the last wish

chapter 11

The fire lord was gone the next day. In his absence, everything felt as if nothing happened, no one in the castle talked about this. All they could talk about was the mysterious man found in Azula's bed that morning. I did not hear the details, nor did I want to. I headed straight for the dining hall, hoping I would be alone there. Zuko and Mai were there, along with Azula and Ty-Lee. They were talking about the man.

"shut up Ty-Lee, I did not sleep with him, I woke up in the morning and he was there"

Ty-Lee giggled as I sat down on the far end of the very large table. Zuko looked at me as I walked in and turned away, I could see a slight blush on his cheeks. A man walked in after ma and kissed Azula on the cheek.

"I had a great time last night"

Azula growled in anger and got up. she took a fighting stance and sent a fireball his way. He dodged it and looked at her.

"Why so grumpy? You're not denying what we did, are you?"

Azula yelled in anger and fired more fireballs at him, but he dodged them all.

"Who are you?"

"well, Azula, I'm offended. Truly. I thought we had something special, but you don't even remember my name. my name is Sang Wou, I'm a guard. I guard your room every night. Don't you remember how last night you got drunk and slept with me?"

Azula stopped firing at him. she stood there, as if frozen, her eyes wide with surprise and horror.

"I. Slept. With. YOU?"

Azula fell to her knees and looked at her hands. Sang Wou approached her hesitantly. He put a hand on her shoulder and another on her chin. He raised her head to face his.

"tell me you don't remember this kiss"

He kissed her, she sat still for the first few seconds and he pulled away. She grabbed his cheeks in her hands and kissed him again, moaning happily as the kiss went on. Ty-Lee gasped, making Azula return to earth. She pulled away and got up, letting Sang Wou go. She cleared her throat.

"I do remember, and I will admit that I enjoyed your company last night, but that was a one-time thing. Goodbye"

Sang Wou stood sitting on the floor as Azula went back to her breakfast. Ty-Lee giggled.

"oh, come on Azula, give him the pleasure of one last time. Trust me, you'll enjoy it as well"

"shut up Mai"

"wait, you and Zuko had a last time?"

"Yeah, last night. We decided to undo the engagement for now"

Mai looked at me with a bitter smile and got up, taking an apple with her. Ty-Lee followed her, curious about what happened between Mai and Zuko. Azula looked at the guard again and got up.

"come on, Sang Wou, I will let you have it one last time"

The guard smiled and got up quickly, following her happily. I looked at Zuko, he looked at his sister walking away with a guard following her like a lost puppy.

"Zuko? Did something happen last night with Mai?"

He looked at me, I got up and took my food to him. I sat next to him.

"Mai decided to end it. She knows about the crush I had on you when we were kids. She said that until the thing with my father is solved, I should be engaged to you and not her"

"Are you okay with it?"

"I'm not sure. I am happy to be able to spend time with my best friend without worrying about gossip where I'm the bad guy, but for that, the castle needs to know that Mai and I are over, and for that, they will need to know what happened yesterday, and it can only hurt you"

I put a hand on his arm.

"I appreciate you worrying about me, but they don't have to know about yesterday. You can tell them that things didn't quite work out with Mai"

"yeah, and then they'll say it's because I love you and couldn't bear to be with someone else"

I rolled my eyes.

"Why do you care about what others say anyway?"

He looked at me.

"I don't"

He put his other hand on the one I had on his arm and looked at me.

"come on, I have something to show you"

He got up and helped me up as well, our hands staying where they were before we got up. he led me to his room, a big room with a lot of red. He opened a drawer and took out a small piece of paper from the bedstand. He sat on the bed and gave it to me.

"I used to read it every night before bed, it's the last letter you sent me"

I opened it, the smell on it got to my nose, Zuko's smell.

'dear Zuko,

I cannot tell you how sorry I am about everything you described in your letter. Thank you for your condolences about my mother. I do not a picture handy, but when a camera gets to my tribe, I promise to send a picture and send it to you. Thank you for the photos, I look at them every day and miss both you and uncle Iroh.

I hope we can talk again someday; I will miss you every day until I see you again. My mother used to say that we should get married, do you think it could happen? I do hope so.

Please send me another letter with your thoughts, I would love to hear them,

Katara

P.S. Is your mother alright? I know she misses my mother very much

P.P.S. Is your father still as scary as he always was? How is your sister not afraid?

P.P.P.S. why did you write nothing here? It's been bothering me'

I laughed. I was so foolish back then. Zuko held my hand before taking the letter from me.

"you wrote so many postscripts just to ask me why I didn't write the third one, huh?"

"yeah, but you never sent a letter back with your answer"

The smile was gone from his face by the time he turned back to me.

"your mother wanting us to get married, is that true?"

"Yeah, she always said we were perfect for each other, your mother agreed if I recall"

"she did. After your mother died, she kept fighting with my father about letting you come visit one last time, she hoped to get us engaged during that visit, but father never approved"

He put a hand on my cheek, pulling my face closer to his until our lips met again. This time it was a full-blown kiss, my first one. My body stopped listening to me and my hands wrapped around his neck. He got up and sat on me, I pulled us both into the bed.