This is a similar approach as the one I used for the last prompt, though there's no obvious thing about soulmates. This is set in the United Republic, maybe two hundred years after the original series, and there are two people like Katara and Zuko, who are also named after Katara and Zuko.
I guess I just fell in love with the whole AU concept, since that seems to be the only thing I can write for this.
Day 8: Agni Kai
"I don't wanna! I don'twannaIdon'twannaIdon'twanna!"
Katara growls, as she keeps limping across the room, one of her legs effectively hold down by a seven year old boy. She's putting all her effort into it. She can do this.
"No! You can't force me!" the boy keeps shouting and digs his nails into her leg.
Now that's it!
She looks down and grabs his hair (carefully) to make him look at her. "I could force you, you spoiled little brat! But I'm not gonna do it, because I'm nice like that! And if you don't go brush your teeth in the next ten seconds, we won't go to the zoo tomorrow!"
She knows it's a bit harsh, but she already told him half an hour ago that it was bedtime. And he kept being up, playing.
She reminded him every five minutes. Not that Rijoko would actually listen, or care. Sometimes the boy is sweet, and she feels something like motherly love for him, but sometimes, especially at times like these, she wishes his Dad hadn't forbidden spanking as punishment. That man is way too soft and spoils his children way too much. Of course, it is nice to see how much he loves them, and how well they get along, and how much his children love him, and...
She blinks. Uh, no. Focus.
"Noooo-hooo-hoo-hooooo!" Rijoko wails, still clutching onto her leg, his mouth wide open.
Katara really thinks she should have chosen medicine in favour of taking care of children. But she loves children, even that brat here.
She was the only one at kindergarten Rijoko opened up to, and she is very thankful for that. He gifted her many moments of complete joy, her walls being plastered with his paintings are a clear evidence to that.
"Dooon't! I want the zoo!" Rijoko sniffs, after he calmed down.
Katara is very glad that ignoring him wailing still works.
"Then brush your teeth!" she says slowly, containing her frustration.
"No!" the sulkily stubborn reply comes, the word articulated very shortly.
"Rijoko!" Katara says in her best warning voice.
"No, you can't make me! I'll... I'll fight you!"
Katara's eyebrows shoot up. What the heck?
"Yeah, yeah, in an Agni Kai!" Rijoko grins up at her.
Great. Now he seems excited. At this rate she'll never get him into bed, before his father comes home.
But what did he just say? Agni Kai?
"Do you know what an Agni Kai is?" she asks, frowning down at him.
Rijoko opens his mouth, then shakes his head.
"You know that's a really interesting story. Full of heroes and fire!"
"Wow, really? So cool!" His eyes grow a bit, and she knows that the puppy look is coming. "Can you tell me the story, Tara?"
Rijoko couldn't say her name, when they first met, and now he's still referring to her as Tara only.
"Sure. Bed time story?" Katara asks, smiling, patting his head.
"Yaaay!"
"Then make sure to get ready for bed," she tries, hopes he's too distracted about the bedtime story thing that he won't start arguing again.
She holds her breath. She's waiting.
"Mhm!" Finally, he lets go of her leg, untangles himself and rushes to the bathroom, as if he couldn't get there any faster.
Katara sighs deeply and runs her fingers through her hair. Now she's got three minutes to quickly clean the mess they'd left in the living room.
Putting everything she can grasp in her arms, she slowly makes her way to the kitchen, when she steps onto a ball.
"Waaaah!"
The plastic dishes clatter to the ground, as well as the picture books, when she almost falls onto the kitchen counter, but can still get a hold of herself.
"Phew!"
Then she notices that the rest ice cream from her bowl made if onto her T-shirt.
Groaning she quickly puts all the dishes into the dishwasher, the books and toys into the shelf, and then takes her shirt off, hoping she can save it. Darn, this is one of her favourite good ones! It's tight, but not too tight and falls around her breasts and hips like water, although it's just a t-shirt. The blue colour matches her eyes and dammit! Just because she's got the hots for Rijoko's father is she always wearing a good shirt, while working. Which is a very bad decision, when being with a seven year old. Maybe she should start bringing old shirts she can wear while actually working.
