Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 7
My eyes flew open as I groggily sat up. Have I mentioned I hated mornings? I stood and looked at Zuko's empty spot. He was already working then, huh. How can he even manage to get out of bed so early? I can barely stay awake now. But I assume he forces himself too, he's after all the fire lord…
I stood up slowly to avoid getting dizzy, but sadly it failed and I had to sit back down again. I hadn't slept that well tonight, Zuko happen to move a lot, so I got this small area where I could sleep, and he got the rest of the bed. I gave it another shot and stood up, then walked over to the bathroom and took a quick shower, just to clear my mind. The water running down my naked body emptied my mind from all the things I had to do today and brought me back to what bothered me the most.
Babies.
I'd have to have Zuko's children and I think I have to expect that I have to have them right after the wedding. It's disturbing, I don't want to have them. Not yet. Don't get me wrong, I adore children. I'm just not ready yet, it feels like I'm going to panic just thinking about it. What if I fail and become a horrible mother? What if I drop the kid? What if it gets sick and dies?! It doesn't help that I hear labors are extremely painful… I can barely stand cramps.
Breathe.
I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I'm not emotionally ready for a child yet. I need time to prepare! Hope the wedding is going to take a while to fix.
Should I talk to Zuko about this?
No.
I think I'll keep it to myself for a while. But I should tell him how I feel about it… he's gonna be my husband after all.
Well, the last few days I had started taking lessons about the fire nations history, and I learnt more of dragons. This was amazing to me, and really interesting. Dragons are the original fire benders after all, which is truly amazing.
I headed down to the library to meet my teacher, he was a skinny, polite and stern old man. He doesn't like that I ask so many questions, I assume he teaches me more than necessary and it's not what he's being paid for. I don't really care though, I'm a curious water bender, and originals are fascinating.
"Alright, you're dismissed." The teacher muttered way too quickly. Was the lesson already over?
"How long have we studied now?"
"Three hours, and it's time for you to have your lunch with fire lord." The old man replied, I'd today got to know that his name was Hiro, it was of much use for me, now I could call him my professor too.
"alright professor Hiro." I replied and stood up as well. He threw me a glare.
"Do not call me by my name, just professor please." He said harshly. I almost got offended, but decided to ignore it. So I stood up, apologized for my curiosity and walked out of there.
I walked through the halls of this wonderful palace, all walls were red with hand drawn curls in gold decorated. I found it dazzling, each stroke was carefully drawn. There was so much work put into it. I looked away and focused on where I was headed again.
I walked to the dining room to meet Zuko. I was finally getting my lunch, and I sat down on his right side. During the lunch I told him what I'd been taught so far, he just smirked and said he already knew those things. I made a grimace and continued eating the spicy food. I still didn't like it so much… luckily Zuko made sure I always had bread so I could remove the burning feeling on my tongue by sucking on it.
After our lunch there was dancing lessons with Zuko. I may not have told you this, but I'm an excellent dancer… when it comes to my tribes dances! The fire nations dance was organized and very strict. I had to learn where to put my feet, which was not how it was like in the water tribe. We could do practically what we wanted, but here… it was like the freedom to do what I wanted was taken… again.
I stepped on his feet… all. The. Time.
"Ouch, Katara jeez, it's not that hard!" Zuko said, after I'd tripped a bit and stepped on his toe.
"Stop whining, I'm trying to focus." I said, embarressement filled me and I just wanted to sink through the ground and disappear. Luckily it was just me, the dancing teacher and Zuko there.
An hour of embarrassment passed, and I got to the part where I was supposed to try out clothes. They still hadn't decided if I as fire lady was supposed to wear red or blue. Since I was from the water tribe they thought I should wear blue in a way, but others thought that I'm now fire nation and should wear red.
After an additional few hours I was exhausted. They decided that I would wear blue on normal days and red on feasts, proms or any other type or traditional celebration. They also decided that my wedding dress would be a red, with a mixture of gold and have a little bit of a darker blue in it. But more than that they wouldn't tell also made me try purple! Purple of all colors. I'd prefer having red over that.
I finally got to the dinner with Iroh and Zuko. We got some type of soup and newly baked bread. This soup was milder than the usual food. I assume Iroh had asked them to make it after my preference, which I appreciated. It tasted a little more like home.
"Alright, Katara you begin, tell us something about yourself." Iroh said, and looked at me.
"Ok…" I was silent for a few seconds, thinking through my options. "I hate spicy food."
Zuko shrugged. "Hm, I think Katara here looks way more attractive when her hair is let out." He said, and I started blushing. My hair was let out today, which made me happy. I'd have to remember that.
As I ate my thoughts went back on the children thing. It was honestly bothering me, even though having a mini zuko running around would be cute. It's the process before that that's creepy.
"Do you always space out like that?" Zuko asked, and raised an eyebrow with a smirk on his face. He was amused, I could tell. I felt how I was blushing already.
"Tends to happen sometimes…" I replied, awkwardly.
"What were you thinking about?"
"Nothing!" I answered a little too quickly, and Zuko grinned again.
I was in the library today, spending time on reading about lemur bats. I don't know why I was reading about them, I just did. They weren't that fascinating really. I sat there for a long time, studying things that didn't stay in my mind.
I suddenly appeared in my bedroom, and I felt something strange entering my uterus. I moaned at the pleasure I felt. My eyes opened and I saw Zuko staring down at me, and grinned proudly. He leaned down and kissed me hungrily and moved faster in my belly, going deeper each time with my help. I moaned into the kiss again, have I ever felt something this pleasuring before? And it almost seemed like Zuko enjoyed it more than me.
I was then again pulled away from there, which saddened me. That dream would've been a great one... I looked around at where I was, and it appeared to be the royal garden.
"Momma!" A small boy came stumbling towards me, and he fell on his knees in front of me and giggled, he seemed to be about 2 years old maybe. He crawled up in my lap, and I just stared at him horrified. His eyes were a soft yellow color, which matched Zuko's eyes… his hair was dark brown, messy and curly. He was so adorable that my heart melted. Just when I was about to embrace him and give him all my love, his wide proud smile disappeared and he started crying. He looked frightened by something and he looked over my shoulder.
I looked behind me to see who it was and there Ozai stood, glaring at me. "A water bending peasant having my son's children: Why am I not surprised? This boy is a disgrace."
He lift the boy up by the hair and I was about to jolt up to help him, but my feet were stuck to the ground and I was sinking into it, and I watched as my poor boy was torn apart in front of me. First his eyes were torn out, I saw them land in front of me and he screamed for me, as blood down his cheeks.
"MOMMA!" He screamed, his voice being hoarse after screaming so loudly. He wanted me to come to his rescue but I couldn't. I started fighting, trying to break myself free to help my poor son…
I sat up straight in the bed, breathing heavily. I constantly thought that I didn't have a child, it wasn't my child. He wasn't really harmed it was just a nightmare.
"Katara?" Zuko's hoarse and groggy voice asked. I lay back down in the bed slowly and turned my head to him.
"Just a nightmare." I said, and closed my eyes to try and fall asleep again. This with having children is really reaching to a point where I'm about to go insane. And it needed to be dealt with really soon.
