Title: Midsummer Madness
Author: Burning_Ice
Rating: R
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: while I don't own Avatar, the Last Airbender, I'm not making any money off of it, I don't plan to, it's not mine, this is totally fan made.
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Chapter 26:
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"The party is probably over by now it's two candle marks after midnight, you really should go talk to him, If nothing else, tell him the rest about Ursa, or maybe see if you can figure out the earth noblewoman." Suki ran a brush through her hair where she knelt on Katara's bed, "Especially if you're going out with Aang tomorrow morning. Call me crazy, but I don't think Zuko is as self secure as he lets on."
She had spent the last hour relating a vague, ranting account to Suki of everything that had happened. From the mind bending, to getting come on to by Zuko's father, to her father encouraging her to marry, to the servants whispering about Ursa. Some of it the warrior already knew, but she had listened patiently as the girl ranted anyways.
"What am I supposed to say to him?" Katara put her head in her arms, "He is all upset because my family is trying to push me into a marriage. How is that my fault?!"
"Hahaha," She wiggled back and forth, "Oh man, Sokka's expression was priceless! 'We aren't friends, he doesn't think of me as an equal, and he isn't even a powerful bender!!'" Suki mimicked her friend's tone.
"Yea, I bet they're going to have trouble recruiting any more suitors after the men up north find out just how docile I am." Katara rubbed her temples, now that she was no longer mad, she felt humiliated by her behavior.
"Who cares, you should run off to live in the foggy swamp if they keep pressing you." Suki uncrossed her ankles and sat up, "No Water tribesmen will dare get within a mile of one of those, especially after Sokka gets done telling tall tales about them. I know a dangerous woman when I see one."
That comment reminded Katara, and she leaned against her dresser and crossed her arms, deciding to tell her friend about the thread that held all the pieces of the puzzle together.
"Suki, have you ever heard of a Siren?"
"Why are you changing the subject?"
"Suki!"
"Yes, they're a myth, they're supposed to be half human, half fish, with voices so compelling that anyone who heard it would do as they were commanded. There is this myth of these pirates who ran across some sunbathing and singing on an outcropping at sea, and they scuttled their ship on the rocks and were drowned by the malicious women while they were trying to reach them." Suki scoffed at this, "At least, that's the way the men try to swing it. If I was minding my own business, singing on a rock in the middle of the ocean with my warriors, and suddenly a bunch of women-deprived slime ball pirates land, ready to ravage my mouth, and any girl parts I may or may not have, I would order them to drown themselves too! It's self defense!! It's not like-"
"No, not an animal . . . or . . . person, I mean, something like an organization."
Suki frowned then slowly and meaningfully bit out, "Don't get involved."
"So, you've heard of them!!" Katara was relieved, "Ursa is mixed up in it, and I think . . . I think to find her I shoul-"
"Don't get involved with them," Suki told her again.
"I know the two girls after Zuko are involved, and I think Hama was, or is, too." Katara forged on, ignoring Suki's advice, "She want's to meet with me. She probably has more to teach me, probably another dreadful technique, but, I think, maybe I can bargain with her, Ursa's location if I submit to learning the technique."
"It's a bad idea." Suki told her darkly.
Katara huffed, she thought it was pretty plausible.
"From what you tell me, Hama was off her rocker in her old age."
"So is King Bumi, but everyone loves him"
"So is Azula." Suki retorted, "Need I say more?"
"But-"
"Stop making excuses for everyone and accept the situation at hand and deal with it." Suki scolded in the tone she used when she barked orders to her Kyoshi, "Why haven't you told Zuko his mother is high ranking in some sort of secret organization?"
"I-"
"Why haven't you told him about the two women trying to seduce and destroy him?"
"Well-"
"Why haven't you told everyone that you are in love with the Fire Lord?"
"But I was-"
"Why haven't you summoned the servant that you saw talking for questioning?"
"Do you think-" Katara paused, and when no interruption came, she finished, "Do you think that I should confront her?"
Suki sighed, "What was her name again? Lyire, right? I remember it because it sounds like liar, and I thought it was fitting."
Katara pulled her door open and cleared her throat. The guard posted there, who had been napping, stood quickly to attention.
"How may I be of service, Master Waterbender Katara?"
"I need you to fetch a servant for me."
"Sorry, Master, I was told to watch you in case the Princess attacks. You can summon one by pulling on the-"
"No, I need a specific one . . . Her name is Lyire."
"But Master-"
"She is a master waterbender, and with the captain of the Kyoshi warriors in a palace full of royal guests," Suki sounded authoritative, "There is no need to summon one servant to get another, they are probably killing themselves trying to run food and drink back and forth from the kitchen to the ballroom."
"Yes, Ma'am, What shall I tell her you want her to bring, or do . . . or clean, as far as I know, she doesn't really have a specialty . . ." The guard seemed confused, but admitted defeat and stepped away from his post.
Katara and Suki looked at one another for a minute, neither of them had an answer as to why they wanted a specific servant.
"We want . . . um . . . cherries." Katara blurted out, it had been the first thing to jump into her head.
"I want a plate of fruit tarts." Suki tried.
"and I want to know what kind of herbs Lyire uses in her hair." Katara supplied a second later, since they didn't specifically need her for the cherries.
"So, we want to kill two birds with one stone." Suki finished awkwardly. She had never been great at lying or name calling, but she recovered quickly, "I also want you to round up a squad of men and sweep the grounds, there was talk of someone sneaking onto the grounds earlier."