The door to the apartment opens, and Katara jumps.
Oh no, that's him!
Shit! She thought she could steal a towel and wrap it around her, before he'll be back, but now she would have to walk through the living roomy which is exactly where he's standing in. Not too mention his daughter.
"I'm going to my room," Izumi fortunately says, and Katara sighs, hoping that no one will come into the kitchen, but her prayers are not heard.
Clapsing her wet shirt in the sink, she stands there, only in her white bra, as Zuko walks into the kitchen.
His eyes grow wide, as he sees her, and she can feel her cheeks heat up. It's probably idiotic, but she wonders if he finds her attractive.
"Oh. Er, hi," He says, looking straight into her eyes. "I thought you were already in Rijoko's room."
Katara laughs nervously. "He was... very determined not to brush his teeth."
Zuko grimaces. "Sorry about that. I'll talk to him about it."
She shakes her head. "No, it's all okay. He's in the bathroom now, but I'll have to deliver a bed time story soon..." Uh, yeah. She'll need a shirt for that.
"Uh, come." He grabs her wrist and pulls her out of the kitchen, her wet shirt dripping onto the floor.
Katara's heart beats wilder, and she asks herself how it would be to be dragged by him into his bedroom for different reasons.
She bites down on her lower lip, as she's almost immediately getting aroused.
Oh gosh, she really has to stop fantasising about him! He's practically her boss, and he would never see her like that.
Even now, when she's only wearing a bra, he simply puts her shirt into his laundry basket and opens his wardrobe to give her a shirt of his. He's not even looking a little bit.
"Put that on," he says, still only staring into her eyes.
She nods and smiles, trying to look thankful and not sexually frustrated. She really has to get laid again. Soon. Maybe then it will stop. After all, Zuko is by far the most attractive male she's around. Except for her brother and friends, she doesn't see any other men. And it probably doesn't help that Zuko is very attractive himself. She knows he trains regularly, and now that it's summer she can stare at his bare biceps all she wants to. And it's not just his muscles. It's his face, too. He looks so interesting and handsome with the almond shaped eyes, straight nose, and high cheekbones. The scar on the lower left side of his face, turning his mouth into a constant scowl, just adds a dangerous edge to him, which is a high contrast to his personality. And how couldn't she fantasise about him? Even if he wouldn't be nice, and caring, kind and generous, awkwardly funny, and so cute when he couldn't manage to relax, she'd still think about his smile, day dream about his eyes, and...
Uh. Okay, she might have a bigger problem than just lusting for her boss.
"Thanks," she murmurs, quickly turning her face away to look at the wall, as she puts his shirt on. It's soft and for whatever reason warm. Is there a heater in his wardrobe to keep his clothes warm? Well, she would believe it. After all, the whole penthouse apartment is extremely technologised. Zuko bought a lot of unnecessary stuff, because it should help with childcare, but Katara rarely uses any of that.
When she looks back at him, his gaze seems piercing, and her heart stumbles.
"Uh, I'll just go to Rijoko for the bedtime story. I'll get you afterwards, so you can say good night."
"I'll come with you," Zuko says, and Katara startles.
"Okay."
Rijoko is pouting, when they enter his room. "You let me wait!" he accuses her.
"Sorry, honey, I spilled ice cream on my shirt, and had to wash it," Katara excuses herself.
After she sat down and tugged him in, Rijoko turns his head full of black hair to his father. "Hi Daddy."
Zuko raises an eyebrow. "Now you noticed me?"
Rijoko shakes his head. "No. I could see you before. I'm not blind."
Zuko sighs, as he sits down on the carpet and Katara smiles.
"So, ready for the story of the Agni Kai?"
Rijoko nods enthusiastically.
"What?" Zuko snarls.
Katara looks back at him, trying to appease him. "Relax. It's a story of heroes."
