A/N:
Four chapters in one week! Hope you all enjoyed!
Character Death….be warned.
Chapter 4:
"What is this?" Zuko asked as they saw his men having arrested another guard of his.
The guards stopped to explained that Yuan had attacked Lady Katara. Zuko eyed the man and saw the look of fear in his eyes. He began to question. Had this man really attacked Katara? He was such a well behaved guard. No reports of wrongdoing or overstepping.
"Where is Lady Katara?" Zuko asked.
"By Fire Sage Lao's office." The guard answered.
Sighing heavily as he placed his hand on his face. "Please, release this man. He's innocent."
"But your majesty-"
"Lady Katara loves to give me trouble. Release him. He did no wrong."
Yuan fell on his knees as he was released. "Thank you, you're majesty!"
Katara got up from her desk and moved around it as she saw Ozai peering at her from the curtains by the window.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Katara hissed in a low voice.
"Well you've changed a lot, dear. Tearing into my sister like that and then that kiss, hopefully, that guard is still alive where you left him." Ozai moved like a snake from behind the curtains and stood before her.
The waterbender bit the inside of her cheek as he loomed over her with his height. She hated how he put a bad taste in her mouth. In truth, she wished she didn't see his presences as achariot of misfortune that was to come but knowing him, nothing good followed him.
"What do you want?" She asked him, cutting to the chase.
Smirking as he pinned her between him and the desk, "You know what I want, Ka-ta-ra." He looked her over.
The waterbender cringed as she leaned away from him, "Get off of me!" She shoved him away. "I told you already. We're done."
"I don't quite believe you." Ozai told her as he paced away from her to the window.
Hissing through her teeth, "Just leave before I call the guards, you son of a bitch!" Katara snapped. "I don't want what we had!"
Ozai didn't believe that either. She was only saying this because she was scared and he couldn't blame her. After what he heard she lost because of him, he could see why she was acting the way she was. He was the reason she no longer had her family to comfort her while people shouted names at her, conspired her death, and made attempts on her life. He was why she couldn't sleep through the nights without getting herself drunk, why she made attempts on her own life, and why she wasn't sure what to tell their children of their father. Shin told him everything.
"Do you want to go back to prison?! Leave!" She yelled at him.
Looking over to her, he smirked widely. "For you, I'd go back." He told her. "So tell me, should I walk out those doors and let it be known I'm alive and free? Let them take me back to my cell and spend the rest of forever there?"
"Ozai-"
"You don't want that. I see it in your eyes. But still you claim you're done with me."
"That doesn't mean I don't care about you!" Katara was about to punch him in his stupid face. Just because she didn't want to be with him didn't mean she didn't still love him.
Ozai would always be a part of her heart but she couldn't let him be a part of her life anymore. He was bad news and in some ways, a man child. She didn't have time for it. Well actually, she had plenty with how long she could live but that wasn't the point.
"Tonight, come with me somewhere."
Like hell she was going anywhere with him.
"It's important. It might change your mind about me. About us."
"There is no us, you dumbass!" What the hell was it going to take for him to get it.
At the window, Ozai grinned at her and pressed his finger to his lips just as the office door began to open. She hurried and shushed as she saw Zuko enter.
"Zuko." She said as she glanced away from Ozai, who hid behind the curtain.
"Staging an attack like that? I thought we were in this together?" Zuko asked frustratedly. He hoped to Agni, she wasn't going back to causing trouble for him. "Finding out why Lao wants my father and his bloodline is a joint project. You agreed."
Raising her hands up in surrender, "Fine, Zuko, you caught me. Let's just go before someone sees us in here. I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea." Katara walked up to him and turned him around to push out of the room.
"But the inform-"
"We can come back later but right now, is too risky. Wait till one night to do our research."
Shoving Zuko out the room, Katara pretended to have left something and told him to go on without. He gave her grief at first but eventually left, telling her if he didn't see her in five minutes he was coming back.
The waterbender sighed as she shut the door and Ozai reappeared from behind the curtains and grinned at her.
"I must have scared you with telling you about Lao. You're going through his office like a woman on a mission. I like this." Ozai couldn't help but find pride in what he taught her long ago about how to handle the untrustworthy and her enemies.
Rolling her eyes, Katara walked up to him and backed him up to the window. Grinning to herself, "Good because you can like this too." She reached up on tiptoes to kiss him but instead she whispered something in his ear before shoving him out the window. On his way down, Katara laughed and told him she'd see him tonight.
…
Kya ate as she watched the stare off between her mother and older half-brother. The two seemed to always be fighting but today seemed a little different to the young waterbender. She noticed it was her older brother that had conflict with her mother instead of the other way around. The little girl quietly ate her noodles and wild serpent's bass as the two wordlessly fought.
