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Azula couldn't focus on the scroll she was currently reading. Not with her stomach tormenting her like this. It was not out of discomfort. She had, afterall, all the silk-covered pillows her heart may desire to prop herself against and keep under her lower back. It was not a matter of the baby either. Six months into the pregnancy, while dealing with things such as morning sickness, she hasn't faced any issues with the baby itself. It had yet to kick. They seemed perfectly content in there and considerate enough not to bother her. It was not the pregnancy per se that was the problem here.
No, the torment came from being hungry.
Utterly ridiculous, of course. She had a fantastic dinner. More than she would usually eat, but the physicians insisted that she listen to her body's cravings. Each one embodied a message the baby was trying to communicate.
As far as Azula was concerned, the only message currently being communicated to her was that their child would have Sokka's appetite and taste in food. As in, they'd probably eat anything that doesn't kill them. She had already begun reserving spots for kitchen staff's pay increase in her five-year financial planning for the Fire Nation's budget.
She attempted to shift her focus back to her documents. It was futile. Her stomach made some noises of disgruntlement again, sending hunger signals and making her twitch with the desperate need for incredibly specific food combinations.
Azula threw her scrolls to the floor with a shout of frustration.
Sokka, who has been tinkering at the table with one of his trinkets, stood up immediately, body and mind alert.
"Hey, hey what's wrong?" next to the bed in three wide steps, and frantically checking her from head to toe, trying to take note of anything out of place.
"I'm fine." she grumbled, her nose scrunching up, as she crossed her arms.
His shoulders slumped in relief. "Alright, good. What is it then? Food cravings?"
Azula pouted, annoyed at how well he could read her. Infuriatingly observant man.
“It’s stupid.“ she finally admitted, lowering her palm and massaging her belly. “And it is entirely your fault.“
Sokka's hand went to his heart. The worry from earlier all but vanished once he made sure she was, in fact, fine, and playfulness took its place. “My fault? Azula, love of my life, how can you…“
"I'll have you know this baby sure isn’t getting the wild appetite from me!"
His dramatic antics deflated just a smidge. “...alright maybe you have a point."
She rolled her eyes, a fond smile playing on her lips, batting away at her ire.
“What are you craving? Come on, let me know. I am sure the palace can help.“
“I seriously doubt it.“ she huffed, annoyance returning in droves just as her cravings did. “The logical part of my mind tells me this is absolutely disgusting, but I still wish for it.“
Sokka looks at her expectantly. She sighed, face scrunching up.“Five-flavours soup.“
His face lit up. “Oh, that’s not that bad, Azula, really. And I thought you liked it.“
“I want the original. Not with wheat, with seaweed.“ she continued promptly.
“Well, really it’s not…“
“And I want puffin seal sausage in it. And roasted ash banana slices. And Misty Palms rice“
Sokka held a finger up, signalling for her to pause. She raised an eyebrow as he rushed back to his desk and snagged a scroll, starting to take notes with his discarded brushes, sipping in multi-colored ink. Azula looked at him incredulously.
“That’s all?“ he asked once he finished scribbling down so far.
“Moon peach juice.“
Sokka diligently wrote that down as well, before looking at her expectantly.
She whined, hiding her face in her hands and bumbling something.
“What was that?“
She repeated it in a barely audible voice. Sokka smiled fondly before discarding his scroll and taking a seat next to her. The soft mattress sank under his weight, and he gently took her hands in his. Azula looked like she wanted to crawl in a hole.
“Come on. I would be the last person to judge."
She sniffed. “Elephant rat skewers. With purple berry sauce.“
Sokka nodded before kissing her forehead. “I got you.“
Azula, who still seemed distressed at her own cravings, looked at him with a frown as he began putting on clothes. It was almost midnight. There was no reason for him to put themon. “What are you doing?“
“I’ll go get you your food.“
She rolled her eyes. “Stop being ridiculous, Sokka. You won’t find half of those things in kitchens. You should know that you love to lay siege to that place.“
Her husband simply leaned in and peppered her face with kisses. “I will find your food. Get some rest in the meantime. I will be back.“
Royal Head Chef was preparing to go to bed. The kitchen has been cleaned, the ingredients for tomorrow's breakfast were prepared and arranged to enhance efficiency in the early hours of the morning, and all the kitchen helping hands have been sent to bed already to get ready for the early work. He was about to go towards his room and do just the same, until he picked on steps approaching the doors.
His heart dropped.
He knew those steps. Far too well. They were found in his night terrors, too. Gulping, the chef looked around frantically. His heart rate spiked in worry. The food! He must hide the food, and quickly, the steps were closing in. Oh Spirits, where were his keys for the cupboard hideouts for… wait. There was no prepared food in the kitchens at the moment.
His shoulders slumped in relief.
Then he recalled the cured moosow leg, hanging just outside the pantry. He moved forward, eyes widening, just to freeze on spot as the kitchen doors opened. The chief eyed the huge hulk of meat sadly, knowing that he failed at protecting it from the terrorising hungers of the Fire Consort.
