A/N: Avatar and the characters created by it are in no way owned by me. Though, I'm prone to taking some artistic license with them, oops.
Thank you so much for the reviews, especially guest reviewer Kataangtrash, you totally made my morning when I woke up and saw that review!
I thought I'd fixed everything, but I saw a typo in the last chapter saying the party was in two days time, when before I'd said it was in a week! To clarify, Zuko and Mai's party was a week away and should be addressed in the next chapter.
Enjoy!
The days following, Katara and I spent an hour every morning in the garden, bothering the turtle ducks in their pond as we, in Zuko's words, splashed around in the water. It'd only been a few days but she'd shown remarkable progress. I'd always known she would. Katara was more than just a healer, she was a warrior, too. I only wish she'd been given the opportunities of a warrior. Bending was in her core, just as healing was.
"You're picking things up remarkably, Katara," I noted after a morning practice. "You've already mastered several of the moves I've shown you, as well as coming up with your own to try."
"It helps," she replied, "that I have a wonderful water bending master to teach me."
I shook my head. "It helps that you have a natural talent with water bending. You should have been trained, you would have been a great asset to the South in fighting." That's probably why Hahn insisted she only heal. It wasn't hard to see all that untapped potential.
I helped her out of the water, our skin drenched from the knees down. Her hand rested in mine for several seconds, sending a tingling sensation down my arm as our eyes met. Even sweaty and breathless from practicing, she looked gorgeous. Her hair was all over the place, a testament to her dedication to today's lesson. A few stray strands were plastered against her cheek, and I gently lifted my finger to brush it away. My fingertips grazing the corner of her lips and I couldn't help but wonder what it would feel like to kiss them again.
A throat behind us cleared, interrupting our brief moment together. Azula stood there, her arms crossed over her chest and her foot tapping impatiently against the ground. "I hate to interrupt," she said, sounding almost bored, "But there's a party in a few days and Katara still needs to have her final fitting for her dress. Seamstres Kyo does not appreciate how elusive Katara has been."
I quirked a brow, grinning at Katara as she evaded my gaze. "I'm sorry, Azula. I guess I'm not nearly as punctual as everyone else here."
"I don't think it helps," Azula sighed, "that you've been scheduling your fittings the during your water bending practice. Kyo is in your rooms, waiting. I suggest you get a move on, the longer you wait, the more she'll accidentally prick you with her needle."
I snorted, immediately apologizing when Katara's glare bore into me.
"It probably doesn't," she conceded, moving to Azula. "Would you like to come, Aang?" Her eyes pleaded with me and I was about to agree before Azula interrupted.
"Of course not!" Azula cried as she looped her arm through Katara's, dragging her away. "He wants to be surprised when he sees you at the party. Besides, we've hardly done any bonding, Katara, and Ty Lee is ever so curious about you. So is Mai, actually. You'll have to excuse her attitude; Mai is ever so boring."
I almost pitied her, but I was convinced being forced out of her comfort zone would be good for her. It'd been four days since we'd arrived and she'd hardly spent any time away from me, and if she was without me, she typically hid in her room. I understood she was scared, but she needed to play the diplomat right now, and Ozai and Iroh would not tolerate her hiding away for much longer.
"Ah, Avatar," Iroh greeted as I rounded the corner into the dining hall. He was seated with a cup of tea and a plate of pastries before him. "Come, sit with me."
"Good morning," I replied, kneeling down into the seat across from him.
"Would you like some tea?"
I nodded, knowing better than to refuse. "And perhaps some breakfast? Katara and I were practicing again and I've worked up an appetite."
He nodded to the attendant standing against the wall. She disappeared through the doors leading to the kitchens. "I have been watching you two train, Aang. It is nice to see Katara working so hard in her element. She is learning very quickly and it is clear that she is a very skilled bender."
I nodded. "She is, she's amazing."
Iroh smiled at me. "Her bending will not be enough to sway the Fire Nation into fighting for her."
My heart sinks. "I know. I've been trying to urge her out of her rooms but she's scared."
