Zuko

Jealous

"A freak? That's fine! At least I have my own identity. Instead of being part of a matched set."

"I am the perfect daughter. As long as I don't move or speak or breathe out of turn."

"My own mother thought I was a monster. I mean, she was right of course."

"Who are you angry at, Zuko?"

"Tell us, Zuko."

"Mother?"

"Your father?"

"Your uncle?"

"Me?"

"I'm angry at myself!"

Zuko shouldn't have said that. Not in front of Azula. She had remained true to her word, that she had only wanted her brother back. Still, in order to gain what she had wanted, she was willing to sacrifice the world's last chance for balance. Not willing… eager. Even if Azula loved him like she said she did, it wasn't safe to tell her too much. Who knows what she might do with that information? To protect him from himself?

He shuddered to imagine it.

And then there was Mai. What a twisted situation that was. He didn't even like her! Or… he did. He knew that in a previous life, one where he had never left the Fire Nation, she would have been his dream girl. He did like her. Loved her. He had to love her. When that guy at the party had been talking to her, he had felt something. Jealousy. He was jealous that some random guy was hitting on his girlfriend. Obviously.

Although, he could have been jealous of someone else entirely.

"What a revealing night this has been," Azula quipped.

"I know what will make us feel better," Zuko said.

So they had returned to the party. And destroyed the place. They were good at it. They worked as a team. Tylee swung through the rafters, pulling down lights and tapestries. Anything that Zuko didn't char to a crisp, Mai shredded. Azula didn't care as much about the things and the house, she zeroed in on one poor sucker, taunting and trapping him. In the end, he looked like his own heart might give up on him.

Later, as they slept in their own bedrooms in Li and Lo's beach house, Zuko stared at the dark ceiling. He was on the verge of sleep - it had been an exhausting day of beach fun. In the halfspace between wakefulness and slumber Zuko allowed his mind to wander. It was the only time he wondered what could have been.

It was the only time he thought of Katara.

When he pictured her, she was always framed in the darkness of their shared prison. It made him sad that he would never see her in kinder circumstances. They would never have a beach day together. The Zuko and Katara that had formed a brief "they" existed only as part of a larger trap. She had only been put down there to be easy prey… for him. Knowing that Azula had meant for him to kill her tainted all the memories he had of her.

Sleep pulled at his mind. Katara stood in front of him; she smiled. She was dressed as she had been for their sparring match. That was when she had been the most free - taunting him, flirting with him. Her exposed skin was brown and warm and soft. She reached for him, held his face in her hands. Then, she began to change, her features melting away. Her body split in half, still holding on to him. Then they fell, pulled down by a relentless current. When they landed, Zuko saw that Katara had doubled and morphed. Now the hand that held onto his left side belonged to Mai, full of melancholy and misanthropy. The other hand that gripped the right side of his face was the hand of his sister. Azula grinned at him, the shadows on her face growing more and more severe until she wore a mask of amusement and hatred. Vainly, Zuko tried to twist out of their grasp. The harder he pulled, the tighter their grips became until he felt they would rip his face off entirely.