howlingplayground | Arranged Marriage

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Arranged Marriage

It's a trope near and dear to our hearts. Arranged marriage.

Maybe it's for the family. Maybe it's for a friend. Maybe you know the person and have been expected to marry them for years. Maybe it's the wedding day and you have no clue who it is you'll be tied to for your natural life. Maybe you've been married a while, and you're just now starting your life, away from the expectations of others. Or maybe, the "others" are watching, waiting, making sure this marriage sticks.

Prompts for those who need them:

Reasons:

1. Station → You come from a royal, noble, or otherwise distinguished family who has chosen a suitable spouse for you.
2. Feud → You are being married to put an end to the bitter enmity between your two families.
3. Economics → Your economic state and/or your station will improve through the union, though one of you may be marrying down.
4. Empire → You and your spouse are merging your businesses and/or property to create something more influential or profitable.
6. Tribute → You have been offered as a gift or appeasement, alternately you're the spoils of war.
8. Bloodline → Carrying on your distinguished family name has fallen to you and the equally well-bred spouse of your family's selection.
7. Disapproval → Your marriage has been arranged to keep you away from the person with whom you truly wish to be.

Scenario:

1. First meeting → This is the very first time you're meeting your future spouse.
2. Courtship → To get to know each other and encourage affection, your family has approved of you going on dates.
3. Engagement party → Be it a huge, formal affair or a small, intimate get together, you're celebrating (or pretending).
4. Wedding day → The big day!
5. Reception → The big party!
6. Wedding night → Every meme needs a smut prompt, right?
7. Honeymoon → Where will you go with your new spouse and what will you do there?
8. Been at this a while → Just starting to get to know the other person

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He nods, squeezes her hand and turns for the chamber, where his advisors are waiting. He knows, very well, that he's being watched. Everyone is watching to see what he does, what happens, what becomes of him while he navigates the murky waters of being Fire Lord, as well as a teenager.

There's also something else he'd like to do: find his mother. He doesn't believe she's dead. Lost, perhaps, but not dead. There are a lot of people displaced by the war, and in hiding. If he could, he'd hire that one bounty hunter again, June, to see if she could find Ursa, but he's not ready yet. The nation isn't ready yet.

His meetings are long, arduous, and boring. But they have to be done. He forestalls any talk of military action that doesn't involve helping. He's not going to send troops out, but bringing them back is just as hard. He doesn't want to leave a vacuum where petty thieves and pirates can take over. He wants the hand over to be lawful, and with the least amount of disruption for the people. He assures his advisors that he's aware he's going to lose citizens/soldiers. But he's prepared for that.

After his final meeting, he wants to get the hell out of the palace. But, there is one more, important, meeting to see to: Katara. Stepping into his rooms, he goes to the balcony. He can hear the servants setting up the dinner table behind him. He turns to see their progress. Seeing them done and simply waiting, he orders them out. He and Katara are quite capable of feeding themselves. Time to wait for her.

While Zuko attends to his business, Katara has a few meetings of her own to deal with. And while she doesn't have the stress of dealing with politics (at least, not yet), the discussions she has are no less difficult and painful.

The most difficult talk had been with Aang, of course. Whatever their relationship was, or is, or might have been had effectively come to a halt. And while he had understood eventually - as long as that had taken to reason with him - it had still hurt them both more than Katara thought it would.

But what's done is done. Now there's nothing left but to finalize the decision, as she's lead to where Zuko is waiting for her.

When the door opens, he doesn't turn around. "You can go." He says, to the servant. When they go to protest, he snorts. "I'm sure Lady Katara is quite capable of defending her own honor. You can go." The servant bows and closes the door behind themself.

He hasn't moved from the balcony, just watching the people move around far below. Some of them look up and bow, but then go on about their business. He likes that. He likes that people haven't changed so fundamentally from what he has learned. The deep honor of the Earth Kingdom, the proud fierceness of the Water Tribes. That is comforting to know.

He doesn't know what to say to her, so stays where he is. "This room was mine as a child." He decides on. "I've missed it." If they marry, however, they'll move down the hall to where his parents had lived.

She waits until the servant leaves before letting a smile cross her face. They both knew quite well that she's more than capable of protecting herself, but sometimes it's just nice to hear it said.

As she steps further inside, she glances around. "It feels like you," she comments idly. Everything straightened out to be presented as best as possible, but still with some personal touches that it isn't too empty.

Eventually she joins him onto the balcony, looking at the land stretched out before them. A nation that would have been so foreign, so unfamiliar to her only just a year ago, but she had spent some time traveling through and learning about since then.

But would it be enough, she wonders, to ever really call it home?

