kitchen.

"Your food has a way of doing that. And I'm sorry to create more work for you all today, but-"

"I heard," she waved him off. "It's more work for the serving staff than for me. Plus, it's smart of you to take the opportunity to spend the time with your new wife." She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "I've seen she's very pretty."

Iroh smiled. "Don't worry, Aisha, she's not nearly as pretty as you."

"You do flatter an old woman, Prince Iroh." She pulled out a bag of sugar and began measuring for whatever dish she was preparing next. "Tell me, has she recovered from her ailment?"

"Yes, entirely, thanks to Korzu's efforts." It had been a couple of weeks since Ursa had attended her first royal dinner, and she had been integrating herself into other areas of palace life under Yuna's careful guidance. Iroh hadn't really spent any time alone with her barring the one night she'd slept in his bedroom (and he'd slept in his study), but based on what she shared during dinner and the walk back to their chambers afterwards, her symptoms were practically gone and she was absorbing an overwhelming amount of information each day.

"That is a relief. It is so inauspicious for a bride to fall ill. I was deeply worried."

Iroh had been too, but for different reasons than Aisha's superstitions. Although it was indeed a relief that Ursa had recovered, his father's physicians and spies still had nothing to report on how she had become ill in the first place. But Aisha's superstitions didn't explain why her hands were shaking slightly now, threatening to spill sugar everywhere.

"Aisha, are you all right?"

She set the bag down with a gasp and wiped at her eyes. "Noble prince," she whispered, the flowery title immediately indicating she had something serious on her mind, "I- I have to confess something to you."

"Please, do."

"I can't here. Someone might overhear."

What could she have to say that was so frightening that Iroh, the crown prince, couldn't protect her from the consequences of saying it?

"Come, tell me in the pantry. Pretend I'm showing you some new teas for my collection."

The pantry was essentially soundproof, something Iroh had discovered by accident when he was six. He had followed Aisha inside, hoping for an extra mochi, but had been trapped when she got distracted by a burning cake. His most desperate cries for help had gone unheard, but the fire he'd panic-started had definitely drawn attention. Years later, he'd learned that Azulon had punished the entire kitchen staff quite severely for the incident, something that still made him feel guilty. The ordeal had given him a touch of claustrophobia, but mostly, he regarded it as a funny story rather than a slight against his being. His father, clearly, disagreed.

"Here," Iroh shut the door behind them and lit a small fire for light. "Speak freely, Aisha."

The old woman had never looked so worried before. "I promise, my prince, I wanted to tell you sooner. It's just- if I'm wrong, it could be disastrous for me."

"I trust you immensely. If you are mistaken in whatever you say, I can vouch that it occurred from good intentions. Now please, my curiosity is killing me. What is it?"

She drew in a deep breath. "The night of your wedding, I prepared two cups of sencha tea for you and the new Princess Ursa, as Prince Ozai told me you'd requested."

"Yes, you did, and they were perfect as always," Iroh said, trying to ease her nerves.

"Once I'd finished the teas, I gave them to two serving girls to deliver to you and your bride, and then I prepared to retire for the evening as my bad leg was starting to ache. When I was about to leave the kitchens, though, I saw from the door that Prince Ozai had stopped the girls in the hallway. He appeared to have a vial with him, and he- my old eyes may have seen him- pour its contents into one of the cups before sending the girls on their way and following them back to the wedding dinner."

Iroh's mind raced to make sense of what Aisha was saying. He knew she would not lie to him, but he also couldn't bring himself to believe Ozai would do something so foolish, if not downright cruel.

"I'd like to speak to the serving girls," he said quickly.

Aisha shook her head. "Prince Ozai dismissed them from the palace the morning after the wedding. If I saw what I think I did that night, I can only assume I am still here because he doesn't know I witnessed his actions."

Iroh sighed. Even if whatever Aisha had seen during the wedding was dubious, Ozai's actions the next day didn't paint a good picture.

"I'm so sorry for waiting, and if I am mistaken, noble prince."

"Don't be. You did the right thing by telling me what you saw." He smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "If anyone but the Fire Lord himself tries to remove you from this palace, they will have to answer to me. Now, please, let me worry about this matter from now on. My wife and I look forward to trying your Autumn Festival specials."

His smoothie sat heavily in his stomach as he left the kitchens. Aisha's testimony had given him much to contemplate. Ozai had been volatile and prone to overreaction since childhood, which had only been exacerbated once he'd entered adolescence, but going as far as poisoning Iroh's wife was unquestionably out of character. Ozai's style was temper tantrums, not this stealthy sabotage. Iroh couldn't even think of what he might've done to provoke Ozai's anger to such an extent, aside from their little argument before the wedding that hardly merited Ursa getting caught in the crossfire.

