You & I

Family: Part 1

Iroh's POV
After about a week, we were back in the Fire Nation, my family were glad to let Y/N stay in the palace with us and moments after they had agreed, servants were already setting up her room and pulled her away from me, helping her settle in.

I thanked my mother before asking,

"Where's grandfather? I need to talk to him about something."

"Wow, my boy runs away to explore the world without telling me and won't even stop to tell me about it?"

I pulled her in for a hug and kissed her cheek,

"Mother, I'm sorry, that was so rude of me. Of course, I'll tell you everything at dinner."

She warmly smiled at me before replying,

"He's at the turtle duck pond."

I flashed her a grin and thanked her before running out to the turtle duck pond.

"Grandfather? Grandfather!"

"Iroh, you're back! How have you been?"

"Grandfather, it was... wow. I can't even begin to describe it."

I put my hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes,

"Grandfather, she's the girl I'm going to marry."

His eyes softened and he smiled at me,

"Is that so?"

I leaned back and ran my fingers through my hair,

"Yeah, she's just... indescribable. And when we were kidnapped I just- it hurt- when I saw them grab her, the moment they laid a finger on her it's like this terrifying, enraged feeling took over my body, I wanted to kill them, Gramps, I wanted to snap every single bone in their body for even thinking about touching her. And when she smiles, she's so... enchanting. Her voice is just... it's the most soothing sound I've ever heard. She's so beautiful and so fun, she's outgoing and she's terrifying. She saved my life twice out there, you know? What a girl... The feeling of her hand in mine, holding her close, touching her skin... it drives me insane!"

He looked at me smiling, proud as ever.

"Thank you for your advice, Grandfather, and thanks for dealing with things back here when I left, I'm sorry that didn't give you any warning about that..."

He placed his hand on my arm and said,

"I just want you to find happiness, and if you've found that in this girl, then I couldn't be happier."

"But what am I going to tell mother?"

"Exactly what you told me."

I exhaled, although my mother loved Y/N, I don't know how she'd feel about me asking for a water bender's hand in marriage, the royal family has purely been made up of fire benders and non-benders with pure Fire Nation heritage.

Over dinner, Y/N and I told my parents and my sister, Ursa, all about our travels, Ursa was sat beside Y/N and was excitedly shaking her arm asking her for more details, it was really captivating watching Y/N smiling and laughing with my little sister... she seemed to be really good with kids.

When dinner was over, Y/N told me she'd catch up with me later because Ursa wanted to teach her a new game, excitedly, my little sister pulled Y/N out of the dining hall giggling loudly.

This left me at the table with my grandparents and my parents, Grandfather nodded to me and gestured for me to talk to my mother.

I took a deep breath before exhaling,