[FIC] Sense and Sensibility (3/16)
Title: Sense and Sensibility, Chapter Three
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing: Eventual Zutara, mentions of Sokka/Suki
Wordcount: 1805
Warnings: none
Summary: Four years after the end of the war, Fire Lord Zuko is told he has two weeks to choose a bride from a group of five girls. Luckily, Uncle Iroh stacked the deck.
Author's Notes: I'm archiving things, so this one (which is my longest finished story to date) was written before season three premiered. Thus it is technically an AU. Chapter titles are from the musical Camelot, because I am a giant dork.
---Chapter Three: Camelot---
--Two Years Earlier--
Every year, for centuries upon centuries, the Fire Nation celebrated the summer solstice with massive fairs, carnivals, and parades of all sorts. The summer following the war’s end, the people had been too busy cleaning up their home and their lives. Fire Lord Zuko had cancelled the major celebrations but permitted his people to hold much smaller festivities. The next year things were different. Iroh insisted that the people needed their national holiday. So Zuko gave in. He was even scheduled to make an appearance at the festival being held in the Fire Nation capital. He didn’t want to just experience the holiday from a dais at the center of the city, though. He wanted to feel it as a normal citizen would. So Zuko found a mask (one of red and gold, with a neutral expression) and used it to hide his identity as he roamed amongst his subjects.
--------
“C’mon, Katara!” Aang called excitedly. He raced in and out of the crowd, making it hard for his friends to keep up. Toph was already grumbling in frustration, since the number of people (not to mention Aang’s frequent leaps into the air) made it slightly more difficult for her to keep track of the Avatar. Sokka was distracted by every scent even vaguely resembling food. Katara looked up from a fan she’d been examining only to find that her three companions had disappeared. “Great,” she muttered. She started off, only to run into someone and knock them to the ground. “Oh! I’m sorry,” she apologized immediately. She turned to see who she’d run into and gasped again. “Zuko?”
Zuko stared at the girl, realizing his mask must have come off when he fell. Everyone in the Fire Nation knew their Fire Lord’s face (what with the distinctive scar and all), but no one here besides his uncle would call him by just his first name. A blue and silver mask hid her features, making identification all the more difficult. Who could she be? He stood again awkwardly. “Do I know you?”
Katara put her hands on her hips, annoyed. “Of course you know me!” Then the waterbender remembered the masks she and the others had donned in the spirit of the occasion. She pulled it off. “There. Remember me now?”
Zuko certainly did remember her. They’d only spent a few weeks traveling together at the end of the war, but one didn’t just forget a girl like that. He started to search the ground for his mask, hoping to hide the pink creeping up his cheeks. Katara noticed what he was doing. She spotted the mask about a foot away and leaned to pick it up just as Zuko did the same thing. His fingertips brushed her hand, but he quickly cleared his throat and drew away. Katara blushed as she handed him the mask. “Here.”
“Thanks,” Zuko replied, taking it. He didn’t put it back on, though. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
Katara relaxed slightly. “I’m here with my friends. Aang insisted we come. I’m surprised to see you without your entourage.”
Zuko smiled slightly. “I’m still amazed I got away. People follow me everywhere.”
“Katara! Hurry up; we’re going to miss the parade!” Aang called from several feet away.
The waterbender laughed. “I’m coming!” she shouted back. But when she turned to say goodbye to Zuko, he was gone.
--Present Day--
Katara wasn’t sure what to think as she finally got off the Azulon. She’d been aboard the ship for four days, and much as she loved the ocean, she was glad to have her feet back on dry land. The port city they docked at was a bustling mass of people, easily ten times the size of her home village. Children shouted in joy as they played, parents scolded, and friends called greetings to each other, all punctuated by the cry of the seagulls swirling around in the sky above. The master waterbender turned princess was caught between awe and homesickness. The last time she’d been here, Aang had simply flown them in on Appa, so she hadn’t seen any of this. She took a step forward and discovered, much to her dismay, that her legs had not yet readjusted to being on solid ground. Now, instead of being caught by her emotions, she was caught by a pair of strong arms encased in red cloth that steadied her with ease. Katara turned to thank the owner of the arms.
Blue eyes met golden ones.
“Careful, Princess,” Zuko said softly, his eyes completely serious.
Katara laughed and sank into a dramatic curtsey. “I am eternally grateful to you, Fire Lord, for rescuing me from the most horrible fate of falling flat on my face.” She rose gracefully, still wearing a smile. “Have the other girls arrived yet, or am I the first?”
Zuko’s expression darkened substantially. “You’re actually the last. Uncle took them all back to the palace.” The young Fire Lord conveniently left out the fact that General Iroh had barely needed to persuade him to stay and wait for Princess Katara’s arrival instead of accompanying the others.
