Title: Midsummer Madness
Author: BurningIce
Rating: R (yea, you heard me)
Summary: Katara learns that there are both advantages and drawbacks to being a female water bending master, and pays back a favor to an old friend.
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Disclaimer: Avatar is owned by Bryke and Nick. Zutara, however, belongs to us all.
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Chapter 22: The Fire Lady
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"Listen to this Toph, listen!!" Ty Lee squealed, wiggling back and forth in delight, "'What is this strange power over me your eyes possess? My Lady, I do believe you have me hypnotized.' he leaned in, claming her lips with his own. 'No! No! My Lord, we mustn't!' Isoa stammered delicately, when he pulled away, 'I fear we may start a war with our lascivious behavior!!' 'I care not, my love! I would fight and kill a million armies for the pleasure to die gasping in your arms.' he spat back, claming her again for his own. 'Oh harder, or I fear I will die! I-"
"What is that?" Toph asked, her arms circling and covering her stomach. She still wasn't sure about this new shirt, but boys did really really seem to like Ty Lee, so she must be doing something right.
"It's a romance scroll!" Ty Lee took the blind girl's hand and pressed it to the paper, "It's about a Fire Nation princess on vacation on ember island with her servants when this Northern Water Tribe warrior washes ashore half drowned and she nurses him back to health, then they fall madly in love!!"
"Nobody even talks like that, and you can't wash all the way from the Northern Water Tribe to the Fire Nation, that's impossible!" Toph informed her.
"That's not the point Toph!" Ty Lee tried to explain, "The point is their deliciously scandalous, forbidden affair!! It's the ultimate story of wanting what you cant have. I should get this for Katara."
"Why?" Toph tugged on the hem of her shirt.
"Umm . . ." Ty Lee stiffened, "I . . . er . . . Well, no reason, the um, Water Tribe is mentioned . . ."
"Don't even bother lying." Toph crossed her arms.
Ty Lee swore, and hid her face.
"It has something to do with Sparky, doesn't it?!" Toph tried not to sound accusing, at least, she considered not sounding accusing, briefly. It was pretty easy to read Ty Lee anyways, even without eyes, she could see right through her, "I can't believe it, I thought there were some strange vibrations going on between the two of them. After she swore nothing was going on to Aang too!!"
"Don't be angry Toph!" Ty Lee clasped her hands together, pleadingly, "It's not any of our business!"
"It is too my business if it involves Aang!!" Toph debated back, "and they were in BED together, maan, and I encouraged it!!"
"Well, that might be partly your fault then . . ."
"Not the point!" Toph held up a hand to silence the older girl.
"You're soooo assertive, it's really great! You're really cute when you're bossing people around!" Ty Lee complimented, Toph was starting to suspect it was her way of trying to get out of a confrontation. She and Aang were like two peas in a pod with their jumping around and running away.
"Don't change the subject, Big Top!" Toph stepped in close, "They're dating aren't they?"
"Well, dating is so strong of a word . . ." Ty Lee shifted her weight back and forth, as though she wanted to run away, but couldn't in good conscious leave her blind friend in the middle of the Fire Nation bazaar with little idea of how to get back.
"Then what would you call it?"
"Umm, enemies with benefits?"
"That wasn't animosity I felt vibrating through the covers last night!" Toph vowed never to sleep in the same bed as those two again. Aang could go it alone, let Katara deal with being in between two of her men all by herself. Toph conveniently forgot that she had technically been instigating, such silly, inconvenient details did not concern her.
"Vibrating?" Ty Lee asked curiously.
"Never mind!!" Toph crossed her arms, "The point is that someone should tell Aang, I think he is just waiting to get back together with her."
"Well, I guess that's something you should take up with her." Ty Lee retorted crossly, "Your aura is turning green, you're jealous!"
"I'm not jealous, I'm infallible."
"You know, it's good news for you if they break up for good. The Avatar will be free for romantic advances!"
"I'm not being some rebound girl!"
"Is the glass always half empty with you?" Ty Lee patted her on her head, a lot more difficult than it had been months ago as they were almost the same height, "I know what will cheer you up, let's go cheat at some gambling . . ."
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Katara knelt down in front of the tall, muscular man again, though this time she was much more acutely aware of the Fire Bender a few paces behind her, and the ex fire bender tensed in front of her. In fact, she worried she wouldn't be able to focus enough to even reach a meditative state. Who did he think he was teasing her like that?! She replaced the mask over her nose and mouth, and once again touched the face of the crumpled elegant man bound powerlessly before her.
Ozai looked up, a thin string of saliva hanging from the corner of his mouth that tangled in his long loose hair. Somehow it did not make him seem repulsive, quite the opposite, he looked almost endearing, with his beard trimmed and his long hair brushing the floor. She noticed his gold eyes were swollen and unfocused, as he squinted them at her. His mouth hung slack, as though his tongue felt too big for his mouth. She blushed, remembering what his son could do with his tongue, as she adjusted herself into a slightly less uncomfortable kneel.
"Ursa?" He asked suddenly, trying to strain forward and see better, "Is that you? I knew you would come." His voice cracked in relief, and he muttered something about waiting for her every day, and their idiot son. He might have been tearing in the smoke, he might have been crying, Katara couldn't tell. She looked at Zuko, hoping he would intervene, but he didn't, he gestured for her to roll with it.
"You did?" she asked, rolling with the drugged hallucination. She shifted from one side to the other, feeling uncomfortable playing the man in such a manner.
"Ursa, please touch me, don't be like that, I said I was sorry." Ozai was trying to nuzzle her hand, and she shot Zuko a glare over her shoulder. Was she supposed to play along?! She turned back to the man, and ran her finger over the leather strap that held his head in place. One of the healers returned the bottle of water to her side and uncorked it for her.
