The Fire Prince and the Water Maiden: Chapter Three
Author's note: I edited Zuko's bit and replaced it with another oneshot. It wasn't quite the same... beat, or note, or level as Katara's.
That Fire Nation prince, Katara decides, is like a ghost.
He always always seems to appear out of nowhere, absolutely resolute on capturing Aang.
A ghost, and one they cannot avoid.
When she slips into sleep, she dreams hard. She sees her mother again, telling her to look for her father. She sees the black looming figure turn to her, and he wears Zuko's face, his mouth twisted in a scowl, his left eye branded with a scar. She sees the contempt on his face, the fire that lives behind his gold eyes, in his blood, and she is afraid.
Sometimes the dreams change. Her mother will morph into another person. Sometimes, it's Sokka, or her father. Once, it was her grandmother. Usually it is Aang, who looks at her with wide pleading eyes.
When she wakes from these dreams, her bedding will be drenched in sweat. With still-shaking hands she will reach for her neck, touch the cool stone of her mother's necklace. And then, only then, will she shiver and look around, as if expecting the prince, ghost-like, to steal out from the shadows.
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Meditation is about peace. Serenity. Emptying one's mind of all thoughts and worries.
Lately, it hasn't really been working for Zuko.
He keeps thinking about the Avatar. Of the many times he's let the boy slip out of his fingers. His failures constantly taunt him. Every day the airbender walks free is another day he spends in exile and shame. He doesn't know how much longer he will be able to handle this.
Somehow, the Avatar and his friends have outsmarted and outlucked him, even though the boy can only bend air, and has only tapped on the fraction of his power as an Avatar. Even though the boy with the boomerang can barely fight, and the waterbender girl barely knows what she is doing.
He has trained himself for years. Long arduous hours, repeating each move until it becomes mechanical. Instinctive. His fire bending isn't just a tool; it's a part of him, like his hands and his feet.
It just doesn't make sense that he always loses.