The waterbender looked at him. “You don’t like any of them, do you?”
Zuko stared at her in surprise. “Is it that obvious?”
Katara grinned. “Yes.” The blue eyes sparkled with mischief and repressed laughter. Zuko started to smile in spite of himself. Two years hadn’t changed her personality much. A royal guard appeared, offering his arm to escort her to the royal carriage that would carry the princess and the Fire Lord back to the palace. Katara accepted his assistance demurely, responding, Zuko thought, exactly as a princess should. Katara realized after a moment that Zuko was no longer beside her. She looked back at him over her shoulder. “Aren’t you coming?”
Zuko, startled out of his thoughts, nodded and followed without further hesitation.
--------
Katara stared at the quickly passing countryside in wonder and delight. The Fire Nation was beautiful when viewed from the ground, with fields of wildflowers she’d never seen before. She wondered if these fields had always been here, or if they were once villages and towns that got destroyed in the final battle of the war and hadn’t been rebuilt. It was a sobering thought.
Zuko sat across from her in silence, his eyes also on the landscape but through the window farthest from her. This was likely the only time he and Katara would be able to talk freely during her stay at the palace, and yet the young Fire Lord couldn’t bring himself to say anything.
Katara glanced at him. Zuko had, for as long as she’d known him, always been a very private person. The moments where he opened up to anyone were rare, but she still had expected more than this. Maybe she’d teased him too much. It wasn’t that Katara found the situation funny. The very idea of being forced to marry against one’s will repulsed her, and the thought of having to choose among people one didn’t even like was even worse. But something about the way Zuko reacted- maybe something about the Fire Lord himself- amused her, and she couldn’t resist teasing him. The not-talking thing, however, was getting to her. Katara searched for a possible conversation starter. “When’s your birthday, Zuko?”
The Fire Lord blinked at her. “What?”
Katara fought the urge to laugh. “It’s a simple question. When is your birthday?”
Zuko looked at the waterbender as though she were crazy. “Why would you want to know that?”
Katara sighed in exasperation. Now he was just being difficult. “It never came up while we traveled together during the war, and I’m curious.”
Zuko was quiet for a moment. Katara waited not-so-patiently.
“April seventeenth,” he said finally.
Katara smiled victoriously. “That’s in less than a month. You’ll be twenty-one, right?”
“Yes,” Zuko confirmed. There was another pause. “When’s your birthday?”
Katara’s smile widened. So the topic had worked. “July eleventh. I’ll be-”
“Nineteen, I know.” Zuko looked out his window again. “We’re here.”
Katara peered out her own window. The Fire Nation palace loomed before her in all its glory. The waterbender took a deep breath. She could do this. She could totally do this.
--------
In the common waiting room they’d been given permission to use, the four ladies who had arrived before Katara were finishing up their makeup and hair, wanting to look their best for dinner with the Fire Lord.
“My father paid Lady Junbi a ridiculous amount of money so I would be one of her selections,” Lani Mei confided as she reddened her lips.
Kanai Shin, next to her at that particular mirror, rolled her eyes. “All of our fathers did. Do any of you know the fifth girl, the so-called princess?”
Lani turned to another girl. “Wasn’t she friends with your blind cousin, Vana?”
Vana groaned. “Please, don’t remind me of Toph. She spends every spring gallivanting about the Earth Kingdom with the Avatar, with no thought of propriety or position.”
“What position, Vana?” Lady Ming-Ming said icily. Her clothes were the finest of the four, and she even wore a sheer, cream-colored veil over her hair. It was held in place by a clip that, if looked at closely, greatly resembled a small crown. “Your families are rich, and while that does come with privilege, it does not make one royal.”
“Speaking of royal,” Kanai piped up, “I hear that our princess’s ‘kingdom’ consists of a single village.”
“Not surprising. The Southern Water Tribe is much smaller than the Northern one.”
“I bet she sleeps in an igloo.”
This earned laughter from all of the girls, until one of the doors to the waiting room opened. Katara peered in hesitantly. “The servants said I could wait in here until dinner…” The other four just stared at her. Katara felt a blush creep up her cheeks and quickly moved to sit in a beautifully upholstered and well-cushioned chair not far from the door. The others continued what they were doing, but now in silence.
Katara watched them uncomfortably. When they were younger, Zuko had on several occasions called her a peasant, but this was the first time she really felt like one. All four girls had dark hair and light skin, and most of them had brown eyes in varying shades. One with green eyes and familiar features put her in mind of Toph, but this girl was older and… different. All wore sleek robes in silks and fine cloth, making Katara look down at her slightly worn black dress and azure tunic-vest with its white sash in dismay. These were actually her best clothes. They’d been perfectly fine in her home village, but apparently here they were not. She sighed in relief when a servant opened the door, curtsied, and announced that dinner was ready.
