Butterflies and Hurricanes
Chapter Ten
"I'm so stupid!" Katara exclaimed while she healed the emerging bruise on her knee. She glared at the bowl of water before her as though it was the cause of all her problems; which technically it was.
Renshu patted her shoulder lightly and could not help but notice that she was shaking slightly. "It'll be alright Katara. In times like this my advice is to deny everything."
"Yeah, but against Prince Zuko? I think he may have he upper hand here." Luli sighed heavily and moved to sit next to Katara. "How did it happen, Katara?"
"I don't know," the younger girl moaned. "Up until a few days ago I had no idea I could Waterbend and suddenly I'm doing it without even meaning to."
"It's your chi."
The youths all looked towards Jiaying's voice. The matron of the kitchen gestured for Renshu to move over, and she sat next to Katara.
"Bending is fuelled by chi, your inner spiritual energy. Everyone, regardless of whether they are a Bender or not, has a flow of chi in their bodies. A Bender is distinguished by their ability to tap into that energy and harness it in the form of control over a particular element."
The teenagers before Jiaying stared at her in confusion.
"Yeah, but how does that explain Katara's little problem?" Renshu asked bluntly.
Jiaying sighed tiredly at the boy but continued nonetheless. "When Katara finally discovered her Waterbending was the moment that her subconscious managed to grasp the energy of the chi inside her body. I think that because Katara was so sheltered from any form of Bending, and because it took so long for her chi to find an escape route, when she finally did learn how to let out that energy through her Bending it caused a sort of… flood of chi to rush from her body."
"So," Katara began uncertainly. "Because it took me a long time to discover my Bending, it means that I'm now more prone to releasing my chi?"
Jiaying nodded slowly. "It's just a theory but yes, I believe that your chi had become quite potent how that you have learnt how to release it. You're quite lucky, your chi could have very well depleted after such a long time of it laying dormant."
Katara sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I still have a bit of a problem if I'm going to be Waterbending without even realising it!"
"It will get easier," Jiaying smiled. "You just need to practice keeping your Bending under control." She rose from her seat and patted Katara on the shoulder before moving back over to the range.
Katara sighed and watched Jiaying return to her position of managing the kitchen.
'I hope you're right, Jiaying.'
Katara awoke to the usual ruckus of Jiaying banging a ladle on a large metal pot. Groaning, she rolled from her mat and stumbled to find her feet. She went through her usual morning routine of following Luli and Rou to the washroom and chasing her fatigue away with a vigorous wash. Only after the sleep had been scrubbed from her eyes and her hair was neatly tied back did Katara's memories catch up with her.
"Oh no," she muttered, her feet freezing as she walked back to the kitchen.
Luli bumped lightly into her back and raised an eyebrow at the sudden hold up. "Katara?"
Shaking her head, Katara began shuffling back to the kitchen.
Making her way slowly over to Jiaying, Katara tried to come up with good excuses for the 'accident' yesterday. She had completely forgotten that she still had to deliver food to Prince Zuko, and he would undoubtedly interrogate her about the debacle that was yesterday's dinner.
It took a moment for Jiaying to notice Katara. She was having a rather stressful time ensuring that breakfast was sent to where and who it should be. When she finally realised Katara was stood behind her (almost trampling her in the process) Jiaying finally took a moment to catch her breath.
"What can I do for you, Katara?"
The young girl sighed heavily. "I'm here to take Prince Zuko's breakfast."
Jiaying smiled grimly and motioned Katara to follow her to the row of breakfast trays resting on a long table. Renshu was nearby, sorting cups and dishes onto their respective trays; while most of the palace's occupants ate in the dining room others, such as the Fire Lord, chose to eat in their quarters.
'Some have no choice' Katara though grimly, her mind on the impending meeting with Prince Zuko.
"Hey Katara," Renshu greeted cheerfully as he neatly placed chopsticks next to the empty bowls.
Katara waved back half-heartedly and took the heavy silver tray from Jiaying's hands.
"Well," she said, trying and failing to inject some humour into her voice. "Wish me luck."
She turned and had barely taken two steps when the tray was lifted from her hands. Blinking in surprise, Katara looked up to see Renshu blocking her path.
