Date: See last entry.
Time: Just a few minutes later than the last one.
Location: Still the same.
Mood: Riiiiiight.

No. I am not physically attracted to the Prince whatsoever. I am definitely not attracted to him mentally. He jumps to conclusion and gets angry quickly. (The thesaraus casually mentioned that angry could also mean passionate...)

Not. Attracted.

Right. So why do I keep thinking of his lean, muscular arms wrapping themselves around me?

BAD. That was a bad thought.

I mean, I always think of men in this deragatory way. I even considered how good-looking Crazy Visu was. (He wasn't, but he had very soft-looking lips.)

This is completely casual observation.

Of course Prince Ozai is attractive. The royal family can marry whoever they want - of course, they'll pick the prettiest people in the nation. And he had to join the military. Azulon is crazier in his quest to protect his family's military legacy than my father is! (Okay, so maybe my father isn't that concerned with me joining the army.. but still, crazy!) It was instilled into him since his birth. He had to pack on the lean muscle.

Every other girl in the nation has noticed, I'm sure. This just makes me normal.

I should tell my mother that I find the prince 'dreamy.' (One of Chan's favorite words and facial expressions.)

She will be happy to know that I am somewhat not-strange.

...Then I'll have to tell her how I insulted him.

She'll probably pretend-drown me in a sink until I can't breathe and then pull my head out. Then repeat the process five times. (I am never insulting her gardening in front of her noble friends again.)

Well, I did insult royalty.

Maybe she won't pretend-drown.

It would save Prince Ozai some trouble.

Very good-looking Ozai.

BLAST AGNI.

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Date: Friday night.
Time: It's really, really late.
Location: My room.
Mood: Very lazy.

Today I went to the bath-houses with my mom. Chan wasn't there. I looked around every corner for an assassin. There was none.

A stellar conversation unfolded:

"Ursa... dear... why do you look like you've just seen a ghost?"

"Urm - uh - noreasonjustlooking."

Good ol' mother didn't even reprimand me for the incoherent mumbling in my speech. "You hardly left your room yesterday. Did something happen at Visu's party?"

"No. The party was nice," I replied meekly. I wasn't in the mood for conversation.

"You left early with Chan. Did you girls catch up?"

I nodded in reply.

We caught up, alright... she was still a bitch. I wasn't missing much.

"I'm so glad you two are taking time out of your schedules to be with each other. This age is the most competitive and will break many of the bonds you have with other girls. With so many young men fighting in the war, I'm afraid the competition for a husband will be even more fierce."

... Or something like that.

"That sounds like fun." I wasn't listening. Frankly, I'm surprised I could even string together an idea of what she said.

"Have you met Prince Ozai yet? He's very handsome. If only I was a few years younger.." It was such an innocent question. I nearly jumped out of mudbath at the mention of his name. "Ursa!"

Unfortunately I just splashed around uncomfortably and had gotten mud onto my mother's vision. "Sorry."

But she didn't ask me again.

Even when I'm trying to forget that a hit could have possibly been made on my life and that the person who might have ordered it was one of the most gorgeous, powerful men in the Fire Nation, my mother sneaks up on my morals like that. In a really, really creepy way.

If you were younger, what exactly would you have done, Mother? Must push from mind before projectile vomitting commences.

Now I'm home. I am tired. I am retiring.

From life.

That last statement was a bit dramatic.

Good night!

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Date: STILL. FRIDAY.
Time: Late night.
Location: The center of hell (a temperature metaphor, not my current situation metaphor). Okay, maybe both.
Mood: Can't sleep mood - also known as restlessness and hot-and-bothered'ness.

I can't sleep.

I am sweating like a dirty mongrel who has just walked across the Great Divide in with five Firebenders burning a constant fire around a close perimeter.

They don't call it the Sun Festival because we're expecting a light snowfall in the morning.

It is hotter than... than... Prince Ozai - as in his Firebending. I've heard he's quite talented... with that.

Nonetheless I can't sleep at all. All my sheets are on the ground because they either A) make the unbearably scorching weather even more extremely hot or B) stick to my body awkwardly because of the extreme heat.

With all the strewn-out feathers from my pillows (I scream-slash-bite in them often when I get a little angry) and the ink blotches on my sheets (apparently, I write a lot?) my maids already think I'm a demonic being. Maybe they'll convince themselves that the fact that I only slept with two pillows tonight signifies the fact that I'm starting a dark, ungodly ritual.

