Quick updates. Yay! I'm trying to finish this story before my personal projects take priority. Hence the rapid updates. This chapter has a bit of a light chatter between friends and a little more of Katara's reveal. Not the violent part yet, but you get some more idea of what might have happened. Enjoy. And as usual, read and review.
Chapter 14
ONE WEEK LATER:-
Katara swirled a ball of water overhead, marveling the way sunlight trickled through the water. She moved the water in a whirl around herself, making it skim over her body. She then allowed it to go high up in the air and then lowered it down, bringing it to herself. She then froze it and sent out shards in rapid succession. Once the water finished, she held her arms out and summoned the shards back to her, stopping inches away from her.
Over the past week the failed assassination attempt, Zuko had gone on a hyper-vigilant mode. Every member of the family had been given round-the-clock guard. Even now, four guards were watching her as she was doing some basic stretches with water. Nothing de-stressed her like water. It sucked up the tension and fear of the past few days. After what seemed like forever, she felt as though a big weight had lifted off her and she could breathe easier. Being one with her element had eased he frayed nerves. Feeling refreshed, she melted the shards, drew the water over her head and allowed it to splash, cooling her.
Behind her, someone clapped. Katara turned to find Suki, Toph and Ty Lee watching her. She raised her hand and waved at them, a smile playing on her lips. Taking that as an invitation, the three of them skipped over to sit on the bleachers. Realizing that her stress had eased and she could use a break, she joined her friends at the bleachers, sitting between Suki and Ty Lee. Toph stomped her foot and a stone seat shot up from the ground, facing the three women sitting on the bleachers.
"It's nice to see you bending like this," Suki said, stretching out her feet and propping them on Toph's impromptu seat. "It's been ages since I have seen you bend just for yourself. Last time I saw you doing it was probably in Ember Island."
Katara rolled her shoulders, "Yes, well, life happened."
"Ain't that the truth," Toph said, crossing her legs on her seat. "Life has a tendency to fuck you up, doesn't it?"
Suki shrugged, "Nah. I'm good. I'm married to the love of my life. Co-leading Kiyoshi Island. As for losing that one pregnancy… well, I am okay now. Sokka and I are thinking about trying again."
Katara lay a hand on Suki's, "I'm glad you're trying again, Suki. When you do get pregnant, let me know. I would like to help with making sure the baby is safe."
"Oh, thank you, Katara," she said with a huge smile, "I might take you up on that offer."
Ty Lee clapped her hands, "All the best, Suki. Your aura is all pink and happy. I know it will all work out this time."
"Go Sokka and Suki," Toph said, punching her in her arm. "Make us all proud."
"My life has been fine too," Ty Lee chipped in. "I don't have a complaint about how things are. I'm happy. Blissful. And my aura is completely uncluttered. I know the universe is telling me that this is where I'm supposed to be. Life most definitely did not fuck me."
"Toph," Katara turned to face her, "What's going on with you? Why did you say life has a tendency to fuck us up?"
"Because it's true. You're a prime example of it."
"Don't deflect," Katara said, forcibly pushing the dark thoughts that threatened to creep into her mind. "There's something you want to say but are holding back. Speak up."
"I just… feel like something is missing, you know?"
Ty Lee poked the Earthbender with her toes, "Oh shut up! You are heading a Metalbending school and are known as the best Earthbender ever. What are you so glum about?"
Toph shrugged, "Yes, I'm doing well professionally. But… I don't know… I'm feeling restless."
"Is it a guy?" Suki postulated
"Uh… not really. I mean, yes, he was an ass, but I don't think he is the reason."
"What? Who? What happened?" Katara asked, looking from one friend to the other. "Why don't I know anything about it?"
"Well… you were dealing with a ton of shit. I didn't want to burden you with my sob story."
Ty Lee scoffed. "I wasn't having anything going on in my life. And I'm not aware of it either. Spill."
Toph blew her bangs, "Well. I was seeing this guy, Kai, and he just went… poof."
"Poof?" Suki repeated, her eyebrows up to her hairline. "Someone actually dumped you? I don't know whether to be sad for you or impressed that he managed this."
Katara shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around this, "You didn't find him out?"
"No," Toph said, resting her elbow on her knees and tucking her face on her palms. "I wasn't all that into him."
"Could've fooled me!" Suki said, with a grin.
