They make me, make me dream your dreams
They make me, make me scream your screams.
"Showbiz", Muse
Zuko does not particularly want to do this.
But he has to.
He walks purposefully down the hallway, towards the volunteers' dining room. After the new volunteers spend a couple of meals with him, getting used to their new home, they start eating with the rest of the volunteers.
It's got something to do with "camaraderie". Zuko doesn't really care.
A couple of guards stationed at the entrance quickly open the doors for him, and he strides in with his head held high.
There's a moment of silence as the volunteers (all thirty-two of them) turn and glance at him. Then they go back to eating.
Zuko rakes his eyes over them until he spots the three earthbenders that he needs. Then he swiftly informs them that after they finish their breakfast they're to accompany him to their first Interviews.
All of them obediently nod their heads, but they look nervous.
Zuko would suspect that Interviewing for your potential spouse would be nerve wracking for anyone.
He's about to leave in order to wait outside when he spots them.
They're at the far end of the table, laughing over something.
His feet start moving forward before his mind can give them the order.
The waterbender glares at him with irritation as he approaches, but otherwise she doesn't say anything. The earthbender, however, breaks out in a sadistic smile as he nears.
Her left wrist is wrapped up in a bandage, and there're some minor cuts and bruises on her face and arms, but otherwise she looks all right.
Katara huffs. "Yes?"
Zuko swallows, quickly trying to come up with an excuse as to why he's in front of them.
"He's just wondering how I'm doing," the earthbender, Toph, answers. "I appreciate your concern. Except not really." Then she shovels fruit into her mouth.
"Since when were you two friends?" Zuko blurts out. A couple of the volunteers sitting nearby are casting him funny looks.
The waterbender opens her mouth to answer, but Toph beats her to it. "We're not. We're just suffering in the same way. You'd know all about that."
Katara's mouth snaps shut and she smacks the earthbender on the shoulder with her good hand, looking confused and annoyed. "But I thought—"
Toph rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, Sweetness. I know that you secretly want to be friends with everyone."
Katara's head turns in Zuko's direction. She looks him right in the eye. Then she laughs. "That's not true."
Zuko almost forgets that he's supposed to go over Katara's alphabet memorization with her.
Almost.
It's dark outside, past dinner, and Zuko hopes that Katara isn't the type of person to go to bed early.
Her guards part for him wordlessly when he reaches her door.
She's sitting on the edge of her bed pouring over the waterbending scrolls he'd given her. And, to Zuko's complete annoyance, Toph is sitting on the chair beside the bed.
"Not you," he groans, half tempted to turn around and leave.
"Surprise," the blind girl says before grinning at him. "You'll never get rid of me."
Zuko hopes that that eventually proves to be untrue.
He decides that it's in his best interest to just ignore her. "Waterbender," he says, turning his whole body and facing her, "we need to go over your writing."
Katara squirms a bit, clearly uncomfortable. "Okay, well, I have most of it done, and I've been working on a few extra things but—"
"She still can't get it right," Toph concludes for her. "Being literate isn't in the cards for her."
"Okay," Zuko snaps, frowning. "You. Out." He calls for the guards and moments later they're inside the room, carefully pulling the earthbender to her feet.
"But we were just starting to have fun!" the blind girl calls out sarcastically. But when she reaches the door she says goodbye to Katara and even closes the door behind her.
"You two have bonded," Zuko observes, walking over to the now vacated chair. Katara has moved across her bed to her bedside table, where she's now going through multiple pieces of parchment.
"Let's see…er—" she catches a few before they can fall to the floor, then quickly straightens them out in her hand.
She scoots back to the edge of the bed. "Here," she says, handing him one piece of parchment. Then she pushes the rest behind her back.
Zuko glances down at her written alphabet. It's sloppy, the ink is smudged in multiple places, and some of the characters look a bit off, but otherwise it's not too bad.
"What've you written on those?" he asks, gesturing to the papers she's trying to hide.
Her one visible cheek turns scarlet. "N-Nothing."
Zuko is quick. He darts out of the chair, towards the bed, and snatches up the extra parchments before she can even blink.
They're covered in words, words Katara has clearly tried to write out for herself. It's actually quite impressive.
And then he spots something scribbled in the corner.
"You wrote my name," he says quietly.
She ducks her head, clearly embarrassed.
"Well, sort of."