...to make Chan bleed locusts.

Not really. That was extreme.

But I still can't sleep! Not only does the heat completely hinder my sleeping habits, but even the methods I use to combat it haunt me.

For example, I'll start hugging the cooler side of one of my pillows and out of absolutely nowhere, my mind pretends that the pillow is Prince Ozai!

The fact that I'm getting so creepy is creeping me out.

I'm sure I'm not that bad... Chan probably has a shrine to his name and prays to it every day.

And I'm almost positive that she's hugged a pillow pretending that it was Prince Ozai's very nice torso.

I mean, it would never work anyway.

Between him and me.

He's rude, impulsive, and does not take orders well - I think. I didn't really get the best impression of him the other day.

Maybe he would have been nice if I hadn't said something about how he was a moron... maybe he was already headed toward our direction and just happened to come at the time where I chose to insult him.

Maybe he was coming over to talk to me.

...All these thoughts aren't helping the fact that I'm already sweating like a hog.

I hate being hot and bothered.

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Date: Saturday. The day before the Sun festival.
Time: Early morning. I should really start marking these more precisely. I'm guessing there is a reason that there is a nice, handy already-inked-in template for me to follow. The single rule to journal-writing is jotting down the date and time and I miserably fail.

...It's around eight in the morning.
Location: My room. I did briefly get up to look outside my window to look at the great shrine sand-timer clocks to check the time.
Mood: Tired.

I didn't get much sleep last night. Two hours to be exact.

I tried reading some of my old lesson books, but really didn't care how Fire Lord Sozin led the breach on a village who wouldn't receive our gracious influence, blah blah blah. What about his grandson?

I was going to draw a picture, but after deciding that the three stick figures I had drawn would be me, Prince Ozai, and our pet-human, I thought it would be healthiest not to continue.

I also attempted to play Pai Sho with myself. I am horrible Pai Sho player. I lost to myself after the second move.

After that, I just sat in my bed and daydreamed (night-dreamed?). That wasn't a good idea. There was only one face that kept popping up in my memory much more frequently than the others...

Physical attractions never make good relationships - unless he's intelligent and will personally tell me what Fire Lord Sozin did during that breach on that village that one time in the far past.

That goes for every man I meet.

Oh please, please, please let him be remarkably stupid.

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Date: Saturday!
Time: NIGHT!
Location: My room!
Mood: !?

Did I just - did that just - I think that...

I'll scribble in a better date, time, locale later! I have to write everything down before I forget it. It was just - too strange for words.

Around lunch time, my parents thought it would be a good idea to visit the palace courtyard. I vehemently tried to persuade them out of it - mentioning that it was chock-full of jasmines, the bane of my hive-filled existence.

"You've never complained about going there before," my level-headed father had said. OF COURSE I HADN'T. I hadn't had a near-death wish experience there before.

"I was under the impression that you favored the courtyard out of all the locations in the capital city." My mother had raised an eyebrow. She knew something was peculiar.

I couldn't lie to my parents. So I avoided telling them the truth. I adopted a very sad-looking face. "It just makes me miss beloved Ember Island so much - with its trees, flowers, and wild-life. I wish we could go there every day. Oh, can't we, Mother?"

The whimsical voice I used was a tad much.

That is why precisely twelve minutes after lunch finished we were entering the courtyard. It looked exactly as it had a few nights before. The turtleducks were playing with each other, the jasmine trees dipped low into the pond in the center of quad, and people circled the premises with educational books, teacups, or with loved ones.

It was too serene for me. Someone had cursed me (Grandma Ta Min?) and chaos was sure to ensue.

Alright, that was an exaggerration. It's not like we were going to be attacked by the ghosts of the Airbenders or something --.

...It's really dark outside.

There are no such things as ghosts. There are no such things as ghosts. There are no such things as ghost.

Sorry - no more digression. Where was I? Oh yeah.

My mother took my father's arm and began to walk around the grand patio. I followed a few steps behind. I'm sure a few conspiracy theories concerning people disguised as jasmine trees crossed my mind as my father picked one and set it in my mother's hair.

How disgustingly romantic.

Anyway, we talked about how we were glad everyone in the family was healthy, how we should visit Ember Island ("How about right now?"), and other things concerning the family. That is, until a finger tapped my shoulder.

You know who it was. Grandma Ta Min's curse. Of course it was him.

My shoulder. He tapped. Touched... sigh.