Speaking of which…
"Evening!" he greeted enthusiastically, with a small wave.
The chief attempted to smile. A miserable failure, he was sure. His teeth were grinding against each other. It must have looked like a painful grimace at best. "Fire Consort. How may I help you?"
"Sorry to disturb you at this hour." Sokka began. "But there's a bit of an emergency. Azula is having cravings."
The chef's shoulders slumped in relief. Oh, thank the Spirits. That was manageable. "Well, that is not a problem, we have multiple samples of every mochi flavour."
Sokka's smile turned sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah… no. It's not sweets this time."
"Oh?" the chef raised a greying eyebrow. "Then what is it?
Sokla pulled out a scroll from inside his robe. "Alright, here we go."
He opened it, allowing it to roll down.
The chef's eyes almost fell out of their sockets.
It was too late in the night for this. Maybe he'll get an additional bag of coins for the Summer Solstice payment bonus, though, for his troubles. Fire Lord Azula has been surprisingly generous in compensating the kitchen staff for their troubles ever since the now Consort took long-term residence in the Palace.
“We do have purple berries, we can certainly make the sauce. And ash bananas as well. However, our moon peaches supply ran out last week, I am afraid.“ he scratched his head. “We have the rice, but we do not have the condiments necessary to prepare it Misty Oasis style. As for the meat…“
Sokka laughed at the chef’s expression. “Yeah, don’t worry, I know you have neither elephant rat nor seal puffin. What kind of seaweed do you have? “
“We have kelp. But I think that’s all that goes in that soup that we do. “
“Alright, chef, take a nap. I’ll be back as soon as possible with the rest of the ingredients. “
He looked at Sokka incredulously as he took his leave. Where in the world was he even going to find those ingredients, let alone at this spirits forsaken hour?
Truth to be told, this job was far beyond what Zi Lee ever imagined he'd get. He wasn't the best firebender in the Military Academy nor the most academically inclined one. At most, he thought he might end up with some midway rank in some mid sized town somewhere in the Fire Islands.
Not as Head of the Fire Lord's Royal Guard.
And while he entered the palace guards through his own merit, specifically his talent with puzzles and riddles, which he still didn't fully understand how it was related to the role, the Head Guard position came unexpectedly. With the last reshuffling, if one could call it that.
Why would anyone throw away the employment security and benefits of being a royal guard to attempt to kill the Fire Lord? And imagine they'd win? What a bunch of morons. Lee would never do that. He had common sense. And was almost done with collecting enough money to buy his parents a retirement home in Ember Island. Thus, he had plenty of reasons to excel at his job.
Which is why he was chasing down Fire Consort Sokka down the hallway, trying to resonate with him.
"Uh, excuse me, Your Grace, may I insist you reconsider?"
He didn't slow down at all. "There's nothing to reconsider. Azula has food cravings, and I'm going to buy the missing ingredients. Really, Lee, no need to worry."
No need to worry? Of course there was a need to worry. Lots of needs to worry. He will not be the one to tell the very pregnant Fire Lord Azula that her husband has died in some back alley of the city because he went out unescorted in the middle of the night. The man might have been talented with his weapons, but Lee did not want to take a risk when it could be avoided.
"Please, Your Grace, take some guards with you as you venture out of the Palace."
Sokka stopped abruptly, almost making the guard crash into him.
"That's a great idea, actually!"
"It is?" Lee asked before he could stop himself.
Sokka nodded, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Yes. That way we can separate into three small groups, and each one of us will go to one of the shops that sell imported products. I narrowed it down to three in town, and even wrote down the coordinates."
He pulled out a colour-coded scroll, with some addendum notes at the bottom of it. Lee felt a slight headache from processing all the information presented on the scroll at large. As it was a night for forgotten courtesies, he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "When did you make this?"
"Oh, on the way from the kitchens."
Lee decided not question it further.
"I'll grab my weapons, if that puts your mind at ease, and I'll see you at the western gate in a short bit."
He nodded, waiting for the Fire Consort to turn around. When he did that, Lee turned too and began running as if Koh was chasing him. His mind whirling as he took the sharp turns of the Palace's halls in stride. He will live the normal night patrols and a few extra guards to the Fire Lord, and grab the guards who were meant to be on rest period during the night to accompany him on this mission. He was grateful for his stamina as he rushed into the barracks and slammed the door open.
"Put your armour on!" he ordered, ignoring the one guard who fell out of his bunk bed in surprise at Lee's burst into the sleeping quarters. "We need to do a security escort now, immediately."
Lee watched his soldiers scramble and hoped the Fire Consort didn't make a run for it already.
Buwei was used to sleep lightly, and at random times throughout the day and night. It came with his work. Being a merchant took a great deal of adapting to circumstances and environments.
So when there was some rather insistent, yet lightweight knocking on the front door, he immediately stood up. Taking a moment to gather his bearings, he stood up, threw a house robe over his sleeping garments and went down to the shop.