"Wha-?"
Renshu grinned slightly and adjusted his grip on the confiscated tray. "I'll take this up to Prince Zuko and you can finish off laying the breakfast trays out."
Katara blinked several times before shaking her head and attempting to take the tray back. "Really, Renshu you don't have to."
Renshu shifted out of reach and stuck his tongue out childishly. "I know I don't have to, and that's why you'll owe me for this."
Katara noted that there would be no changing his mind and consented to Renshu's wishes, giving him grateful smile in thanks. After he disappeared from sight Katara took up the position recently vacated by Renshu and sighed in relief, maybe she could avoid Prince Zuko after all.
"It's no good, you won't be able to avoid him."
Katara frowned at Renshu's news. He had returned from delivering breakfast to Zuko with explicit orders from the prince that Katara was to deliver lunch to his room.
"He seemed pretty annoyed that I'd brought him food rather than you to be honest." Renshu mused.
Katara grimaced and resigned herself to a confrontation about her Bending abilities…she wasn't looking forward to it.
I paced my room slowly, caught up in my thoughts. I knew that lunch was approaching, I had peered through a slit in the curtains long enough to see the sun was at its zenith. I was rather anxious to speak with Katara, the girl had shocked me when she had revealed her Waterbending abilities, and I had a feeling she had shocked herself.
I had never witnessed any form of Bending other than that of my native element, and it was no surprise. I had never stepped foot outside of the palace walls (my father frowned upon the idea of such nobility mixing with the common filth on the streets), and it was forbidden for anyone employed within the palace to wield any element other than fire.
Which made the current situation all the more interesting.
A soft knock on the door drew my attention and I stopped pacing. I remained unmoved as the door swung slowly inwards and Katara entered, my lunch balanced carefully on the tray in her arms.
She froze when her gaze landed on my still figure. Her eyes flicked downwards as she made her way to the low table to deposit her burden. I noted that her whole body seemed to be shaking, her entire being screaming of fragility and vulnerability.
As soon as she placed the tray down, she immediately turned around and headed for the door, obviously desperate to escape.
"Wait, girl." I uttered sharply.
Katara froze instantly, her shoulders tense and her fists balled; I was forcibly reminded of a cornered animal ready to pounce.
"Turn around."
She did so, although her eyes stayed glued to the marble floor. Had I been in a better mood I may have found the whole situation amusing.
"Look at me."
It took her a while but she finally shifted her cobalt gaze to my face. It was with some admiration I noted the fact that there were no tears in her eyes, only slight defiance.
"So, you're a Waterbender." It was not a question.
She nodded mutely and I frowned, beginning to feel annoyed at her silence.
"So why were you employed in the palace when it is against the rules set down by the Fire Lord?"
"I… I was not aware of it when Governor Ontai purchased me." She mumbled.
"When did you become aware of it?"
Her expression darkened slightly and she almost gritted her answer out. "The day Princess Azula lashed me."
I thought back. It wasn't long ago at all. "Who is teaching you?"
"Nobody, Your Highness. There are no other Benders in the kitchen that I know of, and I doubt there would be any Waterbenders at any rate."
"I see. Who knows about this?"
She seemed to struggle with herself for a moment before answering. "Some of the other servants, and now you."
My gaze stayed trained on her face while I thought. Her features told me clearly that she was afraid that I would spread the news of her Waterbending, we both knew of the consequences. However, my mind was taking a different route.
I could keep this a secret and my father would never know. There was something definitely gratifying in the knowledge that I could keep the man who had burnt me in the dark about such a rare occurrence. It infuriated my father when his rules were not adhered to and ye here I had the chance to blatantly rebel against him and suffer no repercussions.
Although it was meagre in comparison to what he had done to me, it was payback nonetheless and it was most definitely sweet.
"I won't tell anyone."
Katara's eyes, which had drifted back to the floor, snapped back up to my face. "Pardon?"
I raised my eyebrow at her shocked expression. "I said your secret is safe with me… unless you would prefer that I spread the news?"
She shook her head rapidly and bowed hastily. "Thank you Prince Zuko… but why?"
