Chapter 39
The couple of days that took Appa to make the flight from Ba Sing Se to the Fire Nation's capital felt the longest in Katara's life. Even though Katara felt like she had mostly patched things up with Aang and they could actually converse with one another without feeling too awkward, Katara still would have preferred to have someone else along with them just to break up any leftover tensions, but Sokka had understandably chosen to remain in Ba Sing Se. During one of their mid-flight conversations, Aang had also disclosed the exact nature of Zuko's plea to him, to track down the spirit assassin responsible for On Ji's death. When Katara had learned of this, she hadn't been able to stop herself from becoming angry again, reprimanding Aang for not doing the right thing and instead rushing to Ba Sing Se to try and win her back. However, since it was clear that Aang was feeling very guilty about his decision, she was happy to let the matter drop.
As they reached Fire Nation territory, Katara felt herself becoming more and more nervous, worrying about in what state she would find the capital. While flying over the Shuhon Island, Katara could see a large concentration of the Fire Nation Navy in the bay, and there were plumes of smoke rising from some parts of Fire Fountain City, suggesting that military action against the rebels was still ongoing. Fortunately, they encountered no similar sights until reaching the equally calm looking capital, and Katara was able to let out a sigh of relief when Aang's loyal sky bison landed in the courtyard of the royal palace.
Their arrival had been spotted way in advance, and by the time an anxious Katara slid down from Appa's back, a welcoming delegation was arriving in the courtyard. Her heart fluttered with excitement when she saw Zuko all but running ahead of his entourage of Kyoshi bodyguards who were struggling to keep up with their excited liege. Zuko looked a little gaunt and paler compared to how she had last seen him, the recent events appearing to have taken a heavy toll on him. And I wasn't here to lighten his load, Katara realized with a pang of guilt. Still, despite looking a little ragged, to gaze upon him once again was the perfect balm for Katara's own tormented heart.
And even though Katara wanted nothing more than to fly right into his arms and feel his lips smother hers with burning kisses, she forced herself to behave in a more reserved manner, simply out of respect for Aang and his feelings. Zuko must have realized the same thing when they finally came face to face, and they contended themselves with a brief embrace before separating again. "You're back," he stated plainly, but the happy smile on his face spoke volumes.
"I am," Katara nodded happily, then turning to nod at Aang. "And look who I brought back with me."
"Hey, Zuko," Aang waved at him, smiling. He seemed to be enduring the sight of her and Zuko hugging perfectly well, something that Katara felt relieved about. "I'm sorry about earlier..." he managed a little awkwardly. "But now I'm here to help."
"Thank you, Aang, I really appreciate it," Zuko smiled at the Avatar. "You're going to tell me how you managed that, my beautiful master diplomat," he whispered to Katara.
"Truly, I did nothing, Aang came around on his own this time," Katara smiled at her beloved.
"I had some help from another very special lady who showed me the error of my ways," Aang added mysteriously. He then rubbed his hands excitedly. "So, I'm ready to get started! Can you take me to the place where this spirit was last seen?"
"Of course," Zuko nodded, leading the procession inside, towards one of the palace halls where that ill-fated soiree had taken place. There were hundred and one things on Katara's mind that she wanted to blurt out and ask Zuko about, but she somehow managed to exert enough willpower to remain silent, reminding herself that getting Aang started on tracking this spirit assassin had to take precedence over everything else.
"It happened here," Suki was the one to speak up as they stood in the center of the large hall where the assassin had struck. Katara felt her knees wobble a bit as the dreadful memories of that day assaulted her, and she felt grateful for Zuko immediately noticing her reaction and moving closer to steady her. "On Ji fell right here," Suki continued, standing in the exact spot where Katara could see just the faintest outline of a pool of blood, regardless how hard the palace servants had tried to scrub the floors.
"Hmm... yes, I can definitely sense traces of spirit energy, though it is faint," Aang muttered with his eyes closed. "It is a good thing I did not delay coming any longer or the traces would have faded, but now I should be able to find this spirit assassin of yours. Very well, time to get to work," he nodded to himself, cracking his knuckles.
"Do you require any assistance, Aang?" Zuko asked.