"Pay special attention to the . . ." Katara frowned, trying to remember where Lyire had said she was, "'Far field of berries', that's where she came in."
"Er, the one of tiger berries or the one of fire plums?"
"Both!" Suki glared, "And report back to me whether or not you find something . . . and go get Ty Lee!"
"Well, that wasn't suspicious." Katara muttered after she had closed the door.
"Eh, he's a man, he is probably just thinking 'girls are crazy' and jogging off down the hall."
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Zuko was sure that the only thing keeping him in the throne room was the earth bender clinging hard to his arm. It was as though her feet were rooted to the spot, every time he tried to pull her towards the door, she would lean into her heels and refuse to budge. He wasn't sure if she was looking out for Katara, keeping him well away until the waterbender had cooled off, or annoying him, by refusing to let him get his way, or looking out for him by forcing him to stay until the proceedings were over with. It would be rude for a host to vanish halfway through the night.
Half heartedly, he agreed with whatever Bumi had said to him, and glanced around the room again. Katara and Suki had wandered out a bit earlier, talking furtively, Sokka was talking to Ty Lee, who seemed to be demonstrating some sort of breathing technique, and Aang was on a chair in the corner, starting to dose off.
"So Master Toph, the Avatar is almost fully trained, Haru tells me you have asked him about helping with the reconstruction?" Bumi grinned and swirled his glass, it would have been much more effective had there actually been liquid in it.
"Well, They wiped out almost everything for miles from Omashu to the Great Divide. I thought they might like a metal bender to help, at least with some of the framework." Toph shrugged, "I don't really have anywhere TO go."
"You're not going home to see your parents?"
"NO!!" Toph choked out, "No, I love them, but, no. They'll try to make me a lady."
Zuko decided not to point out that Toph had been acting like a lady for most of the night, and she was doing a pretty damn good job of it. Although it was a compliment, he had the feeling that he would get an elbow in the ribs for it.
Bumi rose a few minutes later, to go find drink ofr his goblet, and Zuko stood as well, starting to leave. Toph yanked him back down.
"Stop being so jumpy." She told him, "You're getting as bad as Napping Toes over there."
"I just . . . Katara and I should be sweeping the grounds, or something . . ."
"I think you pissed Katara off by being justifiably jealous." Toph placidly picked up a fire flake from his plate and popped it in her mouth, changing the subject, "Call me crazy, but I get the feeling that there might be something she isn't telling you."
"Really?" Zuko frowned, Katara was one of the most honest people he knew, apart from uncle. It just didn't seem like her to keep things from him, but it wasn't like her to keep things from Aang either. The more he thought about it though, the more plausible it became. She was independent and protective, and it seemed like she was always one step ahead of him, especially in the search for his mother. He felt as though she was dragging him in her wake as she searched for him, instead of them working as a team. It had started as a favor between old friends, but Zuko was beginning to worry if it meant more to her than that. It was like she was trying to give him the chance to have the one thing in the world she wanted more desperately than anything else: a long gone mother back from the spirit world.
"Yea, but, no worries, maybe it's just a private girl thing that she prefers to handle with girls." Toph picked up a dumpling from his plate and delicately put it in her mouth.
"I happen to be her slightly unwilling go-to-guy for most of her 'private girl things'" Zuko mumbled, "It's part of the reason we went to the swamp."
"Do you want my advice, Sparky?" Toph asked, then continued before he could ascent or decline, "I think you should give her a little time to cool off, she is mad at the water tribe men, but I'm sure she would take it out on you if given the chance. Then in a hour or two, go apologize even though you have nothing to apologize for, say you overreacted to the kiss, and that you believe her that it was an accident, but that you don't want it to happen again, so she better tell Aang that she isn't . . . you know, up for grabs-and-kisses anymore."
Zuko pinched his nose, frowning and thinking. Without looking, he pulled his plate away so Toph, who had been making another grab couldn't reach.
"Hey!"
"Toph, stop it, if you want some fire flakes, we can go get you some." He told her.
Toph rolled her glassy eyes, "You know, I am testing your food for poison . . . and love potions. You should be thanking me, you're welcome, by the way."
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The sea.
Azula HATED the sea.
It wasn't that it was wet, or cold, or full of little wriggling things, though that was definitely part of it. It was that it reminded her of her mother, and it reminded her of Katara. The two women who she hated the most in all the world, the two women she had not been able to take away from her stupid brother.
"Azula, how much longer are we going to stay here?" Mai asked plaintively, wrapping her cloths around her so they fit more snugly, "Words cannot express how much I hate being out here."
That made two of them.
"Go back to the inn then."
"The men leer at me if you're not there."
"Deal with it, I'm not your boyfriend,"
"Actually, yea, you kind of are." Mai complained, "So come back with me, I'm hungry."
Azula glared, nothing she did ever seemed to change the girl. Not even electrocuting her had helped. Mai didn't fear her, she treated her like a field of landmines; only step where you knew was safe. If she saw her would be fiancé getting too agitated, she would back off or distract her.
"Did you see something out there?" Azula asked suddenly, scampering to the edge of the cliff face and peering out over the moonlit water. She could have sworn she saw a head break the surface.
"It's probably just a boat." Mai told her in her usual bored, whiney monotone.
"Or it would be a sneaking water bender."
"Azula, you haven't been sleeping, you look like you're about to collapse, you have huge dark circles under your eyes." Mai seemed genuinely concerned, but Azula was beyond believing a word from that woman's mouth, "You need to sleep, eat, and drink something without alcohol in it or you'll make yourself sick. Sicker."
