Setting: The war has been officially over for sometime and the four nations have finally retained peace with the fire nation. This is a few weeks after the last episode, the gang still lives in Ba Sing Se, Enjoy! :)
It's forbidden love I tell you, forbidden love.
"Aaaaang!" I yelled from my room. "I'm going to buy some food alright?" The morning was bright with the hazing sun rising out in the east. The fresh air has just reached us in our home in Ba Sing Se, it's practically asking me to go out...
It seems that everyone else is gone somewhere, I thought, no one would notice my absence. Well, except Aang...
"Alrighty, Katara," said Aang cheerfully as I headed toward the door, "Me and Momo want some peaches please!" The smiling boy skipped away looking for his beloved lemur, but I was already off.
Barely no one was out. I could only hear the quick pace of my steps, beating the floor with anticipation. Even though I was already half way there, I couldn't help but smile. Aang. He always been there for me, helping me, smiling at me, or should I say with me... But I can't think of that right now, I thought as I started to run, I have to see him...
"I'm late! I'm late!" I said as I ran towards my final destination, or shall I say my ultimate destination, "It's almost noon!" I ran past the irrevelent shops, past the cabbage man's cart, around the third building from the left, and there it was. The tea shop.
I slowed my run into a walk and tried to stay out of sight. Staying precautiously a few feet away from the entrance of the shop, I set my pouch on the ground and took out my disguise: an earth kingdom-style dress, a pair of sandals and a farmer's cone hat, so that he wouldn't see into my blue, sapphire eyes. I hastily changed into my new clothes, packed up my water tribe kimono in my pouch and entered the shop.
"I'm...here..." I said with a relieved sigh.
And he's still here, I thought as I saw him past by, He didn't go on his break yet... I smiled as I went to my seat, the seat where I sat every morning, near the window facing the run-down fountain. Ahhh..., I thought dreamily. The cool, early breeze coming from the window combined with the warmth of the rising sun was surely perfection. I set my chin on the palm of my hand as I watched the water trickle from old fountain. Drop...drop...drop...
"Hello," he said as he approached my table. His smile was just as enchanting, my heart couldn't help but skip a beat! "What would you like to order?" Anything you'll like, I thought as I nearly melted in my seat from his beautiful voice. Those were same exact words he said to me the first day I met him as Cai...
"One order of rose petal tea please." I couldn't help but smile, how could I not? I loved him for goodness sake.
"Coming right up," he said as he smiles his genuine smile. He left without another word. No worries, I thought, lowering my hat down, I have all the time in the world...
Why has it come to this... me, dressing up and disguising myself so that he wouldn't see that I wasn't really who I protrayed myself as, some commoner from the Earth Kingdom... My love for him is as strong as my power to bend. I don't know why I let it grow, why I let my feelings for him continue to drive me to this... this... place every single day, but it doesn't matter now. He's here, and that's all what matters.
His grace is evident as he walks from table to table taking orders, as if he was dancing, one step to another, perfectly in time. It seems like a dance for two.. I thought slowly, one half of a whole... Little does he know that he is the other half of my whole. The other half that drives me to continue on with my day, to live, to take in every breath, because he is my life. But he can never know me. The real me. He cannot know that I, Katara, has fallen for the newly-coronated, Firelord Zuko. Someone like me...with someone like him...impossible...
"Here you go," he said, interrupting the sadness of my thoughts. He places the rose petal tea on my table, "I have to say you have a good taste." He smiles as he pulls out the chair from the other end of the table and sits down, facing me.
I just stared down at my tea speechless, after all these times of ordering tea every morning, never has it been that he would sit here with me...
"W-Why would you say that..Firelord Zuko?" I said while still looking down, toying the tea cup handle. The aroma of the rose tea was comforting, but the heat steaming from it was making it hard not to blush so brightly...
"Just call me Zuko..." he said looking a little embarrassed by the formality, "This tea is rare, it's been hand-picked from the rose bushes of the Bei Fong gardens."
So this tea is rare... I thought, Toph's family gave us so much of this tea, that I thought it was a staple here in the earth kingdom. I stared down with wonder, not noticing the change of subject.
"I've seen you around here so often," he said with his hand scratching the back of his head awkwardly, "Got a name?"
"Oh!" I said as I jerked up in my seat, carefully tilting my hat so we don't meet eye to eye, "My name is..." Come on, Katara, SPEAK. "Cai. My name is Cai."
"Well..." he said, as if he didn't want to admit it, "You have a nice name, Cai."
I grinned from cheek to cheek. Aw, it's so cute that he's stubborn. "So..." I said trying to prolong the conversation, "What's your favorite tea, Zuko...?"
"Well...uhh...that's my favorite tea," he said pointing to my cup, even more embarrased by the coincidence, "I guess it's probably yours too right?"
I lifted my lids now, realizing that he was trying to look at me... under my hat. "It is actually..." slightly moving away from his gaze, "I just love the way it makes you feel, you know?" I can't let him see me... not now at least...
"Yeah," he said inching closer, "Do you know what they say about this tea?" I could feel his eyes piercing through the straw of my worn out hat...
"No..." I said a bit confused, wondering where the conversation was heading. I lowered my hat even further. My heart is racing so fast, I thought anxiously, his face is so close to mine now.
"...W-What do they say, Zuko?" I said before he got any nearer.
"They say," he said softly, "that this tea makes a person feel as if they were..." He paused and took my hat off me, revealing me, and gently held my, now flushed, face.
"...in love."
I stared into his eyes, and yet I didn't see any panic. He stared back into mine, with accepting eyes, as if he knew... I have to escape. No one can find out. I don't think he realizes that it's me...if only...
"I have to leave," I said as I stood up abruptly from my seat, letting his hands drop from my face, "Thank you for the tea." I ran out the front door, leaving him there, sitting at my special place...
I ran around the third building from the left, past the cabbage man's cart, past the irrevelent shops, back to my home where I belong. It's all over, I thought sadly, I can't believe how stupid I was! To allow such a thing... I slowed my pace as I approaced a fruit stand nearby. Reluctantly, I took out some silver pieces and went up to the salesman.
"Hello sir, can I have some peaches please?"
I hope you liked it! :) This is the first of many so there would be more to this story coming out soon! :)