Chapter 10
Zirin Sakai sat at a table in the cramped and tiny kitchen of the rented single-room apartment in the slums of Caldera City she was sharing with her sister June. Taking the occasional swig of the instant coffee in her mug, she kept working on the letter in front of her. Despite Zirin's best efforts, the letter already had a couple of coffee stains and felt a little sticky at the back. Apparently, June had spilled some jam on the surface of the table and Zirin had failed to notice it.
Speaking of her sister June, Zirin noticed that she had just entered the kitchen. June was still in her nightwear, which consisted of an oversized sleeveless shirt. Her hair was all messy and June was struggling to fight off a yawn as she somehow succeeded in pouring herself some of the foul instant coffee without spilling it all over the floor. "Mhm, the nectar of life," June sighed, gulping down the hot liquid. She then looked over at her younger sibling. "Don't tell me you're writing another one."
"I don't see why I shouldn't," Zirin shrugged defensively.
"You really expect her to write back that she accepts your apology?" June frowned. "I think you're deluding yourself."
"That's not why I keep sending the letters," Zirin replied. "It's more for me than it is for her. I just need her to know that I really do feel sorry about what happened. I don't care if she burns them all without reading." Zirin couldn't have known that, but she had hit the nail on the head with that assumption. Azula had so far burned her apology letters unread, all fifteen of them.
"I still don't see why you feel the need to do it," June tucked herself in at the tiny table, managing to squeeze into a gap just by the window. She ended up sitting with her chin propped against her knee.
"It's hard to explain, but I just feel really bad about it all," Zirin sighed. "I had a gut feeling that we shouldn't try to steal from the Nakamuras, but I still didn't talk you out of it. It's partly my fault that it all happened the way it did. And for some reason, the thought that Azula hates my guts really bothers me, you know? I know it's going to shock you, June, but I actually like her. I really do."
June let out another sigh. "Well, that can't be helped, I guess," she shrugged. "Wish I could understand what you see in her. She seems like a psychotic rich bitch to me."
"I think she's a lot more than that, June," Zirin smiled. "She's a very contradictory person, and that makes her fascinating to me."
"Contradictory in what way?" June asked.
"I feel like she's stuck between what her father wants her to be, and what she herself wants to be, and she becomes horrified and scared when she realizes that those two images of herself are very dissimilar," Zirin tried to explain.
"Wow, that's deep," June chuckled. "You must really be into that crazy little bitch to come up with something like that about her."
Zirin blushed crimson at her sister's teasing. "Hey, maybe you should be a little bit more grateful to Azula," she couldn't help pointing out. "She could have made sure you'd be put away for years, June."
"Yeah, because this is so much better," June grumbled, staring at the fingers of her left hand that the Nakamura household guards had violently broken. The digits had largely healed, but she still often found her fingers going numb, losing all sensation in them. It wasn't boding well for her continued career as a cat burglar, and it was making her very bitter. "Who knows if I'll be able to work again," she sighed.
"But you already have a job. We both have," Zirin argued. "That's why we can at least afford this nice little apartment." June looked deeply skeptical. "Okay, so maybe it's not nice, but at least there are no rats or roaches."
"Talk about a low bar," June chuckled. "Anyway, I don't consider flipping burgers at the nearest Flameo's grill room to be a real job. Even if it's about all I can do."
"At least it's honest work," Zirin pointed out. And it kept June off the streets. Zirin never spoke about it with her sister because June quickly became annoyed whenever she brought it up, but Zirin was terrified for her sister every time she went on one of her jobs. She always feared that June's luck would one day run out. And she had been proven right. "Besides, isn't it great that we can work together?" she asked with an excited smile. "I think we look really cute in our Flameo's uniforms. The customers certainly think so, too. The other girls are all envious about our tips."
June smiled despite herself. "Yeah, it could be worse, I guess," she eventually admitted. "I just-" she let out a deep sigh.
"What is it June?" Zirin asked, noticing that her sister looked genuinely upset.
