Chapter Text
One would expect The Royal Palace to be serene and silent in the mornings but they were wrong. The corridors never stayed quiet for long. Countless servants were already up before daybreak, cleaning the corridors, preparing meals, replacing burnt out candles with new ones and carrying scrolls and letters around the palace.
Masako had served in the palace for more than half her life. She had served multiple royals and each of them was so different.
Princess Ursa’s room was the first room that belonged to a royalty that she helped clean. Masako was 13 at the time when her mother brought her to the palace to help with the work. She remembers how Princess Ursa’s room was never really dirty. It’s almost like Princess Ursa was making a conscious effort to not make a mess and always put things back where she got them to make the servants’ work easier. Masako can still remember one of the times that the Princess went back to her room while they were still in the process of making the place spotless. Princess Ursa gave her a warm smile and some candy and thanked her for helping to keep the palace clean.
She also remembered how it looked when the Princess had gone missing, it’s almost as if she never took anything with her.
Masako has only cleaned Fire Lord Ozai’s room once. She almost broke one of the decorations when she accidentally bumped into it. It did not break but her mother never let her help clean there ever again.
If there is one room in the palace that she’s afraid to clean more than Fire Lord Ozai’s room, it’ll be Princess Azula’s room.
Princess Azula is known to go ballistic to anyone that she feels were snooping in her room. She’s also a known perfectionist by every servant in the palace. If she sees even a speck of dust, a wrinkle in one of her robes or if one of her ribbons were slightly moved from where she put it before, she’d hunt the servant down and dismiss them with a smile on her face.
Throughout the years, Masako went up from cleaning the rooms to being a personal servant for the royals. She first served as a personal servant to Princess Ursa and her new family when they visited Caldera. She’s still kind as ever, though you could see that the memories of her harrowing marriage to Fire Lord Ozai still bothered her. Masako tried her best to serve Princess Ursa during her stay in the Palace.
She didn’t know that she made a good impression on the Princess until she was now assigned as the head maid for the new Fire Lady.
Being the head maid for the Fire Lady brings an honor for generations to come. That said, being a maid for the new Fire Lady is… interesting.
When Masako was notified that she’ll serve the new Fire Lady, she decided to learn more about her new mistress. What she heard about her new mistress ranged from amazing to concerning.
Masako knew the facts… Toph Beifong helped end the Hundred Year War, invented metalbending, and came from nobility.
The rumors were far less believable. She heard that Toph Beifong and just 2 other people destroyed a whole fleet of Fire Nation Airships and that she learned how to metalbend over the course of a few hours while she’s being abducted and kept in a metal box… when she was 12. She also heard that Toph Beifong doesn’t care about what anyone thinks of her and has constantly ignored etiquette whenever she drops by the Throne Room.
Masako heard that Toph Beifong is a blunt, sarcastic brute and she was worried if the Fire Lord’s wife is really fit to be a Fire Lady.
That worry stayed with her until she saw Toph Beifong during the wedding.
Lady Toph Beifong was a picture of grace and elegance in her wedding robes.
The robes were extremely heavy and Masako was even worried if anyone could even walk while wearing them.
Toph Beifong did not just walk in them, she glided like a proud dragon down the aisle like she belonged there. Masako thought that maybe she could be a Fire Lady that she’d be proud to serve.
That admiration lasted exactly one night. The morning after the royal wedding, she walked into the Fire Lady’s room to help her prepare for the day and she saw her mistress in a green and pale yellow tunic and long green pants that matched the color of her sleeves. Her clothes don't look like they were made by any of the seamstresses of the Fire Lord and it even looks old and worn.
“Good morning Fire Lady. My name is Masako and I’ll be the one to serve you moving forward. May I know where you’re headed in those… garments?” Masako said as she bowed.
“Where else am I going when I’m in training clothes? I’ll be training with Sparky. We’ll be done in about 2 hours. Prepare some poultice and bandages for him, will you?” Fire Lady Toph said as she strutted out of her room.
“Sparky?” Masako asked with a confused look on her face.
“Ohh… yeah, my bad. Zuko. The Fire Lord.” The Fire Lady said.
Masako knows that Lady Toph was blind but it was as if she could see or feel her surprise.
The Fire Lady, seemingly embarrassed, scratched her head “Just… bring some poultice and bandages to the training grounds in 2 hours.” She said as she ran through the corridors barefooted.
Masako was aware about the training that benders do every day. They do breathing exercises, they do different forms and they spar with each other. She hasn’t seen anyone spar that would ever need poultice and bandages. But she brought some anyway when she went to the training grounds.
She’s not even in the training grounds when she hears loud noises, akin to structures getting destroyed. The ground almost felt like there was a small earthquake and the air was getting hot and heavy. It almost felt like she was walking closer and closer to the sun for each step she takes closer to the training grounds. As soon as she opened the gates to the grounds, it made sense to her why the bandages were even necessary.
Her new mistress was hauling large boulders to Lord Zuko. Lord Zuko dodges and fires back with his flames with as much fervor.
“We’re not even married for 24 hours and you’re already trying to injure me.” Lord Zuko said with a small smile on his face.
“You won’t get injured if you can keep up. Don’t worry, Sparky. I’ll hug you as you cry when you lose.” Lady Toph said while she had a large grin on her face.
They continued trading blows until Lady Toph tackled Lord Zuko to the ground and pinned him in place by straddling him and putting pressure on his shoulder with one of her hands.
“I’m willing to get beat up everyday if this is my view.” Masako heard Lord Zuko say that to Lady Toph and her face flushed red like a tomato immediately.
“Oh ho… I know you like it better when I’m on top of you.” Lady Toph said in a really seductive voice.
“I like it just as much as I like you being under me.” Lord Zuko fired back as he moved to roll and switch their places.
“Yeah? Why don’t you show me how much you like being on top of me?” Lady Toph said as she hooked her arms to Lord Zuko’s neck. Lord Zuko obliged as he leaned down, about to kiss Lady Toph.
Masako knows that she shouldn’t be hearing or seeing this so she clears her throat. The royal couple was immediately reminded that they’re not the only 2 people in the training grounds and stood up.
“Ohh yeah, Sparky. She’s Masako. They assigned her to me. I asked her to bring some stuff to help you with your injuries when you inevitably lose.” The Fire Lady said as she introduced the Fire Lord to Masako.
“I know her. She served my mother when she came back here with Kiyi. Mother said nothing but good things about her.”
“Thanks for those. You can uhh… leave those there and we’ll… finish some more training here before his council meeting and my meeting with the court ladies.” The Fire Lady said while she was fidgeting with her sleeves.
Masako immediately put down the bandages and poultice and scurried out of the grounds. She was still trying to recover her breath after running to the training ground gates when she realized something. It’s been 5 minutes and she hasn’t heard any boulders being thrown around or fires being blasted. What she’s starting to hear are the sounds of 2 people getting busy. She immediately ran away as far as possible to give her Lord and Lady some much needed privacy.
They are newlyweds after all.