Her head pops back up. "Huh? How—"
"Well," he holds the parchment up in front of her face and points her mistake out with his finger, "I'm a prince not a princess."
The waterbender turns redder, which Zuko didn't realize was even possible. "It looked right to me," she grumbles.
Zuko isn't sure if she's trying to insult him.
"Where's your ink and brush?"
She gestures to the bedside table.
When he comes back she narrows her eye at him. "Don't spill ink onto my bed," she instructs.
He nods. "Here's where you went wrong…"
He references the alphabet, circles her mistake, then writes out the correct form of the word (of his name) and then hands her the ink brush. She traces out the word with ease, and then looks up at him for reassurance. He nods, and tilts the edge of his mouth up in an almost-smile.
She looks relieved.
"Prince Zuko."
Ozai's voice jars him out of his stupor. Zuko is at breakfast and he couldn't feel more exhausted if he tried. He can barely remember the last time he had a good night's sleep.
"Yes, father?"
"You are prepared for the banquet this evening, are you not?"
Zuko nearly groans. "Yes, father."
He has no idea why his father is asking him this. Or why his father seems remotely interested in tonight's banquet. Ozai is about as big of a fan of banquets as Zuko is. Which is to say, they both despise them.
Zuko uses them as an excuse to get drunk or laid. Or both.
Ozai just uses them to further show off his crown.
For some reason this thought makes Zuko miss Uncle Iroh. He used to always make banquets bearable by singing the dumbest songs.
Zuko sighs.
"I want you to bring the volunteers tonight. The ones who are of age, of course."
Zuko nearly chokes on a dumpling, causing Azula to snicker. "Sir?"
"Perhaps we can gain interest for the ones about to start Interviews by introducing them around in a social setting."
Zuko manages not to roll his eyes. Ozai just wants to show off the waterbender. She's a big deal, and whoever she ends up marrying will also turn into a big deal.
"Of course, father."
"And Zuko?"
Zuko looks Ozai in the eye. "Yes, father?"
"Use tonight as an excuse to get to know some of the nobleman's daughters. It's about time you got married and produced an heir."
It takes Zuko about five minutes to get ready for this banquet. He puts on his fancy robes and then he pulls his hair into a partial topknot, so that most of it is down past his shoulders.
He glances briefly into his mirror. Good enough.
There's a sharp knock on his door, and Zuko nearly throws something at it because when will he ever get a moment of peace around here?
He opens it up, sees who it is and rolls his eyes. "What has she done now?"
The guard looks sheepish. "She's giving a couple of the servant girls some…trouble, sir."
"Oh for the love of Agni, move." Then he's shoving the guard out of his way and making the long trek towards the servant's quarters.
He slams open her door and glowers at everyone in the room. In takes him seconds to assess the situation. There are two servant girls in the room, one responsible for Katara's dress and the other for her hair and makeup, Zuko would guess.
One of the girls looks flustered, and the other has an entire arm caked in ice. The second one looks pissed.
"What's the problem?" Zuko asks, reaching up to rub his temples.
The servant with the ice-arm waves her gestures in Katara's direction. Said waterbender is in the corner of her room, an orb of water swirling in front of her. "She won't cooperate, Prince Zuko!"
"How so?"
The ice-arm servant girl takes a big breath. "She won't allow us to touch her face!"
Everything clicks into place.
"We were attempting to pull her hair into a traditional topknot, but she pulled out her water and started to bend, sir! We cannot prepare her for tonight if she won't let—"
Zuko raises a hand and the girl hushes up. Two guards walk into the room on his command. "Hold her down," he instructs. They move toward the waterbender.
She shoots him a look of betrayal and he narrows his eyes. "It's just a face."
Technically speaking, Zuko has one friend.
Sort of.
His name is Chang, a high ranking nobleman's son. He's kind of a tool, but Zuko finds him entertaining on nights like tonight.
They're both standing off to the side of the banquet hall in the palace, watching everyone else mingle. They're also waiting for the rice wine to be served.
The volunteers that are of age stand off in their own circle. Banquet goers occasionally stop what they're doing in order to talk to them, faun over them, or survey them.
Zuko doesn't care.
Zuko hates banquets.
"So, the waterbender is hot," Chang states, nudging Zuko with his elbow.
Chang is functioning under the misconception that Zuko fools around with the attractive volunteers. Zuko does not.
