ZW15- Good Evening No. 6

INTEGRITY

(based on Marnie)

There was a rule every Fire Lord before him had followed to the letter.  That rule was that a nation could only flourish through their ruler's honor and strong morality.  For the year and a half that Zuko had worn the crown, he did his best to live up to that ideal.  His father had done so in the worst way possible (nowhere does it say the ruler's morals have to be good ones), and now it fell to his son to pick up the pieces of an empire, and succeed where those who came before him had failed.  Nothing could have been more important.

That was why he worked so hard to foster good relations with the other nations.

One month ago, he sat at the head of a State Dinner in the heart of the Earth Kingdom, after overseeing the marriage of a high-ranking Fire Nation noble to a slightly lower in class Earth Kingdom lady.  The month before that, he began laying out plans for a new Republic City where people from all walks of life could live together in a fully integrated setting.  Two weeks ago, he hired a young and intelligent Water Tribe woman to be his personal secretary and handle his affairs while he was otherwise occupied.

Yesterday, he witnessed her sneaking out of his office in the dead of night with an armful of priceless decorations and Fire Nation minted gold.  

Today, she didn't show up for work.

**
Luckily, Zuko memorized her home address.  Even more lucky is that she didn't lie about it.

A sweet old lady with a bum leg and poor eyesight happily led him upstairs, talking on end about how nice it was that the new girl had a handsome young man calling on her.

"She's been here for a month now, and I haven't seen anyone come to call on her before," said the landlady. "She's a sweet girl, if very quiet.  I'm glad she's starting to settle in and make friends.  You seem like such a nice young man."

"Thank you, Ma'am," Zuko said.

"Has anyone ever told you you look just like the Fire Lord?"

"I've... heard it before."

She showed him to her room and then shuffled off to give them privacy.  

"Let me know if you two get hungry and I'll bring you some snacks."

"I will, thank you."

He waited for the old woman to disappear down the stairs, and then he pressed his ear to the door, listening for voices or movement.  He got plenty of both.  She was running around her room from the sound of it, tossing things back and forth and muttering loudly to herself about needing to hurry and the next ship out to the South Pole.  Zuko tried the knob, it turned with ease and the person inside was too frantic to notice.  Without further preamble, Zuko threw open the door, and met a small boarding room in disarray with it's tenant in the middle, her hair a mess and half her things loaded into a trunk.  She stood frozen, like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar.  

"Hello, Kya," he said, walking with confidence into the room and shutting the door, "if that is your real name."

She dropped the shoe she'd been holding.  It bounced and landed next to a mostly identical one wedged under the bed.  It didn't look like she'd noticed it yet.  She walked around the mess, stepping easily over clothing and scrolls, never taking her eyes off of him.  If Zuko didn't know better, he'd say she was looking for an opening to make a break for it.  He was blocking her only exit, so unless she was willing to jump from a fourth story window, she was out of luck.

"How did you find me?" she asked.

"You put your address in your resume when you applied for the job," he said.  He crossed his arms and leaned against the door, just to make it clear that there was no way out.  "That wasn't very smart, not if you intended to rob me from the beginning."

She swallowed and closed her eyes.  There was a bowl full of water sitting on the dresser, and it struck him that she'd also mentioned being a waterbender in her resume. That could very well have been another lie, but he stayed alert regardless.

"Who says I robbed you?" she asked.  It was a weak attempt and they both knew it.

"Have you done this before?" 

"You didn't answer my question."

"Answer mine first."

"Why should I?"

Zuko raised an eyebrow.  She was being intentionally obtuse, he could see that a mile away.  Risking giving her the freedom to get away, Zuko walked across the room to the trunk on the bed.

"Where is it?  Where is everything you stole?"

"Hey, you have no right to touch my things!"

She tried to push him away, but Zuko was bigger than her, and stronger, too.  He held tight to her wrists, pulling her flush against him.  She fought and struggled in vain.  She threatened to scream but never did.  At the bottom of her trunk, under some folded pairs of leggings, he spotted a hint of gold.

"Listen, I don't want to hurt you," he said, close to her ear.  "If you stop now and tell me where everything is-"

"You'll what?" she spat.  She turned her head as much as she could, and there was venom in her eyes.  Something else, too.  Something he couldn't quite place.  "You won't arrest me?  You'll let me go?  Don't make me laugh, Fire Lord."

His eyes narrowed.  "What are you saying?"

"You caught me red handed," she cried, giving one more big pull that freed one of her wrists.  Zuko held fast to the other.  "You're the ruler of the Fire Nation.  I may not be from around here, but I know the law.  Stealing from you is pretty much treason.  I'll be in jail for the rest of my life if I'm lucky, and if I'm not..."

She pulled again.  Zuko was ready for it this time and he refused to let her get away from him.  If he was honest with himself, most of what she'd taken was unimportant or replaceable.  The whole reason he was here at all was just that; he wasn't going to let her leave.

"What if I told you," he said, "that I can grant you a full pardon if you do something for me."

She stared at him.  "Like what?"

"There's a banquet coming up at the end of the week.  It's a very big event.  Dignitaries from all three nations will be there.  Even the Avatar himself is going to make an appearance."

"I know," she said.  She'd finally stopped pulling.  "I had to write out all the invitations by myself."

Zuko quirked a smile.  "The thing is that I need an escort, and my advisers believe I should take a non-Fire Nation woman.  If I'm going to continue working towards bettering foreign relations, it will look good for the public to see me arm in arm with someone of another culture."

"And you're asking me to be that someone," she said, filling in the blanks.

"For the one night, yes."  Zuko saw the look of incredulity creeping across her face and continued.  "It's that or I can take you right now to prison."

She flinched.  He hadn't wanted to play that card so fast, or really at all.  It felt cruel, even if she was a thief.  It struck him that feeling sorry for a criminal and wanting to make her feel comfortable was a little odd, but then, Azula had always said he was too soft in these matters.  Maybe she'd been right all along.

"Why would you ask me to do this after what I did?" It was less of a question and more of a demand.  

Zuko shrugged.  "I don't know.  Why did I hire you in the first place without any references?"

She started to speak, but no words came out.  There were no words for any of this.  They were in an impossible situation and they were both a little less sane for it.  Why shouldn't it go on another day, and maybe even longer after.  There was no telling how the night would go if she accepted.  And she would accept.  Of that, he was certain.  There was no other choice for her.

She looked at him, and then she looked at the pile of her belongings sitting on her bed and in her trunk, and then she looked at something beyond him.  Her breaths came slow and even.

"My name isn't Kya," she said after a long while.  "Kya was... it doesn't matter.  My real name is Katara."

"Katara," Zuko repeated.  It was a nice name.  He liked the way it rolled off his tongue.  "Do we have a deal?"

She stared at his outstretched hand, hesitated, as if afraid it would burst into flame the minute she touched it.  She still did after a time, and he thought her hand fit well in his.

"Deal."