Chapter Twenty-One
When Katara woke up, she found herself back in her room in the Fire Palace. Her head felt like it had been used as a drum and her body ached. She felt something strange on her face and she lifted a hand, felt a bandage taped to her temple. She could feel a bruise on her cheekbone and her hands were cut up. Her ankle and back ached. Slowly, she began to remember why she hurt in the first place and panic made her chest tightened. She sat up with a start, winced when a pain shot up her back, but one thought had her shoving the covers back.
For a split second, she considered the fact that her state of dress was not appropriate for running through the Fire Palace and her long, curling hair was like a wild thing around her head, but the thought blocked everything else out. Grabbing a robe and sliding her feet into her slippers, she threw the doors open and ran down the corridor.
Maids, servers, and guards leapt out of her way, and some tried to call for her, but she ignored them. When she found his study empty, she turned on her heel and headed for the one other place she'd expected him to be.
"Open the doors," she ordered the two guards who were trying hard to not gape at her.
"Lady Katara, he's in the middle of a..."
"OPEN THEM NOW!"
The guards jumped and fired into the gold cones. The throne room doors opened with a creak and she found herself on the receiving end of twenty stares. Her robe was half open and though her nightgown covered her from head to toe, it was still a nightgown. Feeling heat rising to her cheeks, she cleared her throat and dug up what little dignity she had left.
"Get out," she said menacingly.
"We were briefing the Fire Lord on..." said one foolish councilor.
"You heard her," Zuko intoned from the dais. "Get out."
They rose slowly, gathering their things, but at Katara's glare, they sped up, rushing past her. The doors closed with a bang when the last one cleared, leaving them alone.
"It figures you'd wake up when I wasn't around," he said dryly. "I sat in that uncomfortable chair for hours watching you sleep, listening to you snore, and when I'm gone for half an hour, you wake up. You're impossible."
Katara went up to where the wall of fire separated him from her and she tried to see past it, needing to see him, but it stayed resolutely up.
"Sorry to put you out," she said. "But it was the least you could do, considering I broke your fall."
"Then I have one more thing I owe you for," he said.
"Zuko...I need to see you," she said, voicing the one thing that had been running through her head.
He lowered the wall and she saw that he looked exactly how she felt. His right arm was in a sling and a white bandage circled his forehead. An ugly raised cut went from the corner of his good eye to his jaw while another smaller cut split his bottom lip and a purple bruise bloomed on the other side of his jaw, underneath his scarred eye. There was a large bandage on one side of his neck. There was a tightness inside her that squeezed the air from her lungs at the sight of him. His gaze drank her in and the space between them wasn't small enough.
Her eyes sought out a way to climb up there, and he seemed to read her mind.
"There are stairs to the right," he said quietly.
Running, she went around the side, noted the doll on the step that had been left behind by Maiko. She stepped onto the dais and neither of them cared that no one besides the Fire Lord was supposed to be up there, that she was committing an act no one had dared to do in hundreds of years. In two steps she was in his arms, then curled up in his lap, her face buried in his neck. He cradled her with his good arm, turning his face into her and he took a deep breath as if he hadn't breathed in days.
And everything inside her opened up.
"When Uncle brought back your broken sword, I've never been that scared before in my life," she went on, her words coming out in a rush. "Waiting for you to come back was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do—and that includes marrying you to begin with. If you do that to me again, I swear I will freeze you in a pillar so thick it'll take three generations to free you. You don't know what it's like to wait, not knowing if the next thing you'll hear is good news or that a body's been brought back. I can only hope that I can show you one day so you'll believe me when I tell you that I can't take it. Don't leave me ever again. Don't."
"Don't threaten me," he said but there was no ire in his voice, only gentleness.
"Shut up and listen to me for once. No more getting stabbed, no more getting cut, no more getting lightning shot at you," she listed, clutching at him. "I can't take it."
"Katara," he said quietly. "We have to go after them."
"Not now. Now when I just got you back. Not yet, Zuko," she said hoarsely, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks.
His arm tightened around her.
She didn't know how long they held each other, but she realized that he was not in a comfortable position...and she was in a very telling one. Embarrassed now, she slid away from him, but he kept a hold on her arm, then her hand, when she moved back. He didn't seem to know what to say and she was still trying to catch her breath...but the tightness inside her was gone. Gone at the sight of him. She was left with uncertainty of what was to come, awkward in the knowledge that they were going somewhere they hadn't expected.
His gaze slid to the side, unable to keep contact with hers. The confidence was gone and she could see her own uncertainty echoed on his face, his expression open in its vulnerability.
"The Water Temple was your wedding gift," he said quietly. "It wasn't meant to be a battleground. It was supposed to be a place for you."
"You built it...for me," she echoed.
He nodded silently. She raised her free hand, held it against his scarred cheek. He flinched but leaned into it.
"You built a Water Temple for me," she repeated. "I don't know what to do with that except to feel grateful, respected...and loved. Even though you still think I'm a lowly Water Tribe fisherman peasant, even though our elements are opposites, even though your ancestors are rolling over in their graves at the thought of a Water Temple in the Fire Nation, even though we almost killed each other in the beginning, you built a Water Temple for me."
