ARC 1: The Promise of Peace
Day 5: Sadness
They spend her last day in the Fire Nation lounging about in Sokka's room. It's raining outside and the air is humid again. Zuko sheds his tunic and obi, pulls his hair up and away from his neck. Katara crushes him at pai sho dressed in little more than her nightgown (Sokka is too busy snoring somewhere on the floor to bother them about their lack of clothing).
"I'm glad to be going," Katara sighs, flopping onto her side, "if only to get away from this weather!"
She writhes dramatically, as if the humidity will kill her. The sticks in her hair clack against the floor and Zuko offers himself a moment of fierce pleasure (she's been wearing those turtle-duck hairpins everyday since their betrothal).
"I'm sad to see you go." he says and for the most part, it's honest (she's not the worst girl he could have been engaged to).
Katara rolls over and sits up abruptly.
"The next time I'll see you will be on our wedding day." she says.
He reminds her that it wont be for another four years (she'll be fifteen and he'll be nineteen and the thought boggles his mind). Zuko wonders who she'll be when they meet again. He wonders who he will be.
"You have to write," he says abruptly, "Promise me."
"Will you send a fancy hawk?" she asks, "And write poetry on fancy paper?"
He scowls, earning a smile from his fiancee. She shifts a tile, wins the game, and promises to write.
"I'm sad to leave you," she admits, "You're nicer than you have to be."
He doesn't mind when she says nice things, but the sharply intelligent, knowing look in her eyes reminds him of Azula (there are too many similarities between them; the possibilities of who they'll turn out to be are frightening). Zuko looks away.
"You're brattier than you have to be." he says, cocking an eyebrow.
Katara scowls, "Ooh, you wanna die, Zuko?"
She crushes him at Pai Sho again, but the subject is dropped. He doesn't think about it again until that night, watching his sister train. She's better than he is and father loves her more, but a tiny part of him wishes she was more like Katara.
Zuko turns away from the bending court and walks away slowly. He prays Katara will not become Azula.