"Where did you go? I hired bounty hunters to look for you. I'm so sorry, not a day goes by where I don't regret it . . ." Another drop of spit trickled from his lips, spattering on the stone floor between her knees. Katara prayed that it was the moon's phase that was making his lips look inviting, that or the thrill of seeing her long time nemesis bound and helpless at her feet, anything other than attraction.
Upon hearing his words, Katara turned to Zuko in horror, was it possible that although Ozai had to do with Azulon's murder, he had nothing to do with Ursa's actual disappearance? She could see the prince's face had become ashen, and he braced himself against the wall with one hand. Ozai sounded angry, had he sent the bounty hunters to fetch her back as a queen and Fire Lady or to bring her home in chains?
"It doesn't matter now. You're nothing now." Ozai looked away, his bloodshot eyes half lidded, "You hate me, don't you, leave me."
Something inside of her snapped and Katara grabbed for her water, whatever the eel of a man knew about Ursa, she was intent on finding it. If he knew why, or how, or when, or anything, she was finding it. She refused to come back to Zuko empty handed, not after all that. He had helped her find closure with her mother, and she would be damned if she didn't return the favor. She pressed her hands to the man's temples, and concentrated, dimly aware of him crying out at the sudden intrusion, but she was through being gentle, she had a job to do.
It helped to no longer think of him as human. He certainly did not seem it. The turmoil of his mind had settled to a sluggish trickle, the drugs making it difficult for him to think.
"Stop! You're hurting!" She heard the child's voice say, but she shoved it away, crashing through his mental barriers. What went around came around.
"You killed my mother!" She shouted back, channeling her anger and excitement, "You're a monster! You're lucky you fought the Avatar, I would have killed you!!" She didn't know if it was true or not, she doubted it, but he didn't know that.
The child Ozai materialized in the mist of his consciousness, it's face and body no longer whole. It looked like a wax or clay figure that someone had left out in the sun for too long, it's face dripping and contorting in a grotesque manner. It staggered towards her, waving it's arms.
"Where is the memory of that night?!" Katara seized the boy's shoulders and shook him, her fingers sinking deep into his body.
"What night?!"
Katara shook him again, bits of him spattered off and melted away, "Azulon! Show it to me!!"
The kid screamed and pressed his hands to her face, Azulon flooded her mind. He was huge, he towered over her, his face in shadow. He was not the Fire Lord yet, he was young and handsome, but she could feel her host trembling. The small boy terrified out of his mind.
"Fire Princes do NOT behave in such a manner!!" The man advanced and Ozai retreated, dropping to his knees like a scared puppy.
"I'm sorry father!" He pleaded, crawling on hands and knees to cling to his father's pant leg, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'msorryi'msorry!! Please don't punish me!!"
"You'll thank me when you are older." She heard Azulon say, Ozai's eyes were screwed tightly shut, "It is my job to make sure you understand. When you dishonor me you dishonor the entire Fire Nation!!" Ozai had opened an eye a crack, staring up at his father.
His father kicked him in the face, stomping his foot down on the smaller boy. Katara felt her jaw break. Felt it open like a door. She screamed, or Ozai did, and clutched his face, blood pouring from the boy's mouth. From her mouth.
"Thoory!! Thooory!!" Ozai was stammering through his blood filled mouth. He began to cry, long loud gut wrenching sobs.
"Don't Cry!!" Azulon kicked him in the ribs several times, "Men don't cry! Men don't show weakness!! Men don't show emotion other than anger! Especially Fire Benders!!" Katara felt all the air in her lungs get violently forced out her mouth. Ozai crawled on his elbows and knees, trying to flee his father.
"Don't RUN! That's worse than crying, you cowardly dog!" Azulon grabbed him and hauled him up, shaking him violently. Ozai screamed and wet himself, holding his hands up to shield his face.
"You're useless! You'll never live up to your brother or your title with that attitude. I expect more from you Ozai." Azulon had dropped him in disgust and clipped out of the room. Katara lay there with Ozai as he sobbed, laying in an expanding pool of his blood. He curled up into a ball, trying to press his unhinged jaw back into place with his small shaking hands. Katara separated herself from the boy, sitting down next to him.
The memory faded, and the collapsed boy stared at her in terror, blood still soaking down his front. She reached out to touch his face, to help him sit up, and his body melting under her fingertips as he fled into the back of Ozai's consciousness. Katara let him go and staggered back. She wondered who had been the better father, Azulon or Ozai. She took a deep breath, exhaling it through her mouth, she was vaguely aware that it was difficult as she had to breathe through the mask.
"Azulon is dead." She said sharply, broadcasting it to Ozai's mind, "He can't hurt you anymore." She breathed, the sun was setting, and her body was starting to feel tight and uncomfortable. The moon would rise soon and her power trip would increase threefold, she would have to pull out then, she doubted she could maintain the mental embrace after moonrise, she would be too diverted. She took another deep breath for good measure, trying to quiet the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach, among other places.
"You're not Ursa," Katara peered through the mist, looking for the source of the voice, "You look like one of those heathens from the far south." A man approached, swirling together, he had more definition than the boy, but still looked as though he would melt any second. Ozai must have really been focusing.
Katara stared, he couldn't be much older than she was, maybe early twenties. He looked like Zuko, only prettier, slighter. His face was clean shaven, and his eyes were calculating, he had grown from the terrified child to a haughty young man. He reminded her a little bit of Jet, the mix of confidence, arrogance, and anger at the world was strikingly similar. He was also shockingly attractive, even more so than Zuko with his long hair and unmarred features. He walked purposefully towards her and Katara got ready to dodge. Ozai placed a hand on her exposed stomach, his face turning to a grin. Azula's grin. The same one she had seen in Aang's memory, the grin that meant whatever was going to happen next would be excruciatingly fun.
