The sea air was fresh and cooled her neck as it passed over the waves. She was standing close to the rail, eyes trained on the stretch of powdery white beach that lined Ember Island. The building she was looking for would come up soon, and she always liked to look at it.
Behind her, she heard footsteps coming in her direction. She knew the firm, confident footfalls belonged to her husband.
"We're almost there," he said as he came up beside her. "Don't you want to sit inside for a little while?"
She broke her gaze from the island to his bright amber eyes. "I just want to see the theater. I'll go in after." She turned her eyes back to the beach. "I wonder what plays they're showing this summer."
He came closer and nudged her arm a little, making her turn her attention back to him. He was pulling something out from his robes—a scroll—and handed it to her. She took it and opened it. It was a poster for one of the plays that was showing this summer—her favorite from two years ago. He was smiling when she looked back up to him and she let her happiness show.
"Thank you," she said warmly, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it gently.
"Let's hope that this time Azula will stay put long enough to sit through the whole thing," he replied, threading their fingers together.
A glance back at the two children who had just come out onto the deck of the ship, one a pretty, dark haired girl and the other a cute, small version of the man beside her, made her sigh and shake her head. "We can hope," she murmured. The pretty girl was restless when asked to sit still—she was at the toddler stage of boundless energy.
They were silent for a while longer. She expected him to go back inside and look over the mountains of scrolls and letters he had brought with him, but he kept his place beside her and held her hand tightly.
Soon her eye caught sight of the tall, wide building with banners draped over the entrance, and she let go of his hand to stand against the railing to look at it better. She liked seeing the theater, a remembrance of her old life and favorite pastime, better than any other sight on the island. It was always changing and there was always something new to see about the building and she liked to see it firsthand.
"Mommy!" The cute boy had run to her side and was clutching the bars of the railing. "The theater!"
"Yes, Zuko, there it is," she said, stroking his head softly as they looked on. "They've painted some gold trim on it this year. It looks very nice, doesn't it?"
"Will we see a play tonight?" he asked eagerly.
"I hope so," she answered, smiling at him.
The ship was sailing closer to the island now, giving them a more detailed view of the building. She turned to look back at her husband, who was watching them with his hands clasped in front of him. "Should we be this close to the shore?"
He shrugged and turned to leave. "We have tickets for your play tonight," he said as he walked back inside.
She hoped that he caught the smile she gave him before she turned back to look at the theater with her son and her daughter, who had run up to her to be picked up to look at the sea below.
She didn't catch that her husband had looked at them one last time before going inside with the look of content happiness, or that it had been his doing to bring the ship closer to shore so she could see the theater.
It was going to be a good summer for his Ursa.
