[Fic] Avatar fluff
With a loud thud, the trunk slammed shut, the echoes resounding in the stone all around her. Her fists clenched on top of the wood, but it was no good - it couldn’t stop the shaking. It had been several days since Zuko decided he wanted to be one of them, one of her group, be all chummy with “the Avatar”. She supposed she had to give him credit where credit was due - after all, Aang was shaping up to be a better firebender with every passing day. He was catching on more quickly to firebending than any of the other styles.
She gritted her teeth. That was because Aang was getting to be a better bender overall. Not because Zuko was a better teacher.
And that was the thing - why was everyone playing along with this stupid charade? They hadn’t trusted him for months, and now they want to pretend he’s one of them, part of the gang, gonna help Aang save the world? Of course they couldn’t understand - they hadn’t been tricked by him. That coward!
In a sudden burst of rage, Katara grabbed the nearest thing to hand and chucked it across the room -
And to her surprise, it hit Zuko square in the face.
She froze in a mixture of shock and horror, and it seemed like an eternity before Zuko finally moved to see what had hit him in the face. She saw the confusion clear from his face as he recognized it, remembered it.
The scarred face then turned to her, and the expression on it somehow only infuriated Katara further. How dare he - not a flicker of remorse, just -
“Isn’t this your-”
“Of course it is!” Katara snapped, turning her back on him, determined not to look him in the eye lest she lose it completely.
“Then…you’ll be wanting it back.”
“No, I don’t,” she growled, still staring resolutely away. “Not now that your filthy hands have been all over it.”
“Katara, this is your mother’s neck-”
“I know what it is and I don’t want it!” she exploded. “You can keep it, for all I care!”
Nothing but silence greeted her for a moment, and for a moment, Katara thought he had found the good sense to leave.
“But I know this is-”
“JUST TAKE IT AND LEAVE!” she finally bellowed, flying to her feet. Zuko stood his ground unflinchingly, feeding fuel into her fire. “I SAID, LEAVE! GET OUT!”
Zuko’s already narrow eyes narrowed further. “Okay, I’ll leave,” he said evenly, staying remarkably unruffled in the face of all that feminine fury. “Just tell me one thing…why are you so mad at me?”
Katara’s glower intensified. “I don’t have to tell you anything, former Prince Zuko,” she said acidly.
“I’m asking nicely,” Zuko pointed out, though his jaw was clenched and the fist at his side was twitching.
“I can be mad at you if I want to be mad at you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Yeah, well neither did chasing us around when we were trying to save the world!”
“I said that I’ve changed!” His temper bubbled to the surface despite his best efforts to stay calm.
Katara scoffed. “Right, and I’m supposed to believe that!”
“It’s true! Why won’t you believe me?” His glare matched hers, breathing heavily with the rise of his ire. He closed his eyes, gathering himself and trying to think logically through the haze of anger clouding his mind. “Well, if you won’t believe me, why don’t you believe Toph?”
Oh, and now he was trying to use her friends against her? “Don’t you dare -”
“Dare what? Prove to you that you’re being stupid?”
Katara bristled. “Don’t you call me stupid,” she hissed.
“You’re not thinking!” Zuko snapped. “If Toph-”
“Yeah well, people can be tricked!”
Finally, no sharp retort. Katara’s chest was heaving, and her eyes gleamed with the triumph at what she thought she glimpsed in Zuko’s face.
But instead of defeat, there was only puzzlement. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked at length. When had he ever tricked them? Sure, he’d snuck under their noses a couple of times, but that was just thievery (thievery that he was sorry for, okay?) - far as he knew, he’d never tricked Katara or any of the others in a way that could really be called trickery rather than general villainy (which he was sorry for too).
Unfortunately, that genuine confusion was just another source of annoyance for Katara. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember,” she challenged. She barreled on at his blank look. “In the cavern, when we were both being held prisoner.”
Zuko’s brow furrowed, thinking hard. “But how did I-”
“You turned on us!” she burst, frustrated. “You had me thinking you were just as human as the rest of us, and then,” her fists tightened, and she brought them down emphatically, cutting through the air, “you sided with that monster you call a sister!”
