Chapter 5- Dresses and Messes
Zuko P.O.V
"I don't see why I have to go to this stupid ball."
Uncle was making me try on different shirts for the ball tonight. We had been doing this for over two hours, and I'd had enough. He chuckled and laid a red sash across my shoulder as he spoke. "My dear nephew. You are a prince! You must dance with the young ladies and converse with the great leaders!" Iroh cheered happily. How could he think dancing is fun? They were stiff and boring. Besides, Mai never wanted to dance anyway, so I wasn't very good at it.
I sighed and looked at myself in the mirror.
"I look desperate."
"You are."
Surprised that my uncle would say such a thing, I peered down at him to see if he was joking. I couldn't tell; he still had that big smile plastered on his rose cheeks. "What? It's true! One day you will have to take over the kingdom someday, and you know what that means?" Iroh asked me. I threw the sash on the ground in disgust. "I get to brag to Azula?" I suggested darkly. No doubt Azula would do the same to be if she got the throne instead of me.
When she got the throne before me.
My uncle shook his head.
"You need an heir! Marrying is a very important part of the Fire Nation royalty."
I felt my muscles tense up at the thought of marriage. "You need to get out there and fall in love Zuko!" he exclaimed, like it was the greatest thing I could ever do. Looking back at the mirror and not liking what I saw, dark thoughts filled my mind. "How did my mother fall in love with a monster like him?" I whispered partly to myself. Iroh stopped in his tracks and stared at me while he held another sash in his wrinkled hands.
From what I have heard, my mother was incredibly kind. A trait that I must not have received. From experience, I knew my father was a terrible, cruel person. So what made them get married? Did he just want children and she was the prettiest woman in the Fire Nation? That was most likely it. My father doesn't feel or love. There is no way he could have an emotional attachment to anyone.
"Your mother wanted children more than anything."
I snapped my head up towards my uncle, who was looking down at the sash sadly.
"I knew her many years before she married my brother. She had always wanted a big family, but unfortunately, the only way for her to get it was to marry your father. You see, all the other men at the time were already married. Your father was the only choice left. It was rather…terribly ironic that she never ended up getting the big family she always desired."
My voice caught in my throat and I was unable to say anything. Looking at myself again in the mirror, I started to find similarities to my mother. Our noses were the same shape, along with our chins. I guess I had never noticed it before, but I was a lot more like my mother than I expected. A sudden burst of happiness exploded inside of me when I came to this realization. In fact, I almost smiled.
My uncle came around and looked at me in the mirror.
"The importance of finding a wife Zuko, is so you can have the life your mother always wanted for you. Happiness and children. Lots and lots of children!"
For the first time in a long time, I laughed.
Katara P.O.V
"Miss Katara?"
"What?"
"I am supposed to take you up to get ready for the ball."
My head jerked up from its position on the floor. There was a young, timid looking girl standing there. The ball was tonight?! It had already been a week?! After getting over my shock, I spoke. "What do you mean by "get ready"?" I asked her curiously. I expected that I was just going to attend the ball like this: dirty and unacceptable. I figured that was what they wanted.
"Well, first we are to bathe you, pick you out a dress, and then we apply your make up."
Picturing me wearing red made me wanted to vomit. It was completely disrespectful to me and to my tribe. Anger boiled up inside of me when I realized what they were trying to do. Get me in Fire Nation clothes and I was sure to blow. They wanted to see if I could handle being in the enemy's shoes. I sickened me to the bone to think of what Sokka would say if he saw me wearing Fire Nation clothes.
"Miss?"
"I'm coming."
Slowly and painfully, I stood up and walked towards the cell door. Zuko had not visited me since that night when I had to sit on the fire. Since then I had been beaten every morning, every day a new and improved punishment. To make it short and not completely disgusting, here is a list of what my body now looked like:
Back: Multiple slashes which are now infected and swollen to the size of a baby lemur.
Arms: Burns nearly down to the bone, sores and blisters across my veins.
Legs: Possible broken ankle, spikes indented in my calf, and glass imbedded underneath the skin.
Stomach: Numerous words carved into my flesh, stomach shrunk from malnutrition
Very appealing huh?
It wasn't like I had to look sexy for this stupid ball thing. I just needed to look like one of them. Although it would intimidate the other women if I did look hot…
My thoughts were interrupted when we walked into the main hall.
I hate to say it, but it was amazing. The walls were covered with white, satin curtains with glass tables lying close to them with beautifully crafted vases on them. Many maids and servants were running around, racing to get to where they needed to be. The most beautiful thing however, was the floor. It was a light, cloudy blue color that reminded me of home. I could almost smell the fresh, flower-filled air as the rain poured down.
