A/N: In response to a question in reviews, this story is updated on Tuesdays and Saturdays, barring extraordinary circumstances beyond my control. :)
Chapter 20
Katara had plenty of thinking to do over the following week of her stay in Ba Sing Se. Thankfully for her, Earth King Kuei still continued to provide free Upper Ring lodgings for the Avatar and all of his friends, allowing them to use the same house they had used during their first visit to the Earth Kingdom capital. At least this way Katara didn't have to think about accommodations, which would have posed a considerable problem seeing that she had no personal income whatsoever. Because Kuei and the Earth Kingdom officials wanted to keep the Avatar on their good side, they continued to provide this service free of charge, and the house was regularly cleaned and resupplied by the palace servants.
With everything provided for her and with not much else to do but enjoy the Upper Ring luxury, whenever Katara wasn't consumed by the dilemma of her relationships, she often found herself incredibly bored. Thinking back to her conversation with Iroh, she reasoned that this was probably the kind of life that a Fire Lady who wanted to distance herself from court intrigue and politics would have to look forward to. She quickly decided that she had no desire to be that kind of Fire Lady. Besides, Zuko wouldn't want me to be like that. And not that I'll necessary become the next Fire Lady, that... remains to be seen.
As for her upcoming big decision, a certain clarity was slowly starting to crystallize in her thoughts. Aang had seemed so confident upon sending her back to Ba Sing Se, almost like he was convinced that given enough time to think things through, she would undoubtedly make the decision to return to him. The more and more she thought, Katara began to feel like she could not make this decision. Without realizing it, Aang had made the wrong decision by sending her away, when he should have fought for her, when she needed him to show more passion and possessiveness. Just like when they had gotten together, he hadn't done much but waited for her to drift into his arms. But now, different currents were pulling at her and carrying her away, and Aang hadn't realized that.
And the truth was that Katara missed Zuko. That on its own was the most telling sign of them all. Whenever she closed her eyes and tried to imagine the place where she longed to be the most, Katara always saw herself with Zuko, most of the time reliving their blissful Ember Island vacation. What Katara wanted had become very clear to her from the way Zuko interfered with most of her stray, wandering thoughts. She could not stop herself from reminiscing about that wonderful week they had spent together in the Fire Nation. When she tucked herself in the bed every night, she fell asleep with thoughts of the handsome Fire Lord on her mind. And when she touched herself, she did so imagining that it was Zuko touching her.
Her talk with Iroh had also provided important insight and clarity. Certainly, there were many aspects of becoming the Fire Lady that frightened Katara, if that was to be her fate. At the same time, she felt deeply intrigued by the opportunities that being the Fire Lady would open up to her. But most importantly, if the fact that she and Zuko were in love was not enough on its own, she believed that their partnership would be good for the Fire Nation and for Zuko personally. She was not some governor's daughter marrying the Fire Lord to satisfy the ambition of herself and her family. If she were to marry Zuko, she would be doing so for love, with the genuine desire to lighten his load as a ruler and with the best interests of the recovering Fire Nation at heart.
I can't believe I'm actually thinking about marrying Zuko. That's seriously getting way ahead of yourself, Katara, she chided herself, trying to maintain a rational view of things. She had to remind herself that even if she now felt more and more strongly about choosing Zuko over Aang, it didn't mean that Zuko would arrive at the same decision. She felt confident about his feelings for her, but there were just so many other things that could influence his decision. Perhaps the political pressure to marry a Fire Nation girl would be too strong and Zuko would be forced to yield. Perhaps Mai's family would put so much pressure on Zuko that he would be forced to take Mai back. There were so many things that could go wrong, and Katara was aware that if she were to break off her involvement with Aang, it could mean that she would find herself all alone.