"Hello." His low, husky tenor startled me more than his body contact. I couldn't sense any hint of ferocity in it, but still... My parents were about a meter ahead of me. I could run quickly to them if I wanted to.

But I didn't.

His voice just sounded so inviting.

I sent a sideways glance his way and inclined my head politely surprised that it didn't loll off. "Hello."

He walked silently beside me for a few moments.

If I had reached out with my left hand, I could have touched him.

...

Hold on -- I have to get a glass of cold water.

Anyway, he finally broke the silence. He looked at me with a guarded, but pleasant, if vacant, expression on his face. "Do you frequent the palace courtyards?"

"Only recently," I said truthfully with a hint of regret in my voice. I looked ahead towards my parents. "I don't like to."

"Because of your apparent spite for nobility?" The prince rose an eyebrow.

"No!" I stopped walking and looked at him. He eyes slightly widened at my unexpected outburst. I calmed myself and reinforced what I had said, "Not at all."

His forehead creased in thought. "Because of your -- obsessive admiration for nobility?"

I snorted. (I am going to pretend that I laughed maniacally. It hurts my ego less.) "No."

This answer surprised him. But did he really expect me to say yes?

"Then why don't you like visiting the courtyards?" He asked simply, crossing his arms over his chest.

...You already know that I'm thinking of his very nice chest. And my pillows.

I never got the chance to answer. And frankly, I didn't know what I was going to say.

Oh, well, your majesty. I'm afraid that you're going to have someone kill me because I insulted you (quite brashly and relentlessly). Silly, right?... oh, you did have someone sent to kill me? Well I better dash off then! Hugs and kisses, oh Sensitive One! By the way, I think you're one of the most attractive men in the world.

I love my dad.

"Prince Ozai!" My father caught sight of the royal addition to his entourage.

He turned away from me to greet my father.

That was good. I wouldn't have to look at him anymore.

The two men exchanged bows and casual handshakes. They knew each other through Azulon, Ozai's father. My father was a retired, decorated general of the Fire Nation army and the son of the Avatar Roku. Azulon made sure to become close acquaintances with him. (It always surprises me when old war buddies greet my father. They treat him like he conquered the village of Qingzhou himself or created the Agni Kai. He is just my goofy, military-minded dad who puts pretty flowers in my mom's hair and promises me Ember Island vacations during the summer - not the war hero his old colleagues make him out to be.)

My dad looked from me to the prince and then at me again. "Do you two know each other?"

"Yes, we previously met a few nights ago." Ozai answered. He smiled at me.

He. Smiled. At. Me.

I immediately began wondering if the ancient, royal Firebending magic allowed him to feel my blood heat up as my heart beated a little faster.

I smiled back. I replied kindly, "I'm afraid we did not formally meet, your highness."

I surprised myself by doing anything besides melting into a very embarrassed puddle.

"Well, we must fix that," he said softly. He turned to my father and inclined his head suggestively.

Almost immediately, my father bowed and waved his hand in my direction. "Prince Ozai, may I present my daughter: Ursa."

I swept into a low curtsy before standing to my full height. He was still smiling at me.

It was a very nice, sincere smile... very handsome.

...Like the rest of his face.

And basically the rest of him, but this has already been noted.

"Pleasure to meet you, Ursa." A concealed swoon occurred after this statement. His voice practically dripped with sensuality when he said my name. "And I am sure this is the first of many pleasurable meetings we will share."

The innuendo burned my mind. I smiled at him politely. "Hopefully not too pleasant."

Did I just imply what I think I implied? Surely, he percieved it in the right way--

His left eyebrow arched and the muscles around his mouth tensed. Was he holding back a grin?

"Of course not, Lady Ursa. We wouldn't want you to lose that biting wit of yours," he replied softly. That could almost be percieved as a compliment - or a very careful bending of words into a perfectly concealed insult.

I'm pretty sure I smiled. Or just stared at him dumbfoundedly.

He turned to my mother and greeted her. They exchanged pleasantries, but the whole time I could see that my mother was glancing back at me.

I cast her a look back that clearly said, "I have no idea."

After he finished joking with my mother over something unimportant like the amount of fabric available in the dress shop, he entered into a casual chat with my father about war and politics as I continued to gawk at him. He had very high, aristocratic cheekbones, a chiseled jaw, and gold, piercing eyes.

