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Zuko lifts his eyes from the scroll to the door as its hinges creak from the abrupt entrance of his wife into their bedroom.
He raises his only good brow.
Odd.
She wasn’t supposed to return early from her night out with Suki and Katara. They received an invitation to an overnight soiree held by the wife of one of his ministers. It was a gathering for the women to relax; they said.
Toph too was adamant that she’d be back in the morning. She believed that a little time for themselves away from each other was good. Healthy even.
Since their wedding six months ago, they haven’t spent time apart. But Toph needed her space to unwind from the politics, and whatever she desired, he would do everything in his power to give it to her.
Zuko opens his mouth to greet her but stops when Toph wordlessly marches to her dresser and throws her green headband to the side, black-ink hair cascading down her back in untamed curls. She quickly takes off her jewelry, aggressively shoving it into the drawers, and strips down to her inner robes.
He immediately scrambles off their bed, abandoning the scroll next to the lamp on the nightstand. “Is there something wrong, Toph?”
Her fingers fiddle with the sash on her waist, and he notices the slight slump in her posture.
“…”
Oh no.
Toph being silent meant something bad happened.
Zuko kneels, cupping her hands with his, as she sits on the dresser’s stool. “Toph, did someone hurt you? Just tell me, and I will—”
“Nothing happened.”
He tilts his head to the side. Confused.
“What do you mean?”
Toph sighs. “Exactly that. Nothing happened.”
“I do not understand. Then why did you return so early? I thought you’d wanted to hang out with Katara and Suki tonight.”
“I was until…” She pauses, and Zuko holds his breath in anticipation.
Were the other ladies unkind towards her? Insulted her? What could it possi—
“They all started complaining about their husbands.” Toph pulls her hands from his, and she pinches her nose, releasing a sound of frustration. “And I couldn’t participate!”
Zuko blinks. “Participate?”
“Katara whines about how Aang can be so overprotective especially with their child on the way. Suki gets annoyed because Sokka blows up their home with his inventions. And the other noble ladies. Don’t even get me started on them. Did you know that some of them haven’t seen their husbands or talked to them in months?”
“Um…”
“Also, I’m not supposed to tell you this, but several of your ministers are cheating on their wives. Especially Minister Ajee, he’s the worst one of them all. He tried to pass off his mistress as his ward, into their family home! Blech.”
Zuko inwardly cringes at the information, but files it for another time as he continues to listen to his wife rattling out more details regarding the sordid affair.
“Lady Ajee must loathe him.”
“Oh, don’t worry about her. She’s hooking up with his secretary.”
“Err… how nice for her?”
“Oh, it gets messier.” Toph shakes her head. “I think she’s pregnant.”
He double takes. “Now, you’re just messing with me.”
“Hey, you weren’t there when she puked behind a vase!”
Agni, the meeting with the court tomorrow was going to be awkward. He might not even look at his subjects in the eye. He couldn’t even fathom the thought of cheating.
To him it violated his very beliefs. To betray the one to whom he promised his eternal loyalty? His heart and soul? Living after that would be devastating.
He’d lose half of himself.
But then again, not everyone had had the luxury of being married to the one they loved.
Toph chose him despite everything.
He was fortunate in that regard.
“It seemed like you were having fun.” Zuko pushes back a stray hair from her ear.
“Eh, not really. It became a bore halfway through and… I missed you.”
A sudden, radiant warmth blooms deep inside Zuko’s chest. Its heat spreading through his ribs as his voice trembles. “Really?”
She nods. “I miss you even when we’re in a different room in this huge palace of yours.”
“Me too.” He confesses. “Every day when I’m not beside you, I count the minutes until I see you again.”
“Ugh! This is why it’s your fault that I left the girls!”
“Mine? I wasn’t even there.” Zuko pulls her from the chair, leading them to sit on the edge of their bed side by side.
“I couldn’t actually complain about you.”
“Toph, the other day, you nagged at me for not telling you in advance about my mother and Kiyi visiting. That’s why you couldn’t serve the Earth Kingdom cuisine you promised them.”
