The Blue Spirit Chapter Eleven: Above the Trap Doors, an avatar: last airbender fanfic

The Phantom of the Opera is by Gaston Letoux and the property of (I've been checking for the copyright info and I have come up with none so I am gonna assume that it belongs to the Estate of Gaston Letoux)

Needless to say I don't anything with this.

Chapter Eleven Above the Trap Doors

The next day the banished Fire prince saw the Southern Water Princess at the palace. She was still wearing the green silken necklace. She was gentile and kind to him. The princess talked with the former prince of the plans his Uncle had for their new tea shop. He spoke of the travels he did over the three years of his banishment. He spoke with her about his decision about leaving the Earth Kingdom capitol to find his own path instead of chasing the Avatar to the ends of the earth. She suggested almost gaily, that he must look upon his quest with delight, as a stage towards his coming peace in his life. And, when he replied that peace without love was no attraction to his eyes, she treated him as a child whose sorrows had been short lived. "How the hell can you speak so lightly about such serious things, Katara?" he asked. "I have made the most life altering decision of my life. I am wanted by the three surviving nations, if I am discovered I will die." He snorted. "Or I." she simply said. She no longer smiled or jested. She seemed to be thinking of some new thing that had entered her mind for the first time. Her eyes were all aglow with it. "Tell me what you are thinking about, Katara."
"I am thinking that we will never cross paths again…"
"And does that thought make you so happy?"
"And that, in a month's time we shall say goodbye…" her eyes met his "forever…" she whispered.
"You could always come with me."
She put her fingers to his lips and her eyes darted around the room "Hush Li, you know you must not speak like that. You know that I can not leave or marry, I thought you understood that." She said in an angered whisper. He looked at her questionly at the use of his alias for a moment before she resumed her overly cheerful mood. The water princess clapped her hands with childish glee. The prince started at her with complete puzzlement, one moment she was dead serious, the next acting like a child enjoying her favorite game. This confirmed that he had once only suspected that girls are truly crazy. "I have an idea, but" she paused, holding out her two hands to the fire prince as to make them a present of them to him. "What if we be engaged until you leave? No one will know but us will know of this but ourselves, Li there have been plenty of secret marriages, why not a secret engagement? We can be engaged for a month after the month we will part ways, you will leave and I can be happy at the thought of that month for the rest of my life." The water maiden was enchanted by her inspiration. Then she became serious once more. "This," she started, "will be a happiness that will harm no one." He was a bit skeptical to say the least at this idea but looking into her crystal blue eyes he knew he could not refuse her crazy idea. He softly bowed and said, "My fair waterbender, may I have the honor to ask have your hand." He placed a tender kiss on the palms of each of her hands before softly pulling them to his chest and placing them over his heart. She silently nodded dumbly, momentary loosing the power of her voice 'When did his words become so smooth?' her mind questioned. It was only supposed to be a game. They both knew it but that did not stop them from wishing it was not. They would sit and talk by the fireplace in the office that the Earth King had provided the water maiden. Never leaving her small office, the young tea server wondered why they never left this small room but awaited the water maiden's explanation. About one week after they started their little game, the banished prince could no longer hold the nagging thoughts that plagued his mind and exploded at the waterbender with the question that had been bothering him the most in the past week. "Why can't you leave this city?" The water maiden, who, in her innocence, suddenly discovered the dangers in this game and reproached herself bitterly, she did not say a word in reply to the firebender's question and went straight to her villa. In the evening, she did not sing and he did not receive his usual letter, though the two had arranged to write each other daily during that month. Later that night under his alter ego's guise he crept into the Avatar's villa to find to clues to unravel the mysteries that the water princess seamed to be determined to guard. She never returned to her villa that night. The next morning, the tea server rushed to the home of Aunt Wu, who simply told him that the water princess had gone away and will not return for at least another day. Prince Zuko was angry; he hated the old fortune teller for giving him this news with such stupefying