You & I

The Infirmary

Iroh's POV
Y/N would regularly run off with my sister to talk in private, which they had been doing ever since I introduced them when we were all younger.

It was nice that my wife and my sister were such good friends, it was like we had always been one big happy family.

"General Iroh, sir."

I turned around from where I was sat in the dining hall to where one of the servants were waiting to speak with me.

"Is everything okay, Karina?"

She nodded, "yes, well, actually- the Commander has fallen ill, the medic doesn't believe she should attend work today, but she insists that she must... so I thought it would be best to come to you."

I immediately stood up, "is she in the infirmary?"

"She's in your bedroom, sir, I believe she is preparing herself for work today."

"Thank you very much, I'll see to it that she stays home to aid her recovery."

Karina bowed as I rushed out of the door, leaving my half-eaten breakfast at the table, pacing through the palace to find Y/N.

I felt myself sigh and smile as I opened our bedroom door, finding her in uniform, fixing her hair in front of the mirror.

I leaned against the doorframe and knocked on the side of the door, "knock, knock"

She quickly glanced my way before turning back to the mirror, "wow, you're actually ready before me, you should probably mark it down on a calendar, it'll never happen again."

I rolled my eyes and made my way over to where she was sat, placing my hands on her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her cheek, "well, darling, I'm under the impression that you shouldn't be getting ready for work today at all."

She didn't even bat an eyelid and continued getting ready as she replied, "well, perhaps I need to start checking through your paperwork again because I don't have any holiday booked."

I gently rubbed circles on her shoulders, kissing her cheek and temple as I mumbled, "mhm, but the medic had other things to say."

She huffed, "the medic needs to give me a break, I tend to get pretty ill on my period and I'm due mine at any day now. It was one of the servants who called the medic, it's only because they're not used to seeing me around this time of the month since we aren't here most of the time."

I sighed, "My love?"

"Yes, Iroh?"

"Please stay home and rest."

She leaned her head back onto the chair and smiled, "No, but that was a nice try," pecking me on the lips before standing up and making her way over to the door, "come on, we don't wanna be late for work, do we?"

I sighed again, before strolling over to her, pulling her in by the waist and bringing her into a deep kiss, before barely pulling away and whispering, "let's go," gently kissing her nose.

—

Y/N didn't really seem to get better over the next couple of weeks, but she was brushing it off with excuses like, 'I still get a little sick after my period, too, stop letting the servants worry you' or 'you worry way too much!"

It wasn't until the day that she passed out when getting ready for work that I decided she needed to stop making excuses.

I panicked at first, because... well, what else am I supposed to do if my wife passes out right in front of me completely out of the blue?

What if I hadn't been there? Could she have had a concussion? A serious head injury?

No, it's fine, because I was there. There's no 'what-ifs'.

But I couldn't help pacing up and down whilst I waited for the medic to open that door back up.

Had she been overworking herself?

Does she have an underlying health issue?

I had no idea how long I had been waiting outside of that door, it couldn't have been more than twenty minutes but it felt like hours.

"General Iroh, sir."

"Yes?"

"She's awake, she wants to speak to you."

I didn't even respond to him, I rushed straight into the room where my wife was laying in a robe, thanking a nurse before turning to meet my eyes, "Iroh, my love, how are-"

I immediately cut her off, "you- firstly, I love you. I do love you... so, so much, however, secondly, don't ever worry me like that ever again. If the medic says you need to rest, next time, you rest or I'll fire you."

She blankly stared at me for a moment before telling me, "you will do no such thing."

"Try me."

"I will."

I shook my head and sighed, making my way over to the side of the bed and bringing her hand into mine, kissing the back of it before asking, "so, what's going on with you?"

She frowned and looked down at her lap, "you have to promise that you won't mope about it?"

I raised an eyebrow, "mope?"

She squeezed my hand that was still holding hers and sighed, "it's... pretty serious, I can't see myself recovering for a while."

I felt my heart drop.

"What? Where's the medic? Can't we call for a healer? Someone get my grandfather! Don't worry, we'll call for Katara, don't worry about anything-"

"Iroh, you need to let me finish first."

"Right, I'm sorry. Please, continue..."

"It's just, there's a lot going on, things I didn't even notice until the medic brought them to my attention, it's had a lot of time in my body completely unnoticed so I don't know how easy the process is going to be."

I watched a tear fall to her lap and I quickly cupped her face in my hands so our eyes met, "Y/N, whatever it is, whatever's wrong just tell me, we'll get through it together. We'll fix it."

I brushed a tear away from her face with my thumb as she took a deep, shaky breath, "I love you."

I didn't break our eye contact as I replied, "I love you"

She placed her hands on the outsides of mine, "but you have so much more love left to give."

"What?"

And just like that, the tears stopped and her smile beamed at me as she pulled my hands from her face and into hers.

"Because you're going to be a father."