Azula hissed and bent to a crouch, peering at where the waves crashed several hundred feet below. Nothing but froth and waves churned below, but Azula kept watching, ignoring Mai's chatter. When she finally looked up, she was alone, and the sliver of moon had risen several arc minutes in the sky. How long had she been spaced out?
"WHERE ARE YOU!?" She yelled suddenly, her voice echoing out over the water. "I'M WAITING FOR YOU!!! I'm still . . . waiting for you . . ." the last few words came out pitifully, chocking with a suppressed sob, and Azula felt her lower lip tremble. She bit it harshly and shook her head to clear it, before sinking down on the rock Mai had monopolized earlier.
It still haunted her sometimes, though she wasn't sure why. She couldn't remember everything, and that bothered her, it was as though her own brain betrayed her by not recording everything that happened that night.
Azula closed her eyes.
She had woken with a start before the night had turned to early morning, she wasn't sure why anymore, though she assumed it had been a nightmare. She called for her mother, even though she knew that she would never be able to hear her across the vast castle. Strains of conversation and laughter still wafted up from the floors below, and she could hear servants scurrying back and forth.
On trembling knees, Azula remembered she had risen, it was stuffy in her room, and she wanted some fresh air. Although she wouldn't admit it to herself, she was scared to be in the big dark room alone. Any shadow could have held an assassin, any window a monster, and she craved to be out in the life filled corridors again.
She had padded off down the hallway, sticking to the wall and keeping out of sight. There were still plenty of servants about, and any one of them would try to send her off to bed if they caught her out.
Following the curve of the hall, she found herself at Zuko's door, and she had considered sneaking into his room and jumping on him, pretending to be a murderer. He would always scream and cry and carry on until their mother came running. She would always come running for him . . . In fact, the only attention she ever got from the damn woman was when she was yelling at her, usually about Zuko.
She had quickly moved on, Zuko was a pathetic older brother who couldn't even bend better than her, despite their year's age difference. He wouldn't even be able to protect her if he had to. All he would have been able to do was jump in front of an attack. Firebending was about taking determination and rage and channeling it into your bending, and that was what Azula did, and soon, to her satisfaction, she found herself excelling at the art. That got her Ozai's attention, and that had had to be good enough.
Her muddled thoughts focused again on the memory and she remembered walking past her grandfather's room. The door opened suddenly and she had to duck behind the curtain to avoid being seen by any servant or courtesan coming out.
To her surprise, it had been Ursa. She looked pale and stricken in the moonlight, and Azula glanced past her to see her grandfather slumped on the floor, his topaz eyes wide and sightless his fingers still spasming. She had been glad that someone had finally taken it upon themselves to put the old bat out of his misery, but she became furious when her young mind connected the dots and she realized why Ursa had. She had done it to save Zuko.
Azula couldn't remember clearly whether or not she cried, but she thought she did. She knew she followed her mother, but she couldn't remember it well. Just slinking along the floor and hiding in the shadows. She had only gone to the Academy for one season, so she didn't know much more than one semester's worth of stealth training, but it seemed to be enough. Ursa never knew she was there.
As usual.
"Fire Lady!" A woman grabbed her and pulled her to the side, "You have spoiled everything!!"
Ursa didn't say anything.
"Ozai, Ozai will kill us all!! You had orders to keep him from the throne at all cost! With his father dead, you know he will make a bid for it in his brother's absence!! Oh you have damned us all to decades more of war!!!"
"I did what I had to do."
"You must run! They'll be angry, and their actions will be efficient and swift, they'll wipe out Ozai and his line to make sure Iroh is crowned."
"I know. You will get me an appeal to the council, I will change their mind." It was an order.
"That's all the way to the Earth Kingdom!!"
Azula shuddered at her mother's voice, even at that age it had sounded wrong to her. She had figured out that something about Ursa's voice made people do things, it didn't make sense though, Ursa could never order her or Zuko to do anything. She remembered once the older woman had tried it, Zuko was throwing a monster tantrum because he didn't want to go home from Ember Island, Ursa had ordered him to be quiet in that same tone, and it had had absolutely no effect.
"Yes ma'am, we'll need to leave now."
"I have to say goodbye first." Ursa turned to Zuko's door and pushed it open, entering.
Azula had felt panic then, and had rushed back to her room. She didn't understand then where her mother was going, but she did want to be in her room when her mother came to say goodbye to her. She didn't want to miss it, she wanted the attention, and her traitorous heart sped up in anticipation of getting a hug and a kiss.
"STUPID!!" Azula yelled out over the waves again, her face burning in shame even years later, "YOU'RE SO STUPID!!" She clasped her forearms, digging her nails in hard. "Stupid . . ."
She had sat unblinking in bed until the sun rose, Ursa had not come.
"YOU THOUGHT SHE WOULD ACTUALLY COME?! YOU'RE A MONSTER!! SHE HATED YOU!!" She yelled again, her face contorting with self loathing. She wasn't sure if she was talking to Ursa or herself.
"WHERE ARE YOU!!??" She finally yelled when her blood sung to her that it was dawn. The servants came running, but her mother was not among them.
"WHERE ARE YOU!!??" Azula screamed out again, staggering to her feet, knees practically buckling under the weight of her rage, "HOW MANY PEOPLE DO I HAVE TO KILL?! HOW MUCH OF A MONSTER DO I HAVE TO BE!?!? You're never going to come, are you?"
