The offer was more than a wild goose chase or a way to occupy me. No one expected me to find the last airbender, but it was an excuse to give me free range to travel anywhere in the world, conquer any territory, and fight any battle on behalf of the Fire Lord. This was an offer of authority and freedom and the firepower of a Fire Navy cruiser with two dozen benders and even more crew members. This was an offer for me to prove myself not only to him but to the nation itself, to possibly earn a reputation rivaling Iroh's…

I hesitated.

And for that reason, I would never deserve her.

"Lady Ursa," I announced once I could open and close my jaw again, unable to care whether or not such a decision set off any alarms.

There was a chance he would attribute by devotion to her as a sign that Ursa was far more cunning, scheming, and influential than he'd first believed and might not trust even his own eyes and ears when it came to such a master, nay, a sorceress of manipulation.

But there was a much greater chance he would attribute my choice more to mistrust of him and his uncharacteristically generous offer than to Ursa's hypnotisim.

He looked at me for a few moments longer, considering yet again, before finally putting the matter to rest and returning to what were, in his mind, far more important matters.

"Very well then. You may make all the announcements and preparations that are necessary and proper. Fire Prince Ozai and Lady Ursa are engaged to married. By this time next year, the Fire Nation will have a princess."

"Thank you, Father," I stated bow, seeking to remain as calm and emotionless as possible as I bowed out but desperate to throw my arms around her and grin more wildly than my cheeks could bear.

Ursa'd been escorted home by then, of course, but Iroh waited for me in the hallway.

I couldn't suppress my impossibly-wide smile even when seeing him, and he returned it gladly when he saw the unmistakable light of love in my eyes. He embraced me, and I laughed for joy. He joined in my mirth, slapping me on the back, and we walked back towards our chambers together.

"No wonder you were so angry at me earlier," I chuckled once I could silence the laughs enough to speak.

"I was never angry with you, Ozai," he replied seriously but tenderly. "I was afraid you'd lost your way."

I rolled my eyes but smirked on the side of my face he couldn't see, leaving him to put the finishing touches on my proposal.

I couldn't stop pacing, though Azulon seemed to tolerate me at the least. My family had pelted me with questions from the second I got home, making me miss Maylin and Zhen even more, but I didn't say a word. That, of course, didn't prevent them from wild speculation and from pretending I'd answered their questions. I'd managed to sneak out during their argument about the way I probably served the tea.

A few minutes before sunset, another messenger arrived with an invitation from Ozai to meet him in the place me where he held me for the first time and apologized to me for the second. I threw the scroll back to my news-hungry family members, knowing it wouldn't help them at all, and flew out the door.

Breathe, Ursa, I told myself as I tried to stop smiling. Breathe…

My mother's old studio looked dark from the outside, but the door was unlocked so I went in anyway.

"Ozai?" I asked as I closed the door behind me, squinting to see through such blackness until I saw a pile of glowing embers and felt a presence in the shadows.

She laughed.

"Ozai, knock it off and turn some lights on. You're going to start scaring me."

"I will. I just need you to promise that you won't interrupt me until I say… everything I need to say. I'm not sure I can get through it all otherwise."

"I promise," she replied solemnly.

I began to bend, lighting the dozens of candles I'd scattered throughout the room to reveal what the walls were covered in.

I gasped and turned around slowly to see every scroll and scrap of parchment I'd ever drawn on. Ozai had saved every sketch and painting I'd ever sent him or left alone near him. I was surrounded by ink and charcoal versions of the palace, gardens, ocean, Ember Island, fire, Lu Ten, my cousins, Ozai, and myself. He'd placed my self-portraits most prominently, as they were clearly what he cherished the most, and I saw dozens of sketches I'd never drawn, more realistic than I could ever achieve, more studied and precise and well-trained… But beautiful. Far more than going through the motions. They were made in an obsession of love, making the harshest, starkest lines soft and beautiful. Art. All portraits of me.

Ozai had made them.

I suppose it made sense, in hindsight. He'd mastered firebending so young he must've been tutored in some other skill (and everything came so easily to him), and he always viewed my face as flawless and incapable of being expressed on paper. When we were apart, the thought of me, his desperate need to be with me, must have become too much… So he drew. He sketched. He painted. He sought to recreate from memory what he insisted could never be fully captured on paper. Even though he believed it to be impossible, forever inaccessible, his competitive spirit drove him to attempt it anyway, to keep on attempting it no matter what.