"This isn't exactly what I had hoped for us," June said quietly, lowering her eyes. "Not for myself, and especially not for you. I took you out of that toxic family situation so that I could give you a better life, sis."
"You're putting too much pressure on yourself, June," Zirin smiled encouragingly at her sister. "I think we'll make it big, one day. Maybe it'll happen later than we had hoped, but I still think it will come true. But even now, I'm happy with what I have. Do you know why?"
"Why?" June asked.
"Because it's yet another Solstice that the two of us can celebrate together," Zirin smiled broadly. "And that's the only thing that really matters to me. That we have each other."
"You know what?" June smiled back at her younger sibling. "You're absolutely right, Zirin. And because we're off work today, we'll make sure to celebrate Solstice properly."
"Does that mean you're going to make us some proper eggnog?" Zirin winked.
"Damn right," June nodded, getting up from the table and looking determined. "Anything for my awesome little sister."
It was early Yule morning in the Enuaraq household when Katara quietly snuck downstairs with the intent to check what presents had been placed inside her stocking on top of the fireplace mantel. The house was sinking in silence and she was the only one awake at about a quarter to eight in the morning. Usually, her grandmother would already be up and busying herself about in the kitchen, but last night, the family game of Scrabble had dragged on way past midnight, and it appeared to have left Kanna slightly exhausted. Still, it had been a wonderful evening. It wasn't often that they could have their father at home for the Winter Solstice, instead of having him stuck on that awful oil rig miles off from the coast.
Katara had almost reached the fireplace when she was suddenly startled by the sound of the phone ringing. Wondering who could be calling at such an early hour, Katara hurriedly rushed over to answer the call before the sound of ringing had woken up her loved ones. "Hello?" she asked, holding the phone handset to her ear.
"Katara?" She immediately recognized the sweetest of voices she had been longing to hear on the other end of the landline. "Hey, it's me, babe."
"Yue, I'm so happy to hear your voice," Katara replied with eager excitement. "But you should know that Sokka's not awake yet."
"I was actually hoping that you would answer," Yue said. All of a sudden, Katara felt very warm. "And sorry, I'm making a terrible mess of the time zones. It's early in the afternoon here on Kyoshi Island."
"That's okay, it's not that early over here," Katara spoke quickly. "Almost eight in the morning."
"Whoops, sorry about that," Yue sounded apologetic. "Anyway, I just felt so bad that you weren't around when I called yesterday. Speaking with Sokka was fun, but I wanted to talk to you as well. So, here's me, calling again. Got a minute?" Yue asked.
"I've got all the time in the world," Katara replied, unable to stop herself from grinning like a fool. She had lamented missing out on Yue's phone call yesterday, because of the silly reason of having been outside, building a snowman. She wasn't really interested in building the stupid snowman, she was far too old for that sort of silliness. Still, every house in Cape Kuruk had a snowman in front of it. Having a snowman up around the time of Winter Solstice was sort of a local tradition. It was one of those unquestioned things that you just simply had to do. Sokka, Hakoda or Kanna certainly weren't going to do it, so Katara had taken up the task all by herself.
And if Katara was perfectly honest with herself, she actually had experienced a bit of fun, feeling like an innocent child once again. Or at least, it had been fun until she had ended up thinking about all those times when she had built the snowman together with Kya, her mother. Those memories had made her stop and tear up for a few minutes, but fortunately Naga, the family Saint Bernard, had sensed that Katara was upset. Naga had emerged from her posh doghouse and wandered over to cuddle up against Katara and offer comfort. With Naga's help, Katara had finished the snowman, feeling reasonably proud of her achievement. Naga had then expressed her approval by peeing on the snowman, despite Katara's harsh glare.
"Are you having a good time, sweetheart?" Yue asked on the phone.
"Oh yes, it's wonderful," Katara replied. "We're not doing anything super exciting, just traditional stuff, but it's just great to have dad at home for once, you know?"
"I can understand that, Kat," Yue replied.
"How's it going on Kyoshi Island?" Katara asked. "I bet you're having all sorts of crazy fun."
