22. Forbidden

Katara is finishing taking down the last damned banner when a student comes running up to her with a scroll in her hand.

"Thank you...?" Katara pauses, not knowing this girl's name. She looks new—the uniform is neatly pressed and brightly colored (well, as brightly gray is dyed, anyway), her skin shows no signs of bruises or burns, and her eyes aren't as dull from labor or years of stretched hopelessness. Her brown hair is cut short and her eyes are a pleasant gray.

"Suki." she replies with a slight smile, in the common tongue. "I just got here yesterday."

"Oh," Katara said. She must have missed the news while tending to Kita. "Are you from the Earth Kingdom?"

This question seems to prick her; the smile vanishes, and her eyes dart around the mostly empty hallway, then land on a Fire Nation student passing them with an armload of lanterns. She simply jerks her head, which could be taken as a yes or no, and scurries off, the thin slippers slapping against the floor.

Katara frowns as she unravels the scroll. Was she like Jin, traveling to a new place until capture? Was she forbidden to speak of home? Did someone silence her?

Her eyes flicker down to absent-mindedly read the words, and she pales.

The Prince wants to see her now.

The Prince is sitting behind a gorgeous mahogany desk, with carvings of dragons frolicking to a sun in the center. He is dressed in impossibly fine clothes—rich red silk robes and pants, gold embroidery weaving through the sides of the sides and the hem of said robes like fire spreading, sturdy black boots with a shock of gold and the toes turned up, and the gold flame crown in his hair. She stares at the finely woven threads, barely visible, and mentally calculates each value. Those boots could give her family a whole trader's boat. The robes could buy almost a year's supply of firewood, or perhaps, maybe only ten months worth. The pants could fetch a massive array of metal cooking pots, pans, and maybe even a large stew pot for the whole village. The crown...Tui and La! That crown can buy all of those things, and more! She's almost dizzy with the amount of wealth simply oozing from the Prince's wardrobe that she gladly sits down on the plush velvet and mahogany-backed chair, which would be able to purchase or trade for a nice fishing boat.

He tips his fingers into a steeple. She folds her hands delicately in her lap. The desk can be in exchange for...for, a lot of things. Clothes. Salted meat. Paper. Ink. Dishware...

"I do not want you to see Lieutenant Jee anymore."

She startles. "What?"

"He should not hang around the likes of you. He is getting far too...soft with you and the peasants. It seems you've encouraged him to partake in light-fingered thievery."

Katara freezes. She's only shared this with the Resistance yesterday, in private. Who told? No, they wouldn't have. It must have slipped, in happiness, when someone was passing by and overheard. Or was Jee caught sneaking from the hospital wing and reported? Did Prince Zuko have more spies?

"I, no, he—"

"Silence, Katara." She hates the way her true name issues from his lips. It makes her feel violated, sick, degraded. It's her name, given to her by her parents, used lovingly in the Water Tribe community, only by her family and friends. She feels as if she's been robbed of her treasured possession and unable to get it back. He leans forward and looks at her with eyes she didn't like. She shrunk back. She swears that he has been staring at her more often, ever since the Solstice Dance, with her spinning in that light red and gold dress...

"How did you convince him, by the way? Tell me. Perhaps you can give me a demonstration."

A disgusted gasp tears from her throat, and she scoots the chair back as fast as could, the legs screeching under the polished wood floor. Her eyes blaze.

"I would never—how dare you—"

Quicker than she thought possible, he vaults over the desk (even that's an odd thing to repeat back to herself) and grabs her arm. He's awfully fond of grabbing that part. She raises his fist and thinks, No, he can kill my family, no..., but begins to struggle anyway when he shoves her up against the chair. How foolish of her! She should have gotten up when she got the chance!

Zuko traces her face with one finger, but his bent thumb and middle finger graze her every so often, and she truly shudders. He can do whatever he likes...no one will stop him. This terrifies her, and she raises her leg to kick him, hard, jst thinking about getting free and running out the door.

He blocks her with one hand and presses it tightly against one of the legs, starting to make an indent. Her finger rounds her eyes again, and she shivers, still trying to wiggle free.

He ignores her.

"Lovely blue eyes," he murmurs. "Unforgettable."

When his finger begins to stroke her lips, she opens her mouth and clamps her teeth right onto his skin so hard that he yelps like a surprised pup and wrenches it away.

He then hits her, hard, striking her jaw so she can hear a faint crack and a ringing in her ears.

Katara refuses to cry, so she opens her eyes as wide as she can and stares accusingly at him, strands of loose hair falling down her back. She tastes metal in her mouth.

Prince Zuko backs away, holding his hand away from his body as if it's now tainted with poison, and stares at her reddening cheek with a flash, as quick as lightning striking a dark sky with something she swore on her mother's memory was horror. He reaches out as if to touch her face, then stops himself and softly touches his chin with the outside of his fingers, gingerly, almost as if he's checking for something.

He speaks first, tentative and cautious and in a completely stiff tone to match his equally-so posture in the quiet room. "I..." Zuko jerks his head towards the door and turns away from her abruptly. He's leafing through his papers, not really reading them, just tossing them aside with too-loud flutters. "Get...get going. You have class in five minutes. History. Wouldn't want to be late. And...stay away from Jee."

She backs away, involuntarily cradling her cheek, wondering if she should arrange her hair so it covers it. He's now looking at her with strange, stupid, saddened eyes. She should look that way, not him, the...

Katara whirls around as fast as she can, almost hitting the chair on her way out, and slowly turns the knob.

He watches her go.

I wanted to throw something with Blue Spirit and Katara bonding, but I wasn't sure if it was quite right for this prompt, because relationship for two (as far as Katara knows) members with the same goals and such wouldn't necessarily be "forbidden." Well, technically "Lee" is "frim" the Earth House, and Katara is from the SWT house, and it's against the rules for the two factions to interact, but I didn't think it was an extreme enough thing for here.

So, Suki's here, and she'll play a big role here with a few others...