"Princess, what is all the fuss?!" Lo came bustling in, Lee only a step behind her.
Azula felt humiliated, she felt abandoned, she felt angry, she doubled over in the covers and shook. Her lips wobbled, but she pushed the sadness away, pushing it down. Her mother hated her? Well, Azula would hate her back!!
"I HATE YOU!!" Azula's taxed body finally crumpled and she landed hard on her hands and knees, unsure whether she was talking to Ursa or herself. Rocking her weight backward, she mirrored her posture from the memory, her back muscles began to twitch from the tension.
"I'm so sorry, my daughter." The princess looked down, seeing her mother's shadow on the turf, but when she looked up, she was alone.
"AZULA!!" It was Mai this time, flanked by two boys who worked in the stable of the seedy in where they were staying, "Azula! What the hell is wrong with you?! You're acting insane!"
"Nothing!" Azula smiled, "I am getting saner! I think I understand. I think I understand everything!!"
Mai looked nonplussed, "You fainted so I went and got some stable boys to help me carry you back to your room, I come back and you're yelling your head off at the ocean!!"
"In my opinion, we should carry her to the asylum. Right Gen?" One whispered to the other.
Electricity sparkled through Azula's fingertips and Mai shut up, taking a step backwards.
"Azula, come back to the room," Mai sounded the closest to pleading that Azula had ever heard, and it made her grin.
"Who's going to stop me? Mom?" Azula taunted Zuko.
She was relishing the newfound freedom. She used everything at her disposal to make her brother's life a living hell. She waited up every night until almost dawn for her mother to come.
She never did.
She hated her so much . . .
Whatever happened next was a blur, she must have lost consciousness again, because when she came around the Innkeeper's wife and Mai were trying to spoon a warm mash down her throat.
"Maybe if you water it down some more." Apparently, Mai was supervising.
Azula hacked, and gasped, pushing the wooden spoon and the hand attached out of her face. Her stomach flipped over, and she barely had time to double over before she was throwing up on the floor the contents of her stomach which she had not remembered swallowing.
The older woman was holding her jagged hair back, and Mai retreated several steps, looking away, grossed out.
"You're . . . . –cough- . . . . You're trying to DRUG me!" She accused the woman.
"No, No dearie, you're just not well, when was the last time you ate?"
"Before she tortured those three bounty hunters." Mai supplied, waving a hand in front of her face, as though she was trying to dispel the smell of Azula's stomach acids.
"You're both plotting to capture me! You want to turn me in to my brother for the reward!! You want to kill me!!" Azula grabbed for the woman's wrists, but her vision blurred, and her hand grasped nothing but air, and she began to topple off the chair.
"I'm no healer, but you're dehydrated and exhausted. You're delirious." The woman's hands found her shoulders and steadied her.
"Don't deny it! You're all just waiting for the perfect chance . . .!!" Azula blasted the room full of lightening, aimed in all directions.
She heard the woman scream and Mai grunt, and then nothing. Azula jumped up. Though she felt no sensation of falling, the room tilted wildly up to meet her horizontally, and she sprawled onto it. Daggers pinned her to the floor by her clothing, but a few wiggles and Azula heard the pinned cloth tear, releasing her. Someone grabbed her shoulders, and she clawed at where their head should be, her hand connected, her nails finding purchase and slicing, and they let go.
Her vision cleared, and she saw Mai reeling back, clutching her face, blood spilling out between her fingers. She was screaming and swearing, howling and calling Azula every foul name she knew. From what Azula could see, one of her fingernails had caught her eyelid, perhaps even the eye beneath, and another had sliced her lip clean open. On top of that there were three other gashes across her cheek and forehead.
"Now stop that swearing this instant and help me hold her down! Can't you see she isn't well? Mind her fingers!" The innkeeper's wife was about four times as large as Mai, and she used her sizable fat to pin the struggling royal to the floor, "Why haven't you brought your friend to a healer?" she said accusingly to Mai.
"I don't need a healer, I need my mother!!" Azula hissed.
"That ain't no lie." The woman muttered.
"I thought she would run herself into the ground days ago! She hasn't slept as all for weeks!!" Mai sounded defensive, her voice spluttering through the blood dripping into her mouth and her now severed lip, "Why are you taking her side?! She just ripped open my FACE!!"
Azula laughed in satisfaction as her vision clouded black again. She didn't feel guilty in the least for drawing her second most loyal friend's blood. Something connected sharply with her head, and all was black.
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Lyire huffed as
she arranged the tarts on the plate. It had been a bad night.
Yelled at by Cook, threatened by the Fire Lady, running back and
forth carrying plates, having to deal with that infernal aristocrat
that thought herself sooo damn eloquent, and finally getting singled
out to make a snack run. She had hoped to slip away to send a
message to their ranking that night, in case her partner decided to
take more credit than she deserved.
"Jeez, that many tarts?" one of the other girls giggled as she passed, "Is the Lady Mai visiting?"
"Ha Ha." Lyre responded dryly, wiping sweat from her forehead with her forearm.
"And make sure you get all the cherry pits out this time. You remember what happened the last time you forgot one."
"Shut up!" Lyire barked, it was well past midnight, and she had been up since long before dawn, and was in no mood to be teased about her one-day banishment. She picked up a plate in each palm and pushed through the 'out' door of the kitchen, her mood still black. Why had the guard insisted that it had to be her? She couldn't get a straight answer out of him, he said he forgot, something about hair. Lyire wasn't a stylist, they should be summoning one of the senior ladies in waiting. Who wanted hair advice at two a.m. anyways?