Zuko's head jerks up and he spots Katara. She's leaning against the wall, a ways off from the rest of the volunteers, her right profile facing toward them. She looks out of sorts. Zuko wonders if that's because Toph isn't here, since the blind earthbender is under seventeen and therefore not of age.
Then Katara turns her head, looking over the banquet hall. Her scars look out of place with the rest of her.
"Oh. Just kidding, then," Change says, his upper lip pulling back in disgust. "What a shame; she's got a nice figure."
Zuko shrugs. Her body is fine by anyone's standards, he supposes. He looks away from her.
That's when he notices all the staring.
People all around the room are eyeing Katara with raises eyebrows. Their hands rise to their mouths so that they can whisper to each other behind them, as if it isn't completely obvious who they're talking about.
Zuko supposes that these types of people aren't used to seeing someone who is less than perfection.
He turns around and makes his way into the kitchens.
Zuko returns to the banquet hall from the kitchens right as Ozai is making his speech.
"—my son, the new head of Project Kongzhi." Ozai gestures towards him, his gaze calculating.
Everyone in the room turns in Zuko's direction. "Congratulations, Prince Zuko." There's a polite scattering of clapping and people raise their drinks towards him.
Zuko, who has two small glasses of rice wine in his hands, nods back, feeling horrendously awkward as everyone stares at him. A moment later, when everyone goes back to their socializing, he quickly darts to the side of the room.
Then he makes his way to the waterbender.
She spares him a glance as he comes to stand in front of her. Then she crosses her arms over her chest and pointedly looks away.
She looks miserable. She's standing with her scars facing the wall, in the hopes that people won't be able to notice them all that well.
Zuko holds out one of the glasses of ice wine. "It's just a face." He repeats what he had said from before, but the meaning this time feels different.
Is different.
She frowns at him, and then takes the glass. She doesn't take a sip.
They stand next to each other for the rest of the evening.
When the banquet is finally over, he goes back to her room. He plans to give her a scroll about The Blue Spirit, for educational purposes, of course.
She stares at him from her chair.
"Why are you always coming in here?" she accuses, frowning. "You don't visit the other volunteers nearly as much. Toph says so." She's pulled her hair out of its topknot so that her it shields the left side of her face again.
He shrugs one shoulder. "It's because you cause the most trouble."
Her visible eye narrows.
"You really do," Zuko says honestly.
"Is it because I'm the only waterbender?"
Zuko stills.
"I know I am," she continues. "I'm the first and only one, so that makes me special, doesn't it?"
Zuko remains quiet.
The waterbender stands up and makes her way over to him. Her limp is only slight. The look in her one blue eye is fierce.
"I was mocked tonight, Prince Zuko, for the sake of fashion," she snarls. "And the reason why you stood next to me tonight was because you felt guilty. But not guilty enough to actually do anything about it." She shoves a hand against his shoulder. His heart is thundering in his chest. He's not sure why.
"You're a coward," she says. "Me, all of the volunteers…we're just some joke to you. Just some means to an end so that the Fire Nation can get its way. But just so you know, Prince, I will fight for myself and all the other volunteers," she growls. "You can count on it."
"I am not a coward," Zuko finally says, voice low. For a moment he thinks that maybe Katara didn't hear him.
The visible half of her face is blank, devoid of all emotion. "Yes, you are."
Something snaps. He bolts out of her room before he can do something that he'll regret. He's shaking and he swears that his vision is tented with red.
Zuko is not a coward.
Zuko is not a coward.
He's in his bed. He has no recollection of how he even got back to his room, much less his bed. The sun hasn't risen yet.
Someone is standing over him; a guard. Zuko jerks upwards into a sitting position. He's fully awake now.
Before he can snarl at the man, the guard says, "Prince Zuko, your sister has gone missing."
A/N:
Okay, so yeah. I realize that this chapter is short. Forgive me, guys, but I'm sort of stuck on this story. I know exactly what happens in the latter half. I've had all of that planned out for awhile and I'm pumped to write it, but at this point in the story I'm sort of left scratching my head. I'll eventually figure it all out, I always do, but it might take a little extra time for me to get over this hurdle.
I do hope everyone liked this chapter, though. Next chapter Zuko gets to play a game of Where's Azula? Unfortunately for him, I don't think Azula is prone to wearing red and white stripes, so she might be more difficult to spot in a crowd.
Anywho, please review and let me know what you thought! And thanks for your patience! You guys are awesome! :D