"…I'm hardly on speaking terms with my father at the moment, and since he is the only person I am required to report to, I find the idea troublesome and pointless."
She straightened up slowly and I watch her gaze automatically slip to the bandage covering the left side of my face. An icy shot of remembrance coursed through me and I gritted my teeth tightly.
"You can leave now. Return with dinner, don't send the idiot that came at breakfast."
She nodded quickly and wasted no time in exiting the room.
When the door closed with a loud 'click' I sighed heavily and sat at the table in front of my food. I turned my gaze to the ceiling and I glared at the knowledge that my father's domain lay above me. If being a loyal son earned me the blemish splashed across my eye, then I would learn from my mistakes and take the opposite route.
'The gloves are off Father.'
Zuko was as good as his word and did not tell anyone about Katara's Waterbending, not even his Uncle. In return Katara continued to deliver him three meals a day and things had returned to normal; meaning that her task was carried out in complete silence.
Soon though, the time came for the bandages to be removed from his face. The doctor arrived just after lunch and Uncle Iroh was present. Zuko sat at the foot of his bed and allowed the doctor to carefully unwrap the gauze and cotton from his eye.
Zuko immediately knew something was wrong when the sight in his left eye remained hazy. He gazed up at his uncle and the doctor through mismatched vision and registered the expressions on their faces; a mixture of horror and pity.
Pushing myself from the bed and past the two men I moved quickly over to the ornately gilded mirror that hung at the back of the room. I had avoided going near it while my face had been bandaged but now I wanted to see what my father had done to me.
The first thing I registered was red. Glaring, violent red covering most of the left side of my face. Around my eye the colour deepened into a sort of wine hue, the eye itself was permanently narrowed behind slightly closed lids. The stain spread across to my ear, shrivelling the delicate shell but when Uncle called out to me I felt little relief in the realisation that my hearing had not been damaged… at least not much.
"Prince Zuko?"Zuko tensed slightly at his uncle's voice and refused to turned back to face the men still stood by his bed.
"Leave."
Iroh and the doctor immediately acquiesced and hurried from the room, leaving the young man inside to stare at the testament of his father's cruelty.
Katara made the now familiar journey up to Prince Zuko's chambers to deliver dinner. The relief she felt in the knowledge that Prince Zuko would not impart her secret was too vast to express and the morbid silence of his room no longer bothered her.
Entering his room, Katara made her way to the tea table and gently placed the silver tray upon it. She allowed her eyes to slip across the room, looking for Zuko and when she found him her stomach gave an unpleasant jerk.
She immediately took note of the crimson scar on his face and quickly averted her eyes lest she be caught staring. Hurrying to gather the empty lunch tray, Katara straightened out and made for the door.
"Waterbender."
The low hiss caused her to freeze. Turning around slowly, Katara watched with mounting trepidation as Zuko stood from his bed and approached her, the scar becoming more vibrant as he left the shadows caused by the canopy of the large bed.
Katara instinctively averted her eyes to her feet and realised her mistake soon after.
"What? Can you not bare to look at the monstrosity before you? Not even a lowly servant's eyes will gaze upon it?"
His words were acerbic but Katara reminded herself that he was obviously hurt and distressed. She forced her eyes to meet his, thinking that that was what he wanted, but it only made things worse.
Prince Zuko's golden eyes pierced her own wide, blue ones and he snarled fiercely. "Why do you face me? Is it out of pity? Pity because you know that no one else will?"
He suddenly snatched a ceramic bowl from the tray in her hands and whipped around, hurling the dish at the mirror on the other side of the room. Both the dish and the mirror broke apart, and Katara flinched as thousands of shards of silver cascaded to the floor, glistening like freshly fallen rain on the marble.
Zuko turned back to Katara, his chest heaving with rage and threw a hand down, knocking the tray straight out of her hands. The metal clattered as it hit the floor and the fragile crockery shattered. Katara began walking backwards as Prince Zuko advanced on her, all the while hissing angrily.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Get out! Go tell all the other pathetic slaves what you've seen. Warn them about the monster that the Fire Lord has created!"