Ozai hadn't been acting strangely towards his alleged victim either. He'd asked cursory questions about how Ursa was doing while she was in her coma, and he'd needled her a bit at her first dinner only to be promptly shut down, which had been amusing but not unexpected. Much of Ozai's drastic behavior could usually be written off as teenage angst fanned by the stress of palace life and their father's expectations. Iroh hated to think there was something more sinister lurking under the surface.

The chatter of female voices interrupted his thoughts. He stopped to calm himself down before he startled some poor woman, realizing he was breathing a bit heavily, and looked to see who was in the vicinity. Ursa, Yuna and a gaggle of attendants were down the hall about to enter the dining room, no doubt preparing for their tasting session.

Ursa caught his eye and nodded at him. She was dressed very simply today, with a classic maroon robe cut to show the shape of her slender waist. Her lips were painted a matching shade. Already, she was looking more and more natural as Princess Ursa.

"Good afternoon, Prince Iroh," she greeted, breaking away from her small entourage to draw closer to him. "Are you just returning from training?" Her gaze flickered over his appearance, including the loosely tied robe that provided little cover for his chest. A small part of his ego was pleased by the faint redness he saw in her pale cheeks. Not quite the perfect princess yet.

"Yes, Prince Ozai and I had a fruitful session. And if you don't mind, we've invited ourselves to join the taste-testing of Autumn Festival foods today. Aisha informed me you would be starting soon when I stopped by earlier, and I'm sure Yuna can tell you how enthusiastic we princes are about this part of the celebration."

Her lips, which drew Iroh's attention more than he cared to admit with their dark red coloring, curved upwards in a delicate smile. "I'm more than happy to have you both. It is fortunate to have such refined palates helping with what I'm sure will be a difficult decision."

"I'm glad you think so. Allow me to make myself more presentable, and I will join you shortly."

The chance to observe how Ozai acted around her during the testing would help him contemplate Aisha's evidence further.

Ursa cont.

When I first ventured into the whirlwind that was planning the Autumn Festival, I'd expected the menu would be the most straightforward part. I was, of course, sorely mistaken. I was presented with lists of the traditional dishes from no fewer than ten years of celebrations, and given the rural solitude of my early life, I was unfamiliar with nearly all of them.

Yuna's suggestion to separate the tasting process over multiple days so I didn't become fatigued from fine dining was the only feasible way to sort through the overwhelming number of options. All I knew for certain at that point was that I had to feature the Fire Lord's favorite dishes, which were thankfully well-recorded. Everything else on the menu was up to me.

Fortunately, "up to me" changed to "up to Iroh, Ozai and I" when the two princes enthusiastically decided to join my first tasting session. Although now I know there was a more dangerous drama playing out behind the scenes that day, at the time, I was simply relieved to have a bit more guidance in the simple task of menu selection, as well as amused by the brothers' antics.

"You're insane."

"Tread lightly, brother."

"I'm not going to because that's an insane opinion." Ozai sat back in his chair with a thoroughly bewildered expression. "How can you insist that the pink berry scones are better than the ash-banana bread? This is literally the moistest bread I've ever had."

"I'm not saying the bread is bad," Iroh countered. "But the pink berry scones are more in theme with the Autumn Festival, and the subtle flavor of the berry is well suited to the palates of our noble guests."

"Ash-banana is the most quintessentially autumn fruit there is! Ursa- Princess Ursa, I mean- what do you think?"

Both princes turned to Ursa, seated next to Iroh. Somehow, the tasting session had turned into her playing referee as the two brothers debated which dishes they preferred. She actually quite liked this format, although Yuna kept hinting that it wasn't the most appropriate way to do the tasting. Iroh and Ozai were both familiar with the festival and the food, and they laid out the pros and cons of each dish more extensively than Ursa could have managed by herself. Plus, their competitive spirit had made both of them forget some of their formalities, which helped put Ursa at ease.

But their current debate over the pink berry scones versus the ash-banana bread was very well-matched. Ursa felt torn even after listening to them argue for the past five minutes. "Well, you both make really good points…"

"And I'm your husband," Iroh added. Ozai flung a scone at his head, which Iroh easily caught and bit into with a cheeky grin.

"I'm only thinking about the food, I promise," Ursa said to Ozai. "But I do agree the pink berry scones are more thematic. Perhaps the ash-banana bread could be put on the shortlist for the New Year's celebration?" She tentatively addressed the question to one of the servers, who nodded.

