Urzai Week: Day Six - [Fic] Where the Heart Is
Urzai Week, just today and tomorrow.
Yesterday:
- alpha_hydra wrote Ozai's Garish Melody
---
Title: Where the Heart Is
Characters: Ozai/Ursa, mentions of the rest of the royal family, Mai, Jin, Song and Hakoda
Prompt: I know that home is the one place you won't come
Rating: G
Word Count: 300+
Summary: When he has nothing else to live for, he lives for her.
---
Where the Heart Is
***
When Ozai wanders the Earth Kingdom, Ursa makes her way to the Fire Nation. When his brother minds him and the Jasmine Dragon both, his wife settles into the Fire Palace with Zuko and the new Firelady.
When Ozai returns to the Fire Nation, Ursa takes a ship to Ba Sing Se with Azula. When he sits in his cell and reads some treastise Mai gave him to keep him out of trouble, his wife opens up a shop.
When Ozai goes to the Water Tribe, Ursa returns to visit with Zuko and her new grandson. When he sharpens verbal claws on Bato and tolerates the spray of saltwater from sailing, she plays with Hitozi and speaks with the Fire Sages about help for Azula.
Always she remains ahead of him, disappearing over the horizon whenever he goes to her. He cannot sneak up on her; everyone who matters always knows of his movements. They can't let the Phoenix King walk free and alone.
He stops seeking her. His gold eyes go flat like coins, and he offers only violence to every hand extended to him. Hakoda almost kills him in a rage, Mai loses her temper, and it is only Iroh who can withstand his brother's dead fire.
Ursa stays gone.
Ozai does not know how it happens, but there are girls with no fathers in Ba Sing Se who swirl around him. Song's voice and hands are soft, but her poisons are certain. Jin's voice is bright and her hands are rough, but she attracts the eyes of unsavory men. He does not know how to be a father, and that is just as well, because they don't need a father.
They need the violence he can bring to bear and the tea he can brew, and in return, they patch together some of the pieces of the soul cutting him to ribbons.
But Ursa does not return to Ba Sing Se.
One morning, the sun rises and Ozai is gone. Weeks pass with no sign of him, and Zuko and Aang near tear apart the world trying to find him.
One morning, the sun rises and Ozai sits by Ursa's bedside, his hair shorn and his clothes Water Tribe blue and his eyes as brilliant as the sun-disc.
-End-
Yesterday:
- alpha_hydra wrote Ozai's Garish Melody
---
Title: Where the Heart Is
Characters: Ozai/Ursa, mentions of the rest of the royal family, Mai, Jin, Song and Hakoda
Prompt: I know that home is the one place you won't come
Rating: G
Word Count: 300+
Summary: When he has nothing else to live for, he lives for her.
---
Where the Heart Is
***
When Ozai wanders the Earth Kingdom, Ursa makes her way to the Fire Nation. When his brother minds him and the Jasmine Dragon both, his wife settles into the Fire Palace with Zuko and the new Firelady.
When Ozai returns to the Fire Nation, Ursa takes a ship to Ba Sing Se with Azula. When he sits in his cell and reads some treastise Mai gave him to keep him out of trouble, his wife opens up a shop.
When Ozai goes to the Water Tribe, Ursa returns to visit with Zuko and her new grandson. When he sharpens verbal claws on Bato and tolerates the spray of saltwater from sailing, she plays with Hitozi and speaks with the Fire Sages about help for Azula.
Always she remains ahead of him, disappearing over the horizon whenever he goes to her. He cannot sneak up on her; everyone who matters always knows of his movements. They can't let the Phoenix King walk free and alone.
He stops seeking her. His gold eyes go flat like coins, and he offers only violence to every hand extended to him. Hakoda almost kills him in a rage, Mai loses her temper, and it is only Iroh who can withstand his brother's dead fire.
Ursa stays gone.
Ozai does not know how it happens, but there are girls with no fathers in Ba Sing Se who swirl around him. Song's voice and hands are soft, but her poisons are certain. Jin's voice is bright and her hands are rough, but she attracts the eyes of unsavory men. He does not know how to be a father, and that is just as well, because they don't need a father.
They need the violence he can bring to bear and the tea he can brew, and in return, they patch together some of the pieces of the soul cutting him to ribbons.
But Ursa does not return to Ba Sing Se.
One morning, the sun rises and Ozai is gone. Weeks pass with no sign of him, and Zuko and Aang near tear apart the world trying to find him.
One morning, the sun rises and Ozai sits by Ursa's bedside, his hair shorn and his clothes Water Tribe blue and his eyes as brilliant as the sun-disc.
-End-