But even if choosing Zuko was clearly the greater risk, the more Katara thought about her upcoming decision, the more she realized that she simply could not imagine herself returning to the relationship she had shared with Aang. She had deluded herself about the strength of her feelings, she had not realized their true nature, because she had lacked the frame of reference of what truly passionate love and affection was like. Katara knew she loved Aang, but it was not the kind of love that set her veins on fire or filled the pit of her stomach with knots of strained desire. She felt extremely protective of Aang, she still wanted to nurture and support him, but the truth was... he needed her mothering protectiveness less and less as time went on. Zuko, on the other hand... Katara felt that being so isolated from his family and friends, Zuko needed her far more than Aang did. All of these considerations were starting to clearly sway her decision towards Zuko.
With these and similar thoughts circling around in her head as she lay on her bed in the Ba Sing Se mansion, only two days before Aang's scheduled return, Katara suddenly heard the sound of the estate's doors being flung right open and someone striding in with loud footsteps, interrupting her peaceful slumber. Intrigued and grateful for the distraction, Katara bolted up from the bed, quickly checking her appearance in the mirror and then running downstairs to confront the new arrivals. Much to her surprise, she found herself staring at two very familiar faces.
"Sokka! Toph!" Katara exclaimed happily, chuckling at the surprised looks her brother and their metalbending friend gave her. "Am I glad to see you!" she rushed forward, embracing her brother and then quickly hugging Toph as well.
"Katara, what are you doing here?" Sokka asked, giving her a suspicious stare. "I thought you went to the Fire Nation!"
"I could ask you the same, I thought you went back to the tribe!" Katara retorted.
"Ah... you wouldn't believe the craziest thing that happened to me," Sokka responded with an easygoing laugh. "I made it all the way to Kyoshi village, but then I met this girl on the road there, what's her name... Sun, or was it Jin? Anyway, it doesn't matter. You see, she had left her sick and dying father at home while she went on search for this medicinal herb, some kind of root that only grew in the Foggy Swamp."
"Uh-huh," Katara frowned, starting to suspect where this story was heading.
"Anyway, since Sun was really cute, I volunteered to go and find this root for her, like the boomerang tossing war hero that I am," Sokka continued proudly. "I searched the swamp for days and eventually found the root, but when I returned to Kyoshi village, the locals told me that Jin had already left. She left me a note, though, telling me that her father had made a miraculous recovery, and that she had to leave in order to be with him. It's a real shame that she forgot to mention where I could find her again, because in her hurry to leave, she accidentally grabbed some of my belongings."
"Wait, let me guess," Katara slapped a palm against her forehead. "Including all the money you had with you?"
"Well, yes... I mean, I wouldn't need it in the swamp, right? Duh!" Sokka rolled his eyes at his sister. Katara glanced at Toph, finding the other girl struggling not to burst into laughter.
"So you had no money to buy passage on a ship and decided to come back to Ba Sing Se?" Katara asked. "And where does Toph come into it, anyway?"
"Sokka decided that he'd stop by the metalbending academy and ask me for handouts, seeing that as a Beifong, I'm obviously loaded," Toph gave a frustrated sigh.
"I see... did you both then travel to Ba Sing Se together?" Katara asked.
"Yep," Toph nodded. "I had already planned to come and take a look at some potential metalbending hopefuls, so I asked Sokka to tag along. Ba Sing Se is still the best place to make some money."
"Making money sounds so boring, I'm a war hero, I should ask the Earth King for some monthly stipend or something," Sokka mused, another brilliant plan no doubt forming in his overactive imagination. "Anyway, Katara! You still haven't explained why you aren't back in the Fire Nation. Let me guess, they didn't like you there, am I right?"
"You couldn't be more wrong, Sokka," Katara frowned. "I just left early. You don't need to know any more than that."
"Oh, she's being all mysterious," Sokka laughed. "And then you came back here, instead of hanging out with Aang?"
"No, I went to the air temple, but I didn't stay there either," Katara snapped, becoming annoyed of the tiresome inquiry. Still, she should have seen it coming. Acting suspiciously around Sokka triggered his 'detective-mode'. She was surprised he hadn't pulled out that ridiculous detective hat yet.
"Oooh... I sense a lover's quarrel," Sokka tapped at his chin thoughtfully. "That has to be a first! I mean, I've never seen you two have a falling out."
