Katara woke up completely confused and in a completely unfamiliar room. She looked around to see the red and gold furniture and the luxuriousness for the beddings. She quickly remembered exactly where she was.
She sat up from the bed and noticed the black business card on the bedside table.
"Joo dee?" she read out loud. She wondered why this card was there until she turned it over to see a phone number and a short note written on the back.
"Call or text me whenever -zuko"
Katara laughed out loud and reached for her phone which was conveniently plugged into the outlet on her bedside table. She dialed the number and called.
"Hello?" Zuko answered out of breath.
"Thanks for bringing me to my room," Katara replied, "but you could have just woken me up."
"Actually I tried that but you didn't seem like you were going to," Katara thought back to how tired she was and believed him.
"why are you so out of breath?"
"I'm at the palace gym," he said half panting, "there's a sparing room if you'd like to come join."
Katara looked at the time and saw how incredibly late she woke up. She decided that getting her butt up and doing some bending might make up for the whole half of a day she missed.
"Sounds good," she said, "how do I get there?"
"Just flag down a maid and they'll show you the way," He instructed. They said their goodbyes and Katara got up to get changed into some good sparing clothes.
She decided on a light blue sports bra with dark blue high waisted tights. She slipped an over sized sweater over the whole affair and took a step outside of her room.
"Well hello there!" An only man said standing right in front of her door.
"Hi?" Katara said confused.
"Would you like some to have some tea?" He asked her with a huge smile on his face.
"I actually told z- I mean Prince Zuko I'd meet him at the palace gym for a spar." She explained to what she thought was a servant.
"Perfect! I'll show you the way after you have some tea and snacks! Besides, it is hard to focus on an empty stomach," he laughed.
"I guess you're right," she said with a shrug, "lead the way!"
Katara followed the old man to a very elegantly decorated tea room. The old man sat on one side of the table in the middle of the room and prompted Katara to sit across from him. Maids quickly rushed in and served a very floral smelling tea and some finger foods. They quickly shuffled away and were gone before Katara could blink.
"What is your name, dear," the old man took a sip of his tea and smiled.
"Katara," she replied, "and y-,"
"The avatar's girl?!" The only man said surprised.
"NO!" Katara half yelled, "I'm sorry, no. I'm not dating the Avatar."
"Oh I see," the old man said popping a small tea sandwich into her mouth, "I've read about the situation in many gossip magazines, I am sorry for assuming."
"It's okay, really" Katara looked sadly at her cup of tea before taking a sip. She hated whenever people brought up the Aang situation. It always made her so uncomfortable. Like she was letting the whole world down by rejecting him.
"Is something wrong, ?" The old man asked looking genuinely concerned.
Katara took a deep breath ready to let everything out, "No, it's just-"
The door suddenly slammed open causing Katara to jump a little.
"Uncle!" Zuko yelled.
"Uncle?" Katara said quietly to herself. She looked at the old man, then to Zuko, then back at the old man.
"Ahh, nephew! How nice of you to join Miss. Katara and I for some tea!" The old man said happy to see his nephew.
"Yao has been looking all over for you!" Zuko half yelled, "he called me while I was working out 37 times!"
"Oh, Yao," Zuko's uncle said, "always in a rush. I told him many times before, the best ways to handle hard situations is to sit and have tea. It will help you make the best deductions."
"Uncle, this is about the trading contract that I just negotiated in Ba Sing Se! It needs the Fire Lords approval. YOUR approval! By today!" Zuko shouted at him and Katara eyes widened.
Katara suddenly stood from her chair drawing the attention of both men. She turned to the older man and bowed as deeply as she could without looking like she was going to touch her toes.
"I apologize deeply for being so disrespectful to you and for not knowing who you were, your majesty!" She said still bowing.
"Lift you head, dear. It's quite alright," he said. Katara stayed in her bowed position for a bit longer before lifting her head, "you didn't know, nor did I tell you!"
"Uncle," Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose, "would you please go do some work?"
"Zuko, you know I am far too old to keep up with all the craziness going on. I think it's time for me to retire and for you to take the throne."
Katara felt uncomfortable with how serious the conversation had suddenly gotten. She looked between the two men who seemed to be competing for the "who can make Katara the most uncomfortable" award.
"We discussed this," Zuko said.
"And I'm telling you I think you are ready," his uncle said back in a calm but serious voice, "you are ready now."
"Three years, Uncle," Zuko stood firm.
"Okay," his uncle smiled and shrugged noticing how tense the room had gotten. Katara could tell he only gave up because she started to look really uncomfortable.
"Let's go, Katara," Zuko turned to leave the room and The older man stood to see them out. Katara quickly turned to his uncle and bowed deeply again.
"Thank you for the tea, Your maje-"
"Please dear, just call me Uncle Iroh," he said gesturing her to raise her head, "don't hesitated to find me if my nephew here gives you any trouble. Or if you simply want to sit, talk, and have some tea."
Katara smiled at him, "thank you."
Katara turned away from the older man quickly and followed Zuko to the Palace gym.
The palace gym was much smaller than Katara imagined. It had at least 1 of every work our equipment for a full body work out. For some reason she thought it would be a full sized gym that you'd pay monthly to go to.
Zuko led them to the sparing room which was twice the size of the actual work out area. The ceilings were high and had the means to facilitate all bending.
