AN: This takes place a year or so after Zuko and Katara have been dating they are on Ember Island taking a vacation. Whether it follows the prompts from earlier this week is up to you. No immediate reference is made to any of the first four days. I hope you enjoy it.
~ (0) ~
The Fire Lord's vacation home on Ember Island has not changed much in the couple of years since the end of the war. The dust had been cleaned up and there is some new furniture but overall, it looks the same.
It took Katara about a month of convincing to get Zuko to agree to take a break from being Fire Lord so they could spend some quality time together. Of course, they had to compromise on the location since Zuko did not want to be too far from the palace, so Ember Island it was.
That did not matter too much to Katara. Sure, she would have loved to travel back home to the South Pole, but anywhere with Zuko was going to be special. She knew his work came first sometimes but when he begins to lose sight of what is important that's when it's her time to intervene. These last few months he was more stressed and overworked than normal and Katara felt like it was time for him to take a break.
The first few days they spent their time on the beach, going into town, sparing, and to Zuko's dismay, seeing the Ember Island Players. Most of his staff and the royal guards stayed on the ship docked nearby. Only a few servants were brought to the house so they were essentially alone for the entire trip, which left them with plenty of places to goof off (read: make out).
They only have two more days before the trip back to the palace and today the weather took a turn for the worst. Storms came in last night and they have yet to let up all day, so the couple was stuck inside. So far, they have played Pai Sho, cards, and even took a nap, but the day was still only half over.
"Do you want to go spar in the courtyard?"
"Zuko there's a typhoon going on outside."
"I figured being surrounded by your element might finally give you the upper hand to beat me."
He gave her that smirk. The one he has being giving her since he mastered lighting earlier this year. The one where she did not know if she should slap him or kiss him.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. Besides, I don't want to be dodging lightning out there."
"I'd save you from the lightning."
Katara rolled her eyes. "Cute."
"Well, what do you want to do?"
"Hmm… We could go through some of your old stuff," she said giving him her version of his sexy smirk.
"Or we could not and just stay here and cuddle."
"Zuko are you hiding something from me I should know about?"
"No. It's just embarrassing."
"So, you don't want me to go through your old room?" Katara said slowly standing up.
"Katara," he said nervously.
"You're going to have to stop me," she bolted out of the room and up the stairs as quickly as possible knowing Zuko was faster than her.
Getting to the top of the stairs she took the hall on the left before realizing she had no idea where Zuko's childhood room was. It has been a long time since they were here with their friends before the comet and the summer home was huge.
Hearing Zuko gaining on her Katara decided to just pick a random room. Once inside she could immediately tell this room belonged to a woman. If the mountain of pillows on the bed and the large vanity did not give it away the painting of the woman next to the bed did.
She was beautiful. A small smile covered her face and long black hair fell over her shoulders. Her eyes had a sadness to them though. But most shocking was that she looked just like Azula, or Azula looked like her. This was Zuko's mother's room. Ursa's room.
Katara heard Zuko enter the room. "She's beautiful."
"Yeah, she was," he said sadly.
Katara turned to look at him.
"You'll find her one day. I know it. I'll help you."
"Thanks, Katara."
Looking around the room again Katara approached the vanity.
There were bracelets, necklaces, and hairpins in beautiful reds and golds.
"This stuff must be expensive. Why is all of it here and not in storage at the palace?"
"I don't think my father wanted the reminder. Out of sight out of mind I guess."
"We should bring it back with us." She said reaching out and touching a ruby necklace shaped in a heart. "It doesn't feel right leaving it here."
Katara saw Zuko nod out of the corner of her eye as he reached for a cherry red, wooden jewelry box.
As he opened it her eyes were immediately drawn to blue.
"What are those?"
"There a type of crystal called moonstones. I don't know a lot about them, but my mother liked how vibrant the colors were and how they were so different from anything else in the Fire Nation."
He was right. The teardrop shaped earrings were wrapped in copper and the lighter blues in the center surrounded by darker blues almost made the stones glow. It reminded her of how her healing waters glow.
"You can have them," Zuko said lifting them out of the box and trying to hand them to her.
"Oh no, I couldn't. Those belonged to your mom you should keep them. I know what it's like to need a reminder." Katara lifted her hand to her mother's necklace.
"If I am bringing all this stuff back to the palace, I'll have plenty of things to remember her by. I think she would want me to give them to someone whose as important to me as you are."
Katara wrapped her arms around Zuko and leaned in for a kiss. Little did she know that years from now Katara will meet the woman who raised this wonderful man and when she did, she will meet her wearing a new necklace and those crystal moonstone earrings.
~ (0) ~
AN: I wanted to add more to this but I had a killer migraine. Maybe one day I'll come back to this.
Here is a picture of the moonstone earrings Zuko gave Katara. I know this is a picture of a pendant but just imagine a smaller version of this as earrings. Okay I forgot links don't work on fanfiction but if you find this story on AO3 under the same title and authors name then you can get the link. Sorry about that.
This the last kind of romantic prompt the last two prompts are going to be more humorous.
