The day dragged on, and being a particularly rainy day, people who came in simply to keep dry ended up buying tea and making more work for Katara. It hadn't rained the entire length of their stay in Ba Sing Se, and it hadn't rained in the Fire Nation for over a month before that. Katara looked out into the rain longingly as she served the customers their drinks. As the day came to an end, the customers ran from the shop to their homes or into other buildings to avoid the rain as Katara dumped a tray of dirty cups into the washbasin.
"Ugh." She grumbled out, rubbing her forehead with her forearm, pushing some hair out of her face.
"It's miserable outside." Zuko yawned, stretching his arms away from each other.
Katara scoffed a laugh and glared at him. "It's brilliant outside." She answered.
"Okay, then, you go get food, I'll go home." Zuko pulled his apron off and shoved it onto the hook on the wall.
"Fine." She answered with an enthusiastic smile. She pulled the money sack from Zuko's belt and shoved it in her pocket. She disappeared out into the teashop and left.
As Zuko got into the apartment he noticed something different. It was still as shabby as ever, except there was a table and chairs in the middle of the room. A cheap double mattress was pressed up against the wall. Maybe Katara knew something about it. He pulled out a chair and sat down, leaning forwards on his elbows. He couldn't stop thinking about the night prior. How often did Katara open up to him? It was very rare that she said anything to anyone about her mother.
This brought on thoughts about the kiss last week. It had been completely stupid of him to pull such a stunt. Aang would kill him if he found out, and admittedly, although the kid was only fourteen and had an innocent little mind, Zuko had no intention of pissing off the Avatar. He could admit to himself that his feelings for Katara were not what he allowed them to be, but the quantity of roadblocks in his way of being with her was astronomical. The first one being that she was obviously not interested.
Or was she? She had tried to kiss him back, hadn't she?
Zuko groaned in exasperation. He hated being confused. He hated it! He wished he had a clear knowledge of what he wanted, like his uncle. Hell, even his father had known the goal. He groaned again; this was only directionless pondering. The kiss with Katara had had to be a mistake on both parts. After all, as far as the Fire Nation was concerned, he was engaged to Mai.
Katara swept into the apartment with a moderately sized brown sack under her arm. She put it down on the counter and looked about.
"What's all this?" she looked at the table, and then the mattress.
"You didn't do it?" Zuko glanced at her.
"Nope." She opened the sack.
"Hm. Maybe Mr. Dong did it."
"Maybe." Katara put the bag's contents out on the counter and smiled proudly. "We're having koi-prawn curry tonight."
Zuko turned in his seat to look at her. She was filling a bowl with water. She dropped in the koi-prawns and dipped her finger in the water, making it freeze over instantly.
"That should keep those fresh." She stepped back from the water and tied her hair back more securely. She turned to the stove and clapped the nearby spark rocks together, setting a spark onto the straw beneath the wok on it. She snatched up the butter from the counter, grabbed a knife and cut some butter into the wok. She pulled a bigger pot from a cabinet and filled it with water, placing it on another fire. She poured in the rice. She then looked at Zuko, who was watching intently.
"What?" she finally asked.
"Nothing. Need any help?"
"No, I'm good. Can you set up that mattress?" Katara motioned to it, holding a bag of paprika-chili powder in her hand.
Zuko nodded and got up. He shoved the mattress down on the floor before setting up the sleeping bags on it. He dragged the bags toward the mattress before standing up straight and looking across the room to Katara. She was stirring the rice, now steaming. He sat down again at the table and waited. She brought the two bowls to the table before bending water over the fires on the stove. She sat down opposite Zuko, admiring her work.
"This is good." Zuko noted between mouthfuls.
Katara smiled back with a thankful nod, before bringing a spoonful of the food to her mouth.
"You're going to bring your swords, right?" Katara tapped her fingers on the table, while poking through her food.
Zuko nodded, glancing to the sword sheath sitting by the door. Katara finished her food before Zuko and waited anxiously. He took both dishes to the sink before approaching the door. Katara glanced at the mattress as the firebender grabbed up his swords and pulled the sheath over his shoulder. The only thing that she would need to come back for would be her mother's necklace, in the event of things getting too heavy. Then again if the Dai Li saw her with it, they'd easily discover that they were spies.
They approached the teashop in the heavy rain. Mr. Dong was standing in the doorway, the two sacks already in hand. He handed them each a sack before motioning for them to follow him. He locked the teashop and proceeded down the overcast street, the two companions following behind.
The long walk to Lake Laogai was silent, until Mr. Dong jammed his fist against the large rock protruding from the earth. The lake seemed to open up with a flight of stairs that led down into a black hole.
Zuko headed in after Dong, Katara closely following. The darkness and shadows opened up into a dim green light and a stone corridor. A small group of Dai Li stood at the bottom of the staircase that was closing behind them.