Ozai sat back in his chair with a huff. "That's the third dish of his in a row you've picked."

"Maybe I just have better taste," Iroh teased.

"Please, please, there's so much food here I couldn't possibly feature all of your choices even if I did ignore Prince Iroh." Ursa could sense Ozai's mood starting to take a foul turn from playful competition to true resentment. "I believe we're almost done for the day, but you'd both be more than welcome to join again for the next session. Right, Yuna?"

"Yes, Princess," she replied begrudgingly from behind Ursa. "All we have left today is trying the options for the festival's signature tea."

Ursa practically felt Iroh light up next to her while Ozai slumped lower into his chair. This was probably not the best note to end on if she wanted to avoid a fight.

"Excellent, bring them out," she told Yuna, hoping the little tremble in her voice wasn't overly evident.

While the Fire Nation boasted an assortment of autumnal teas, only one would serve as the Festival's signature brew. It would be served at each province Ursa and Iroh visited, and it would enjoy an elevated status among Fire Nation nobility for the next year. So, if Ursa chose something that turned out to be unpopular, she would have to hear the consequences of it for quite some time. She tried to push that anxiety out of mind as the tea servers swooped into the room.

Iroh had clearly already formed his opinions on the options, as he mostly just examined the various cups of tea that were presented to him and only gave one or two a cursory sip. Across the table, Ozai rolled his eyes. "Why don't you just pick already?"

"We're here to help Ursa choose, remember? You're welcome to leave if you're not interested anymore."

Ozai begrudgingly started sniffing at some of the options. Ursa wasn't sure how Iroh was so familiar with all the different brews the palace had to offer that he knew them on sight, when she had to ask for clarification on what she was drinking for nearly every sample. It wasn't lost on her that he'd pretty much finished his "tasting" and was just quietly watching her and Ozai now, making her a bit nervous. What if he, a veritable expert on tea compared to her, thoroughly disagreed with her choice?

"Well," she said once she'd decided on her favorite. "Do you two have ones you prefer?"

"I'm sure Iroh does," Ozai said drily.

The man in question shrugged. "Aisha is a master teamaker, and all her brews are enjoyable."

"Don't dance around the question."

"Fine. For the purposes of the festival, I prefer the honey ginger tea."

Ozai blinked in surprise. "Me too."

The good news was that they were in agreement. The bad news was Ursa wasn't. The honey ginger tea was certainly tasty, but it had struck her as being somewhat medicinal a flavor for the Autumn Festival, especially considering the subtleties of the other foods they'd carefully selected so far.

"Princess, is it settled?" Yuna asked politely. Ursa glanced up at her and felt strangely encouraged by her proper face. This wasn't the princes' decision, unless Iroh decided to formally overrule her. This was hers.

"I don't think so," Ursa said in her most regal voice, avoiding looking at the faces of the princes. She instead glanced down at the cups in front of her. "My choice would be the chai."

"That's a colonial drink," Ozai said immediately. "It's a bastardization of our spiced tea."

"It utilizes Fire Nation black tea leaves along with an Earth Kingdom brewing technique involving buffalo milk, and a blend of spices from both nations," Iroh explained more diplomatically. "Aisha introduced it to the palace when she came here from the colonies."

"I see." Ursa hadn't known the politics of the drink, but it explained why it had stood out to her among the slew of options. She had especially enjoyed the use of milk, which she hadn't encountered in tea before. "Well, I think its history only makes it more appropriate for the festival. We can showcase how the Fire Nation is growing its power through our colonies and allow our citizens across the sea to feel included in the celebrations by choosing a drink that is common to them."

[Azulon III, notated in the 3rd month of 168 AG

Recent visitors to Republic City will know that chai and its variants remain popular in cross-cultural havens following the end of the war, which can at least partially be traced to Ursa's favor for the drink.]

She looked up now to see how Iroh and Ozai were reacting. The latter was stone faced, but Iroh seemed to be suppressing a smile as he spoke. "I can't find fault with your reasoning, Princess. It would be the first time we are featuring a tea that isn't entirely native to the homeland. I, personally, welcome the expansion of our culinary borders."

Expression unchanged, Ozai shrugged. "I mean, as long as you're rejecting his choice as well as mine, I can't complain. I guess it tasted fine."

"All right, then. I believe we're done here," Ursa gestured for the servers to clear the table, still feeling quite awkward about waving them around. "Thank you," she said, both to the servants and to the princes.

Ozai got up and half-bowed to Iroh and Ursa before leaving, not saying a word. "Don't take it personally," Iroh whispered. "He was only here because he didn't want to attend his geography lesson."