He scowls slightly at her, not looking convinced, but nods eventually.
"So. An Agni Kai is a fire duel, in which two firebenders duel each other, until one is burned," Katara explains.
"Ha! I'm a firebender!" Rijoko perks up, showing them a flame.
"No bending in bed!" Zuko warns, and Rijoko immediately sniffs it out.
"Sorry," he mumbles.
"An Agni Kai was traditionally fought, when one of the duelists had somehow offended the other one. You know, back in the day, honour and respect were the most important values in the Fire Nation. The Agni Kai was considered heroic, but it is bad and cruel. It's like those bullies at your school beating someone, when they feel insulted. You get that?" Katara asks, gently, but seriously.
Rijoko nods, his face very serious.
"And because of that, one Fire Lord once forbid there to be any more Agni Kais. The nobility was enraged, since it was such a deep part of their culture, but he kept to his beliefs. And do you know why?"
Rijoko shakes his head.
"As a boy, the Fire Lord had been challenged to an Agni Kai himself. By no one else than his own father, the worst Fire Lord in history," she says it a bit spookily, and Rijoko gasps.
"The boy's father was a cruel man, who challenged his own son, still a child, to a fight. He burned the boy's... left side of his face, and sent him away, never to come back, unless he found..." Dramatic pause. "The Avatar!"
Rijoko takes in a sharp breath, and Katara smirks.
She told him about the Avatar quite a lot, so he knows about them.
"With capturing the Avatar, they would lose their biggest threat in order to conquer the world!"
"But they didn't!" Rijoko interrupted happily. "Fire Lord Zuko joined the Avatar, and together they defeated Fire Lord Ozai. But Saru calls him Loser Lord," he whispers, as if he would tell them a secret.
Zuko snorts.
Katara blinks. "Uh, yeah. That's more or less what happened. How do you know abou that?"
Rijoko yawns. "Culture and nature. Ms Kagurashi told us about it."
"Oh. Well, yeah. That happened. But because of Fire Lord Zuko's own bad experiences with the Agni Kai, fighting his father and his sister, he forbid it in the end. He didn't want any family to be torn apart by it ever again. So, Rijoko," Katara stems her hands on her hips. "Still wanna fight an Agni Kai with me?"
She is very glad that Zuko doesn't shout "What?" again.
Rijoko presses himself deeper into his mattress. "No. You can't even firebend."
"Pah! I can still fight!" Raising her eyebrows, she leans closer over him.
"Still no. Fire Lord Zuko's family was crazy. We're not. So we don't fight an Agni Kai," Rijoko decides, nodding to himself.
Katara smiles and stretches out a hand to stroke his cheek. "Yeah, we're not crazy." Leaning forward, she presses a kiss to his forehead, and he smiles tiredly at her.
Moments like this are when Katara loves the boy with all her heart and wishes she could be there for him his whole life.
But she will wants children of her own someday, and she cannot stay his nanny forever. Maybe she will be able to keep contact with Zuko and keeping track of Rijoko's life like this.
"Good night, Tara," Rijoko murmurs, his eyelids looking heavy.
"Good night, Rijoko. Sweet dreams," she whispers and strokes his hair out of his face.
He leans into her touch, and she feels again convinced that quitting the job at the kindergarten and instead becoming a nanny was the right choice.
Two years ago, she had to move a few cities away from her family, because of this job, but she was glad she had chosen to follow them. It was also better for Rijoko that way. He wouldn't have to get used to another nanny like that.
She still wonders sometimes why Zuko even asked her to become Rijoko's nanny. After all, she didn't make the best first impression on him.
He stood at the fence, which surrounded the kindergarten's grounds, and watched the children play at a time that was not close to getting picked up by parents. He also wore a suit and his hair was combed back.
It was Katara's first day, and she simply saw a man watching children play. But then one boy ran to him, and Zuko gave him a chocolate bar.
