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Kyoshi wakes up on her own time today.
Her duty to Yun had her rising at the break of dawn to run errands at the market and make the trip to the mansion. (Of course, Rangi was there, already waiting for her.)
In recent history, it had been her duty to the world to rise early; correspondences to concerned citizens, meditation, and rigorous training. (Of course, Rangi was there, already waiting for her.)
At this moment, it’s her duty to her newly-wedded wife to wake up and wrap her arms around her, pulling closer and pressing a kiss to her nape. (Of course, Rangi is here, already waiting for her.)
“About damn time you woke up,” Rangi says, her voice gruffer than usual. Kyoshi tempers down the excitement from hearing it. They’ve been together for more than a decade at this point, but it has never lost its novelty. “Good morning.”
“And whose fault is that?”
Last night, despite being incredibly tired from the day-long ceremony, they managed to be intimate a couple of times. Rangi’s training and Kyoshi’s Avatar spirit had made those moments longer and sweeter and rougher—perfect, in Kyoshi’s eyes.
“Yours no less than mine,” Rangi gives her a sweet, boyish grin that could melt the densest, coldest ice. Kyoshi basks in the fact that she’s the only one who sees it. “The servant girl I used to run to greet every morning, now my wife. I can’t believe it.”
Kyoshi lets out a laugh. “You know, I never told you, but finding out you’ve been running at full speed really hurt the mystique of you just appearing conveniently.” She sighs, thumbing the soft skin of Rangi’s cheek, then poking it. “You must have liked me very much.”
Rangi moves away from the poking. “Did you know they used to call me a lovesick pup, following you around?” That, Kyoshi knew. Auntie Mui, finding out about her and Rangi, told her of all these little stories of when they were younger. Some of which they didn’t even think twice about. “It didn’t matter to me if you felt the same. I just wanted to be around you, to the point that I would stay, if you and Yun ever got together.”
That makes Kyoshi shift her weight to her elbow to take a closer look at Rangi. There had been a time when she thought she loved Yun, but it’s a past long gone, a distant memory in her life. This part, too, she didn’t know. “I wouldn’t have wanted that for you.”
“I know,” Rangi replies, a soft smile on her sharp features. “But I loved you and he was the Avatar. I would have done anything to make both of you happy, including biting my tongue and suffering in silence.” Under the sun, the gold necklace with a jade stone sits atop Rangi’s collarbone. “Don’t get me wrong, I would have hated every second. I’m glad I didn’t need to do it.”
Trust Rangi to make Kyoshi laugh in the middle of a very serious moment without even trying. It feels silly, talking about their childhood now that they’ve come so far, but Kyoshi feels the delicate and honest moment flowing like gold in her veins. “When we were running from the authorities all those years ago, I realized I was in love with you.”
That pulls a chuckle from her wife—her wife! Rangi knows this story a hundred times over, but lets Kyoshi continue. “Very likely thing to have happened. I was so preoccupied with being handsome and sweet for years and you didn’t even consider me until then!”
Kyoshi scoffs, pinching Rangi’s cheek, responding in kind to her jest. “It’s because I didn’t think I was even worthy of your affection at that time and much longer after that, and you know this.”
Pulling away, Rangi’s expression softens. “I do.”
“Things would have been so different if you’d turned away, that night Kelsang died and we fled. If I didn’t have you on my journey, the Avatar the world would have known would have been a terrible tyrant,” Kyoshi tells her. She would not have been so different from Yun, perhaps a splitting image of him or much worse, considering the power she yielded. “I couldn’t tell you this at the ceremony lest I share our daofei past to the general public, but there were so many times I felt myself slipping into what could have been the dark end, especially when we were apart. And the only thing that pulled me back to the light was you.”
She thinks back to the time she’d almost passed Lao Ge’s test. Kyoshi could have taken Te’s life in a dishonorable assassination, something that Rangi would never have forgiven her for, but she’d thought of Rangi, of Kelsang. After that, she promised herself never to take a life that way again.
Kyoshi sighs, looking away. “Rangi, I’m not some holy, righteous person. I don’t even count myself as a good one, much more a good Avatar—I’m called to some selfless duty to the world but I know if I had to choose between it and you, there would be a very, very obvious answer.” It had been more than a passing thought, at times, that Kyoshi would break the world than see Rangi suffer. Some Avatar she is. When Kyoshi sees the way Rangi frowns, she laughs a little. “See? But the good parts? They’re only there because of you.”
How could Kyoshi even enumerate all the good parts that come from Rangi? She’d need thousands of years to wax on about it. Maybe she would ruin the Avatar cycle just to be able to keep Rangi in the waking memory of anyone who happened to listen to Kyoshi.
The world could be turned upside down but Rangi would be the only thing that would make sense. It would be so easy, then, to shift everything back into the axis with Rangi there.
And if Rangi was taken away from her, everything would be out of its natural order. All the goodness in Kyoshi would be stripped away. Her north star, shrouded by night forever.
Tears shine in Rangi’s eyes, and Kyoshi expects the light shove against her shoulders. It breaks her from spiraling, thinking of her life without Rangi. “You’re unbelievable. The best parts of you are from yourself. Why did you think I fell for you?”
She laughs and wipes at Rangi’s eyes. “Because I gave you a hard time?”
Rangi has to agree to that, but stipulates, with a finger to her shoulder: “well, yes, but also because you had so much goodness and love and gentleness inside you that somehow you’re still unable to see. That’s why we all love you.” Rangi traces the necklace on Kyoshi’s collarbone with love and care. “And I’m here to remind you about that, every single day we have together.”
Every single day. “I suppose I’ll need a reason to make you stay.”
Rangi kisses her sweetly, one that lasts longer than the Avatar cycle, one that has more history than this tired, old world, one with more gentleness and force that only Rangi seems capable of. “Good thing you’re one piece of work.”
“But I’m your piece of work. Forever.”
Rangi smiles so brightly. Kyoshi lets herself have this one good thing.