roots • [ general iroh II x oc ]

yay?

Aria blew a piece of hair out of her face and hummed quietly and nodded her head.

"Sometimes, usually not, but sometimes."

Iroh looked up at her and started to laugh. "I am a dick sometimes. I'm nice but I'm such a dick."

"Oh really? I haven't noticed."

He smiled even wider at that and, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, he started to press kisses on her chest and her collar bone.

"I'm not always a dick," he muttered against her skin, peppering kisses all over her upper body.

"No, not always." Aria muttered back, tracing her hands up and down his back. "But sometimes. Half the time..."

The two made eye contact and she tilted her head, biting the inside of her cheek.

"Most the time."

His back slightly arched in response to her touch, and he smiled against her skin again, feeling an almost electrical shiver run down his spine.

Iroh lifted his head up a bit, so he could speak more clearly, though he still kept the side of his face on her skin. "Im warning you, I'm going to be really hungover tomorrow."

Aria listened to his words and couldn't help but groan and lean her head against the floor. That went for her too. She'd seen him hungover before, it wasn't fun.

Unfortunately, she couldn't rely on her usual juice cure. Truthfully, Aria didn't know if she could ever buy non pulp juice again. Not without that familiar feeling of dread run through her mind and body and settle down in that pit in her stomach.

"Oh joy." She mumbled. "I'm tired."

"Then sleep."

She softly kicked her feet on the ground. "I don't want to sleep. If I go to sleep, it'll be tomorrow. And tomorrow I'm going to feel like crap."

"How cruel. Good luck with that." He yawned, closing his eyes and leaving his arm resting over her upper stomach. "Night."

She huffed and poked him in the arm when he said that, and she tried to pout, but even she knew that this was a losing battle.

When he laid his arm against her stomach, her expression softening, and she shifted in an attempt to get more comfortable. "Goodnight, dick."

If she could sleep peacefully, she would. She would in a heartbeat.

But she couldn't close her eyes. Because in the vast darkness of her mind, she could always find Niko, waiting.

He always looked really happy, in her dreams.
She hoped he was happy wherever he was.
That was all Aria ever wanted.

His big, goofy smile, the wide-eyed wonder the child held whenever he saw something interesting, his loud, happy laughter that echoed through the empty halls of the small apartment.

A month ago Niko was running around, his lively self. A month ago, Niko was breathing in and out, his heart was beating. A month ago, Aria was able to hug her brother, and tease him, and yell at him.

Now all of that was long gone. In just a month.

How cruel is that?

............

Kids ran through the park, the blooming spring sun was falling down. Aria and Iroh walked side by side, they lost track of how long.

Aria sighed and looked at him. "I've been thinking, you know, about what I'm going to do when I get back to the city."