Chapter 14

Zuko's POV

Watching Yori walk down the long hallway, reminded me of the many travels I had with Uncle and the many times he would intrude or barge in on my life…

I was balancing a tray of empty cups when I saw her sitting there in the far corner of the room. Quickly recognizing her, I hurried over to my uncle.

"Uncle, we have a problem. One of the customers is onto us."

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that she wasn't looking over at us.

"Don't look now, but there's a girl over there at the corner table. She knows we're Fire Nation."

Uncle, completely disregarding what I had said, looked anyways over at the little spy.

Grabbing him by the arm, I made him look back over at the counter we were standing at, "Didn't I say don't look?"

Uncle chuckled, "You are right Zuko. I've seen that girl in here quite a lot. Seems to me she has quite a little crush on you."

I dropped my jaw at his little comment and elbow nudge, "What?"

A quiet voice interrupted us though before Uncle could clarify what he was accusing, "Thank you for the tea."

Turning around I gathered the money that she had placed on the counter and placed it in the drawer the shop keeper places the money, "What's your name?" she asked.

Spinning back to the girl, I answered hastily, "My name's Lee. My uncle and I just moved here."

Looking from between Uncle and I, she said, "Hi Lee, my name is Jin. Thank you… And, well, I was wondering if you would like to go out sometime?"

Before I could ever say 'no' to the girl, Uncle cut me off by saying, "He'd love to!"

Quickly she said, "Great! I'll meet you in front of the shop at sundown," and was gone out the door.

I glared at Uncle the entire time that we were at the shop…

Looking back over to where Katara stood, I could tell that she was seething in anger at Yori's disappearing figure.

"Shall we go off to dinner?"

Katara seemed to have heard me because she straightened out herself and her skirt, sticking her nose up high in the air.

"I guess we must," she began before looking over at me with a sly glance, "Unless of course if you do not wish to."

Taking her challenge, I said with my chest puffed out, "Not at all. If I may?" I motioned to have her take my arm.

Sighing heavily, she said, "Yes alright."

Katara's POV

I am going to kill you Yori!

Zuko and I did not speak for the next thirty minutes, and I could feel the tension so thick in the air, that you could cut it with a dinner knife. I looked around at the room that we were in. Red banners hung along the ceiling all the way leading up to one of the walls, where there was a large Fire Nation banner. Like all the traditional banners this one held the Fire Nation insignia, but unlike all others, the edges of the flame symbol there was a slight golden trim along the edge, very light, but if you had a good eye for fabric you could see it. Glancing back at the banner, I noticed that instead of a solid black that only muted the color of the light, the entire flame almost looked as if was living. It moved beautifully through the flickers of the candles along the walls, like a flame.

"There is a golden sheer fabric on the banner, making the whole thing glow. It's supposed to resemble something like an undying flame the Fire Nation has within each person or, like what each Fire Lord says, is the fire that burns through each son of Agni."

Ducking my head for being caught staring, I said, "Well, it is beautiful. We have something to the effect of recognizing our cultural background, like you do. There is this water tribe symbol in front of the palace that we build, and instead of it being normal snow, the symbol is made of water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. This is to honor the glorious Princess Yue and her sacrifice to her people. There is only enough water for the symbol, so the ice is very thin. This makes a sort of bright glow whenever the moon, Yue, is high in the sky at its fullest."

Looking up over to Zuko to see his reaction, I saw that he had this soft look on his face, and I couldn't help but feel a weird sensation in my stomach, making me squirm under his gaze. He probably saw this because then he tore his gaze and cleared his throat, looking back down to his dinner. We sat in silence for about five minutes longer when Zuko got this weird look on his face.

Turning to where I was seated, he asked, "The water you just said right now, was that the water you were talking about before? The day we were imprisoned together?"

Curious as to why he was asking, I said, "Yes, um, the water had special healing properties, and it saved Aang when he was shot with your sister's lightning."

Seeming a little morose when I had said this, Zuko nodded and then whispered so that I could only hear what he was saying, "I am so sorry for what I did to you, all of you. I-"

"Zuko," I cut him off rather curtly, "What's done is done. You do not need to apologize anymore. You have been sorry for nearly your entire life. Why don't you just for once accept the fact that everyone has already forgiven you?"

"Not everyone has actually…"

Throwing my hands up in the air, I said frustrated, "Who hasn't forgiven you? Your uncle? That one I helped you with. Aang? He forgave you and let you teach him Firebending. Sokka already forgave you and you let him make fun of you since day one by letting him call you 'jerkbender'. Toph is the same as Sokka, except you carried her on your back whenever you burned her feet. Suki was angry at first, but then you helped her with her escape from Boiling Rock. And Mai? Oh my La, the two of you are getting married. Who on planet Earth could not have forgiven you by now?"

He stared right back at me, arching his brow as if I was an idiot.

"What? You think that I haven't forgiven you? Zuko, I have already forgiven you for everything, except in this moment where you are making me very pissed off. You don't need to apologize for anything!"

He got up out of his seat angrily; steam was rolling off of his body, making my face feel warm from the heat wave. His eyes were fierce and penetrating, and I could see molten lava flowing rapidly in those golden orbs. A vein popped out on his forehead and his muscles were strained along his neck.

"Then why on Earth would you have broken off what we barely had started? You ruined my entire life when you did, and now you act like you did nothing at all to hurt me. Do you know what you are doing to me? When I see you walking down these halls with that angry look on your face, I think that I did something wrong, but I didn't do anything at all. Why can't you get out of my head? I am hurting Mai every single night I leave her bed because I have another nightmare. AND IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU! Then, oh wait, that's not all. Your father comes in here demanding me that I give you a husband, or he will disband from our Peace Treaty, and you act like you want to do it. Why would you do that to yourself, and don't give me that 'it's my duty as a Princess' crap because I know that the only reason why you would be doing it is to hurt me. Well why don't you get over yourself and leave me the Hell alone!"

Zuko's POV

My core temperature was rising drastically, and I could feel the pain in my abdomen again. I was breathing ragged and knew that I needed to calm down. Looking down at the table, I began to feel the heat coming from each one of the candles in the room, and I began to concentrate on only making them bend to my will.

In. Out. In. Out.

While I was breathing, I began to hear the faintest sound of a sniffle. Glancing up, I saw that there was tears running down Katara's face, making her look so fragile, so broken. I wanted to go up and hold her in my arms, never letting go of her, but I couldn't.

"Do you really think that I actually meant to hurt you like this? Do you think that I haven't been hurt as well by my own actions? I know this whole thing isn't your fault, but mine, as usual. Katara screwed up again! I wanted to protect you from whatever crap was going to happen if we happened to be married or have children. I didn't want my kids to grow up hated by his or her family because of political differences. Zuko, I didn't want your council to overthrow you or anything because you had a 'savage' for a wife."

As she said this, she continuously threw her arms around, making the tea in the cups around her slosh about. Yet when she had finished the final word, she turned on her heal and ran as fast as her skirts would permit her to out of the room.

I am an idiot…