---End Chapter Three---
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing: Eventual Zutara, mentions of Sokka/Suki
Wordcount: 1805
Warnings: none
Summary: Four years after the end of the war, Fire Lord Zuko is told he has two weeks to choose a bride from a group of five girls. Luckily, Uncle Iroh stacked the deck.
Author's Notes: I'm archiving things, so this one (which is my longest finished story to date) was written before season three premiered. Thus it is technically an AU. Chapter titles are from the musical Camelot, because I am a giant dork.
---Chapter Three: Camelot---
--Two Years Earlier--
Every year, for centuries upon centuries, the Fire Nation celebrated the summer solstice with massive fairs, carnivals, and parades of all sorts. The summer following the war’s end, the people had been too busy cleaning up their home and their lives. Fire Lord Zuko had cancelled the major celebrations but permitted his people to hold much smaller festivities. The next year things were different. Iroh insisted that the people needed their national holiday. So Zuko gave in. He was even scheduled to make an appearance at the festival being held in the Fire Nation capital. He didn’t want to just experience the holiday from a dais at the center of the city, though. He wanted to feel it as a normal citizen would. So Zuko found a mask (one of red and gold, with a neutral expression) and used it to hide his identity as he roamed amongst his subjects.
--------
“C’mon, Katara!” Aang called excitedly. He raced in and out of the crowd, making it hard for his friends to keep up. Toph was already grumbling in frustration, since the number of people (not to mention Aang’s frequent leaps into the air) made it slightly more difficult for her to keep track of the Avatar. Sokka was distracted by every scent even vaguely resembling food. Katara looked up from a fan she’d been examining only to find that her three companions had disappeared. “Great,” she muttered. She started off, only to run into someone and knock them to the ground. “Oh! I’m sorry,” she apologized immediately. She turned to see who she’d run into and gasped again. “Zuko?”
Zuko stared at the girl, realizing his mask must have come off when he fell. Everyone in the Fire Nation knew their Fire Lord’s face (what with the distinctive scar and all), but no one here besides his uncle would call him by just his first name. A blue and silver mask hid her features, making identification all the more difficult. Who could she be? He stood again awkwardly. “Do I know you?”
Katara put her hands on her hips, annoyed. “Of course you know me!” Then the waterbender remembered the masks she and the others had donned in the spirit of the occasion. She pulled it off. “There. Remember me now?”
Zuko certainly did remember her. They’d only spent a few weeks traveling together at the end of the war, but one didn’t just forget a girl like that. He started to search the ground for his mask, hoping to hide the pink creeping up his cheeks. Katara noticed what he was doing. She spotted the mask about a foot away and leaned to pick it up just as Zuko did the same thing. His fingertips brushed her hand, but he quickly cleared his throat and drew away. Katara blushed as she handed him the mask. “Here.”
“Thanks,” Zuko replied, taking it. He didn’t put it back on, though. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
Katara relaxed slightly. “I’m here with my friends. Aang insisted we come. I’m surprised to see you without your entourage.”
Zuko smiled slightly. “I’m still amazed I got away. People follow me everywhere.”
“Katara! Hurry up; we’re going to miss the parade!” Aang called from several feet away.
The waterbender laughed. “I’m coming!” she shouted back. But when she turned to say goodbye to Zuko, he was gone.
--Present Day--
Katara wasn’t sure what to think as she finally got off the Azulon. She’d been aboard the ship for four days, and much as she loved the ocean, she was glad to have her feet back on dry land. The port city they docked at was a bustling mass of people, easily ten times the size of her home village. Children shouted in joy as they played, parents scolded, and friends called greetings to each other, all punctuated by the cry of the seagulls swirling around in the sky above. The master waterbender turned princess was caught between awe and homesickness. The last time she’d been here, Aang had simply flown them in on Appa, so she hadn’t seen any of this. She took a step forward and discovered, much to her dismay, that her legs had not yet readjusted to being on solid ground. Now, instead of being caught by her emotions, she was caught by a pair of strong arms encased in red cloth that steadied her with ease. Katara turned to thank the owner of the arms.
Blue eyes met golden ones.
“Careful, Princess,” Zuko said softly, his eyes completely serious.
Katara laughed and sank into a dramatic curtsey. “I am eternally grateful to you, Fire Lord, for rescuing me from the most horrible fate of falling flat on my face.” She rose gracefully, still wearing a smile. “Have the other girls arrived yet, or am I the first?”
Zuko’s expression darkened substantially. “You’re actually the last. Uncle took them all back to the palace.” The young Fire Lord conveniently left out the fact that General Iroh had barely needed to persuade him to stay and wait for Princess Katara’s arrival instead of accompanying the others.
The waterbender looked at him. “You don’t like any of them, do you?”