“Oh, that.” He paused. “At least I’m not the monster myself, then?” He swiftly ducked as an open palm came swinging in his direction. “Hey, stop!” He held his hands in front of him to ward off the blows that followed. She was surprisingly strong. “I’m sorry, okay? I was just trying to lighten the tension - I said, STOP.” And without thinking, he grabbed Katara’s wrists and held them. The look she gave him could have melted steel. “Would you just listen to me? For one second?” This time, her look clearly said that she’d rather eat a bucketful of toadflies, but all she did was wrench her wrists out of his grip. Zuko repressed a sigh of relief - that would probably just send her flying off the handle again. Really, he’d always thought that Katara would be the most together of all of them - it was weird having to deal with her like this (was this how all girls were?). Heck, it was weird dealing with her at all. You know, in a way that didn’t involve throwing her into a dungeon cell.
Okay, that was enough of that sort of thinking.
“You’re right,” he said after a lengthy silence. “I did turn on you. But,” he hurried on quickly, as it looked like she might interrupt, “that was before. I thought that if I could finally hand in the Avatar to my father, I’d have everything I’d ever dreamed I wanted.” He lifted his hands, his eyes seeming to strip away their flesh with the intensity of his gaze. “My inheritance, my old life, my old home, but most of all…my father’s approval.” His eyes closed briefly. “I realized that it was all wrong. Everything. That my uncle was right, and my destiny didn’t lie with my father and sister.” His eyes met Katara’s again, hers burning with cold fury, his just trying to find a way. “It lay with you.” At that, Katara’s eyebrow quirked, and Zuko realized quite abruptly what he’d just said. “Not with you, I mean. I mean, yeah, with you, but not just you, the Avatar and everyone else too,” he stammered, flailing despite himself. And despite herself, Katara found herself wanting to laugh at him and his sudden self-consciousness. If only to relieve her own sudden self-consciousness.
He took a second to compose himself, clearing his throat in hopes that Katara would forget what had just happened. “The point is, I was wrong, and I’m sorry.” He chanced meeting her gaze once more. “And what I said in the cavern was true. My mother was taken away from me by the Fire Nation.” He fell silent, letting it hang in the air, as painful as it was. He was sure it was just as painful for her, and in the air between them, he begged for forgiveness.
Katara’s glower continued to bore holes into him. She wanted to still be angry at him. What he had done to them, to Aang, was unforgivable. And yet…she felt her anger burning away in the sincerity of his apology. And with the fog of rage and hurt clearing, she realized that that was what had really galled her so about him. In that cavern, she had bared her heart to him. She had given him a chance and trusted him, and when he had chosen to side with his sister, she’d seen it as a personal betrayal of that trust.
But at heart…wasn’t he doing what any good member of the Water Tribe would have done? If she hadn’t known any better, would she have followed her father against Aang? She wanted to say no, but if she did, was she really being honest to herself?
And they both knew the pain of losing a loved one to the wrath of the Fire Nation.
Little by little, she felt her anger fade away.
It was a long time before any of them said anything, and it was Katara who finally broke the silence. “You…you’re right, Zuko,” she said, shoulders sagging with the release of a massive burden she didn’t know she’d been carrying. “I was…I was letting my own feelings get in the way…and staying mad at you isn’t going to change a thing.” The ghost of a smile chased itself across her face. “And certainly isn’t going to help Aang learn firebending any faster.”
Zuko smiled back, and instead of rage and frustration between them, there was understanding.
However, the moment soon passed, and instead of understanding, there was nothing but all sorts of awkward.
“Uh, well,” said Zuko uneasily, as Katara straightened, looking a tad uncomfortable herself. “I guess I’ll just be going then. Nice…talking to you.”
But as he turned to go, he felt a hand on his arm, and he stopped.
“I didn’t thank you,” Katara said, not really sure why she had to do this. “For helping…Aang…” Her words died on her lips as Zuko turned around and she realized how close they were standing.
That hadn’t been lost on Zuko, either, and he shifted uneasily. “It’s the least I can do…to make up for it. You know, chasing the Avatar.” They were as close as they had been in the cavern, when Katara had offered to heal his scar. Irrationally, he wondered if she was going to make that same offer again.
She really couldn’t bring herself to stay angry right now…instead, she just felt…odd. Strangely enough, the feeling was rather familiar, and to her, that was almost wrong…And she wanted to correct him, tell his name was Aang, not ‘the Avatar.’
But it was hard to think, and he was so close, and there was a maturity about him, a presence that was absent the other times this feeling had struck her, and she was very aware that the distance between them was gradually diminishing, and that the protests seemed to stick in her throat.
