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“Sure, I'll go with you." He replies coolly (although he is mentally rolling his eyes as he says so). Her golden eyes twinkled in the same way that water sparkles under the sunlight and her smile threatened to split her face in half. “Oh my god! Really?!” She swallowed him in an embrace before cupping his face in her slender hands, pulling him closer to plant a kiss on his lips. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have no idea how excited I am!” She said, still wearing the same wide smile. He tucked a strand of her loose hair behind her ear. “Oh, I think I do.” -- It was two days ago that he had agreed to go with her to a place he never would have visited otherwise. Superstitions and the-like are not things he is fond of, but he could not hold his fortress for long when she said she wanted to go there for her birthday. He opens his laptop and searches “Aunt Wu, the fortune-teller” on the internet to reveal a slanted , brown-eyed, middle-aged lady whose family apparently has told fortunes for generations. “So, this is where she’s dragging you next week?” A voice creeping up from behind makes him jump. “Sokka! You scared me!” He reaches out to close his laptop, a wasted effort that he is very much aware of, but ends up doing anyway. “She used to talk about that lady all the time." Sokka waves his arms in the air before narrowing his eyes and rubbing his chin, considering something. "You know, that could actually be fun! Having your fortunes read and know what’s coming for you in the next month or year –” He holds out his hands, making a counting gesture. “How could I possibly have fun when I’d probably be rolling my eyes the whole time, they’d fall out of my eye sockets?” Zuko protests, which makes Sokka narrows his eyes. Zuko puts his hands up as if Sokka was going to attack him. "But don't worry! I promise I will sit through the whole session!" A grin appears on Sokka's face. “Awww you’re takin’ a real good care of my sister, aren’t ya?” He hugs Zuko while rubbing his face against his. “I’m pretty sure you’d murder me in my sleep if I don’t.” Sokka pulls away, waves a fist at Zuko’s face while wearing a devilish grin. “Oh you’d be so dead!” -- It’s been three years since Katara and him got together. The gaang were staying at his beach house for the weekend when the two broke the news, hands clasping each other’s. Their announcement echoed through the living room before it was drowned in a sea of reactions. Toph’s was like the energetic brass in a symphony. She threw her arms in the air and shouted, “Yes, I won! You owe me two days worth of gaming time on your x-box, twinkletoes!” “Awh shucks!” Aang crossed his arms against his chest from his defeat, like a child who had been denied a treat by his mother. Apparently he and Toph had a bet as to how long it would take for the pair to get together. Suki gave Katara a hug. “Well, isn’t this something we’ve all been waiting to happen!” Sokka had a smile that was as wide as his lips could stretch. Zuko had grown to be a brother figure to him and the news could only make them even closer. The couple smiled at each other, then at their friends before them, relieved that this was good news to everybody. -- “You know, apparently she’s the best fortune-teller in town! There are people from my work who have gone there to have their fortunes read and they all said her readings were so accurate!” Katara’s enthusiasm shadows the upbeat music that is playing on the stereo of Zuko’s car. It took all of his might not to let his eyes roll, or worse, a sigh to escape his lips. Thank god for uncle Iroh who had taught him the art of mediation and mind-control! “That’s good news, then!” He manages to say. Katara turns to face him; her hand rests on his arm. “I know you hate stuff like this, so I’m really glad that you agreed to come with me! I was gonna go alone because everyone else is busy today.” He throws her a quick glance. “What kind of boyfriend would that make me if I let you be alone on your birthday?” He scratches his head. “Well, it’s true that I’m not a fan of superstitions, but hey, this is something new for me and who knows? This could be fun! You know, finding out what’s coming for you within the next month or year.” He decides to steal Sokka’s lines and he’s glad he did, because a smile as soft as silk is now decorating her face. -- What awaits them after half an hour of driving is a dimly-lit room lined with tapestries. On either sides of the room are cabinets filled with various objects that Katara and Zuko could only guess as the fortune teller’s fortune telling equipments. A round table sits on the middle, guarded by armchairs that look so comfortable they look like they were begging to be seated on. So typical! Zuko rolls his eyes, discreetly. “Thank you for waiting!” A voice greets them from behind and it’s the same lady Zuko had looked up on the internet to figure out what Katara was getting themselves into. “Please, sit down!” She motions the couple towards the chairs. Aunt Wu may be a fortune teller who can see through people with her psychic powers, but one doesn’t need to be one to recognise the absence of interest on Zuko’s face. His tanzanite eyes look