Double Bender

Part 58

The next day, everyone gathered outside the palace for something very important. Meanwhile, on the inside of the palace, Zuko and I were getting ready. His newest scar was giving him a little trouble so I had to help him get his robe on and tie his hair back (I have to admit, it looked kinda stupid, I honestly preferred his hair down). As we walked down the hall and over to the door to the courtyard, currently covered by a curtain, we saw Aang, sitting over by the door, his eyes closed. He wore new robes, like a full grown air-bender's. Around his neck was a wooden medallion, an artifact of the air-nomads. As we walked towards him, he opened his eyes and smiled. Zuko smiled a little too. Then he decided to get sentimental, not that it was a bad thing.
"I can't believe," he started, "a year ago, my purpose in life was hunting you down." Aang gave him a little smile. "Back when you had a pony-tail." I joked. "How did you know about that?" he said defensively. "Are you kidding, before there were wanted posters of you everywhere." He smiled and shook his head. "Yeah," Aang agreed. "It's hard to believe that before, you tried to kill me. And now we're friends." He stood up. Zuko smiled in agreement. "Yeah." He agreed. The two boys hugged each other. It was actually rather touching, seeing how they used to be mortal enemies. Now, they were close enough to be brothers. They pulled away and Aang, who was also being sentimental, said, "I can't believe a year ago, I was still frozen in that iceberg. The world is so different now." "And it's going to be even more different." Zuko continued. "When we rebuild it." I walked up and stood by Zuko. "Together." I finished. Zuko smiled and slipped his arm around my waist.
I could barely believe where I'd been a year ago either. I was still in the Earth-Kingdom, with a family that didn't even want me. I remember the day clearly. It was odd to think that on that day, Zuko and I were only stranger to each other. Now... I smiled.
Aang mirrored my expression. "And I certainly hope that you two find a happy life together." I looked up at Zuko, who locked eyes with me. "Thank you." I said to Aang. "The same with you and Katara." He blushed immensely. Zuko then let go of my waist and then we walked over to the curtain and walked out, with Aang behind us.
There were so many people, all of the soldiers from the invasion and of course, our original crew. Even Ty Lee, one of Azula's old friends, had turned over a new leaf and decided to join the Kyoshi warriors with Suki and her friends. Katara, Hakoda, and Sokka were happily reunited.
I couldn't believe how much brighter the whole world seemed. I mean, it was sunny out of course, but I mean the people were sunny too. For the first time in their lives, they were happy. They were free. You could visibly tell that they were happy and nothing could spoil their mood. All the people looked at Zuko and Aang coming out of the palace and started cheering. Zuko walked up to the front of the steps as Aang and I stayed back. Zuko put up his hand and motioned for silence. "Please," he said humbly. "the real hero is the Avatar." He stepped aside to reveal Aang and the crowd roared with applause once again. "Today," Zuko continued. "The war is finally over." I smiled widely. "I promised my Uncle that I would restore the honor of the Fire-Nation, and I will. The road ahead of us is challenging. A hundred years of fighting has left the world scarred and divided." Scarred and divided. I repeated the term in my head several times. All of us were scarred in one way or another, and at some point or another, we were all on our own. Zuko went on, the people looked up at him and listened with awe, taking in the inspirational words of their new leader. "But with the Avatar's help, we can get it back on the right path and begin a new era, of love and peace." The crowed roared with applause again as a Fire Sage stepped forward, with the brass flame in his hands. Zuko knelt down onto one knee and kept his eyes on the ground. The Fire Sage respectfully stuck the brass flame into Zuko's top knot and said, in a loud voice, "All hail Fire Lord Zuko!" Everyone cheered as Zuko got to his feet once again and looked out over at the cheering crowed. Zuko looked back at Aang and gestured him to come up and join him. Aang graciously walked up and stood by Zuko, leaving me in the back, cheering louder than I'd ever cheered in my life and probably ever will.
