Afterglow

Summary: Prince Zuko has come to marring age, and is to be selected a wife soon. His mother, the Fire Lady, notices the distaste that he has toward the other Nations, and seeks out a plan to change his detestation. She encourages her long time friend to allow her only daughter to be the betrothed of the testy young Fire Prince. But the one thing that the Fire Lady didn't expect was that this young Waterbender has a hatred for the Fire Prince that is as strong as the dislike he has for her. Will this marriage ever work out the way the Fire Lady had it planned out to be?

Rating: T-mostly language

Author's notes: Zuko is scarless in this fic... He wasn't exposed to the pain of his father because he wasn't ever exiled. So, he has a full head of hair. (Don't take me wrong . . . I like the scar. It's sexy. But for this fic, he's a pampered snotty prince without the scar.) Katara is fifteen, Sokka is sixteen, and Zuko is sixteen. The age for marriage is sixteen for the Fire Nation, but the age of marriage in the Water Tribe is fourteen. (In this fic, okay? I saw the waterbending master the other day (the episode) and I noticed that they said that the age for marriage was sixteen, but oh well. Just go with it. Please?) Thanks for the reviews! Enjoy chapter two!

Disclaimer: I don't own A: TLA

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Afterglow

Chapter Two

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Ursa sighed as she raised her knuckles to the door before her. She was now taking action . . . Not to mention stepping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Almost literally. Her son's temper was sort of touchy now, and she was partially frightened of his anger flares. It usually consisted of flying fire. She took a deep breath and rapped her hand against the metal door.

"You may enter." She heard him reply from inside of the room. She slowly opened the door and spied him sitting in the center of the room with candles all around him. He was meditating, and she disturbed him. Great. He glanced up at her as she softly shut the door.

"Is this a bad time? I can come back later . . . " she suggested. Zuko shook his head and offered her a cushion not far from where he was seated on the floor. She smiled and sat gracefully on it. She studied her son for a moment before she had to break the news.

"Is something bothering you, mother?" The Fire Prince questioned when he noticed her watching him. He sat cross-legged in the center of the room, his hands folded neatly in his lap. But he wasn't meditating. His golden eyes watched his mother with a softness that he only reserved for her.

"Well, yes actually. That's part of the reason that I am here." She told him; it was easier not to beat around the bush. "I might as well just tell you right now so that I don't have to sit here for long and keep you from your meditation." Not that you'll actually go back to it after I finish. She smiled at him. He watched her patiently. He's such a good boy . . . "I came to tell you that I have found you a fiancee."

And now she waited for the eruption. She kept a smile on her face, even if it was futile for the chance of not getting yelled at. She expected it to come with all the force of the world fueling it. But she didn't expect his first reaction.

"You found me . . . A fiancee?" He asked her quietly. She nodded, almost confused by his tone of voice. He didn't even sound mad. "Well." He muttered, turning his gaze back to the candles before him. He wasn't angry, that much was obvious. Maybe troubled, but not angry . . .Yet.

"She's my friend's daughter. She's a nice girl, I'm sure you'll like her." Ursa continued. Her hopefulness was met by cold disinterest.

"Yeah, maybe."

"You haven't met her before."

"Nope, didn't think so."

"She's not from around here."

"Didn't think that she was."

Ursa sighed. She had to get this out sooner or later.

"No, I mean that she's not from the Fire Nation." Zuko's eyes flickered toward his mother at that statement.

"You're making me marry someone outside of the Fire Nation?" He asked, his voice portrayed the slight confusion and anger that started to bubble up inside him. The flames on the candles flickered dangerously. Ursa was treading on dangerous grounds now, but she didn't flinch. Her son had to learn how to take surprises and deal with them. "What Nation is she from?"

"The Water Tribe."

One sentence. That's all it took for Zuko's thinly controlled temper to flare out of control. "What!" He yelled, bolting up from his seat on the ground. His golden eyes bore into his mother's with anger and the candles visually showed it. "You got me engaged to a Water peasant? I can't believe this! I can't believe that you would do this to me!"