"I can't say I blame him," Ursa whispered back, matching Iroh's mock-conspiratorial tone. "And why are you here? Avoiding a war room meeting?" It hadn't taken long for her to pick up on his disinterest in military matters.

"I'm just a man who's fond of good food and good company. Not accounting for Ozai, of course."

Ursa giggled in a very un-princesslike fashion before stopping herself. His humor had a way of tickling her at inopportune moments. Like now, for instance, when Yuna made a little huff indicating that Ursa needed to wrap this up and continue to the next task on her lengthy list.

"Give us a moment alone," Iroh said suddenly, glancing at Yuna. Although she looked miffed, she stiffly bowed and led the remaining attendants out of the dining room.

Ursa was surprised, and somewhere between confused and nervous; had she done something wrong? As the doors closed, she realized that she hadn't been truly alone with Iroh since the night she'd spent in his room a couple of weeks ago. True to his word, he'd woken and left his chambers well before her. The topic of consummating their marriage had yet to come up again.

"Don't worry, nothing's wrong." Iroh said, turning his chair so he was facing her more directly, "I just realized I haven't had a chance to speak to you privately in some time. How are you feeling?"

"Very well. Truly." She smiled to show she meant it. "I'm still a bit dizzy trying to keep up with everything, but I don't have anything to complain about." Anything new, anyway: missing her parents, longing for Ikem, and dreading interactions with the Fire Lord were all things she could not mention to Iroh, nor could he do anything about them.

"I'm glad to hear it. Korzu is starting to get a bit antsy now that he doesn't have to spend as much time treating you. If you're feeling well, I was planning to release him from his position here so he can go back to healing villagers."

A joke about how that was what he'd been doing for Ursa anyway was on the tip of her tongue, but she didn't say it. She was a princess now, not a girl from Hira'a. "Of course. I will miss him though."

"I will too, but he was doing me a favor. His heart is far outside the capital." Iroh seemed wistful as he spoke before shaking his head slightly. "How did you enjoy the tasting today? I'm sorry Ozai and I interrupted."

"I really did like having both of you here. It was much more interesting than if it had been just the attendants and I."

Iroh chuckled. "I can imagine. Yuna has always been particular about palace rules to a fault, even when I was a boy."

"How long has she been at the palace?" Ursa imagined it must have been a long time for her to garner the respect she did from almost everyone in the palace, even from the two princes.

"She was hired a few months before I was born to be my nanny." Her shock must have been apparent on her face, as Iroh raised an eyebrow. "Ah, you didn't know?"

"No."

"I suppose she doesn't let the servants talk about it much. Yes, Yuna was Ozai and I's nanny. A position that became of utmost importance after my mother passed, as you might imagine."

"I see." It certainly made sense why Iroh and Ozai seemed to acknowledge her more than the other servants, then; she was the closest thing they had to a mother figure. Ursa wondered what it must be like for Yuna, to raise two small boys whom she now had to bow to as princes.

"She's a good and capable woman, but a bit old-fashioned." Iroh said. "She's more of my father's mindset while you and I are the next generation of royalty. Don't let her push you around too much."

"Easier said than done," Ursa replied without thinking.

Iroh laughed at that, the sound warm and full in the empty dining room. Despite her embarrassment at accidentally speaking so plainly, she felt pleased with herself for provoking such a reaction. "Don't I know it," he said sympathetically. "I'll permit you to attend to the rest of your day now. Allow me to escort you out?"

He stood and held a hand out to her, which she took automatically. It had become almost muscle memory at this point, given that Iroh escorted her back from dinner nearly every night now.

"By the way," he murmured as he opened the door for them, "if no one else has said so, you're doing very well as Princess Ursa."

Honestly, no one else had. "Thank you," she whispered, something fluttering in her chest.

From the private recollections of Korzu Rinta

Recorded in 103 AG

Iroh and Ursa left Ember Island yesterday. They've been spending more of their time traveling since the war's end, especially since Iroh is trying to avoid appearing as if he's overly influencing the young Fire Lord behind the scenes. It's strange, considering I always assumed that it was Iroh's destiny to die on the throne as his father and grandfather before him, but retirement from royal life suits him much better. We have more time to do the things that catch our fancy, like run off to the beach for a week, without first informing a couple dozen guards and attendants and ministers of our plans. Iroh never had that luxury - all our boyhood trips to Ember Island occurred under close watch.

