Daughter of the Moon - Book Two: Earth

Chapter 14: The Stars Align

- Elara -

I had never truly been angry at Iroh before, but at that moment I was furious. FURIOUS, I tell you. Today had to be the potential to be a perfectly normal day, but no!! Iroh had to go and ruin it.

Apparently, there was this Jin character who had been eyeballing my man—I mean, Zuko—all day. I had assumed she was a nice girl while I was serving her tea, but the moment I went to the back to take charge of the kitchen, she had made her move and asked Zuko on a date. A DATE!!! She was even sly enough to ask in front of Iroh so that he would have the audacity to answer for Zuko. And that answer happened to be yes. Why had I ever thought that he was on my side? I wasn't even sure, but now it seemed as if I were stuck in some kind of stupid race! I wasn't even aware that I had any competition, so how was I supposed to compete?!

To make matters worse, Zuko didn't even protest to it. He had agreed to go on the date!!! I wanted to believe that I had been beat by a criminal mastermind and not some simple village girl, but I knew that the real cause of my downfall was my own timid nature. I should have taken the chance with Zuko up on the roof just a few nights prior. Now it was too late.

The worst part about Zuko being forced into a date (other than the fact that he was going on a date with another girl) had to be the fact that he got to finish work early on one of the busiest nights of the week, leaving only me, Iroh, and my boss to serve hundreds of people. Just three people to make tea for an army...

Things were a lot more chaotic in the tea shop without Zuko around to help, not to mention there seemed to be several unwelcome gazes from some of the customers with him gone (but perhaps I was just overthinking it). It didn't matter much, though. Nothing too exciting happened (other than a small incident with a cat), and Iroh and I were able to close up shop at the end of the night without a hitch. And by Iroh and I, I meant just me. Iroh wandered off somewhere with our boss as soon as the last costumer left, leaving me to do all the cleaning up by myself. I couldn't blame him, though—the old man needed his old man quality time (and if I wasn't involved, I wasn't complaining)—it just meant that things took a little longer than normal.

I cleaned, and I tidied, and I cleaned, and I organized, and (guess what) I cleaned until I found myself in the kitchen scrubbing the last of the kettles and tea cups from a long, but successful night. Unfortunately, even though I had done everything I could to avoid it, I found my thoughts wandering once again to Zuko, wishing from the bottom of my heart that he could've been there with me right then. But I knew he couldn't. I knew he wouldn't. My enraged emotions from earlier slowly morphed into sadness as I realized that Zuko was with Jin, a woman who was far more intelligent (and far more beautiful) than me. I missed my chance, and I would probably never get the opportunity to be close to him again.

I set down the kettle I was washing and let out a pained sigh as I shook my head in dismay. Why had I been so stupid? Why hadn't I just told him how I felt the other night when the opportunity presented itself? Sure, I had been an emotional mess, and that would've been so romantic, but it would have been better than this.

"Knock, knock," a voice echoed from the doorway as my mind spiraled, the gentle rap of his knuckles accompanying the phrase as he knocked on the wall (properly scaring the living crap out of me).

"Zuko?! You're back?! But it's still early!" I exclaimed as I glued my gaze to the sink in front of me, trying to hide my shock and embarrassment as I returned to the monotonous rhythm of scrubbing dishes. My hope was that he wouldn't be suspicious.

"Elara, you might want to get your eyes checked," Zuko said as he glanced at the clock. "It's almost midnight."

"Oh," I mumbled as I took a chance to look at the time for myself, immediately turning right back to my chores as I began to feel the fatigue set in. "I guess I should hurry up then."