For him.
"I saw the way you look at my son, you know." He leaned in and whispered into her ear, his lips brushing, his breath tickling, "If you want heat though, little water wench, you should come to the source." He stalked around her like a cat, his fingers stroking across her midriff, across her back, then back around as he circled. Her body responded . . . he was so handsome . . . She snarled, pushing him hard away.
"You took my mother from me!!" She growled, trying to hang onto her anger, "You're slime, Ozai!! You torture people!! You massacre nations!!"
He dropped to the floor and knocked her feet out from under her, and she landed with a thud on her back, the wind knocked out of her. He was upon her, he straddled her, pinning her wrists to the nondescript ground near her head.
"You invade my mind, you look at my memories without permission, and now you refuse me the comfort of your body?" He touched her mother's necklace curiously as his younger incarnation had, "I've been alive for twenty years longer than my idiot son, and I could teach you things you could never dream!!"
Memories danced in front of Katara's eyes, women straddling her hips and rocking back and forth, pressing them into the mattress, hearing them scream the Fire Lord's name. Usually in ecstasy, sometimes in pain, their voices pleading. She saw concubines, whores, noblewomen, commoners, and what might have been a few men, all panting and moaning loudly. He dangled the memories and then yanked them away, he had proved his point.
"I want to see the night Azulon was murdered." Katara insisted, glaring up at him.
"What do I get out of it?" His body was liquefying, Katara smelled smoke, the surgeons were giving him another dose, and the drugs were making him lose concentration.
"I'll leave your head and never come back." It sounded like a good deal to Katara.
"But, after the initial shock, I find I rather like it, I am alone in my head all the time, alone in my cell, I am lonely for some feminine company." One of his knees slid between hers, parting them. One of his hands cupped her breast, and he looked up at her surprised, his fingertips crashing into her piercing. He looked down to investigate, and Katara took advantage of his distraction to begin struggling again.
She arched her back, trying to throw him, "Get off me Ozai!! You're disgusting, I am a third your age!" She clamped her knees together, and his leg gave a good deal before he seemed to notice and solidify it.
"I know, isn't it nice? You know, for me." He nuzzled against her ear, whispering, "Don't be like that . . . if you cooperate, I'll show you the memory you want." Ozai leaned in to kiss her. She head butted, ramming her forehead into his perfect nose. It simply mushed, like she had hit mud. He reeled back, looking startled and wiggled his nose back and forth.
It reformed.
"You can't hurt me in my own mind."
He leaned in and kissed her, mockingly. She bit him, but he ignored it, the pain, if there was any, not hindering him in any way. Katara's mind whirled, trying to come up with a way to outsmart him. She refused to go back empty handed. Not when they were so close.
Spirits, Ozai had not been joking about being an experienced kisser, her stomach flipped over as he ran his tongue expertly over the roof of her mouth. She swore and shoved him, her hands sinking into his chest to nearly her elbows. He sat up, dragging her up too, but he began to collapse in on himself, dispersing back into the ether like dust in the desert.
She looked around, the grey of his unthinking mind and then pulled herself to her feet.
"I think I preferred the God King over the Horney Teenager." She said to him in general.
His mind swirled, as though trying to reform, but then settled, he must have been heavily sedated by then. He could not seem to form a thought. Katara headed off, as long as he was not stopping her, she would have a look around. She focused on Ursa. She called up a mental picture of the woman and with a twitch of her finger in the water and threw open the door to his memories by force.
She heard him grunt, and everything began to shake, he head throbbed horribly, the air seeming to contract on her. He must have been writhing in pain, and she held on fast to the connection. He was such a baby, how badly could it hurt? More time, that's all she wanted, a little more time.
His memories were not ordered, neatly or sanely, they were strewn across the ground like smashed hourglasses, and she had to plunge her hands into them to begin to get a feel for where she was in the man's life. She glazed through the pictures, feeling cautiously for the right time frame. Ursa at a banquet, Ursa with her 'father' at the beach, Ursa playing with her sisters, and Ursa talking to mysterious women in the shadows. Ozai had many memories of her, in fact, he always seemed to pay attention to her whenever she was around. Most of the men did, and even Katara could feel the inexplicable draw of her voice, and the indecent, probing desire to see if all of her was really human.
Katara finally found one where they were speaking, and she let herself sink into the memory, looking around hopefully.
"You're looking lovely tonight," Ozai was saying, "for someone of the Avatar's bloodline."
Ursa took offence, her smile hardening, but Ozai did not pick up on it. Katara did.
"Thank you Prince Ozai. I am honored by your complement." She was looking around, crossing her arms, "You look very imperial," she didn't want to be there, she was looking for a way to slip away from the man. Classic female body language, Ozai was too conceited for the concept to even cross his mind that she could be just phoning it in.
Katara felt her arm go up, Ozai was offering it to her, still unaware there was any problem, "Well, Lady Ursa, you should be honored. Would you like it if I took you for a walk around the palace gardens? It's such a lovely night." Was he being sarcastic? Or was his voice always that cruel?
Ursa looked away, "Thank you, but, actually, I was hoping to go speak with Prince Iroh, I wouldn't want to be a bother." Her blush was not unnoticed by the youngest fire prince, and she felt jealousy burn green in his chest.
"Yes, he will be happy to tell you all about how his WIFE is now PREGNANT with his first child. Have you heard?" the man's voice was scathing. Ozai did not seem to advocate subtlety.
Ursa glanced over at Iroh and his wife sadly, anxiously, and the prince followed it.
Was that Iroh as a young man?! Katara was smitten herself just looking, he had sure grown up from the boy feigning death on the dais.