"I did. And I don't think of you as a fisherman peasant...anymore."
She could see how uncomfortable he was, and tucked away a smile. He had wanted to do something nice for her, something to show her how he felt, because he couldn't find the words. Or didn't know how to say them. But she understood. After all this time—or so short a time—they both did.
"Thank you for that," she said.
"You know why I did it," he said carefully, making it a statement, not a question.
"I do," she said. "And you know why you can't leave me again."
"I do."
She smiled and he returned it. She thought of their countless conversations and hoped that sometime in the next ones, he'd tell her himself, but she did know. She also decided that for him to atone for it all, he would have to say it first, but that was a wait she was willing to endure because it would be worth it, in the end.
"This will work, won't it?" she said.
"Yes," he said. "It will."
And then he pulled her close again and kissed her.
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
In the next few days, they healed and slowly put back together the life that had Azula and Jet had nearly broken. Their wounds healed. Katara refused to leave his side and Zuko was reluctant to order her to. With Iroh checking up on them like a mother hen, things were going back to normal. Despite all that had happened, there was a lightness in the Fire Lord that everyone noticed.
When he went out on the steps of the Fire Palace, the cry that greeted him was sincere and the faces of his people shone with awe and respect. The wounds that were stark against his pale skin told them he'd stood between them and the enemy. He'd proven himself at last, had risked it all for them, and they knew it. When his wife came out to stand next to him, the cry rose. This time, she put her hand in his without being asked and raised the other in a wave that had him pressing his lips together to keep from smiling.
Yet, even as the Fire Nation gathered around its leader, teams of elite soldiers were being sent out to chase down the traitorous princess and her cohort. Their trail had nearly disappeared when they left the shores of the Fire Nation, but for those who knew how she thought and where to look, it was only a matter of time.
When the Fire Lord felt the urge to commandeer a ship and set out after his sister, all he had to do was look at the woman who was always nearby and remember what she'd threatened him with. The urge still stayed but so did he.
Not long after the Water Temple was razed to the ground to be rebuilt again, a small fleet of ships sat at ready at the docks. The children were waiting and they could no longer wait. Iroh would stand in while they were gone. It hadn't surprised Katara that Zuko didn't even consider not picking up his children himself. It was only a matter of making sure everything was settled enough for both of them to leave. When it was time to go, even though he was dragging her up the gangplank, she didn't complain. She just laughed and hurried her steps so that he wouldn't leave her behind.
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
The further south they went the colder it got. Katara changed from her red robes to the more familiar blue tunic and leggings of her people before she stepped out onto the deck. Zuko was already there, his cloak dancing in the wind. He turned at her approaching footsteps, managed a distracted smile for her.
"You forgot to change the ribbon on your necklace," he said as he turned his gaze back towards the endless sea.
Katara touched the pendant, felt the carving that told their story more than words ever could.
"I'm starting to like red," she said. "And this shade goes well with the blue, I think."
He nodded, but she saw the pleased glint in his eye.
"We'll be there soon," he said.
"Not soon enough," she said, slipping her hand into the crook of his arm.
Idly, he put a hand over hers, warming it.
"That's true. If Lu Zuo has turned into a hunting, fishing, blue-parka wearing, boomerang thrower, I'm going to...to..."
"Good one."
"Shut up."
She stared up at him, saw the worry lines.
"Besides your only son becoming Sokka, what's really on your mind?'
"What do you think?"
"This is what you get for keeping Azula around," she sighed. "You knew she'd turn on you at the drop of a hat, which she did, but you still gave her power, you still made her a part of your reign and your life."
"Can't you point that mouth of yours somewhere else. I'm injured here," he groused, letting go of her hand, frowning at her.
Katara bit her lip and reached over, putting his hand back on hers.
"Force of habit. I'm sorry."
He let out a snort.
"There's something I shouldn't get too used to hearing."
"Zuko," she said, tugging on his arm so he'd look at her. "In all seriousness, I can understand why you let her remain free. She's your sister, after all, but she didn't deserve you...and you didn't deserve her."
"Few people deserve Azula. I just thought that she loved the Fire Nation more than power itself, but I've been wrong before. She was just waiting for the right time and the right move. I should have known better," he said with a sorry shake of his head.
"We'll find them," Katara said quietly. "Jet had always been in pain and he couldn't seem to heal that pain inside him, but I'd never seen him like that. If Azula had saved him in Lake Laogai and had been cultivating him since then...well, she's turned him into that monster who fought you."
"He'll pay for what he's done."
"Yes, he will. I saw him stab you, Zuko and my hands were covered in your blood. I see him doing it again and again in my nightmares. But he won't pay in the way we want him to. The history of the Fire Nation is marked with blood and war, but your reign won't be. The cycle of revenge has to stop."
"It does, but it won't end with them," Zuko said somberly. "But it's a step towards ending a chapter of our lives so we can start a new one. My life has been spent half in battle and half giving chase, and I'm tired of that. I don't want my children...our children to grow up in the same world that we did. No more blood. No more war."
He put an arm around her, pulled her closer to his warmth, but when she looked up at his face, she saw the grim set of mouth and knew that this was all far from over.