dimmer than the room, but the God of luck seems to be on his side since Katara is too distracted by her surroundings to even notice. She pulls an amused smile as he is not the first person who has been forced to come here. “So, as you’re aware, I offer different types of fortune-telling. Which one do you wanna try?” She averts her gaze to the golden-eyed girl next to him, whose eyes are dripping with excitement. “I’d like to try palm reading first, since I’ve never had it done properly before!” Katara holds out her hand like a child asking for some candy. Zuko pulls a small smile from seeing her being so excited. Aunt Wu scans her palm, patrolling the lines with her slanted eyes. “You are a nurturing person and your friends see you as a mother figure. You are strong-willed, or rather stubborn, and this sometimes makes you clash with friends and colleagues because you want things to be done your way.” Zuko nods in agreement and he receives a jab from his girlfriend in return. “But, your strong wills allow you to accomplish things that seem rather impossible to others.” Aunt Wu adds, trying not to discourage her customer on her first palm reading session. “You want to be a shoulder to cry on and will often go out of your way to help those you care about. Being lied to hurts you the most because you give so much of your heart to others.” If Zuko thinks Katara’s eyes could not get any bigger from the excitement she showed the moment they got here, he was wrong. Except this time, her eyes are wide from amazement. “Wow... you saw right through me just by reading my palm! My colleagues were right about you!” she says. Zuko hates to admit that she did get Katara’s personality correctly. “What do you see about my future?” Katara quickly chimes in. She tilts Katara’s hand, narrowing her eyes as she scans the rest of the lines that are mapped onto her palm. “You will accomplish something great in the future . . . something to do with medicine. So if you’re in the medical world, keep at it.” She tilts her hand again “You will also have a long life and will die in your sleep after your third great-grandchildren is born.” To Zuko's bewilderment, Katara suddenly grows quiet. But what he does not know is that she is considering the question that is begging to come out of her lips from hearing the last sentence that Aunt Wu has just said. Zuko guesses perhaps it is the prospect of a happy future that leaves her speechless.“That sure sounds great, doesn't it?” He tries to fill the silence. Katara turns to look at him; a red hue is painting her cheeks. She lets out a breath before turning to Aunt Wu, asking, “Do you know who is going to be with me then?” “Oh God, why would you ask that?!” Zuko interrupts, throwing his hands in the air. Katara looks like she had just been scolded by her parents. The look of frustration on his face is instantly replaced by regret as he curses himself for spoiling her fun. He had promised himself that he would sit through the whole session, yet he just raised his voice at her. He drops a sigh that is heavy enough to crack the floor. “I’m sorry.” He clasps her hand in his. When he was letting out his frustration, the brown-eyed fortune teller saw something on his wrist. “Wait! Would you mind if I see your wrist?” She leans towards Zuko. The couple look at each other before he extends his arm. Aunt Wu then reaches for Katara’s and places it next to his. “There. See?” After a few seconds of searching the point of interest, their eyes finally lock onto the three small moles that are mapped on their wrists. The beauty marks have aligned themselves to look like the tip of an arrow. Katara’s points to the left, while Zuko’s to the right. With their arms next to each other, the arrowheads meet. “Wha – No, this must be a coincidence!” Zuko shakes his head. “How come I’ve never noticed this before?” Katara’s eyes grow wider for the umpteenth time. Aunt Wu secures each of their hands in hers. “Now, if you two could be quiet for a moment. I’m going to connect with Spirits from the past to see your past lives.” Before her skeptical guest could protest, Aunt Wu closes her eyes. Silence creeps into the room and after a moment, the lights extinguish themselves, making the absence of sound feel more gripping than it actually is. It tickles the hairs on the back of Katara's neck and she holds onto Zuko with her free hand as if her spirit was going to leave her if she hadn't. Zuko's eyebrows have reached the tip of his fringe as he looks around the pitch black room. "O-ka-y. . . " He hates to admit that this does send some chills down his spine. After a good minute, the lights tear the darkness apart and Aunt Wu slowly opens her eyes. They grow wide as her gaze darts from the golden-eyed young woman to her blue-eyed company beside her. "I can't believe this!" She slowly leans back on her chair, her hand covering her lips. She looks at Zuko dead in the eye. "Now, what I'm about to tell you two will sound ridiculous to you, young man. But this is what the spirits from the past just showed me." Katara holds her breath, Zuko mentally rolls his eyes.
To be continued.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Katara turns to Zuko and he lets out a small sigh "It's okay, go on."