Precariously balancing both trays on one arm, she knocked on Master Katara's guest room.
"Come in." She heard one of them call.
Pushing the latch down, she stepped inside, "Where would you like these . . Master . . . Ka . . . . ta . . . . . . ra . . . . . . ?"
Three girls were glaring at her, their arms crossed.
"The table." Suki told her, pointing.
Lyire gulped, her hands shaking as she closed the door behind her. This was not good. The female of the species was far more deadly than the male, and she had two angry female martial artists and a master bender on her hands. Ty Lee discreetly stepped between her and the door, and Katara between her in the window, and they all drew closer.
"Now, Lyire, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way."
Dropping her plates onto the table, she bolted, but the Kyoshi grabbed her around the waist, pivoted around, and flung her back onto the floor, using her momentum against her.
"Tell us about Ursa!" Suki ordered.
"No, make her tell us about the Earth Kingdom girl." Katara cut in
Lyire glanced back and forth, then tried to make herself as pathetic looking as possible, sometimes when played right, one could invoke pity and use it to one's advantage. She knew from word of mouth that the water bending brat was motherly, so she focused on her.
"Please don't hurt me?" the servant girl willed her eyes to tear, "I didn't do anything! Master Katara, don't let her hurt me!"
"We're not-"
"Katara!" Suki cut her off, "Tell us what we want to know and we'll let you go unharmed. If not . . ."
Lyire swallowed and nodded, trying to look pitiful.
"What do you know about Ursa?"
"Nothing!"
"You're lying." Ty Lee accused, her voice taking on a slight edge of anger, "Your aura is turning black, boy, girl are you ever scared . . ."
"I know you saw her this morning." Suki stepped closer, "If you don't tell us everything you know, I will see to it that the Fire Lord himself questions you, and he is very very desperate to hear news of his mother."
"Zuko isn't his sister." Lyire spat out, suddenly dropping her helpless act, clearly it was not working on the Kyoshi, "He won't harm me."
"No. HE won't." Katara spoke suddenly, and everyone looked at her, "This is wasting time, Ty Lee, hand me my water skin."
Ty Lee did so, prancing across the room and bringing it over.
"I owe Zuko, I owe him one mother's worth of parental closure, and I plan to deliver. He helped me let go of mine, and I am going to help him reel his in. No matter what." She uncorked her skin and drew out a measure of water, "Tell me everything, EVERYTHING you know about Ursa, or I will take it from you."
"Katara?" Ty Lee shifted back and forth uneasily, "This isn't like you . . ."
"Ty Lee, hit her so she can't move her head, Suki, hold her in place in case she writhes." Katara crouched down, adjusting her cloths with a free hand.
As Ty Lee stepped around her, reluctantly jabbing her in a few key points along her collarbone and spine, Suki leaned in.
"I thought you could only do this during the full moon or one of your spikes?"
"It's a lot more difficult, but, I'm feeling lucky." Katara replied darkly.
"Okay," Suki grabbed the slumped girl by her ponytail and flipped her over, straddling her and holding her in place.
Reaching down, Katara pressed the water to the girl's forehead, her brow furrowed in desperation. Several long minutes past, and Ty Lee finally elbowed Suki, and whispered a furtive question.
"Is something . . . is something happening?"
"Shhhh!"
A few more seconds, and Ty Lee opened her mouth again, but before she could speak, Lyire started shrieking. Her whole body tensed and untensed as she writhed in apparent agony. Suki clamped her hand over the older girl's mouth, though it didn't do much to stifle her. The only testament that Katara was doing anything at all was the sweat that suddenly sprung up on her brow, and dripped down her nose. As they watched Katara began to shake as well, her whole body twitching like an overworked muscle, the color draining from her face.
"Katara be gentle!! If you can't, you can't." Ty Lee stepped anxiously back and forth. Tens of minutes crawled by, and soon the servant's screams turned to whimpering. If Lyire had been fighting it, she was finally giving up. None too soon, for that matter. Katara looked as though she was about to collapse, her hands shook, her skin had turned ashen and cold to the touch, it seemed to contract around the veins of her neck and arms, making them stand out. Most alarmingly of all, blood was starting to drip copiously from her nose and the corners of her mouth from the effort, and Ty Lee quickly found a rag and caught it before it dripped off her chin.
"Damn it! She doesn't know her partner's name." Katara gasped out suddenly as though she had been holding her breath, and spat out a mouthful of blood, "But I saw Ursa, she was . . . she was asking about me, she didn't look happy. I don't know, her memory is a bit choppy, she was panicking, Ursa was going to make her cut off her finger." Slowly, Katara sank all the way to the floor, her teeth chattering, and pressed her forehead to the cool stone, waiting for the throbbing in her brain to slacken.
"That's messed up!" Ty Lee was suddenly sympathetic, "Zuko's mother always seemed so nice when we were kids!"
"Did you see what the other girl looked like?"
"Tallish, thin, black hair, narrow face, she looked very strict." Katara paused, shakily taking the rag and wiping her face, "she spoke in haikus. Do we have a blanket? I'm freezing!"
Lyire was gasping too, every bit as pale as her aggressor, thought not oozing blood. "She is an aristocrat from Ba Sing Se, she likes to talk in haikus and it's annoying as hell. Look, I'll tell you what you want, just don't do that again!!" There was only so much a girl could stand in a day, and she had definitely reached her breaking point.