After dinner, Kya left the dining room as the servants picked up her plate and started clearing the table. As soon as she was out, she heard her brother yell at her mother and then her mother yell back. Kya shook her head as she was once again subjected to more fighting between the two. Why couldn't they get along? Was this about her father? Her mother must be said without him and what she learned in school, her brother ordered his execution. So did that mean her mother hated Zuko? The little girl tried not to think about it. She didn't like the kind of man she heard her father was. He sounded scary and bad. Even if her mother did love him, didn't mean he was good because she hated Zuko, and Zuko wasn't bad.
"You can't keep your word, Katara. Not for the life of you!" Zuko shouted. "We said we'd work together. Lao's in prison but what if he has others working for him?
That was understood the moment she took on the take. However; she didn't seem to care. She just wanted answers and Katara told him this. She needed answers so she could stop whatever Lao was up to before his plans even set in motion. Her family was on the line and yes, Zuko was her family now.
Sighing as he was less angry after hearing this, Zuko looked at her with a more annoyed expression. She just couldn't let anyone get in on the action could she? She had to go knock out guards and get them arrested when he could have got her in the office with no problem. He figured she would continue to do this sort of thing and decided they'd look into matters on their own and regroup to share information.
"Did you find anything?" Zuko asked.
Rubbing her aching temple from all the yelling back and forth with Zuko, "No. Not a single thing. His palace office his clean."
"Then I'll check his temple office tomorrow." Zuko stated.
"Fine." Katara rolled her eyes. She wanted to check Lao's temple office but she didn't want to argue with Zuko right now. Her head was killing her.
The Fire Lord got ready to leave and kissed Katara on the forehead as he always did, even after a fight. While he took to leaving, Katara felt worse and worse.
Swaying back and forth, Katara tried to reach for her head as she became light headed. She, before she could catch herself, fell over onto the floor.
Zuko immediately turned around as he heard the thud and rushed to her collapsed over body.
"Katara!"
Hours later, Zuko was with her in bed, laying beside her as she woke up. And when she did, her eyes flickered open and her head turned to the side to face him, having sensed him.
"Zuko."
"Are you sick?"
"No."
"Pregnant?"
"La, forbid I ever am so again."
"Then what is it?" Zuko asked in a soft and unsure voice. He gazed at her with question and wonder. Felt his heart race and skip a beat all at once. He knew something was wrong and whatever she was going to say, he wasn't going to like it. He was sure.
Katara looked away from him and to the ceiling. "I'm falling asleep. Into a deep sleep."
"For how long?"
"Seven years the scroll says." She swallowed hard. "I don't know what day will come when I do finally come to a resting point but I know it's soon. I can feel it."
Zuko was quiet as he listened to her and then thought to himself.
"What about the children?"
"They have you."
"But did you tell them."
Sniffling, "...I can't."
Silence….
Sniffling
The sound of the bed rustling.
Arms wrapped around the waterbender as she laid there staring at the ceiling. She felt herself pulled up in a warm embrace. It stilled her for a moment, rendering her body immobile for just a moment. But as the warmth ran through and she could feel the true sincere ness of the hug, Katara returned it. Hugging back just as hard and as tight. She dropped her head in the nape of Zuko's neck and cried.
"I don't want to leave them. Not even for just a moment." Katara wept against him. "I don't want to leave you, Zuko."
Zuko bit back his emotions as he ran one hand up into her hair while holding her to him with the other. They were knelt in bed, holding to one another when Katara pulled back just a little and cupped her hands to Zuko's face and smiled tearfully.
"No one has ever cared about me the way you do, Zuko. You mean the world to me. I mean it with all my heart." Katara confessed. "That's why I'm only telling you. No one else needs to know. Please, take care of them when I go."
Nodding his head, Zuko took one of hands and pulled it from his face. "Anything, Katara. Anything for you. I promise."
Katara smiled at him and sadly enough she wanted so badly to kiss him. Tell him she had been thinking of him nonstop since leaving for her trip. She wanted to say how she wanted to start over with him. How she didn't care what people would think in the face of her happiness. This is what she wanted. What she needed. But the words would have to wait, wait till she woke up from her deep sleep.
….
Later that night….
Dressed in her translucent nightgown with black undergarments underneath, Katara waited by her balcony for her ex-husband to show up. She really shouldn't be doing this. Meeting with him while she was allied with Zuko. Promised to remain loyal to Zuko. Indebted to Zuko. She owed Zuko everything. Giving her a home, helping her with the children, and overall being good to her in spite of it all. She was undeserving of his kindness and that was why she didn't want to betray his trust.
But this was Ozai, she was dealing with. Whether she wanted to or not, she'd have to betray Zuko's trust and he'd have to understand. There was little she could do. Ozai would see her tonight either way. It wasn't up to her.
"Missed me?" Katara looked to her side to see, Ozai had climbed up the wall of her balcony with his claws. She backed away when he settled on the terrace.
