You & I

The Jasmine Dragon

Iroh's POV
The next day, I decided that considering we were on the upper ring of Ba Sing Se, it might be a fun trip to show Y/N my great grand-uncle's tea shop.

As I sat up and stretched, I turned to see Y/N sleeping peacefully beside me.

She's so beautiful.

I leaned down and kissed her cheek as she rolled over,

"Mm?"

"Good morning, Y/N."

She groaned and rolled back over so she was no longer facing me, I chuckled before making my way to the washroom to prepare myself for the day.

When I returned, Y/N was up, she grinned at me as I walked in and kissed my cheek,

"Good morning, handsome."

"Good morning, my love. Did you sleep well?"

She nodded,

"I'm gonna get ready for the day, I'll be out soon."

Whilst she got herself ready for the day, I felt the betrothal necklace that was still in my pocket, I just couldn't find the right moment to ask her.

Agh, what would grandfather say?

I collapsed back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. I didn't think that this would be so hard, why was it so hard?

I pulled the necklace out and held it over my head, staring at it.

I guess I'd never really thought of this sort of thing before, Y/N was amazing, and I wasn't looking for love, I just sort of... found it. Now that I have it, I don't want to let it go, but what if she's not ready for this type of commitment, what if she doesn't see the kind of future with me that I do with her?

I heard the washroom door creak open and quickly replaced the necklace in my pocket and jumped up holding my hands behind my back, looking around.

She paused as she walked out and raised an eyebrow,

"Iroh, what are you doing?"

"N-nothing. Why would you think I'm doing anything, I'm certainly not doing anything."

She slowly nodded, clearly not believing a word I had just said,

"Right... well, what are we up to today?"

I cleared my throat,

"Well, we have no official business today, so I thought maybe we could visit the Jasmine Dragon?"

"The Jasmine Dragon? What's that?"

"You know my great-grand uncle? The original General Iroh? He had a tea shop here, in the upper ring of the city."

"That sounds cool, who's running it now then?"

I placed my hand on my chin,

"I'm not too sure... I've not been there since grandfather was Fire Lord, and I was very young then." 

She grabbed onto my hand and smiled,

"Well, let's find out then!"

We walked through the streets of Ba Sing Se, Y/N was excitedly looking around the market stalls and chatting to the shop keepers, she really did seem to enjoy visiting new places around the world.

As we entered the Jasmine Dragon, an old lady gasped as she set eyes on us. She ran over to me and patted my cheek,

"My, how you've grown!"

She turned back to some other people in green uniforms,

"Everybody, you'll never believe who it is! It's little Prince Iroh!"

A few more workers came over to greet me and I awkwardly greeted them back, having no idea who they were.

She then pulled my hand that wasn't intertwined with Y/N's to a table and instructed us to sit down and relax.

"So, what brings you to the city, Prince Iroh?"

"O-oh, well I go by "General" now, you don't need to call me prince... aha... please, pardon my rudeness, but have we met?"

She laughed,

"Aw! How sweet! You both were called General Iroh! You probably won't remember me, I haven't seen you here since you were a young boy! My name is Ma Shan. I was General Iroh's first employee back when I was a young teenager, he left the shop in my care before he passed. I must admit, I was rather surprised to see you here, how are your mother and grandfather?"

"Wow, that's amazing, and they're both well, how are things here?"

"Things are good, business is good! And who is this lovely young lady you've brought with you today?"

Y/N's cheeks dusted a light pink and she brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear as I replied,

"This is my girlfriend, Y/N. We're here on official business for the United Forces, but we have the day off, so we thought we'd pay the tea shop a visit."

"Oh! You're girlfriend is a soldier, too? Isn't that sweet! Well, what can I get you? Anything you'd like, it's on the house!"

"Oh no, I don't mind paying for it."

"Nonsense! It's an honour to serve any family of Iroh!"

I smiled,

"Well, thank you. That's very kind, I'll have a lemon and ginger, please?"

"Excellent!"

She turned to Y/N and asked,

"And what would you like, sweetie?"

"Oh... Umm... What would you recommend? I'm sure that working under the Dragon of the West made you quite an expert when it comes to tea!"

She chuckled,

"True, indeed! I'll get you one of his favourites, how does ginseng sound?"

"Ginseng sounds perfect!"

Y/N grinned at Ma Shan before she scurried to the kitchen to make us our tea, I reached for Y/N's hand across the table and asked,

"So? What do you think?"

"It's nice in here, I wonder how much it's changed since your great-grand uncle owned it."

I looked around,

"Me too... Is there anything else you want to see in the city before tomorrow evening?"

"Hmm. Not in particular... I don't really know much about the city. What about you?"

I had an idea.

"Actually, there is somewhere I'd like to take you, my grandfather told me about it, but I've never actually seen it."

"Really? What is it?"

I smirked,

"It's a surprise, you'll have to wait and see, we'll go tonight after the moon rises."