"So were you when you were presented to us. But you did what you needed to do. It is Katara's turn to do what needs to be done. Hiding away does nothing to assure my brother that the South Pole is worth fighting for."
I frowned, remaining silent as a plate of assorted fruits was placed in front of me. I nodded my thanks to the attendant before returning my attention to Iroh. "I thought she already convinced Ozai to help the South."
Iroh shook his head, cradling his tea cup. "No, she convinced him to look into the issue. Ozai is no fool. Intervening in the Water Tribe's civil war could be disastrous for the Fire Nation, no matter which side he is on. If we are to help the south, we have to know that it is worth the risk. Katara has done little to reassure him that the south is worth helping. As it is, the North is looking like the more powerful ally, and Arnook is powerful enough that he can convince the world that taking over the South was a needed action."
"Katara cannot represent all of her people, you can't make this decision based on one person."
Iroh sighed and sipped from his cup. "No, but as long as she is silent and her people are silent, there is nothing my brother will do to help."
"You're saying they need to fight. Katara and her people need to fight." It always came to violence, didn't it?
He nodded.
Katara
"Hm," Ty Lee hummed, drumming her fingers upon her chin as she studied the water tribe girl before her. She circled the girl, ending beside Azula, who slid her arm around the acrobat's waist. "I think this outfit is almost complete, Zula" she finally said. "Some jewelry is all it needs!"
Katara heaved a sigh of relief, she'd been standing on the pedestal for what seemed like hours as Ty Lee and Azula circled her like vultures. Her feet ached and every part of her was sore, largely because of Kyo and her needles. For the past two hours she'd been muttering apologizes while her needles pierced and grazed Katara's skin.
She was fairly sure the tiny woman wasn't sorry at all.
"I agree, Ty Lee," Azula chimed in, twirling around and proceeding to her dresser, digging through the jewelry box resting on top of it. Mai leaned against the wall beside it, her gaze fixed on Katara.
"I don't know, the exposed waist makes her look a little fat," Mai stated, pushing off the wall to approach the mirror.
"Mai!" Both Azula and Ty Lee exclaimed.
Katara's eyes narrowed at the comment but she didn't feel a need to defend herself. Honestly, if she wasn't so uncomfortable, she'd be enjoying how amazing she felt in this dress.
"What?!" Mai asked. "I'm being honest."
"That's not an excuse to be rude," Azula snapped. "If you have a problem, Mai, you can leave."
"Ignore her," Ty Lee beamed. "She's just upset because all Zuko has been talking about is you and the Avatar. She gets mean when Zuko does something stupid."
"I do not," Mai replied. Though, she sounded very uninterested in this conversation.
"Yes," Azula said. "You do." She handed over some ornate looking jewels to Kyo who began holding them up to the fabric.
"Whatever," Mai grumbled and slowly made her way out of the room. Glaring at Katara briefly as she did.
Katara tilted her head, looking at the door curiously before looking back at Ty Lee. "He's been talking about us?"
Ty Lee's smile widened. "Oh, yes! He's been telling us all about what happened in the south. He said that Aang looked so happy when he spoke about you. Like he was falling in love." She sighed wistfully and leaned against Azula. "It's all so romantic, isn't it?"
Falling in love?
"I guess it is," Azula sighed, pressing a peck to Ty Lee's head. "Though, I think his timing is awful. He had all those years and it's taken him this long to come back to her? Pft." She tossed a sidelong glance in Katara's direction, something resembling mischief shining in them.
"Right?" Katara gasped, astonished to find herself agreeing. Though she's spoken similar words to Aang, she'd felt foolish for feeling that way. She wasn't the most important person in the world, Aang had other duties before her. "I was really frustrated with that, honestly." She started to remove the dress with Kyo's prompting and slipped into her normal clothes.
Ty Lee reached out and squeezed her hand. "I'm sure you missed him a lot."
Katara nodded. "I did, I really did miss him. I understood why he left, he had to. But I wanted to go with him, I would have if my dad hadn't of intervened." She stepped down from the pedestal and sat on the cushions Ty Lee and Azula had fallen back on.