"Oh . . ." Katara heard the hurt in the woman's voice, and it made her own heart sink in empathy, "I had not heard . . . I've been at the Fire Academy all year . . ."
A woman walked by her as she stared at the floor and discreetly put a hand on Ursa's shoulder, squeezing once without a word and then walking off. That seemed to remind her of something because she straightened and looked resolutely at the long haired man in front of her, "Yes, I would love to go for a walk with you, I hear you have graduated top of your class, you must tell me all about it." her voice lacked enthusiasm, but Ozai didn't detect it. Katara felt his body flutter in anticipation as Ursa put her hand in his and gave a coy smile.
She pulled herself away, it was clear Ursa's friend, whoever she was had wanted Ursa to flirt with the Ex (or future) Fire Lord. She was in no way interested in him.
But why?
She followed the threads again, one theme was common. Ursa did not love Ozai. Anyone who was not completely self absorbed and dense would have noticed. The Fire Prince did not, and she patently sat through their kissing sessions, their cuddles, their foreplay, scanning for something. Anything.
"No scales, no gills, I checked everywhere . . . ."
Katara froze the memory and flicked back to it, concentrating. There was something strange about it.
Ozai was groggy and sated, almost passed out in the bed, basking in the after glow. His future (or present, Katara wasn't sure) wife was pressed up against him, brushing his sweat plastered hair from his face, she looked about eighteen to Katara.
"Nope, no gills." Ursa had a disconnected look in her eyes.
"I should check again . . . to be sure . . ." Katara flinched as she felt the man's hand, effectively her hand, caress up the woman's inner thigh to her core. She made a mental note that Zuko owed her BIG time for this. No lightening bolt was worth watching his parents get intimate.
"Go to sleep Ozai." Her voice had changed, Katara was sure of it. She strained to see through Ozai's closing, blurry lids, he was nodding off, but she was fully alert, watching the naked woman pressed against her.
She had ordered Ozai to go to sleep and he had!! The realization hit her like a charging komodo rhino. She had ordered him not to throw rocks at the Turtle Ducks and he had stopped!! She began digging through his memories like they were rocks, scanning them and tossing them aside in her franticness.
Tell your father he should dispatch troops here . . . . Put some of the budget into monsoon relief . . . you will not sleep with concubines while we live under the same roof . . . None of that nonsense, you will behave yourself . . . . Stop being suspicious . . . I love you, believe me, I love you . . . Tell me how can I save my son . . .
Katara dug her heels into the ground and grabbed for the last memory as it flew by. It was something she needed. Ursa sat in a chair by her vanity, she had been crying, her eyes were red and puffy.
"Ursa! I argued for hours! There was nothing I could do!!"
"That man, that THING is crazy!!" Ursa put her face in her hands, "My baby . . . he is going to execute my baby!!"
"I am not pleased either," Katara felt his anger, his son might be a coward and a sissy, but he was the only one he had at the moment. He was leverage. The only leverage Ozai had now that Lu Ten was dead. Katara could see that the man didn't give a damn what happened to Zuko after he had seized the throne. Ursa made a mistake leaving him with his 'caring' father.
"Tell me how I can save my son!" She ordered in the strange compelling voice she had.
"Murder Azulon." Ozai felt the words leave his lips unbidden.
Ursa looked at her hands, "I have orders . . ."
"Orders?" Ozai asked suspiciously.
"Forget what I said, Prince Ozai." Katara felt the memory slip into oblivion, luckily Ursa had only ordered her husband to forget it. It stayed preserved in Katara's.
Orders? From who?
"Murder Azulon," Ozai repeated as though it was the first time, "He has gone mad in his dotage. Iroh is stricken with grief and will not be back for weeks. He is Azulon's favorite, he could talk him out of the execution, but won't be home for weeks, he won't be home in time to save his nephew. Azulon scheduled the execution for noon tomorrow!"
Ursa burst into fresh tears at this point as she visualized her little boy burning at the stake. Ozai thought it too, and he imagined how humiliating it would be, Zuko would undoubtedly cry and wail and scream for his mother. He would not act like a man as he faced agonizing death.
He's NOT a man!! Katara mentally yelled at him, He's a CHILD!!
"I wish Iroh was here . . ." he heard her mumble as she wrapped her arms around her torso and doubled over.
Katara flinched at the slap, feeling the white hot anger coursing through her host's veins. It knocked Ursa from the chair she sat on, and she sprawled on the floor, clutching her cheek, looking astonished.
Ozai's voice was scathing, and sparks shot from his mouth, "Snap out of it woman! Iroh NEVER loved you!! NEVER!! I DO!! WHY URSA?! WHY AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU?! Do you think you're better than me? I'm the Fire Lord, you're a HALF BREED!! Your precious Iroh cannot protect your son, OUR son, the one we had together!! I can."
"You can if I make you Fire Lord." Ursa hissed back still clutching her stinging cheek, "It was YOUR greed that sealed my son's fate in the first place!!"
"My bloodline is strong, and will remain that way. I can seize power in my brother's absence, but I will be the first suspected of fowl play." Pride blossomed in his chest, satisfaction that his perfect brother had finally suffered at the hands of fate. He hoped Iroh would commit suicide out of grief, then Ursa would forget about his brother and love him back.
Katara felt sick inside, he had loved his older brother so much as a child, what had changed? She thought back to Azulon's taunts, and the hundreds of furtive glances Ursa cast at the First Born Prince. Had Ursa had an affair? Iroh was terribly handsome . . .
"You want me to murder your father." Ursa seemed neither angry nor insulted, she almost sounded . . . . excited. Katara understood the rush, the thought of ridding the world of a useless evil old man that had destroyed people she loved. Understood it, but would never act on it.
"If I have an alibi, I can seize power, then I'll execute some cur in a public way, and we can rule as Fire Lord and Lady." Ozai was coaxing, unaware that Ursa already fully intended to do it.
