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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Zuko pauses, thinking for a moment. It's not that he doesn't want her to help - he does - he just doesn't want to dump her into the fire so quickly, so to speak.

The knock comes again, and he holds out his hand to Katara. "I don't see why not. It's mostly paperwork, this evening." Or, it would be now. He's not going to subject her to his damned advisors, just yet. She'll get enough of that later.

With a smile, she takes his hand and rises to her feet. "Well, at the very least, I can keep you company."

Because paperwork, even if it wasn't difficult, could just get tedious and boring.

Bidding Iroh and Sokka goodnight, she walks with Zuko as they exit the room.

Zuko holds her hand, as they walk. The night is warm, but not overly so and there's a decent wind out of the north that cools it into comfortable temperatures. His hair ruffles in the breeze.

Nodding to several of his guards - a few he's sparred against since becoming Fire Lord - he leads the way to his office. It's plain with a set of masks on the wall from Love Amongst the Dragons and Zuko's paired broadswords close by.

His low desk is piled high with scroll after scroll after scroll. Being Fire Lord, especially one after Ozai, means a lot of paperwork. He's still getting missives from ranking members of the army and navy, asking him what to do next. He needs to decide what, exactly, to tell them.

There's not really anywhere to sit, save behind the desk, or on the very few pillows scattered around the room. "I can ask the servants to bring a few pillows in, if you'd like?" He asks, apologetically. His office is not a place of relaxation.

As they enter the office, she winces a bit in sympathy at the sight of his desk, buried under a mountain of scrolls. She'd always known, if a bit distantly, that the work required to being Fire Lord was difficult, especially in the aftermath of the war. But she'd never really given thought to exactly how much he really had to do.

His words have her glancing up at him for a moment, then around the room again. "No, that's okay," she replies. It's not really about comfort, after all, so she could probably grab one of the pillows already there and just bring it over to sit with him at the desk.

He knows how his office looks. It's barely organized chaos. It's not clean and neat or anything that a Fire Lord's office should be, but it's his.

He settles at the desk - it was his mother's; he'd rescued it from her things in storage. He starts at the top of the stack. First, he goes through and triages the missives that are sitting there waiting for him. He snorts at a missive from Kuei and hands that to Katara. There's no secrets of state or anything. It's just a missive of Kuei's adventures through the Earth Kingdom, and how he hopes to hear about the Dai Li soon.

The Dai Li are certainly a problem for all of them. They're an elite force and not knowing where they are, or who they're loyal to, is a big issue.

"Who, besides Grangran and Master Pakku do you want to invite to the wedding?"

Taking the letter, she can't help a small smile as she reads it. At least he notes that Bosco is doing well.

Looking up at his question, she thinks for a moment. "Well, my dad, of course. I'm guessing Sokka and Toph would already be invited. Maybe Suki and some of the other Kiyoshi warriors." She tries to think of other people she could invite. Haru, maybe? Teo, Pipsqueak, The Duke?

Aang would have also been an obvious one, but she isn't sure if being invited to the wedding would hurt him more than not being invited.

"Hakoda is absolutely invited." He wouldn't try to keep her father from their wedding. That would be cruel, and he won't do that to people especially ones he's going to be related to.

He smiles, crookedly. "Suki and the Warriors will be there, most likely as security, if they have their way." He doesn't mind, but he'll talk to Suki about it. "Aang will be invited." He doesn't know if the Avatar will attend but Zuko will invite him.

"I have to talk to Sokka about a few things to do with the wedding, so yes, he's coming. Toph I also need to talk to." He has a few thoughts about their wedding being more than just the joining of the Fire Lord with a Master Water Bender.

"Anyone else?" He asks, picking up another paper.

She hesitates just a moment; she's still worried about Aang and how all this would affect him, but part of her does want him to be there. If nothing more than having support from one of her best friends. Still, she knows it might be difficult for him. She'll have to talk to him later herself.

Setting that aside for now, she thinks a bit more, then offers a few more names. Haru and the others were still friends, so what could it hurt to invite them?

"And let's see...Oh, I'm not sure if they'd come, but maybe the Swamp-benders?" They were definitely the opposite of the noble-type, but their presence might make things interesting at least.

He writes down every name dutifully. He's not going to turn down anyone that she wants to invite. Including, the Duke and Pipsqueak. If that's who she wants, then they will be invited.

But then, she mentions the Swamp-benders and he laughs. "Alright, we'll send word to them as well." She certainly doesn't want a quiet, noble, serious ceremony and party.

He sighs and rubs his burnt eye, putting a letter in another pile. It's bothering him tonight, but he knows that he has to at least sort all these missives tonight. He doesn't have a personal secretary to do it for him. That's another thing that he has to see to... eventually.

"So you should talk to the kitchens and tell them what you want at the feast, so they can prepare." He closes his burnt eye and keeps reading.

She can't help a small giggle. She doesn't really expect them to come, but she definitely wouldn't mind if they did. A quiet and serious ceremony isn't really her style.

She glances up as he rubs his eye, and she can't help a worried frown. "Are you okay?"

He sighs. He should have known that she would notice. It's not, exactly, a secret. His uncle knows, so do the Fire Nation healers that had attended him after the Agni Kai.

