Burning Love

Chapter Ten

By JadenXJesse lover

A/N So it seems not as many people are reading this story so for those of you, awesome and faithful readers (like Echo Uchiha, cheers for all your reviews mate 3), who are, is there anything in particular that's made this story worse, has it lost something or does it feel like the plot is all wibbly wobbly and rubbish? As the writer, and therefore being biased to me being quite the retard and therefore being terrible at writing, I'm not incredibly sure, so any responses I would love to hear, cheers for that bro's and brosette's (as in the female version of a bro'). By the way I'm not saying that you guys aren't awesome, cause I mean like literally every time I get an e-mail saying story alert or fave story or fave author or review...etc., a little bit of wee comes out cause I get so excited heeheehee :p.

Now then, this being two-ish days, depending where and when you are, after the Royal Wedding, leaving us Brits with a beautifully sunny, though pretty windy 4-day weekend plus Bin Laden is dead, here's chapter ten, hope you guys enjoy it! XD 3

The old, white-bearded man watched in pride and almost arrogance at his work. The tiny bomb he's planted in Katara finally blew, triggering the satanic limits of blood-bending, an outburst of cold, hating fury, destroying everything in sight, consuming the unknowing victim in a shroud of darkness, further clouding their every judgement, making them even easier and more vulnerable to provoke.

"Zuko..." said the old, rounded man, sipping his warm sake, "You see that this girl is a monster."

Zuko was barely conscious enough to hear, though every word was crisp and crystal clear. His vision was blurry due to minor concussions, but he could see the old man, robed in red, with his cup of warm sake.

"Uncle... you selfish bastard!" He murmured, stammering and spitting out each syllable,

"Nephew, I did this all for you..." Iroh replied, indifferently, walking away.

Before Zuko could catch him, Iroh slipped away in a burst of flames. His naturally angry nature wanted to hurt Iroh as much as he could, but his newly found love tamed his rage.

He could see Katara, the real Katara, under all that malicious anger, slowly fading away in fear and pain. Beneath the animalistic rage, she was cowering in a faintly lit corner, confused and depressed, as though she had lost all memory of anything, as though she was empty. Silent tears ran down her sun-kissed skin, though she was totally unaware of the emotions she felt. The lost little girl felt nothing but confusion, though unconsciously she was feeling hurt, depression and pain. And he could see this all. He could see that lost little girl that he'd always love, for in the eye of the monster was a single tear.

"KATARA!" He yelled loudly as he ran, to the best of his circumstances, towards her. Her abyssal tendrils attacked him left, right and centre though he continued towards her. As he got closer, the whole world seemed to grow cold and weary, like the abandoned tundra. The screams of terror rang in the air like dreadful sirens. But none of this could stop him, none of this shook him.

The evil lashed to and fro as his tight, gripping hug surrounded the former Katara. "This isn't you Katara! This isn't you!" He yelled, trying to get to the inner her,

"You're the kindest, most caring person in the world." He cried, "You're kind, caring, beautiful." He continued, roughing out the constant hits he received, "Please Katara..." tears, though not of pain, began to swell up in his eyes, "Don't leave me. I love you so much..."

Despite the constant soul-sucking evil, he caressed her soft, though blood stained cheeks, and stroked her soft, brown hair, smiling, a strange though comforting contradiction to his normal demeanour. "Remember on the island... that was the best time of my life. Even without the paradise island, it would still be. Every time I'm with you, you make me the happiest man alive. Whenever you're happy I am." He kissed her hand, the hand which still bore the ring, "We're getting married, sweetie..." He said smiling, still teary, "You are and will always be my only love."

Inside the monster, the lost little girl could hear his soft, faint voice ramming through the darkness. She could hear her prince, her prince. She began to remember.

"The first time we met, the first time we did battle... I remember seeing you and even though we were enemies back then... I... I couldn't help it. You were and still are the most beautiful girl I've ever seen... beneath all the hate we shared, I secretly, even to myself, loved you."