Arms folded, "Where are you taking me?"
"To bed, dressed like that." He licked his lips, "but if you get dressed more appropriately I'll take you somewhere."
Katara rolled her eyes and turned away from him to go get more appropriately dressed.
Ozai watched closely at how her hips naturally swayed and her backside had become rounder. He wanted a touch. So, he followed her into her bedroom and waited for the perfect opportunity to get his hands on her.
Turned, facing her dresser, Katara pulled out a cloak that was hidden underneath all her clothes and was about to throw it around her when she felt a hand on her ass. Or more precisely, a hand was cupping and squeezing her lower left cheek. Her icy blue gaze lifted to the mirror and fell on ember eyes that looked back at her.
"Better feel it up because you won't be touching it again." She told him.
Smirking as his eyes fell on the task at hand, "Oh, I doubt that." Ozai moved closer to her and pressed himself up against her. Hands moving to her shoulders as his lips grazed along her hair. "When's the last you've been touched like this, dear?"
Whipping around, Katara brought her hand to slap Ozai across his face, throwing all her power behind it. It caused him to stumble backwards, almost toppling to the floor as she panting with rage.
"Keep your fucking hands off me! Don't dare touch me when you've had your hands on every woman in sight!" Katara has nearly lost it.
Looking up with a bruise on his face, Ozai looked at her and did his best to reel in his anger. You've gotten stronger. Of course, she had. He shouldn't be surprised but still, for her to hit him like that. I never put my hands on you. And maybe he should have since she liked to act as if he did.
Whether she knew it or not, he could hear every one of her thoughts as he hadn't much control over his abilities at the moment. His migraine was back and now he didn't think he could take her to the place he had in stored for her. Damn her jealousy and resentment. It was starting to get to him. But he was here on a mission.
Protecting her despite her terrible attitude was his goal and he'd achieve it whether she willingly went along with things or not.
Gathering himself, Ozai turned off the part of him that wanted to knock her ungrateful obnoxious ass into the floor and focused on what he must do.
"Fine." He raised his hands. "I won't touch you but I still have somewhere to take you."
"Like where?" Obviously not in a trusting mood.
"North of here. In a small village outside the capital." He told her.
Eying him as she didn't trust him all that much, Katara told him to follow her and she brought him to the bathroom where she planned to open a portal to this supposed village. She asked for him to place his hand in the water and envision the place. She couldn't open a portal to a place she's never been.
As he did, Katara was able to see the village, she shoved him in the water and jumped in after him.
Gasping as he came up for air, Ozai flailed his arms about, not knowing how to swim. Katara rolled her eyes and swam to him, grabbing him around his middle and pulling him with her to the bank of the river.
Katara bended the water of their clothes once they climbed out of the river. She folded her arms waiting for Ozai to give the directions to where this village was. It had to be nearby.
"Follow me." He told her.
The waterbender did so but as she did, she started to wondering why bring her here. What was here that he needed to come all this way and show her?
As she was lead in the cover of night to the small sleeping village, Katara saw a large mansion. An estate with walls surrounding it. He stopped just in front of the gate of the estate and looked to her.
"Give me your foot." He got down low with his hands laced together and ready to help her up.
Reluctantly, she let him help her over the wall and went around to unlock the gate for him. As the two reached stood in what appeared to be a courtyard, Katara looked at him with demand.
"What? What's here that you need me to see?"
"I had this place built the moment I found out you were pregnant with twins. I wanted you and the children to have a place away from the palace." Ozai said looking around. "It finished just nearly a month after you gave birth. I was going to tell you about it but we weren't on the good terms then."
Katara's eyes darted around the place.
"I want you to consider moving here. Live outside the palace. You said it yourself that you hate it there." Ozai looked to her with not a hint of deceit. He meant what he said. He wanted her here. Her own home. Her own peace. In a small village. As she seemed to prefer.
It was a beautifully designed estate. She couldn't believe he actually had it built for her and the children. Had he actually thought of them? She didn't know. Ozai was always unpredictable to her as well as a mystery. She could never be too sure.
But he was sincere. Despite his real reason for coming here, he had truly had this place built for her. He knew how the palace life had sucked the life and beauty out of her. It drained her. Turned her into someone she wasn't. And he had a lot to do with that as well. This was supposed to be the place she escaped from the palace and him. But now, he wanted it to serve a different purpose.
"Before you make light of our marriage, I'd like you to consider the future. Here, I could meet with you and the children and for a time we can behave as a normal family." The two looked eye to eye. "I'll hire the staff, all those that are loyal to me and when I'm in the Fire Nation I'll stay here, with you and the children."
Katara looked at him with narrowed eyes. Was he fucking serious? Did he want to be with her this badly? Really? She could see that he did and it made her incredibly nervous of herself and her feelings. This didn't take away what was done. The tribulations their marriage had already caused her to go through. Why would she go through them again?