"When my father..." He begins, putting the paper down. "When we were in the Agni Kai and he burned my eye. He damaged it." He says softly. It's embarrassing. It's horrible. It's something that he doesn't want people to know. "It gets tired, and I have trouble seeing out of it sometimes." He shakes his head. "No one, besides Uncle, knows. I... don't want their pity."

She takes a breath at his admission. It made a bit of sense that there would be some damage to it, but somehow she had never considered that before.

"Is...there anything to help for it?" She wasn't sure if even her healing could help such long and rather old damage.

He shakes his head. "At first, in between hunting Aang, I looked for healers that could help. Nothing has helped." He admits. He shrugs. "I can compensate for it. It doesn't affect my bending, or my swordsmanship. But this time of night? It gets tired." He hates having this weakness. He hates having to admit this weakness. This isn't one of Uncle's parables that allow him to turn what he sees as a weakness into a strength. He's got an eye that gets easily tired, and is blurry in bright light. There's nothing anyone can do about it.

Her frown deepens as she thinks, her eyes ticking to her water sack. "...Can...I try?" she asks softly. She isn't sure if even her healing can do much for him, but she wanted to at least see if it can ease even a little of his pain.

He follows her eyes. "I thought... without the spirit water..." He's not even sure what he's asking. But his eye is exhausted, and sore.

Then, he nods, taking her hand. "You're welcome to try. It's the only thing left that I haven't." He admits, softly.

Gently biting her lip, she nods before uncapping her water sack, pulling the water from inside it to cover her hand. Then she reaches up and gently cups his cheek, and the water shifts slightly to cover the scar over his eye, feeling the energy flow between them.

The energy twisted up in the scar is hot and fierce. Her healing will ease some of the pain, but it won't reduce the scar, or the damage that Ozai had done to his son. But that's okay. Zuko is used to, and resigned to, it. He would never ask anything of Katara that she didn't want to give and saving Aang with the spirit water had been far more important than removing the abuse from his face.

Eventually, he touches her hand, and gently pulls it away from his face. The redness of the eye - usually an indication that it's getting tired - is reduced, but he's still Zuko. "There's no need to tire yourself. We both know this scar is old damage. And there's not a lot anyone can do." He says softly.

In truth, she hadn't expected to heal the scar itself. Her focus had just been to help reduce some of the pain. Still, she couldn't help feeling just a bit disappointed that the scar didn't look any smaller.

It at least didn't look as red as it had before, though. "Does it feel any better, at least?" she wonders.

He nods. "It does. Thank you." He whispers. She's done him a great service, honestly. Maybe tonight he'll be able to get some of this damned work done. It's piled up over time, and most of it is people wanting to ingratiate themselves to the new Fire Lord. Some need to be dealt with - old cronies of Ozai. He needs to handle them, and does, but most of them, he wants to see face-to-face.

"You've done more for it, than anyone ever has." He's still holding her hand, his golden eyes watching her.

She manages a faint smile at that, glad that she was able to do something at least. And while he's still holding her hand, she's able to reach up and gently brush the backs of her fingers across his cheek.

"Good," she says softly. "Just...let me know if it starts hurting or getting tired again, okay? Please don't try to keep it from me."

He smiles at her, wanting to turn his head and kiss her hand. Instead, he raises her fingers to his lips and kisses the back of them gently.

"No, we'll have no secrets between us." He says, softly. He doesn't want secrets between them. Little ones, sure. Everyone has their own thoughts that they keep to themselves, but secrets had led to his mother being banished, and him living in hell for years. Zuko isn't going to allow that to happen to them, or to any children they might have.

"Want to help? More nobles wanting to get on my nerves and be ingratiating while they do it." He takes his other hand and holds up a stack of papers, grinning teasingly.

Her smile softens at that, and she could feel her cheeks warm ever so slightly at the gesture. "Good," she replies, her voice just as soft.

She knows there will be some thing that he won't tell her, just as there will be some things that she won't tell him. But if they were going to be married at all, she was glad that they could at least agree to be honest with one another.

Looking down at the paper work littering the table, she pretends to consider it before sighing a little. "I guess," she says with a teasing smile. "If I don't, you'll probably be here all night."

He chuckles. "Not all night." He denies. No, he'd fall asleep at some point, probably with his face on the desk. He's done it far more often than he'd like to admit.

"All you have to do is decide who I need to see face to face and who I don't." He passes her a pile of letters. "Any questions?" He grins, dumping them in her lap. It feels... nice, comfortable, to be teasing her, to be laughing just a little.

"Sure," she giggles, teasing him.

When he dumps the letters in her lap, though, she snickers and nudges him a little. "No, I think I can handle that." Taking all the letters, she drops them beside her. "No one. There, all done."

She's also obviously joking, just trying to get him to laugh a bit more. Because it is nice, and she knows that with all the pressure he's been under, he could definitely use it.

He chuckles. While that would make things simpler, it isn't going to work that way. "If only it were that simple." He plans on sending his uncle to see a few. He'd wanted to send Aang as well, but that may be out of the question.

He sighs, looking at the pile of papers. "You know what?" He says, sitting back. "You're right." He says. "Let's get out of here." He pushes himself up. He's a good leader, but even they need a break.

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