Suki looked up at Katara, "Why didn't you mention that? That would have been a big hint, we could have looked in the ballroom for her. Everyone has probably headed off to bed by now."
Katara leaned forward, putting her head between her knees, waiting for the room to stop spinning, "I . . . I didn't notice the first time in the hallway."
"Oh man, we're going to have to like, make Zuko recite some more poetry for you if you can't even recognize a haiku when you hear one!" Ty Lee giggled nervously, her fingers still held up and ready to strike.
Katara huffed.
"You want me to go get him?" Ty Lee offered.
"No, not yet."
"Katara is afraid he is still mad over her little kiss."
"My accidental kiss."
"How do you accidentally kiss someone?" Ty Lee asked overly innocently.
"That's what I'd like to know." Suki grinned back.
"Stop it you guys! Not a good time."
"I think she is just being a coward." Suki taunted, not quite out of her cold, interrogation mindspace.
"I'm not a coward!!"
"Yea! Pfft." Suki rolled her eyes, grinning sarcastically, relieved to lighten the darkening mood by a bit of teasing "Yea Katara, you really proved that one tonight by hiding in your room with me for the tail end of the party."
"You know what?! I don't see you dancing the night away with my brother!!" Suki fell silent at this and Katara got the distinct feeling that she had gone too far. The air was suddenly thick, and Ty Lee busied herself taking the pinch off of the crumpled serving girl.
"I mean . . ." Katara was suddenly feeling guilty about snapping, "What's with our boyfriends? Shouldn't they be outside our door with flowers and apologies?"
"Sokka doesn't really do apologies, he thinks apologies are for lesser men without strength of conviction or fear of consequence."
"Um, Katara?" Ty Lee asked suddenly, "What was she wearing? The woman who recited poetry?"
"It looked like a kimono, it was dark green and embroidered and trimmed with gold with a white chemise underneath." Katara touched her finger to her chin, "And a really gaudy pink floral headpiece."
"I'll find out who she was." Ty Lee promised, "Think we should tell Zuko?"
Suki looked at Katara, delegating the decision to her.
"Yea, probably." Katara mumbled, "I would have loved it if Sokka had clued me in in detail on why Arnook kept pushing his nephew."
They all straightened, hearing someone knock at the door.
"I'll get it. Katara, you stay sitting until you stop trembling," Ty Lee said, hurriedly standing and trotting across the floor.
"If it's that guard, make up a lie about the screaming and send him to the kitchen to bring us a bottle of fire wine." Suki called after her.
Ty Lee pulled open the door to reveal a worn out looking fire lord. Katara shifted and looked away guiltily, her fingers were still wet from 'interrogation', one she wasn't sure she wanted him to know about. How was it he always brought out the most brutal of her instincts?
His hair was starting to escape the topknot, and wisps of it fell around his face. His good eye had a circle under it that was no longer concealed by meticulously applied powder, and his clothes had wrinkled. The heavy shoulder plates he had been wearing earlier were also gone, which was a bit of a relief.
"No, not a guard, Suki, but I think I could probably get them to fetch us some fire wine, shall I try?" Ty Lee called over her shoulder, leaning against the door frame.
"So . . . I'm a jerk." He mumbled appealingly, "Can I talk to Katara?"
"Just come in and join the party," Ty Lee replied tiredly and leaned back on the door to get out of the way.
"Why is one of my ladies in waiting on the floor?" Zuko rubbed his scarside eye.
"Don't ask." Ty Lee sighed, kindly helping the trembling girl to her feet. Lyire was glaring accusingly at the potential air bender, but accepted her help gracefully, without making a fuss, and allowed herself to be righted.
"Wait, was she the one who saw my mother?"
"Yes . . . It's not just Ursa either, She and her friend, they were talking about you too, about us, and about . . ." Katara tried to put it delicately, though just saying it made her temper spike again, "Seducing you and implanting the noblewoman as the next Fire Lady."
Of all the reactions she had expected, giggling was not one she had considered. She stared at the wearily snorting Fire Lord in disbelief as he covered his face with one of his hands. She had half a mind to tell him about his mother's practical amputation as well, but bit her tongue.
"What are you laughing at?!" Katara yelled from the floor, suddenly frustrated.
"Sorry, 'Tara, you just looked so worried . . . nobody is going to seduce me into handing them the Fire Lady's crown." Zuko glanced at Suki, who waved her arms in a 'go for it' gesture. The Fire Lord nodded and reached out, leaning down to place a soft, reassuring kiss on her cheek.
Katara deepened her scowl, but on the inside, her chest relaxed a bit, and she suppressed a sigh of relief.
"This sounds deep, maybe we should tell Sokka what happened, he loves an excuse to wear his detective monocle." Suki suggested
"I thought we were still mad at Sokka?" Ty Lee asked as she closed the door behind her and Lyire.
"Wait wait wait, forget just Sokka, We're calling a group meeting right away!!" Zuko said firmly, "Where is the guard, we should sweep the grounds near where she was and find out anything she knows about where Ursa is going."
"No! No group meeting." Katara said hurriedly, grabbing Zuko's long sleeve and tugging, "It's classified information, I don't want Aang or Sokka to hear it."
The three of them exchanged glances.
"Okay . . ." They all could hear the frustration in Zuko's voice, "Then. What. Do. You. Propose. We. Do." He seemed to drop some sort of emotional shield, and suddenly he looked very weary and hurt.
