#dienli

[irohthesecond]

@dienli cont from x

“She thought she was conceived as a backup child, in case you died?” Rei reasoned. For a moment it seemed like her brow might furrow, but it didn’t. “I understand how that might be existentially troubling, but isn’t it typical in families that have to worry about succession?” She paused. “Maybe your mother wouldn’t have even had you if not for those concerns. I imagine she didn’t have much of a choice. But somehow I doubt you’ve dwelt on that possibility much. Why did she? Was her childhood very focused on it?”

"Mother had a vision for us both, but neither of us turned out quite like she hoped, as politicians and diplomats. Part of me always wanted a life of adventure, and I found it in the service. She wanted to be a healer." Iroh squatted down to look through her icebox, a minefield of labels precisely enumerating the different boxes' contents as a ward against theft. At least there was a can of coconut milk up for grabs.

"I wasn’t there when it all boiled over, so this is all second hand, but apparently things were said that can’t be unsaid. She cut herself off, booked passage to Republic City, and enrolled in PreMed at the university." He shook the can to remix the contents, popped the tab, and took a sip, the rich creamy beverage coating his upper lip until his lower teeth scraped it clean.

[irohthesecond]

Rei waited until a convenient time to ask her questions, after a pleasant dinner at her place. The weather was fine, her building was neither baking nor freezing, and dinner had been just the right size and flavor, in Rei’s view. The perfect time to make him uncomfortable. “Now that we have the charges straightened out, you should tell me more about your sister. What happened?”

Iroh had come to enjoy his humble bourgeois weekends at his companion's house. There was something almost exotic about flipping on the radio and gathering up the dishes, sorting the trash from the scraps to reuse or toss to the cat, and submerging them in the sudsy sink water; he'd scrub and rack them later, unless Rei insisted on his doing it now, as she often did. It was peaceful, carefree even compared to the pressure of his work bound up in his mind with the luxury of his main residence.

Until Rei shattered that, asking after his poor sister. He sighed, squatting to deposit the scraps of fish from tonight's soup in Izzy's bowl as he thought of where to even begin. The fat old girl came jingling over, stuffing her face down to scrape and lick them clean.

“Meiling is a lot younger than me. Younger than you, even," he began, almost delicately. "I mostly only saw her on holidays, since I was already serving abroad when she was born. She’s a smart girl, so it didn’t take her very long to jump to conclusions. Mother always said it was because she was lonely with me overseas, but she couldn’t ignore the timing.”

He stood up and stretched, his love lines peaking out from under the hem of his tank top. A prick of the ear confirmed the radio's droning was nothing interesting enough to change the subject. He cast a discrete glance Rei's way to see if he could pick up on he subtleties -the sole visible substance- of her reaction, highlighted by the shadows the flickering dining table candle cast.

[irohthesecond]

@dienli cont from x

Though she wanted to smile and thank him, Rei was given pause by the twins, also in her field of vision, currently trying their best to break a wooden turtleduck on a string. She could always visualize a calendar when she needed to, and so she noted they were about two years, two months and three weeks old. Hm. "Thank you, beloved," she said, with more caution than one would think was warranted. She never called him beloved. "You seem oddly enthusiastic. You know the purpose of Mother's Day isn't to bestow the title, right?"

Iroh leaned on the railing of the shaded walkway, keeping an eye on he kids splashing their toy around in the koi pond, bouncing it off he decorative stones. He grinned at her, softly fanning himself and her by turns. "Can I help it if the day falls in such a season? The monsoons are over, the sun is shining, the peonies are blooming . . . Doesn't it make you want to find a nice, secluded spot?" In truth, the timing had been just as much a happy accident as the twins, but he liked playing along as long as she didn't go too far, reaching around her narrow shoulders to squeeze her to his side.

[irohthesecond]

headcanon: if he could suck his own dick they'd have to put a cone on his neck to stop him from doing it all the time. [this tweet liked by mayor mamdani]

On anon or not, tell me what YOUR headcanons for my muse are.

"Why is President Moon clipping shitposts in the Varripages?"

[irohthesecond]

“ I love you, but I don’t know how to fix this. ”

Iroh laughed bitterly. He intended it as a quick scoff, but found himself reveling in the misery of it; there was a certain relief in hopelessness, in the deceptive assurance that at least things couldn't get worse. He trailed off into a pained sigh as fresh tears welled in his eyes.

"There is no fixing this, you stupid cunt," he hissed, gesturing with his phantom right arm at the patch over his missing left eye. "It's already happened. Your old man's a fucking useless cripple now. You can't fix it."

[irohthesecond]

“ I don't think my genes had any chance of winning. They're a spitting image of you. ”

Iroh sat next to his wife under the pavilion shade, watching the twins take turns chasing each other around the garden fountain while little Zheng clung to his mother's dress and pummeled her leg with tiny impotent fists. It was a rare respite from his work, now as Chancellor to his mother; the long hours caught him stealing countless glances towards the inked portraits on his desk, where he let him study each individual feature between approving reports and sending out new assignments. He reached over her shoulders to squeeze her body up to his.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," he answered with a certain tender playfulness. He wasn't above a bit of good-natured gloating. "Wen got your hair and ears. Hue has your mouth and nose, at least at the tip. Zheng ... we'll see."

[irohthesecond]

“ Wait. Are you pregnant? ” [ in the usual deadpan ]

Rei had meticulously boxed up their leftovers from their night out, which the staff at such a fine establishment regarded as rather gauche, but she had been unconcerned. It did make for a good morning after breakfast, the rush of rich spicy food dulling his aches from last night. He almost snorted his tea at the question, but her delivery was so spot on he almost believed it after last night's sweet torment. Might as well play along.

"It's too soon to tell."

[irohthesecond]

“ I married you, not your terrible taste in movies. ”

married life sentence starters || accepting

Iroh shut his eyes and breathed sharply in through the nose, thinking better of launching into an impassioned defense of the Nuktuk movers. He clasped her shoulder with his left hand.

"Be that as it may, my love, Bolin is a friend, and it would mean a lot to me if you went with me to support his film career. We don't want another of the bending brothers becoming a cop, now do we?" He trailed off into a grin, softly caressing her shoulder.