Ty Lee cocked her head to the side. "What did he do?
Katara sighed, she hadn't really told anyone about the conversation she'd had with her father when Aang returned. It wasn't that it was a bad memory, she was just ashamed of herself and how she'd acted. So young and selfish. "Aang had just told me that I couldn't go with him because my father forbade it. And I was so furious. I went storming into our hut, screaming at my dad. All I wanted was to go, I wanted to learn how to water bend, I wanted to spend time with Aang. The whole village heard us.
"When he finally spoke, he sat me down and calmly said I wasn't going. When I demanded an explanation he said that my actions proved I wasn't mature enough. That if I wanted to go so badly I would have asked him calmly. That's when I spat at his feet and said I wished he'd died instead of mom."
Ty Lee and Azula both gasped.
Katara nodded. "I apologized for it later but I guess he was right; I wasn't mature enough. It still hurt, though. After they left, I was angry at Aang for not fighting more. But we were just kids, we didn't know how we would feel about each other."
"Aang did," Azula said. "He was so annoying, honestly. He wouldn't shut up about you for the first three weeks he was here. Granted, he left to learn waterbending in the northern tribe, but he still never stopped speaking of you and Sokka. Even when he came back to learn firebending he droned on and on about Katara and how wonderful she was. It was a bit annoying, honestly." Ty Lee rammed her elbow in Azula's side and she sighed. "Sorry, but it was."
A ghost of a smile formed on Katara's lips, her heart skittering a bit to hear that she'd meant so much to him. She almost felt ashamed that she'd been dating by the time he'd arrived to the Fire Nation. Despite how she felt about him, she refused to hold herself back for something that might never happen. She regretted that a little now, but that never would have changed what she did for her people.
"Did he enjoy himself while he was here?" She asked, her questions asking a lot more than she was willing to say.
Azula grinned wickedly. "He did, but he always had you in mind." Katara wasn't sure if she wanted to know what that meant. But she asked for an explanation anyway.
The afternoon went on that way, the girls talking and bonding. Katara left Azula's room feeling slightly better about being in the Fire Nation. More at ease. She was eager to tell Aang about her time with the two girls but thought a quick nap would better suffice before dinner, these morning practices were making her exhausted and being a human pin cushion for what felt like hours was tiring.
As she entered her chambers, right across the hall from Aang, she hesitated, staring at the closed doors to his room, wondering if he was in there. She tilted her head, finding herself longing to snuggle up against him. They'd been distant the past few days, in fact, the way he touched her this morning was the closest they had come to intimate contact since they left the South Pole. She smiled softly to herself, remembering how her heart had been hammering in her chest and her stomach doing flips when his fingertips had brushed her skin. It was unlike any emotion she'd felt before, not even during her first kiss.
With a wistful sigh, she eased the door to her room closed, locking it out of habit more than anything. It'd been a few days without incident, she felt safe. Comfortable, even. She didn't see that changing any time soon.
She moved in front of the mirror, unpinning her hair and letting the waves cascade down her shoulders as she slowly slipped down to her under wrappings and donned a night dress, not wanting to wrinkle the only clothing she had to wear for dinner. She needed to look put together, like a diplomat. That's what Aang had said the other day, she needed to look professional, no matter how much she wanted to give up.
She did, she wanted to give up. She wanted to go to a remote part of the world and forget any of this was happening. But that wasn't an option. The people she loved needed her, and she would be damned to disappoint them.
With a yawn, she flopped onto her pillow, frowning when her skull collided with something harder than the average pillow. She sat up, finding a roll of parchment resting on the fabric. Slowly, she picked it up, undoing the string and smoothing the paper out. In moments, a scream had built in her throat and her heart seized in her chest.
I hope you're enjoying the Fire Nation
With love,
H
DUN DUN DUN!
Shout out to my three guest reviewers, you guys absolutely made my day. I hope to hear from you again!
Reviews are like ice cream on a bad day!
xoxo,
Em
