Caprice
Prompts –
(Easy) quote - "It happens to all of us eventually."
(Medium) emotion - Surprise
(Hard) song – 100 Years, by Five for Fighting
Position (Element/Team) – Waterbender/Kolau Komodo Rhinos
Words - 1398
I
I'm 15 for a moment, caught in between 10 and 20, and I'm just dreaming, counting the ways to where you are
Ursa had Zuko in a thunderstorm, over the edge of her four poster bed while squatting on a pile of blankets.
She kept him snuggled close to her breast and whispered gently in his ear that he would be great. Her son's bright eyes and toothy smile at one year old broke her as she remembered.
Ursa did not expect Zuko to die like that. Anytime she clenched her eyes close, Azula's pallid face would twist in her mind. She'd relive the moments when Azula walked to her in the gardens and told her that Zuko died at the strike of a hundred stab wounds by assassins posing as guards.
Ursa watched Katara.
Twenty and five summers, a doll, with sunlight tainting her skin a brownish gold and eyes the color of the seas. Zuko's always had good taste.
"Any more tea, my lady?" the servant from the main hall asked.
That's right. They were all in the old beach house her husband built on Ember Island, sitting under an awn with the sea's horizon as their view. Ursa requested jasmine tea, tinged with a bit of berryflower.
"Would you like some tea, Katara?" she asked. The woman shook her head without sparing her a look. "I'd agree if I were you. Now is not the time to behave as if Zuko had one person who loved him."
"I'm sorry, Lady Ursa," Katara said, "but I'm just not in the mood to drink tea or do anything. I've had your daughter in law…"
Ursa wanted to finish her statement.
Katara did not mention Mai coming to her in the middle of a tiny summit in Ba Sing Se, attended by thousands of politicians. With a deadened glance, Mai told Katara that she knew it all.
"Zuko is dead," Mai said, "and I know you fucked him."
In the inner rooms, Azula helped Kiyi settle for her first time here on the island. Ursa knew they listened.
It made sense for them to find Katara and ask her to join them in Ember Island. Iroh took over Zuko's throne for the mean time.
They had an heir to think about.
She sipped her tea.
"You young ones love so easily," Ursa said. "Never think, you all just do and regret, now look at where it has gotten you."
Katara blinked away.
"I was young too. I made mistakes," Ursa murmured, reaching out to touch Katara's hand. "It happens to all of us eventually."
Ursa sat back and closed her eyes again, imagining Zuko's gummy smile as she held him and whispered how she saw him as powerful as the gods, sun, moon and spirits.
II
I'm twenty two for a moment. She feels better than ever, and we're on fire, making our way back from Mars. The sea is high, and I'm heading into a crisis, chasing the years of my life.
Katara did kiss Zuko in the Crystal Catacombs.
It wasn't a good kiss. Sloppy and painful was more like it. Even as a young man, Zuko was intense. Uncomfortable to be with for a long period of time. Not a thriving flame, but a ticking time bomb.
She'd had magical moments only a girl would dream of, but they meant nothing compared to the time Zuko confessed to her.
It happened in Ba Sing Se's hardest rain storm. An annual conference brought all the world's leaders to King Kuei's guest palace. Aang happened to leave the meeting early to attend to a conflict between two running Chieftains in the Northern Tribe.
She had to stay behind to take notes.
As the rain pounded the palace, Zuko entered her room to ask how she was doing. A blur, then he told her he still loved her. Their kiss wasn't hot and sloppy then.
It was her being swept off her feet, or falling into a fiery storm with a man she never thought she still wanted.
Katara related their tumble to being forced back into a burning house. They stayed in her room. She rocked her hips over him, arched her back over her knees with her hands pressed over plush sheets, and took him in her mouth.
She spent the night on her back with his lips touching the tip of her ear. With each thrust, and a shuddered voice, he told her he couldn't let go.
A thunder crackling in a turbulent storm in Ba Sing Se. That was how they were like. Yet it ended in sunlight, peering down amid a rainbow.
She tried to let go but Zuko always grasped and dragged. He'd kneel and beg and hold her hips and cry, begging her to stay.
She wanted to end it the month before he died, but he walked into the guest room of Republic City's Grand Star Hotel and locked the doors. Zuko took her mouth in a wet spin and she couldn't help but go along.
He had her propped on her vanity and took her. Sweat and skin slapping gently with wet slicks that echoed in the bedroom.
"I love you so much."
And she forgot his wife and the world, kissing him back and murmuring the same. She was glad she did.
Katara did not talk the entire time the women of the Fire Palace put her in Ember Island. Kiyi was a blossoming teenager who still didn't understand the sin her brother committed. Azula watched her from a distance without saying a word to her. Ursa tried to seem like she cared, but Katara knew she was just as angry as the rest of them.
She thought this until a construction worker called her a concubine on her way home from sitting on the sands by the beach.
She could have done something, but in a blur of red and white, Azula had the man on wet cement in a choke hold until his face began to turn blue.
She did not speak until Ursa screamed for Azula to let go.
III
Half time goes by, suddenly you're wise, without the blink of an eye. 67 is gone, the sun is getting high, we're moving on.
She had just fornicated with a man twice her age but dressed well enough to be presentable when Zuko asked her to meet him in the lower dungeons.
This was the night before he died.
Sunken, Zuko looked like a cart dragged him half a mile around the country side, "I need you to do me a favor."
"Oh? And what would that be, dear Zuzu?"
She'd been playful, all swollen lips and sore legs. Zuko never asked for favors, but he looked at her so long that she let go of the playfulness.
"She's expecting."
"Which one?"
Zuko glared. Azula always kept his secrets, no matter how much he tried to hide them from her.
"I need you to look over her. Just in case something happens."
Azula laughed with a quirk of her lips, "You speak as if you're facing death. Thinking of leaving us so soon?"
Zuko smiled, "Just in case."
Katara's face crumbled. Azula didn't understand. They were talking about the weather and how Ember Island's rain period was so dreadful.
Until Azula told her that Zuko would hate to be at Ember Island in the rain.
Azula didn't want to think about it. Kiyi stood in the back of the bedroom, rooted down and forced to witness the scene. Azula didn't bother telling her to leave. She didn't know how to shield children from the brutalities of life.
She squeezed until Katara's body felt warm and dark arms latched on around Azula's neck.
"We'll take care of it. You won't be alone and you'll have a healthy one, just as the doctor says. Do you understand?"
Katara held her tighter, fingers digging deep into her skin.
She watched Katara walk on the beach to sit and listen to crashing white capped waves.
Just as fast as Katara wept in her arms, Azula knew that she let Zuko go off into the orange and purple skies as the waters lapped at her feet.
Poor girl.
I'm 99 for a moment,
Dying for just another moment.
Counting the ways to where you are.