Because who else wants you? The siren laughed. You're the worst kind of damaged goods. You should just count your losses and keep it moving.
Swallowing hard, Katara looked away from her ex-husband and looked back to the scene around her. "Companions."
"Hmm?"
"That's the only way I'm doing this. As companions. Not lovers or spouses. We're just friends. Understood?"
Smirking as he at least got somewhere with her, "Good enough for me."
Katara sighed and shook her head. This might be the worst decision she could make but it wasn't all that bad, really. The children needed their father in their life and it wasn't like she hated Ozai. She did enjoy his company. And she knew how much it would mean to the children to see that their father was alive.
The two returned to the palace where Katara offered him to stay the night, though not in her bed. Ozai smirked and told her he wasn't staying if he couldn't stay with her. Somehow he convinced her that it would be just like the start of their marriage and he would restrain himself. Of course, Katara forgot this and decided to let him bed with her.
Curling up around her, Ozai wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to him, burying his face in her hair. Breathing her in, he exhaled and closed his eyes.
"You are perhaps the worst distraction Agni could have given me." Ozai stated as he squeezed her tight to him, enjoying the way she felt all too much.
Face turning red, Katara was flustered and unable to keep it together. Why did he have to go and say things like that? Was he so in love with you? She didn't know. Last they were together she felt like she was nothing but his weakness, the woman that ruined his mission and goal, his greatest handicap. He had said so himself. So if he did truly love her, she wished he didn't make her feel like a burden back then.
They fell asleep with much on his mind. Katara trying to come up with a way to introduce the children to Ozai and Ozai tried to decide how exactly he was going to get her to be his again.
…..
Zhiar sat with his new friends at lunch when a teacher pulled him aside to go with them to the dean's office.
Arriving there, the seven year old sat down and saw a second person present in the room. An elderly man. One with the garb of a Fire Sage on. Zhiar recognized him from when their mother took them to the temple for prayers and offerings.
The elderly man grinned at him, "Fire Prince Zhiar. It is good to see you."
"Good to meet you too." Zhiar said in a timid tone as he didn't quite know what was going on.
The dean then spoke to Zhiar telling him that the Fire Sage had come to visit him in regards to his mother. Saying that a certain rumor was going around about his father being alive and the Sage wanted to know if he knew or if his mother knew anything. Zhiar was shocked and baffled by this. His father was alive?
"No, I don't know but I could ask my mommy." Zhiar said.
"Excellent." The Elderly Sage said as the Dean and him stood up.
"That'll be all, Zhiar. Please, return to your class." the dean told the seven year old.
Running along back to lunch, all the kids in the courtyard looked at him with shocked expressions on their face. Zhiar figured someone must have eavesdropped and told everyone.
Several days later, Zhiar locked himself up in his dorm room. He didn't want to hear another person ask him the same question. He didn't know. If his father was alive, he was only just finding this out. Like everyone else. And at the moment, Zhiar hoped his father wasn't. It was one thing to have a scary cool father that was dead but one that was alive, that was just scary.
The little boy had seen his older brother's scar and knew how he had gotten it and Zhiar worried for himself. What if his father was alive and tried to burn him like that? Or what if he got rid of his mother like he did with Zuko's mom? His father was a scary man and to think he could be alive, Zhiar didn't know. He really wished Kya was still here to tell him everything was going to be alright. But...he pushed her.
Pulling his hair, Zhiar was so angry and confused and scared and didn't know what to do. He was supposed to just be a kid and not worry about people asking weird questions, his maybe alive father, and his sister he had been mean to.
"Zhiar, open up. It Jin Su." a little girl knocked on the door.
The door opened with a small crack and Zhiar told her to hurry in before anyone say them, he didn't want anyone else knowing he was hiding in his room.
Once inside, the little girl smiled and twirled around, "So is it true? Lord Ozai is alive?"
Shrugging his shoulders as he cast his gaze down at the floor. "I don't know. I have to wait to ask my mom. She would know."
"Then maybe he is!" Jin Su said excitedly. "This is good!"
"How? My dad was a bad and scary man!" Zhiar yelled as he tried to not think too hard about it.
Jin Su giggled. "No he wasn't." She said as she bounced up and down. "Lord Ozai made the country better for everyone here. He let my father serve beside him in the palace. My family had a lot of stuff and a big house then. But now…" The girl stopped bouncing.
"But now?" Zhiar tilted his head to the side
"My family has very little because Lord Zuko said we were traitors but we aren't! He took my father from us and put him in jail." Jin Su said sadly.
Zhair looked with shocked. His brother locked up Jin Su's father? Wow, there was a lot he didn't know about his family.
"Lord Zuko branded us traitors and now we can't even go visit my big brother in the old colonies."
"That's not fair!" Zhiar said.
Jin Su shook her head, "No, its not. Lord Ozai was better at being fair. That's why everyone's so excited and wants to know."