"Go for a walk." Ursa said, fixing her hair in the mirror, not looking at him, "Make sure you're seen far far away from your father's quarters for a very long time."
Ozai stepped in behind her, pleased that she agreed, he grinned and nuzzled her ear, putting his hands on her waist. She was angry. He liked it when she was angry. He hoped she would still be angry when she got back.
He stepped forward, exuding a sensual confidence that Katara was unfamiliar with, she could feel him feeling it, but could not relate.
"You're sexy when you're plotting murder, you know, the dungeon is-"
"DON'T!" Ursa whirled and shoved him so hard he staggered back and tripped over her chair.
"Ursa, what the HELL?!" Ozai snapped.
"Don't EVER touch me again." She said, her voice taking on the strange, compelling undertones, "Never!" She turned and stepped into her shoes, and clicked out of the bedroom.
Ozai watched her go, flabbergasted, he always knew she didn't really love him, but he had never expected her to come out and say it.
"You didn't take a weapon!" he called after her. How was she to kill someone without a weapon? He decided that he didn't want to know. It would be better if he didn't know anything and made sure that he was seen all night. He stood and smoothed his-
"HOW DARE YOU!! YOU FUCKING HYPOCRITE!!" Katara felt herself hauled out of the memory, Ozai shaking her mercilessly, the whole mindscape vibrating. Her head throbbed, her stomach lurched, she clawed at him. How long had she been sifting through memories? Long enough for him to sober, apparently.
"LET ME GO OZAI!!"
"FIRE LORD Ozai!" he corrected, "How dare you! You violate my mind, you rape my memory! Filthy peasant I will show you things that you will never forget!"
Katara's eyes widened, Ozai stood on his balcony, looking out over the cliffs at Zuko and Mai kissing. They looked happy, Zuko looked so happy. Katara choked up in envy, he was touching her, he was smiling at her.
The scene shifted.
Ozai was walking down the hallway, he heard moans coming from the doors. Suddenly he heard Zuko cry out Mai's name, in a soft strangled cry. He rolled his eyes, turning to one of his servants.
He continued walking down the hallway, "Summon my daughter. I'll need her to get the Lady Mai plenty of 'tea', I don't want him siring any bastard heirs accidentally."
Katara yanked, the memory disintegrating around her only to be replaced with another.
Ozai hadn't wanted to kill the thing, but didn't want him around to dishonor the family either. He reminded him too much of Ursa. Ursa loved Zuko more than she loved him! Her own husband. Childlike hatred brewed in his chest. How dare she love her children more, how dare she love another man more? It was almost too convenient the way Iroh had volunteered to go with the boy, he would have to keep an eye on the old brute. He was beginning to go soft. Twenty years earlier, Iroh would have been advocating to not even providing Zuko with a ship, let alone accompanying him.
You're jealous of your own son?! You're pathetic! Katara spat at him. She gasped suddenly, horrified. Zuko stepped out of the palanquin, and squared his shoulders. His eye was bandaged, and most of his hair had been singed off, he had pulled what was left into an unruly ponytail. His whole head was burnt, though she could see clearly which parts of it would scar. No wonder he shaved his hair all off . . . Katara thought, looking at the ravaged landscape of her comrade's face, the thought of dragging a razor over the still burnt skin made her shudder.
Azula, who must have been twelve, next to him leaned over, "Look at him, father, he looks like he is going to cry!" she sounded delighted.
"For all our sakes, I hope he does not, even though he is banished, it will humiliate the family."
"Of course, father, I hope he does too." She replied in a voice that clearly stated otherwise.
Katara lurched and punched Ozai, hard, pulling out of his mind in a mad recoil, even as he hauled on her, trying to keep her still. He wrapped around her anchoring her in his mind, sucking her back down. Her head throbbed and she began to feel woozy, panic rising in her chest.
He threw her to the ground and it rose to meet her, sliding around her like it had that horrible day they had been trying to trigger Aang's Avatar state. She tried to sit up, tried to pull away, her head began to pound, the more she struggled, the more it hurt. They were grappling mentally then, and everything became really loud. She heard someone screaming, and someone laughing, both had Ozai's voice. She clawed at his face which he was leaning closer to her, trying to push her into another memory.
With a teeth shattering, bone crunching wrench, she was back in her own head, gasping through her mask. She grabbed for it, disoriented, trying to figure out how to pull it off. Zuko's arms were around her suddenly, and he pulled the damn thing up off her nose, and pulled her head to his chest, stroking her hair. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, her eyes stinging from the smoke in the room.
"'Tara? Why are you crying?!" He was saying into her hair, but she wasn't paying attention. She was staring past him at Ozai, her eyes wide in terror. He had almost trapped her!
He grinned back at her past Zuko's arms, his tongue darting out, licking his lips and then making a suggestive gesture with it. Katara gave him a disgusted look and then buried her face in Zuko's chest, inhaling deeply. He was untying the mask awkwardly with one hand, as he knelt next to her, barking orders to the surgeons.
"Open the windows, get her some air, she is suffocating!!"
"I'm fine, I'm not going to break." She protested, he didn't need to know just how bad things got.
"Prince Zuko, You're girl is a good kisser."
FUCK.
"What?" Zuko looked at his father, then shook his head, "Put him back in his cell, he is talking nonsense."
"Oh yes, she has those unusual chest piercing . . . ."
Zuko froze, then stiffened, "Back to his cell! RIGHT NOW!"
The guards grabbed him, fumbling with their keys, "Yes sir! We're working on it, sir!" one promised, and the chains began to loosen. Ozai began to laugh, he doubled over, as the chains stopped supporting him. Zuko pulled her away from the maniacally laughing man, towards the window.
