Work Text:
“It’s not as exciting as a secret passion in the woods, but it is stronger. It lasts longer.”
– A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R Martin.
Royals are not expected to love their spouses, Zuko was well aware of that. Since the time he was a child, the prince could tell that the couples around him were very different from the passionate lovers of his mother’s stories: people in the court married for the sake of politics and nothing else. Politeness, respect and the production of heirs were the requirements for a successful marriage, but not love.
On that ground, his parents’ marriage was pretty much a disaster. Ursa did succeed in giving children to her husband, but the couple failed in every other aspect of matrimony. They couldn’t stand each other, partly because Ursa loved another, which for a person of her status, was foolish. Ozai didn’t have much of a choice on the matter of choosing his bride either, but it was far worse for her than it was for him, he made sure of that, her suffering for being away from her former fiancee mended his wounded ego.
Uncle Iroh’s marriage, too, was arranged by the Fire Lord, of course, the crown prince couldn’t just marry anyone. It was a happy union, however. Short, but happy. As a husband, Iroh was respectful and gentle, as was his wife, and the result was their beloved son Lu Ten. Over the course of the years, they grew affectionate of each other, and he did suffer her death… yet, he couldn’t say he ever loved her, at least not romantically.
As for his grandparents, there was a rumor, whispering gossips around the palace corridors that Fire Lord Azulon and Fire Lady Ilah actually loved each other. Zuko couldn’t testify for that, as his grandmother died when he was only a baby, but the stories said that though they married for duty, they fell in love over the years and became very devoted to each other, and when she died, so did what was left of Azulon’s heart.
That said, one must be extremely lucky, being a royal or a noble, to love someone they could actually be with. Zuko couldn’t possibly hope for that, he had already wasted all of his luck just to be born, as his father once said.
That was what he firmly believed until he met Mai.
The innocent childhood crush that was supposed to fade away, lingered. When they were old enough to acknowledge what their feelings for each other actually meant, no one opposed them being together. Mai’s family was over the moon, of course, having their daughter involved with the future ruler of the nation, and Ozai didn’t seem to care. She was suitable, adequate, he couldn’t care less either Zuko loved her or not, only that he wouldn’t have to waste his time looking for an acceptable match for his son.
Not having to struggle for people to accept their relationship was a victory itself, but loving Mai was extremely easy. It was stable, permanent, solid, it was the certainty of everlasting. Nobody disaproved of them, no one dared to stand in their way, everyone expected them to be together forever and marry someday in the future.
But whatever plans they had, war came to overturn them. War is a cruel entity, it does not spare the young, nor the lovers, and court politics can be harsh. The day Zuko dared to speak against his father, he paid the highest of prices, not only the scar on his face, but banishment for indeterminate time, possibly permanent.
He was robbed of his country, his throne, his birthright. But above all, he was robbed of Mai.
He couldn’t possibly drag her into exile with him, so he freed her of their commitment before he left. He loved too much to condemn her to such a terrible penitence of waiting forever. He wanted her to be happy, or at least happyish, even if it meant her being with another.
But despite what Zuko wanted, Mai vowed to wait for him, and though those three years went by swiftly, it took a hold on their relationship. They were no longer children when they reunited in Ba Sing Se, they were almost adults then, and their views on themselves and of each other had changed. Their individual experiences and the effervescence of war turned what was solid and steady into a mountain of ups and downs.
Another three years of breaking up and coming back together passed by until Zuko gathered the courage to get on his knees and propose to her. He was the Fire Lord now, he needed a wife, and he wouldn’t accept anyone but her, Mai was the one his heart yearned for.
“I will not let my luck slip away through my fingers ever again.” He said the night he asked for her hand in marriage. “I realize now how fortunate we are for loving each other, in this world we live in, and I want to love you forever.”
He thought the happiest moment of his life was Mai saying yes to him, but in reality, it was seeing her walk to him in her wedding gown, more beautiful than ever. The room was crowded with people, all of the Fire Nation’s elite came to witness the royal wedding, but they all disappeared in his eyes at the sight of her, outshined by her mere presence.
If Zuko looked back at his younger self, a child raised to believe that love has nothing to do with marriage, he couldn’t believe how lucky he was, how lucky they were. It wasn’t forced coexistence like his parents, it wasn’t acceptance like his uncle and aunt, nor the brick-by-brick built love of his grandparents. It was something better, natural, something stronger.
It’s hard not to become superstitious and believe in petty things such as soulmates when the odds worked so perfectly in their favor. To love someone, to be loved back, and to have the chance to live out that love is quite a rare thing.
He was lucky indeed. Not to be born, but for loving Mai with every fiber of his being.
“I believe it might be the other way around.” Mai declared in the middle of their wedding vows, once in a lifetime comfortable about expressing her feelings in public. “I am the lucky one here. I couldn’t have asked for a better husband than you.”