"There was no quarrel, in fact, Aang is coming back in a few days," Katara replied defensively. "I'm just a little tired of the air nomad ways, so I decided to leave early."
"No offense, Katara, but that's a bold faced lie," Toph interjected with an annoyingly knowing grin.
"A-ha! I knew it!" Sokka pointed an accusing finger at her. "But what would you two argue about? Maybe it has to do something with you leaving the Fire Nation so early?"
"Maybe the Sugar Queen found herself a Fire Nation boyfriend," Toph suggested innocently.
"That's ridiculous!" Katara exclaimed angrily, her blood slowly starting to simmer and approach the boiling point. "But I know of someone who has a Fire Nation girlfriend!" she added, both wanting to get back at Sokka for being so annoying, and also to steer the conversation elsewhere. "None other than our old friend, Suki!"
"Suki has a girlfriend?" Sokka blinked. Then he burst out in laughter. "Ha-ha, good one Katara, I almost believed you! Suki dumping me for some girl, that's hilarious!"
"Uh, Sokka, she was actually telling the truth on that," Toph pointed out.
Sokka froze, raising his eyebrow at Toph, for a moment pondering what the metalbender was saying. Then he burst out in an even louder guffaw. "Oh, you're getting in on the act too, Toph? That's low! But I see through your attempts to deceive and misdirect! I won't be swayed by these distractions! She's the one facing our inquiries here!" he pointed dramatically at Katara, the waterbender sighing heavily.
"I'm done answering your ridiculous questions," Katara huffed angrily. "And I most definitely do not have a Fire Nation boyfriend," she added, completely forgetting about Toph's ability to discern truth and lies.
"Whoa, that's another bold faced lie right there, Sweetness!" Toph laughed so hard tears nearly spilled from her unseeing eyes. "This is just getting better and better!"
"You know, that talent of yours is seriously annoying," Katara exclaimed irately. "Did nobody ever tell you not to use it on your friends... or risk losing all of them?"
"Nah, my friends are all cool with it," Toph shrugged. "I figured a goody-two-shoes like you wouldn't have anything ugly to try and hide, but I guess we were all wrong about you!"
"Oh, so you desperately want the truth? I'll give you the truth!" Katara exclaimed, blowing up and completely losing her nerve. "I spent an amazing night of passion with Zuko and I loved every moment of it!" she screamed from the top of her lungs. As soon as she realized what she had done, Katara slammed her palm against her mouth, her eyes widening comically as her face became deep crimson.
"Well, that was a really empathic truth, well done," Toph recovered first, while Sokka still stood there with his jaw on the floor, looking paralyzed. "And now the entire Upper Ring knows about it too, good job. Also... I think I should rename you from Sweetness to Cheatness." Katara just stood there, silent and fuming.
"Whoa... you... you cheated on Aang?" Sokka eventually recovered to give her a stare full with incredulity. "That's... whoa, that's really low, Katara. My own sister, cheating on my best friend, the Avatar, the savior of the world! I'm so disappointed in you."
Katara just kept glowering at her brother, her eyes narrowing. "Oh, get off your high komodo rhino, Sokka, like you haven't done your share of stupid things!" she shouted at him.
"Probably, but at least I haven't cheated on anyone," Sokka shrugged. "Anyway, now that we have exposed your lies... I feel really hungry. I hope there's some meat around the house," he added, turning towards the kitchen. As Sokka was heading out of the room, Katara angrily reached for the water in the nearby vase of fresh silver lilies and used it to create a medium sized water whip. With very little hesitation, she aimed it at Sokka's backside, sending her brother flying into the kitchen and crashing into the pantry.
"Ouch, that must have hurt," Toph commented, having felt Sokka's heavy impact with the pantry. "Hmm, perhaps I should reconsider using my truth telling abilities on you all the time, Katara," she reluctantly admitted.
"I'm alright, I'm alright!" Sokka cried, all tangled up inside the pantry. "Hey, and I found some meat! Thanks, Katara!"
Katara's only reaction was a loud groan of frustration.