“Hey, Katara!”
As suddenly as it had fell upon them, the trance-like state fled, and the two snapped apart, shaken and quite flustered, and quite bewildered by what had almost happened.
Toph froze in the doorway, only confused for a moment before a maddeningly knowing grin stretched across her face. “Uh-huh,” she said, folding her arms and leaning against the door. “And what have you two been doing?”
Immediately, the blush flooded Katara’s face, and she was too embarrassed to notice that Zuko’s cheeks had pinked too. Before she could say anything, Zuko beat her to the punch.
“Well, it was nice talking to you, er. Thanks for the teaching tip!” He blurted out the first plausible excuse that came to mind, then fled before Katara even had a chance to respond, barely missing running Toph over in his hurry to get away. “Sorry!” he called over his shoulder, and he was gone.
Toph sauntered in, and Katara reddened further. “Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped, but only half-heartedly.
“Like what?” said Toph, innocent as you please.
“Like that!”
Toph’s grin only widened. “Finally warming up to our resident prince, huh?”
“No!”
“Didn’t know you liked the tall, dark, and handsome type. And rich,” she added as an afterthought. It wasn’t something that was important to her, she just knew it would get under Katara’s skin. She really could be quite evil sometimes.
“That’s not it. No, I don’t!” she amended quickly, catching herself in the midst of what could be seen as a confession. And knowing Toph, that was exactly what she would think.
“It’s okay, you know,” said Toph, a teasing note saturating her voice. “He’s on our side now, so it’s not like, forbidden love or anything.”
“Would you stop!” Katara demanded. “You know very well-”
“Who your heart belongs to?” Toph finished, eyebrows quirking. Katara flushed. Those were going to be her exact words. “Yeah well, you just keep telling yourself that.” She started to walk away, her original purpose in coming here completely forgotten. This was much more fun. “Meanwhile, you might want to tell your heart to slow down there before it gives you away.”
“That’s because I’m ANGRY. At YOU!” Katara yelled after her, but all she got was a final wave as Toph disappeared out the door, her laughter echoing down the halls.
Katara kicked her trunk with all the strength she could muster. Instead of feeling better though, all she wound up with was a stubbed toe, and an even redder face.
Stupid Toph. Stupid Zuko! It was all his fault, messing everything up like this!
Now what was she supposed to do?!
She gritted her teeth. That was because Aang was getting to be a better bender overall. Not because Zuko was a better teacher.
And that was the thing - why was everyone playing along with this stupid charade? They hadn’t trusted him for months, and now they want to pretend he’s one of them, part of the gang, gonna help Aang save the world? Of course they couldn’t understand - they hadn’t been tricked by him. That coward!
In a sudden burst of rage, Katara grabbed the nearest thing to hand and chucked it across the room -
And to her surprise, it hit Zuko square in the face.
She froze in a mixture of shock and horror, and it seemed like an eternity before Zuko finally moved to see what had hit him in the face. She saw the confusion clear from his face as he recognized it, remembered it.
The scarred face then turned to her, and the expression on it somehow only infuriated Katara further. How dare he - not a flicker of remorse, just -
“Isn’t this your-”
“Of course it is!” Katara snapped, turning her back on him, determined not to look him in the eye lest she lose it completely.
“Then…you’ll be wanting it back.”
“No, I don’t,” she growled, still staring resolutely away. “Not now that your filthy hands have been all over it.”
“Katara, this is your mother’s neck-”
“I know what it is and I don’t want it!” she exploded. “You can keep it, for all I care!”
Nothing but silence greeted her for a moment, and for a moment, Katara thought he had found the good sense to leave.
“But I know this is-”
“JUST TAKE IT AND LEAVE!” she finally bellowed, flying to her feet. Zuko stood his ground unflinchingly, feeding fuel into her fire. “I SAID, LEAVE! GET OUT!”
Zuko’s already narrow eyes narrowed further. “Okay, I’ll leave,” he said evenly, staying remarkably unruffled in the face of all that feminine fury. “Just tell me one thing…why are you so mad at me?”
Katara’s glower intensified. “I don’t have to tell you anything, former Prince Zuko,” she said acidly.
“I’m asking nicely,” Zuko pointed out, though his jaw was clenched and the fist at his side was twitching.
