barrayar | idk I guess I still play this dumb asshole

The koi swarm up the to surface of the water, mouthing the air hopefully. They were relatively new instalments, much like most of the island, but koi learned quickly that a shadow over the water meant a stray piece of lunch might happen by into the happy, eager mouths below.

Indeed, it might be only the fact that the swarm of colorful, friendly fish suddenly vanish - strange given that one had taken to brushing up along Zuko's fingers.

The stranger doesn't appear to be much. A craggy, hard and scarred face is offset by a brilliantly garish shirt, undone at the collar, heavy, roadowrn sandals and.... by the looks of it, a small loaf of bread brought specifically for the fish.

"Hm. Rare to see anyone else here," the stranger gave as a greeting, voice deep.

Zuko has to bite back his instinctive, How would you know? This pond hasn't even existed for more than a month, and instead modifies it into a more diplomatic reaction. He's learning. Slowly, incredibly slowly, but it is happening.

"Have you been here long?" he asks, conscientious of how recognizable he is even out of uniform, so to speak, and striving for composure. He realizes he hasn't actually answered the implied question and tacks on belatedly, "I forgot how claustrophobic you can feel after being on a ship for that long." Hence why he's out here.

Zuko is certainly not inconspicuous at all, but if the older man was going to show any particular reaction to him, it was missed already. "Ah, the Fire Nation delegation. I'd heard the storms had kept you back." It was an obvious enough statement, barely worth saying, but that was what most pleasantries were for.

"I've been here a week." A detail that would place him as part of the Earth Kingdom's people, rather than a simple groundskeeper or staff. "It's has a rare peace to enjoy."

Edited (Because STUFF.) 2017-01-17 00:56 (UTC)

Aral certainly doesn't look like anyone important in that shirt and with bread to feed the fish. That doesn't mesh with Zuko's mental image of stern, high-placed officials at all. Iroh's about the only exception to that rule he'd ever known apart from himself. He assumes he's part of the retinue that came with Regent Vorkosigan, as expected.

His instinct here is to grumble and complain, and once again he has to take a breath, consciously, to keep that back. Zuko's self-control is extremely hard won and probably fairly visible on him. He's still adjusting to thinking of himself as Fire Lord as something more than a surreal dream. All that time, he'd wanted his father's approval back-- his honor, his family-- but not necessarily the throne. That had seemed so abstract. Frankly, taking the crown was a shock, an eventuality he'd been aware of as far off as being a father.

And then, suddenly, it was here, and he wasn't just Zuko anymore. His pride as a prince hadn't swelled to match his new station-- it had humbled.

"We'll all be stuck inside for days once the real talks start," he sighs, with a bit of grumbling despite himself. But that seems neutral enough, something that passes for pleasantries with Zuko. He never quite manages to find the beat of them, impatient with pointless observations. He retrieves his fingers from the water and carelessly brushes them on his travel clothes.

"I guess getting here before us would make the past week like a vacation for you." He glances up, sharp golden eyes really focusing on his companion for the first time.

At that, Aral merely splits the bread, offering half the loaf to the young man in front of him. The man from the earth kingdom was bearlike in build, as many earthbenders tended towards. Large, rough, square hands, calloused with work and bending nearly engulfed the half loaf held out. His face was stern, but grey eyes hard, calculating, but not unkind in set. They regarded Zuko in turn.

Aral had no illusions about who the other man was... though somehow, the boy was younger than he pictured, even having had the drawings and the reports.

It left the question of whether Aral himself wasn't recognized, as he suspected, or he was prone to looking down on those outside of noble origins, something that seemed close to true on the intel on the royal family of the Fire Nation.

Either way, this proved a rare opportunity to observe Fire Lord Zuko outside of the guards, the prep and counsel, and carefully stage managed affair that was about to begin. "You still have the night before the circus begins. I would suggest enjoying it."

He takes the bread without thinking about it, his expression shifting to what has become his new default, pensive rather than angry. He shakes his head immediately. "Enjoy it? You're kidding. Now's not the time for me to be relaxing and drinking tea," he says in a scornful tone, before catching himself. "I mean... I should be using this time preparing. But I'd just get in the way while everyone's unloading."

Zuko takes his duty to represent his nation very seriously, and this meeting will be so monumental it makes him feel tense even thinking about it. This much is okay to say to some nameless member of the Earth Regent's party, and he's spent enough time as a refugee in the Earth Kingdom that he isn't uncomfortable with it any more than he's normally uncomfortable in conversation. Nonetheless, his brows are beetled as he stares down at the bread in his hands, twisting to seat on the edge of the fountain with a certain heaviness as he starts picking pieces off and absently flicking them into the pond.

It's not the same without the turtleducks.

For one, the koi would think you're the best person in the whole world for throwing a whole half a loaf at them. Far less sensitive than turtleducks.

"If you can't act now, I don't think there's a problem with tea to spend the time." Aral comments. The koi are now evenly split between them, a few slimmer, faster ones darting between the two sources of bread hopefully. "Centering oneself is a teaching of my land. I used to hear it - in some trying abundance - from the masters."

He likes having something to occupy his hands with that doesn't seem fidgety. He'd brought the bread, anyway, he can't criticize Zuko for flicking crumbs into the pond.

"Why does everyone with a tea fixation tell me to meditate?" he says in a tone of adolescent complaint, but there's some faint trace of self-conscious humor, too. "You sound like my uncle." That, of course, is far from an insult no matter how long-suffering Zuko sounds as he says it.

"But that's all I've been doing while we were stuck on the ship. I'd rather fight someone. You'd think the Avatar would at least come to this so I could take it out on him." It's not Aang's fault that he's in high demand and couldn't make it, but Zuko has to admit, if only to himself, that he misses the friendly, irrepressible face sometimes. He's still highly annoying, but they know where they stand with each other and he's not just a firm, pivotal ally, but at Aang's insistence he's a friend. Zuko doesn't have many of those, especially not now in his position.

idk I guess I still play this dumb asshole

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject