Zuko watched as Miyuki made her way to the center of the tea shop where a space had been cleared for her and the guzheng on the floor. She looked reluctant to accept when the owner asked her to perform here just once after hearing that she was a street performer before this. She showed him the sort of dancing she was doing outside and highlighted the amount of clean up it would take, in an attempt to dissuade him from the idea entirely, but in the end, he had insisted that she play the guzheng instead. Her condition that it would only be just this once remained the same.
When Miyuki disappeared to the back to change out of her work uniform, Zuko wasn't sure what he was expecting to see, but evidently it wasn't what he saw when she came back out. He was surprised to find her in a pale green dress the color of fine jade with white and gold accents and her hair swept into a thick braid adorned with small pink flowers when she came back into the room.
She took her time smoothing the creases in her dress as she sat down on the pillow in front of the guzheng, legs tucked neatly under her. Someone had adjusted the instrument to fit her height with eerie precision, and he could see that she noted the small, off-putting detail in her hesitation. Miyuki shifted a little as she fixed the long, draping sleeves of her dress before she lifted her right hand, which now had turtle-crab finger picks taped to the pads of her fingers, and plucked a string experimentally. A bright, clear sound rang across the teashop and the room fell to a deafening silence as all eyes fell on Miyuki. She nodded at the owner before closing her eyes.
Her fingers began to dance over the strings and spin an ethereal tune, and Zuko could almost feel the room take in a collective breath as she wove the melody note by note. Her voice was clear and smooth as she began to sing about a young woman walking by the river on a spring night and watching the rain fall to the ground like silver needles from the heavens as the full moon shone down on her.
Miyuki sang twice in all the time she was on the ship. The first was after losing a bet, so she sang a song that someone else had requested. The second was when she sang and played the guzheng on their last night with the crew. He had only been present for one of those two occasions, but according to his uncle, both songs were songs about unrequited love. Like those songs, this song was a heartbreaking one about separated lovers. In the last one, it was the tale of two lovers who were forcefully separated by their families. This one, however, was about a young woman who told the man that she loved to marry someone else for his sake. There was more poetry to this one, and it required that the audience read between the lines to get the full story. If they failed to do that, it was merely a song about a woman walking by a river at night in spring. It was because of this poetic-style that it felt as though this song was more suited to Miyuki than the last.
All around him, the patrons of the tea house were entranced. Hardly anyone moved, and all eyes were fixed on Miyuki, as though any movement could break the spell. He couldn't tell which sounded better, her voice or the clear notes of the guzheng. Finally, the flow of notes began to slow into a trickle until she struck one final note on the guzheng and it hung in the air like the gaze of the woman in the song as she watched her love from across the river in painful silence.
If everyone had inhaled at the same time at the beginning of the song, it felt as though everyone exhaled at the same time at the end of the song when they could hold their breath no longer. The room practically erupted into applause after the exhale and she ducked into a gracefully flowing bow before standing and disappearing in the back.
By the time she came back, once again dressed in the tea shop uniform and her hair braided back into its usual half-up-half-down style, the room was still singing her praises. An aristocratic couple went up to her immediately. "Hana, was it? You absolutely must come perform at my party next week," the woman insisted.
"Ah, I'm afraid that this performance was a one-time exception." Miyuki lowered her head ever so slightly in apology. "I'm sorry-"
"I'll pay you handsomely for it."
"I truly am sorry, but it isn't a matter of money-"
"Hana!" A smartly dressed young man approached her and bowed. "I'm Gen. Your performance was absolutely enchanting. If you won't perform again, please, at least let me take you to dinner. Tonight?"
"I'm flattered but-"
"I'm not normally like this, but I really must insist-"
Zuko stepped in front of her and the crowd as the voices began to overlap into a cacophony. He wasn't sure what prompted him to act. The fact that she had never seemed so overwhelmed before, or that they were mobbing her. Regardless, that was more than enough of that for him. "That's enough. Stop bombarding her with requests."
The crowd began to argue back with him, but he saw her take this chance to walk up to the owner and whisper something in the older man's ear. He wasn't sure what it was that she told the old man seeing as the crowd was so loud and she had lifted her hand to cover her mouth, but in an instant, the owner was stepping in and doing crowd control. He told the crowd to form a line with the statement that all inquiries about her would have to go through him.