"I'm fine, Zuko." Katara repeated, her head was throbbing and her heart was racing, and she had just received the scare of her life, but she was quite positive that she was fine. To illustrate it, she pulled away and stood up.
The room spun, and her vision swam, all the blood rushing from her head, or to her head, she wasn't sure which. However, her head was definitely receiving the wrong amount of blood, and she remembered briefly seeing the ceiling before everything went black.
...
...
Sokka walked into the stables, his trusty schedule in one hand, his scabbard in the other. Suki's shift guarding Aang was up, and he was going to take his turn. When he walked in, he found the two of them kneeling across from each other, with their forearms in their mouths.
"What the hell is going on here?" He asked, flabbergasted, "Wait, I don't want to know."
"Suki is teaching me how to give a 'hickey'." Aang explained, pulling his arm out of his mouth.
"Suki!!"
"He asked!!" Suki defended, "I even told him maybe it was something he should ask you or Zuko!"
"You know, I don't think you need to coach the kid on how to . . . you know, I mean, it's not something that really takes practice." Sokka lectured.
"So, this is it?" Aang was looking at his newest bruise, "I remember it hurt more last time."
"Yes, well, I think Azula used her teeth a bit mo-" Sokka elbowed her, and she stopped to glare at him, "What?!"
"You are probably the most corrupting big sister . . .Come on Aang," Sokka motioned for him to get up, "Let's go somewhere where corrupting Kyoshi Warriors won't bother us."
"Heeeey guuuys!!" Ty Lee trotted in, hauling a rather dejected looking Toph behind her, "Wow! The gangs all here!"
"Except for Katara and Zuko, should they be back by now?" Aang sounded anxious.
"Hey Ty Lee, Toph, back so soon?" Suki straightened, changing the subject, that was one thing she refused to explain to the Avatar.
"Toph doesn't have shopping endurance built up yet." The acrobat explained with a smile, "But since she is grown, she really needed new cloths, all her pants were halfway up to her knees, I swear, puberty is hitting you like a charging moose lion."
Flopping down between the Avatar and the Kyoshi Captain, Toph shrugged, "I hope it doesn't expect me not to hit it back."
"If anyone could kick the stuffing out of puberty, you could!" Aang encouraged.
"Damn straight I could." Toph preened.
Ty Lee sat down too, "Ooh, Suki, you have a nice hickey there, Sokka been practicing?"
"No,"
Sokka glowered.
...
Ursa leaned out over the water, the barge making incredibly good time down the river. June was sulking off to her left, Ursa couldn't for the life of her guess why. The woman was so sour. She leaned on her elbows, calculating in her head how far they had gone.
"When do you think we'll be disembarking? I'm seasick." The woman complained.
Well, that explained the sourness.
Ursa shrugged, "Why don't you go lay down if you're not feeling well?" she asked innocently.
"I'm not laying down. Only silly girls prone to fainting and giggling have to 'lay down'" June joined her at the railing.
"Suit yourself." Ursa replied, if the bounty hunter wanted to torture herself over some self imposed concept of machismo, who was she to stop her?
June growled, and Ursa had the feeling that she had missed something in translation. June was a very curious girl after all. Maybe the complaint had been an attempt to strike up a conversation, something to take her mind off her stomach.
"You know," Ursa started, "That guide that took us through the great divide was taken with you."
"He was also about forty years older than me."
"Nonsense, he couldn't have been a day over twenty five years older than you, what's a few decades between friends?"
"It's about the same as a few decades between benefactors."
"Come now June," Ursa chided gently, "Money is a powerful aphrodisiac."
"Nobody loves money more than I do," June stretched like a cat, her nails digging into the railing, and her butt wiggling back and forth, "But not even money love could make that man appealing."
"I think you're just putting on a front."
"It must suck, huh? Having to sleep with someone you don't want to."
Ursa shrugged, "I had orders to conceive heirs."
"Some orders,"
"I was not pleased about them either, luckily Ozai was a very handsome man. He still is, and I do not resent my lovely children on account of their dreadful father."
"I still think that you should go see your boy." June put her head in her arms, "I mean, come on, we're going to be right there."
"I couldn't go seek him out!" Ursa protested, "Though, I suppose, if someone who knew where I was, were to go and tell him and lead him to me, perhaps someone with an animal that could follow scent trails, and he found me on his own accord. Well, there would be nothing that I could do about it." She smiled at June.
June smiled back, then paused, "What would they, this hypothetical tracker, get out of it?"
"You would have to ask him, as he would be their hypothetical customer, and I the bounty."
June stood, cogitating for several minutes, then said at last, "I suppose that would be pretty practical, nobody could say that you had intended it. Nobody could say that you broke with your orders."
"Of course," Ursa waved over a crew member, "How much longer until we dock."
...
Katara sat up, her head still spinning, Ozai, the surgeons, and the guards nowhere in sight. Zuko was kneeling at the foot of her bed, his head cradled in his arms as he slept. She looked out the window, the sun had set, and the moon had risen, though her body could have told her that much. They appeared to have left the prison, though Katara had no clue where the Lord had moved her to.
She reached out and patted his arm to wake him, he shouldn't be sleeping kneeling on the floor like that, he would wake up with the most awful back ache. He yawned and raised his head, blinking the grogginess from his eyes.
"You're awake!" He crawled onto the bed and sat down, "'Tara, you passed out for hours! I thought you had gotten stuck somewhere, you know, between minds or something."
"I'm fine." She told him again, patting his hand reassuringly and smiling. What had happened with Ozai after she had lost consciousness? If anything did, Zuko, at least, did not seem mad about it.
"For the record, I am no longer going to believe you when you say that." He simmered, "It's always a lie!"