And, for once, I saw the portraits as he did. I saw myself as he did. I didn't see the flaws or mistakes or failures. I saw the captures of a thousand moments, memories, and different versions of who I was, equally accurate and equally true. I saw a beautiful girl of water and flame, hope and sorrow, courage and fear, strength and softness... A spirit, an angel, a goddess, a nymph… But I didn't feel insecure in comparison, or even that he'd set me on an unrealistic, unachievable pedestal. I didn't feel I could never be the woman he drew. I didn't feel like he'd crafted and created some ideal to love more than my reality.

I felt like he saw, and loved, the brightest lights in my soul.

I felt like he saw me more truly than I could.

I just felt seen.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and I began to blurt out my speech for fear her speechlessness might pass.

"Ursa, I love you. I can't remember a time when I didn't. You're the only person to believe in me, the only person to never fear me, the only person to understand…" I began to choke up, completely unable to say half of the things I felt.

I love everything about you and everything you do. I love the way you glare at me and scold and me and hold me to a standard no one else will. I love that you always style your hair in the same way. I love the way your eyebrows frown in thought. I love how perfectly imperfect you are. I love your laugh and smile, your compassionate, peace-loving heart, your sincere selflessness and genuine humility. Your wit and cleverness. Your studious obsession with literature and history… Your devotion to the Ember Island players. I love that you never back down or surrender. I love your cool, level head that still holds a fiery temper. I love your passion and thoughtfulness. Your spirit and drive and independence and unflinching character. I love saying your name. Ursa, Ursa, Ursa, Ura… I love every inch of your face, your body, every crystal in your bottomless eyes. I love the way you love me more than I deserve.

So I did what I did best.

He began to bend, putting out the dazzling, golden candles in a way that released curls and curls of swirling smoke, and then he painted with the smoke, creating patterns and designs, creatures and castles, even people, melting and molding and releasing them, lighting them with the dulling embers, surrounding me in an art unusual and eerie yet terribly calming, peaceful, as though the spirit world was wrapping itself around us.

By the times my tears had dried, Ozai crossed back over to me, taking my hands in his as the candles lit up again, reflected in those endless golden gems as he smiled so softly.

"Ursa, you are… my life," he choked again on the honesty of his words, that gold glowing with a plea, a desperate begging, and a love beyond expression.

Our eyes always say what we cannot.

"Ozai, my prince," I whispered back. "You are my sun. Now just shut up and kiss me."

"Just…" he pulled back, sending me a look as I tried not to pout. "Just let me finish. You have haunted me every day, and you will always haunt me. You make me such a better man, but you would be appalled by the lengths I'm capable of going to for you. I love you as much as I can love anyone, and maybe that's not enough, and maybe that's too much, and maybe you deserve someone… But, Ursa, I want to spend a lifetime devoted to loving you more and more each day. Do you have any idea what an angel…?"

"Shut up and kiss me."

He half-smirked instead.

"I know this asking so much, but Ursa, will you—?"

Oh Ozai, don't you know how terribly unromantic it is to actually ask? It's too obvious. It's too expected and mediocre and uncertain. How can you ask something that was never a question? How can you speak aloud something so instinctive and plain it never need be said?

And yet, had I allowed him to say it, hearing those words would've filled me with enough bliss to forget everything else, to find perfection in everything he said and did that day.

But I would not allow him to say it.

It'd taken every ounce of control I had not to kiss him untilthen.

Evidently, I didn't have enough strength.

Our hearts melted and blazed and entwined into one, making the world full of light and warmth and music once more. There was so much peace and calm, fulfilling and overwhelming yet utterly at rest. There was both desperation and happiness, both joy and perspective.

I looked up at him with tears of ecstasy and heartbreak, not wanting to break what had to be broken, needing to tell him, needing to stay with him forever.

"I never stopped loving you, you know," I said as he cupped my face in his hands. "Not for one instant."

"If you think I don't know that..." he trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished because he knew I didn't. "I would do ANYTHING for you, Ursa," he said with a sudden urgency.

She just chuckled, burying her face in my chest.

"Well, I hope not anything."

There were many lengths he could go to that would appall me.

I laughed back but couldn't lie.

I would do anything for her.

I did.

And for that reason, I would lose her.