She comes to stand next to him and he wonders what she's thinking. He wonders what's going through her mind. He's tense and unsure of how to go about this. But she's Katara. And his advisors, the White Lotus, and apparently, her Grandmother, all want him to marry her. He sighs.

"Did you speak to Sokka?" He asks, softly. He's not sure what her older brother would say about her marrying him. Sokka had never been his biggest fan, but since rescuing Suki and Hagoda from Black Rock... Hell, he doesn't know. But he wants to know. He wants to know what she's thinking, what she wants to do.

He leaves his hands on the railing but thinks about turning to look at her. He decides against it.

“I did,” she says with a nod. Sokka has been as upset as she had when she’d first heard, even after the explanation regarding the reasoning from Piandao. Luckily his anger, like hers, wasn’t directed at Zuko. Sokka hadn’t had many male friend after most of the men went to fight in the war - too young to help, but older than all the other boys in the tribe. So he had come to appreciate and value Zuko’s friendship.

But he still wasn’t happy about the arranged marriage. Like Aang, Sokka understood, but it had taken a lot of convincing.

She sighs, resting her elbows on the railing as she rests her chin in her palm. “This whole thing is a mess.”

He lets out a bark of laughter reminiscent of the old Zuko, the one that had chased the Avatar around the world. He leans on his elbows next to her, still watching the people below. "That's a polite way of putting it."

He's been thinking, trying to think, of anything that could get her out of it. His marriage is going to be arranged. Mai would have been a good choice, being as she was already a Fire Nation noble, but he's known that he doesn't get to really choose his wife. His father hadn't, and neither had his mother.

"You can refuse." He says, finally, softly. "Uncle said that if you were to refuse, then my heartbrokenness would serve a purpose too." But, he's not sure he could pull off the heartbroken teenager. He's a lot of things, but openly emotional about personal things is not one of them.

Folding her arms on the railing, she fixes him a look. “I think you know me better than that,” she retorts. Even if he doesn’t know her true reasons, he had spent the better part of a year chasing her, analyzing her, watching for her every move along with Aang, that he would have a good idea how she thinks.

And he would know that marrying him would give her a chance to help people. Help the people of the world rebuild, help his nation learn to become part of the world...help him through it all.

And she never turns her back on people who need her.

He does. He does know her better. He knows that she would never turn her back. But, he has to offer her the out. He has to offer her the chance to not be caught in this web of politics that has surrounded the pair of them now.

But he's still Zuko at times. "I could marry Toph." Toph would kill him. He knows that too, but she's nobility from the Earth Kingdom, so that does carry some weight amongst political circles.

But he's not being serious. His advisors would go for it, but the girl herself would lock him in an earth prison with his hands captured and pummel him with rocks. If she was feeling nice and didn't just cackle her way out of town.

She bites her bottom lip, trying to keep from laughing. "I don't think Toph would really go for that," she says as nicely as possible. The image of Zuko marrying Toph was kind of hilarious.

More than that, though, Toph is even younger than they are. Rushing her into marriage is even worse. She couldn't imagine the Earthbender wanting to settle down just yet.

Zuko glances at her, then nudges her with an arm. "I give you permission to laugh." He says, with a small smile. But his attention soon finds its way back to the people. "I thought I was going to marry Mai. She's rather scary about it." He says, softly. "But she left. And my advisors, and possibly uncle came up with this crazy plan. And dragged you into it."

That's the part that bothers Zuko the most: they'd dragged in a friend. That friend had seen him at his worst and his best and is still his friend.

Honestly, he's more than a little lost. Oh, the politics make sense to him. Even the manuevering makes sense to him. What doesn't make sense is why now, so soon after the war has ended, so soon after he's been made Fire Lord?

This time she gives a rather unladylike snort. "Like I need your permission," she teases.

Her mirth fades some at Zuko's revelation, and she glances at him. "Mai broke up with you?" she asks softly. She realized that their relationship would need to end for this to proceed, like hers and Aang's, but it sounded like she had broken up with him before this.

His smile disappears as she repeats what he'd told her. He rubs the back of his neck, uncomfortable. "She doesn't like the scrutiny." He says, softly. "She doesn't like being the center of attention like that. She doesn't like that she'd only be my partner, not an entity in her own right."

Which, she could have become one. She could have. Somehow, he would have made it so, but she'd decided that leaving was easier. And he couldn't fault her for it. It would be like living under her parents again. She'd hate it.

"I wouldn't have asked it of her. I wouldn't ask it of anyone." He admits, softly. "I want a partner, but someone who will stand with me and against me, when necessary."

She places a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry,” she says softly. Part of her wonders if things would be different if Mai had stayed. If Mai had stayed, would the idea for her to marry Zuko still have come up?

