5 - Soulmate Marks

"I think I'll probably kill Long Feng tomorrow," Katara declared over dinner. They'd been in Ba Sing Se for six months, so they were pretty well settled in their duties as Ambassadors and were well on their ways to building alliances around the Earth King's court. Or enemies, in this case.

"Oh?" Zuko asked.

"You know how he's been using the King's sudden interest in legends and myths as an excuse to keep him out of politics. Well, now he's stalling the selection of a bride for him by filling his head with nonsense about soul mates. Have you heard any of those old stories?"

"No," Zuko admitted.

Katara, eager to vent to a fresh audience, set down her chopsticks with a clatter. Zuko hid a smile by taking a sip of tea. She didn't like him saying so, but he thought she was at her most attractive when she was up in arms over something. "This particular one goes that every so often, the Spirits will set down a perfectly matched pair of souls in the world. And it will be so important that they find each other that they'll each bear a mark, like a birthmark or whatever, that will match their soulmate's. And now Long Feng has been telling the King that that birthmark on his arm is a soulmate mark because—get this—it looks like half of the ancient kanji for "fate". Did I tell him it also looks like the modern Fire Nation kanji for "onion"? No: I have common sense. But now the King is sure he has a soulmate out there and he won't accept a bride who doesn't have a mark matching his and it is annoying."

"I didn't know you were so invested in who the King marries," Zuko said curiously. It was true the King faced significant international and domestic pressure to marry and ensure an heir, but Katara hadn't evinced much personal interest in the issue before now.

Katara sniffed and picked up her chopsticks again. "The Southern Water Tribe would support a union between the Earth King and any of several women of the southern Provinces. The benefits to trade could be enormous."

"Aha," he said, grinning. "The truth comes out!"

She blushed a little. "It's our job to ensure the best possible relationships between the Earth Kingdom and our homes, you know that as well as I do!"

"I take this to mean you don't believe in soulmates?" he asked, feigning disappointment.

"Of course not," she said haughtily. "It's a silly old story."

"Well, now that you bring it up, I have that thing on my ankle that I always thought looked like the kanji for "luck", so—"

"You never thought that, you liar," Katara laughed. He grinned. "Besides, if soulmates were real, and if they got marks to prove it, yours would have said something like "water". It stands to reason."

"So you have thought about it!" he exclaimed. He shuffled around the corner of the table and put his chin on her shoulder and grinned. She spluttered protests and laughter. "Come on, say we're soulmates," he egged her on, grinning even wider as she laughed harder. "Say it, come on!" He tickled her ribs and she yelped and toppled over, almost taking him with her.

"Okay, okay, fine, we're soulmates!" she cried, wiping tears of laughter from her face. "Just my luck, getting stuck with you," she said fondly, sitting back up.

He kissed her quickly. "Does this mean I have to help you kill Long Feng?"

"I can kill him myself, you just need to help me hide the body," she said with all seriousness.

He snorted. "Sure thing, soulmate."

A/N

Hahah, well, this is definitely what was intended for this prompt, but I wanted to keep it in the same AU continuity so I had to finagle it.

And I know Zuko seems kind OOC here, but without the war and his canon backstory I imagine he'd actually be a pretty optimistic, chipper person, so that's what I went with here. Hope you enjoyed!

E.I. signing out