The voice grew louder and the darkness began to lift; the little girl, in her blue dress, could feel her hurt leaving her as his voice filled her. She stood, wavered, though returning.

"On the surface, when I first hit you with a fireball, I felt satisfied and happy... but deep down, I couldn't bear it, I couldn't bear seeing you get hurt... At nights my mind would be filled with horrid pictures of you, hurt and beaten, and I couldn't bear it. I never wanted to hurt you. I love you Katara."

"Z-Zuko..." Whispered the collapsing girl, returning to the real world and out of the darkness; he caught her and rested her head on his shoulder. He kissed her on the head, crying in joy "Oh Katara..."

"I... I did this..." She said in shock as she saw the corpses and carnage, "I'm... I'm a monster..." She was much too shocked to have disgust or horror in her voice, "W-what have I done?"

"No, no, no. This wasn't you, Katara." He said, kissing her comfortingly on the lips, trembling slightly by his joy at her return. "It was my bastard Uncle Iroh. He manipulated you. Please, don't worry 'bout it, 'k? You're safe now, that's all that matters."

Two months later

"Rhododendron or roses?", "Red or white?", "Cake?", "Invites?"; these were the type of questions Katara constantly received, questions which would determine her wedding day, the most perfect day of a girl's life. No other day is as important. Nail the wedding and you're set.

"Roses, red... ummm... chocolate cake, and invites. Invites. Oh god! Invites!" She began to quickly and frantically write the names of people to invite on the back of a wedding planner leaflet. She walked down the street along with Toph, Ty Lee, Mai and the professional wedding planner they hired, carrying bags and bags of wedding stuff. Ribbons, flowers, decorations... everything.

"Venue?" Sarah, the wedding planner, added, "There's a gorgeous one in Ba Sing Se, a little on the expensive side, but definitely worth it for a big wedding. Or if you want a small one, there's a small one near the woods in Gaoling."

"Umm..." She replied, stressed and confused,

"And then of course there's the dress."

"Oh god the dress."

"Don't worry dear, I have some back in the studio, you could sample."

"Good, good." She said, wiping the sweat on her brow and returning with the group to the studio, Sarah's office. She used to be a ballerina, you see, which is why she calls it her studio.

"Hey, how's it going?" Said her calm fiancé, sitting on a comfy chair at the studio.

"Great! It's going just great!" She lied, not wanting to spread her stress and worry to Zuko as well. "Actually, no, no it's not. I can't stand it, sweetie. I love you, but I can't do this. This whole wedding things it's... it's just too stressful!" She began to sniffle so he invited her to sit on his lap, where he cuddled her. "I have to pick out the colours of this and that and then where tables have to go and what kind of lace to use and I... I just can't. I'm really sorry, but I just can't."

"Shh, shh. It's ok, it's ok. Listen, how 'bout we just dump this whole big wedding thing?"

"But this is what you always wanted, you said your family has always had big weddings and that's the only thing from your past you'll take with you, as the Fire Lord." She said, her selfless nature kicking in,

"Well, you come first, every time." He said kissing her sweetly on the lips, stroking her brown, warm hair. "How about we just elope? We could just go to Gaoling, where there's plenty of beautiful forests and rivers, and elope there. It could be just us two or Toph and Sokka could be there with us as well."

"That's not all, though." She said, hints of both shame, shyness and utter joy presented themselves in her eyes. "Zuko... I'm pregnant." She smiled her radiant, sunshine smile.

A/N Hope you guys liked it, again any pointers on what I could do to improve this would be extremely appreciated. So yeah, don't worry this isn't the end of the story. I really hope I haven't ballsed things up by going to brisk and fast, cause I feel like I haven't added enough detail, but I can't think of anything else to putdown so yeah, hopefully you guys could help me out. If not then I hope you like this story.

JJ 3