Katara stumbled backwards from the room, tripping on her feet and landing on the floor, staring up at the distraught boy.
He scowled down at her for a few more seconds before swiftly slamming the door with a thunderous bang.
Katara lifted herself up from the floor and looked at her trembling hands. Bringing a hand up to catch a sob she raced from the tower and back down to the kitchens. When she got there she ignored the questions of her friends and instead collapsed onto her sleeping mat, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to forget the tortured look she had seen in a pair of golden eyes.
After a night's sleep and much deliberation, Katara had steeled herself to take breakfast up to Zuko.
The room was still in a state of shadowed darkness when she arrived, as Zuko was adamantly refusing to open the curtains. Katara was disappointed when she saw that Iroh was not in the room, she would have felt much better about facing Prince Zuko if the kindly man was around.
She looked carefully around for the prince as she moved further into the room. She found him sitting once more on the foot of his bed, his dangerous gaze levelled on her. Katara put the tray down in its usual place and stepped back. She noticed that the room was still a mess; the pieces of the obliterated mirror remained pooled on the floor and the various pieces of the dishes that Prince Zuko had knocked from her hand the previous night were still strewn carelessly on the floor.
Katara got to her knees and began gathering the shattered ceramics from the marble when Prince Zuko decided to speak once more.
"So they sent you back?"
Katara chose not to respond and focused on her current task.
"Do they see you as a scapegoat? The other servants send you to do the jobs that they don't want to do?"
Katara remained silent still.
"You've had a rough time here really haven't you, Waterbender? First Azula takes pleasure in torturing you and then you get burdened with the task of cleaning up after me. Though I suppose you're used to it, your life is obviously full of rejection."
The reference to her previous life triggered warning bells in Katara's mind. Prince Zuko was overstepping the mark.
"Is that how you ended up in a slave house? Were you dumped there like broken goods? Did the other Waterbenders decide they didn't want you?"
"Shut up!" Katara gritted her teeth tightly. Azula had not gotten away with insulting Katara's lost family and neither would Zuko, no matter how angry he was.
"Excuse me?" Zuko sounded rather incredulous.
Katara stood from the floor and let loose all that was on her mind. "No matter what you think Prince Zuko, you are not the only person in the world to suffer a great grievance. If you do not wish judgement from other people then not pass it yourself."
Prince Zuko stood from his bed and glared at her. "How dare you? You have no idea-"
Katara cut him off. "Oh I have every idea. You're feeling sorry for yourself and taking it out on other people. Let me tell you that a scar does not take away from your humanity and it does not mean that you have to lock yourself away from the rest of the world."
She stormed over to the window and pulled on a thick, braided cord. The curtains flew apart, flooding the room with bright sunlight. "So stop hiding in the dark and start acting like Prince of the Fire Nation."
Katara stared at Zuko, who seemed slightly dazed by the sudden blaze of light. He half expected him to fry her then and there, but curiously his eyes seemed less hostile than before.
"She's right, Prince Zuko."
Katara and Zuko looked to the door and saw Iroh standing there with a slight smile on his face. He walked further into the room and let his eyes trail over the shattered glass and ceramics. Turning his softened gaze to his nephew he smiled gently.
"You have every right to be angry Prince Zuko, and yet you must take care not to turn that anger towards those who do not deserve it." His eyes flicked briefly to Katara before turning back to the scarred boy. "What you did in the war chamber was one of the most honourable things I have ever seen, do not taint such honour with the bitterness caused by your father."
Zuko seemed rather mollified while Iroh turned his attention to Katara.
"It is nice to see you again my dear, and I have a favour to ask of you."
And so my life got even stranger…
So we finally see some interaction between Katara and Zuko… although it's rather hostile. Personally, if I was Katara I would have snapped long before she did in this chapter, I just needed someone to put emo!Zuko in his place.
I'll apologise for the wait but the last few weeks of college have been hectic and my social life suddenly received a burst of adrenaline. The good news is that I have one more day at college and then eight weeks off, and although I will be quite busy during those two months, I'm going to force myself to give some attention to this story.
Thank you all for the reviews, they really give me the motivation to (eventually) get off my lazy butt and write.