A/N: I have to say that I definitely was not expecting all the story alerts, story favorites, and reviews that I got on that chapter! I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I'm going to try and live up to your expectations and that you like this chapter! Again, thank you all so much!
I Hate Being Married To You
Chapter 2
"You go along with it
Then drop it
And humiliate me in front of our friends"
Katara hurried into her trailer, grabbed her coat just as quickly, and then hurried out. Shooting was done for the day and she wanted to evade the paparazzi as much as she could.
She was dressed in a red sports bra that was a size too small to make her chest more "prominent", black leather shorts, and red and black Jordan sneakers. Her flat and toned stomach was exposed, as were her long and strong legs.
She hated it. Being in that outfit and shooting a commercial was different than being in that outfit and fighting, which was its purpose. She felt like she was just exploiting her body and trying to entice men.
Zuko said that she was an inspiration to women, as did her agent, to make her feel less guilty and bad about herself, but she couldn't help how she felt.
Katara sighed as she thought about her husband, but before she could form her thoughts on him however, she walked past the set and the crew and towards her car...
… and into a mob of lights and cameras.
"Mrs. Katara you've been out of the public eye for a while! Why?" One reporter questioned, shoving a microphone into her face and almost crashing it into her mouth.
Katara wanted to punch the reporter in her face but instead, the 24 year old Alaskan woman just smiled and commented, "I've been focused on my family, and we just added a new member, a little kitten that we found on the street."
The reporters all seemed to say "aaww" in unison and Katara smiled brightly at them as she muscled her way towards her car.
"Mrs. Katara, where do you like to shop the most?" Another reporter questioned. Katara inwardly sighed but kept her pearly white smile on her face.
"When I was little, my family was very poor, and we shopped at thrift stores a lot. That stayed with me, and that's still my favorite place to shop." Katara explained, and the reporter scribbled furiously on his note pad.
Katara wormed her way though the crowd and opened her car door. She was just about to get in when another reporter began to speak.
"Mrs. Katara, how do you feel about the allegations that your husband, Zuko, is cheating on you?"
Katara felt her smile slip off of her face and her blood seemed to freeze and turn to ice.
"What. The. Hell. Did. You. Just. Say. To. Me?" Katara gritted through her teeth as she turned to stare at the reporter.
The reporter, fear etched into her face, stuttered and stammered, her mouth opening and closing.
Katara once again repeated her question, taking a threatening step towards the reporter.
"T-T-T-T-T-There's a-a-a-a-a woman in his o-o-o-o-office. Am executive n-n-n-named Mai. H-H-H-He was seen earlier today in a-a-a-a bar with her." The reporter said.
That was all Katara needed to hear before getting in her car and speeding away, the reporters jumping out of the way at the last second to avoid being hit.
Once a dick, always a dick.
…...
To celebrate Katara actually agreeing to and shooting a commercial, Zuko had contacted all of their friends and asked them to meet up that night at Katara's favorite Japanese hibachi restaurant.
Katara loved surprises, and even though he hated her guts, he hadn't told her about tonight. Instead, he had left rose petals in the shape of a heart by the front door. To be even more romantic, Zuko had written a letter telling Katara to come to the restaurant at 6:30 that night, and then tied it to a bow tie that he had loosely tied around the kitten's neck.
He knew that the kitten was a girl, but so what. It was still romantic as hell.
Zuko arrived at the restaurant a bit early to see their friends already seated around a grill. Sokka, who was Katara's brother, and his girlfriend Suki sat at one end of the grill. Sokka had two straws hanging out of his mouth, apparently pretending that he was a walrus. Suki just laughed loudly at him, and threatened him with a container of soy sauce in retaliation when he poked her with one of his "tusks".
Sokka was not always so silly however, He had always been weird and silly, but after what he had been through, he used it to ease the pain.
Sokka used to be engaged to a beautiful young woman with white hair and intense blue eyes named Yue, but she had gotten leukemia and passed away just weeks before their wedding date. Sokka was destroyed, and if it was not for Katara and her best friend, Suki, there was no doubt in Zuko's mind that Sokka would have killed himself.
Somehow, Sokka fell in love with Suki, and everyone was just calmly waiting for them to get engaged and married, if Sokka ever did propose that is.
Sitting beside Suki was Toph, Katara's closest friend. Toph was blind, with hazy gray eyes as proof. But she seemed to have extremely adapted other senses. She didn't even need a cane or a dog, she could tell where everything was through her feet... or so she said. Everyone believed her simply because she somehow knew where everything was in a place that she had never been. She even could somehow read other people's feelings. It was odd.
Beside Toph was her fiancee, Aang. Aang was bald with a tattoo of an arrow on his head, for he was a prince of some faraway nation, and that was a custom for royalty where he was from.
Zuko and Aang had been best friends since Aang moved here over 10 years ago. Of course, Zuko was a bad boy, but Aang helped and made him want to better himself. Aang and Katara had dated briefly once the group got to high school, but she thought of the younger boy as more of a brother than a lover per say.
Zuko smirked. That's what she said at least, but in his opinion, Katara broke up with Aang because she had more of a chemistry with Zuko. He caught her undressing him with her eyes on more than one occasion.
Sitting beside Aang was Zuko's sister, Azula. Azula was, in a couple of words, pure mother-fucking evil. Or she used to be. She was a vicious defense attorney now and made a ton of money. She was notorious for getting obviously guilty people off the hook for heinous crimes, using seduction, lies, anything that would help her win.
Azula was also their abusive father's favorite growing up. She was cruel, just like he was, and she would do anything to be successful, just like their father. However, their father was dead set on a man taking over his multi-billion dollar company.