"This place is huge," katara said breaking the silence.
"This is where we train the avatars," Zuko said, "outside of that it's just a regular sparing gym."
The mentioning of avatars reminded Katara of Aang. She did miss hanging out with him and wondered if he also trained here. She quickly brushed those thoughts aside and began stretching. She needed to focus if she was going to be sparing with the soon-to-be Fire Lord. Zuko saw what she was doing and quickly followed suit.
"I'm sorry about earlier," Zuko said as they stretched.
"I was only a little uncomfortable don't worry about it," Katara stood up finding thoughts of the Avatar making it hard to focus. She took off her sweater and tossed it to the side. Katara took a deep breath in and called water over to her. The water surrounded her arms and formed a tentacles, "I'm ready when you are."
Zuko couldn't take his eyes off of her. The moment she took off that over sized sweater. She was showing off her well toned body and her nice sculpted ass. Zuko now wondered how he was going to spar against her when her entire being was so distracting.
"I won't go easy on you," Zuko said taking his stance.
"I don't expect you too," Katara said as she whipped the water around her arms at Zuko. Zuko blocked with a short burst of fire causing the water to sizzle into steam. He blasted the fire directly at her with a punch and she blocked his attack effortlessly.
The spar continued with repeated blocks and attacks. Neither of them knew what to do to get ahead. Katara decided to call all the water she could manage out to field hoping she could sweep him up and lock him down in ice. Zuko inhaled as deeply as he could and spat fire from his mouth causing the whole arena to be filled with steam and smoke.
Katara had no clue where he was and was not ready to give up. She ran and called water to her freezing it so she could quickly slide across it. She slid into the depth of the fog and smoke blindly. Zuko had the same idea running directly at her. By the time he could see her she was already moving to fast to stop herself from crashing into him.
Katara crashed into Zuko at full speed causing them both to fall roughly on to the floor. She landed on top of Zuko causing the wind to be knocked out of him.
The steam and smoke finally subsided as Katara raised her head from Zuko's chest.
"I'm so sorry are you hurt?!" Katara said panicked examining the pained look on his face.
"No, I'm okay you just knocked the wind out of me," he said trying to catch his breath.
Slow claps began to sound from the entrance of gym. Zuko and Katara both turned to see Azula standing at the entrance of the sparing gym.
"We'll done you two, excellent sparing," she said moving towards the two on the ground. Katara quickly remembered the position they were in and stood up immediately whispering a quick apology to Zuko before extending a hand to help him up.
"What are you doing here?" Zuko asked, slightly irritated.
"Am I not allowed to use the palace amenities as freely as you do? I'm simply here for a workout or maybe a spar with my brother," Azula replied with a mischievous grin. She quickly turned her attention to Katara and smiled even wider, "You must be my brother's guest. I'm Azula, crown princess of the Fire nation."
Azula extended her hand out for a hand shake and Katara quickly met her gesture.
"I'm Katara," she said, with a shy smile, "it's very nice to meet you, Princess Azula."
"The pleasure is all mine, and please just call me Azula."
Zuko felt on edge knowing that Azula was being suspiciously pleasant at the moment.
He couldn't help but feel like Azula was plotting something.
"How was your plane ride?" And there it was, "Was it exciting?"
Katara became flustered and a little irritated at the thought of Zuko's sister finding out about what happened on the plane. She pulled herself together and gave Azula a fake smile.
"No, it was just a normal plane ride," Katara replied, trying not to give Azula the satisfaction.
"Tha-,"
"Alright, Azula, that's enough," Zuko interrupted before things got messy, "Don't you have other things to do today?"
"I suppose I do," Azula said, backing down, "I'll take my leave now and see you both at dinner later tonight," Azula turned sharply around and began walking away.
"What do you mean dinner tonight?" Zuko shouted after her.
"Uncle planned it. Seven o'clock sharp," Azula shouted back not bothering to turn around before she exited the sparing gym.
There was a moment of silence between Zuko and Katara as they both watched Azula walk away.
"You told your sister?!" Katara said, half angrily. Zuko looked at her stunned for a second.
"No! Why would I do that? My guard told her," he defended himself.
"Why would your guard tell her about the plane?!" She said covering her face in embarrassment.
"She probably pays him under the table," Zuko said half jokingly, "Katara I'm so sorry."
"This is so embarrassing," katara said, her face still buried in her hands.
"I'm sorry," Zuko said half expecting her to leave. Katara let out a big sigh and uncovered her face.
"You know what, it's alright," she said matter-of-factly, "it's not like she can tell anyone I know. If anything she'll tell people that YOU know and that's more your problem than mine."
"Thanks so much for putting it into perspective for me," Zuko said sarcastically. They both laughed at how ridiculous their situation was.
Katara walked over to where she threw her sweater moments ago and bent down to pick it up. Zuko couldn't stop himself from staring at her butt. But he really couldn't stop himself from imagining that ass pressed against his hips as he-
"What's next?" Katara said, snapping him back to reality. She had already covered herself with her sweater and Zuko mentally punched himself for having such indecent thoughts about her just moments ago.
"We have three hours before dinner," Zuko answered, "Maybe hit the showers and rest until then?"
"Sounds good," Katara smiled as they made their way out of the sparing gym.