Zuko felt her grab his arm then and pull him to the back and straight out the back door. "Mi- Hana," he corrected, "Where are we going?"
"The boss granted us a break," she replied as she practically tugged him through the streets, arms looped around his. Eventually, they ended up by the river, and when they were under the cover of a willow tree, she let him go so she could sit and lean against the trunk of the tree. She sighed wearily, eyelids fluttering shut. When they opened again, she looked up at him with those pretty blue eyes of her's and patted the space next to her. "Will you lend me your shoulder?"
He hoped that she didn't notice the way his cheeks warmed at the sight while he sat next to her. He felt himself tense a little when her head fell on his shoulder without further warning. A faint, sweet smell seemed to surround him, and it didn't take very long for him to relax. It was hard to deny her when she looked so forlorn under the dappled moonlight. Not that he had any intention of denying her request to begin with. He watched her for a long moment, taking in the way the moonlight reflected the soft curves of cheeks and lips and the bridge of her nose. The silvery lighting made her azure eyes look almost a smoky gray as she stared at the moon's reflection in the river.
Finally, to fill the silence, he asked, "What did you tell the owner?"
"That he was going to handle the crowd while you and I stepped out for a break, or I would get a job with one of the tea shops in the middle ring and bring you and your uncle with me." Her voice was surprisingly soft for someone who was recounting a threat, but that was the way things were when it came to Miyuki. Threats and challenges came with sticky sweet smiles and a voice like honey. Genuine reactions came with faint smiles and small shifts in her voice. They were subtle and less calculated.
"Why'd you bring me with you?" His voice wavered a little as he dared to ask the question that was burning as his lips.
"Who else would I bring?" Her reply came without hesitation. The speed of her response and the phrasing seemed to imply that it should have been obvious from the start that it could only be him, enough so that she didn't even need to think about the answer.
"I didn't want them to have an excuse to follow, and now, they don't," she continued, "You're with me after all, so I'm not wandering the streets at night by myself, and I'm perfectly safe in known company." Her eyes fluttered shut and stayed closed as she finished in a drowsy murmur, "Besides, I like your company."
"I do too." It came out as no louder than a whisper, but if he wasn't sure before, he was sure that he blushed this time. The moment he said it, he realized how close that was to admitting his feelings for her. They hadn't spoken once about the kiss they had shared a little over a week ago, and it had been like this between them ever since. A dance between closeness and distance. Quietly admitting the truth only for it to be followed by embarrassment and denial. Things were complicated to say the least, and he didn't blame her for conducting herself as such. It wasn't as though he wasn't dancing the same dance right alongside her.
Yet, at times like these, she made it seem so simple. She hummed softly in acknowledgement as she looped her arm around his arm. "Then, will you stay with me for a bit longer?"
He hesitated. Maybe— just maybe— if he let it be, things really could be that simple. "Yeah."
"Thanks, Z-" She sighed softly and shook her head. "Thanks."
"So who taught you to play the guzheng?"
She hummed softly. "An old woman who used to be a musician. She lived in one of the Earth Kingdom villages that my parents used to stop in for longer than the rest. I didn't get a chance to learn very much from her though."
Her voice was soft as she spoke, and he found himself murmuring back, "What do you mean?"
"You've now heard two of the three songs that I learned from her, and I'm not sure you'll ever hear the last."
He turned to look at her and found her looking back up right at him, her gaze unwavering. "Why? What do you mean?"
Miyuki's gaze flickered to the river ahead of them. "She made me promise only to play that song at my wedding. It was a song that she composed herself for who she called 'the love of her life.'"
Zuko had so many questions after hearing something like that, but her eyes fluttered shut. "Don't ask me why, not now. I'm too tired to sift through my memories and emotions right now. Can I ask you for a favor though? If I fall asleep, will you wake me up in a little bit?" That was the last thing she whispered before her head lulled to the side and she fell asleep with her arm looped around his and her head on his shoulder.
He put his head over her's softly. "I will."