"Ursa," my mother whispered harshly at my side. I turned to her sheepishly and kept my eyes on the turtleducks in the lake.

Before I knew it, my father finished his conversation and looked at one of the hourglasses on top of pedestals that were located at each corner of the courtyard. He frowned and turned to the prince. "I apologize, but we must retire from the courtyard," he gestured to me and my mother, "We have to prepare our home for the Sun Festival tomorrow."

I almost face-palmed in public. I hadn't even started thinking about, let alone actually rearranging my room in compatability with the Chi required for the Sun Festival. I had completely forgotten and lost track of time. Judging by the panicked look on my mother's face, she realized that we still had much to do to formally begin celebration.

"Of course, I am sorry to have kept you so long." He flashed that pretty, winner's smile again.

He was so cute when he was apologizing.

"Of course not, your highness. A moment of your time is greatly appreciated and educational," my father replied, bowing respectfully.

My mother followed suit and dipped lowly before following my father who had already made his way out the archway to the main gate which led to the main street of the capital city. I also bowed and turned to leave.

And then had a heart-attack.

Out of nowhere, he grabbed my arm and whispered swiftly - mere centimeters away from my ear: "I hope you don't think that I've forgotten."

His eyes were intensely searching my face and his alabaster jaw clenched itself together.

I could feel the heat from his face so close to mine, from his arm pressuring mine, from his entire body smothering the air I was trying to breathe. I usually find it ridiculous when girls use the word 'smoldering' to describe men, but oh Agni. He was absolutely smoldering.

I'm pretty sure I openly gawked at him for a few seconds before regaining my composure.

(I can't remember drool. Oh Agni. Please tell me there wasn't drool.)

"I don't know what you're talking about." I smiled civilly and calmly. I released my arm from his strong hold, curtsied again (avoiding his face), and practically ran to my parents.

I'm pretty sure that if I had waited for a reply that I could have remained in his grip for a good full minute more.

Curses.

When will I start thinking with my head?

But, earlier - when he was all snarky (okay, maybe he was charming):

"Pleasurable meetings..."

...Was that flirting?

Did he flirt with me?

He held onto my arm!

...And kind of threatened me.

But was he flirting with me?

In front of my parents?!

No, that wasn't flirting.

That was just him lie-bending.

Being-charming-bending.

Flirtbending?!

No...

"I hope you don't think that I've forgotten."

Well, buddy - I hope you don't that I've forgotten!

I am planning my eloquent, coherent come-backs right now!

And maybe some action.

...Not that kind of action.

However, I am planning things! Before you attempt to embarrass me - I shall embarrass you!

Yes, planning.

Er, but let's see what you're going to do first.

Good plan, Ursa. Very good plan.

Don't start planning until you know your enemy's plan. Father would be proud of my advancing military prowess... except for the fact that said-enemy is the son of the ruler of our country.

Hold on, is he my enemy?

Not like Chan is.

Do I want him to be my enemy?

Not really, but he is smoldering when he's intensely pseudo-threatening me.

So what are we?

Hehe - we.

When am I going to see him again anyway? Oh. That is a stupid question. Obviously he's going to be at the Sun Festival ball that's held every year at the royal palace. No calculation needed there.

I hope he asks me to dance with him.

Just so I can actually touch his arms this time. I think they'd fit around my waist quite nicely. I wouldn't be able to go anywhere. He could crush me and Firebend my face off.

But oh boy, he will be beautiful.

Oh Agni, what if he actually does ask me to dance?

I can't think about this anymore. I have to fix my room so the spirits (ghost Airbenders, shudder) don't abhor to see its reckless furniture placement. We can't have that.

Time to make sure that my vanity chair doesn't clash with the astronomical positioning of the Sun Festival!

... But he did imply that he wanted to meet again, right?

To inflict revenge for some petty words, supposedly.

I - okay.

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Date: Sunday?
Time: Very, very late at night.
Location: The balcony... there's a breeze pretending to be refreshing, but it feels like a warm breath slapping your face.
Mood: There's too many.

I can't wait for tomorrow.

Author's Note: This is the third time I uploaded this because I am lame when it comes to format, so sorry if that was any inconvenience!

Aunt Wu tells me that in the next chapter we can expect the beginning of the Sun Festival and a healthy batch of Ursa-yearning-for-Ozai action. The cloud formations say 'Of course there will be more Ozai/Ursa interaction!' It would be wonderful if you could drop a line or two in those handy review boxes. :)