This one-shot was done as a favor for my good friend Goten on Distant Horizons, based on a prompt to do a drabble based on The Little Mermaid. I loved the original telling by Hans Christian Anderson, and give you this drabble with deep appreciation to the talented storyteller.
Ningyo Hime was the Japanese title for the story of the Little Mermaid. And so, it begins...
The cold metal of the ship's deck felt foreign against Katara's bare feet, as strange and out of place as the silks that shifted restlessly against the curves of her frame, the delicate fabric so unlike the heavy furs she'd been swaddled in as a child. She swayed slightly, letting her body fall into the rhythm of the waves that rocked the ship.
The ocean was the only thing familiar on this place of smoke and flame and metal, though she'd learned to grow accustomed to the foreign surroundings. The smell of ash no longer choked her as it once did, and she'd learned to accept the confining feel of metal walls. But it was not a happy acceptance, though she'd tried to convince herself it was.
"When will you be going to bed?" A voice spoke behind her, a blend of husky tones and the rasp of one who can breath fire, sending chills of excitement racing up her skin, just as it had the day she'd first heard it. He spoke with a softness that he only used when addressing her.
Long, hot fingers wrapped themselves around Katara's shoulders, warming her skin through the silks. She sighed and leaned into the embrace, finding comfort in the arms of her lover.
"You know I worry about you, standing alone out here in the dark." He said softly, punctuating his words with butterfly kisses down the nape of her neck.
"You shouldn't worry about me. Go to bed and get some rest." Katara murmured.
"I won't sleep until you are lying beside me." Zuko took her closer into his arms. What the child of fire didn't realize was that the tighter one tries to grip water, the more it will slip through one's fingers
"The Palace, and our marriage, is still a three day's journey." Katara reminded him.
"Then I will learn to survive without sleep." He said with resolution. Katara smiled at the determination in his voice, though she knew he'd be asleep within the time it took for the moon to rise. Long training hours insured that he was exhausted by the end of the day.
He left her on the deck. She closed her eyes as she listened to his footfalls fade until the sound was swallowed up in the roar of the ocean and the creaking of the ship as it labored along the crests of the waves. She stayed like that for a while, letting the ocean take over her consciousness, filling her thoughts and the calm emptiness left in the wake of her decision.
By the time the moon had risen, her thoughts were washed clean of any lingering doubts. She was left with only herself, the ocean, and her decision. There was some comfort in that, some strange kind of courage.
Turning from the full moon, she padded down the length of the ship and slipped beneath the deck. She moved silently, no more than a breath of air stealing down the passageway that led to her betrothed's sleeping quarters.
The door swung open silently, letting in the flickering torchlight of the halls to guide her footsteps. The scent of incense did not quite cover the presence of smoke and sweat, the heavy and intoxicating smell she'd come to associate with Zuko. She breathed deeply, Katara had always been fascinated by flame, and the fire Prince was every inch his element.
She came to his bed and listened to his breathing, slow and steady in sleep. There were no windows in his room, and the torchlight from the hall did not reach his bed, but Katara didn't need light. She cupped his chin in her palm and traced the lines of his face with her fingertips, seeing him through her hands as an earthbender might see the world through vibrations.
She ran her fingers through his hair and traced the outline of his scar. She touched his lips gently, surprised at their warmth even in sleep. What would he say if he saw her? He would ask her why she was here, and she would have to explain. He would get angry, he would make promises that he would either never be able to keep... or promises that he would keep, to the ruin of the world. So she didn't wake him.
"I love you, Zuko." She paused, and for a moment, it seemed as if past and present and future, as if the fabric of time had come unfurled to wrap around her next sentence.
"But I cannot be your wife."
Katara closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against Zuko's. She breathed heavily under the weight of her confession, but her voice remained steady as she continued.
"I can not deny who I am. I am a child of the Water Tribe. I cannot become a fire nation queen any more than a fish can become a human."
Her voice dropped into an earnest whisper. "I tried. I thought I could learn to accept your world, but I am dying with each day that forever widens the distance between me and my people. I think that I could bear to suffer, even to die, but I cannot bear what it would do to you if I stayed."
"Your people will not understand our union. They will not accept it. They will do anything to tear us apart, and you will do anything to keep me with you, even if it means giving up your throne. I cannot have that. You will be able to go on without me, but the world cannot go on without you."
Here Katara paused to stroke Zuko's face with a light, loving brush of her fingertips. "You are the only descendent of Sozun to bear a heart not consumed by bloodlust. You will not make the mistakes your fathers made. Your feet will walk the way of peace."
She kissed him, letting her hair fall in a curtain around their faces so that even the room could not be witness of the last kiss between fire and water. Zuko stirred and sighed in his sleep, but he did not wake.
"And it will be my memory that will keep them there."
The moon had reached its zenith by the time Katara made her way back to the deck of the ship, and its light silvered the ocean and turned her skin a pale white, as if already in death. But she felt no fear, nor did she feel sorrow. Such emotions had long ago been exhausted and given way to a calm and steady resolution.
She smiled wanly to herself. Perhaps it was a curse, placed on the women of her clan, that love would always be bitter and full of sorrow. The world had been plagued with them, curses, in the form of war and death, ever since Sozun lifted his hand against the other nations.
That time was finally coming to an end now, but it seemed that one last sacrifice was required. She had taught the scarred Prince in the peaceful ways of her people, and for a short time fire had borrowed water to learn from it. But now it was time for the ocean to reclaim its own.
And so may the curse be lifted.
It was Katara's last wish, whispered into the air as her feet left the railing of the ship. A whispered hope for her clan, for her tribe, for the world. Her body plunged downward toward the icy waves, but she felt no fear, only the quiet calm of a promise delivered, one final sacrifice after years of blood, one final act of courage after a hundred years of despair.
Yes, I know, it's horribly depressing. I hope it wasn't too bad, though.
Quick Author's Note: Yes! I'm working on the next epic. Yes! It's going very slowly. Other writing deadlines and a full-time job have slowed my progress on it, but don't give up hope...