tushanshu_logs | Can you feel the love tonight?

Entry tags:

Can you feel the love tonight?

Characters: EVERYBODY
Date: 14 February
Location: Anywhere
Situation: It's VALENTINE'S DAY! Flowers, candy, love notes, dancing, and dates... Maybe you don't have Valentine's Day on your world, but plenty of the foreigners do, and those who have found love on the turtle will be happy to tell you all about the holiday. Some of the more enthusiastic foreigners may even try to play matchmaker with their unattached fellows...
Warnings/Rating: Lovey-dovey nonsense, smooching, romance, and maybe people getting a little frisky. It is Valentine's Day, after all. Further warnings will be added if anything gets really steamy.

No plans for the big day? Feeling a little lost? Well, why don't you:

• Build a snowman together! Embrace your inner child.
• Give your lover a big box of... chocolate? Well, there's technically no chocolate in Keeliai, but maybe a kedan confectioner can whip you up something close enough. Or if you're feeling adventurous, you could go to a candy shop together and experiment with the local sweets.
• Go dancing and engage in some pan-galactic cultural exchange. Teach your partner one of the beloved dances of your home universe, like salsa, or the foxtrot, or the electric slide.
• Baby, it's cold outside. Maybe you should stay in for the day. Cook a meal together, light some candles, drink the most expensive alcohol you can afford, and take some time to appreciate each other's company. Nothing says "romance" more than fancy wine and a candlelit dinner for two.
• What better excuse to take a chance on romance? Ask out that person you've had your eye on.
• Set up your friend. You're satisfied with your relationship or lack thereof, but somebody you know is pining, so get out your bow and quiver and cupid wings and find them a potential sweetheart. What's the worst that can happen? ~~Don't answer that.~~
• No date? Grab a friend and go out to a fancy dinner with each other to celebrate Singles Awareness Day. Platonic love is important too!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well, uh..." start with something easy start with something easy start with something easy "...are there any customs related to... you know... courting... someone... of the royal family?"

There. Something simple. Something Wan was technically already doing. Ease into the topic.

Well, score one for 'talking to boyfriend's family'. "Some. But they aren't that different than the nobility." Except certain people thought they could waltz in and demand that people consent to marriage. "There haven't been all that many royal family members compared to the rest of the nobility, and many princes and princesses married other nobles. Not all of them, though. Are you asking for a reason?"

Iroh is pretty sure he knows the answer to that one.

Iroh might be surprised.

"Well, Zuko and I were joking around a few weeks ago and he said that since he's Fire Lord, he could name anyone he wanted as Fire Lady. Even me."

Wan's eyes went to his hands and his shoulders hunched as he played with a non-existent speck of dust on the table, "He then asked if I would marry him if he was serious about it. I... I asked to think about it. But all I know about marriage is how it happened in the city I grew up in. And... there's a lot of formalities involved. I don't know if I want to... but I do want to know what's important to it."

Now it was Iroh's turn to think about this. "It depends on who you ask. To Zuko, I imagine it is simply that he wants you by his side and will do whatever he has to to give you a place there. Marrying a member of the royal family is a political act, so you would become a part of the royal family, with all the politics that involves. Some Fire Ladies have been more active in their own right, and some simply supported their husbands and children, depending on their skills and desires. And those of their husbands: most couples wanted to appear as a team in public, even if they disagreed in private."

Given Ozai had set a precedent by marrying Avatar Roku's granddaughter, marrying an actual Avatar wouldn't be a problem even fi he had no connection to any Fire Nation noble family. On the other hand, "In the nobility, it is also a way to make sure bloodlines are clearly stated."

And, unless Wan had some kind of Avatar skill to address that, that was going to be a problem if they all went back together. Perhaps not an insurmountable one, but one that Zuko would need to address.

Wan did not expect to go back together. Not to Zuko and Iroh's time, anyway. His place was in their world was in their past. Aang was the Avatar of their present. So the continuation of bloodlines was not a concern for him anymore. Not with Zuko, at least.

"That's not really helpful," Wan sighed and pouted slightly. He'd been hoping for something more concrete: activities that were done when courting, rituals for how to present himself to the family, the kind of gifts that should be exchanged. Of course, his expectations were directed by what he knew to be the way a 'proper' marriage was conducted. Even the Chous wouldn't buck that kind of tradition.