Zuko stared at her in surprise. “Is it that obvious?”
Katara grinned. “Yes.” The blue eyes sparkled with mischief and repressed laughter. Zuko started to smile in spite of himself. Two years hadn’t changed her personality much. A royal guard appeared, offering his arm to escort her to the royal carriage that would carry the princess and the Fire Lord back to the palace. Katara accepted his assistance demurely, responding, Zuko thought, exactly as a princess should. Katara realized after a moment that Zuko was no longer beside her. She looked back at him over her shoulder. “Aren’t you coming?”
Zuko, startled out of his thoughts, nodded and followed without further hesitation.
--------
Katara stared at the quickly passing countryside in wonder and delight. The Fire Nation was beautiful when viewed from the ground, with fields of wildflowers she’d never seen before. She wondered if these fields had always been here, or if they were once villages and towns that got destroyed in the final battle of the war and hadn’t been rebuilt. It was a sobering thought.
Zuko sat across from her in silence, his eyes also on the landscape but through the window farthest from her. This was likely the only time he and Katara would be able to talk freely during her stay at the palace, and yet the young Fire Lord couldn’t bring himself to say anything.
Katara glanced at him. Zuko had, for as long as she’d known him, always been a very private person. The moments where he opened up to anyone were rare, but she still had expected more than this. Maybe she’d teased him too much. It wasn’t that Katara found the situation funny. The very idea of being forced to marry against one’s will repulsed her, and the thought of having to choose among people one didn’t even like was even worse. But something about the way Zuko reacted- maybe something about the Fire Lord himself- amused her, and she couldn’t resist teasing him. The not-talking thing, however, was getting to her. Katara searched for a possible conversation starter. “When’s your birthday, Zuko?”
The Fire Lord blinked at her. “What?”
Katara fought the urge to laugh. “It’s a simple question. When is your birthday?”
Zuko looked at the waterbender as though she were crazy. “Why would you want to know that?”
Katara sighed in exasperation. Now he was just being difficult. “It never came up while we traveled together during the war, and I’m curious.”
Zuko was quiet for a moment. Katara waited not-so-patiently.
“April seventeenth,” he said finally.
Katara smiled victoriously. “That’s in less than a month. You’ll be twenty-one, right?”
“Yes,” Zuko confirmed. There was another pause. “When’s your birthday?”
Katara’s smile widened. So the topic had worked. “July eleventh. I’ll be-”
“Nineteen, I know.” Zuko looked out his window again. “We’re here.”
Katara peered out her own window. The Fire Nation palace loomed before her in all its glory. The waterbender took a deep breath. She could do this. She could totally do this.
--------
In the common waiting room they’d been given permission to use, the four ladies who had arrived before Katara were finishing up their makeup and hair, wanting to look their best for dinner with the Fire Lord.
“My father paid Lady Junbi a ridiculous amount of money so I would be one of her selections,” Lani Mei confided as she reddened her lips.
Kanai Shin, next to her at that particular mirror, rolled her eyes. “All of our fathers did. Do any of you know the fifth girl, the so-called princess?”
Lani turned to another girl. “Wasn’t she friends with your blind cousin, Vana?”
Vana groaned. “Please, don’t remind me of Toph. She spends every spring gallivanting about the Earth Kingdom with the Avatar, with no thought of propriety or position.”
“What position, Vana?” Lady Ming-Ming said icily. Her clothes were the finest of the four, and she even wore a sheer, cream-colored veil over her hair. It was held in place by a clip that, if looked at closely, greatly resembled a small crown. “Your families are rich, and while that does come with privilege, it does not make one royal.”
“Speaking of royal,” Kanai piped up, “I hear that our princess’s ‘kingdom’ consists of a single village.”
“Not surprising. The Southern Water Tribe is much smaller than the Northern one.”
“I bet she sleeps in an igloo.”
This earned laughter from all of the girls, until one of the doors to the waiting room opened. Katara peered in hesitantly. “The servants said I could wait in here until dinner…” The other four just stared at her. Katara felt a blush creep up her cheeks and quickly moved to sit in a beautifully upholstered and well-cushioned chair not far from the door. The others continued what they were doing, but now in silence.
Katara watched them uncomfortably. When they were younger, Zuko had on several occasions called her a peasant, but this was the first time she really felt like one. All four girls had dark hair and light skin, and most of them had brown eyes in varying shades. One with green eyes and familiar features put her in mind of Toph, but this girl was older and… different. All wore sleek robes in silks and fine cloth, making Katara look down at her slightly worn black dress and azure tunic-vest with its white sash in dismay. These were actually her best clothes. They’d been perfectly fine in her home village, but apparently here they were not. She sighed in relief when a servant opened the door, curtsied, and announced that dinner was ready.
---End Chapter Three---