"We already sent the guards to sweep the area, they'll probably report back soon, we should have them sweep again with trackers at first light." Suki responded automatically, even though the question wasn't directed at her, "As for where Ursa went . . . Katara?"
"Nothing." Katara confessed, looking away, "But . . . June was with her. I saw it . . . I recognized her out of the corner of Lyire's eye."
Zuko hesitated, but didn't remark on her use of her unethical power. His father was one thing, a relatively innocent servant was another.
"Captain Suki?" One of the guards was hollering from the hall, "We found some strange tracks that you might be interested in."
"Let me go double check what they found . . ." Suki stood and crossed the room, "Zuko, don't let her get up until she stops shaking, see if you can warm her up . . . I'll knock before I come back in." She winked and brushed out of the room.
"The moon is rising." Zuko stated, trying to break the silence, as he put his arms around the still reclining bender and heated his skin, "Tomorrow night, do you think you'll lose-"
Katara swallowed hard and cut him off, "I don't think Ursa likes me much."
"Are the servant's giving gossip to the nobles for money?" Zuko seemed displeased. He sat down next to her and placed his hand over hers. "I will tell the Master Cook to have a word with them, they're all scared of him."
"No, just the way she was talking about me," Katara replied glumly, for some reason, it was very important to her what Zuko's mother thought of her, and she was sad she wouldn't even get to make a first impression. Her reputation had already been slandered, "Like I'm not good enough for you."
"Don't worry, I'm sure that she just has the wrong impression." Zuko reassured her, but looked less than pleased that she was implying that his mother was less than perfect and all loving, "I'm sure she'll love you."
Taking the hint of his hardening tone, Katara dropped the matter. She and Ursa would settle things woman to woman if there were any problems. She had the sinking feeling in her stomach all of a sudden that if push came to shove, Zuko would believe his mother over her.
That did not bode well.
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When the color had returned to his lover's face, Zuko had helped her up, (She refused to be carried) and walked her over to her bed. They both had talked back and forth for nearly a candle mark about the new lead they had on Ursa. Best case scenario would be that they could follow her trail to her location. That hardly seemed feasible, the next course of action they could try was looking for June. She was memorable with her whip and her shirshu, and people were always looking for her to hire her.
Suki had come back almost an hour later, and reported that the trail was lost about a mile to the south. They had crossed a river, and the trackers couldn't pick it up again on the opposite bank. They even searched the near bank in case it was a ploy.
"Back to square one." Suki yawned, "They'll have to be vaguely nearby though, probably at a tavern several towns away. The guards ran messengers to the inns in the city, and most of the men are back by now, no reports of the bounty hunter in the capital."
The disappointment permeated the room.
"I'll ask around near Hama's village tomorrow." Katara stated, "On the off chance that Aang and I find them, We can bring them back with us on Appa."
"You're still going?" Zuko sounded as disappointed as he looked.
"I promised him I would," Katara pulled her blankets closer around her, "Plus, I have to have a talk with him . . . straighten some things out."
Zuko immediately brightened.
Suki yawned again, "So, then how about I take Ty Lee south west, and well ask around there, maybe Sokka and Toph can go North, and you can stay here and hold down the fort."
Zuko pressed his lips together, "I don't like the sound of that."
"Have you got a better plan?"
"No," he confessed, pulling his topknot out and finger combing his hair.
Suki had excused herself, saying that she was going to go bunk with Ty Lee, and to call her if they needed anything. Katara didn't ask about Sokka, apparently Suki was shunning sharing a bed with him that particular night. They sat in silence for several minutes, each lost in their own thoughts and fears, until Zuko finally broke the mounting tension.
"You know, this used to be my room." He gave her a small, mischievous smile that would have made Toph proud.
"I had heard as much." Katara smiled back, shivering in the moonlight. A movement entirely unrelated to the cool, end of summer air.
"Yes, and this bed, used to be mine." He leaned in closer to whisper it, and his hot breath danced across her ear.
"You're pervy, you know that?" Katara told him good naturedly, "How long have you been fantasizing about taking me in your childhood room?!"
"I'm a pervert?" his lips found her neck and his chest pressed against hers, a silent suggestion that she should lay back. Katara was all too happy to comply. "How long have you been fantasizing about falling madly into one of those soft piles of fur with me that I hear is so popular in the far south?" He deliberately did not mention Mai or their escapades, and was rather proud of himself for not putting his foot in his mouth so completely.
"You would melt the igloo." She told him flatly as his hands ran up her bare sides, "They don't stand up well to lightening."
Zuko paused at that, and she could see his good ear redden. He lipped her and abruptly drew back, and she whimpered a soft protest and grabbed for him, her fingers closing on his collar.
"You can't stop, Suki ordered you to warm me up!" She pulled him back down over her, her thumb and fore finger cupping his chin but keeping his lips just barely out of reach of her own.
"I'm not a Kyoshi Warrior." Zuko pulled her fingers from his jaw and began kissing them one by one, then pressed his tongue into her palm, running it across her skin in softly tickling circles.
"You could be, I've got the uniform in my trunk. Sokka's done it."
"With the make up!?" As he spoke, his lips moved from her palm to her wrist, and he delicately nuzzled the veins there.
"Of course, the make up is the hottest part!" The corner of the fire lord's nose and mouth rose in horror from where they were pressed to her flesh. She could tell he was imagining it, and he quickly grabbed the covers and hauled them over the both of their heads. The tent created where the cloth draped over his head quickly warmed to an almost uncomfortable degree.