"Well... this might take a while," Aang mused. "It could even take days. While I'm in the spirit world, my physical body here will be vulnerable. So, if you could provide some guards to look over me..."
"Of course," Zuko nodded, turning to his Kyoshi warriors. "Suki, organize guard shifts to watch over Aang."
"Got it, Zuko," Suki nodded, huddling together with the other girls as she quickly handed out their assignments.
"Also, maybe someone could fetch some pillows or something to make sure Aang doesn't have to sit on the floor," Katara suggested, one of the palace servants immediately rushing off to carry out her suggestion like an order.
"Thanks, Katara," Aang smiled at her, settling in comfortably on the pillows once the servant had returned, resting with his back against a marble column. "Well, time to get started," he said, actually sounding excited.
"Aang?" Katara spoke up, a little nervously. "Please, be careful and don't take any unnecessary risks, alright?"
"Of course, Katara, you know me, I'm always careful," Aang winked at her.
"I appreciate you doing this for us, Aang, I really do," Zuko told him earnestly.
"Don't mention it, Zuko... it's about time I performed my duties as the Avatar. And now, please shoo and let me work... I'm sure you two have lots to catch up on, anyway," he added, making a dismissive motion with his hand before slipping into a meditative pose. Katara and Zuko were only too happy to follow Aang's suggestion, retreating and starting on their way towards the royal quarters.
"We do have lots to catch up with, don't we?" Zuko smiled at her as they slowly walked down the long corridors, his arm wrapped around her shoulders while she held on possessively to his waist. "Why don't you go first?" he added.
"I think I had the by far more boring experience," Katara chuckled. "As always, talking with your uncle gave me so much clarity and a renewed perspective. I had to let everything he told me to stew for a few days in my mind before it began to sink in, but I think I should now be much better equipped to deal with the burdens of leadership."
"Sometimes I wonder what we would do without Uncle Iroh," Zuko sighed.
"I don't want to think about that, because we probably wouldn't be together without him, and I refuse to contemplate that," Katara shuddered. "Anyway, I probably would have returned to the capital sooner, but then Aang showed up unexpectedly and... well, I don't want to go into details, but his behavior was... unpleasant." Zuko's frown deepened at that, and she quickly moved to reassure him. "Don't worry, in the end he realized what he was doing, apologized and then did the right thing. So, unless you don't mind, I would rather not talk about it anymore. It was an unpleasant episode, but there's no reason for any of us to revisit it."
"That's fine by me. I'm just delighted to have you back," Zuko said, turning her to face him and then leaning in to kiss her. Katara sighed in contentment as she allowed him to take the lead and be the aggressor in the breathless wrestling of their tongues.
"Spirits, I've missed that. I've missed you..." Katara managed upon their reluctant parting. "But I assume we want to make it all the way back to your quarters... eventually..."
"That would be preferable, I suppose," Zuko chuckled, as hand in hand they continued on their way.
"Anyway, you can tell me what's been going on here as we walk," Katara prodded him. "I've been hearing all sorts of rumors in Ba Sing Se, making me crazy with worry. Everything looked to be mostly stable as we were flying in, though..."
"All things considered, it could have been a lot worse," Zuko replied. "Ozai's death came too soon for our conspirators, I don't believe Ukano had all of his Pai Sho tiles in place yet."
"So, I was giving you terrible advice when talking you out of removing clemency from Ozai," Katara remarked.
"No, you weren't, it's not like any of us knew what the rebels were up to before I made my decision," Zuko told her firmly. "Deep down, you know that you had perfectly valid reasons for trying to talk me out of it. You were trying to prevent me from starting on a dark path."
"I suppose that is true," Katara admitted. "I guess much of our advice and decisions can be both right and wrong at the same time, depending from which way you look at them..."
"Sounds like something that Uncle Iroh would say," Zuko smiled at her.
"No, that's all me, but probably because of listening to your uncle," Katara chuckled. "Anyway, you were about to tell me about fighting the rebels when I distracted you."
"Oh, right," Zuko smiled. "My generals assure me that they need at least two, maybe three more weeks to fully pacify Shuhon Island. That's where most of the fighting has been taking place. Afterwards, we'll have to smoke the rebels out from their Hing Wa stronghold, and that's not going to be easy. And then there are the other loose ends, like the spirit assassin and tying Ukano and his family to the rebellion. Once we take care of that, we should be able to enjoy some peace and quiet."
