Fire and Flame [Iroh II x OC]

Chapter 24: Moonlight

Saira's P.O.V

My eyes widened as his words proceeded in my brain. I didn't know what to say. It was such a special place and I was feeling honoured that he invited me over here. I was speechless but fortunately the waitress arrived with the dishes, so we just concentrated on our meal.

Since the day I met Li, I knew he was gentleman but today he took more care of me than the other days.
As I finished my starters, I caught Li staring at me.
"Do I have something on my face?", I asked sarcastically.
"Yes, your beauty."
I felt heat rush into my cheeks and I knew it wasn't good since I blushed at everything Li said or did to me. Seriously, I needed to control that.
Li cleared his throat. I didn't realize that we were staring at each other.
"Do you mind staying at my place tonight?", Li asked.
I looked surprised at him:"No, but I have to grab some stuff before I come over."
"No problem."

The rest of the evening was quiet. Every time, I looked up, Li was staring at me.
"Can you do something for me?", I finally broke the silence.
"Sure. What do you wish?"
"Stop inviting me to fancy places, where you have to spend a lot of money. I'm not dating you because you're wealthy, because I have enough money myself to go to such restaurants by myself. I'm dating you because I love you Li."
He was thinking for a moment but turned his attention back to me:"I know. But I think it's worth it. I enjoy spoiling you."
"Li, please. I would have preferred to stay at home and to cook or to go to the cinema or something like this. I want to spend time with you, without anyone staring at us."
Li raised one eyebrow.
"Yes, Li I've noticed the looks."
Then he sighed:"Alright."
And I immediately knew that he only said that to satisfy me.
"But I have a request.",he said.
I looked at him carefully, guessing what he wanted:"What do you wish?"
"You have too cook for me at least once."
I chuckled and looked into his warm, golden eyes:"I would love to."

As we finished our dinner, we left the Dragon's Flame. But instead of going to the car, Li grabbed my hand and led me somewhere else. I soon realized that we were heading to the park. Li wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him. I leaned my head on his shoulder and we kept walking like this in the moonshine. I felt odd walking in a gown late night in a park. Of course I trusted Li and I knew he wouldn't do anything to hurt me but it was still awkward.
We soon reached the bridge and walked up. We stood on top and started talking.
"Why me?", I asked.
I was really curious, why he has chosen to be with me, since I was the most stubborn person on earth and argued with him every possible time. If I was him I wouldn't date me because I knew I could be a pain in ass sometimes.
"Do you remember the fight in Ahana?", he looked at me and I nodded.
"I didn't know that I had feelings for you before that. But you caught my attention from the beginning on. The moment when you fell down on your knees and were nearly dead made me realize. Haku was teasing me the whole time but I didn't think much about it. But when you were "dead", I didn't know what to do. I cursed myself for being blind. For not seeing what I felt. I was the happiest man on earth when I saw you alive. And I was happier when you returned the feelings I had."
His warm eyes drilled into mine. I was standing frozen, not knowing what to say. Again.
Then I closed my eyes, captured his lips with mine. Li's arms wrapped around my waist and he pulled me closer. One of my hands wandered up to his neck while my other one rested on his chest, feeling his heartbeat. I didn't get how he could be so relaxed because my heart was racing and heat was rushing to my cheeks.
"Hello you lovely couple!"
Li and I jumped as we heard the voice yelling. We turned around to see a man. He seemed to be homeless.
Li cleared his voice:"May I help you, Sir?"
The man shook his head:"No way! I was enjoying the view. You know, it's not every day or better said night that I see couples kiss! I didn't mean to disturb you. You can continue if you wish!"
I laughed. I liked this man, he was really crazy.
"You didn't. We needed to head back anyways, uhm..."
"Gommu's the name, Miss."
"Nice to meet you, Gommu."

Iroh's P.O.V

I pulled Saira closer to me, not wanting to happen anything to her. Saira noticed that and wrapped an arm around my back, leaning into my shoulder.
"So what's are you two doing here, at this late hour?", Gommu asked.
"Well, since the beautiful woman next to me didn't get the opportunity to get to know Republic City, I decided to show it to her by night."
"Ah very good choice!"
And before any of us could answer, Gommu was gone. He was a weird guy. But I noticed, that Saira was really happy.
"Found a new friend huh?", I teased.
"I enjoy meeting new people."
Then I kissed her forehead and we headed back to the restaurant, asking for the car.
As we reached home, I dropped Saira to get her stuff. I waited for at least one hour in the car.

What was she doing?

When I was to get off the car, Saira finally came out, changed.
"Sorry for taking long, my brother called me."
"Is he alright?"
"Oh, yes he is. We just didn't have much time to talk. And I had to change."
I quickly parked the vehicle and we stepped down to walk to my place.
"Are you hungry?"
"Are you kidding me, Li? I ate enough for the next two weeks."
I chuckled and then captured my lips with hers. The kiss intensed and at some point we broke apart to breath.
"Don't you want to make yourself ready for bed?", I asked.
"Good idea. You should get rid of your suite."
I chuckled:"I will take a quick shower. You can lay down, discover the house or whatever you want to do meanwhile."
Saira nodded and gave me one last kiss before letting me into the bathroom.
I turned on the hot water and showered.

As I walked out of the bathroom, Saira was already asleep. She wore a large shirt, that covered her whole body to her knees.

I smiled and layed down next to her, wrapping my arms around the most beautiful woman on earth, placing a kiss on her neck.