"I'm serious. My ego is more wounded than my heart, to be honest," she said. "It's not like I don't know where he is. I do. I just don't think it's worth going over and pummeling him."
Katara shared an open-mouthed look with Ty Lee before saying, "Who are you and what have you done with our Toph?"
Toph snickered. "Fret not. It is still me. I just have learned to pick my battles… sometimes."
"Does the sun rise from the west in Fire Nation?" Suki wondered.
"Oh, don't worry, girls. Someone else has caught my eyes. May now I will see why I'm feeling out of sorts."
Used to Toph's blind jokes, Suki ignored the gags and said, "And? Are you making any moves?"
"Not yet," she said. "It's not the time yet. I'm doing the groundwork, for now. But we didn't come here to talk about me. We were here to talk about our new Fire Lady."
Katara rolled her eyes, "Why? What's there to talk about?"
"What do you mean?" Suki said, raising her brows. "You're newly married. Have been for a week, or a month, depending on how you look at it. And, as your friends, it's our moral duty to ask you the details."
"Details?" Katara asked, not liking the way the conversation was heading. She was looking forward to chatting with her friends after a long time. But now, they were treading into dangerous waters. She hoped against hope that they were not asking what she thought they were asking.
Ty Lee nudged her with her elbow, "You know what we're talking about. Steamy sessions with your new husband?"
Heat rose up Katara's ears as her mind inadvertently painted a scene of her and Zuko, naked and having passionate sex. She slapped her hands on her cheeks, trying to rid the image that had burned in her retinas. "Tui and La! Don't put those images in my mind. No. No steamy sessions."
"None?" Suki said in evident disbelief.
"None."
"Why?" Toph asked. "What's the problem? He's your husband. You're allowed… rather expected to have those images in your mind. Besides, if I remember correctly, you were more than ready for it back at Ember Island."
Katara hid her face in her hands, her heart beating wildly. Oh, Ember Island. She shuddered. They didn't know. They couldn't know. There lay a can of worms she had no desire to open. She took a steadying breath and said, "Toph! Stop. That was years ago. I had a crush on him then. I was fourteen. Almost fifteen. It's been years since then. We're both very different people now."
Ty Lee rolled her eyes, "Katara! We are talking about having fun in the sack, not a character study."
"Yeah, no fun in the sack moments, sorry to disappoint you lot."
Toph chuckled and held her hand out. "You both owe me twenty ruonz each."
Grumbling, the two Kiyoshi warriors pulled out their wallets and handed her the money.
"You guys bet on us?" Katara cried, half annoyed, half amused.
"I told them, there was nothing happening," Toph said gleefully pocketing the money, "But these two were certain you were doing the horizontal tango."
"You three are just… wow. I don't even know what to say," Katara huffed. "No more betting. You hear me!"
Toph simply cackled.
Katara was in trouble. She was in deep trouble. The can of worms that she had fought for almost half her life to keep buried, was now cracking open. Memories. Painful, bittersweet memories were flooding back. The conversation from earlier in the day had hit her like a boulder chucked by an Earthbender. The image that had cropped up in her mind during the conversation haunted her, refusing to leave her. Katara placed the heels of her palm against her eyes and arched her back, feeling the silken sheets of her bed against her body. Even the full moon outside could not ease her pain.
Ember Island. Despite her best efforts, a memory pushed through.
Katara breathed in deeply, enjoying the smell of the ocean and the sound of waves crashing. She had just finished making lunch and realizing that she had at least an hour before Toph and Aang's Earthbending practice would end. She decided to make the most of the time she had in her hand and had walked out to the beach. Some distance away, she saw him. He was sitting on the shore, one leg folded up to his chest, with his elbow resting on his knee. The other leg was stretched out in front of him, the waves wetting his foot. His right hand was burrowed in the sand. Something about the way he sat, staring at the ocean put the word regal in Katara's mind. Unaware of what she was doing, she walked over to him.
"Mind if I sit next to you?"
He gave a small jump, as though startled out of his thoughts, and looked up, "Katara! Hi there," he patted the sand next to him, "Come. Sit."
She lowered herself and followed his gaze. "Can I ask what you were thinking?"
He pointed out to the sea, "See that boat? I was watching that."
The boat he was talking about was a little more than a speck in the vast blue that stretched in front of them. "Uh? I'm guessing it's a fishing boat."