"Zuko, please calm down and listen." Ursa said, closing her eyes.

"No! I will not listen!" He yelled angrily.

"This is for your own good!" She told him firmly. He paused in his rampage for a moment. "Somehow, you have become ill-natured toward the other Nations of the world, and there is no better way to make you understand that you are indeed expressing hatred toward them. You can't even see it for yourself. You should be ashamed, Zuko. I thought I taught you better than that. Do my teachings fall short to your teachers'? Or your Father's?"

"No! No. . . They don't." Zuko said, turning his gaze away. He wouldn't admit it, but he was indeed ashamed by his outburst. Not only did it prove that he disliked other Nations, it showed his mother that he had been taught something that isn't right. And he hated it. He sat back down on the floor and stared at the candles. He sat there like that, squinting every now and then, for a couple of minutes, contemplating over her words. Ursa stayed quiet for him.

"This entire thing is insane . . ." He voiced after a while. "But . . . I'll do it." Ursa smiled openly. He actually agreed to something he didn't like at all. His reasons were different from what she originally expected but he was still showing that he could take it like a man.

Zuko wasn't entirely sure that he could take it like he agreed that he would, but he wasn't going to cower like a weakling. He was going to show her that something as simple as a marriage to a water peasant wasn't going to bring him down. He wanted to prove that he could rise above his hatred for the other Nations. He wanted to. He needed to. Because, he needed her to think well of him, for she was the only one that actually cared for him. And he didn't want to disappoint her. "I'd be lying if I said that I would like it, though."

He felt arms wrap around him not long after. "Thank you, Zuko. Thank you for understanding." Ursa whispered to her son. He had agreed. She couldn't believe it. He was going to go along with her plan for once. For Zuko had finally agreed to help himself.

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"Do you have everything?" Sokka asked his sister quietly. Katara nodded quicky, without uttering a word and slung the pack that she had onto her back. Her half of the room that she and Sokka shared for all fifteen years of her life was almost bare of her things. She had managed to stuff most of her belongings into the bag that she now carried.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to come with you?" Sokka asked again just in case he didn't hear her clearly the first time. The desperation in his voice was evident.

"I'm sure, Sokka." Katara whispered, smiling a tad at him. He gave her a forlorn look that pleaded that she stayed. Katara's smile fell. "Now, don't go and give me that look. I'll never get out of here if you do."

"I don't want you to go. Can't you just go and turn this jerk down and come back home?" He asked, almost begging. Katara walked up and took him into a tight hug.

"No. I don't think that I can, Sokka." She whispered. Sokka hugged her back twice as hard as she was hugging him. But I'd give anything to...

"I'm going to miss you, squirt." He told her.

"Sokka . . . you jerk. I told you not to say that . . . You're making me cry now . . . " She muttered to him, trying to hold back the tears that lay on the brim of her lashes. She hid her face against his shoulder as her tears fell despite her best efforts. "I'm going to miss you too..."

"Be sure to kick your fiancee's ass if he ever tries to do anything inappropriate to you for me, okay?" Sokka told her with a small smile. His sister laughed light-heartedly at his comment and wiped away the tears that still lingered.

"Sure, Sokka."

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"Okay, Katara. You have a safe journey, honey." Keirah told her daughter as she hugged her. Katara nodded in reply and pulled away to turn and hug her father. He patted her on the head lovingly.

"I'll see you soon, my little waterbender." He said to her. She nodded again and turned to Sokka. She enveloped him in another tight hug.

"I'll write to you every day." She whispered to him.

"I will too." He told her back. They released their grip on each other and Katara waved to her family as she turned to get onto the boat that would take her to the Fire Nation. Her new home for however long she was obliged to stay there.

Even as she watched her family grow smaller and smaller into the distance, she couldn't help but cry. She already missed them so much. She didn't how much she would be able to take if she was going to stay for a time longer than a week, but she knew that she would be staying for a long time now that she was engaged to the Fire Prince.

She sank to the deck and pulled her knees up to her chest and just cried for the rest of the night.