Maiko100 Prompt #71: Home -- Miss_Sanguine
The Peace Council had gone as well as to be expected, all of the world’s leaders having shown up personally in Ba Sing Se to discuss matters of international importance. It had been the first time in many years for someone from the Fire Nation to participate, and that had only made the situation more awkward for him. He’d been more than relieved when Aang had walked in-looking so much older than he remembered-and sat down beside him in the Earth King’s Council Chamber. Though he hadn’t seen Aang in over a year, he’d immediately felt more at home with the young man sitting next to him and giving him additional support.
But even though the Council had played out well, the other Nation Leaders treating him with civil, albeit wary, respect and kindness, he couldn’t have been more happy when he stepped off of the ship onto Fire Nation soil once more. He’d only been in the Earth Kingdom for two months, but the time away from home-mainly Mai-had been enough to make it seem like he’d been gone for an eternity or more.
It’d been hard accepting the invite to attend the Council in the first place. Mai had been six months into her pregnancy when he’d received it and he hadn’t been disposed to leaving her side for any reason. But a letter from Aang had asserted that it was more than crucial that he attend. Mai hadn’t been very understanding, especially in her ever-increasing hormonal state, and had nearly castrated him when he’d told her.
But that had been over two months ago, and the whole time he’d been gone he’d been unable to get her out of her mind-and hadn’t really tried to. Was she all right? Was the baby all right?
When the palace rose into view from where he sat in his palanquin, he was relieved to see that it and the rest of the Capital City was still in one piece. There was something amiss, however, which he noticed the moment he stepped off into the courtyard.
Servants and guards were both actively running here and there across the courtyard, carrying various pieces of furniture and decorations from the palace. This was strange, especially since at mid-day during the summer they were usually nowhere to be seen outside in this sweltering heat.
Zuko blinked a few times, then hailed one of the frantic servants with a wave. The man was carrying a potted plant of some kind, some of the soil spilling down onto the cobblestones as he tried to balance it while he walked. He was out of breath and red-faced, sweat drenching his clothes and running down his face.
“Welcome home, milord,” he said hurriedly, feet dancing beneath him as though he were ready to dash off again the moment he could. He made as if to bow until he remember what he held, and instead gave a nod. “So good to see you had a safe trip. Was the weather nice there? What can I do for you?”
The young lord stared at him, incredulous, and then asked, “What is all this?”
“All of what, milord?” The man’s eyes darted to the left in direction he’d been headed before he’d been called, oblivious to Zuko’s problem.
“What’s going on? Why is all of the furniture being moved?”
“Oh.” The servant now looked at him with eyes that Zuko only just noticed were blood-shot. “Well, you see, the Lady Mai has ordered that the entire palace be redecorated, and has been rather… unshakable on the idea. She’s also very hasty about it, so it’s imperative that I have this Dwarf Willow taken to the private corridors as soon as-“
“What?” Zuko blurted out. This man was making no sense. Redecorate the entire palace? Dwarf Willows? Was this some kind of joke? “Where’s Mai?”
“Um, I believe she’s in the back gardens, organizing the-“
His feet were already taking him toward the gardens before the man could finish, and he noticed that instead of following to see if his lord needed anything else, he was already darting away toward the side of the palace.
The interior was unrecognizable from what it had been two months. Statues had been moved, walls repainted to look more vibrant, tapestries removed and replaced. Carpet that hadn’t been in certain places before was now seen almost everywhere. Here and there servants were seen cleaning places that were already so polished he could see their ragged expressions reflecting back at them.
When he reached the gardens, he stopped in his tracks to stare. Mai stood a few feet away, her back facing him, and she was directing about thirty servants at the same time, all of whom were running around like lost rodents, trying to make sense of her commands. One servant came running up to her and worriedly whispered something, to which she immediately shouted, “I don’t care if it’s attached to the floor, detach it!” and the servant bowed and ran off in a panic.
When he’d seen enough, Zuko stepped forward. “Mai!” he said. “What in Agni’s name are you doing?”
His heart lifted a few feet when she turned to him-he hadn’t seen that beautiful face in over two month-but it immediately sank back down when he saw the feeling was not neutral.
“What am I doing?” she asked. “While you were off for two months on your little peace vacation, I’ve been stuck here trying to get the palace ready for our new baby. Or did you forget that it’s only one month away?”
“The palace is already ready for the baby,” he said, puzzled. “We had the nursery set up long before I left. And it wasn’t a vacation.”
“Whatever.”
Deciding this was just another hormonal thing, Zuko tried to shrug it off, though he could feel the ever-present temper starting to bubble in his gut. He watched as three guards ran past with bags of komodo-rhino fertilizer slung over their shoulders; watched two Royal Guardsmen as they worked meticulously away at pulling the weeds out from around the turtleduck pond; men who were meant for more important ordeals doing menial things. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“I missed you,” he managed awkwardly, trying to ignore the fact that he had just seen a servant emerge from beneath the surface of the pond with handfuls of muck grasped tightly. Was she trying to clean mud? He turned his attention to his wife, taking in her swollen belly beneath her loose robes. She looked ready to pop.
She ignored him, of course, continuing to shout orders to those across the way and reprimand those that weren’t doing exactly what she wanted. She was terrifying, but he couldn’t help but step closer and cautiously place his hand on her shoulder. To his surprise, she didn’t pull away, and instead he felt a small shudder pass through her at his touch. She even stopped mid-yell.
He smiled. How could he not? So she had missed him; missed his touch as much as he missed hers. Suddenly it didn’t matter that she was crazy, that she was abusing their entire palace staff, all that mattered was that he was home and that she was here and that she still wanted him despite her being so crazy.
“I missed you,” he repeated, pulling her to him and never letting go.