That's when Katara stormed over to him, demanded that he left, never came back, or she would call the police. She also said he should feel ashamed and go see a doctor, if he couldn't help himself from feeling creepy things for children.
Rijoko began to cry and asked why his father had to leave.
Katara was shocked, and Zuko stared at her, a little angry, before he started to calm down his son.
Katara apologised, but the air had been pretty cool since then. Rijoko still liked Katara, though, and followed her everywhere. He soon started hugging her, and after she learned that his mother had died, she gave him extra much attention.
At a parents' meeting Katara tried to apologise to Zuko again, explaining the situation, and it really worked. He said he should have thought about how his actions would look like, but he hadn't known there was someone new on the staff. They had talked very long that night, still after the parents' meeting, even after everyone was gone. They stood outside, close to their cars, talking about Rijoko, Zuko's family, why Katara chose to become a kindergarten teacher, her family, their childhood. It was one of those talks which never ended.
They have had a lot of those talks following since then, mostly after Katara put Rijoko to bed.
Smiling, she sits up straight again, and stands up then, smiling at Zuko, who stands up, too, to take the place at Rijoko's side.
Walking out of the room, Katara feels again how dangerous this situation is becoming. Feeling too much for a boy and his father she's working for, isn't a good thing to do, and definitely not smart. They are not her family, they are her clients.
She resumes tidying up the living room, knowing Zuko will stay in Rijoko's bedroom, until his son fell asleep.
She's already finished, when he walks out of Rijoko's room. He smiles at her and walks further into the living room, but instead of grabbing his keys, like he normally does to drive Katara home, he instead sits down next to her on the couch, and sighs.
Katara's heart starts beating faster. He never does that. This is not routine. What's going to happen?
"So, why a story about the Agni Kai?" he asks.
Oh.
She hopes he's not mad at her for telling Rijoko that. "Uhm. He mentioned it. And he didn't know what it was."
Zuko makes a pondering face. "Well, thanks that you told him that it's wrong."
"Uh, are you serious? You think I could have told him otherwise?" She's pretty shocked. How could he think that?
He jerks up. "What? No! Just... You could have simply told him about what it is, but not about the fact that it's wrong."
"Ah." Katara nods slowly. "Is that why you seemed so tense earlier?"
He leans back against the rest and closes his eyes, looking tired. Katara wonders if there's more to it, as he raises his hand and touches the scar on his neck. It's covering the whole left side of his neck, high over his jaw and chin, scarring the left side of his lips. It looks like an old burn, and it didn't heal very well.
"Yeah. But..." He sighs. "My father once challenged me to an Agni Kai. Since it is illegal, no one but a few of his friends knew. I had been disrespectful. I knew he believed in the old ways and all this shit about respect and honour without knowing what it really means. And I also knew that by challenging his authority, he would feel the need to discipline me. I knew what would come, but I still did it. Later, we said it was a training accident."
Katara's eyes grow as she stares at the unevenly healed skin.
So this is something personal to him.
She, too, believed that he had a training accident, for three years of friendship and two years of working now for him. He never said anything.
"So your father was never charged for that?" she asks cautiously.
Zuko shakes his head. "No, he was. Actually, he was charged for corruption and treason against the Republic, but I also told the public prosecutor about the illegal Agni Kais. I wasn't the only one he fought. It only added a few years to his jail sentence, but that's a few years more he's not near my children."
Unconsciously, Katara leans closer to him, feeling the need to comfort him somehow. She wraps her arms around him and leans her head against his shoulder.
She doesn't know what to say. In fact, she didn't know any of this until today. Zuko always avoided talking about his father, she even thought he might be dead. While Zuko is happy to talk about his mother and Uncle, he never mentions his father. Those were things about his life she never knew, and she feels sad about it. She wonders if Zuko doesn't trust her.
"When he'll be released, he'll have to get through me first to get anywhere near Izumi or Rijoko," she says and earns a warm chuckle.
"I know," Zuko says hoarsely, and wraps his arms around her, too.
They stay like this for a while.