calmness. He tried to intricate, but the old tea leaf reader would not tell him any of the details. Lady Katara returned to the stage on the following day. She returned in triumph. She renewed her extraordinary success of the celebration of the Earth King's bear performance. Since the adventure of the 'bull toad,' Lady Jun had not been able to appear on the stage. The terror of a fresh 'co-ack' filled her heart and deprived her of all her confidence of singing; and the theatre that had witnessed her incomprehensible disgrace had become odious of her. She contrived to cancel her contract with the royal opera and the water princess was appointed the vacant place by the Earth King for the time. She received thunders of applause in the performance of Avatar Kyoshi. The banished prince, who, of course was present as the Blue Spirit, was the only one to suffer on hearing the thousand echoes of this fresh triumph; for Princess Katara still wore the green betrothalnecklace. His mind whispered "She is wearing the necklace again tonight; and you did not give it to her. She gave her soul again tonight but did not give it to you…. She will not tell you what she has been doing these past two days…. You must go and see the Secretary." He quickly ran behind the scenes and changed his clothing before placing himself in her way. She was him for she was looking for him. "Quick, this way!" she said in a raised whisper as she dragged him to her office. He stood before her glaring daggers into her eyes demanding an explanation for her to disappear without a word. He cursed her for robbing him of the time of the ideal happiness that she had promised him. She silently let her tears flow as she nodded her head not to leave again before the moth was over. They kissed like lovers finding one another again after years of separation. Suddenly, she snatched herself from the firebender's warm and loving embrace. She seemed to be listening for something and with a quick gesture, pointed to the door. When he stepped angrily into the threshold, she said, in a whisper so low that the tea server read her lips rather then heard her words. "Tomorrow, my dear prince, and be happy I sang you alone tonight." The next day he returned however those two days of absence had broken all the charm of their little fantasy. They looked at each other, in the water maiden's office, with their depressive eye, with out exchanging a single word and sat in utter uncomfortable silence. The prince restrained his temper to he would not start demanding an explanation. But she heard him all the same. The stood and held her hand out to him. "Let's go for a walk, Li. The air will do you good." The prince thought she would propose a walk amongst the rings of the city, far from the palace which he detested as a prison whose secret police he could feel stalking in the shadows… the Dai Li. But she took him to the stage and made him sit on the wooden curb of a well, in the doubtful peace and coolness of a first scene for the evening's performance. On another day, she wandered with him, hand in hand, along the deserted paths of the king's rock garden whose stones had been cut out by a master earthbender's skillful hands. It was though the sky, the flowers, the earth outside of the palace were forbidden her for all time and she condemned to breathe no other air than that of the royal court. An occasional Joo Dee passed, watching over their melancholy idyll from afar so she could report back to the Grand Secretary. She would on occasion drag the moody prince up to the rafters of the theater into the magnificent disorder of the grid, where she loved to watch him go into shock as she raced ahead of him along the frail bridges, among the thousands of ropes fastened to the pulleys, windlasses, rollers, in the midst a regular forest of yards and masts. If he paused, she would tease him, with an adorable pout on her lips. "Call yourself a warrior." Which the princess was immediately rewarded with a glare that could cause a solider to break. Once they returned to solid ground, that is to say some passage that lead them to the wing for the young children of the court, where the noble children between the age of five and twelve were busy practicing their calligraphy, in the hope of following in their parent's footsteps 'pockets filled with gold and emeralds.' Meanwhile the water maiden would give them candied moon peaches instead. She took him to the throne room, the counselor's gardens, she took him all over her domain, which caused his heart to long for his home, his nation, his past, every thing he chose to abandon, and soon he will have to abandon her as well. His heart pained at the thought. The princess however, to the prince seemed to be oblivious to his strife as she moved along the marble workers, giving them advice as their hands hesitated to cut into the rich stone that was to adorn the thrown of the king. The servants had all learned to love her, for