"It's pretty amazing, yeah," Yue sounded excited. "I really wish you could be here, babe. Both you and Sokka. At some point we really ought to go on a holiday together, you know?"
"That would be great, but we have to be able to afford it first," Katara sighed. Yue had asked them both to come along, but she had done so already knowing that it would be impossible. Kyoshi Island was an expensive place, being a major tourist hub. Katara very much doubted that Arnook Taqqiq would cover all the expenses of her daughter's friends, especially since they were the kind of lower-class friends he probably looked down upon.
"Yeah, we'd have to figure out something about that," Yue agreed. "Oh, by the way, Kat. Your present was delivered just as I was about to leave for the holiday."
"Oh!" Katara instantly felt giddy. "Did you like it?" Katara had sent Yue a beautifully framed photograph of the two of them at the ice sculpture display. They were hugging, their cheeks pressed tightly together. Another reason why Katara loved the picture so much was because it was just the two of them, without Sokka.
"Like it? I love it!" Yue replied excitedly. "It's with me on this holiday. It almost makes me feel like you're here with me." Katara blushed from the other girl's words. She was greatly relieved that Yue couldn't actually see how deep crimson her face had become. "Did you get my gift, by the way?" Yue asked.
"Oh no, it hasn't arrived yet," Katara replied. She was feeling incredibly curious about what Yue had gotten for her.
"I hope you'll like it when it arrives," Yue said, sounding hopeful.
"I'm going to cherish it regardless of what it is, Yue," Katara spoke confidently.
"Aww, you're such a sweetheart, you're really making me blush here," Yue chuckled. "Anyway, tell me, what's the Enuaraq family plan for today? Anything fun going down?"
"Sokka and dad are going to work some more on the ice hockey rink in the backyard," Katara replied, starting to tell Yue in detail all about the work done so far. Sokka and Hakoda were both big-time into hockey, and making a rink was another winter tradition of theirs. Boys from all over the village would then come over to engage in some usually friendly, but sometimes quite heated and competitive games of hockey. When the tensions began to heat up, Katara's tried and tested method of intervention was to bring out a plate of brownies and cups of steaming hot chocolate for the warring boys, and that always defused the situation.
Having told Yue all about her plans for the holidays, Katara then pestered the other girl for more stories from Kyoshi Island, and afterwards they spent time discussing their plans for the spring trip to Caldera City and the U18 finals. Yue's wild card had been secured and they were now both certain of their participation. The only thing that still rankled Katara slightly was that she hadn't been able to convince her father that she didn't need Sokka's watchful eye on her in Caldera City. Even though Hakoda worked for the Fire Nation based Nakamura Industries, he wasn't exactly the greatest fan of the Fire Nation itself.
Eventually, their conversation came to an end when Yue's father demanded her presence. "Sorry, but I really have to run now," Yue said apologetically. "Love you, Kat!"
"Love you too," Katara replied dreamily. Putting the handset back in its place, she glanced at the nearby wall clock, suddenly realizing that they had talked for forty minutes straight. Time had just flown by Katara.
"Ahem," a voice spoke up right behind her. Katara jumped with a squeak, turning around to face her grinning brother. "Love you too?" he repeated, making exaggerated smooching noises. "Sounds like my little sister has a suitor. Who is it?"
Katara rolled her eyes at her brother's antics. "A suitor? Hardly. I was actually talking with Yue," she said.
"Ah, of course," Sokka laughed. He didn't look at all jealous, though. Katara and Yue often used the l-word casually around him. It was just a thing between two girls who were also best friends. There was nothing weird about that, even if Katara meant the l-word in a different way than Yue did. "Why didn't you tell me?" Sokka asked instead. "I wanted to talk with her, too."
"I would have told you, but her father showed up and she had to run," Katara explained. "Besides, you already spoke with her for like an hour yesterday," she added, a little huffily.
"Fair enough, I guess it was your turn," Sokka admitted with an affable grin. He glanced over at the mantelpiece, eyeing the stuffed stockings. "So, did you check out the presents already?"