"Probably. I was actually thinking about how people are like boats."
"I… I'm sorry, what? I look like a boat to you?"
He chuckled, "No, no. Not literally. I meant it as a metaphor."
Katara cocked her head, "Elaborate?"
"When I was commandeering my own ship, I was completely engrossed in its functioning. Keeping the crew maintained. Keeping it well-oiled and fueled, wondering where to anchor it. It occupied a significant chunk of my day just making sure it was running properly. Yet, now, as I'm sitting here and looking at that boat, all I see is… a boat. Not the various nitty-gritty that is needed to keep it running. People are like that too. Don't you think?"
Katara weighed his words, unable to grasp what he was saying, "How do you mean?"
He sighed and drew some random patterns on the sand, as though trying to get his thoughts together. "I was thinking of Ozai."
Katara's eyes widened. This was the first time he had brought his dad up on his own. "Zuko."
As though he had not even heard her whispered gasp, he continued, "When I was in the Fire Nation, he was this looming figure whose approval I needed. Desperately. I… I did everything. Everything to get his approval. That's all my life was all about. But now. Sitting here, so far away from him, he is just an enemy I have to defeat. A speck. Like that boat."
Katara breathed, forcing herself to the present. In the scheme of bigger things, this was a simple and largely inconsequential strand of memory. But her mind had picked that one moment to dwell upon. Back then, she thought that she understood what he had been saying, but she had not. Not really. All she had gleaned from his words were that Zuko no longer craved Ozai's approval. And that the latter was a shitty father. All of which was true. Yet, she had been too young and naïve to understand the true meaning behind his words.
She did now. Aang had made her understand. When he was alive, her life revolved around him. First as his Waterbending teacher. Then as his girlfriend. Later as his wife and the mother of his children. Somewhere between playing those roles, Katara had lost herself. Aang had occupied the front and center position in her life, come what may.
But now, with him gone, she was suddenly breathing easier. She could now focus on other things. Things she had relegated to a back burner for Aang. Things like her children. Her bending. Her friends. Her family. Herself. He was now just a memory. A speck. Like a boat.
That speck, though, sometimes grew in size, threatening to smother her. The boat that was in the distance, for now, had the power to dump her in the middle of a sea storm without warning. But at that moment, it was far off. Her monsters were far off at that moment and Katara knew this uncertainty was the path of her life.
Before she had set on that path, however, Katara had momentarily believed that another road was open to her. Zuko. The golden-eyed prince who had stolen her heart without meaning to. But then, on his Coronation Day, when Katara was preparing herself to take the first step to build a life that she wanted, the door had been slammed shut on her face.
Katara would never forget the horror she had felt when the lightning had hit him square on the chest. Nothing could compare to the joy that had coursed through her when he had opened his eyes after three days. Even today, she could feel the youthful optimism with which she had skipped through the corridors to declare her love to Zuko on his Coronation Day. The sight that greeted her, however, had been like a hot poker through her heart. There he stood, in the arms of Mai, kissing her. Pain flared through her entire being. She had no idea how she had stumbled away from the scene or how she had found Aang. She remembered sobbing on his shoulders, unaware of what awaited her.
For thirteen long years, this road had been forbidden for her. Even the thought was tantamount to blasphemy. She had buried every tender emotion and memory in heart, in an unmarked grave. She had told herself, over and over again, that even his name on her lips was a sin. A transgression for which she had been punished, severely. But now, in a freak twist of events, the road that she had originally wanted to walk on was suddenly open to her. Now she was expected to have 'those' thoughts? But the girl that had wanted to walk on that road was long gone. This woman, this broken and shattered shell of a person had no idea how to walk on the road that lay in front of her. She did not have it in her to reach out. And even if she did, would he take her hand? Katara didn't think so. She was his friend. Nothing more. His heart still belonged to Mai.
"How can I even do this? What kind of a cruel joke is this?" Katara cried, curling up into a fetal position in her bed, feeling tears streaming down her face. "I can't do this. I can't. I just can't. This is not fair!"
"What's not fair, Katara?" His soft voice fell on her ears like molten glass. With a start, she sat up on the bed to find him leaning against the doorframe that connected both their chambers.
"Zuko," she said. His name was both a wound and a prayer on her lips.