There was no way to know for sure now. But it was just one more thing that he had lost thanks to all this.

“You need that,” she agrees. “But also someone who will be as fair to you and your people as possible. Someone who won’t try to make you feel guilty for the Fire Nation’s past, in order to push the needs of their own home nation first.”

That’s what she had been worried about. If she had turned down the proposal, and someone else had been chosen chosen to marry him, she was worried that the other person would try to guilt Zuko into fixing their home, at the expense of his own.

She looks out at the land just beyond the palace walls. “Your people are a lot like you, Zuko,” she says softly. “Stubborn, strong...a little lost but ultimately a good people. You’ll be a good leader for them, because you can understand what they’ll be going through.” She turns to him. “And you need someone who understands you.”

She touches him and he wonders at it. She's free with a gentle touch. He's found that out. A gentle touch, a kind word, but she has absolutely no problem handing him his ass when he needs it - and a few times he doesn't know he needs it.

He touches her hand with sword-callused fingers. "A little lost?" He asks, just curious. He's very lost. He's feeling his way through most things and unable to tell if any of them are right. "I feel like I'm very lost."

She gives his hand a gentles squeeze. “But you keep going. You keep trying, until you find your way. And you find the path that’s best for you. And I know you’ll do the same for your own people. You just need someone who can help you.”

He sighs, looking out over the people below. A crowd has started to gather in one part of the small square. Word probably got out that he's standing there with a girl. That's unusual enough in itself, but, he also knows how palace gossip gets around. So, people probably suspect by now that something is going on.

"Dinner's getting cold." He holds out his hand for her. "We should eat." He says, softly.

Looking up at him, she then takes his hand and draws away from the railing. "Think I can take a look at that wound before we eat?" Since they would be fairly out of sight, it would be a good time to let her heal him.

He draws her into his room and carefully closes the doors to the balcony. He hides the grimace that causes behind closing the door. He sighs. Slowly, he turns around, and undoes his robe. His bandages are still on, but it's obvious that he's in a bit of pain. He doesn't let people know, though. He can't. He can't seem as anything less than the strongest of the strong.

"It's fine." He says, not wanting her to know how bad it actually is. Azula's lightning had done it's work on him, but he won't blame Katara. That blame is squarely on his sister's shoulders. He'd go see her but he can't. Not yet. How, how had she become so... diseased in her mind to become what she was? He'll go see her someday. Just not right now.

He can pretend to be strong for other people all he wants, but Katara won’t let him get away with that with her.

“Don’t lie,” she says, already stepping closer to carefully remove the bandages. “I had to treat Aang after Azula shot lightning at him, I know how bad it can be.”

The words are out of her mouth before she realizes it, but she immediately regrets it when she remembers when that moment had happened.

He stops her hands, just as his chest and the wound are revealed. He knows how bad it is. He sees her hesitate with her words and he sighs. "I made a lot of mistakes. Siding with Azula was just one of them. For what she did, for what my father did, I am sorry." He says softly, looking down at their hands.

"But you don't... please don't curb your tongue with me. I value your honesty. It's part of who you are. And I know I can trust it." He says, softly.

She doesn't speak for a moment, her eyes on his hands holding hers. Then she looks up so that she meets his eyes.

"I know. And you know I wouldn't hold back if I think there's something you need to hear," she says. "But I'd never bring up the past to try to hurt you. You know that, right? Those mistakes you've made...you've learned from them, and you keep learning from them. But they're never going to be something that I would hold against you."

He sighs, and doesn't release her hands. He's not sure that he wants to. The burn on his chest is bright red against pale skin. Zuko takes a deep breath. "I've always known I'd have to marry for political reasons. I thought, with Mai, the politics were taken care of." He admits all this because he wants her to know these things. "But, there are worse things than marrying a friend?" He offers, almost tentatively.

He wants them to be friends. All the other stuff can come later. They'll figure it out as they go along. But right now, he needs friends. Even if he has a feeling one those friends, who just happens to be the Avatar, is going to have words for him.

She manages a small smile, pulling one of her hands away to open the cap of her water sac. The water flows out from it under her direction, covering her hand. As she gently presses it to the burn mark on his chest, the bright blue glow fills the space between them.

"I'll try to make it less terrible for you," she says softly.

He steps back, away from the healing, shocked. "Terrible?" He says. "Katara, why would..." He stops, takes a breath. "Being married to a friend like you is..." He stops again, trying to express himself and being extremely bad at it. He really is. He's trying though, and not able to articulate it.

"Less terrible? Katara, why would you think that?" He finally is able to ask. "I knew my marriage would be political. You didn't. I should be the one saying that to you."

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