𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟 | zuko

12: MOONLIGHT

"Should I arrange for rooms?" asked Zuko to Aang.  We were now inside, in a sitting room.  There were couches and cushions and tables all adorned with gold, and the two doors of this place were covered with red curtains to let us through.  A back window looked out into a grassy yard, with bridges and a pond and simple stone benches.  There were weeping willows, providing shade, though it was dark now, and nocturnal animals scurried about.  

"Yes, please," said Aang.  "Everyone their own?" he turned to the group, who shrugged.

"Kyra and I could share," I offered.  I wanted to, anyway.  

"Two beds in Jin's room, got it," he said.  "That's all?"

Everyone looked around at each other and nodded.

He went out to look for a servant instead of calling one there and came back within a minute.  Kyra's and my room was the last to be ready, as a second bed had to be carried in.  The two of us were left in the sitting room.

"Hey, it's just us," said Kyra.

"And?" 

"Well, if I leave, when Zuko comes back, it'll be just you and him," she said, making me smile.  

"I'll take that as I'm going to the bathroom," she said, and went out the door to the right, leaving me to look out the window.  Indeed, a minute after, Zuko came into the room, and I felt the butterflies rising in my stomach.

"This is my favorite room inside the castle," he said, joining me on the couch.

"Why's that?" I asked, turning from the window to him.  The moon reflected on his face quite wonderfully.

"Well, because you can see the outside," he said, looking out the window.  "This is my favorite place in the castle, but that's my favorite place, well, maybe anywhere."

"It's pretty," I said.  

"I've watched you," he said.  "Not creepily, just -- saw you.  You flinch when the guards pass if you don't see them coming.  Is that why?" He looked at my left wrist.  I held it up, and he took it, carefully, so as not to hurt me.

"It's a burn," he assured.  "Can I ask --"

"I spoke out when I wasn't supposed to," I said.  "A soldier took my wrist and used me as a warning. That's the simple story, anyway.  I don't think I could tell the whole thing."

"Simple's all I need," he assured.  "I wasn't sure if it was maybe a bad cooking incident or a firebender.  Though I assumed the latter."

"Good instincts," I said.  

It was quiet for another moment until I remembered the fountain in Fire Fountain City.  I wanted to ask him about it, though I wasn't sure if this was the time.  Yet the question came out of my mouth anyway.

"Do you remember the fountain I took you to in Ba Sing Se?"

Zuko smiled fondly.  "Yeah."

"Did you model the center of Fire Fountain City after it?"

It seemed the memories came rushing to him.  But he smiled anyway.  "Did you... like it?"

"It reminded me of that night," I said.  "I loved it."

"I didn't think I would ever see you again, Jin," he began.  "I thought about you sometimes.  I wondered what you were up to.  I wondered if you were okay."

"I thought of you, too," I said.  "Well, I thought of Lee.  I wondered if you'd maybe escaped the city, but I figured you were I firebender in the end.  But when I saw the poster -- it took me a bit to actually process that not only were you Fire Nation, but the Fire Lord."

Zuko chuckled.  "It's a lot to take in."

I turned to look up at him again.  It was just like that night.  Only that was the past.  This is the now.  He's not Lee, he's Zuko.  He's not a refugee, he's the Fire Lord.  Whose face looks so incredible in the moonlight.

I took out the metal piece holding up the bun in his hair.  It fell in wisps, and his bangs fell to his face.  Reminiscent of that night.

"Look at you," I said sweetly, messing up his hair.  "You look so cute."

I knew he was blushing because my hand had found itself on his cheek.  His gold eyes were extremely easy to get lost in, and I felt myself getting closer, and I didn't want to stop...

And he was doing the same until we couldn't get any closer and our lips touched.  He pushed forward, and unlike that night, ran his hands through my hair slowly.  The kiss lasted a couple of seconds more before we both pulled away.

"I missed that the most, I think," I said.  But Zuko just sort of smiled, and stood up, taking the hairpiece off the table.  

"I'll, uh, see you in the morning," he said and walked out a little awkwardly.

I asked someone where my bedroom was, and they led me to it.  It was upstairs, on the east end of the castle, where most of the bedrooms were.  Kyra was already there, playing with the lotions that had been in the bathroom.

"You know, if you mix lavender and jasmine, it smells really good," she said.  "Anyway, how'd it go?"

"It..." I wasn't sure if the way he left was good or bad.  Why was he so awkward?  I mean, I guess he'd always been awkward.  "It... went," I finished.  Kyra looked skeptical.

"And is that good or bad?" she asked.

"I don't know," I said.  "We kissed, and it was amazing, but when he left, he was weird."

"Well, you told me he was awkward last time."

"But last time he ended the kiss, he didn't go along with it."

"Right," remembered Kyra.  

"But it was amazing," I said.

"I'm sure," replied Kyra.  "Hey, have you seen the closet?  It's amazing?"

"It's just a closet, isn't it?  I -- oh, wow."  I had walked over and opened it.  It was a lot bigger than my closet at home and had twice the amount of clothes.  

"And, there's a second one," said Kyra, pointing to the opposite wall.  There was a second wardrobe, and it had different clothes than the one I had opened.  Kyra looked around in the other closet.

"I like this one," she said.  "You get that one."

"I haven't even seen that one yet!"

"Too late, it's mine.  Besides, look, those colors perfectly suit you, the servants took note of your skin tone."

I smiled.  Then found something to sleep in.  I put my stuff in a drawer by the bedside.  There were two large beds, one for Kyra, and one for me.  We had shared a room many times over the years, whether it being at sleepovers or just family things, or maybe one wandering over to the other's house in the middle of the night.  Either way, this was the most comfortable.  It's the way we'd always had it.

But sometimes, things change.

hehehehehe muahahahaa

we didn't think I just forgot about mai, did we?

-molly ;)