Zhiar didn't know that was why everyone kept asking questions. They just wanted to know if he was alive and coming back. He did good things and people really seemed to like him. So maybe he wasn't so bad or scary. Maybe Zuko deserved his scar and his mother did something bad for his father to get rid of her.
"You should write your mommy and ask her, so everyone could know." Jin Su said.
"Okay, I will." Zhiar said as he hurried to his bedroom desk and took out a scroll and quill.
With determination he began to write his mother. Behind him, Jin Su slipped out of the room and turned to see the elderly Sage that put her up to getting her friend to talk.
"So, little girl?"
"He's gonna right his mommy."
"Good."
…..
"At least he's a proud firebender." Ozai stated as his ex-wife told him the details of why their daughter was no longer in school.
Rolling her eyes as she washed her hair in the shower, letting the water rinse her soapy hair. She told him how it was all because of what they learned in school about him. That he was this tyrant that was pushing the Fire Nation to victory and glory until he was weakened by his love for a waterbender.
Ozai stated he would never refer to himself as a tyrant. A war Lord, perhaps but a tyrant made it sound like he did nothing for his people and just had his way. Which Katara agreed, Ozai wasn't really a tyrant. He was just an asshole.
"You must get off to calling me that. You never cease." Ozai said after spitting mouthwash into the sink after brushing his teeth, towel wrapped around his waist.
Getting out the shower, Katara wrapped her towel around her waist and came up to the sink beside him, looking at him in the mirror. "Can I ask you something, Ozai?"
"Yes."
"Why do you work with the man that raped me?"
Ozai stood there silent for a brief moment. He knew no matter how he answered the question he was in a lose lose situation. But before he could say a word, a knock came to her bedroom door. She pressed her finger to her lips and slipped out from the bathroom to go answer it.
Standing there in the bathroom, looking at himself in the mirror, Ozai couldn't help but notice how much weight he lost. His face was less fuller than it used to be. He didn't feel like the intimidating force he once was. He felt small. Skinnier. Flimsy. Perhaps, when he got back to the base headquarters for his operations, he'd do more working out. This man before him in the mirror was unacceptable. No wonder Katara didn't want him.
In the bedroom, Katara answered the door and was handed a scroll. She saw the seal and noticed it was from the school. She quickly opened the scroll to read it.
Inside, it read:
Dear Mommy,
Everyone at school is talking about a rumor and they keep asking me about it. I don't know anything but maybe you know. Is dad really alive?
~From Zhiar
Katara's eyes went wide. Had word already begun to spread? Oh hell.
When Ozai came out the bathroom once he heard the door close, he saw the waterbender scurrying about. She looked in a rush for something. But what for?
"I need to go pull Zhiar out of school." Katara quickly looked through her clothes as needed to get ready to leave.
"Why? What's wrong?" Ozai furrowed his broughts.
"Read this." She tossed him the scroll as she tried pulled her dress over her head.
Ozai took a minute to read it.
"Stay here till I get back."
"I'm going with."
Somehow and for some reason, Katara agreed to let Ozai travel with her to Zhiar's school. It wasn't far. Just a day's trip to and from. He rode behind her on her mount, holding her waist as he wore his hood on.
Being that it would take a few hours to get there, Katara pulled over at the halfway point in a wooded area, needing a break. She was having more and more a harder time to stay focused and alert. Not to mention her muscles ached terribly.
Trying to get herself together, the waterbender held to the mount as she pressed her head into its saddle.
"La, damn it." She hissed under her breath as she did her best to get her mind and body together.
"What is it?" Ozai noticed the waterbender acting strange.
Shaking her head as she waved her hand at him, still leaning against the mount, "I'm fine. Just needed a break."
"Just like when I took you to the port town. You needed breaks then. What's going on?" He knew this wasn't normal of her to do. He could tell something was up.
Once again, Katara said she was fine. She wasn't about to tell Ozai what was really going on. There was no telling how he would act or what he might do. Probably steal her away for what last days he could get in with just her. It was something she just wrote off as being tired.
But tired wasn't all she was, Ozai could see. He offered to go the rest of the way while she got herself some rest. Katara only agreed because what other options did she have. Perhaps, she was right to bring him along. No way she would have been able to make this trip by herself.
Holding on to Ozai as he took the reins of the mount, she let him hold her hand to his middle and rested her head to her back. It reminded her of the days before reaching the port town. He had showed her a different side of himself. The not so much a Fire Lord side. He was just Ozai. Without the crown, the throne, and the title. Just a man. A man she could easily see herself liking the more she got to see him.
Arriving at the academy, Katara had Ozai stay back as she went into the school to speak with the dean.
Inside, Katara was greeted hospitably and taken to the dean's office. Upon her arriving there, the dean smiled and bowed to her.
"Lady Katara, it is a pleasure meeting you."