“I can be mad at you if I want to be mad at you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Yeah, well neither did chasing us around when we were trying to save the world!”
“I said that I’ve changed!” His temper bubbled to the surface despite his best efforts to stay calm.
Katara scoffed. “Right, and I’m supposed to believe that!”
“It’s true! Why won’t you believe me?” His glare matched hers, breathing heavily with the rise of his ire. He closed his eyes, gathering himself and trying to think logically through the haze of anger clouding his mind. “Well, if you won’t believe me, why don’t you believe Toph?”
Oh, and now he was trying to use her friends against her? “Don’t you dare -”
“Dare what? Prove to you that you’re being stupid?”
Katara bristled. “Don’t you call me stupid,” she hissed.
“You’re not thinking!” Zuko snapped. “If Toph-”
“Yeah well, people can be tricked!”
Finally, no sharp retort. Katara’s chest was heaving, and her eyes gleamed with the triumph at what she thought she glimpsed in Zuko’s face.
But instead of defeat, there was only puzzlement. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked at length. When had he ever tricked them? Sure, he’d snuck under their noses a couple of times, but that was just thievery (thievery that he was sorry for, okay?) - far as he knew, he’d never tricked Katara or any of the others in a way that could really be called trickery rather than general villainy (which he was sorry for too).
Unfortunately, that genuine confusion was just another source of annoyance for Katara. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember,” she challenged. She barreled on at his blank look. “In the cavern, when we were both being held prisoner.”
Zuko’s brow furrowed, thinking hard. “But how did I-”
“You turned on us!” she burst, frustrated. “You had me thinking you were just as human as the rest of us, and then,” her fists tightened, and she brought them down emphatically, cutting through the air, “you sided with that monster you call a sister!”
“Oh, that.” He paused. “At least I’m not the monster myself, then?” He swiftly ducked as an open palm came swinging in his direction. “Hey, stop!” He held his hands in front of him to ward off the blows that followed. She was surprisingly strong. “I’m sorry, okay? I was just trying to lighten the tension - I said, STOP.” And without thinking, he grabbed Katara’s wrists and held them. The look she gave him could have melted steel. “Would you just listen to me? For one second?” This time, her look clearly said that she’d rather eat a bucketful of toadflies, but all she did was wrench her wrists out of his grip. Zuko repressed a sigh of relief - that would probably just send her flying off the handle again. Really, he’d always thought that Katara would be the most together of all of them - it was weird having to deal with her like this (was this how all girls were?). Heck, it was weird dealing with her at all. You know, in a way that didn’t involve throwing her into a dungeon cell.
Okay, that was enough of that sort of thinking.
“You’re right,” he said after a lengthy silence. “I did turn on you. But,” he hurried on quickly, as it looked like she might interrupt, “that was before. I thought that if I could finally hand in the Avatar to my father, I’d have everything I’d ever dreamed I wanted.” He lifted his hands, his eyes seeming to strip away their flesh with the intensity of his gaze. “My inheritance, my old life, my old home, but most of all…my father’s approval.” His eyes closed briefly. “I realized that it was all wrong. Everything. That my uncle was right, and my destiny didn’t lie with my father and sister.” His eyes met Katara’s again, hers burning with cold fury, his just trying to find a way. “It lay with you.” At that, Katara’s eyebrow quirked, and Zuko realized quite abruptly what he’d just said. “Not with you, I mean. I mean, yeah, with you, but not just you, the Avatar and everyone else too,” he stammered, flailing despite himself. And despite herself, Katara found herself wanting to laugh at him and his sudden self-consciousness. If only to relieve her own sudden self-consciousness.
He took a second to compose himself, clearing his throat in hopes that Katara would forget what had just happened. “The point is, I was wrong, and I’m sorry.” He chanced meeting her gaze once more. “And what I said in the cavern was true. My mother was taken away from me by the Fire Nation.” He fell silent, letting it hang in the air, as painful as it was. He was sure it was just as painful for her, and in the air between them, he begged for forgiveness.
Katara’s glower continued to bore holes into him. She wanted to still be angry at him. What he had done to them, to Aang, was unforgivable. And yet…she felt her anger burning away in the sincerity of his apology. And with the fog of rage and hurt clearing, she realized that that was what had really galled her so about him. In that cavern, she had bared her heart to him. She had given him a chance and trusted him, and when he had chosen to side with his sister, she’d seen it as a personal betrayal of that trust.