He almost fell on his back when he saw who was at the door. Now, mind you, he had never seen the Fire Consort up close, but there were just so many Water Tribe men that could be wandering around, followed by what seemed to be at least four royal fire guards. Sure, said royal fire guards seemed vaguely dishevelled. He thought one of them had his breastplate hanging rather crookedly, even. It took away the intimidation factor. But just a little.
“Sorry to disturb you, I know it's very late.“ he offered with an apologetic smile, hands held together placidly. “It's a matter of national security, you see. “
There was gossip, of course. What was the point of having a monarch if not to gossip about them anyway? And in all the gossip he heard, the Fire Consort came off as a goofy man who spent most of his time in his so-called invention laboratory. But no one said anything against him. Nothing that mattered anyway. In fact, his wife told him that she heard from the weaver, who was told by the dye salesman who had a cousin working in the Palace, that the Fire Consort was a kind and well-disposed man.
As far as he could see, it was true. And Buwei was very grateful for that, cause honestly, he wasn't sure how he'd handle this situation if this man, who seemed perfectly capable of cracking rocks with his bare biceps, would glare at him.
Trying to gather his wits and overcome the surprise of being awoken in the middle of the night by the Fire Lord's husband, Buwei opened the door wider and motioned towards the shop.
"Please, please come inside. How may I assist?"
Of course, Buwei did not miss the mention of a national emergency of sorts, but he also failed to see how he could help with such matters. He was a simple merchant after all. Not even of the incredibly rich caliber either.
"You sell products from all over the world, right?" The Fire Consort asked, as he looked around the shop curiously.
"Why, yes, it's my speciality. I travel a lot."
It was not the most profitable business, people, even in Caldera, had certain hesitations when it came to some foreign foods. But all in good time. Buwei already saw an icnrease of popularity of some of his products. Give it a few years, and shops like his will be all the rage. Or so he hoped.
The Fire Consort grinned. "Fantastic! Do you happen to have these?"
He pulled out a scroll, opened it, and handed it over. Buwei raised his eyebrows in surprise. The document was surprisingly well-organised. And colour-coded. He scanned through, making note of everything missing from the list.
"Why, yes, I believe I have all of them. There is not a ton of puffin sausage left, though, it has been incredibly popular in the past few days. Let me see."
Wanting to be as efficient as possible, Buwei began gathering the requested products and placing them on the counter meticulously. He made sure to pack up all the puffin sausage left as well, for good measure.
"That's everything on your list." he said, pointing at the now full counter, and hoping that this was good enough.
The Fire Consort's face lit up in delight. "This is perfect!" he looked over his shoulder at his slightly sleepy guards. "Alright, everyone, let's pack it all up."
The soldiers snapped to attention movng in, and packing everything out.
Buwei found his hands being shaken by the Fire Consort. The man smiled, his blue eyes shining brightly in the candlelight. Buwei truly could not fault Fire Lord Azula's taste, her husband was quite a feast for the eyes.
"Thank you so much for your help." he offered, before letting go of his handshake. "Here, this should cover thecost of everything I bought and also some extra compensation for waking you up in the middle of the night."
Buwei blinked in rapid succession as three bags of money were placed in his arms. If the weight was any indication, this was way more than the price of the groceries bought, compensation or no compensation. Absently, he said goodbye to the unexpected clients and locked the door behind them once they left.
Well, this has been good business. Maybe a good word from the Fire Consort would bring more popularity to his shop. He certainly hoped so. But at the same time, what a strange night.
At least the Fire Lord will be happy, right?
The Fire Lord was, in fact, more than happy, as she dipped the elephant rat skewers in her purple berry sauce and took a hearty bite. She chewed, slowly but enthusiastically, her cheeks puffed out with food. Sokka rested his chin in his hands, leaning on the side of the bed, as he watched her. Azula was the very embodiment of dignity and elegance, and there was little to nothing that would prompt her to act as anything but. Except for pregnancy cravings, that was.
Azula let out a sigh of approval as she leaned back in her pile of pillows, setting aside the half-eaten food for now. Her eyes, previously closed in delight, opened and landed straight on Sokka. He gave her a lovestruck smile — thing he had never considered ever happening all those years ago when they ended up working together — and waved.
Azula reached forward and grabbed the collar of his night robe, pulling him with much more force than someone in her condition should be capable of. Sokka moved immediately to ease the strain on her body as he landed next to her on the bed.
She kissed him, chaotically and passionately. It scrambled his brain, as if it was the first time all over again, that he didn't even have time to return it before she let go. Her grin indicated she was happy to make him go dizzy. "Thank you for getting my food, husband."
Azula leaned in, nuzzling against the crook of his neck, her nose rubbing against the sensitive skin there. It was slightly ticklish. She sighed contentedly, sounding almost like a purring cat to his ears. Sokka smiled, his arm wrapping carefully around her, as he leaned down and kissed the top of her head.
Happy wife, happy life indeed.