"Not ALWAYS . . ." She persevered, but before she had assembled a supporting argument, he was kissing her. Kissing her like he had convinced himself that she was lost to him, trapped somewhere between his father's mind and her own.
She sighed softly as he broke the kiss, and then pulled him down next to her, "I found the memory of that night." She confessed, looking at the ceiling, "Ursa, she did kill your grandfather. Your suspicions were true, but, Ozai didn't know where she went. He hadn't planned for that."
Zuko swore, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.
Way to kill the mood, Katara, you couldn't have waited until AFTER he had ravished you out of desperation and guilt? Quickly, she began recounting what she saw, everything was a little muddled, but she struggled her way through the love triangle, the mysterious parentage, the vocal talents, and finally, the discussion before the murder. As she talked, she made sure to leave out any implications that Ozai had proposed. That was just another thing on the long list of things that Zuko never needed to know.
When she was done, he swore and banged a fist into the mattress.
"I can go back in if you want." The water bender offered, hoping he would not take her up on it.
"No way am I letting you back near that man!" Zuko fumed, then lowered his voice, saying in a horrified tone, "I think he . . . I think he WANTS you!!"
Katara did her best to look shocked and scandalized, "Really?"
"Damn it," Zuko put his head down on her chest, cuddling up under her chin in a surprisingly childlike manner, "I don't know what else to do, Maybe I could hire June to look for her, but I don't have anything that belongs to her."
"Nothing?!"
"Father had all her things burnt a week or two after she vanished."
Katara stroked his hair and remembered the way Ursa had looked at Zuko's uncle, "What about Iroh? Do you think he might have something of hers?"
"Maybe, but, I doubt it," Zuko shook his head, which translated into rubbing the rough skin of his scarred brow across the bare skin of her chest, "I still can't believe all this time she . . ."
Katara shrugged, "He was very handsome when he was younger." Zuko stopped, and she added hurriedly, "I mean, I assume he was . . ."
"So what now? We're out of leads . . ." He was letting it brush off his shoulder for then, after all, he was the one in her arms, not his uncle.
Katara thought about it as she stroked his hair. What were they to do? How much time could they reasonably devote to this endeavor? He should be finding his sister and getting his country back together, not going on a wild mother goose chase.
"I should go see Hama." She said at last, "You should write your uncle."
"You're not going to go visit anyone until we have my sister behind bars." He reprimand.
"I can protect myself!"
"I don't want you stumbling into the throne room all of a sudden looking like Aang!!"
Katara thought of Azula's mouth and shuddered.
The jerk bender did have a point.
Jerk bender also needed to stop rubbing her with his scar, or she was going to jump him.
"So where are we? Still at the prison?"
"We're in the infirmary. It's part of the complex." Zuko swallowed, fidgeting with the blankets. His thought train had gone from Aang to his sister to hickeys to Katara, to him giving Katara hickeys faster than he cared to admit. He kicked himself for having a one track mind, all the trains of thought would eventually go to one place. That place just so happened to be naked-town.
"Okay," Katara's voice jerked him back to fully clothed reality, "So, first we find your sister, then we look for your mother. Jeez Zuko, I spend more time tracking down the women of your family . . . If you ever have explorative daughters, you are screwed."
I hope not in that order . . . Zuko smiled, "If one of them runs off, I'll know just who to call to fetch her back."
"Oh no, I won't have time to baby sit, I'll be very very busy." Katara informed him.
"Doing what?"
"You know, Water Bending, and stuff." Katara waved her hand loftily, as though it should be obvious. She gasped as Zuko began kissing her neck.
"Go on," He murmured into her neck, prompting her.
"And . . . helping rebuild . . . umm . . . the place . . ." She moaned suddenly as his mouth found a sensitive spot. Her muscles tightened beneath him like a lute string, as she fought to finish her sentence. She felt him smile into her neck, he was enjoying flustering her! Now he was really in for it . . .
She buried her fingers into his tresses and pulled him up for a kiss, her head beginning to feel light from something entirely unrelated to water bending, or fainting. His hands were sliding up under her top, and she helped him pull it over her head, revealing her bindings underneath. The relaxed atmosphere of the room turned warm and purposeful as slowly, layer after layer of their cloths were peeled off and discarded.
Katara let herself go, pushing the fire bender into the bed and straddling him with wild abandon. She had fought him several times, she knew she wouldn't hurt him, and even if she did . . . well, she knew he could take it. After all, you didn't spend the better part of a year slamming someone into slabs of ice without developing a certain expectation of their tolerances.
His hands had found her hips, and he began tugging at her skirts, trying to figure out how they came off without actually looking at them or devoting any of his attention to them. He gasped as Katara bit down hard on his neck, eagerly pressing her bare torso into him, pinning his hands between them, her piercings scratching in the most pleasantly painful manner. He gave up, the whirlwind of impatient water bender in his lap would deal with things like her pants when she was good and ready. He untangled his hands, and pulled her hair aside to watch her.
She pressed her lips to him, listening to his sighs and his writhing movements to guide her. The scar on his chest blossomed out in front of her, and she ran her fingers over it. His chest seemed a lot better now, but she decided further investigation was needed. She let her fingertips stroke across his ribs, then down his stomach, teasingly sliding under the hem of his pants, and then away. She could feel him, totally aroused, pressing into her inner thigh, and she let herself rock against him inconspicuously as she moved.
Stroking his fingertips up her back, he admired the coiled muscles he touched, feeling them relax and contract as she shifted around, and he cried out softly in surprise and delight as her tongue flicked out across one of his nipples. She urgently explored him with a desire that made even a master fire bender feel shivers run down his body to his toes. His chest, his arms, his palms, his stomach . . . he growled, bucking up into her, pleadingly, he barely had time to murmur her name before her mouth was crushed to his again, and they both drew back as an electrical shock zapped them both.