she interested herself in all of their troubles and all of their quirky little hobbies as she ignored the troubles belonging to her and the firebender beside her. Their precious days sped in this way; and Prince Zuko and Princess Katara, by affecting an excessive interest in the most ridiculous subjects, strove to awkwardly hide from each other the one thought of their hearts. One fact was certain, that the water maiden, who until then had shown herself to be the stronger of the two, suddenly became inexpressibly nervous. When on their walks, she would start to run without reason, or else suddenly stop; and her hand turning as cold as the ice she controlled in a moment, would hold the scared tea server back. Sometimes her eyes seemed to be pursuing imaginary shadows, that the prince suspected was the Dai Li. She would whisper, "This way," and "That way," then suddenly begin to laugh a breathless laugh that would often end with her tears. When the banished prince tried to question her, in spite of the promises. But, even before he had worded his question, she would answer almost feverishly, "Nothing! I swear it was nothing!" On one occasion when they were passing a trap door, the firebender stopped over the dark cavity and said with a smirk dancing on his lips, "You've shown me over the upper part of the palace, Katara… but what about the lower part? Shall we go down?" She caught him in her arms, as though she feared to see him disappear down the dark hole, and in a trembling voice whispered. "Never, I will not have you go down there. Besides, I don't have permission, everything bellow ground belong to the Dai Li." "So that is where the Dai Li hide?" She could see the plotting behind his molten eyes.
"I never said that, who told you that? Come away from there. Some times I wonder if you are quite sane, y dear Li. You take things in such an impossible way. Come now, please." The water Princess had to literally drag him away, for he was obstinate and wanted to stay by the trap door; that hole attracted to him. Suddenly, the trap door was closed, and so quickly that they did not even see the hand that worked it; and they remained quite dazed. "Perhaps the Dai Li were watching you?" the fire bender said, at last.
"She shrugged her shoulders, but did not seem very easy, "No, no it must have been one of the Joo Dee. They must do something when they are not giving tours of the city, you know. They open and shut the trap doors with out any particular reason. It's like the valets, they must spend their time some how."
Her excuse was weak and both of them knew it. "But suppose it was one of the Dai Li, Katara?"
"Oh no, no they have been told by the king that I am not to be followed."
"The king?" he raised his unmarred eyebrow. She weakly nodded and the fire prince dropped the subject for the time being. For all of that, on the next day and the ones following that, Katara was careful to avoid the trap doors. Her agitation increased as the hours passed. At last, one afternoon, she arrived very late, with her face so desperately pale and her eyes so desperately red that Prince Zuko resolved to go to all lengths, including that of his alter ego, he even went as far as to threaten to turn himself in to the Dai Li unless she would tell him the secret of the man's voice. "Hush, you don't want them to hear you, you fool." And the water bender stared wildly at everything around her.
"I will remove you from his power Katara, I swear it and then perhaps you will not be frighten of your own shadow."
"It's not possible." Her eyes were downcast. He placed his hand under her chin and raised it so there eyes would meet. She saw the determination that she lad long forgotten he had in his eyes allowed herself this glimmer of hope, which was a great encouragement, while dragging the young prince up to the top most floor of the palace, far,far from the trap doors. "I shall hide you in some unknown corner of the world, where they can not come to look for you. You will be safe; and then I will go away like I had promised, as you swore never to marry." His soft voice echoed in her ears.
The water maiden seized the tea server's hand and squeezed them with incredible rapture. But suddenly alarmed, she turned her head away. "Higher!" was all she said. 'Higher still!" as she dragged him up towards him summit of the majestic building. He was having some difficulty following her. They were soon under the very roof, in the maize of timberwork. They slipped through the rafters and the joists; they ran from beam to beam as they might have to run from tree to tree in a forest. And despite the care which she took to look behind her every moment, she failed to a shadow which followed her like her own, which stopped when she stopped and that started again when she started again and made no more noise that a well conducted shadow should. As for the prince, he saw nothing but that did not stop him from wondering what was behind him.