Avatar fic: Proposing the Unexpectedly Expected
Title: Proposing the Unexpectedly Expected
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I own none of it, which you should know, because if I did, many plot points of Avatar would have gone differently.
Rating: PG
Summary: Dowager Fire Lady Ursa is a little confused about the details of her son's marriage. Eleventh in the Proposal series.
Author's Notes: A little dialogue-heavy, I feel, but since it's pretty much all talking heads, I'm not sure there's much space for any sort of action. I was going to skip over this conversation entirely, but I have no control over my writing at the moment it seems, and my muse (who looks an awful lot like a certain grouchy penguin involved in knocking over a certain prince in the South Pole) insisted.
Ursa had decided that she liked Katara very much. The young woman was perfect for her son. Where he was rash, she would think things through, and when she took a turn being impulsive, Zuko was there, calming her down. Zuko had a tendency, even after the hardships he'd undergone, to presume he deserved certain things by simple virtue of his position and birth. Katara was always there to remind him that accidents of birth do no automatically confer wisdom or honour. In return, Zuko was always there to remind his wife that she was important and his equal on the throne.
In a fascinating turn of events, Ursa was even having a chance to learn bending from the young waterbender.
When the Air Nomads had come out of hiding at the Fire Lord's wedding feast, Ursa taking her rightful position as the representative of those who had hidden within the Fire Nation, the Avatar had declared that his next task to bring balance to the world was to reestablish the old Air Nomad peoples in their temples and along their old travel routes. This meant the teenaged Avatar was now constantly on the move, going between the benders he was teaching traditional styles of airbending, and the negotiations between the various settlements of the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom.
Ursa had wanted to stay with her son, allowing her children to get to know each other. That was when Katara had stepped in on Malai's behalf. Katara's travels with the Avatar had given her a great deal of experience in seeing the bending of an air master. So she offered to teach Malai, and Ursa, what she knew of airbending. Which was a surprising amount, until Ursa learned that Katara had been so desperate to pick up bending from somewhere, she had often tried to bend like Aang before she'd had formal training at the North Pole.
So Katara would take Malai and Ursa through airbending practice in the afternoon every day, fitting it into a schedule of meetings with officials, paperwork, sitting in judgment with Zuko for the public audiences every day, closeting herself with Zuko to work on the paperwork that needed the agreement and understanding of the Fire Lord, teaching waterbending to Shui in the evenings, sparring with Zuko right at sunset when both their powers were most equal, practicing her own bending alone in the moonlight before finally heading for the Fire Lady's suite.
Not that all those things happened every day, and certainly as time passed, the workload of governance eased for both Zuko and Katara and things were brought ever more under control. The couple were very close, and Ursa thought the relationship they had was clearly wonderful. Affectionate, respectful, a meeting of like-minded equals in every way. Still, something seemed a little . . . off.
For instance, one morning, Katara had stormed into the family breakfast, vibrating with irritation. She'd waited until a bored Malai had left for her lessons before exploding. "Zuko! Would you stop countermanding everything I tell my maidservants! I'm sick of having people trying to give me baths, and I'm tired of having to fight to wear what I want to, but most of all, I'm tired of getting back to my rooms to find that everything I asked Shui and Lian to not do, you've told them to do it again! Just because you're the all-powerful Fire Lord doesn't mean you get to be a controlling ass!"
"Just because I want to be sure you don't waltz into a meeting dressed in something entirely too casual again doesn't make me controlling!"
"Ahh!" She threw her hands up in the air. "All I'm saying is that if I get to my rooms and hear Shui tell me one more time that you've told her to treat me like a porcelain doll again, you can forget ever having an heir!"
She stormed out, slamming the door behind her. Ursa was about to tell her son off for interfering in his wife's personal affairs that way when she saw the smile on his face. "Finally," he muttered. He summoned a servant to bring him a piece of parchment and brush and ink, wrote a quick note and said, "Please bring this to Lady Katara's maid, Shui." She sat back, confused, and decided to wait a while longer before interfering herself.
The next morning, Katara was dressed, not in Fire Nation colours, but in a lovely dress of dark blue and black, done in Fire Nation style. She seemed to smirk triumphantly at Zuko, who simply smiled and complimented her on the dress. Katara seemed momentarily taken aback, then suspicious, and then suddenly rolled her eyes and said, "Sometime I'm going to catch you at one of these plots and I'll find a way to mess with your head."
"You look stunning," he told her. "You always look good in blue."
"Tell me that's the last test," Katara said, refusing to give in to flattery.
Zuko smiled. "I think that's all anyone can do except give you time, now. I have to say though, I thought you'd be angrier about it."