Katara sat back, her eyes wide, her fingers over her swollen lips, and Zuko stared back in astonishment. He brought his hands up to his own lips, looking around as though the explanation was hovering in the air around him somewhere.
"What was . . .?" she asked.
"Static . . ." he cut in breathlessly before it could break the mood, and she nodded and bent over him again, her lips tentative at first, but soon gaining back the hunger they had held moments before.
He had the vague sensation that he was laying on the river rocks, a waterfall tumbling down and drenching him, the torrents of cascading liquid pressing him into the ground. He returned her kiss, matching her ardor with a ferocity all his own, his mind dismissing any thoughts of lightening in favor of pure chemistry.
He couldn't take much more of the bender squirming on top of him, taking her time, touching him, kissing him, he had stamina, but he was going to finish with his pants still on at this rate. He wanted to touch her, to taste her, the heat between them spiked. He slowly tried to sit up, but Katara nipped the expanse of stomach she was kissing and pushed him back down, a hand on his chest. He frowned and reached out to take her waist and roll her, but she grabbed his wrists and pressed them into the mattress, her nails digging into his wrists. He scowled up at her fiercely, and snorted out a lungful of smoke through his nose, she was trying to torture him to death, he was sure of it. He was about to muscle his way up and drag them both to the floor when she released him her hands going to the waistband of her pants.
Katara swallowed, wishing she had some of Ozai's sexual confidence right then, her body spurred her on, through her shyness, and she pulled the skirts off, up over her head so she wouldn't have to dismount. Zuko had stilled, barely breathing, his eyes locked on her fingertips, entranced by their movements. She began to unbutton his pants, shifting to lay next to him so she could pull them off. The Fire Lord sat up now that he was 'allowed' to, propping himself on his elbows and studying her.
The silk slid through her fingers and pooled softly on the floor, Katara barely heard it. She had never really seen a naked man before that wasn't about to be healed. Her body tightened, her stomach fluttered, and she reached out. Tentatively at first, she brushed her fingers over his knee, then up his thigh, she shifted closer, gaining confidence as she moved. Zuko reached out, his fingers guiding her's to his erogenous zones, and she lowered her head to taste him, unbidden. Spirits, she is a fast learner . . .
Her tongue ran down his length, exploring, and he resisted the urge to grab her hair and pull her down onto him. Her lips felt so alien and alluring, wonderful in ways he had never imagined, and he wanted more, he wanted her closer.
After three unsuccessful guesses as to which was the right strap to pull, Katara guided his hand and slipped his fingers under one of them, a quick tug, and everything came loose, pooling around her seductively. She placed both hands on his chest, and straddled him, the air freezing in anticipation.
"Are you sure-" Zuko found himself rambling, feeling like he aught to make some sort of gesture, but she silenced him with a kiss, a demanding one. As their tongues met, she sank down onto his lap, wincing softly into his mouth. His hands were everywhere, petting her, caressing her, holding her, trying to comfort her.
"Zuko . . ." Katara whispered when they finally broke the kiss, "I'm fine."
"I thought I told you that I wasn't going to believe you any more when you said that to me." His voice sounded worried, but cut off into a sharp intake of breath as Katara experimentally shifted, finding her bearings astride the man. His hands grabbed her thighs, steadying her, pulling her further down against him.
For water benders, things involving balance, rhythm, and flow were picked up quickly, and love making was no different. Katara quickly got the hang of it, and soon kicked their speed up to a gallop, reveling in the sensations of her body, and the rising of the moon. Zuko writhed beneath her like a dragon, his head tossing this way and that, tangling his hair and matting it to his face.
Was the temperature going up or down? She swore she could see her own breath, but Zuko's hair was matted with sweat, and when she reached down to touch him, he yelped, her hands like ice, or perhaps his own flesh searing. She threw her head back, feeling herself cresting, feeling the moon reaching it's zenith, and collapsed on top of him, her teeth finding his pulse. It was a feeling like she was floating, an she quaked in the sudden deluge of pleasure, the muscles of her stomach clamping down on their own accord.
Zuko was saying something . . . her name, repeating it again and again, he was tugging on her hair, she hardly noticed. She did notice however, when the air was suddenly filled with lightening, spider webbing it's way across the walls and ceiling. She threw an arm over Zuko's head protectively, flattening herself against him, and watched in mingled terror and admiration as the charges slowly fizzled out.
She sat up and stared at her lover, trying to decide if she should scold him, question him, or congratulate him. His gold eyes fluttered open, and he opened his mouth, his chest heaving.
"I . . ." he started, swallowed, then tried again, "What . . ."
Katara leaned forward and kissed him, silencing any attempted explinations, a final zap of electricity illuminating the room for an instant when their lips met...
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Whoo for the people who got the Dusk Blooming choke vines reference!! Wow, that was like, 10 chapters ago . . . you were really going for the element of surprise, I bet. Lulling me into a false sense of homage security.
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Ok, so I apologies if this sucks, I totally must have consumed at least four glasses of wine while I was typing, to, ya know, get the creative Zutara juices flowing . . .
You know! Whatever! It's my night off and I'm here writing Zutara fan fic, all my friends suck because they have Thursday midterms instead of Wednesday ones like cool people like me . . . :shifty eyes:
So, sorry if there are some spelling and grammar errors, I will most assuredly correct them when I am sober.
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ZUTARA!! YEA!! Dante Basco is pretty much officially on board!!
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I'm glad people like the lightening, it was supposed to be a play on "seeing fireworks" or "seeing stars"
Poor Zuko finally figured out how to separate his positive and negative energies . . . I wonder if that's how Iroh and Azula learned as well . . .
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Read and review! Questions, comments, sexy predictions . . .