"This way please."
I looked down in amazement at the girl.
"Why isn't the rest of the palace like this? It's beautiful!"
The girl who looked much too young to be a maid smiled, showing her few missing teeth. "It is indeed beautiful…but I'm afraid the king does not think so. You see, before his wife left, she demanded that the servants get a little more light in their lives. Since they do serve everyone night and day. She made this room especially for us and it stuck." she replied, a warm smile on her face. It was the nicest smile I had received in my time here. Besides the ones I always got from Iroh when encountered him.
My thoughts drifted to Zuko's mother.
I knew she had left when he was very young. I never felt sorry for him, since it was his nation that took my mother away from me. Now I was beginning to think differently; what if she had never disappeared? Would Zuko be different than he was today? What kind of a person would he be? The questions swarmed my head as I was lead to a large room at the end of the hall.
The room wasn't as light as the room before, but it was better than that damn cell.
"We aren't allowed to let you bathe yourself, but I think you would be more comfortable if you did, correct?"
The thought of someone pampering me bothered me for some odd reason.
"Yeah, just a little."
She smiled and handed me some incredibly soft towels.
"Come out here when you are done and we can pick out your dress."
Minutes later…
The water relieved me instantly, soothing my cuts and burns nicely. I had come down with a cold recently, most likely from the infections and coldness. My body had never looked so smooth after I was done healing myself. I wished I could stay in here forever, but I knew there was a deadline. Sighing, I lifted myself out of the tub and wrapped a towel around my body. Peeking out the door and seeing there was no one there, I walked out and plopped down on the bed. The Fire Nation quality continued to surprise me.
The bed was the softest thing I had ever felt.
A sudden crash brought me back to reality.
I sat up, alarmed, and saw a boy around my age kneeling on the ground cleaning a broken vase up. "I'm so s-sorry, I didn't know a-anyone was in here." He said apologetically, not making eye contact. I walked over to help him clean up the vase, which was scattered across the floor. "It's okay. I guess I am kind of in your area now, huh? I should have warned you I was coming out." I replied, laying the pieces of red vase in his rough hands.
We stood up facing each other, and I finally understood why he wasn't making eye contact.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I probably should put some clothes on!"
The blood rushed to my face and I pulled my towel up slightly. The boy chuckled nervously, "It's fine…I'm just happy you weren't Princess Azula. She would have had my skin for it." He explained. I'd probably rip my skin off myself if I saw Azula naked. Horrifying. I laughed, "Well lucky for you I'm the exact opposite of Azula." I responded honestly. I peered down at the dirt that covered the, what used to be, white carpet. I noticed the boy's worried expression when he saw it.
"Don't worry about it…I'm sure the girl who brought me in will clean it up before we try on dresses."
The boy seemed to relax for a second, but tensed up again when the door opened.
Thank goodness it was only the maid girl.
"I found some beautiful dresses for you!"
She must have been excited to dress up someone other than herself for once. Me, on the other hand, did not share her enthusiasm.
Zuko P.O.V
Every girl was exactly the same.
I had been introduced to at least thirty of them so far, and none of them were any different from the first. Pale, perfect eyebrows, straight lips, no facial expressions at all. They were all even the same height! I was starting to get extremely fed up with this.
"It's very nice to meet you. If you excuse me, I must retrieve a few drinks for my sore throat."
That was a lie of course, but at least I was getting away from the most recent obsessive Fire Nation girl. Quickly and swiftly, I weaved through the couples and made my way to the drinks. There was only two choices: alcohol or no alcohol. I choose the more deadly looking one, which appeared to be pitch black. Who on earth makes a drink that is pitch black?! Taking a big swig of it, I searched the room for my uncle. He was in the corner with a bunch of women, probably talking about tea of course. At least someone was enjoying themselves. It looked like everyone else looked like they were on their death bed.
Tipping the rest of the drink into my mouth, I prepared myself for retiring from this little "party."
That was when I saw her.
She was standing at the doorway with a very curious look on her face. The dress was bright red, not like the other blood red dresses all the other women had on. It was made of lace and low cut, showing off some of her more prominent female features. Her tan skin went beautifully with her black eye shadow that was casted all over her eye lids. Her hair was curled up to perfection, half up and half down with a golden pin holding it.
The thing that stood out most of all, was her blue eyes.
Red and blue, two colors that did not match at all, but yet seemed to clash together magically when she wore them.
It was Katara.
YAY DANCE SCENES WITH ZUKO! ;) how awesome will that be?! If you want to see what the dress looks like, go to shop/dresses/viewitem-PD1182504 ! It's the closest one I could find to fitting the era, so yeah.