"These are your associates?" one of them scoffed. "They're mere children."
"They probably don't even know a thing of politics." The other one added.
Zuko reached to pull out a sword as Dong slapped his arm away from his sheath. "Be calm, Lee; we must unite against a common enemy. Bickering between ourselves will only cloud our vision."
"The vision for the future." The two Dai Li bowed their heads. "Apologies, master. And to you." They glanced at Zuko and Katara.
Zuko and Katara bowed their heads in response, following the three down the dark corridor. The hall opened up into a huge temple-like room that harbored a huge round table, with around fifteen Dai Li agents seated around it, plus Long Feng and the two strange old men that had been in the teashop playing Pai Sho.
"Long Feng. These are my associates; Lee and TeiLyn." Dong bowed down and put his hands together as he addressed Long Feng.
"Ah, I recall you mentioned them this morning. Come, sit." He motioned to the group of chairs unoccupied at one end of the table. "How very strange of you to bring a woman to this evening's meeting, Dong." He seemed intrigued by Katara.
"Well, one must make exceptions for the cause." Mr. Dong cleared his throat and sat down. Katara and Zuko each took a seat.
"Indeed." Long Feng stood up and approached a large-scale map of the palace, hung up on a wall. "As you know, The Earth King is away on a state visit to the Northern Water Tribes, and will return in three days to promote the opening of a new bending academy in the upper ring. With the blasting jelly resources we have, we will demolish the academy and the Earth King in it, and it will look like a Fire Nation assassination. In turn, the next Earth King will retaliate, throwing the war back into play."
Zuko felt his teeth gritting. After all he and the Gaang had done to stop the war, all these people wanted was another one? There was a loud applause in the room as Long Feng raised a hand and continued.
"The world can not remain in remission, and once the Earth Kingdom defeats the world, we will expand our battalions to the Fire Nation and ultimately bring about an agreement between the nations that benefits the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation."
Zuko raised an eyebrow. How could sending battalions to the Fire Nation possibly benefit the Fire Nation?
"Let me explain." Long Feng smiled at Zuko and Katara, who only looked confused. "Are you aware of Princess Azula, the Firelord's sister?"
Zuko and Katara nodded with a slight skeptic look.
"Until there is an heir to the throne, Azula is next in line to rule the Fire Nation, despite her imprisonment. Once Fire Nation soldiers are sent out onto the battle field, the palace will be left completely unarmed and the Firelord will be left to his own protection."
Zuko and Katara nodded in understanding, while still utterly bewildered. These people were deluded morons. Zuko managed to suppress the pride of being under the nose of the people who wanted him dead. He was literally planning his own assassination.
"We will meet again in two days, here. You are dismissed." Long Feng bowed his head and disappeared into a cloud of dust.
Katara exhaled with relief as they shut the apartment door behind them. "Maybe we're getting in too deep."
"I'll tell you when we're getting in too deep." Zuko let out a laugh. "So Azula is their light at the end of the tunnel." He thought aloud.
"Better hurry up and make a baby, hm?" Katara joked, before running and diving at the mattress on the floor.
"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that." Zuko scoffed, approaching the mattress. He dropped to the mattress and laid back on it. "I'd probably be a terrible father."
"What?" Katara spat out a laugh and sat up. "What makes you say that?"
"I have no idea what a good father does; I barely ever saw mine." Zuko sighed, shutting his eyes.
"Yeah. I'd probably be a sucky mom too. My Gran Gran had to explain the birds and the bees to me. I think I puked." Katara allowed herself to smile at her own misfortune.
"You'd be great mom. I mean, you looked after Aang, and Toph and Sokka, for a whole year, right?" Zuko opened his eyes to look at the ceiling.
"Yeah, well … oh! Oh, actually, we found this baby once, and I got to look after it and it turned out to be Mai's baby brother." Katara looked down at him.
"Tom Tom." Zuko laughed slightly. "I heard he went missing."
"Well, we gave him back." Katara leant back next to Zuko. "That was actually kind of fun."
"Hm." Zuko looked across the ceiling cracks in the dark. The moon illuminated the room, respite the rain and clouds outside.
"You know what we should do? We should go back to that club and dance." Katara turned her head to look at him.
"No drinking, though."
"Yeah, of course." Katara sat up. "We have to work tomorrow."
"Okay." Zuko sat up. "Let me grab my swords." He pushed himself up to his feet.
A/N: because you know they're going to end up drinking. This time they's all gon' be like 'i luv u mate, srsly foreva, beuurrghh' kind of drunk. Maybe. LOLZ.
This chapter's quote:
Azula: 'careful, chan, you could puncture a military class airship leaving thousands to drown at sea. You know ... because it's so sharp.'
LAWLZ :)
