A Match of Ice and Fire

Chapter 10: Zuko

She looks stunning. But that's not new. Even half-drowned, Princess Kaya Arnook was the most beautiful girl I'd seen -untill she started screaming at me.
Tonight, the effect is no different. Much to my annoyance, I can't help but be distracted by the princess' misleading allure.

She's changed from earlier. Her soaking robes replaced with a dramatic midnight gown, rolling of her waist in stormy waves. Adorned with northern finery, white fur trims her shelves and collar.
Her previously wild and unrully ebony curls have been raked back into strict corn rows at the front, curled into tight ringlets at the back and braided through with pearls. From head  to toe, every inch of her is designed to be perfectly beautiful. However, I learnt the hard way that Princess Kaya's appearance can be very diecieving.

Two fanning clam shells hang from her ears.  A band of silver runs right over her eyes. That was one thing that the portrait artists never captured right, The colour of her eyes was nothing like the serene sapphire depicted in all her paintings. The real Kaya eyes were more like the open ocean, dark and uncontrollable.

And right now, with her gaze on mine, those eyes appeared to be plotting about a hundred ways to send me to the bottom of the sea.

I swallow, trying to look anywhere else as I make my way round the winter gardens. Elligible young ladies flock around me, pushed by their ambitious fathers; merchant daughters, and other obscure nobles from the watertribe.

As attendants flow by serving drinks and canapés, I make conversation with a girl called Mira Varrick. From her surname, I supect she must be the daughter of the infamous  trade tycoon Hyrum Varrick. The man owns half the southern ocean and is rumoured to have commissioned a solid gold canoe.  He has links with a lot of emerging industries. Such an alliance certainly wouldn't hurt the fire nations' funds...
Mira is shy at first but very pleasant. She smiles, listens, and laughs politely at all my jokes. Any of the girls here tonight could be perfect Fire lady material, but I can't focus on any  of them thanks to the stormy eyes staring down the back of my neck all night.

Things only get worse. Once Chieftan Arnook announces its time for everyone to take their seats for the feast, and of course, I'm seated next to her. Princess Kaya's homicidal glare intensifies as i approach. Any secound, i fully expect her to throw the glass of wine she's throttling by the stem over my head and start shouting agian. Instead, as soon as I lower myself down next to the Princess, her gaze snaps forward as though she has been forced to settle for pretending I don't exist.

As Arnook begins his welcome speech, I'm struck by her immaturity. She's two years older than almost all the other debutons here. And still, even at sixteen, the other girls are so much beyond this petulant behaviour.

I should be taking offence, but I'm distracted agian by her eyes. More specifically, the red rims around and her eyes and nose. Her make-up covers it well, but up close, Kaya is coming down with a cold. It's unsurprising, considering she decided to take her chances in the freezing waters today. She should be bed resting, somewhere warm in front of a fire. Instead, she stuck out here with me. I wait for her to speak. She doesn't.

"You seem quiet this evening..."

She doesn't replie. Maybe she's sicker than I thought. Suddenly, I'm gripped by the irrational impulse to pull her into my arms and make my orginal thought a reality. But that's ridiculous, so instead I just ask:

"How are you feeling?"

"Why do you care?" She snaps, still not looking.

It's a very good point. Why do I care? I shake my head, going for the most logical explanation, "because you nearly drowned today."

"So?"

I wince, how can anyone be this reckless with their own safety? Surely she must've of know what she was getting herself Into? "Swimming through this city's tunnel system is a death trap waiting to happen." I state without meaning to raise my voice.

 It doesn't matter, Kaya raises her voice right back at me. "I had a plan!"

"And the plan involved drowning?!"

Arnook faulters in his speech. People are looking at us. We're going to make a scene. Wisely, I back off, making a tactful retreat. We lapse back into silence, listening to Arnook continue to preach about a new era of peace and  harmony between our two nations.

"I was desperate."

I gance back to the princess. For a second, I think I catch her looking at me, but the next her head snaps back, facing forward as though she's annoyed at herself for even talking to me.

"Clearly..." I murmur.

"I would've had under control. I'm a strong swimmer. There were just... unforseen circumstances..." she hisses, "What would you know about swimming in this city's underwater tunnel systems anyway?"

"I have first-hand experience."

That makes her look at me. "When...?"

I recall the last time I was in the North pole, if it wasn't for my breath of fire, I probably wouldn't be here. The lengths I went to just to sneek into this place back when...

 "...you were trying to capture the avatar." She somehow manages to read the answer off my face.

"It was a long time ago." I try to reason, she igorns me.

"Wow." The princess laughs bitterly. "So, you're a hypocrite as well as a tryrant?"

"That's not what I meant!" She's twisting my words! It's infurating! She's infurating! I take a deep breath, struggling to recompose myself. "I admit it wasn't one of my wisier ideas..."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Same as you." I level her gaze. "I was desperate."