Chapter Text
"Zuko, I... I don't know if I can. Everything is so hard," Katara sobbed, her voice breaking as tears filled her eyes. Sitting in the garden of the Fire Lord's palace, she looked around, overwhelmed by the beauty of the place he had created for her. A pond surrounded by plants, flowers, benches and stone paths, accompanied by a winding canal where the water flowed with a gentle murmur. A sanctuary of peace in the midst of fire. The soft scent of white roses enveloped her, and with trembling hands, she leaned down to caress the petals, feeling the care Zuko had put into every corner of this place.
"Katara..." Zuko's voice was barely a whisper, charged with an intensity he reserved for moments like this. Moments with her. He lowered his gaze to the white roses she was stroking, the same ones he had planted with such devotion.
Zuko struggled in silence, his lips parting and closing as if each word carried the weight of the entire universe.
It hurt. It hurt him so much because he loved her, and for her he would tear down the entire palace to build a paradise of ice and endless seas where she could be at peace. But Zuko knew he couldn't. He loved Katara with the same intensity with which he felt duty to his nation. He loved her so much that he was willing to defy the Council and tradition to be by her side, but what he could not give her, what he could never give her, was a home away from this land of fire, away from this palace that carried with it centuries of history and responsibility.
As he watched Katara's profile, softly lit by the moon, his heart clenched. The echoes of the war that had ended nearly nine years ago still reverberated in both their hearts, and Zuko knew that better than anyone. Was he being selfish, asking her to do this? To ask her to give up everything and move to the nation that had caused her so much pain, just to keep her by his side? The question tortured him and the answer frightened him.
"I want you to be happy," Zuko finally murmured. He could barely keep his composure, but he faked it for her. Without giving her time to answer, he turned and walked into the palace.
As he walked deeper into the palace, he felt the cold embrace of its walls. He was returning, as always, to his own cage, a place filled with shadows that prevented him from escaping his duty. Every corner was saturated with painful memories, and happiness always seemed just out of reach. In spite of his best efforts to hold them back, the tears began to roll down his cheeks. But in the midst of the pain, he found some comfort in the thought that he was the only one trapped in this place and not the woman he loved. She would be free.
Suddenly he heard hurried footsteps behind him and his heart stopped. Instinctively, he raised his hands in preparation for an attack, every particle of his being on alert. This would not be the first or last assassination attempt since he had taken the Fire Lord's throne.
But all he felt was a pair of hands slapping his back, full of an almost childish rage.
"You're an idiot! How could you walk away and leave me like this!" Katara screamed, her voice full of anger.
Eyes wide open, still in his defensive posture, Zuko turned around. There she was, looking at him with fiery eyes and that look of reproach that Zuko knew all too well.
The confusion on Zuko's face, his cheeks still wet, was so obvious that Katara stopped hitting him. Her gaze softened and they locked eyes in a silence that spoke volumes. No words were needed to understand what they were both feeling. With palpable tenderness, Katara reached up to Zuko's face and gently wiped away the remnants of tears from his cheeks. Her finger traced the contour of his cheekbones until it reached his scar, following its path with the delicacy of a feather.
"Just because it's hard doesn't mean I want to give up," Katara said, feeling her own eyes water.
Zuko looked at her, the words catching in his throat as the weight of his own fears and doubts choked him. Finally, he managed to articulate a sound, a thread of voice laden with anguish.
"But..." he stammered, unable to find the courage to say what he felt. "I can't ask you this..."
Katara looked at him steadily, her gaze filled with a certainty that lit up all the darkness around them. She took a step towards him and, in an act of pure surrender, put her hands around his neck, pulling him close. She hugged him tightly, wrapping him in the familiar and comforting warmth of her body. Zuko's storm began to ease.
"You don't ask it, and that's why I love you. I choose it. I choose you," Katara whispered into his ear, holding him tighter as if holding his whole world. "We've been apart long enough".