A/N: Zuko/Katara, reincarnation fic.
Disclaimer: Anything recognizable doesn't belong to me.
His skin is a mottled blue the first time they meet. She is the Painted Lady, and he is the Blue Spirit, and theirs is a love forbidden. There are secret meetings in watery coves, lingering glances, stolen kisses, not-so-accidental touches. And then Father Agni hears of their betrayal, and the Blue Spirit is cast from the spirit realm while the Painted Lady is locked in a gilded cage. He searches for her and she weeps for him and eventually they fade in the way that unhappy spirits tend to, and at the end Agni is merciful; at the end they are reborn.
He is earth, next, and she is wind, destined, it seems, to be forever opposite. She dies of illness at a young age, and thousands of miles away in the newly burgeoning Earth colonies he wakes up weeping at a sense of loss he is too young to comprehend. He searches his whole life for a woman he will never find, and ends up alone and regretful in his old age.
She is fire, next, and he is a water child gone before he ever truly was. She grows strong and sad, and marries a man she does not love in order to save the town and the people she does. She makes the most of it, like she always has, and some nights she wakes smiling from dreams of a blue spirit who wipes away her tears and whispers sweet nothings into the soft pale shell of her ear. She is happy, despite it all, but some days melancholy settles on her skin like the morning dew.
In some lifetimes they meet, in some they don't. In some they are together, in some they are torn apart. There are afternoons spent lying in grassy Earth kingdom fields and there are panicked cries floating over carrion filled battlefields. They are happiest at each other's sides, saddest apart, but in the end they are always ripped from one another. Rebirth is Agni's blessing, but it is also his curse.
She is born water, last, and he is born fire. She is the Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe's pride and joy, and he is the Fire Lord's greatest disappointment. He is angry, oh so angry, with a heart of gold. She is sweet, kind, hopeful, with anger buried deep. This is a lifetime where they meet. This is a lifetime when the pain comes at the worst moment. They hate each other, at first, and then comes respect, and then feelings start to blossom. It is lightning, bright and dangerous and burning that comes for them this time. It is meant for her and caught by him and for a moment it seems as if the cycle will continue. And then she is kneeling by his side, and he is groaning, and the spirits have given them rest at last.