Life after that was very peaceful. Of course, Zuko was rather busy with running a country and all, but he still found time for his family and friends. Of course, life was rather quiet with Geo and we were still very sad about it, but we were also happy that the war was over and we felt that her sacrifice, which had saved Zuko and I, had practically stopped the war. I mean, think about it. If she hadn't jumped in front of us, Zuko would have probably died and we wouldn't have our Fire Lord. She practically ended the war. If she were alive, she would probably say something like, "Hell yeah, I helped end the war! Hey Zuko, you owe me a hell of a lot." But if she were alive...Never mind, the whole thought just gives me a headache.
Anyway, Zuko still found time for his friends and family. About five days or so after his coronation, we all went back to Ba Sing Se, the very place Zuko hated being in for a number of reasons. Now, he was willingly going back. Uncle did exactly as he said he would. He and the order of the White Lotus had fought bravely to win back Ba Sing Se. As soon as Uncle knew the city was safe again, he went back to the Upper Ring and re-opened his tea shop to the public. What was strange is that Zuko admitted it to be one of his favorite places. Even stranger, he visited Uncle in his old uniform and actually served everyone tea. I remember it being one of the best days of my life. Zuko and I served tea to everyone, Aang was sitting happily on the floor playing with Momo, Katara and Suki were chittering happily, Toph, who had her feet on the table was happily sipping tea, Uncle was playing a sungi horn rather well, I never knew he could even play an instrument, and Sokka was sitting at a table, trying his best to be an artist. "Zuko," he snapped. "Stop moving! I'm trying to capture the moment. I wanted to do a painting so we could always remember the good times we had together." We all walked over to the table and looked over Sokka's shoulder. "That's very sweet, Sokka." Katara said. Suddenly, her sweet smile twisted into a very confused glare. "Wait a second." She said. "Why did you give me Momo ears?" "Those are your hair loopies!" Sokka defended. I mirrored Katara's look. The painting was awful! Everyone looked like a much stupider version of themselves. I mean, Katara's "hair loopies" were the size of large lemur ears, Uncle was much taller and fatter than he actually was, Zuko had super spiky hair, in much contrast against his real hair, which was long and hung loosely around his face or was up in that stupid top bun. I was off in the background, with little hearts around my head looking at Zuko. What was even creepier about it is that I looked like I was seven and Zuko looked like he was seventeen. Aang was in the back with Katara and looking like a doofus, and Toph was just standing there with really sharp teeth, looking like she was growling. It was the worst drawing I'd ever seen. "At least you don't look like a boarcupine." Zuko complained. "My hair is not that spiky!" "I look like a little kid with a crush." I commented angrily. "Seriously Sokka, you couldn't think of any other trait to draw aside from 'she likes Zuko'?" Sokka shrugged. Suki took a good look at the drawing. "Why did you draw me fire-bending?" Suki asked, looking skeptically at her boyfriend. "I thought it would make it seem more interesting." Sokka admitted. Momo hopped up on the table and chittered like he was laughing. "Oh, you think you can do any better, Momo?" Sokka asked irritably. Uncle then looked at the painting and said, "Hey! My belly isn't that big anymore! I've trimmed down." I looked at the painting again and noticed someone else there; a stick figure, that looked like it wasn't done. Sure it was still a work in progress, but for crying out loud a freaking stick figure?! Ugh, well, that stick figure had long hair, a very badly drawn dress, and was holding up her fists, except for one finger on each of her hands. "Who the hell is that?" I asked. "That's Geo." He admitted shamefully. "That is the most disrespectful- wait a second. Is she giving us the finger?!" I asked, getting really annoyed. Sokka grinned. "Yep." We all smacked him. "Sokka, just admit you can't draw. Face it, none of us look like that!" Toph got a gleam in her eyes. "Well, I think you all looked perfect." She said. For a second, I felt complimented, like she was saying we all looked good, depsite the fact that Sokka can't draw. But then I remembered that she was blind and extremely sarcastic. We all looked at her and burst out laughing. We were laughing so hard that Suki nearly fell over and knocked over Uncle's favorite tea pot. It fell to the floor and broke, splattering tea everywhere. We all looked at