"No, I was about to, but then Yue called," Katara replied. "Shall we?" she looked at her brother. Sokka didn't need to be told twice and mere moments later, they were both gushing over their thoughtfully chosen gifts.
"I can't believe you remembered!" Sokka exclaimed happily, busy playing with his brand new multi-functional hunting knife. "I really needed a new knife!"
"Sokka, you were moaning all November after you lost your old knife during Halloween," Katara chuckled, feeling amused. "I would have to be the least observant person in the world not to realize what you wanted for a Solstice gift. By the way, I still think you accidentally threw your old knife away with all those carved out bits of pumpkin."
"I would have never done anything so silly," Sokka petulantly stuck out his tongue at his sister. "Anyway, what do you think of your gift? It's pretty neat, huh?"
Katara looked down at the lovingly engraved box in her hands, opening it to discover a set of pristine Pai Sho tiles, carved from walrus ivory. "This is beautiful," she gasped, feeling overwhelmed. "Thank you so much, Sokka."
"Well, dad and Gran-Gran contributed to the idea just as much as I did, if not more," Sokka admitted.
"I will thank them as well, of course," Katara smiled. She then threw her arms around her big brother, startling him with an impulsive hug. "I know I often give you a hard time, Sokka, but I want you to know that I wouldn't trade my big lug of a brother for anyone else."
"Well, you're pretty alright yourself, sis," Sokka laughed, hugging her right back. "You're pretty damn alright."
Yue Taqqiq let out a delicate sigh, sitting next to the phone in her hotel room on Kyoshi Island. Her father had just barged into her room to bark at her about being on the phone for forty minutes straight, telling her to stop yammering, as if he couldn't afford the phone bill she had worked up over the previous few days. Then he had just left, leaving Yue to sit and wonder what to do next. It was still early in the afternoon, and it was yet another amazing sunny day at the tourist hotspot that was Kyoshi Island. It was the perfect time for sunbathing by the hotel pool, or even on the beach itself, crowded as it was. Yue had no doubt that regardless of which location she chose, she wouldn't struggle to find a handsome boy or an attractive girl, interested in hanging out with her.
Then again, maybe she didn't have to go looking for a random stranger. Her eyes fell on the little coaster on her nightstand, name and a phone number written on it, next to a crudely drawn heart icon. She had met someone in the hotel bar the previous evening, a rather fascinating girl, a year older than Yue herself. She had immediately impressed Yue by knowing exactly who she was. It turned out that this local girl, while not a Pai Sho player herself, was something of a fan of the game. Her dream was to one day become a journalist who would travel around the world covering all the various Pai Sho events. She had already written reports for both her school paper and the local news rag.
Yue's hand moved towards the phone dial, but then she hesitated slightly. The phone call with Katara was still fresh on her mind, also reminding her of Sokka. She earnestly cared about Sokka and thought that he was irresistibly cute. However, their relationship had its challenges, first in the physical distance between them and second in her father's disapproval. She just couldn't be with Sokka as often as she wanted to be. And Yue wanted to have more fun in her life than she could enjoy with Sokka, because she knew that her time for having fun was limited. She was the sole heir to a massive fortune. Her father wouldn't allow her to run off with just about anyone. She and her father had had this conversation before. Once she came of age, Arnook would marry her off to someone suitable... meaning, someone from a rich and influential family. Failure to comply with her father's wishes would result in losing her inheritance. And Yue could not afford to do that. She had no idea how to survive as a struggling member of the lower class.
If Yue was perfectly honest with herself, she thought about Katara almost as often as she thought about Sokka, if not more. She knew that Katara was seriously into her, Sokka's sister was not very good at hiding her affections. And Yue knew that she was guilty of occasionally leading Katara on, at least a little bit. It was just so hard to resist, even if she knew that relationship with Katara would be even more challenging to maintain than relationship with her brother already was. On top of all the reasons why it couldn't work out long-term with Sokka, Katara was a girl. If she went public with Katara, her father would not tolerate such a scandal. He could just about tolerate Sokka, at least for now, when it wasn't much more serious than puppy love.