Aunt Wu leans on the table "My family owns a book that has been passed down for generations. It tells a story about how the world came to be how it is now. It's one of the most extraordinary piece of history I've ever heard. " She laces her fingers together. Her tone immediately switches to that of a story-teller's "A long time ago, people possessed the ability to control the four elements of the earth: water, earth, fire, and air. The world was divided into four nations, each mastered one element. There was one person who could bend all four of them and people referred to them as the Avatar. Their duty was to restore peace and bring balance to the world in times of war and crisis." Katara finds herself leaning towards Aunt Wu and so does Zuko, to his surprise.
"The four nations lived in harmony, but everything changed when the Fire Nation decided to take over the world. The Avatar had gone missing when the Fire Nation attacked and one day, a young boy and his sister found the Avatar by accident. The Avatar had reincarnated into a young boy who mastered the element of air. The girl possessed an extraordinary skill in controlling water and she eventually became the Avatar's water bending teacher." Aunt Wu diverts her gaze to Katara. Surprise is clear in her slanted brown eyes "The spirits from the past showed me that the Avatar's water bending teacher was you, in your past life."
The tale gripped Katara by the shoulders. A shiver runs up her spine, then all the way to her neck. Goosebumps are decorating her arms.
As absurd as this sounds to him, from seeing how much Katara is mesmerised by Aunt Wu's "visions", Zuko decides to let her finish the story. It's an interesting tale regardless, he admits.
"In your journey in helping the Avatar end the Fire Nation's tyrannical rule, you met the Prince of the Fire Nation. He was a lost young man at first. He went to the ends of the world to catch the Avatar to gain his father's approval. But then he realised that he was not his father's son, and so he ended up helping the Avatar instead. He was the one who taught him how to master fire bending, and years after the war ended, they built a new city where people of all nations lived together in harmony."
"Wow. . ." The beam on Katara's face is probably enough to light up the whole room. Aunt Wu smiles at her reaction "But, that's not the end of the story." She leans back on her chair. "The girl and the Prince fell in love with each other, and they became the first inter-racial couple to get married after the long war, helping to unite the nations together." She looks at Zuko, then at Katara. Her words linger in the air before the pair finally understood the hint that she sprinkled.
Zuko narrows his eyes "Wait . . . are you saying –"
"He was the Fire Prince?" Katara interrupts him before he can finish, her eyes growing wider with each word.
"That is correct."
The couple look at each other, frozen by the revelation. Zuko can feel a slight tingle tugging at his neck. Aunt Wu continues "The spirits from the past also showed me that the couple promised to meet again in their next life and they did, every time they reincarnated. Each time the promise was fulfilled, a mark appeared on their respective wrists.” She smiles softly at Zuko and Katara, as if she was their mother. “This is the third time you two reunited." Tears begin to gather around Katara's golden eyes, making them glisten like molten lava as she looks at him. Hers are filled with an expression that says I love you. Not the kind of ‘I love you’ that people say out of habit, but one that makes you forget how to breathe and makes your body feels like jelly. He has to fight the violent blush on his cheeks to hold his gaze on her. “Is there anything else you want to know?” Aunt Wu says. “Dream interpretations, lucky and unlucky days, compatibility . . .” she smiles teasingly “I’m sure you don’t need to know about that last one since we know the answer already.” Katara wipes the tears from her eyes. “No, I think that will be all for today. I want to end the session with such . . . “ she searches for a word “unexpected revelations!” Aunt Wu leans back on her chair again “That’s what we do. Surprise you!” -- “I still can’t believe what she told us! Me, being some kind of a war hero and you, being a jerk prince, whom I fell in love with. . . ” Her voice sways along with the gentle waves that caress their ankles. Their hands are locked like puzzle pieces as they walk along the beach. Katara asked to go there to end her birthday date. The setting sun spills reds and oranges on the water. “Hey! I redeemed myself by helping the Abla- Ava- Avatar, or whatever he was called, and helped save the world! How could you call me a jerk prince?” Zuko protests. “Alright, alright. Then what do you want me to call your past self?” She walks in front of him while wearing a teasing look on her face. “The mysterious prince? The handsome prince?” “Well, there must be a reason why you fell for me!” He leans towards her with an equally wicked grin. Katara stops in her trace and grabs both of his hands and turns them over to reveal the mark Aunt Wu had pointed out. Her eyes linger there for a moment, before she looks at him. “Thank you for keeping our promise. I mean, I don’t know if you believed in any of what she said, but I’d like to think that it’s all true.” “It is kinda hard to believe –” He raises his shoulders before caressing her cheek “but I do like the idea that we always managed to find each other.” He leans down to kiss her. “Happy birthday, babe.” They kiss one, two, three more times before the sinking sun. Each kiss tastes sweeter than the one before. Meanwhile, the waking moon peeks from around the corner, smiling down at the two souls who travelled through time to, once again, fulfill their promise.
The End.