I'm was such a familiar face at the palace, that all the guards recognized me.
"Good morning Oki. Little early for a call don't you think?" one of the palace guards calls out.
"Well, Hikitsu called for me, so here I am." I pipe up happily.
He opens the gate for me. As I pass through, I catch the guard winking at me.
"Have fun Oki." he smiles. I sigh as I try to return the smile back. The word probably got around that Hikitsu and I were dating now. As the gate closed behind me, I slide myself off of Appa's back.
"See you in a few, Appa. Be good. Don't eat any junk food the guards might offer you." I say, while rubbing his neck. I started walking faster into the palace, eager to meet with Hikitsu. From a distance, I can see Fire Lord Zuko's shiny gold crown. He probably spotted my mother's necklace and rushed up to meet me.
"Oki!" he yells while tackling me with a huge bear hug. "How are you?"
I return the hug whole heartedly. Fire Lord Zuko was like my second father. He's one of the closest links possible to my father. When I hug him, I feel like I'm hugging my father too.
"I'm doing okay. Not the best day though." I confess.
"Oh I'm sorry... Well, Hikitsu is waiting for you in his room as usual." he smiles.
"How's Auntie Mai?" I ask curiously. Auntie Mai and I were also close. She was the one that had taught me how to fight with those little knives. Not my weapon of choice, but I use them when I need to. She's been away for a while though visiting her friend, Ty Lee up in Ba Sing Se. She just gotten back.
"Well, Auntie Mai...is being herself. If you visit her later, you might cheer her up." he laughs quietly. "Well I have some business to attend to. Maybe we can duel later? I heard you're a waterbending master now. You should be able to take me on quite easily." he chuckles as he walks away. I smile after him and continue walking to Hikitsu's room. After a few seconds, I reach the door to his room. With two slow knocks, I open the door. Suddenly, I'm attacked by him with a huge hug.
"Finally. You're here." he sighs. I sigh too as I release my troubles and slump my body against his tiredly. He easily supports my weight.
"Bad day." he states.
"Yes." I intone sadly.
Slowly, Hikitsu leans in and kisses me softly on my lips. I return it back gently until we run out of air. Since we're both used to fighting and dueling, we were able to hold our air for more than two minutes, so we were kissing for a while.
"Does that make you feel better?" he says sheepishly after we pulled away.
"Eh. A little." I say teasingly.
"What would make you feel better?" he asks.
I smile widely at him as I say, "Me kicking your butt in a duel would make me feel wonderful!" I shouted.
"No...I can't duel my girlfriend. I might hurt you." he says seriously.
"Aww, someone can't handle it?" I say as I take some of my bending water and splash him in his face.
"Oki...c'mon. Two masters against each other? We'll be fighting forever." he says. I can see that little twitch in his eye though. I know he wants to do it. A good fight always intrigues him, as it does me. At sixteen, he and I were already masters of our bending, so our fights were really interesting now. People usually stop to watch us duel. I fix him with a stare as I lean in and kiss him slowly. I pull away and look at him innocently.
"Please?" I beg. I see him take a deep, unsteady breath as he recovers from my sudden kiss.
"Ok. Let's go to the grounds." he huffs. I take his hand and we walk together out to the dueling grounds. If I had a dollar for every time he and I had fought each other here, I would be a rich woman. We take our positions on the dueling ground. To keep the fights fair so I don't run out of water while we're dueling, Fire Lord Zuko had installed a bunch of water fountains around the parameter.
"Your move darling." Hikitsu yells tauntingly. I smirk as I shout back, "With pleasure sweetheart!" With a wave of my hand, I had gathered up enough water to make a water whip. I swing it around and aim it at the ground under Hikitsu's feet. He jumps away in time and responds with a huge blast of fire. I reshape the water whip into a wave and I aim it quickly at the blast to douse the fire. Suddenly, I hear Fire Lord Zuko yell out.
"They're dueling! Everybody, they're dueling!"
"Dad! Really, this isn't a show!" Hikitsu complains. After a matter of seconds, a crowd has appeared around the dueling grounds. I hear people yelling out random names.
"Go Prince Hikitsu!"
"You go show him Oki!"
Fire Lord Zuko laughs at Hikitsu. "Go make your old man proud of you. If not, I'll just have to disown you and adopt Oki." he teased.
"C'mon Hikitsu! You heard your orders!" I shout merrily. I laugh as I send another wave of water at him. He cuts through it with a huge wave of fire. He starts to send fireballs one after the other at my feet and I jump away each time, the last jump throwing me high into the air. While in the middle of the air, I take the water from my bending pouch and make a spiral jet surround me. With an exhale, I send the spiral at his feet and he barely dodged it in time, but the water had splashed strongly onto the floor and completely doused him head to toe. As we both stared at his dripping figure, we both burst out into laughter. He and I laughed together in perfect harmonization. We don't try, it's genuinely natural. I don't know who started it, but there's a little urban legend going around saying that whoever hears us laughing together, their love life will be blessed. It made us laugh so hard when we first heard about it, we were on the floor laughing. I landed on the ground and hugged his wet figure.
"Good duel honey." I laugh. "You know I won."
"Oh shut it, you." he chuckles.
With a smile on my face, I turn my head around to face the crowd and suddenly, my eyes zone in on a face. A man, tall and thin, is staring at me with no expressions or emotions on his face. One word escapes my lips.
"Murderer." I whisper softly.
"What?" Hikitsu asks.
"Murderer!" I scream as I tear myself from Hikitsu's grip.