“No, I mean—” She waves her hands, trying to find the words. “For that one I just wanted your mother and sister to enjoy their time with me. They’re my in-laws. I’d like to be on good terms with them.”
“They adore you.” He cups her cheek. “You don’t have to worry about them hating you. They tell me you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“I know,” she rests her head on his sternum. Getting comfortable. “I rock your world, Sparky.”
Zuko hums in agreement and presses a soft kiss on her forehead. “Always.”
They stay in a comfortable silence until Toph adjusts her position. She straddles him between her thighs, and interlocks her arms around his neck while he rests his hands on her waist. “Anyway, back to the topic. I couldn’t exactly whine about my husband to the other ladies. Because, you know…. you’re…”
“The Fire Lord?”
“Duh! I can’t exactly give you a bad rep in front of the ladies as sovereign of state, can I? Politician wives are horrible gossips. I wouldn’t want anything I say to be used against you.”
Zuko rolls his eyes. Sometimes Toph was the more concerned one about his image. He once held the title of banished prince and fugitive, but whatever gets him the least Agni Kai challenges, the better. Either that or less paperwork dealing with the aftermath of scandals forwarded by the Grand Chamberlain.
“I believe that whatever you say about me is not as bad as what their spouses have done in their marriages.”
“That’s the thing. “
“Hm?”
“Do you know there’s a difference between husbands and husbands?”
“I hope I’m a good kind of one.”
“You’re a husband.”
“Yes, and very much yours.”
“Yeah, is exactly what I mean...” Toph playfully blows a raspberry on his sternum, making Zuko laugh.
“Hey, that’s tickles!”
“No! You’re so…so sappy and devoted!“
Zuko pries himself off his wife’s hold, leaning his head back a bit to look at her face. “Isn’t that the point of being a husband?”
“Not all husbands do that, unfortunately.”
Toph’s eyebrows stitched together in a sharp, furrowed line, and Zuko couldn’t help but admire her features. He had memorized every inch and curve of her, but she always took his breath away.
And with her quick-wittedness and intelligence? He was a smitten fool.
“You look out for me even when I’m not in the room. Spoiling me with whatever you think I’d like—like that one time where you ended a council meeting fast just because you remembered I craved candied fruit sticks that day. You could have gotten the staff deliver it instead.”
Zuko smiles fondly at the memory. The Grand Chamberlain tried to stop him leaving the room, but he pushed the man aside for some time with her. “You told me you needed it, so I got it for you.”
“Yes! And now, the council thinks that you’d drop everything whenever I ask!”
“In a heartbeat, I would.”
A rosy tint spreads across Toph’s face. “See what I’m working with?! I have no real complaints about you!”
“I doubt it, truly.”
“Zuko, you’re too patient with me even when I’m driving you crazy. We argue, and at the end of the day, when we’re back to our room, you don’t hold on to it! You also humble yourself when you don’t have to because you want us to make up!”
“Well… I promised myself that I would never go to bed angry at you.” His thumbs slowly caress her sides as he admits. “That I would never let our marriage end like my parents. I want to know you’re loved—wholly. If it meant that I’d worship the ground you’d walk on, I would. I love you, Toph.”
They both could hear the low cackle of the candle flames in the background as silence fell between the two of them. Toph lays her forehead in surrender against his, and Zuko beams.
Like his element, he burned, yearned for her with everything he had, always ready to give, while she held restraint when it came to uttering those three precious words to him.
And when she did, hearing it was sweeter.
“You dork.” She licks her lips.
His gaze falls to her pink mouth. Wanting to kiss her badly. "Uh-huh."
“I didn’t want to tell you this until tomorrow morning.”
“You can just say it again to me.”
Toph chuckles. “After that confession? I’m not letting you have the last word tonight.”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
She presses a quick peck to his lips, then cheeks, and a shiver runs down his spine as he feels her hot breath against his right ear.
“Have you thought about how I knew that Lady Ajee was puking behind a vase? Or how I didn’t come home drunk at all?”
“…No? I assumed you sensed it with your earthbending. And you really don’t like the taste of Fire Liquor.”
“Good guess, but I was there beside her doing the exact same thing.”