Giving the dean a look that was a little less than unimpressed, "Can't say the same." Pulling a scroll from her sleeve, "Not only has my daughter come home with a sprained ankle but my son writes me this."
Katara tossed the letter to the dean and folds her arms as he reads the content.
"Oh, I can see how this must trouble you, my lady. But I can understand why the boy would write such a thing."
"And why would he?"
"There are rumors. Rumors that Fire Lord Ozai is still alive and building an army to reclaim his throne. The boy must have heard from his peers and became curious to know if his father was truly alive."
A lot of sense that made but still, it didn't seem right to Katara. She wouldn't have come down here if that was it. And as she glared down the dean about to use a rather unsavory, the dean's office door opened and in cane a cloaked figure.
"Sir, you can't com-"
The cloaked figure palmed the male instructor with his hand that had been following and repeating the same thing over again to him. He slammed him into the door as he shut it behind him.
"Katara, hurry this up. I want to see my son already."
The male instructor's and dean's eyes widened as the hood came off the cloaked figure's Head.
"Fire Lord Ozai!" The said in unison.
The dean bowed as the male instructor bowed his head.
"I said stay back." Katara barely withheld her anger.
Smirking, "I figured these bastards were giving you trouble, dear."
"I just got in here!" Katara spazzed because that what Ozai did to her, made her lose her fucking cool.
Ozai chuckled and threw the male teacher aside and walked up to his ex-wife. He pulled one of the chairs in front of the dean's desk out for her and gestures for her to sit. Too annoyed to do anything else, Katara sat as he took as seat beside her in the other chair.
Gesturing his hand for the dean to sit too, Ozai leaned back and crossed his leg over his knee. "What kind of letter was that? Not appropriate to be sending from school and you allowed it."
"Umm- I-I I under- I understand, your majesty, but-"
Waving his index finger, "No, no, now. Accept Responsibility. I know your staff monitors all letters to and from campus and your staff allowed such a letter like that to be sent off to my former wife. You can imagine how pissed off we both are, can you not?"
"Ye-yes, y-yo-your Majesty."
"What if I weren't alive? You would have caused her more grief." Ozai glanced at his wife that was so out of it that she had her face in one hand as her arm leaned on her right armrest, seemingly done with the day already. Focusing back on the dean. "Now, my son. I want him taken out of class and brought here."
The dean nodded his head as he and the male teacher rushed out of the office to fetch Zhiar. The formerly married couple sat in the office quietly until Katara could no longer do the silence.
"You're a moron, you know that? Coming in here as you did. Do you not see that simply me being spotted with you again is going to get me in more trouble with Zuko?"
Raising his brow, "Again?"
"Yes! Again!" She stood up and flung her chair down. "Zuko's scouts spotted me with in the Earth Kingdom with you!"
"That paranoid brat." Ozai scoffed.
"Seeing how you have fucking machines ready to attack! I don't blame him!" Katara shouted. "Geez! Why'd you even come here to see me?! To mess up my life some more! Wasn't enough the first time?!"
Ozai sat there staring long and hard at his ex-wife. He still didn't get why she blamed him for why everyone else was so stupid. He didn't tell everyone to hate her. He didn't make her life harder than it was. Hell, he was dealing with daily torture for seven years. So she could excuse him for a moment and see that his only true objective was to have her back. She could go to hell with that other nonsense.
Fortunately, before Ozai could lay into him, the dean returned with Zhiar. The boy didn't at first notice the man sitting with his leg crossed over his knee but he did see his mother.
"Mommy!" Zhiar shouted and ran towards his mother, wrapping his arms around her hips as his head rested on her middle.
Embracing him back, Katara smiled despite previously having been scowling. She crouched down to hold him tight to her, running her hands through his short hair.
"My baby." She said softly. "Why'd you write that letter?"
Still hugging his mother, "Because everyone wanted to know. They said daddy was a better Fire Lord."
Pulling back a little to look at her son with a strange expression, "Who said this?"
"Everyone!" Zhiar said excitedly. "So is he, Mommy? Is daddy still alive?"
Katara looked up from her son to see the grin plastered on her ex-husband's face. Oh how she knew he'd eat this up. Hearing that his son was hopefully and excited for his existence to still be amongst them. Shit.
Lookin back to her son as Ozai stood up, "Sweetheart, he is." She said with a lack of enthusiasm.
"Oh really?! Cool! Can I meet him?!" Zhiar, her energetic and full of joy child, cheered.
Katara stood up and turned her son around to the face where she was facing. "He's right there."
Zhiar's blue eyes widened as they climbed the large statue of his father. "Daddy?"
All too happy to finally see his son after seven years, Ozai reaches down and picked to boy up, bringing him close.
"Daddy!" The little boy hugged his father around the neck.
Ozai patted the boy's back, his version of affection to his child. "My boy, you look like your mother."
