A/N: WOOHOO! This story is almost done! I'm thinking that there will be two more chapters, and maybe an epilogue or alternate ending. Honestly... you all are going to hate me once I complete the ending but in the words of the gorgeous, talented, and unfortunately late Mrs. Houston, IIIIIIIIIII WILL ALWAYS LOVE YYYOOOOUUUUUUUUUU!
Chapter 6: Secrets of Desire
And it took so long
Just to feel alright
Remember how to put back the light in my eyes
I wish I had missed
The first time that we kissed
Zuko stormed into his mansion, his golden eyes aflame. This was not happening, this COULD NOT be happening!
Zuko thudded up the stairs and into the master bedroom where Mai was lying face down.
"Ready for round two?" She grumbled from her stationary position on the bed.
"I'm ready for you to tell me why there's a positive pregnancy test in the trash can!" Zuko yelled, tossing the pee stick onto the bed beside Mai's form.
She jerked upright and crinkled her nose. "You touched that? And you pulled it out of the trashcan? That's disgusting."
"MAI!" Zuko exclaimed, taking a threatening step towards her.
Mai turned to look at him and it was then that he saw that she had been crying.
"I'm two months along. Do you remember that night that we went out to dinner with your father a couple of months ago?" Mai asked and Zuko nodded. "Well what you probably don't remember is that you and your father got into an accident and you had a few too many to drink. When we finally got home, you told me you loved me and we made love." Mai explained and Zuko felt bile rise up in hi throat.
"You're right. I did have too much to drink that night but I don't remember saying anything to you. I do remember stumbling upstairs and passing out on the bed though. Mai... we didn't have sex."
"Yes we did, Zuko. I'm two months along already. Most women don't start showing until about four months with their first baby." Mai retorted, standing to her feet and glaring at him. "That's why I've been so emotional lately. If you were paying attention to me instead of that whore from your past then maybe you would have-"
"Don't you DARE call her that! That is the mother of my child!" Zuko angrily yelled, pointing a finger in Mai's pale face.
"Well now, I'm the one who's going to be the mother of your child, so you need to get rid of her. If you don't, then I will do it myself." Mai stated before pushing past Zuko and out of the room.
What was he going to do now?
Without even thinking about it, he grabbed his keys from his pocket and dashed out of the back entrance from the mansion.
He was going to try to do the right thing.
…...
Katara knew that someone else was in her house. They were starring at her now and then she was in their arms and she was being carried somewhere, but she did not know where.
But just as soon as her world started to piece itself together around her, it crumbled away again, slipping beneath her fingertips.
…...
Katara finally awoke to see him sitting on the edge of her bed, a cool washcloth placed over her forehead.
He smiled at her as she came to and he placed a gentle hand on her cheek.
"What happened?" He asked quietly and Katara could feel herself melting as his golden eyes bored into hers, like liquid gold his gaze swept over her bruised skin.
"Your father." Katara confessed and Zuko grit his teeth in anger.
"You were right about him... about me... about everything. I'm so sorry for what I did to you, and to our daughter." Zuko admitted as he sorrowfully ran a hand over her chocolate hair.
"He offered me a deal... and I'm going to take it. I'm going to pack up and leave next week, Zuko. Your father is going to give me $750,000, a mansion, a brand new SUV, get me a high paying job at an office, and pay for a revolutionary new leukemia treatment for Angel at St. Jude Hospital." Katara said hurriedly, her head still pounding.
"But I don't understand. I know Ozai. What do you have to give up to be able to get all of that?" Zuko questioned, although he honestly already knew the answer.
"You." Katara croaked out. "Again."
Zuko felt the color drain from his face.
He instantly regrouped, and Katara wondered if she had simply imagined his saddened expression.
"I lost you once already. And now at least I don't even really have you and I get a choice, and we both get to get something out of it." Katara shrugged as nonchalantly as she could.
Zuko felt his body deflate like a popped balloon. She was right. How would it be fair of him to tell her he still loved her when now she could start over, and their daughter could get the help that she needed.
By doing the right thing, he decided that he would leave Katara and Angel alone.
He felt tears cloud his vision. He was a grown man, and he hadn't cried in years. Yet, he realized that the one woman that he was never able to let go of was about to force him to finally let her go. But, he needed to tell her the truth... how he really felt. For he felt that if he didn't tell her now then he would never get the chance to tell her ever again.
"Katara. I'm sorry, again, and I love you. I have always loved you." He said before standing up to leave.
He didn't expect her to speak, he didn't expect anything from her, but then again Katara always had a way of surprising him.
"I love you too." She whispered from her position on the bed.
Zuko turned around to face her. Without missing a beat, he sat back down and leaned over her petite form before looking into her baby blue eyes.
Gold asked blue for permission, and blue was more than happy to oblige.
Zuko leaned down and captured her full lips with his. She moaned quietly against his mouth and he deepened the kiss and began smoothing his hands down her body.
Briefly, an image of Mai's scowling face appeared in his mind.
He knew that this was wrong, so very wrong. A woman carrying his child sat in his home, and yet here he was with the woman who had bore him a child when they were teenagers.
He was disgusted with himself, but as he felt the softness of Katara's skin, he felt like this was right.
Even if it was just for their one final night.
Zuko gently pulled his mouth away from her's and nuzzled her slender neck and she traced his strong angular cheekbones with her fingertips.
"I'll be gone in the morning. As soon as I wake up, I'm leaving. You will never see me again, Katara. Then, going to go see Angel for the last time too." Zuko said quickly, placing kisses under Katara's jaw.
"That's for the best." She murmured and she gently lifted his chin with her finger.
As he focused on melding his lips with her's, nothing seemed to matter anymore and the two lost themselves in a dance of love, sweat, and light.
…...
"Where is Zuko?" Ozai asked as he barged into Zuko's mansion, uninvited of course.
"You could knock." Mai said in her deadpan tone as she came down the stairs to face the older and larger man.
"Where is he?" Ozai repeated his question and Mai sighed and crossed her arms.
"Probably out drinking like usual, or checking on his bastard child." Mai stated, a look of annoyance crossing her usually emotionless face.
"So how long do we have?" Ozai asked the young Japanese woman.
"Probably all night. He usually stays out late." Mai shrugged, and as Ozai stepped inside, she shut and locked the door behind him.
"Did the plan work today?" Ozai wondered as he turned to face the incredibly tall Asian woman.
Her dark eyes danced with something unrecognizable.
"Yes it did. I just worry about that Katara." Mai admitted, crossing her arms over her chest and making her breasts more prominent under the think silk of the oriental night dress.
Ozai's eyes lowered to the woman's pale breasts and he licked his lips suggestively.
"She's out of the picture, now. I made her a deal she couldn't refuse." Ozai explained, still talking to a certain part of Mai's anatomy.
Suddenly his eyes snapped back to her face.
"Now let me have you before I get impatient." He growled, anger dancing in his eyes.
"Not tonight." Mai commented dryly before trying to walk up the stairs and around him.
Ozai simply grabbed both of her thin wrists with crushing force and lifted her feet off of the stairs and carried her to the bedroom before dropping her on a heap on the plush carpet.
"It happens whenever I say it happens." Ozai commented and he saw Mai's eyes flash with both anger and desire, a dangerous look that Ozai had come to know.
Before he knew what was happening, she had ripped a dagger from her sleeve and cut off a sleeve from his shirt.
It was going to be an interesting night.
A/N: UGH MY SKIN IS BURNING AS ARE MY EYES! BURN IT WITH FIRE! AAAAAHHH! THE TRAUMA!