"I was," Katara admitted. "And then I talked to Toph, who rightly pointed out that you and everyone else didn't have time for me to get better totally honestly." She glanced up, noticed the water clock on the far wall, and said, "Oh damn. I have to go out to meet the representative from Omashu. I really hope it's not Yoshi again. He's been working as Bumi's majordomo for far too long."
That conversation explained some things to Ursa, but raised a great many other questions. It explained, at least to some extent, why Katara had been so . . . off the first months she was Fire Lady. She had had some sort of illness. What was curious, then, was why the wedding hadn't been put off, or why Zuko had chosen her at all to be his wife. The affection between them was unforced, but it felt wrong for a truly loving couple.
Katara had taken to spending time with her mother-in-law in recent weeks. They'd talked about many different things, including the differences in their times as Fire Lady, Zuko's childhood, his time spent chasing the Avatar and his time once Aang had been found. There were things and perspectives Katara had, after all, that were not like her son's. So it was the perfect time for the Dowager Fire Lady to ask a question that had begun to bother her a great deal over the past few weeks.
"Katara, I can't help but notice, and wonder why, is there some reason you and my son aren't sharing a bed?"
The young woman looked startled, and asked, "How do you know that?"
Ursa smiled, gently, and said, "My own rooms are not at all far from yours and my son's. I have never yet seen you go in the direction of the royal chambers, just the Fire Lady's suite." Before her daughter-in-law could say anything, Ursa added, "Not to mention that neither of you seems even remotely close, physically. You care for each other very much, but you both avoid touching one another as though something were wrong." Ursa pressed her lips together briefly before forging ahead with a question she didn't want to ask. "Did my son . . . make any . . . errors on your wedding night?"
Katara's eyes were wide, and she said hastily, "No! No, he didn't do anything wrong it's . . . did Iroh talk to you - about me? Or Zuko? Someone?"
Feeling a little confused, Ursa asked, "Why? Is there something I should know?"
"I . . . yes," Katara said. "I guess I assumed Zuko or Iroh would have told you. I'm a little grateful, I suppose, that they left it up to me who knew, but I wish they'd said something." At Ursa's look of more confusion, Katara explained. About her return to her tribe and her brother and grandmother's last ditch attempt to save her sanity. She finished by saying, "Zuko said he doesn't quite feel ready for children yet anyhow, and we agreed that until I didn't feel quite so shaky about it, we'd just . . . not."
Ursa processed the story for a moment, then said, "Let me get this straight. My son married you, knowing that he wouldn't be able to share your bed for months, if not years, and simply slept apart from you on the honeymoon."
"Yes," Katara said. "It sounds awful, doesn't it?" She looked chagrined. "But he kept telling me that I'd be good at being Fire Lady, and I really didn't want to put my father in a position where he'd have to return the bride price Zuko sent in exchange for me, and," she added, flushing, "I really didn't want to go back there."
"I . . . don't know what to say," Ursa admitted. "I'd been worried that you'd fought, or that Zuko had done something out of inexperience and hurt you, or . . . I don't know. I hadn't expected this."
Katara sighed. "I know it's odd. But . . . I think Zuko might be the only man I could have married after everything Ujarak did. I mean, I don't think there are that many men who would be so patient."
Ursa paused, then tilted her head a little. "So . . . you . . . you're happy in this marriage?" She narrowed her eyes. She wasn't quite sure herself what she was asking, although that was as good a question as any of the dozens floating around in her head. "I'm not one to ask, since my marriage to Ozai wasn't even political so much as tactical, but you seem like the sort of person who would want a love match, not just something . . . comfortable."
"I was," Katara admitted. "But now, I just want to feel safe. Zuko makes me feel safe. Like he's not going to let anything happen to me. That means more to me than all the crazy passion ever could." She shrugged, and added, "Not that you want to hear this, exactly, as his mother, but it doesn't hurt that Zuko's one of the best-looking men I've ever known, either."
"Ozai was a very handsome man," Ursa said, dryly, "And that hardly helped my affections for him."
Her young friend's eyes went wide. "Oh! I'm not saying that the reason I feel the way I do about Zuko is because of his looks, it's just that it's nicer than not to spend a lot of time with someone who looks nice as well as being nice."
Ursa nodded her head sagely, but something in Katara's tone of voice and posture sent the older woman on a fishing expedition. "Just to be clear, what is it you do feel about my son?"
"Um . . . well, he's a really good friend. My best friend in a lot of ways. I mean, he gets me," Katara said, slowly. "I was so horrible to him when he tried to join up with us, but when he told me he could help me get revenge on the man who killed my mother, he just . . . understood. He knew I needed to let it go and that I couldn't if I didn't face him." A small smile crossed her lips. "I was kind of crazy that whole trip and I know I must have scared him, but he just . . . let me do what I needed to do."