Chuckling, "I'm not a girl!"
"Of course not." Ozai grinned and looked to Katara as he had his boy. "We should head home, don't you think, dear?"
Call me dear one more time and I c- Hold it, not fair. He's done nothing to you. Cut him some slack. I'll cut him slack when he stops acting like everything is alright! It isn't! He knows that! I know what this is, you're jealous. Huh?! He went through hell and bounced back and you still haven't. Went on a whole find yourself adventure and you still don't know why you can't move passes everything. You jealous little water sprite.
Katara felt more frustrated than ever before as her face turned red with anger. She quickly stormed out of the dean's offices and headed outside. Leaving the dean, her ex, and son in confusing.
…..
Arriving home after having ignored Ozai the entire trip back, Katara stormed into her chambers, letting them in and slammed the door shut behind them. She locked the door and then turned to face Ozai who had not put his son down.
"You know he's not an infant anymore. You can put him down." Katara was unable to not show her annoyance in front of her son.
Ozai placed the boy down on his feet and eyed her, dissatisfied with her attitude.
Zhiar looked up at his mother and tilted his head. "Mommy, why are you being a dumb savage to daddy?"
"Don't say that to your mother, boy!" Ozai slapped his son in the back of the head after hearing him call his mother a stupid waterbender.
Zhiar winced as he rubbed his head and tried to justify calling her that but only made matters worse. "But dad, they're inferior to us, right? Us firebender have to prove our dominance over other elements, right?"
Good fucking Agni, the boy is brainwashed. Ozai couldn't believe it. His son had been force fed a load of bull shit. Katara left the room, she was so upset. The former tyrant knew that this was his fault and he'd have to fix whatever those bastards ingrained in his son's head. No doubt the children were told by their parents to say this around his son, being that his son was just that. His son.
Crouching down to the boy's level, Ozai placed both hands on his son's shoulders and a little shake. "Look here, boy. That crap that taught it school isn't true. Anyone with a mind of their own knows that. The other elements are just as powerful as us. But it's not the elements but the person wielding it."
"So Mommy and Kya aren't stupid waterbenders?"
"Far from it, boy." Ozai told him.
Zhiar looked at his dad with wonder and smiled. "Are you gonna take the throne again?"
Ozai stood up and smirked at his boy, "Of course, why do you think I'm here."
"Yay!" Zhiar cheered and danced around.
Ozai told his son to go apologize to his sister before going after Katara to see where she ran off to.
Finding her sitting on the floor staring at it with her hands down in front of her, Ozai came up to her side and bent down to her.
"What's this, waterbender. I thought you were more mature emotionally." Ozai grinned, trying to make light of the situation for her.
"Leave, Ozai." She waved her hand to shoo him.
Finding this humorous, Ozai sat down beside her and leaned towards her. "He's young. Just as easily as he learned that nonsense, he can easily unlearn it. It's when they're old that you begin to worry."
"Like you?" She slighted him.
Not in the least offended. "Hate me if it makes you feel better but at the end of the day, I've done nothing to you, Katara. I've only loved you and you know it." Standing up. "Seems being a bitch to the last people that give a damn about you is what you've become."
And with that Ozai left. To where, Katara didn't know but his last words did resonate with her. The last people that give a damn? What does he know?
…
Kya didn't know how or why this was possible but her father was alive and playing with her and her brother in the sitting room. He didn't seem as scary as he sounded or looked. But she was still scared of him. He didn't seem to care that she was a waterbender. He hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead when he saw her. He wasn't like the stories she heard but that didn't mean they weren't true.
The little waterbender sat there waiting to see her brother's next move on the Pai Sho board against his father. She wished she let her uncle Iroh teach her when she had the chance.
"You're a little skilled for your age, I see." Ozai said as he noticed his son's moves on the Pai Sho board.
Smiling with confidence, "I'm really good at this game. Uncle Iroh taught me."
Smirking, "Well that's good to know because I never lost a game to your uncle Iroh." And in two moves, Ozai defeated his son, proving that the boy still had much to learn.
Zhiar groaned in defeat as Kya signed to him to just get better.
"Well why don't you learn to play, Kya?!"
Kya looked from Zhiar to her father and tried signing to him that she wanted to learn but Ozai didn't understand. He just rose his brow in confusion.
"She wants you to teach her how to play." Zhiar said grumpily that he lost.
Kya looked at him with her big gold eyes and cracked a hopeful smile. Her father grinned at her and rustled her hair.
"Of course." He said and had her sit in his lap as he told Zhiar to play again for demonstration.
It took Kya a little while to catch on but eventually she did. Listening to her father's voice tell her where to place the pieces, the paying attention to the strategy, Kya was able to understand how the game was played.
"Now, just place the piece here." Ozai guided her hand with his.
Kya beamed as she seemed to win the game.