He and Ursa will have been wed for thirty-five years come next summer. I hardly feel old enough to have friends who have been married for so long, considering I only met my own love less than a decade ago, but I suppose we are in our fifties now. Iroh and Ursa were married so young as well, by Fire Lord Azulon's will. It's both a blessing and a burden, to be tied to a life partner at that age. You grow up so much, which is a wonderful thing to do together, but it also presents the risk of growing apart. Sometimes I wish I'd found Panaku as a younger man, then I recall how much more nervous and flighty I used to be...back then, I almost certainly would have been too terrified of breaking the law by being with a man to realize how misguided the law was and follow my heart anyway.

I also would've been petrified of anyone, especially Iroh, even guessing at the truth. Not because I had any sort of attraction to Iroh - as many have implied since I came out as homosexual - but because he was a dear friend whose opinion I valued, and more pressingly, he was the crown prince. It turned out, though, that he didn't really care.

"I suppose this shouldn't be news," he said after the war ended and I told him about Panaku. "You never seemed very interested in the same views as me on those beach trips." He then apologized for not doing anything about that awful law sooner. Perhaps I'm biased as his friend, but I think he would've if he'd been in his right mind.

As I've mentioned before, along with others who knew him, Iroh was not the same man after everything that happened around Azulon's death. It all twisted him greatly, understandably so. Ursa, I think, deserves more credit than she will accept for bringing him back to himself. They enjoyed several years of blissful marriage and parenthood before the bad times. Her belief in Iroh during those difficult years was pivotal towards the end of the war, especially after the Avatar returned. I hope history remembers her as more than a woman who was related to powerful men. She has power in her own right that is frequently overlooked.

During this last visit, we actually ended up reminiscing a lot about the beginning of my friendship with Ursa. I don't remember how exactly it came up - we were walking on the beach, Panaku and I, Iroh and Ursa, when the topic turned to my school days with Iroh. Panaku and Ursa started teasing us about our "pompous" upbringings, and somehow the conversation evolved into a discussion of Ursa's troubles in her early years as a princess.

I still remember what a shock it was to receive that letter from Iroh informing of his impending marriage. He asked me to come home from whatever remote village I'd been in at the time and stand with him as a groomsman because his father had mysteriously found him a bride, and the wedding was happening as soon as possible. Back then, of course, I had no idea what had caused Azulon's urgency, but I knew Iroh and his wanderlust would have been chafing at the yoke of marriage. I hurried to the capital to find that the wedding had already passed, his new wife was mysteriously ill, and I was the only one he would trust with her care.

Those few weeks I spent treating Ursa were nerve-wracking for me, but they also afforded me a close look at the beginning of her relationship with Iroh. His letter to me had dripped of derision for his new "obligation," yet on my first night as her physician, he disappeared into her room for a private conversation and emerged with an uncharacteristically soft look on his face.

I liked her almost at once. She was tenacious, considerate, and wryly funny. I secretly thought that once Iroh got over his reservations about such a young marriage, he would find her to be a pleasant life partner. Maybe even more, if he gave her the time and space she needed to adjust to her new life. It was clear that she had been even more caught off guard by this marriage than Iroh, although she was putting on a brave face.

They were nowhere near in love by the time I left the palace, but there was…maybe a flicker of interest. Iroh had enjoyed himself as a teenage prince, but Ursa was already married to him and thus didn't care about his status, which had been Iroh's main quality of attraction for years. He was now forced to get to know her as an equal, and I think the novelty of it intrigued him more than he cared to admit. I didn't know Ursa well enough in those days to speculate on her mindset, but it seemed that she did appreciate his kindness relative to the rest of his family.

I remember as I was about to depart from the palace, Ursa was saying goodbye to me by the gates when Iroh arrived to do the same. They were both clearly surprised to see each other. Ursa politely excused herself so Iroh and I could talk privately. As she left, he gazed after her for just a beat too long with that strange softness in his face again. I wanted to tease him about it, but I restrained myself, knowing it might do more harm than good to point it out. I hadn't seen him like that since he was a schoolboy with a crush who hadn't yet realized just how many girls would gladly share an ice cream with the crown prince.

After three decades, he gazes at her that way much more lovingly and openly now, until she notices it and either kisses him on the cheek or playfully admonishes him. I imagine it's just as foolish as I look around Panaku.

Anyway, I'm just rambling to myself at this point. I really must be getting old, spending so much time rehashing well-worn memories. Tomorrow, hopefully, my love and I will make some new ones. What more can anyone ask for?

A/N: Y'all ever come up with an OC who you end up liking too much….yeah that's me with Korzu rn. He'll show up again, don't worry.

~Bobbi