"I'm glad," Ursa told her. "I think it goes both ways."
"Do you?" Katara asked. "It's also about how fast we both grew up. I mean, it's not that Sokka isn't smart, and I love him a lot, but after Dad left for war, he kind of buried himself in pretending he was training the kids in the village up to be warriors. I know he took it really seriously, but I was always doing all the work of cooking and cleaning and taking care of the children, and he was just running around practising with his boomerang.
"Even after we left with Aang, I was always the one who had to keep the camp in order and keep the boys from wasting our money on silly things. Not that I was perfect," she said flushing a little. "But it was like I had to be everyone's mother as well as Aang's bending teacher and everything else."
Raising an eyebrow, Ursa said, "That sounds like a lot of responsibility."
"Don't get me wrong," Katara told her, "I wouldn't trade the experiences I got for anything, but until Zuko joined us, I sometimes felt really alone."
Delicately prompting, Ursa asked, "And after?"
"I was angry with him for betraying us in Ba Sing Se," Katara told her, "But he helped with the cooking. The other chores. He made the others start doing their share. It was kind of like I finally had someone backing me up about the normal stuff, not just the war." She was lost in reminiscence, "We made a really good team. Sometimes, Suki said it was like I was the mom and Sparky was the dad."
"Sparky?" Ursa asked. Then she recalled Toph. "Right. Toph's nickname for Zuko."
"She has nicknames for all of us," Katara said, grinning. "I think it was good for Zuko to spend time with someone who was going to tease him and not mean anything bad with it."
"I'm sure," Ursa said. She felt a twinge of regret that was quite familiar as she considered her second child. Azula was her daughter, and she loved her, but she had to wonder where she had gone wrong with the girl. Katara was still talking about Zuko, however.
"I think one of the things I like best about him is that he just expects my bending to be good. Not," Katara paused, searching for the right words, clearly, "Not like Master Pakku expected me to do well as his student, but that Zuko just thinks that, since I'm a master waterbender I'll just be that good. Period." She smiled. "It's different from the Tribes, where I had to keep proving again and again that I could be any good before anyone expected that I would be."
And then a brilliant smile crossed the young woman's face. It lit her up from the inside out, and Ursa felt a sense of vindication. That wasn't the smile of someone who was just talking about a friend. That was a woman in love. "When we spar, with bending, or when he agrees to let me practise with the fans Suki got me against him, it's just . . . amazing." Her whole face softened. "The way he moves it's just so . . . liquid," she said. "The way he just flows from one form to another is amazing. I could watch him for hours."
Unable to help herself, Ursa felt her left eyebrow arch. Katara had leaned back in her chair, apparently unaware that one of her hands was almost caressing the skin around the neck of the robes she was wearing. The smile on her face wasn't carnal, lascivious or any other adjective that might describe a woman in lust. Katara's face was full of love and trust. It was just her hand that seemed to betray her physical wants.
"You're in love with my son after all," Ursa told her.
"What?" Katara sat bolt upright, straightening herself sharply.
"No need to be alarmed. Zuko is quite . . . loveable," Ursa said, choosing the path of least resistance as far as her choice in words went. "He's honourable, kind, a good Fire Lord, a powerful bender," for some reason Katara seemed to twitch at that, but Ursa paid it no mind as she continued. "He is intelligent and quite handsome."
The younger woman looked as though an earthbender had just sent a boulder into the back of her head. Entirely flummoxed. "I . . . I . . ."
"I'm happy about that, you know," Ursa told her. "I was worried he had trapped himself in a marriage to someone who could never love him the way he deserves. But you do."
It was as though something slotted into place in Katara's head, and she slumped. "Spirits. I am in love with him. How did that happen?" Ursa refrained from saying, About the time you started being able to wax eloquent on all his graces without having to even consider them.
Instead, Ursa chose to prompt her daughter-in-law. "It doesn't matter when or how it happened, Katara. Just take the time to let him know that you do."
The waterbending master, who had faced more dangers and hardships (including, she had to admit, her own son), than Ursa could ever imagine, turned quite pale and said, "But what if he doesn't love me back! What if he just laughs at me or . . . or . . ."
"Do you really think Zuko would ever laugh at you for you feelings?" Ursa demanded before Katara could descend into more ridiculous reasons to panic. "Besides, I happen to believe he loves you as much as you love him."
"How do you know?" Katara demanded of her.
Ursa considered her answer a moment, and then told her, "Because he talks about you and looks at you exactly the same way you do him."
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