But at heart…wasn’t he doing what any good member of the Water Tribe would have done? If she hadn’t known any better, would she have followed her father against Aang? She wanted to say no, but if she did, was she really being honest to herself?
And they both knew the pain of losing a loved one to the wrath of the Fire Nation.
Little by little, she felt her anger fade away.
It was a long time before any of them said anything, and it was Katara who finally broke the silence. “You…you’re right, Zuko,” she said, shoulders sagging with the release of a massive burden she didn’t know she’d been carrying. “I was…I was letting my own feelings get in the way…and staying mad at you isn’t going to change a thing.” The ghost of a smile chased itself across her face. “And certainly isn’t going to help Aang learn firebending any faster.”
Zuko smiled back, and instead of rage and frustration between them, there was understanding.
However, the moment soon passed, and instead of understanding, there was nothing but all sorts of awkward.
“Uh, well,” said Zuko uneasily, as Katara straightened, looking a tad uncomfortable herself. “I guess I’ll just be going then. Nice…talking to you.”
But as he turned to go, he felt a hand on his arm, and he stopped.
“I didn’t thank you,” Katara said, not really sure why she had to do this. “For helping…Aang…” Her words died on her lips as Zuko turned around and she realized how close they were standing.
That hadn’t been lost on Zuko, either, and he shifted uneasily. “It’s the least I can do…to make up for it. You know, chasing the Avatar.” They were as close as they had been in the cavern, when Katara had offered to heal his scar. Irrationally, he wondered if she was going to make that same offer again.
She really couldn’t bring herself to stay angry right now…instead, she just felt…odd. Strangely enough, the feeling was rather familiar, and to her, that was almost wrong…And she wanted to correct him, tell his name was Aang, not ‘the Avatar.’
But it was hard to think, and he was so close, and there was a maturity about him, a presence that was absent the other times this feeling had struck her, and she was very aware that the distance between them was gradually diminishing, and that the protests seemed to stick in her throat.
“Hey, Katara!”
As suddenly as it had fell upon them, the trance-like state fled, and the two snapped apart, shaken and quite flustered, and quite bewildered by what had almost happened.
Toph froze in the doorway, only confused for a moment before a maddeningly knowing grin stretched across her face. “Uh-huh,” she said, folding her arms and leaning against the door. “And what have you two been doing?”
Immediately, the blush flooded Katara’s face, and she was too embarrassed to notice that Zuko’s cheeks had pinked too. Before she could say anything, Zuko beat her to the punch.
“Well, it was nice talking to you, er. Thanks for the teaching tip!” He blurted out the first plausible excuse that came to mind, then fled before Katara even had a chance to respond, barely missing running Toph over in his hurry to get away. “Sorry!” he called over his shoulder, and he was gone.
Toph sauntered in, and Katara reddened further. “Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped, but only half-heartedly.
“Like what?” said Toph, innocent as you please.
“Like that!”
Toph’s grin only widened. “Finally warming up to our resident prince, huh?”
“No!”
“Didn’t know you liked the tall, dark, and handsome type. And rich,” she added as an afterthought. It wasn’t something that was important to her, she just knew it would get under Katara’s skin. She really could be quite evil sometimes.
“That’s not it. No, I don’t!” she amended quickly, catching herself in the midst of what could be seen as a confession. And knowing Toph, that was exactly what she would think.
“It’s okay, you know,” said Toph, a teasing note saturating her voice. “He’s on our side now, so it’s not like, forbidden love or anything.”
“Would you stop!” Katara demanded. “You know very well-”
“Who your heart belongs to?” Toph finished, eyebrows quirking. Katara flushed. Those were going to be her exact words. “Yeah well, you just keep telling yourself that.” She started to walk away, her original purpose in coming here completely forgotten. This was much more fun. “Meanwhile, you might want to tell your heart to slow down there before it gives you away.”
“That’s because I’m ANGRY. At YOU!” Katara yelled after her, but all she got was a final wave as Toph disappeared out the door, her laughter echoing down the halls.
Katara kicked her trunk with all the strength she could muster. Instead of feeling better though, all she wound up with was a stubbed toe, and an even redder face.
Stupid Toph. Stupid Zuko! It was all his fault, messing everything up like this!
Now what was she supposed to do?!