Zuko had been harsh when he first took over the company, due to his childhood. He was cold, mean, greedy, and vicious. Until Katara.
She made him remember how he was in high school, after he dropped the bad boy act and was himself. He was smart, talented, gentle, loving, and he loved nothing more than he loved her.
A bitter smile ran across Zuko's face.
And now Katara hated him, and he hated her.
Life was cruel.
Zuko took a seat beside his sister and ordered a beer from the waitress.
"Where's Sugar Queen?" Toph asked, flickering her un-seeing eyes to him.
"How did you know I was here?" Zuko asked incredulously, even though he had known her since middle school, he would never adjust to her keen ability.
"I caught a whiff of conceited jerk and I just knew it had to be you." Toph said sweetly, batting her long eyelashes at him.
Ah, that was one of the problems of being friends with your wife's friends... when you messed up they all got told about it and they all hated you.
"You sound like our father, blind girl." Azula sneered. Another thing Azula did; if she did not like a person, she never called them by their name.
"You sound like a bitch, bitch." Top fired back.
Azula's face contorted into one of rage but before she could fire back, they heard a voice.
"Sorry I'm late." Katara spoke as she walked towards the seat by Zuko.
She was dressed in a blue dress that hung to her curves and matched her eyes. Her make-up was gorgeous, with bronzer, black smokey eye, and clear lip gloss. She was a show stopper. The click of her black stilettos on the hardwood floor was audible until she finally sat down beside her husband.
To keep up appearances, like they had been doing for a while, Zuko released his hand from his cup of beer and reached over to take Katara's hand in his. To his surprise, she pulled her hand away and gave him a glare that would make a grown man who was also a championship boxer cry and run away from fear.
Before he could address what her problem was however, the chef came out, pushing his cart in front of him. They ordered and told him how they wanted their steak and if they wanted vegetables or double fried rice instead of the vegetables.
"So guys, guess who's a cheater?" Katara asked the group as the chef began cleaning the stove before he cooked on it.
Everyone seated around the woman looked at her, thinking that she had picked up gossip on some celebrity while she was on set today.
"Zuko!" She exclaimed as she turned in her seat to look at him.
Just then the chef lit a fire on the stove as part of the show, but no one was interested in that show, but rather the show between the couple seated at the other end of the grill.
"I have not, and would not ever cheat on you. The only cheater here is you, Katara. You may want to logout of Facebook next time. And also, cheating on Facebook, really? That's very high school of you." Zuko said calmly, although there was a red tint to his cheeks.
Katara felt her cheeks redden at the sudden turn around of her statement.
"I have not cheated on you, and why would I do it on a social networking site when I know that you have spy stuff set up everywhere in the house?!"
She glared at him.
He glared at her.
Zuko turned to look at their friends to see Sokka looking at him like he was about to rip his throat out and maybe he was.
"We will discuss this at home." He grinded out the words through his perfect teeth.
The table was covered in awkward and terse silence.
Suddenly, Aang coughed loudly.
"Well I have an announcement too... Toph and I are getting married!"
"Not the best thing to follow up allegations of cheating." Azula said snarkly and Toph growled something unflattering under her breath.
Everyone else politely and excitedly sang praises of congratulations.
"Anyways, we want to get married on the beach because Toph hates shoes and won't have to wear them there, but we were wondering where to go on our honeymoon." Aang stated, glancing at the only married couple at the table. That was unfortunately Zuko and Katara.
To salvage her image and her husband and to correct her mistake of accusing him in public, Katara smiled and began to speak. "Well, on our honeymoon Zuko and I went to the Caribbean on a 7-day cruise. It was beautiful, and really fun. It's nice because all the food, shows, plays, and pretty much anything on the ship was free once you paid for your tickets. And it was Spring so it was the perfect temperature." Katara explained.
Zuko looked over at her and suddenly his face lit up into a smile as well.
"Yes it was the perfect temperature and beautiful. Katara was beautiful as well." He said.
Katara was shocked at his statement. He was being sweet all of the sudden.
Zuko got a contemplative look on his face.
"What wasn't beautiful was that smell that infiltrated the room on the first night of our honeymoon." Zuko said, slowly nodding his head in remembrance, and taking another drink of his beer.
The chef continued cooking and flipping their food in front of them, but none of them even glanced his way.
"What smell?" Suki asked, her brown eyes alight with curiosity.
"Shit." Zuko said simply, a sly smile creeping at the corners of his mouth.
Katara gasped and darted her eyes to him in surprise.
"You see, Katara got food poisoning from some little Italian gyro shop on the boat that I had refused to eat at. So, on the night of our honeymoon, when she darted into the bathroom after dinner, I thought she was putting on some sexy lingerie for our first night together as husband and wife. However, she was just-" At this point in the story, Zuko turned his cat-like golden eyes to his wife and smirked whole heartedly.
"Letting it all go. At the expense of my nose and romanticism that is" Zuko said cheerfully.
The table was once again covered in silence as the chef began scooping large portions of food onto their plates.
"That's SO EMBARASSING!" Azula squealed, jumping to her feet and pointing at Katara, whose face could only be one of shock.
Zuko laughed and took a large gulp of his beer, smiling at his wife over the rim of his cup.
Azula sat down, still smirking, and the group turned all of their eyes to Katara, wondering what it was that she was going to say.
A/N: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddd dddddddddddd SCENE! Oh my gosh, I've been in theater way too long. Haha. But anyways! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I know it's a cliff hanger but I will make it up to ya'll I promise! Love ya'll! Thanks again for all of the love and support! Mwah! *blows kisses*