Laughing in something between relief and amusement, Katara wound her legs around the Fire Lord's waist, delighting in the sudden, pleasant sensation of his weight on top of her. Being so close and enclosed, however, changed the mood entirely. She watched his eyes change from playful to intense, and he lowered his mouth to hers, the same rough, desperate kiss she remembered from under the full moon in the swamp a few weeks earlier. Somehow, though he was draped and tied with more fabric than she wanted to think about, (mainly because she would have to figure out how to get it off him) his body contoured into hers so completely that it sent her fingers crawling to the knots of his belt.
It was clear from his near frantic attentions to her mouth that the day had taken it's toll on him emotionally. Her motherly instincts kicked in, and she wanted to touch him, to console him, to make him feel better. To her surprise, his fingers caught hers mid untying and wrapped them back around him in an embrace.
"Zuko . . ." she murmured as he pulled away from the kiss and pressed his nose into her hair, his scar rough against his cheek. His hands roamed over her, then pressed underneath her, settling between her shoulder blades and the small of her back.
"She came to the palace, 'Tara," His grip on her increased, forcing her to shallow breaths. Katara wished for an instant that she hadn't healed him quite so thoroughly, "She doesn't want to see me! Do you think she hates me?"
"No, no!" She reassured him, "I don't know why she did what she did, but I promise, I'll get you a chance to ask."
He looked up, his golden eyes pinning her blue ones, "Do you promise?" Katara ran her thumb over his swollen bottom lip, mesmerized by it as it moved around his words. Even in the soberness of the moment, suddenly all she could think about was him using it on her.
"I swear," She promised after a seconds hesitation.
Even with the pause, he seemed placated, and leaned down again to kiss her severely. The grip of Katara's knees around him tightened, and she moaned softly against his lips. Encouraged by her eager sighs, Zuko ground his hips against hers, his length pressing tantalizingly into her thigh. Usually she was the aggressor in bed, so to speak, but his emotions were burning so heatedly, that it seemed a waste to try to douse them.
Opening her shirt and tugging loose her bindings, in a fluid motion, he lowered his head to taste her. As he moved, the cloth tent around them collapsed with him, and suddenly he was lost from her vision. She felt his fingers trace up her thigh to cup her through the fabric of her pants, and she reached down and grabbed the waistband, and this time, no fingers laced with hers to stop her.
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"Yes, she did have long brown hair, not sure about the gold eyes though, I didn't really look as she was beating us to a pulp." The fat older man told Ursa as he drained the tankard she had bought him. It seemed to her it was far too early in the morning to be drinking, but June and this crippled bandit did not seem to care.
They had ran into him on the edge of town, where he was hobbling along on a stick, Nyla had smelled the princess on him, so they had tried to question him. Unfortunately, the man was a shrewed businessman, and refused to tell them anything until they had fed him and bought him a night at the local in. Plus, of course they also had to give him a ride there on the Ostrich Horse.
"What village was it then?" Ursa offered him a plate filled with rolls from the baking the innkeeper's cooks had done that morning. With sausagelike fingers, he grabbed four and stuffed them in his mouth.
"Mhhhnmmmf hhfnnnfmmm jfjmm"
"Pardon?"
Swallowing, the man repeated himself, "Next one over, Pyre on the Water it's called, good place to pick up some unfairly traded goods cheap, if you know what I mean." He grinned, showing off all four of his blackened teeth.
"He means it's a smuggler's den," June explained before Ursa could display her innocence by asking what it meant.
"Is that a safe place for young ladies?!" Ursa seemed alarmed, "Azula isn't traveling alone."
"Ain't no ladies in Pyre, only whores and vipers." The man leaned in to June, who looked disgusted, "You'd be a viper." He looked at Ursa, "You'd be a whore."
June grabbed his beard and hissed into his face, "Listen here old man, you don't call my client a whore or I'll finish what the bounty started and break your other foot!" Her heel smashed down on his toes to make a point and the man howled and nodded quickly.
"June, Please." Ursa called her off, putting her hand on her shoulder and using her persuasive voice, "Don't be mad at him."
The bounty hunter grumbled something and then let him go.
"Do you think that she would still be there?" Ursa asked hopefully.
"Bet you twenty gold yes, they're prolly waiting to jump a ship to the earth kingdom, that's the only reason to go to Pyre on the Water, 'nfortunately, most o the Pirates are up north, lots of aristocrats ferrying out of the capital for some weddin' 'rr somthin, easy pickens." As he spoke several trickles of ale dribbled from his chin and clotted in his beard.
"So, there you go." June said, "Can I dispose of him now?"
"Oi! Bounty hunter, I got a joke fer ya, who was at fault when the man accidentally trampled his wife with an ostrich horse?" They had lost count of how many the man had had, but they were quite positive that he was drunk.
"What-"
"Don't encourage him." June interrupted.
"He was, because what the hell was he doin riding an Ostrich horse in the kitchen!!" The man chortled and drained his mug.
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There was going to be more but then I read something as Jessie McCartney cast as Zuko, and all the wind just went out of my Midsummer sails . . . I mean . . . duuude . . . . . no . . . . wtf . . . so, I need to go look as some hot Zuko fanart to rekindle my fire . . . .
::sigh::
Has M. Night jerkoff taken it upon himself to personally kill my dreams? I think yesssss.
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Ok, so on a slightly less fugly Caucasian note, I'm going to be starting editing and posting this on DA, so if you have any constructive criticism, the more specific the better, now would be a good time to give it.