Yue knew that the right thing to do would be to subtly discourage Katara's romantic affections towards her and let the other girl down gently. And yet, she couldn't bring herself to do that. The reasons for it were twofold. Firstly, Katara was the slightly better and more talented Pai Sho player. Their long-distance sparring matches were crucial for their preparation, but Yue knew that she was getting more out of this partnership than Katara was. Yue was doing so well at the tournaments largely because of Katara's help and she couldn't afford to lose this connection. Would Katara still be motivated to spend so much time with her if Yue stopped leading her on? Yue wasn't sure, but she didn't want to risk their partnership, even if the idea of stringing Katara along for such a selfish reason made Yue feel absolutely wretched about herself.
And then there was the second reason, which was far more complex and confusing, because in a way it made Yue feel that she wasn't actually leading Katara on as much as she was just confused about what she herself truly wanted. Sometimes, when Yue dared to look deep enough into her own heart, she became conflicted about whether Katara actually wasn't the one she truly wanted. Katara was always such a powerful temptation every time Yue was left alone with her. There was just something incredibly fascinating about a smart and affectionate girl like Katara who didn't seem to realize just how attractive she was. Sometimes it made Yue feel like she couldn't trust herself to keep things in the friend-zone with Katara. Yue knew that she could often get emotional and impulsive, and she didn't always think things through as much as she would have liked.
And while Yue was completely earnest about not wanting to hurt anyone involved, especially not the Enuaraq siblings, she knew that she could only walk this relationship tightrope up to a certain point before someone got really hurt. She didn't want it all to end in an absolute mess of hurt feelings and tearful drama, and most of all she didn't want to hurt the relationship between the siblings. And yet, at the same time Yue found herself too weak and indecisive to do the right thing and make a decision one way or another.
Even thinking about it was starting to get her down, giving Yue a headache. What she needed was a distraction, an innocent bit of flirty fun. She reached for the phone again, picking up the handset and dialing the number on the coaster. "Hello," she said when a voice answered on the other end of the line. "Is this Suki Arya? This is Yue Taqqiq. I'm at the hotel, getting bored, so I was wondering... maybe you'd like to hang out with me for a bit?"
Azula hated the Winter Solstice. She had always hated it, and she actively fought those vague memories of happier winter holidays when Ursa and Zuko were still a part of the family, and her parents weren't constantly at each other's throats. Ever since the divorce, Azula could not remember a time when her father hadn't been traveling during the Winter Solstice, and so the holidays for her had become synonymous with a period of crushing loneliness. She couldn't even watch the TV to distract herself. Every channel barraged her with movies and shows about happy families celebrating together and blathering on about how much they cared and appreciated one another. It was all utterly sickening.
She hated the Winter Solstice also because the school was out for the winter holidays. Azula had only just returned to resume her studies at Li and Lo's boarding school some six weeks ago and she had barely managed to settle in when the winter break had arrived. It wasn't that she particularly loved the school, especially because she hadn't yet managed to make friends like Ty Lee and Mai, but she enjoyed the break from routine that the school provided, and always having some of her loyal sycophants around was great for Azula's self-esteem.
Azula wondered if perhaps what had happened to Mai and Ty Lee was the reason why she was failing to make new friends at the school. She knew that the stories were circulating, especially about her and Ty Lee. Azula had even heard some hushed derogatory comments made in her direction, always behind her back and never to her face. Perhaps it was the rumor that she was not exactly straight, which was making her into a bit of a pariah… a feared but respected pariah, which seemed like an odd contradiction in terms. Azula knew that she would have to do something to quash these rumors and show everyone that she was completely and utterly straight, and that she totally wasn't deluding herself on this point. She just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Besides, it was hard to do anything about it when Ozai was making sure that she had very limited access to seeing any boys.