"Not fair!" Zhiar couldn't believe he got beat again. "Dad helped you, Kya!"
Sticking her tongue out in victory, Kya signed that she still won.
As the three tried for another game, the doors to the sitting room opened and in walked the children's caregiver.
"Kya, you should be getting ready for bed, not-" Kimiko paused and her eyes grew wide.
Sitting cross legged on the floor with his daughter in his lap and son in front of him, Ozai smirked as he saw his sister stand there in shock.
"Hello there, Kimiko."
"O-Ozai…Yo-you're-"
"Alive. In the flesh and blood. Yes." Ozai stood up, letting his daughter continue sitting as he did. "You two continue playing till I get back. Your Aunt and I need to have a chat."
Out on the balcony with his good pulled over his head in case anyone saw him, Ozai held his arms crossed with a less than delightful look upon his face. He wasn't happy and no one could blame him. Kimiko walked out on him and Katara last minute as soon as the tides had shifted. Ozai lost all trust in her. She was playing sides. Always had. Trying to survive because that's what her mother wanted. The damn whore was dead, it was time to do more than Survive by leeching off of the closer most powerful person she could. Draining them of energy and essence. Ozai had come to view Kimiko as worse than Iroh, being that he felt used and Ozai hated being used.
"Tell me, Kimiko, do you daydream about my son as you did with me?" Ozai spat bitterly with a smirk.
Appalled, Kimiko denied she would ever do such a thing seeing as Zuko was her nephew.
"Oh but you don't care about those sort of things. Remember? You slept with father, wanted to sleep with me, probably slept Iroh, I wonder if you're interested in my son too."
Kimiko was utterly disgusted, "You know our father wasn't my fault! He made me!"
"Sure but that doesn't change those incestious feelings you carried for me. I read your mind long ago when I first gained the power of the Phoenix and I can say, you are disturbingly obsessed with me."
"Well not anymore! Not the you that talks like this!"
"Oh I know it doesn't still stand. You left remember? Left me and Katara to the wolves! You could have at least taken her with you if you saw what was coming, you cowardice bitch!" Ozai's demeanor shifted. He was angry. His sister knew the outcome of the war and yet she said nothing to either of them when the invested so much trust into her. How dare she!
Scoffing, "You know she wouldn't have gone with me! She was too in love with you!"
"You should have made her! Could have saved her the damage that would follow!"
"You shouldn't have married her!"
"You bitch!" Ozai backhanded her into the wall but little did he know he swung too hard and her skull cracked as it slammed into the wall.
Kimiko slid down to the floor as a trail of blood lead to a pool of it. Her gaze faded and the last thing the woman saw was her brother standing over her, suddenly realizing what he had done and trying to save her. But she knew. She wasn't worth saving. Agni, wouldn't allow it.
….
Just when Katara was deciding whether she should drop her animosity towards Ozai, she was reminded why she had come to resent him. Everything he did, fell on her. Murder being the biggest.
Outside on the balcony, Katara looked at what was Kimiko's lifeless body on the ground of the terrace.
"You know I have to take responsibility?" Katara said in a monotone voice. "Not like I can just tell Zuko that you did it. You're not even supposed to be here."
"Get rid of the body and pin it on someone else. It's what I used to do with concubines that got out of line." Ozai said.
Katara glanced at him and her lip curled in a snarl, "I'm not like you, Ozai! I'm not pinning this on someone else!"
"Fine, then go back to prison for murder. I don't think Zuko will be lenient this time around." Ozai stated. He knew as much as she hated it, she didn't have too many options here. Kimiko was dead. His fault. He admitted it. But with her three options, two of them would land her back in prison. Confessing she did this. Confessing he did it. But she could pin it on someone and it would be just fine. Problem solved and no prison time.
Choosing neither, Katara bloodbended the corpse of Kimiko and tossed her over the edge of the balcony. Now, no one had to take the fall.
"She was a troubled woman. She couldn't bear that I hated her and that you were gone. So she took her life." Katara said and shoved him out of the way. "Clean that up." Referring to the blood stains.
Katara was back to her cold demeanor. The only one that saved her from tears and getting her feelings in a bind. She couldn't allow herself to feel because seeing Kimiko lay dead like that disturbed her and it hurt to see.
As angry as she was with Kimiko for leaving, she never thought she'd see her die and that Ozai would have done it. She was so shaken by it, Katara had to protect herself and her mind by blocking everything out. She needed some air. Away from Ozai, her children, and this la damn palace.
….
A/N:
Kimiko is dead and I wonder how this will affect Katara's already rocky relationship with Ozai and if Ozai can continue to play things cool while being disdained by Katara. As for Zuko, will something blossom between him and Katara?
Zhiar is learning some terrible things, can his father re-educated him and Kya, is her fear of her father's rejection completely gone? And Lao's plan for Ozai's bloodline, who will he get his hands on next?
Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy.