the debris of the tea pot, then to Suki, then we laughed even more. It was honestly the hardest I'd ever laughed. I felt like I was going to pass out. I looked over at Uncle and Zuko, tears in their eyes from laughing to hard and finally, I nearly fell over. I collapsed into a nearby table and finally caught my breath. It took us nearly five minutes to calm down. By then, we were all out of breath, Sokka's face had started to turn blue, and Aang and Katara were suspiciously missing. Hmm. Anyway, I grabbed a tray and started to pick up all the pieces of the broken pot and asked Zuko to get all the empty cups and bring them to the kitchen. Little did I know that as my back was turned, Zuko had slyly winked at Uncle, who motioned for everyone to be quiet. Zuko and I picked up all the china (broken or otherwise), walked into the kitchen, and Zuko shut the door. I emptied the broken pot into the trash. Zuko was being oddly quiet, a trait he hadn't displayed in the last week. "You alright?" I asked. He nodded. "Being Fire Lord seems to be quite a hassle." I chimed. "Yeah," he agreed. "What?" I asked with a little laugh. "What are you thinking about?" He sighed wistfully. "The funny thing is, when I met you, you just seemed like this little helpless girl who couldn't take care of herself. Now, I know much better. You're strong, you're independent, you're loving..." he paused for a moment. "...and you're the most wonderful person I've ever met." I turned around. "Zuko..." I breathed. "And ever since I saw you fighting that idiot with nothing but a dagger, I finally admitted it. I knew I had it bad for you. But, I was just denying it until then. I guess your stubbornness kind of grows on a person. But even more than that, you almost never think of yourself, that's what grabbed me the most. Thankfully, I didn't have to ask if you loved me back. But, now, I have a different question to ask you..." I could feel my breath cutting off from nervous anticipation. Zuko took a step forward, got down on his knee, and put his hand in his pocket. I stood there, not sure what to make this out to be. "Are you proposing?" I gasped. Zuko said nothing, but pulled a small ring out of his pocket and held it out to me. It was a simple ring, small but elegant. The band was gold, around the perimeter of the center stone were two sapphire blue stones and emerald green gems. In the center was a large light blueish-green stone, the same color as my eyes. "I know in the Water Tribe they use necklaces to signify engagement, and I don't know what they do in the Earth Kingdom, but in the Fire Nation, we use rings." he said. "You're proposing." I repeated. "What if I am?" He asked timidly. "What would you say?" I stood there, like an idiot, unsure of what to say. I stupidly left Zuko hanging there, with a ring in his hand. I thought for a moment. Was I ready for this? Did I want to spend the rest of my life with him? That was a stupid question of course I did. He saved my life...more than once. He loved me and he was willing to jump in front of a bolt of lightening, risk his life, risk everything, for me. If that wasn't husband material, than I don't know what is. Besides, I couldn't even think about what my life would have been like without him. In about half a year, I had gone from a little nobody in the Earth-Kingdom to one of the greatest fighters in the world, a friend of the Avatar, and the girlfriend of the Fire Lord. But it didn't matter that he was the Fire Lord or that I was now famous for taking down his crazy sister, he loved me for me. It didn't matter that I was the girlfriend of Zuko the Fire Lord, I was just glad to be the girlfriend of Zuko the person. Well...now I was about to become the fiancé. "Yes." I whispered, tears of overflowing joy flowing from my eyes. "Yes." I said again. "Of course!" Zuko gently took my hand, slipped the little ring on my finger, stood up, and kissed me. Over in the doorway, everyone was looking on and started clapping. But I didn't care, Zuko was mine and I was his. And nothing in the world would ever change that.

D'aaawwwwwwwwww. Isn't that cuuute? I mean Valentines day is this Saturday it only makes sense.

So fun fact about today, February 9, on this day in the year 1964, the Beatles (my absolute favorite band) made their first American appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.

Speaking of the Beatles, I'm currently writing a Beatles fanfic on the app pages and I was wondering, even though it's not even close to being finished, whether I should start publishing it. I need advice from my Wafflebunnies.
~Maeve :D <3