"Oh, is that all?" Katara winked at him. "Sounds like our 'and then they lived happily ever after' moment is almost here, hmm?"
"Hah, I'm sure once we deal with this crisis, another one will spring up immediately afterwards," Zuko chuckled darkly.
"You're not supposed to say that, I mean, that's no way to convince me to stick around," Katara grinned teasingly.
"Well, maybe I can think of other ways to convince you," Zuko growled at her playfully as he forced her to stop again, pressing her a little roughly against the wall and starting to kiss her again, his hands roaming insistently all over her body and making her groan into his mouth. "Was that convincing enough?" he smirked, having released her and watching her chest rise and fall powerfully as she struggled for breath.
"I should say so..." she managed to reply.
"Fortunately, we're almost at our quarters," Zuko whispered hoarsely. "Once we're there, I think I can conjure a few even more convincing arguments for you to stick around."
"I can't wait to see what those might be," Katara chuckled. "But to be serious for a moment, did nothing else of interest happen? Aside from the rebellion, and missing me terribly, of course?"
"Hmm... oh, yes, there's one more thing, I'm not sure how you'll feel about it," Zuko eventually admitted as they reached the entrance to the royal quarters, one of the guards stationed there opening the doors for them as they proceeded inside. "I've started to visit Azula more regularly."
"That's wonderful, Zuko!" Katara exclaimed happily. Sure, Azula still frightened her a little bit, but still, with Zuko's family as fractured as it was, she was delighted to hear that he was at least putting the remaining pieces back together. "How is Azula doing, is she getting any better?"
"Well... yes and no," Zuko sighed. "She seems perfectly normal most of the time, in fact, she's actually much nicer to me than ever before, but as soon as I mention our mother, something just snaps inside of her, and she gets this crazy, murderous look in her eyes. So... yes, she's better, but still nowhere near where she needs to be if she wants to come and live with us in the palace."
"Oh... that's so sad," Katara's face fell with disappointment. "I really hope that you and your sister can be properly reunited someday soon."
"I really hope so, too," Zuko smiled sadly. "By the way, she really wants to meet you. If you would care to accompany me on one of my visits, maybe it would do her some good as well."
"I... I think I would love that," Katara replied earnestly. Despite still harboring slight hesitancy and fear towards Azula, she knew she would do everything within her power to bring Zuko and his sister back together. "I will accompany you on your next visit," she swore solemnly.
"Katara, this... this is why I love you so much," Zuko spoke quietly, his eyes overflowing with emotion as he looked deep into her eyes. "Will you let me show you just how much I've been missing you?" he asked hopefully, tugging lightly on her arm, pulling her towards the bedchamber.
"Umm, while I would love nothing more than that, Zuko, I've just spent two long days on the back of a smelly sky bison," Katara blushed. "You'll have to let me take a quick bath or else you'll feel like making love to Appa."
"I'm very fond of that old bison, but maybe not quite that fond," Zuko chuckled.
"Good... I wouldn't want to think that I suddenly have to contend with competition," Katara grinned, pressing up against Zuko so tightly that he could perfectly recognize every curve of her delicious body. Their contact caused an immediate reaction from Zuko, and when Katara's hand slid downwards to further stimulate his arousal, Zuko eyes narrowed as he drew a sharp intake of breath.
"It's not really fair to leave me in such a state while you run off to take a lengthy splash in the bath," Zuko growled at her playfully.
Katara seemed to be contemplating something, before a wicked grin spread on her lips. "Well... you do have a point, Zuko, but you should still consider yourself fortunate that I am in such a charitable mood today. It's true, I can't leave you in such a worked up state, so... I guess I'll have to do something about it," she mock-sighed before gracefully sliding down to her knees in front him.
"Katara... you are absolutely crazy, and I love you so much for it," Zuko breathed out, quickly helping her free him from his clothes. "Agni, I..." he was about to say more, but Katara would not give him any respite as she bent to her task, absolutely relishing this opportunity to show her Fire Lord just how happy she was to be reunited with him back in the Fire Nation.