She had made inquiries among the other girls about Mai and Ty Lee, curious to find out what had happened to them after they had been kicked out of Li and Lo's. Some of the girls seemed to know that Mai and her family were still in Caldera City, she had simply transferred to another, less posh boarding school. As for Ty Lee, the rumor was that her family had left the Fire Nation entirely. That seemed very extreme to Azula. Had her father done something to encourage them to leave? It seemed like a completely overblown reaction.
With little else to do around the estate, Azula persisted with her preparations for the upcoming Pai Sho U18 finals in March. With so much spare time on her hands, she had gone as far as to create little dossiers on each of her opponents, where she put down all of her insights on their strengths and weaknesses. It was a fun little exercise, even though it made Azula occasionally feel like a serial killer, researching her prey. But it was actually a rather apt comparison. After all, she was preparing to murder her opposition at the Pai Sho board.
When putting the dossiers together, she had also marked several of them with red crosses. These were the players she was most looking forward to beating. First among them were the wild card owners. She truly detested this practice. Those who couldn't qualify on merit just didn't deserve to have a spot in the finals as far as Azula was concerned. Yue Taqqiq and Chan Takahashi were on her little list of priority targets because they were talentless hacks who needed the support of their wealthy parents to mingle with the actual talented players who had earned their place in the tournament. Azula was particularly disgusted that Chan had made it in, and she had tried to convince her father to influence the organizing committee not to give Chan the spot. She had heard that the mayor of Yu Dao was also eager to get the wild card spot for his daughter because Kori Morishita had come only sixth in the Earth Kingdom qualifiers. Still, either Chan's family had outbid the competition, or perhaps the organizers had simply made the decision based on blind patriotism, but either way, Chan Takahashi was in and Kori Morishita was out. Azula promised herself that after their match, Chan would be left wishing he'd rather stayed at home.
Another name Azula had crossed in red was that of Katara Enuaraq. The dramatic loss in the final round of the last year's tournament still stung. It wasn't that she disliked Katara on a personal level. She was completely ambivalent towards the Water Tribe girl. Katara was nothing to Azula, but she still badly wanted to avenge that loss. Katara had won the Water Tribe qualifiers rather impressively, but come the finals, Azula would make sure that she was going down in flames.
Next on the list of Azula's targets was Zirin Sakai. This was deeply personal. Yes, Zirin was sending her roughly two apology letters per week, and yes, perhaps Azula even believed that Zirin regretted the whole failed robbery, but Azula also knew that Zirin wouldn't be groveling like this if the plan for her sister to rob the Nakamura mansion had succeeded. Azula still wasn't in a forgiving mood when it came to Zirin, and she often felt as if she had let her sister June off way too easily. If Zirin dared to show her face at the finals, Azula would make sure to utterly destroy her at the Pai Sho board, along with some creative post-victory digs to further humiliate the older girl.
But the most important target on Azula's hit list was, of course, her brother Zuko. As the reigning U18 champion, Zuko probably felt confident about repeating his success a year later. Azula was determined to do whatever she could to make sure that Zuko would not be celebrating at the end of the tournament. First of all, it wasn't even fair that he was still competing under the Fire Nation flag. The only times Zuko had come back to the Fire Nation since the divorce of their parents was to play in the qualifying tournaments. Why hadn't her father pushed some of the politicians to strip Zuko and Ursa of their Fire Nation citizenship? Zuko was just taking away a spot from actual patriotic Fire Nation citizens. Zuko and Ursa had been living in the Earth Kingdom for more than four years by now. As far as Azula was concerned, Zuko should have been officially representing the Earth Kingdom.
Azula had studied Zuko's games from the previous tournaments until she knew most of them by heart. By now, she had a good understanding of her brother's style of play. Zuko was a very strong player, she had to grudgingly admit that much, but he wasn't invincible. Azula was coming up with more and more ideas of how to rattle her brother. Come the spring, she would be ready to prove once and for all who was the more promising and talented of the Nakamura children.
Next chapter: The U18 finals are finally here and the competitors gather in Caldera City for yet another dramatic tournament!