"Sorry," he mumbled almost immediately after. "I just... if I'm going to do this, and I don't know if I am, I want it to be done right. I don't want it to be something he has to do all the work for. I know I don't have much, but I've been working hard to earn a decent amount of Juulans lately. I can afford gifts to the family. Uh... to you. You're the only family he has here..."

"I'm pretty sure the Fire Lord should be the one making gifts." Iroh had to think about that. He hadn't had to think about it outside of 'man and woman' terms before. "If you had any older family here." Aang counted as Wan's family as far as Iroh was concerned, but Wan was the older.

"Both families are supposed to exchange gifts, though," Wan said, finally looking up again. "And... I don't. Not older. I mean, Aang sort of counts, but... I don't have family. I never have."

"Perhaps it would be better to think of it as you joining our family," Iroh said. "Families exchange gifts because the wedding binds them together. The gifts are to show goodwill not just between the couple, but between the couple and their in-laws. If no one else is bound by your decision, then perhaps there is no need."

"But that's not the proper way. The gifts aren't just for goodwill. They're to show the kind of things your family can offer the other. A good reason for them to approve the match. One family loses a son or a daughter who is skilled and can increase the fortune of their new family. In exchange their new family bestows gifts and goods that can make up for the loss. To make sure their fortune isn't made poorer for it."

Wan's understanding of how marriages work was stuck in the not-quite-stone ages. And while he didn't care about sticking to societal expectations in most things, he did deeply respect traditions. And these were the traditions he knew.

"I mean... I don't know if that's the proper way in the Fire Nation, but that's how it was done in the city I grew up in. Please, Iroh, I don't want to do this wrong. I want it to be done the way it would be if you were still in your world. Or as close to it as it can be done. If I do this, I want it done right."

Iroh listened carefully. "The customs do still exist, though I don't think anyone would put it like that." because there was the pretense that it wasn't anything as crass as trading going on. An alliance, maybe. Good breeding for one's heirs.

"But the things you offer us aren't things that can be measured in juulan." He had to think about this more: in this case, it was more about making both Wan and his nephew feeling satisfied. Given Zuko would be cross if Wan was beggaring himself to satisfying custom, Iroh wanted to be sure to avoid that.

Wan's shoulders slumped further, discouraged. If he had nothing that could be easily measured through physical means, it would be harder to figure out what kind of gifts to bring to Zuko and Iroh.

If he did this.

Which he might.

Maybe.

"Thank you, Iroh," he murmured softly, not particularly satisfied with the answers he'd been given. But Iroh had been honest and that's all he could really ask of him.

"If I still had my tea shop, I could just declare that you're my apprentice," Iroh noted. "It's not a noble tradition, but there's plenty of precedent to having apprentices marry into the family to keep the family business alive."

"Not a noble tradition? Your tea shop was amazing. How is that not noble?" Because seriously, Iroh made great tea.

"Making tea is, but selling things to people isn't considered proper for the son of a Firelord," Iroh said. "On the other hand, now I'm old and can leave being a proper Firelord to other people."

And, really, Iroh sold the tea because that's what paid the rent and bought more tea. He'd give it away if he wouldn't go out of business.

Wan thought about it, but actually brightened up more, "Then it's even better. Because if I married Zuko, he wouldn't have to sell things to people. I could do the selling and the business would remain in your family. I'd be providing a benefit to the family as I should if I'm the one joining it and Zuko wouldn't have to do anything considered improper for a Firelord to do."

And he could still give the important gifts to Iroh and Zuko, but tailor them to being things that would promote the fortune of the teashop.

...except that Iroh hadn't reopened his shop.

"You haven't been able to open it again, yet, have you?"

"I have to find someone who will let me rent the space," Iroh said. "Would you like to help? It seems as if the kedan are getting over their initial hostility."

"Sure. I can try to help you find a space. Does it have to be in a particular sector?"

Because Wan would most likely be looking in the Wood sector if it didn't. Since he was there a lot doing odd jobs.

"Wherever the neighbors are nice and there are people who appreciate tea," Iroh said. "I had it in the Fire Sector at first because that was where I was living at the time."

"I'll ask around," he said, getting up and bowing to Iroh. "Thank you for talking with me."

"You're welcome. Good luck. If you need anything else, just come find me."

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Can you feel the love tonight?

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